Sauveterre, Imogen

[Imogen Sauveterre]

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About You - -

Name: Didi. I assume you know this by now.
Gender: Femme.
Age: Nineteen.
Years of RPG Experience: I’ve had my share. I love how already this form is a lot less informative than my first. The character shall make up for this!
Other: Falco.

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Quick Quiz - -

How did you find us? I wonder if I can say who referred me here yet and who I’ve actually known for years.
What about ISS inspired you to join? I’m a sucker for well-organised AND fun things. Add Harry Potter and it’s like a nerd’s fantasy.
Do you have any suggestions for us? I do not. Because it’s lovely.

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About the Character- -

Name: Imogen Amy Sauveterre. No nicknames for this girl. She hates them. She’s fine with being called by her surname, but she won’t even respond if someone calls her “Im” or “Imo” or even “Jenny”. They’re not who she is. She’s Imogen, and people can take the extra 0.2 seconds to say all three syllables.
Age: Fifteen.
Gender: Femme.
Year: Fifth.
Face Claim: Emmy Rossum.

Canon or Original? Original.

Facial Properties:

By all accounts, Imogen should not be pretty. Her face is extraordinarily asymmetrical. From her puffy lips to her too-large eyes to her small forehead, she simply doesn’t match up. And yet, somehow, all of it comes together in something that even she can’t deny is just a little bit attractive – but she doesn’t like thinking that way of herself, because she thinks it will make her conceited. Her face is oval and slightly square-jawed, with prominent cheekbones that taper down into a round chin and framed by thick chestnut hair. Though her skin is already naturally olive-toned, Imogen is an easy tanner, though the darkened brown is often gone by November. She has dark brown eyes covered by heavy eyelids and rimmed with thick lashes. Her eyes are often the first thing people notice about her: they have a magnetic quality to them, and maybe it’s from the fact that they’re abnormally large, or maybe it’s because they always seem to be trying to see through people. Her nose is straight with a small, pointed tip; in her opinion, it’s too long, but it fits her face. If there’s one thing at all she remotely likes about her appearance, it’s her lips. Full and naturally pink, they can be called “pouty” and even lopsided, but Imogen just thinks of that as endearing. Her lips are her favourite feature, and she likes that she doesn’t even feel a need to put make-up on them to make them something they’re not.

Physique:

Imogen is tall, almost brushing 5’9”; growing up, she had been on the short side, but when she began to enter her teen years, she went through a growth spurt that left her feeling gawky and shockingly thin. Since then, she’s fleshed out a bit, her hips becoming rounder and chest becoming bustier. She has long, slender limbs and a tiny waist, and a very defined bone structure. It doesn’t help her appearance that she likes to wear clothes that are a size or two too big for her; part of her liking for big clothes is just another defence mechanism, and another part is simply that she’s comfortable in them. She likes being enveloped in fabric. The biggest reason for wearing layers of concealing clothes, however, is what she’s trying to hide. All across her thighs and even on bits of her abdomen are little marks: scars, some old but most fresh. Little circular marks riddle her body, all of them self-inflicted, yet not all of them are intentional. The reasons behind her dermatillomania are discussed in later sections, but it’s something that brings her immense shame and just gives her another reason to hide inside herself.

Wand Type: Willow and phoenix feather, ten inches, very rigid. According to Celtic tree lore, the willow tree is the tree that covers her birthday (May 3rd). As well, it seems to match her personality. More information will come in the Personality section, but in short, “willows” are hard to get to know because they guard themselves and hide who they are; they have great memories, and tend to disregard advice from others. The phoenix feather is to represent healing, even though it’s not the same as a tear, as Imogen is the type of person who consoles her friends in times of need. The rigidity is also a lot like her personality, and it goes well with the expertise in that it only goes to show how defensive and guarded she is of herself.
Wand Expertise: Rather useful in Defence Against the Dark Arts.
Patronus: It would have to be a panther. They’re solitary and nocturnal, which Imogen prefers to be (at least, she prefers the nocturnal front), and though predatory themselves, they’re also prey for larger predators. Even if they catch something, they’ll often give it up without a fight if something else comes along. They’re adaptable animals, and can potentially be frightening in the way they blend with the dark. This all seems to suit Imogen, as well as the fact that panthers are symbolic of guardianship, as well as dark, perseverance, beauty, the gaining of confidence, and understanding of death. Should she ever produce a Patronus and find this out, she would definitely roll her eyes at the irony: she’s allergic to cats.
Boggart: Imogen’s biggest fear would have to be an old friend of hers, Leo Holmes, standing before her and saying, “It’s all your fault.” She thinks she’d pretty much die of fright and shame on the spot if he stood there and said that she could have done something, that she knew that something was wrong and ignored the signs and just completely put aside his obvious cry for help. She knows that’s something she just won’t ever be ready to face.

Personality:

» realistic & honest

To most people, Imogen seems like a bitter cynic. The truth is that she’s not, she’s just realistic. She can get from Point A to Point B faster than most people she knows. As much as she’d like to believe that the world is made of fairies and sunshine and glitter and smiles, she knows that it’s just not true. Imogen respects the people who can see life that way, especially if they acknowledge the negativities, but she simply can’t see things that way herself. Even as a child she had problems believing in things like Santa Claus and the Toothy Fairy, and if she had been born into a Muggle family, it’s likely that she never would have believed in magic or in her abilities as a witch. Her realism leads to her honesty, as she doesn’t really think it’s right to sugar-coat things when people should just handle the truth. She has no qualms with telling someone what the reality of the situation is, and that they need to either accept it or do something about it. In this way, she can be seen as more cold-hearted than she actually is. But really, lying is something that Imogen doesn’t really like to do. It makes her feel horrible and guilty, and guilt is just something she has enough of already. If she really is afraid of the truth hurting someone’s feelings, she’ll try to put it across in a nicer way than normal without flat-out insulting them.

» wallflower & self-conscious

Imogen is almost comically awkward in social situations. Put her one-on-one with a person and she can have a full-on discussion, debate, even a fight with a complete stranger. But in a room full of people, she’ll feel their eyes on her, watching her, judging her, even if they’re not. She gets a bit paranoid in those situations, and will often become visibly nervous to point of trembling. She’s been known to drop a glass or two in the past from nerves besting her and causing her drink to just slip from her fingers. She’ll stutter, she’ll talk really fast, and often she loses all thought process and lets nearly anything come out of her mouth, from a random fact she remembers to some horrible and embarrassing memory of herself. If there’s one thing Imogen can’t stand, it’s public humiliation. It’s quite easy to hurt what pride she does have, but she tries her best to not let that show. Thus, if she’s ever caught in a moment where she has to be part of a crowd that she’s completely uncomfortable around, she clings to the shadows or attaches herself to people she knows, just for that shred of security. Her self-consciousness, if traced back to the very beginning, can stem from her brother’s gentle teasing as they grew up. He often remarked that she had bat-like eyes, which just made her hate them, and he was the first to pick on her when she went through that growth spurt and became gangly and awkward-looking. After the summer between second and third year, that only intensified, and manifested itself into a disorder. Her dermatillomania began as light scratches at her skin when she wasn’t paying attention, but it didn’t take long for it to erupt into picking, biting, even clawing at her own flesh, both in times of high stress and when she’s not paying any attention to her actions at all. She’s always afraid someone will notice her doing it, and question her about it, but it’s something she can’t explain and figures she simply has to live with and hide from the world.

» inquisitive & resourceful

Imogen is a highly curious individual, though she doesn’t apply this trait to schoolwork – she has an excellent memory, which comes in handy for slacking off in school and coasting through with decent grades (if she cared enough, she has no doubt she could be a contender for top student of the year, but she’d rather use her energies elsewhere). No, Imogen would rather learn about people. Her favourite pastime is watching others from a distance and learning their reactions to different things, especially things like touch. Do they stiffen? Do they lose focus for a moment? Do they lean into the touch? What about the person doing the touching, how long do they maintain the contact? What motivated them to do it? Is it comfortable and welcome or is it awkward and foreign? Imogen loves watching body language; it’s her main way of learning about people. She’s even experimenting with touch, mostly for her own amusement, with the people she finds are least comfortable with it. It’s difficult for her as well, since she often flinches even when accidentally brushing past another person, but she still feels she has the upper hand by knowing how that person will react. Laying a hand on the shoulder to ask a simple question and feeling the muscles seize up in that person’s arm brings her a sick sort of satisfaction, one that she’s not entirely okay with but has almost become a necessity to her. Imogen is a logical individual, knowing the most-likely place to find the information she needs; as mentioned earlier, she has a fantastic memory, and is able to remember seemingly random and pointless facts that she can use to her benefit. Yes, this includes blackmail and guilt-tripping – but only when the situation is dire and calls for one or the other.

» addictive & empathetic

Weird traits to go together, right? Well, not necessarily in Imogen’s case. As mentioned before, she loves to people-watch. Studying her classmates has become almost a drug for her, especially when she discovers something particularly juicy – it’s like a high. The thing about Imogen is that sometimes she’ll fixate on one person. She’ll discover what makes that person tick, she’ll formulate theories in her mind, she’ll become more empathetic to a complete stranger than towards her own friends. She can get so wrapped up in her “research” that she can forget to show the necessary warmth toward her friends, which can definitely get her into hot water with them. When she’s genuinely curious about someone and even concerned for his well-being, she becomes focused on him and only him and tends to ignore everyone else. He becomes her drug, and she literally gets miserable and panicky if she doesn’t get her fix – especially if he’s said or done something to give her reason to worry. She knows it’s all because of past experience, and she knows it’s not healthy – for her, or for the guy she all but stalks who doesn’t even know she exists – but she craves it anyway. She needs it. In a way, she’s seeking redemption from a mistake she made years ago, a tragic loss that she blames herself entirely for. Her empathy towards another is selfish, really – but she also convinces herself that all feelings towards others are selfish in some way. Sensible? Only to her.

» witty & guarded

Sure, her wit can be called another defence mechanism, but that’s not entirely the case. She’s mostly sarcastic and dry, but every now and then she’ll deliver something genuinely funny. Often it’s something she finds funny because of the reference or because it just appeals specifically to her sense of humour, but really, she likes a good laugh. Her realistic outlook on life often makes it seem as though she’s far too cynical to appreciate good humour, but really, she loves those moments when everything is funny and she nearly wets herself from laughter. She does try to find the humour in a lot of situations, and will search for subtext in almost anything just to make a joke out of it. But yes, as much as she loves a good laugh, she does make light of situations involving her by cracking a joke. She’s incredibly secretive; for years, she didn’t even trust her own diary until she began to really need it to stay sane. Her outlook on life is to just survive and try not to let anything break her. Imogen tries to convince herself that love doesn’t exist, not in the romantic sense. She loves her family, and she loves her friends, but she doesn’t believe in “one person out there for everyone”. She knows there are billions of people in the world, and how is she supposed to buy that the person she ends up with is really supposed to be the best one for her? Her friends are dear to her, but there are just some things she can’t tell them because she’s afraid that they’ll forever reject her, and she’ll wind up isolated and desperate. Her dermatillomania is still something she frantically conceals, but one thing she’s never spoken about to another human being is her past with Leo Holmes.

Likes:
+ Humour. Victor Hugo said it best: “Laughter is the sun that drives the winter from the human face.”
+ Her lips. Call it Vanity, but she thinks of them as her only likeable best feature.
+ Defense Against the Dark Arts. It’s her best class, and the most fun – she likes taking bets on reasons why the current professor will leave.
+ People-watching. Redundant to say by now, but she likes to study her classmates.
+ Firewhiskey. Bugger, she likes the stuff. Her brother tried to send her a bottle last Christmas, but it was confiscated.
+ Her family. They were so incredibly supportive when she needed them, and she loves them for it immensely.
+ Still photographs. Moving pictures just remind her of something not there anymore, whereas still photos fully capture the sincerity of the moment.
+ Muggles. She may be a half-blood, but she finds Muggles absolutely fascinating. And adorable.
+ Silence. Loud noises make her uncomfortable. Silence gives her time to ponder.
+ Riding. Imogen absolutely adores horses, and equestrian, in her mind, is better than Quidditch.
Dislikes:
– Cats. She’s got nothing against them personally, but allergies are damn annoying.
– The French language. Just because her father comes from a line of French purebloods doesn’t mean she should have to speak the language.
– Lying to others. It makes her feel horrendously guilty.
– Throwing up. It’s just not pleasant. It comes with nausea and dizziness and sweating and stench. Although it’s very interesting that ice cream is still cold coming back up. What’s that about?
– Piano. It brings back memories – and she’s not ready to deal with those. Every time she hears a piano she gets tense, and she knows if she ever hears “Yesterday” by The Beatles she’ll break down completely. She doesn’t even know the band but that song about kills her.
– Being clumsy. Tripping, falling, stumbling, dropping things, knocking stuff over – you name it, she hates it.
– Her home. There are just too many memories from there that she’d rather forget.
– Sharing secrets. Oh, she doesn’t mind knowing the secrets of others, but she’d rather keep hers to herself.
– Thunderstorms. They scare her to death.
– Scratching, picking, and biting. She hates her disorder, but there’s no medication for it, and sometimes she doesn’t even realise when she’s doing it. It makes her hideous, in her opinion.

History:

Mathias Sauveterre came from a long line of purebloods descending from France. They’d been a quiet family, never raising trouble and determinedly staying out of it. While they had no qualms with Muggles, they didn’t really associate with them either – the Sauveterres never did like the unfamiliar. They were well-spread-out throughout France; the inland families, few though there were, were raisers of Granians, the grey winged horses known for speed, and had made a sum of wealth in training them to race, and had owned quite a few champions in their time. The others were sea-folk, living along the coasts of France, though most could be found in a remote commune called Éze, on the southern coast. In the early 1900s, Raoul Sauveterre (Mathias’s grandfather) and his wife Josephine, freshly graduated from Beauxbatons, decided to leave France behind. They crossed into Britain, living in London for a bit but finding they weren’t fond of the large city after the peace and quiet of Éze. An interest in Quidditch brought Raoul and his family south to Cornwall; he settled in Falmouth, where he and Josephine raised their children. They had three in total: a son, Maël Raoul Saueveterre; a daughter, Elaine Danielle Sauveterre; and another son, Antonin Charlot Sauveterre. All three children attended Hogwarts, met their future spouses and went on to live their separate lives (and Raoul could admit to being proud that all three managed to snag pureblood spouses even though Sauveterre was not a well-known name in Britain yet). Always good at adapting to their surroundings, they were able to easily blend in with the Muggles, enjoying the closeness of the ocean and the fact that they had a Quidditch stadium nearby, and a Quidditch team that they didn’t need to be ashamed of, either.

Elaine was the only child to stay in Falmouth with her family; she had married Marcus Gagnier, another French pureblood whose family had migrated to Britain. They had eloped in the middle of their seventh year at Hogwarts. It had been impulsive, and the decision of two teenagers who thought that seven months of steady dating meant true love forever. And for the first couple of years, they were happy. They managed two produce two healthy sons, Nathaniel and Mathias, and a happily-ever-after didn’t seem too unbelievable. But just a few years after the birth of Mathias, things began to get messy. Marcus was working late evenings at the Ministry while Elaine remained at home to care for the boys, and she began to suspect him of having an affair. They began to fight constantly, going at it for several months, years even, and only staying together for the sake of the children. Mathias would cry himself to sleep while Nathaniel told him bedtime stories and said that everything would be all right. Finally, when Mathias was barely four, Marcus decided that he’d had enough. He stormed out of their home, declaring that he was moving to London and he’d see the boys at Christmas. That was the last time the two brothers ever saw him; he died only a few months later, and Elaine never told them the cause of his death. Afterward, Raoul requested that their surnames be changed to Sauveterre as Gagnier was no longer in the picture, and Elaine acquiesced. The boys grew older, learning to take care of each other whenever their mother was too busy. As was expected, Nathaniel received his Hogwarts letter when he turned eleven. He’d been beyond excited, for he had always been the impatient one and loathed living in a Muggle community where the use of magic was limited at best. He went off to Hogwarts, leaving Elaine alone with Mathias. When her younger son turned eleven, Nathaniel was getting ready to enter sixth year; for week, Mathias waited for his letter, but it never came. Fearful of what this could mean, Elaine gathered her boys and hurried them to her parents’ home, where they performed a series of experiments to test Mathias’s accidental magic. None of them worked, and they could only reach one conclusion: he was a Squib.

Despite being forced to live as a Muggle, his mother and grandparents still wanted him to have the best he could get. They didn’t see a Squib as shame upon the family; they saw it as a great misfortune for Mathias, because he had not chosen the non-magical life, it was forced upon him. He would never know the wonders of magic, and they felt sorry for him. To ensure he could live the best possible non-magical life, they enrolled him into the best private schools of the country, and eventually he attened Oxford University. He ended up graduating with a degree in the sciences, but after only a short time of work in that field, he’d known it wasn’t for him. Mathias had two passions in his life: fishing, and cooking. He began to study the culinary arts, taking on jobs as a sous-chef while he raised money to one day purchase his own fishing boat. Over that time, he was dating a Muggle named Lydia Grey, whom he’d met at school in a biology course. Eventually they married; however, it was not fated to last long. It was at a small get-together when Nathaniel introduced Mathias to Florence Knight, a Muggle-born. She was the younger sister of one of Nathaniel’s old school friends. Instantly, Mathias was attracted to her, and she seemed just as drawn to him. It wasn’t long before they began a torrid affair, and Mathias felt himself falling more and more in love with her. He felt horrible, of course, for he knew that he was ruining his own marriage the very way his mother had suspected Marcus of doing all those years ago. But his love for Florence was greater than his love for his own wife. He and Lydia had been fantastic friends, but he wasn’t sure if marriage was truly meant between them. Like his mother, he had rushed into it. He consulted Elaine for advice, but she’d been appalled at his adultery and cut off communication with him. Even Nathaniel was reluctant to associate with his own brother, something Mathias couldn’t understand. For starters, Nathaniel had made his own mistakes (hadn’t he gotten his own wife pregnant before they even finished school?), and he had been the one who introduced the lovers in the first place. Desperate, he looked to Raoul and Josephine. Raoul told him that he knew Josephine had been his perfect match because he felt as though he was holding the missing piece of himself whenever he clutched her hand. If that wasn’t what Mathias found with Lydia, she wasn’t the one for him.

From that moment, Mathias had known that Florence was his perfect match. He felt whole with her, he felt comfortable, he felt like he knew what he was doing in the world. Still, he hesitated. He and Lydia hadn’t been married very long, and he truly did care for her and didn’t want to hurt her. It turned out all Mathias needed was a not-so-gentle push in the right direction.

When Florence became pregnant with their first child, Simon, Mathias knew the right thing to do was marry her. He divorced Lydia, who knew that she hadn’t been ready for marriage from the beginning (and from what he later heard had found another man and married again), and he married Florence just after the birth of Simon Mathieu Sauveterre. When he was born, both Elaine and Nathaniel came around and decided to let Mathias back into their lives. As a kid, Simon had been exceedingly energetic to the point where he wore even the athletic Nathaniel out. Elaine had exclaimed that she never knew a baby who learned to crawl and walk as fast as Simon did. His physicality continued through childhood, making him a bit of a terror at times, but all he had to do was smile and giggle and all would be forgiven. When he started at Hogwarts, he slowed down a bit for his studies, but his favourite activity was always Quidditch, and for a time he played for the Gryffindor Quidditch team as a Beater. Simon was always a popular student, both with professors and classmates. He had a charm about him that was able to draw people in, and he could capture a heart in an instant with his mischievous grin. But Mathias and Florence taught him what was too far: though he was involved in an odd prank or two, overall he was a well-behaved and respectable boy.

Six years later, Florence gave birth to Imogen Amy Sauveterre. Mathias and Florence both believed they were done having children. Two were enough, and hopefully both of them were lucky enough to inherit the magic gene that seemed to have skipped their father. Still, the second baby came at an inconvenient time for Mathias; fishing happened to be low that year, and he was forced to be out for days at a time to make a decent-sized catch. Florence began to grow lonely, and in her irrational post-partum state, she subconsciously began to place blame on her infant. Had Imogen never been born, Mathias could be home more, and she would not be so alone. Even as she grew out of her depressive state, the disdain for her daughter remained, and never seemed to go away.

Needless to say, the family was surprised when Florence announced that she was pregnant again, especially since only a few months had passed since Imogen’s birth. Despite the low in fishing, Mathias had started to find other ways of making money, picking up jobs as a chef in restaurants during the off-season. Florence had done some work for the Falmouth Falcons, but they still weren’t sure they had the money or space for a third child. Still, it was their baby (or, so Mathias believed), and Genevieve Éliane Sauveterre was born when Imogen was only eleven months old… and it seemed as though the sibling rivalry had been there between them from the very beginning. It was obvious that Genevieve would grow up beautiful, and Imogen envied her for it. Being the youngest, Genevieve was also spoiled with gifts from Elaine; Raoul and Josephine, too, were lucky enough to see her first birthday before they passed on, and they gave her a dollhouse that Imogen practically drooled over (she only had paper dolls herself). Genevieve had been far too young to play with it, but she screamed bloody murder if Imogen ever even went near it. Simon seemed more fond of her than he was of Imogen; he liked to tease his middle-sister something fierce, especially about her eyes. “Bugsy”, he liked to call her, because her eyes had always seemed too large for her face. He treated Genevieve like a princess, and Vivi soaked up every second of it. Envious and livid, it one day grew to be too much for little Imogen, to the point where one day she took a pair of scissors and cut up some of Vivi’s favourite dresses. The family dog slept outside for almost a month after that, for Imogen refused to own up to her act, though she forever felt guilt and shame over it.

Apart from sibling rivalries, Imogen considered the first decade of her life to be pretty easy. Sure, her mother never took her side in things, and was quick to criticise and blame her when she seemed to have nothing but the highest of praises for Genevieve, but that was normal for mothers and middle children. Right? And Simon teased her horribly, yes, but he was also fiercely protective of his sisters, and Imogen loved him for it. They fought as brothers and sisters fought, but there was enough of an age gap between the two that nothing huge ever erupted. Of course, Simon’s teasing of Imogen and the constant praise of Genevieve’s beauty from others did nothing good for Imogen’s self-esteem. She grew up never thinking she was pretty. No one ever told her that she was; to this day, she has extreme difficulty believing that someone could be attracted to her, because it’s not a possibility in her mind.

Though magic wasn’t exceptionally prevalent in Imogen’s upbringing, seeing as Muggles lived nearby, it was there enough for her to know it existed and not question it. She knew that she was a witch, for her accidental magic started at a young age, and she knew that she’d be going to Hogwarts when she was eleven, just like her brother did and her sister would. Magic was just a given.

Over the years, Imogen became quite friendly with her neighbour. Leo Holmes was a Muggle, three years older than she was, and at first he seemed to find her very annoying. She found him absolutely intriguing and would follow him everywhere she could, asking him all sorts of questions on how he lived. Leo never knew that she came from a magical family and that she was fascinated by how he lived a life without magic. The older Imogen grew, the more she grew to like Leo for who he was. She only saw him during holidays and the summer months, but his tolerance for her grew, and during the winter of her second year, he kissed her on New Year’s Eve. They were together every day until she went back to school; she learned about his problems at home, how his father had a violent temper, and how he couldn’t wait to finish school and leave his family behind. He wanted to be a pianist, and sometimes Imogen could hear him playing on the old out-of-tune piano his family had in their attic. She liked music as much as the next person, but it was never important to her the way it was to others – to Leo. But when he played, she became lost in it. It was a different sort of magic than she knew at home and at school. But he was dreadfully shy and never let anyone see him play. His father didn’t help by discouraging him from pursuing it.

The first thing Imogen noticed about Leo, when she returned for summer between second and third year, was that he was different. He wasn’t the dreamer he once had been; that was the only way Imogen could explain it. He no longer talked about what he loved about “the now”. Instead, he focused completely on the future, and life became practical instead of fantastic. Imogen knew that his father had broken him, and she had no idea as to how to fix him. She tried, but nothing seemed to pull him out of the state he was in.

Toward the end of July, she started seeing him less and less. On the last day that she saw him, she found him in the attic of his home, playing on an out-of-tune old piano that hadn’t been touched in years. She sat on the bench next to him and he took her hands in his and used them to sweep across the keys and play. He smiled, and Imogen smiled back, and thought that things would get better after that.

Around midnight that night, he called her house. Her parents, and his, were out at a block party (magic or not, they were part of a Muggle neighbourhood and had to keep up the facade; besides, Florence liked keeping in touch with her Muggle roots). Imogen answered and told him she was asleep at that she’d talk to him tomorrow. He said it was no big deal, he had just been in another argument with his father and couldn’t sleep. She said she’d talked to him about it in the morning and scolded him for waking her. He apologised and they hung up.

The next morning, July 27th, Leo was found dead.

Imogen’s entire family knew what a blow his suicide had been to her. Even Genevieve stopped their rivalry for a while as they gathered to comfort her. Imogen had been numb to them at first, but it was when Genevieve laid down next to her on her bed as they went through photos of Leo that she came around. Imogen had felt such a great swell of love and appreciation for her younger sister that she decided to try very hard to not fight with her any longer.

It took a long time for Imogen to admit that Leo was gone. Sometimes she’d pick up the phone to dial his number, or even head over to his house and be ready to knock on the door before she would remember that he wouldn’t answer. She didn’t speak at his funeral, or even cry. To this day she blames herself: she could have listened to him and helped him that night instead of hanging up. Now, she desperately tries not to get close to anyone, and she’s never spoken to anyone about what happened that summer.

It was around December of her third year that her habits truly began. She’d always been fascinated with watching people, but after the death of Leo, it only intensified. She began to look desperately for signs that people were in trouble, that they needed help – that they needed someone to listen. Because if she could help just one person, maybe she’d loathe herself less for letting Leo go. The problem was that no one was ever really like him, not that she could see. And at around the same time, she began to notice little marks appearing all over her body that she couldn’t, for the life of her, remember getting. Some were deep, long scratches that stung like hell; needless to say, she was quite baffled. It was only when she caught a reflection of herself scratching at one spot on the back of her arm did she realise that she was doing it to herself. Imogen had hoped that catching herself in the act would stop the action, but that theory proved false. She kept finding scratches and scabs, and some of them have turned into scars over the years. Part of her thinks of them as punishment.

In all honesty, she just wants to get through Hogwarts in one piece.

Sample Post: Please see other posts.

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And Finally - -

I, Didi, have read the rules, understand clearly what my responsibilities are now that I am joining ISS, and will abide by these standards set by the staff.

[Professor Albus Dumbledore]

accepted!