Full Name: Susan Olivia Bones (her parents didn't consider initials)
Age/Birthdate: 17 (May 18th, 1980)
Year/House: 7th, Hufflepuff
Blood Status: Pureblood
Sexual Orientation: Straight
Location: Aylsham, Broadland, Norfolk
Affiliation: Dumbledore's Army
Appearance: Susan is very self conscious about her freckles. She gave up talking about them after poor Eloise had terrible difficulties regarding her acne, but she still frets that people can't see them. She has tried various cremes and potions to try to dull them down, but they still stand out against her pale skin. When people look past the freckles (something Susan worries people don't) they would see a petite girl that could be mistaken for someone slightly younger than she is.
Susan has curly brown hair that falls around her shoulders. She gave up on the too-long plait a few years ago after finally convincing her mother that she should cut her hair -- Mrs Bone's hates the way that Susan's hair now flops over her eyes when the girl tilts her head down. Susan's eyes match her hair and her lips are slightly too thin for her face.
Desired PB: Alia Shawkat
Personality:
The Bones family has been mentioned in the Daily Prophet at numerous times during Susan's life -- and as a result Susan has become very accustomed to giving an almost blank face when she is around people who she is certain are giving her sympathetic looks. If there is one thing that she cannot stand it's a sympathetic look. She feels that when people look at her like that they are only valuing her for the grisly details of her family life.
When it comes to dealing with sorrow and family distress, Susan does best by ignoring that it is happening. Her attitude certainly isn't optimism, but she likes to think that it is. By putting all her focus on everything other than that truth of the situation when it comes to death and destruction, Susan believes that she can make the world a better place. She has convinced herself that this sort of attitude is exactly the sort of one that her Aunt Amelia would have her espouse.
Despite Susan's 'I am not thinking about anything' face that she normally tries to keep to prevent the rest of the world from learning the truth about her expressions, Susan sometimes forgets to feign apathy. Nothing can school the young woman to keep herself calm when her adrenaline starts pumping. If she hears someone speaking badly about someone she cares about (or someone who she deems an innocent) it can make her very angry. If the person saying these negative things is someone that Susan isn't normally nervous around she will automatically go and call them out on it. If, however, the person is someone that makes Susan uneasy (Slytherins, people in roles of authority), she may not speak up until she is further provoked. Once her heart starts thundering and her fingers start twitching (they twitch as though she's playing the piano too fast) or she starts tugging on her ears so hard they are about to be yanked off -- only a strong grip on her arm can keep Susan from speaking out.
Another result of adrenaline (especially from the safety of speaking through a journal network!) is Susan's sarcastic streak. She isn't always able to come up with snappy one lines, but when she does, she doesn't hold back. Susan doesn't have any real desire to see anyone hurt or in pain. However, her desire to please people and to make sure that all of her friends still like her and that everybody wants to be around her sometimes grows strained and she cannot help but lash out at someone. She might feel very guilty after saying something to someone (especially if they didn't take the bait) once her anger has subsided. Sometimes she will consider that a 'punishment' or a 'mark in their favor' if they are not on her 'good' list (see below).
Many might assume that after so much murder and destruction in her family that Susan would be a vindictive person bent on revenge. Although there are a few desires to see the people that have hurt Susan's family put to justice, Susan wouldn't say she wants the people to die, only that she wants them to 'be met with justice -- it's only fair!' Of course, if Susan were to ask herself what was fair after all of their crimes it would be death. She just thinks its much more pleasant and 'open minded' of her to claim that she just wants them to find justice.
Whenever Susan experiences an overly-emotional moment, she feels very spent. She's not meant to be an overly excited or overly stressed sort of person, and such an occurrence takes a lot out of her. When she feels tired Susan just wants to be surrounded by people with the permission to be silent. Those who know her well would know that when she is quiet (and just wants to lean her head against someone's shoulder) she's going to be just fine, and to only let her be.
Susan has a firm belief in loyalty and the people that she considers friends are her friends for life. Those closest to her (Eloise, Sally-Anne, Hannah, etc.) cannot really do much wrong. She has a very long patience for the people that she loves, and forgives those people easily. The people that Susan does not feel very close to are given completely different treatment. If you are not a close acquaintance of Susan or if you are someone who she feels nervous around, she has a one-strike-you're-out policy. People can get into her good graces again (intentionally or unintentionally) by doing three good things. She mentally (and sometimes on parchment) keeps track of these actions to ensure that she is as just as her Aunt Amelia.
Susan's fondness for Muggle things makes up a bit part of her personality. Susan is very proud of herself for having an open mind (not that she'd ever be so bold as to tell people that this is evident by her interests) and absolutely adores her Muggle studies class. She has always enjoyed checking Muggle Studies facts with Justin and Sally-Anne to make sure that her textbooks and Professor Charity Burbage were being fair to Muggles. Susan agrees with her free-thinking family members that Muggles really ought to be treated better. Once she learns how the Muggle Studies class is being run she is going to be on one of her waves of rash behavior -- and every time she thinks about it she's likely to start tugging at her earlobes.
As evidenced by her continual fears that people are staring at her freckles, pitying her, or talking about her -- Susan has a tendency to jump to conclusions. It's not completely her fault to assume that she is the center of a lot of attention; Susan grew up as the only niece/grandchild/child around on both sides of her family. She grew up accustomed to people constantly worrying about her and talking about her. While she felt comfortable and that her family was always saying only the nicest things about her, Susan still frets and worries that people are saying things that aren't true. She's prone to voice her assumptions in a very worried voice and may continually try to 'check' to see if everything is okay between her friends and herself. Now that she is wearing a prefect badge, things are only going to get worse.
Susan thoroughly believes that every human being ought to work to better themselves. She tries to do this by charting her various growths and progress in different areas. She keeps charts that detail her grades on assignments and is glad to show them. Ernie's charts on time studying impressed her greatly. She knew that she'd never be able to study as much as he did, so she began to try to keep accurate timetables of what she was doing during her day so that she could be certain that she was using her time to the best of her ability.
Although she'd never, ever admit it (and would absolutely die if someone accused her of it), Susan has a pretty high opinion of herself. Yes, she's a bit too thin and her freckles are too bold and her lips are too small, but when it comes to personality she thinks that she has a great one and assumes that people who don't like her are secretly jealous of different aspects of her character. Her high opinion of herself doesn't ever cause her to believe that she is better than her friends exactly, because she thinks that they are all wonderful people and never judges their personalities against hers. When it comes to people that she doesn't get along with or know very well (and therefore she really doesn't have a right to judge them) Susan is more likely to compare her personality with hers and find many reasons why she is a superior person.
Three Things an Acquaintance Would Know About Your Character:
-1- While the terror of the Bones' family massacre was mostly forgotten during Susan's childhood, the escape of the Death Eater found guilty for the murders brought Susan unwelcome attention. She never knew her cousins, or her uncle and aunt, but she respected their memories. Susan didn't like that everyone was suddenly talking about it and constantly asking her how she was, if she was going to get revenge, if her parents were going to take her out of Hogwarts to keep her safe or (this was the worst) if she thought she'd be next. Everyone seemed to know about the situation but, thankfully, hardly anyone asks her questions about it.
-2- Despite being from a Pureblood family, Susan has always had a great fondness for Muggle things. She doesn't know how everything works, but at least she knows how to say 'electricity' properly. Though many people don't take Muggle Studies seriously Susan absolutely does and has been considering applying to become an Oblivator and assist Muggles who have had unwelcome experiences with magic.
-3- Susan was not looking forward to taking apparation lessons. Her big accident when she was eleven years old had soured the novelty of apparation. She was focusing so hard on not splinching herself and yet it happened. She lost her leg for a few moments and collapsed into tears. People were talking about it. She knew they were talking about it.
Two Things Close Friends Would Know About Your Character:
-1- Susan has a small collection of Muggle magazines. Her uncle Baxter is generally the one who sends them to her. She'll happily go over Witch Weekly like the rest of her contemporaries, but she gets excited to go over Muggle news and stories whenever she can.
-2- Susan left her home for several days after her Aunt died. She just left a note saying that she had left to stay with friends, but she never told her parents who. She now realizes that that was terribly selfish of her and she has apologised to her parents many times. Susan made rounds to various friends hoping to spend time with them before they heard about her Aunt. She made Hannah take her to the zoo, Eloise ----- (etc., will discuss with other Puff players if accepted). Once the news did come out Susan managed to tell people that she didn't want to talk about it, but it was still hard because she was always so sure that was what they were thinking about when they looked at her.
One Deep, Dark Secret: Susan's family had a family owl. They didn't need an extra one, and Susan kept a cat with her at Hogwarts after her second year (her parents wanted Susan to wait before she brought a pet to Hogwarts) and so she didn't need a personal owl. Susan's cat was very good at taking care of itself, and she never really gave the owl much thought. The owl, Ajax, was almost like a tool to her. During her third year Christmas holidays her parents had to leave her alone at the house for a week. Her family members were constantly popping in and out (a different family member stayed with her each day of the week). Ajax stayed in her parents room and, as nobody had any use of him during the week, Susan basically forgot about him. Nobody was making sure that Susan was feeding the owl (they saw how she doted on her cat and assumed she was). When her parents returned from their trip, nobody could find Ajax. It took half a week before a rancid smell began coming from under the Bones's bed. Ajax had crawled under the bed to die from hunger. Susan was absolutely mortified and cried buckets and couldn't even talk about the owl. Having dealt with far too much death in their lives, her parents never even punished (or even accused) her and quietly bought another family owl and told anyone who asked that Ajax had died of old age.
History:
Susan's birth was a bittersweet time for the Bones family. Her uncle Edgar, her Aunt Elaine and her three cousins (Felicity, Matthew and Winnie) had been killed only a few months before her birth. The Bones family was glad to have another child, but at the same time they could not help but remember the other three babies that had been found dead after Voldemort had his revenge.
Despite the sorrow that had affected her paternal side of the family, Susan had a moderately happy childhood. You-Know-Who had been defeated by Harry Potter and the world was slowly returning to peace. Susan grew up hearing about the advancements that the Magical world was making at the knee of her doting aunt, Amelia. While Susan could never say that her aunt was the most important person in her life, she did admire the graying woman. She imagined that it must be frightening to have to judge various criminals that might try to come back and hurt you, but Aunt Amelia always said she was glad to do it.
Both sides of Susan's family could boast of their pureblood, but they weren't the boasting sort. Susan's maternal bachelor uncle, Baxter, had an interest in Muggle items and sometimes took her out in the Muggle world when he could convince Mrs. Bones that he wasn't going to poison the girl or neglect her so that she'd be run over by an automobile. One of Susan's fondest childhood memories was driving in a taxicab in London with an ice cream cone in hand.
Her inevitable Hogwarts letter came and Susan was anxious to pack her trunk and head off to Hogwarts. Both her parents and her uncles and aunts had told her lots about the school and she wanted to see it for herself. Her trunk was packed three weeks before school started (and each of her textbooks valiantly read up to chapter two) but when the day came for her to leave for Hogwarts, Susan balked. She didn't want to be apparated away to King's Cross! Her parents continued to argue with her. Finally, Mrs. Bones had had enough and did a side-along. Something went awry with Susan's resistance and she ended up missing both of her ears for half an hour before everyone was set right. After that she numbly did as her parents told her (they weren't nearly as cross anymore) and she got on the train and tried to pretend that she had not been splinched. She did keep pulling on her earbobs after that, and it became a lifelong nervous habit of hers.
Hufflepuff was the perfect home for Susan. She was very happy to be in a house known for it's loyalty. Susan did her best to become friends with those in her house, figuring that she would have plenty of time to become aquatinted with others who were in other houses. She grew especially close to Eloise early on during her time at Hogwarts.
Susan was happy to go along with everyone else in her house. She was raised as an only child and had always wanted to have siblings. Though she had been given an extreme amount of attention for a little girl from her grandparents who turned Susan into a compensation for the grandchildren they lost, her doting Aunt and maternal family and her parents, she couldn't be considered spoiled. The biggest issue that her doting family has given her is that Susan has a tendency to assume that she is the center of attention even when she isn't.
During her second year, when the Chamber of Secrets was opened, Susan was terrified for her friends. She tried to keep track of Sally-Anne and make sure that she was safe from Harry Potter whoever was present, and trusted her male friends to take care of Justin. When Justin was petrified Susan cried herself to sleep and was anxious to let everyone know the next morning that whoever did this (and she was looking right over at the Gryffindor table) was going to RECEIVE JUSTICE.
It was not fair at all (Susan has always loved declaring things to be 'fair' or 'not fair) when Harry Potter got to be in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. She did wear one of the 'Potter Stinks' badges along with the rest of her friends for quite some time. She spoke with her Aunt Amelia about the situation when she came home for her Christmas and her aunt told her that it probably wasn't Harry's fault. Susan ended up leaving her badge at home when she came home after the Christmas holidays even though she was still unhappy about the situation. Her mind changed after Cedric died. Her family did not doubt that You-Know-Who had returned and she felt very bad for doubting Harry and decided that she would do her very best not to judge him since he had so many 'good' things going for him on her lists.
When Susan heard wind of the private Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons at Harry's hand, she happily joined her friends. She had heard that Harry Potter could actual produce a corporeal Patronus and she wanted to learn to do one. When Susan signed up on Hermione's contract she never once assumed that she would have any reason to go against the paper.
January of her 5th year brought about reminders of the murders of her family. Susan absolutely hated that everyone was looking at her. No one could convince her that they weren't -- she knew they were pitying her or smirking behind their books. The whole situation silently infuriated her and she made her friends promise to stop talking to her about it. Every time someone tried to talk to her about it or ask her if she was 'okay' she was prone to give them a slight tongue lashing if they were not someone she loved.
The gruesome notority of the Bones family only deepened during the summer holidays before her 6th year. Susan's Aunt Amelia was murdered -- people said it was by You-Know-Who himself. When the news came to the Bones family late at night on July 5th, Susan stayed up all night and floo'd to Hannah's house at the earliest hour she could without being impolite. She asked her friend to go with her to the zoo and after spending time with Hannah she popped over to see Eloise and try to steal her away for a bit of time with her. Susan didn't know how long it'd be before the news came out in the Daily Prophet (she hoped she'd have at least a few days) and she wanted to have a semblance of normalcy with her friends for as long as possible. Even though she could count on them to keep from asking her about the situation, she hated feeling that people were looking at her with pity and as long as they didn't know that her Aunt had been murdered, the less real the whole situation felt.
6th year began with the absence of Eloise. Susan was crushed that her close friend couldn't be at Hogwarts with her, and things only got worse when Hannah's mother died and she had to leave Hogwarts. Susan hated that the dorm being so empty that it was only Megan, Sally-Anne, and herself. It was not as though Susan didn't like Megan and Sally-Anne, she merely hated her little group being split apart.
Dumbledore's death was almost as shattering for Susan as the death of her aunt. Just like Aunt Amelia, Dumbledore had been someone who was untouchable. She has refused to discuss his death with anyone and wasn't even present for his funeral. His death made her realize that everyone -- all of her friends, the rest of her family, and even The-Boy-Who-Lived was at a risk of dying. Susan wasn't even sure if she'd want to return to Hogwarts the next year.
Now that the Ministry has been taken over Susan does not have a choice to attend Hogwarts. The fact that she is now a prefect tears her up inside and is giving her plenty of reason to fret. She wishes that she could give the badge to Hannah and offers it to her friend to wear whenever they are behind the doors of her common room. It's not that Susan doesn't think she deserves the badge (she knows that she could be a very good and JUST prefect), but she hates to think that Hannah might possibly dislike her a little bit for having it.
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