InsaneJournal

OUT OF CHARACTER:

Name: Brandi
Timezone: Central
AIM: brandied plum
E-mail: brandied.plum @ gmail
Availability for Playing: Weekdays. Aside from occasional exceptions, I'm not really around much on the weekends or in the evenings.
Previous Role-Playing Experience: Well, I've got a whole gaggle here already. :D
Where did you find us?: ~in a dream~
Intended Journal: rosie_posie | ~rosie_posie

IN CHARACTER:

Full Name: Rose Marie Zeller
Nicknames: Rosie, Rosie Posie
Gender: Female
Age/DOB/Sign: 22 / May 4, 1984 / Taurus
Blood Status: Muggleborn
Sexual Orientation: Straight
Schooling: Hufflepuff, 1995-2002
Occupation: Apprentice Herbologist at In Bloom, a shop on Diagon Alley
Residence: A ground-floor flat just outside of London, with a tiny little garden attached
Wand Type: 8 in, poplar, unicorn tail hair
Played-By: Taylor Spreitler

Appearance: If you asked Rose, she would be quick to tell you that she is average in every way. At 5'3", she's about the average height for a girl, and she insists there's nothing altogether special about her blonde hair or brown eyes. She's not really skinny, but not overweight, either, she just has a few extra pounds on her frame, and her face is a little round. Because she's mucking around in dirt all day, she usually just wears blue jeans, sneakers, and a t-shirt, with her hair pulled back into a ponytail. Dressing up means a modest style of dress, and she'll leave her hair loose more often than not, simply because she doesn't know what to do with it otherwise. The only extra adornments on her body are a single piercing in each earlobe: no other piercings, and no tattoos. She has a few scars on her hands and wrists from working with plants that like to declare their love by marking you, as well as from her cats that do the same.

Personality: Rose is full to brimming of a certain sense of joie de vivre. Being a muggleborn and only thirteen years old when Voldemort took over, she is fully aware of what might have happened to her, if not for her friends who took her in and helped her to avoid going to Azkaban along with the other muggleborns that year. She knows she's lucky, so she lives every day with zest and gratefulness, especially gratefulness to her honorary extended family. She owes her life to them, and she feels that she'll never fully repay that. Although she loves her job (she works with plants, what's not to love about that?), she doesn't let it take over any other part of her life: it's her job, she works certain hours a day, and then the rest of the time is her own, to spend with friends, or her cats.

Rose might not seem much like a cat person (being more energetic and outgoing, like a dog person), but she absolutely loves her cats. She has three: an orange tabby named Marmalade, a Russian blue named Inksplotch, and a white persian named Countess. They're good company, curling up with her when she's spending time at home and lulling her to sleep at night with their purrs, but they don't mind if she goes out and spends time with her human friends. Also, unlike dogs, they won't roll around in her garden. As much as she loves her cats, though, she's a responsible kitty-mommy: Marmy and Countess are spayed and Inky is neutered, so she doesn't end up with hundreds of kittens prowling the flat (and so Inky doesn't go around making unwed mothers of other nearby female cats).

Because of her parents (her dad can't eat red meat because of heart problems, and her mum isn't a fan of poultry), Rose grew up a pescetarian, so while she'll give red meat and poultry a try, she prefers vegetarian and seafood dishes. It's more of a habit than a particular lifestyle choice, so she has no issues with those who enjoy the kinds of foods she doesn't eat. She also doesn't drink, mostly because she doesn't like the fuzzy sensation in her brain that accompanies drinking. She's happy to be alive and would like to remember everything she does, thank you.

Rose is an absolute sucker for scented candles, particularly florals and fruit-scented ones. She'll often have at least one or two lit somewhere in whatever room she's in at home, and has taken to sometimes bringing scented candles into the shop, setting them up by the register, and filling the shop with the enticing aromas. The candles are Rose's way of sharing some relaxation and calmness (though, of course, if she gets complaints about them, she'll extinquish them).

Rose's biggest weakness is also her biggest fear: she's agoraphobic. When she first went to Hogwarts, she was a little worried that she might be sorted into Gryffindor or Ravenclaw (because she had heard on the train that their dormitories were up in the towers), but was greatly relieved to be sorted into Hufflepuff instead. She never really went to the Quidditch matches, because even just watching the other students zooming around up there on brooms and nothing else gave her the willies. She does enjoy listening to Quidditch on the wireless, and will cheer on her honorary cousins from afar, but she won't go watch them play in person. She can't get more than a few feet off the ground before getting the shakes, and she absolutely hates having to climb up and down ladders. Thankfully, accio helps her get things off tall shelves without having to climb up there to get them.

History:

• Father: Alan Daniel Zeller (muggle; b. 13 November, 1950); Curator for the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool
  
• Mother: Catherine Hope Zeller née Bullard (muggle; b. February 27, 1951); florist

Alan Zeller and Catherine Bullard met in 1972, when Catherine, a young florist in Liverpool, wandered into the Merseyside Maritime Museum, where Alan worked. It was love at first sight, and after a whirlwind courtship of merely three months, they were engaged, and married within six months of their first meeting. They lived in marital bliss for several years, just the two of them. Alan was promoted to curator of the museum at the age of thirty, quite a feat indeed, and Catherine continued her work at the flower shop where she'd been working when they got married, eventually taking over the shop when the previous owner retired. They were happy, just the two of them: they did not need children to make their lives more complete. So it came as something of a surprise to the both of them when, in late 1983, Catherine discovered that she was pregnant. It took a while, but they came to welcome the pregnancy and looked forward to the birth of their child.

Rose Marie Zeller was born on May 4, 1984, to parents who felt like they had no idea what they were doing and even wondered if they had any business being parents, with Alan as curator of a museum and Catherine owning her own flower shop. But they managed. Catherine hired an assistant at the shop so that she could spend some time at home with Rose when she was younger, but then as Rose got older, she would join her mother at the store, learning about flowers and arrangements and all sorts of other florist-y things. She didn't visit her father at the museum much, because it wasn't exactly a place for children to play. Of course, the flower shop wasn't, either, but it was safer, at least.

And so Rose grew up surrounded by plants, and she grew to love them as much as her mother did.

It came as quite the surprise to the whole family that an owl delivered a letter to the Zeller household in the summer of 1995, when Rose was eleven. The letter informed the family that Rose was a witch, and that she was invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that September. A few days later, a member of the school's faculty came to explain things to the family, and Alan and Catherine learned that all the odd things that had been happening around Rose for most of her life were actually the result of her magic leaking out, and that at Hogwarts she would learn to use it properly. Rose was thrilled at the idea of learning magic, but at the same time terrified of leaving the home she knew and her parents. In the end, though, she was taken to Diagon Alley to purchase her school supplies, and on September 1st, she boarded the train to Hogwarts.

At Hogwarts, she was sorted into Hufflepuff and immediately took a fancy to Herbology, of course. She also learned that she was joining this new world at a time of brewing war. Apparently a student had died the year before, and some boy in Gryffindor named Harry Potter was telling everyone that someone named Voldemort was back. Rose was confused and didn't know much about what was going on, so she tried to stay out of it and focused on herbology instead. At the end of her second year, she was as shocked as her school-mates at the death of their Headmaster, Dumbledore. Her parents were worried about that, as well, and wanted to keep her back from school the following year, but attendance was made compulsory. At the same time, the muggleborn registration started up. Tipped off that it wasn't a good thing for muggleborns, Rose got the luckiest break in her life: Sean Wood, a fellow Hufflepuff who was a few years older than her and a friend, and his family came to her rescue, helping her to forge her papers to sort of "adopt" her into their family by claiming her mother as a squib sibling of their father.

That year at school was very difficult for Rose. Although Sean was happy to play cousin to her, Rose lived in constant fear of being found out and thrown into Azkaban. When the war was brought to the school in the Battle of Hogwarts, Rose was among those who fled to safety and sat out the battle waiting for word of victory or defeat, and to hear of the fates of those who had stayed behind. Luckily, the war ended in victory and the death of Voldemort, and although Rose was happy to have her extended "family" and grateful for their help, she was also happy to no longer have to hide her true bloodline.

Alan and Catherine again did not want Rose to return to school for her fourth year, but she had to return. It was safer this year, now that the war was over, and she wanted to finish her education properly. She returned to school and finished up her years there, excelling in Herbology above all other subjects. Her career discussion with Professor Sprout in her fifth year led to the obvious: a career as an herbologist. After finishing her NEWTs (and scoring an O on her herbology one) in 2002, Professor Sprout helped her to get a position at In Bloom as an apprentice herbologist. It was absolutely her dream job, about as close as she could get to her mother's flower shop where she grew up. As soon as she could afford it, she got her own flat in the London area, one that even had a small garden attached so that she could grow her own plants at home.

Connections:

• Oliver Wood, Sean Wood, Lena Wood, Regan Wood: honorary family, after they took her in and pretended she was one of their own during the war.
  
• Eleanor Branstone: Friend and former housemate
  
• Georgina Hopkins: Friend
  
• Neville Longbottom: Friend and fellow plant enthusiast

SAMPLES:

First Person: At least 100 words.

Third Person: At least 250 words.