phyllis wellbeloved, professor.

[Professor Phyllis Wellbeloved]

the roleplayer

name: Deb!
years roleplaying: Eight or nine.
how often you can be on: Every day.
age: Twenty.
time zone: EST!

the character

Name: Phyllis Katherine Wellbeloved.
Family:
Father
name: Sinclair Wellbeloved.
blood status: Muggle-born.
age: 70.
occupation: Retired wizarding radio personality.
former house: Hufflepuff.
Mother
name: Florence Sheridan, now Wellbeloved.
blood status: Pureblood.
age: 68.
occupation: Retired herbologist.
former house: Hufflepuff.
Siblings
name: Ambrose Asher Wellbeloved.
blood status: Half-blood.
age: 49.
occupation: Chairman of the Society for Distressed Witches.
house: Slytherin.

name: Cyril Morris Wellbeloved.
blood status: Half-blood.
age: 46.
occupation: Proprietor of Flourish & Blotts.
house: Ravenclaw.

name: Kendrick Percival Wellbeloved.
blood status: Half-blood.
age: 40.
occupation: Wizengamot Clerk.
house: Ravenclaw.

Blood Status: Half-blood.
Birthday: December 22nd.
Age: 34.
Wand: Alder wood, fifteen inches. Dual dragon heartstring core.

Alder is extremely rare, as many wandmakers will refuse to take wood from an alder. The ‘bleeding’, turning from white to red, is considered to be inauspicious. The few wands made of alder are often those with strongly opposing cores (such as doxy wings and phoenix feather), as the wood imposes balance.

Known as the wood of witches or Battle Witch wood. It draws off the element of fire, but also water and earth. This wood is best used to summon and control the four winds, banishing and controlling elements. Excellent for resurrection spells.

Dragon heartstring is a powerful wand with a lot of magical “heft”. It is not the core you want for subtlety, but for sheer power it is definitely the best. Although it is the most common core among Dark Wizards, Dark Wizards are most certainly not their most common users. Dragon heartstrings are by far the most common wand core amongst Slytherins, but their power often bonds to Gryffindors and Ravenclaws as well. However, they tend to overwhelm the archetypal Hufflepuff personality.

A creature of legend, the dragon symbolizes wisdom and longevity. The dragon is fierce and strong, and would make a ferocious enemy or marvelous friend. The heartstring of a dragon would be a wise choice for one who wishes to cast extraordinary hexes or defensive spells. Would also make an excellent companion to woods that feed off the element of fire.

Patronus: A crow, representative of her intelligence, her boldness and her skill as a witch. Incidentally, her Animagus form also takes the shape of a crow, in tune with her responsibility as a professor and a bringer of knowledge, as well as her skill for transfiguration – a magic performed with the sole purpose of shape shifting oneself, another being or another object.
Occupation: Transfiguration Professor, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Pets: A pair of red-crested cardinals she keeps in a large, ornate cage in her office.

History

Phyllis Katherine Wellbeloved’s birth on the 22nd of December was a final and much anticipated addition to a family that had already seen its fair share of expansion. Before her had been born three boys, to a pair that had met and wed entirely by a stroke of fortune. Sinclair had only been a beginning journalist then, working his way up the ranks of a local radio station in London. Florence had opted for herbology, her father’s work, and her own efforts in studying Mandrakes earned her a spot on the young man’s program. The rest, as they say, was history. Some dinners and a very flustered proposal later, and the two were wed in his parents’ church.

Ambrose had come first, almost immediately following the couple’s honeymoon. Careful counting would have revealed his birth to be six months following the wedding, but it can’t be said that very many within both families cared much for this turn of events. Some three years following, Cyril was born and aside from a very visible birth mark on his neck, he was entirely like his brother had been: a crying, brown haired, pink and wrinkled baby boy reaching out for his mother. Kendrick’s arrival six years later then, was also hardly much different from his brothers, and he was met with the very same excitement and relief.

In any case, it was only understandable that after fourteen and some odd years of raising boys, Florence desperately wanted for herself a little girl, and the announcement of her pregnancy, although entirely surprising, was arguably the most eagerly expected of the bunch. The next nine months were spent with held breath, anticipating the birth of the little girl who finally arrived in December, wide eyed and shrieking like her mother. The boys, however, welcomed her with undeniably mixed reactions.

Ambrose, the eldest and then fifteen, had been far too preoccupied with his own life to care much about a little girl he would only see for two months out of the year. Cyril, then twelve, behaved in much the same way. He had hardly begun Hogwarts, and so enamored and distracted by its wonders was he that a new little sister to keep him from sleeping when she cried at night was quite far from his mind. Kendrick on the other hand, was perhaps the most upset by her arrival. Only six at the time, he’d been so used to being the youngest for so very long, that it seemed to the boy that her appearance in the family had only been to rob him of his place.

Therefore, it is only unsurprising that he treated his little sister with a measure of contempt that she grew to recognize as she aged, but hardly understood. She on the other hand, only grew attached to the boy, much to his chagrin. But he was the closest to her own age, and the one most often at home in those first five years before he too went off to Hogwarts. For her, their parting was rather sorrowful, and for the boy who had grown rather attached even despite himself, leaving little Phyllis behind at King’s Cross was surprisingly difficult.

Without her brothers and often with only her mother’s plants and her father’s books for company, Phyllis was often left to her own devices. Being five years old, the means by which she could entertain herself was understandably limited, and as such she kept to running around outside with the family’s dog, or digging holes in the yard – holes she often forgot to fill back in. For this, her mother, who oftentimes tripped on said holes, frequently reprimanded her. In this manner, with vacations and a Muggle school and her dog, Phyllis passed those first years without her brothers and mostly, excusing the burn on her stomach, without incident.

Phyllis was eight when war broke out in wizarding England. Cyril and Ambrose, 20 and 23 then, hardly hesitated in joining the war effort. The family was divided for the first and only time that year. Sinclair, a Muggle born wizard rather proud of his heritage, went into hiding for the sake of their safety. Ambrose fought on the front lines, whilst Cyril spent much of his time aiding in the smuggling of potentially endangered wizards out of England. Kendrick meanwhile, was barely fifteen. Adamant that her son should not be involved or put in danger, he was withdrawn from the school. Fortunately though, all six would survive the war unscathed and unharmed.

When her own eleventh birthday came, the little girl was understandably excited. She’d spent all her young life being showered with letters and stories of her brothers’ school, and it was with wide eyes and held breath that she awaited her letter that December morning. Family stories suggest she damn near attacked the owl as she rushed to the bird for her post, and it was only a well placed and timed bite on the bird’s behalf that calmed her down as her mother read the letter. Some months later as instructed and as expected, they made their journey to Diagon Alley. Although considering having been here before on errands with her mother, and shopping for her brothers, the experience was stripped of much of its novelty for her.

That September, Phyllis was sorted into Gryffindor, and dove head first into her studies. However, it must be said that the Hogwarts she entered was a school vastly different from that which her brothers had attended and for quite a while the atmosphere was still fairly tense. Nevertheless, it didn’t take long for her to display a considerable talent for Transfiguration, and it was into this subject and into her tutoring that she focused most of her energy as the years of her schooling wore on. Seven years later, Phyllis graduated, a Head Girl and a prefect, and quite firmly and deservingly entrenched within the top of her class.

The young woman needed only that summer to decide what it was that she wished to pursue as a career. Having tutored all through school, having discovered she loved children, and having long known that school was what she was most passionate about, her choice was long ago made obvious and simple. To Hogwarts Phyllis returned, employed as an assistant professor under Minerva McGonagall’s tutelage for a very lengthy eight years. But Minerva was aging, and having been entrusted with the power and position of Headmistress of Hogwarts, there was only so much time she had for the class she’d always taught.

When Minerva McGonagall opted to surrender all but her N.E.W.T. level classes, it was to Phyllis that these six years of students went, and she became Professor Wellbeloved.

Now thirty-four years old, very little had changed since then. She was still the very same, impulsive and restless sort, and in all her summers off had taken advantage of her free time and disappeared on extended vacations to explore and to learn something new. Soon enough it had become a tradition, and in the nine years since her appointment as a fully-fledged professor, she rarely spent a full summer in her native England.

But she was single still, very much so, and her mother was hardly thrilled. Thirty-four, and with neither a man nor any children to show for it; Florence was disappointed. However, between her work and her travel, Phyllis had hardly the time for such things and no matter how it may have annoyed her mother, who at this age had already birthed four children. she failed to foresee a change in her situation in the near future.

Appearance

In regard to her appearance, there was perhaps only one aspect in which she was made distinct from her family, and that was the burn across her abdomen. She’d been just a girl when she’d gotten it, only six years old. The family had gathered around the television following her father’s birthday dinner. The cake had been sliced, and everyone had tea or hot cocoa set out on the coffee table. Outside, it had begun to thunder, and in his fear the family’s German shepherd bolted into the family room, knocking the coffee table as he went.

The tea kettle, set out on the table, fell over, emptying its contents on the unsuspecting little girl lying on the carpet, having found no room on the couches occupied by her parents and her brothers. Before anyone in the room could react to her scream, the kettle rolled onto her, landing where the water had and she could only shriek and whimper as she was rushed to the hospital. The burn itself was sizeable, stretching from her waist to well beyond her belly button, unattractive in its discoloration and puffiness.

Kendrick of course, wasted no time in letting his little sister know her burn resembled a sock in its shape.

Otherwise, in all other respects Phyllis resembled her siblings and her family. She’d been born with that same typically brown her, although as a child she’d found it rather drab and had spent many of her teenage years coloring it. She’d been blond, she’d been a redhead, she’d even had blue hair and plum purple hair – her personal favourite. Of course as Phyllis aged, she calmed down considerably in her efforts to alter her appearance, and soon took to simply coloring it a different brown and highlighting it.

The woman had always been rather tall, even as a child. She stood at five feet and a very generous nine inches rivaling the youngest of her brothers, who was none too pleased to see a girl six years his junior with her sock burn stand at eye level with him, and always offer him that same, defiant and smirking expression – as if she had a secret and he wouldn’t be privy to her information. However, it can’t be said that Kendrick’s complaint was a very far stretch of the truth.

With regards to her brothers, most often she did shoot the three brutes her best smirk, and most often than not she really did know something they didn’t – or at least she behaved as if she did. Her blue eyes, always pale with their flecks of green, echoed that smile, rimmed in purple as soon as she’d been old enough to use cosmetics for more than putting lipstick on her brothers or her father while they slept. Her nose was her mother’s known, narrow and a little on the pointy side. Her lips were rather small, but full, and although she often gravitated toward the pale and nude colours, she’d been known to sport a bright red every now and again.

Growing up, the boys had been intensely protective of her, and included her in many of their games and excursions – despite her being a girl. Camping, swimming, races, she rarely had a problem in keeping up with them, although even to this day she’d never been able to outrun either of the three. Nevertheless, all the activity of her youth had produced a very athletic sort of build, yet with all the curves appropriate to a woman of her age.

These curves and her athlete’s figure Phyllis dressed in a variety of shapes and colours. She preferred the fitted and the classic most of all, favoring that which was simple and attractive because it was understatement. Understandably, she was most comfortable in her black dresses and her witch’s robes and her red travelling cloak – lined to keep her warm and made of a brilliantly red colour, her utmost prized possession. Phyllis didn’t shy away from bright colours, from pastels and from jewel tones and patterns, and paired them with her wide array of jewelry whenever possible or appropriate.

She liked clothing, that was that, and it had been true of her all her life. Therefore, as a thirty-four year old woman in the undeniable prime of her life, why not dress herself to impress others and to feel attractive? She wasn’t harming anyone.

Personality

Even as a child, her personality had predisposed Phyllis to the business of instructing others. She was the portrait of patience, a trait fostered in her at an early age. Even with the relative wealth of her parents, she’d functioned according to a notoriously entrepreneurial streak – the sort of child who stood outside her home selling lemonade to passerby’s or, as was true of her case, babysitting. Pets, the children of her neighbours and her relatives, her nieces and nephews as soon as Ambrose and Cyril had started their own families.

It was all money to her, with the understanding that she’d pay for whatever it was that she wanted, whilst her parents would provide what was necessary. However, it was unquestionably by way of these experiences that she discovered in herself a love of children, and soon enough a love of teaching. She tutored her way all through school, both Muggle and Hogwarts, and her announcement at the end of those seven years to pursue a career as a professor at the very same establishment was only inevitable.

With her students, Phyllis was understanding but firm. This had been a skill she’d developed with her brothers, taking a firm, very much no-nonsense approach to their excuses. It had been the reason why she’d always been so included in their games and their races as a child. This very same approach she transferred with relative ease to her teaching and her classes, and although she rather disliked detentions –having many unpleasant memories of the punishment herself–, she did not hesitate in reprimanding her charges if they failed to behave or do what was asked of them.

But she was hardly hard-hearted. Whereas she was relatively accommodating and mild-tempered with her students, harsh only when need be, she was rather overly forgiving with her friends. Phyllis was the sort to rarely judge, but she asked plenty of questions if she found grounds for a motivation to be doubtful. She was honest in that respect, cautious with her words but nevertheless always one to let those she cared for know how she felt or what she happened to be thinking. Phyllis was certainly assertive too, but more so in the sense that she was confident and frank, rather than forceful.

However, what was unquestionably true of her attitude toward both her students and her friends was that she was highly demanding – both of herself and of others. From her friends and her family she expected honesty, she expected reliability and she expected common sense. From her students, she expected effort, she expected interest and she expected a modicum of curiosity to learn something new – curiosity the likes of which she’d possessed all her life and which inspired her to approach everything with a measure of excitement and to explore and learn all she could.

Really, little had changed in her personality as she aged. Phyllis was still every bit the little girl who had been so very curious in her environment, and so very impulsive. Faced with the prospect of adventure, she jumped at every opportunity offered to her. It had been what had led her to demand inclusion in her brothers’ escapades, and they had been the reason she had fallen so firmly in love with camping and with sailing – and no doubt climbing, which she was eager to begin learning the next summer.

Quite obvious was her restlessness here, and it was only out of a firm devotion to education and to her charges that she was able to convince herself to stay in one place long enough to instruct them. To reward herself and that bloody curiosity which drove her adventurous streak, she rarely spent a summer at home, choosing instead to gather her brothers and run off to somewhere exotic where they could try something daring and something new.

Despite all this, the woman was still entirely disciplined by nature, and had been so as a student as well. Back then she’d balanced her duties as prefect and as Head Girl with her education – heavily theoretical though it was, fairly well. Such a skill could only have improved with time, and these days the young lady had decided to live her school life according to a schedule. With so many students in so very many sections to instruct, her own skills as a witch to improve, and all the travelling she enjoyed doing, only a schedule provided her with the necessary structure to keep herself sane and doling out her time appropriately and effectively.

Phyllis was intensely practical too, entirely sensible and collected in her approach to any problem or any conflict. Unsurprisingly, problems had always been her particular favourite, even as a child. She hoarded puzzles and crosswords, and had never been one to shy away from or deny the opportunity to solve a mathematical equation that proved particularly difficult. Phyllis Wellbeloved was still in every way the student of life she had been in her youth, who devoured books and knowledge as if they were the delicate French pastries she’d fallen in love with on a trip to Paris with her aunt.

Unfortunately, hand in hand with that practicality came a sort of perfectionism for which both she and her students paid for. All her life she’d found it difficult to be satisfied by that which she was offered and given, and this only tendency only accompanied her into her adult life. Because of this, it was often only after two or three submissions that she was somewhat satisfied with the work handed in to her. Highly demanding of herself and of others, she was generous with the second chances she handed out – especially when she was absolutely sure someone could have done infinitely better with their work.

Still, Phyllis made for a charming woman, infectious in her curiosity and her excitement to learn and to teach. She was polite, yelled little at her siblings and even less at her pupils, and friendly and undeniably likeable. She did not shy away from strangers, struck up conversation with relative ease – a direct influence of her habit of being rather chatty. Phyllis loved to entertain, but even more than that she loved to talk. Therefore, becoming a professor had made an incredible amount of sense.

For someone so talkative, however, the young woman was surprisingly private. She inquired after others as a matter of principle, but her own life she rarely discussed. Having worked as a radio personality, her father had bestowed upon the family a certain measure of fame. Consequently, Phyllis had learned the practical way the value of privacy, and her only grown to cherish her own more and more.

She was careful too, and despite having grown with three older brothers quite protective of her, Phyllis grew to become a fiercely independent individual. Having spent so many years getting her own way and living according to only her own decisions, she’d developed a somewhat stubborn streak, and a tendency of being rather overly persistent – which now and then it must be said, still got her into a little bit of trouble with the right sort of people.

Likes & Dislikes

Likes:
- Long books.
- Harlequin novels.
- Dessert.
- Lychee fruit.
- Vacations.
- Ships.
- Sailing.
- Red wine.
- Camping.
- Candle light.
- Singing.
- Birds. Crows in particular.
- Saturdays.
- Thick blankets.
- Libraries.
- Jewelry.
- Gifts.
- Reading.
- Baking.
- Leather armchairs.

Dislikes:
- Burns.
- The smell of hot metal.
- Lint.
- Lemons.
- Chili peppers.
- Chocolate.
- Allergies.
- Loose buttons.
- Violence.
- Disorganization.
- Crying. And criers.
- Rum.
- Popcorn ceilings.
- Her never-ending apartment search.
- Hangnails.
- Losing sleep.
- Heights.
- Laziness.
- Omelets.
- Stains.

Amortentia:
- Freshly mown grass.
- A brand of aftershave she has never been able to place.
- Peppermint.

Pet Peeves:
- Unpunctuality.
- Excuses.
- Feeling stagnant.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths:
- Patient.
- Honest.
- Assertive.
- Practical.
- Careful.
- Disciplined.
- Curious.
- Charming.
- Sociable.
- Independent.

Weaknesses:
- Overly forgiving.
- Overly persistent.
- Perfectionist.
- Highly demanding of herself and others.
- Highly private.
- Impulsive.
- Restless.
- Chatty.
- Stubborn.
- Naïve.

Boggart: A vision of burning books, suggesting she was unable to do that which she loved most – instructing others, specifically in Transfiguration, which had always been her most favourite and easily the strongest of her subjects as both a student and a professor.

Play By: Gemma Arterton.

Anything else? I HAD TO DO IT. DON’T JUDGE ME. AND YES, SHE’S AN ANIMAGUS TOO. SHE TEACHES TRANSFIGURATION. IT’S JUST WRONG FOR A TRANSFIGURATION PROFESSOR TO NOT BE AN ANIMAGUS TOO.

Roleplay Sample

Transfiguration is the branch of magic of changing the form and appearance of the target. It also includes Conjuration and vanishing of objects, along with spells that change the inherent nature of the target.