SELWYN, portia

- i had to put a period at the end of my name while registering; there was another person signed up for her, but i couldn't find a reservation or an app anywhere. i hope that's alright! feel free to change the name if this is accepted... - ALSO - I will be gone tomorrow until Sunday. I might have time to get on inbetween, but I doubt it. Just a heads up! Thanks!

PORTIA MAIA SELWYN
slytherin, sixth

>> the puppetmaster

NAME: kate
AGE: between 17 and 20... lol
GENDER: female
CONTACT:
AIM: dancingdoctorbev ;; EVEbiteme
e-mail: toujourspur_aha@yahoo.com
PM
OTHER CHARACTERS: --
HOW DID YOU FIND US: linked from REBELyell

>> introductory information

FULL NAME: Portia Maia Selwyn
NICKNAMES: none
DATE OF BIRTH: August 8th
AGE: 16
YEAR: 6th
HOUSE: Slytherin
BLOOD STATUS: pure
WAND: holy and ebony, 12 inches, unicorn tail hair
BROOMSTICK: none
PETS: pygmy puff named Jelly ; an eagle owl named Jasper

>> a look in the mirror

HAIR COLOUR: brown
EYE COLOUR: green
SKIN COLOUR: pale
HEIGHT: 1.5 m (5'2)
WEIGHT: 62.3 kg (123 lbs)
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: none
CLOTHING STYLE: jeans and a t-shirt. occasional skirt.
IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION:


Portia was always complimented on her smile. Always. Even on a bad day, when nothing seemed to be going right, she'd always managed a good smile. She has several different varieties, too. The one she's used the most is her 'everything's okay' smile. While incredibly fake, this one was used predominantly in her classes, or in the common rooms. People would often ask her if she was okay, and she'd smile back at them and assure them it was. Of course, they believed her...mostly. Another type is her 'omg, are you serious?' smile. This one was hardly ever seen until recently. It is used mostly when a male friend of hers pulls a stupid stunt and ends up harming himself or making a fool of himself. The most rare smile is the genuine smile. This one only graced her pale face within the last year, but is making itself known to the general population. It usually involves pearly white teeth and is sometimes accompanied by a laugh or giggle. The other types of smiles are fairly normal - the signature half smile, which usually coincides with her 'are you serious' smile is among these, as well as the 'happy and content' relaxed version of the 'genuine' smile.


Her eyes are a dark green in color, although hazel might be a better word to describe them. They are often mistaken for brown, but when the sunlight hits them, they turn a brilliant green. Most people don't really notice her eyes, though. Actually, most people don't get past her smile. But on a really good day, when that genuine smile of hers shows itself, the brightness in her spirit makes its way to her eyes and shines through like lightning - piercing anyone it happens to hit. Her happiness is contagious, especially if you happen to be looking at her. But her eyes can also show her sadness, as they so often do. They aren't exactly 'the windows to her soul', but probably close enough. You can usually see strong emotions in them, though if she's annoyed or just a little irritated, then they're not much to look at. Anger, however, can flare up inside them like little green fireflies.


As far as body build goes, Portia is, well, tiny. She's always been on the small side, even when she was growing up. Now that she's fairly well developed, everything is still rather small. She's one of the shortest in her year and is rather thin. However, she takes good care of herself and believes firmly in getting enough exercise. She has a lot of muscle mass for such a little thing, and many of the guys are surprised when she can take them down in any kind of sports. The only sport she is horrible at is Quidditch, but that's only because it involves broomsticks. Anything on the ground, however, and she turns into an aggressive little sprite.


Portia Selwyn. Although she appears to be the perfect apparition of a pureblood descendent, the manner in which she displays herself does not. When she was a girl, her mother had her in all sorts of hideous outfits that ranged from pink ballet dresses to huge dark colored "Tudor-esque" renditions, complete with corset. Probably from having worn a corset for most of her life, Portia's posture is darn near perfect. But she has disappointed her family in many ways, and one is her taste in clothing. Portia has always been fascinated with Muggle things, even though she was never allowed to even see one growing up. As soon as she left the house, however, she began to dress like them almost immediately. Of course, most of the school's population did this, thanks to the healthy crossbreeding of muggles and magic-folk. But the purebloods were generally dressed in a more formal wear. Portia hated her formal clothes and quickly exchanged them for jeans and a t-shirt. She still has her old clothes, mostly to wear when her parents come to visit or on the rare occasion that she goes home for the holidays.

CHARACTER PLAY-BY: Summer Glau

>> a leopard can’t change its spots

LIKES:
- cheese
- spaghetti
- really really good Italian food
- really really good Mexican food
- ... really really good FOOD, in general
- sweethearts
- respectful people
- funny people
- good jokes
- sarcasm (to a point)
- pizza
- old muggle movies
- pumpkin ANYTHING
- the color GREEN
- the color ORANGE
- the color WHITE
- watching Quidditch
DISLIKES:
- the whole "pureblood" crap
- most of her family
- bitchy girls who won't shut up
- obnoxious giggling
- snoring (unless it's funny)
- fashion
- homework
- the dungeons
- cold weather
- pineapple ANYTHING
- peanuts (she's slightly allergic)
- bees (also allergic)
- dumb jokes
- dirty jokes
- sailer mouths (she can stand it to a point)
- flying
STRENGTHS:
- passionate
- understanding
- good sense of humor
- pretty good at keeping secrets
- gives the best hugs
- Potions
- Transfigurations
- History of Magic (actually likes the class)
WEAKNESSES:
- gets caught up in the whole Blood thing
- tends to believe that the ends justify the means
- is a bit power hungry
- feelings are easily hurt
- tends to bottle up emotions until they burst
- Defense Against the Dark Arts
- Flying (don't EVER put her near a broom...disaster follows)
- a little too naive sometimes
- Care of Magical Creatures (tends to be frightened of many of the creatures)
AMBITIONS:
- to have a big family AWAY from all the politics of blood, etc
- maybe to work at the Ministry or teach somewhere
- is seriously considering teaching at a muggle school
- just wants to graduate right now, though
FEARS:
- creepy crawly things
- really loud noises
- bees
- her own family
QUIRKS:
- has to remember to blink (it often seems like she's staring, but she's not)
- can someone say, DAYDREAMS!
- sleeptalks like no other...
- sniffs/inspects all her food before eating it


PATRONUS:
- Her patronus is a small white bird, probably a dove. She had quite a bit of a struggle with this spell at first, but is starting to get the hang of it.

AMORTENTIA:
- flowers of some kind
- freshly cut grass
- maple syrup
- cinnimon


IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION:


"Her heart is pure, but her blood is filthy." A perfect description for Portia Selwyn. Having grown up in a pureblood family, surrounded by pure "friends" and neighbors, it's a miracle Portia didn't turn out to be a nasty, spoiled, primped up brat. No, quite the contrary, actually. Portia is full of contradictions, many of which she is beginning to shed. For awhile, she found it difficult to abandon her family's values and create her own path, but now she's finally found her own way...much to the chagrin of her parents. She may still be a Selwyn, a daughter of one of the purest families ever, but her heart belongs with the "common" blood.


Portia's most obvious personality trait is her innocence. Just by looking at her, you can tell that you're conversing with a girl who hasn't gotten out much. She was quite sheltered as a child, mostly to prevent her from making any sort of contact with the 'wrong' sort of people. When she entered Hogwarts, she was isolated from the rest of her classmates. She didn't know the latest news, or the newest toys or broomsticks. She had no idea who the best bands were, or the most popular authors. She had to be taught how to socialize over the past six years, and she has improved wonderfully. However, she is still quite naive about some things. She expects everyone to be telling her the truth, something that has gotten her in trouble on more than one occasion. She doesn't expect the worst in anyone, always thinking that they'll do the right thing. Portia, for her part, always tries to be kind to everyone, but is quickly learning that there are some people who just plain don't deserve it.


Speaking of kindness, that would be the second most obvious thing about her. She is compassionate in all things, loving people nearly unconditionally. Those who are close to her know the full power of this gift, and often find it hard to leave it. People become attached to her very rapidly, and she tends to become attached to them as well. But it's not just her close friends that feel this. Even strangers have mentioned the generally pleasing aura about Portia. People who have made enemies of her still admit that she is a genuinely kind person, although they will almost always call it "annoying". You would think that after encounters with people like that, Portia would write them off her good list, right? Wrong. She just tries to avoid them, but if they ever do come in contact, she'll be just as kind to them as she would any other acquaintance. It truly takes a lot to piss her off enough to make her hate you. Grudges are not her style.


Portia sometimes comes across as a kind of quiet bookworm type. While this is partly true, it is also the reason why people get surprised when she speaks up. She rarely talks in class, but when the subject turns controversial, she will often lend her own opinion into the mix. She is quite opinionated, actually - she just chooses when and where to state them. She stands up for someone if they are being picked on, and will often shout at the evil-doer. This usually only serves to surprise the hell out of them, but sometimes that is enough. She hardly ever graces the Library with her appearance, though she can be found with her nose in a book in other places. The lake, for example, is one of her favorite haunts, along with the astronomy towers. She has many friends in Ravenclaw who lone her their books, just in case any of the pureblood Slytherin kids go tattling to their Mum's and Dad's about the Selwyn girl's reading habits. She isn't particularly enthralled by most titles, however, and prefers the company of another to the reading of a story.


Laughing? Oh, almost all the time! Portia's sense of humor was, admittedly, a little warped on entering Hogwarts, but it quickly grew into a well-rounded funny bone (to accompany her sweet tooth, of course). As stated before, her smile when laughing was always the best, and her friends picked up on that quickly. They used to try and make her laugh just to see that smile. Now they're used to the smile, but they still love to make her laugh. It's catching, you see. Whenever Portia laughs, if you have any sense of humor at all, you will laugh as well. It's a small laugh, not a big one, but the sound can carry for miles and miles. She herself can crack some pretty good jokes, and has quite a sarcastic tongue on occasion, but she prefers to hear others be the center of attention. She could easily be a leader in many areas of life, but chooses to follow others. She'd rather see a friend in the spotlight than herself.


And now we enter a grey area. Or perhaps a spider's web? Portia's life was pretty much doomed from birth. She is a pureblood - so either she must embrace her family's practices or admit that she wants nothing to do with them. They will deny her existence and she will be free to live out her life as she deems fit. This is where the issue comes in: Portia loves her family. She loves them deeply, as only another member of the family could. How can she betray them? She has led them to believe, so far, that she has upholded their ways as best she could. They do, of course, know that she isn't exactly the perfect Slytherin child they had hoped for. But she was placed into Slytherin and, supposedly, does still believe in their teachings. Portia hates to lie to them like this, but it was the only thing she could think of doing when she was younger. Now that she's grown and matured, she can't seem to find a way out - all she knows is that soon she will have to find some way to tell them. She knows that they will write her out of their will, but it's not the money that worries her. It's the feeling of betrayal and the fact that she won't see them again. She loves her family dearly, but knows that what they believe is wrong. At the moment, she is torn between the two worlds, looking for an escape route anywhere...


Perhaps the sole personality trait that got her into her family's house, Slytherin, is her weakness for power and her gullibility when it comes to Pureblood ways. Because she grew up having these ideas pounded into her head, she still tends to believe many of them. One of the reasons why she despises being the center of attention is actually because she craves it - when she is in control, she turns into a whole different person. The power-hungry part of herself begins to seep out and cloud her other selfs. She hates the feeling, but not for long. Portia has learned the hard way to keep herself in check and to make sure she's never put into a position of too much power. She hopes that she can change, though - she'd like to teach someday. But she knows that she must never allow herself control of anyone until she can learn to bury the monster within herself, and rid herself of these Pureblood ways.

>> thicker than water

PARENTS:
SELWYN, ezekiel and josephine [nott]
SIBLINGS:
» lobelia, slytherin, 5th
OTHER FAMILY:
- name a pureblood, any pureblood....

NATIONALITY: English, some French and Welsh
ACCENT: english

WEALTH: wealthy

IN-DEPTH HISTORY:


Portia was born on August the 18th to Ezekiel and Josephine Selwyn. She was born early, and was always a tiny baby. The healers often wondered about her health, but aside from a few colds every now and then, she was as healthy as ever. It was a miracle, really, seeing as how Josephine was never supposed to have children in the first place. She was told that she couldn't by more than one healer, but then she found out she was pregnant. There may have been some...illegal... spell use involved, but no one ever questioned the Selwyns. Instead, the wizarding community (or, at least, the pureblood community) rallied behind the birth of the newest addition to the Selwyn family...Portia Maia Selwyn. Portia was named after one of her father's relatives, as was common among their class of wizard. She was never particularly fond of her name, but soon learned to ignore her feelings. It was a name, after all...and one she supposed she could live with.


Her baby sister, Lobelia, was born a year after she was. Portia was only a year old at the time, and really can't remember much about her sister's birth. She does, however, remember nearly everything about growing up with the girl. They were so different in personality and looks, but somehow they made it work. They were close when they were younger, then they went through that horrible teenage stage where they tried to murder each other, and now they're just getting out of that. Portia loves her sister with all her heart, but knows that she has to be careful around the girl - otherwise, she might go running to mum and dad about what Portia's really been doing at school. Still, Portia can't help but spend time with her little sis, and when they're at home, they have all sorts of fun together.


Growing up as a Selwyn was probably identical to growing up as any other girl in a pureblood family. Nothing had changed much over the years, despite the fact that the world had truly changed tremendously. The pureblood ideals and practices had been the same for centuries, and Portia was pretty sure that it would stay that way for many many more. The children of pureblood families were expected to do certain things and to wear certain things. Of course, Portia's mother was no different from the others. She had her daughters dress in the best dresses that money could buy (and had bought, over and over again), complete with lace and frilly things and corsets. Portia was in a corset at the tender age of five, and hadn't been out of one until she went to Hogwarts. This is probably the most unhealthy thing for a growing girl, and may have something to do with her small frame. Aside from dressing appropriately, her and her sister were also forced to attend the most dreary social occasions you could possibly ever imagine. There was wine and dancing and chattering, but almost nothing for children to enjoy. They were to mingle, of course, and to pay their respects to the appropriate people. Portia remembers a few times where at one party she was told to be kind towards an older man with a beard - but at the next party, she was told to avoid him. Several years later, he was back on the list that her father gave her. Oh, the wheels keep turning...


But perhaps the most common aspect of Pureblood life is the relationship between the entire family. It is almost always strained. The children are mostly there as tokens, or prizes - the more nicely dressed, the more polite, and the more beautiful/handsome your children were, the more praise you recieved from other families. As such, it was always strained in their household to keep themselves neat and trim. Often, meals were skipped when their mother felt they needed to shed a few extra pounds before the next social gathering. Their hair was always done up, and a few times Portia was forced to sleep in a chair all night so as to not ruin a hairdo for the next day. However, there were some perks - they each had their own room, for example. Their house was a giant mutant of a house, some areas that were even foreign to Portia. She still has no idea what the attic looks like, nor the back room by her parents' bedroom. The grounds surrounding the house were perfect for her and her sister to play in and around. They even had a lake, and small thestral herd that stayed in their woods during the summer holidays. Portia would often take meat out to the invisible creatures and watch as it would disappear before her eyes. She loved to pet and play with the things, even though she never could see them. It made it all the more exciting, really.


Enter Hogwarts. When Portia turned eleven, she received her letter (as expected) and was immediately carted off to Diagon Alley to buy her things. She was accompanied by her father the entire time, while her mother and sister went shopping elsewhere. Although Portia had never really seen her father that much, he apparently felt that it was his duty to see his firstborn off to school. This included buying her whatever she wanted beforehand. Even so, Portia was never one to ask for gifts or extra things. Ezekiel must have been somewhat disappointed, and yet also relieved, when his daughter wanted nothing more but the essentials - and a small purple pygmy puff, of course. When she boarded the train at King's Cross, the only person to see her off was, again, her father. She was fine with that, actually, and was happy to see him wave goodbye to her as the train took off. She found a seat with some other first years and began to trek to Hogwarts.


When she arrived, she was sorted into Slytherin, but only after much debate with the sorting hat. The thing seemed convinced that she would do better in another house, like Ravenclaw, perhaps. Portia begged and pleaded with the hat to allow her into Slytherin - what would her parents think if she wasn't?!? Eventually, the hat relented and shouted the family curse so all could hear. She smiled and jumped down from the stool, running over to her new table. If only she had realized that she would have done better in another house. Her first year at Hogwarts wasn't as smooth as she would have hoped. Portia realized that year just how different she was from the other kids. Sure, she had her Slytherin friends who were pretty much exact duplicates of herself, but she envied the other kids - the ones who could actually enjoy themselves outside, rather than having to make sure their clothes never got dirty.


About halfway through her fourth year, Portia started hanging out with a few Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. She found them to be so much more entertaining than her Slytherin friends, but she quickly learned that what she was doing wasn't 'becoming' of a girl with her blood status. Nevertheless, she continued to befriend those types of people. Soon, she found herself actually knowing about the latest bands and fads and broomsticks (although flying was NEVER her forte), and she found that she enjoyed life so much more with these friends than with the Slytherin crowd. She kept it a secret from her parents, though she was sure that her sister knew. For some reason, her sister never told on her. Maybe it was because she didn't know, or maybe it was to protect her. Portia never knew, but she was greatful nonetheless. It was while hanging out with some of these new friends that she decided to shed her pureblood skin and become just a normal kid. She started dressing normally, talking normally, and thinking normally. She felt happier, kinder, and more in control of her own life. She didn't want to give that up.


Now it's her sixth year and she knows she has to make a choice. Does she stay with her family, and betray herself? Or does she betray her family and do what's right for once? Portia is now a completely transformed individual, a miracle that she's been able to change at all. She doesn't want to hurt her family, but she knows that she has to do what's right. Now the only questions are: when will she tell them that she's no longer a worthy Selwyn descendent...and when that happens, where will she go? She's beginning to see the light in the long tunnel however, and may even have a love interest this year...

>> moral education

FAVOURITE SUBJECT[S]:
- Potions
- Transfigurations
- History of Magic
LEAST FAVOURITE SUBJECT[S]
- Ancient Runes
- CoMC
- Flying
AVERAGE MARKS:
- ANCIENT RUNES, T
- ARITHMANCY, O
- ASTRONOMY, A
- CARE OF MAGICAL CREATURES, P
- CHARMS, E
- DEFENCE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS, A
- DIVINATION, E
- FLYING, T
- HERBOLOGY, E
- HISTORY OF MAGIC, O
- MUGGLE STUDIES, O
- POTIONS, O
- TRANSFIGURATION, E

>> what now?

MEMBER TITLE: rose.among.T H O R N S
ANYTHING ELSE: --

ROLEPLAYING SAMPLE:

from a HP site i was on...which sady died. I don't always write this much, so don't get your hopes up... hahaha

Lovely application ^^.

ACCEPTED