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Sibyl.Rylee.Ballantyne
Basic
NICKNAME(S): Sib, Sibee, Red
DOB/AGE: 17; February 10, 1993
HOMETOWN: Cumberland, MD, though Sibyl has basically lived at school since her 9th year, staying in the dormitories through breaks.
BOGGART: Being unwanted. The visual image of it being her basically left out in the cold. Looking depressed, run down, cold, homeless, and alone.
PATRONUS: A Lynx. The lynx is and elusive and ghost-like creature in mythology, and is associated with science and knowledge due to it’s quiet and watchful nature. It is a keeper of secrets, appearing to have a secretive and knowing smile much like the Cheshire cat. It is associated with the season of winter, which is symbolic of wisdom and its energies include visible and invisible secrets, and are believed by the Celts to have keen sight, vigilance, and suspicion. The lynx gives the power of clairvoyance to have inner visions of others and what they keep hidden from all, even themselves. They are symbolized helping with divining talents, developing psychic abilities and finding out the truth of people and those who are close to them.

Relationships
PARENTS: Unknown. Sibyl has lived at an orphanage since infancy, and doesn’t know who her parents are.
SIBLINGS: None as far as she is concerned.
EXTENDED FAMILY: Unknown.

RELIGION: None.
ORIENTATION: Straight.
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Currently none. Sibyl has had a few relationships through her years at CCI, nothing horribly serious (it’s high school, after all).

Education
HOUSE/YEAR: Sonnier, Transitional Year
WAND: 14” Flexible Sycamore wood, Augurey tail feather core.
FAMILIAR: Ferret named Bastian
CLASSES: Career Focus: Wizarding Book Publicist. Period 1: Wizarding Literature Private Instruction: Creative writing Advanced Divination III Internship: Wizarding Publicist
EXTRACURRICULARS: Honor Society, Book Club, School Choir, Quidditch team (Seeker – Main team)
BEST SUBJECT: Advanced Divination, Arithmancy
WORST SUBJECT: She no longer takes it, but Transfiguration.


History
One rainy day in 1993, an infant of only a few months was dropped off at Covenant Ranch in Cumberland, Maryland. Neither parent bothered to say goodbye to the child, nor did they leave any contact information to the maintainers of the orphanage. They simply left the child on the doorstep, knocked, and took their leave.

Despite her youthful curiosity, Sibyl’s questions about her parents and other members of her family went unanswered; no one knew anything. Or at least anything they would tell her. It was clear that she was at least of Irish blood by her pale skin and natural red hair. After a certain age, she simply stopped asking. Instead, she made up her own background, which seemed to change with every fellow child she spoke to.

Sibyl grew up on that ranch, whether she wanted to or not. It was a religious place that required that all the students attend church, though she never really felt like she belonged. Plus, she asked too many questions about this or that or this other thing that ended up offending the devoted followers of the faith. So, again, she learned not to ask.

Her first set of foster parents adopted her when she was six years old. The Hawthorns were an older couple that decided they wanted children, and so sought out to adopt. She found them to be nice enough folk and they treated her well and took care of her. It was almost a happy ending. One afternoon while she was coloring in the living room, the strangest feeling came over her. Sibyl felt disconnected, and not entirely in control of herself. The crayon began to move over the paper in a looped pattern as her face fell blank and she stared off. She was not aware she began to write anything until the spell faded as she looked down. Written on the paper, connected in a messy cursive although she hadn’t learned how to write like that yet, were the words “GAS” and “FIRE”. The papers were soon covered and her foster mother went to make dinner. Sibyl awoke that night to the sounds as if something exploded, smoke alarms, and screaming from downstairs.

Her foster father had been killed that night in the accident and Sibyl soon found herself back at the ranch. Mrs. Hawthorn found herself unable to continue to take care of the child with the recent loss of her husband and a good portion of her house. It’s safe to say that experience left the young girl a little scarred, and a little more so with the oddity of the writing that occurred before it.

Sibyl remained at the ranch for another stretch of time, continuing to suffer through church and work her way through the school lessons they provided. The latter she found quite easy and came out with rather good marks. It was shortly before her eighth birthday that she found herself in the foster care of a new family.

The second home she went in with apprehension, remembering what had happened only a few months after living with the Hawthorns. It was another slightly older couple, who had a child of their own that died several years before. This was their second attempt, and found a bit of peace taking in a child that had no family to speak of. Unfortunately for Sibyl, this family was just as religious as the owners of Covenant Ranch. Within weeks of living with the Houck family, messages began coming through again. There were no warnings this time, only messages. Messages sent from a deceased child, using their adopted one to communicate. The Houck did not find these messages endearing or comforting; they found them sick, perverted, and the work of Satan.

Once again Sibyl found herself back at the ranch. Within days of returning, however, doctors and psychiatrists were called upon to look and analyze her in an attempt to explain the writing and the blank stares. They believed it was some sort of mental disorder. No doctors could find anything wrong, except perhaps a bit of lingering trauma.

A third family came to adopt her shortly after she turned nine. The family recently relocated to Maryland from Texas, namely in the Bible Belt area, and sought to add to their growing family. Sibyl was happy to have an older child in the family, also adopted, that she could relate to. The Morris family, for once, seemed like a good place for her.

It was several months after she turned the age of ten that things at that household began to turn sour. Small messages had come through during Sibyl’s time there, but it was a lot of nothing. They were single words that were meaningless, or jumbled letters that made no sense at all. But soon they began coming through crystal clear. They warned her of something with her older brother, and that they both were in danger.

Sibyl learned from the first accident after the writing began to pay attention to what it said, even if she never told anyone else. She didn’t know to do anything before, but now she did. The girl watched and waited, and for several days after the messages started nothing happened. Until her father came home drunk one night.

It began with her mother chiding him for being so completely drunk, which turned into a loud argument that woke both children from their slumber. Carefully they crept down the stairs to see what was happening. Their father turned violent, and Sibyl’s older brother of a few years instinctively went down to help their mother. Naturally, Sibyl followed. A large fight followed, with both children getting taken out early on. Sibyl was shoved roughly backwards, losing her footing only to fall backwards into the coffee table, knocked cold by her head hitting it on the way down.

She woke in the hospital, and it seemed she was destined for the ranch yet again. A neighbor that overheard the shouting had called the police, and her father was now in jail. Child services had also been called. When she was released, she was indeed back at the ranch, after it was deemed that the mother was not fit to take care of two children on her own as she was headed for a psychological ward upon release.

Several members of the staff had come to believe that Sybil was a bad luck charm. First a fire within months, then returned with a claim she was a child of Satan, and finally returned there by child services. She almost lost hope of ever finding a good family that she could call her own.

Her life took another strange turn when she turned eleven. Sibyl had a writing session one night while working on homework, and this time the writing spelled out only two words: Crescent City. She didn’t know what to make of it so she simply recopied her homework and continued on. The following day she had a visitor. He was a decently nice looking man, though a complete stranger, however he knew her by name.

It was soon revealed he was the Headmaster of a school in Louisiana called Crescent City. Sibyl smiled at the name, and soon found out that it was a school for special people. She was told about Witches and Wizards and magic and soon she was whisked off to the Big Easy, and to the one place she felt she belonged to the best.

All she had to do was hope that nothing went wrong.


Appearance
HEIGHT: 5'11
WEIGHT: 135lbs
HAIR: Red
EYES: Brown
IDENTIFYING MARKS: Scar hidden under her hair, both lobes pierced.

Sibyl is, for the most part, a fairly average girl. She stands on the taller end of the female spectrum, standing at an even 5’11 and filling out at a sturdy 135lbs. Her figure is straighter than she would like, opposed to the classic hourglass figure many women kill for. At times she swears she came out with the short stick on appearance in general; along with an only slightly curvy figure, Sibyl is a bit too flat-chested for her own liking and her rounded face tends to give her more of an innocent sort of look. Her best attributes, at least in what men seem to look for, would be her natural red hair and her long legs.

Aside from the few mornings Sibyl wakes up and frowns at her own reflection, she’s rather comfortable and happy with herself. She’s no femme fatale, but she’s attractive enough. No piercings other than her ears decorate her, nor do any tattoos. Her skin is, for all intents and purposes, a blank canvas other than a scar hidden under her hair. Her taste in clothes is a bit ranged; she enjoys anything from t-shirts and jeans to dresses and heels. More often than not she is more on the casual side.

Personality
LIKES: Music, Belle & Sebastian, Tegan & Sara, fantasy movies and books, books in general, learning, Quidditch, singing, tea, herbal remedies, butterscotch hard candies, spicy chicken wings, the smell of freshly brewed coffee.
DISLIKES: Rap music, music with unclean vocals, psychic frauds, over religious people, fish, seafood, being outcast, rejection, being treated like a science project, soda, watching sports on TV, talking about religion, Twihards, vampires that sparkle, family holidays.
STRENGTHS: Divination (automatic writing and reading tea leaves), flying, Quidditch, applying herself to her work, reading quickly and still absorbing information, Herbology, dancing, being there when her friends need her.
WEAKNESSES: Succumbing to writing spells when she doesn’t want to, her generosity getting taken advantage of by others, paying attention to someone when a daydream kicks in, daydreams when she’s bored – even in the company of others.
CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT: Fantasy books.
IN MY POCKETS: A pen, notepad, keys, a butterscotch candy, and 37 cents.

QUIRKS:
+ Sibyl will not eat any sort of fish or seafood. She doesn’t like the “fishy” taste and dislikes the texture.
+ Although she has her license, she does not drive. There is a fear of having a writing spell while on the road.
+ One of her mottos is “Work first, play later”. She will do her homework and required work before doing anything for fun or relaxation. Always. This tends to make her a bit of a party pooper at times.
+ Sibyl has the tendency to speak from the corner of her mouth when she is stressed out or lying.

SECRETS:
+ Sibyl is what is called an AUTOMATIC WRITER. She is unsure if the source is entirely within the realm of spirits, or if the trance-mind also allows her to tap into her clairvoyance. Divination classes are helping her to learn and control it. When it comes it comes, but after the first advanced class she has been getting a better handle on initiating it when she wishes. Her face goes blank when she “connects”, as it were, and will begin a looping pattern on paper until the words come. She always keeps a pen and pad of paper on her for this reason. She keeps this ability a secret to all but her closer friends, though there are even a few of those who are unaware. She fears that this ability will hinder future relationships, romantic and not, and that no one will want her for being afraid of her ability.
+ Due to having been abandoned by her parents and in 3 different foster homes, Sibyl has developed some worry about getting attached. Each time she was placed in a new home, she attempted to connect with her new foster family only to have it fall apart on her eventually. The paranoia of it happening at other times of her life is a conscious worry, and one she’ll have to actively overcome in time.
+ She will never admit it and will cover up for it, but there are three movies that she cries like a baby at: Casper, The Last Unicorn, and the end of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. If she watches any of these three movies in the company of others, she’s conveniently missing at the tear jerking parts.

Personality 2
To those that don’t know Sibyl, she seems like nothing more than a quiet individual that has a few weird moments. It isn’t uncommon to see her reading without paying any attention to what is going on around her or listening to her iPod and staring out into space. More uncommon, however, are the times when she seems to stop what she’s doing to stop and stare in whatever direction she happened to be facing with a completely blank expression on her face. If she happens to be near a writing utensil and paper, it will seem she is scribbling without looking at what she’s doing. It can happen for a few seconds or a few minutes. Many people simply look at her oddly and move on. Only her friends really know what’s going on being that glazed look before she snaps back into reality like nothing had happened.

Sibyl is a friendly and kind creature behind the periods of daydreaming and introverted demeanor. She will carry on a conversation if approached, and smile and laugh like any other normal teenager. Sometimes she can seem a little distracted and a little difficult to pin if she’s really in reality or beginning to get lost in her own head. There are even times where she can’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality, most often when trying to recall events in the past.

Generally, she tries to help people who seem to need it, coming off as a compassionate being. Her friends gain the most benefit from this and she will always put their needs ahead of her own. This does, unfortunately, lead to her sometimes being taken advantage of by the less well-meaning sort.

Despite the flights of fancy, Sybil harbors a darker side. Often she feels like a misunderstood girl, partially stemming from the way her peers in the orphanage tend to stay away from her. All but a small handful. A freaky kid in a Christ-loving organization tends to be socially exiled. Her dream world was created to escape the rather negative view she began to feel toward the world at a young age. Her parents abandoned her, she had lived in three different foster homes only to be returned to the ranch because she was “too weird”. She finds most people to be close-minded and ignorant, and a good many violent and nasty. They judge her before they come to know her, and living in a dream world on occasion takes the pain of feeling like a social outcast away.

The world is a frightening yet amazing place with both good and bad people in it. Sibyl knows there’s good out there as well as the bad, yet many times it’s difficult to make it past the bad. News shows show tragedy after tragedy, and she has witnessed a couple in her own life. She has seen the cruel nature of her fellow man.

Yet, sometimes, those negative feelings and thoughts eat at her. Even at a school of Witches and Wizards, there are times she feels alone and freakish despite having the shoulders of friends to lean on. Those friends, even her closest, aren’t exactly privy to these moments. Thanks to the random moments in which her Seer skills come in, at times she feels like she will lose her mind. Sometimes the messages that make it through are little more than something trying to communicate, and sometimes it’s horrifying. Sibyl tries quite hard to keep these depressive moments hidden, for fear of making anyone worry about her.

As much as the world scares her at times, the senior is eager to graduate and situate a place for herself. She hopes to get into a good Wizarding school to continue her studies to start making her own way. But, for now, she has to get through high school.

(Ravenclaw changed to Sonnier for CCI)
Sonnier Pisceans spend so much time dreaming or reading books of legends that it's a wonder they ever come down to earth. Care must be taken that they do not neglect their material needs, including those that involve sleep, food, and drink. These wizards are natural seers, and often specialize in things like horary astrology, cartomancy, dream interpretation, oracles, and the summoning of visions. Because they possess both intellectual acumen and emotional awareness, they are capable of great insight. They are quiet students, not always the best in their classes, but tend to be brilliant at subjects which they are personally interested in. Shy and nervous, they are easily bullied or intimidated, and need some looking after by more assertive students.


OOC Info
NAME: Jessi
TIMEZONE: US Eastern, GMT -5
E-MAIL: xbleedwell@gmail.com
PLAYED BY: Karen Gillan
CREDIT: enigamaleadsigns

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Sibyl Ballantyne
Name: Sibyl Ballantyne
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