Post by charlie on Mar 24, 2012 21:14:28 GMT -5
Name: Catharina Cherise Yates
Student or Teacher: Teacher.
Eye Color: Dark Brown.
Hair Color: Dark brown/auburn.
Height (Tall, Medium, Short): Short (5"2)
Size: Petite/Lean. Cat is well-muscled but small.
Bloodline (Pure, Half, Muggle-born): Half-blood.
Strengths: Transfiguration, Charms. Loyal, Brave.
Weaknesses: Herbology, Divination. Finds it hard to trust people, Obsessive.
Personality: Hard soft. Soft hard. Cat can be gentle - or she can be strict. She's full of contradictions, but underneath it all she is made of steel and fire. Cat may seem delicate and gentle on the outside, but if you ever find yourself opposing her, the words 'delicate' and 'gentle' will be so far from your mind you won't even be able to think of them.
Childhood:
Cat had an unusual childhood. Unusual by both Muggle and Wizard standards. This was for three reasons.
1) Her Father was an Unspeakable.
2) Her Mother was a Dutch immigrant.
3) She lived in a retirement home.
When her Mother arrived from the Netherlands she had no job, no place to live and knew only a little English. So when a job opened up at the local retirement home she jumped at the opportunity for work. In due course she met Spencer and had Cat. But she never gave up her position at the retirement home. As a result Cat's early years were filled with tottering old people, strange smells and death. Perhaps this familiarity with death - for it was common in the Home - was what led her, later in life, to become an Auror. This is speculation, certainly, but it would certainly explain her fascination with the capture of Dark Wizards and Witches.
Her Father's occupation as an Unspeakable also led to a strange upbringing. She got told Spencer was in 'a ministry job'. Spencer was doing important things. But she was never told anything specific, apart from the fact that magic was most definitely real and the Ministry wasn't the one most people knew about.
When she reached eleven her parents were relieved. It was getting harder and harder to hide the signs of her magic from the people of the Home, and Hogwarts would teach her control. She was duly shipped off and placed in Hufflepuff, where she spent seven which were unremarkable except, possibly, for the flair she had in Charms and her brief tenure as a Prefect. She got good, solid grades without being top in her classes. She had detentions, but not as many as some.
After leaving Hogwarts a career presented itself to her almost immediately. Auror. Dark Wizard Catcher. She accepted on the spot and entered the rigorous training programme of the Aurors.
But now, at only 29 years of age, she was no longer an Auror. What happened in that stint that disillusioned her, that made her turn to the education of a new generation? The answer lies in the Barton killings. Three Muggles murdered by a Dark Wizard on Barton Rd. And Cat didn't stop him in time. She'd been there, on the scene, but she'd let it happen. Before he killed she'd come across the wizard waiting in an alley. When challenged he'd replied that he was only waiting for a friend, wouldn't be two minutes.
Two minutes later three Muggles were lying dead on the cold cobblestones of Barton Rd.
She couldn't forgive herself for what she saw as an inexplicable lapse in her usual thorough procedure, and so she gave up her career as an Auror.
Charms professor seemed much safer.
What House and Why?: Used to be in Hufflepuff. Placed there because of her extreme loyalty, though some think the intense dedication this brought would've made her better suited to Gryffindor.
What year (1st, 2nd, 3rd etc.): New Teacher
Other: Cat is a reasonably talented violinist. She's no expert but she know her way round the instrument. Obviously she is an expert in Charms, being the new Charms teacher, and also plays chess rather well.
She collects stamps. A lot of stamps. She also has a soft spot for hats, cats, young children and licorice. She is almost never seen without a hat. Yes, even in classes.
Writing Sample: They were so beautiful.
Cat leant back, her pen tapping against her lips. The stamps lined the walls in regimented rows, a silent army of colorful troops. 21,274 stamps, to be exact. She'd been collecting since she was a child, and 25 years is a lot of stamps. They were like little windows into the past. The two cent one of some princess, she'd got from a letter her grandmother sent her when she turned twelve. One look at that perfectly preserved picture and the memories came rushing back. That was why she liked them. They were memories, of people, of places. It made her feel at home.
Cat settled back at her desk, the two chair legs touching the ground with a light thud. She'd thought being a teacher would be easy compared to being an Auror. But 75% of her job was paperwork, it seemed. Boring, boring, paperwork. She tapped the pen lightly against her teeth before scribbling in the column of a table. She hadn't even known teachers had a roster for access to the Forbidden Forest, and she'd had to re-schedule her entire first week of lessons to fit around other classes. And re-scheduling meant filling out forms. Her pen scrawled across the page, a scratchy whisper perfectly complementing the monotonous ticking of the grandfather clock in the corner. A shout from the field just visible from her window offered a brief distraction, but the afternoon quickly fell back into it's dull pattern.
But then, wonder of wonders, there came a knock at the door.
Cat gave a sigh of relief, stretching her back and shunting the sheaf of paper to one side. She adjusted her hat, a white affair carefully chosen from the hat racks behind her desk, and cleared her throat.
"Come in."