Caliope May Murdoch
Character's Birth: February 21
Character's Year: 5th
Character’s House: Slytherin
Blood Type: Full
Why is That House Suiting for Your Character? Caliope strongly upholds that which she believes in. She can be ruthless when it comes to making sure that what she wants to happen, happens, or that her plans get seen through to the end. She can be stubborn and selfish, and she also has a weakness for power..
Describe his/her Physical Attributes: Caliope is of medium-tall height and slender, about 5'9" with a willowy form. She has porcelain skin and greeny-blue eyes with golden flecks, surrounded by a protective fringe of dark lashes. Her hair is blue-black and shiny as a ravens feathers. With high arched brows and a finely shaped nose and bone structure, at first glance Cali can be strikingly beautiful. The stuff of dreams, the face of an angel... But you have to see her from the left hand side.
On the right, Cali's lovely young body is dramatically less appealing. She keeps most of it covered up, but the scars creeping up her neck and the side of her face are harder to miss. Her right ear has been split in half some stage in the past, and now is divided by a shiny seam, and a notch partway down the back edge. That scar continues in a ridge down to just above her jaw. A shorter scar runs parallel, a little way above this one, across her cheekbone. Another crosses her eye, splitting her right eyebrow in half with a raised bald section of scar tissue. Luckily, it did not blind her.
Three parallel marks, starting not quite evenly and resembling claw marks, run from just below her jaw down her neck and across her collarbone, ending jaggedly in line with her armpit. Similar marks, in triple parallel, run from above centre of her right knee cap to the side of her right hip. A final three start just right of her belly button and loop around her waist, almost to her spine. It's curious that she should maintain these wounds when there is certainly magic available which could remove them, or at the very least dramatically lessen them.
Describe his/her Personality: Unusually for a Slytherin, Caliope believes in moral justice. She disagrees with what Voldemort and the Death Eaters stood for, and the way that the snobbier purebloods regard muggles and halfbloods. Like most Slytherins, she is highly ambitious, but unlike her housemates what she dreams of is a new utopia for students and the everyday witch and wizard- a benevolent dictatorship topped by herself, in which she can teach the world to love again, and heal the damage that has been done. This rather large-scale dream is kept very, very secret, both out of her desire to keep her mind private, and out of necessity in regard to her parents.
Cali will act in the way that she is expected only when it is necessary to do so. She can ruthlessly perform to her parents and other housemates and appear every inch the cruel serpent. Mostly, this does not affect her conscience, for she is aware that sacrifices must be made for the greater good, but if she had her way she would be a much kinder person, motherly to the younger students and a role model to her peers- of course, at the moment she has no real desire to be a role model to her peers because the sort of role they follow is not one she admires. Nonetheless, she sets herself up as one so as not to earn their suspicion.
Caliope holds on to her sanity by a very thin and taut thread. She lives on the edge of a razor blade, and the slightest misstep could be her downfall. Her moralities often conflict with the actions she must take, and it makes her inner self, both mentally and emotionally, a complex mine field which she must sort through carefully lest she break something. She never relaxes. Still, she has the strength of will and character to be able to live the way she does, and still maintain that frail glimmer of hope. She looks forward to the future with determination. Her personal motto is "I will be a fighter."
She regards her scarring as a measure of her own strength. Taunting in regards to it is ignored, or rebuked, but not taken overly to heart. Her resilience has earned the respect of many, though they would not suspect where her real loyalties lie. She sees it as something of a challenge, a test of her own inner strength, to lead her 'dual' life. She will not be the one to fail her friends- she will not be the weakest link.
Explain his/her History & Background: Both of Caliope's parents, Liam and Nicola Murdoch, were leading Death Eaters. They wait for the day that an heir to Voldemort will rise to lead them again. They believe the world should be cleansed and purified. All other creatures- whether they be muggle, giant, werewolf, or centaur- are beneath witches and wizards of pure blood. Their daughter, Caliope, is their pride and joy, but they would not hesitate to disown her or worse if they discovered that she has betrayed them. They have not shown any qualms previously about causing her harm- it was they who, if not with their own hands, inflicted her scars, and refuse to let them be spelled away to leave her with her pure skin again.
Caliope has one brother, Jeremy, two years older than her. He was her parents goldenboy until the day he stayed out too late with friends, scaring muggle children with prank spells. While his parents approved of this, they did not approve of him breaking their curfew- they are strong believers in discipline before or else- and what is worse, he came home with a scratch upon his wrist which he would not explain. They found out soon enough- Jeremy had been clawed at and infected by a werewolf, and at the next full moon, he too changed. To their utmost disgust, he had told Caliope the day before the full moon, but not them. She had been undecided about what to do, and hadn't told them before he changed. As punishment, when he changed, they locked her in his room (though they spelled her so she could not be infected). This is how she received the scarring that she has. When this happened, Jeremy was 15 and Caliope 13, and both were students of Hogwarts.
Since she only 'betrayed their domestic hierarchy for a few hours', however, they 'forgave' her. In truth, however, their forgiveness was because, as a werewolf, they could not take pride in their son any longer, and need a child to brag about, a child to be successful. Their expectations thus now lie on her shoulders. Caliope does not hold what he did to her against her brother, knowing it was her parents fault, though she is still a little scared of him, particularly around full moon, and fears that he will forget to take his potion and transform within the school. She does not understand what spell her parents cast on her either, and so every full moon she worries that she too will change. With time (it has now been more than two years) this fear is wearing off, however, as she sees that she remains fully human.
In her younger years, she was everything her parents wanted her to be. It was only when she came to Hogwarts and saw that the world and the magical folk who inhabit it are not always the same as what her parents taught her. Even when Voldemort was a threat again, she sided with the 'good guys', with Dumbledore and Harry Potter. Her greatest fear is not death, but that her parents might find out what she really thinks. Her scarring in her third year affected her greatly. For several months she could not meet the eyes of fellow students, and cried for the fact that her parents would not have her healed. After a while, she forced herself to keep her head up and be strong, and now she almost acts proud about it, though it is still a heavy burden for her emotionally.
Wand Type, Length & Core: 12 Inches, mahogany with phoenix tail core.
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