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Name: Mei Chang
Blood Status: Halfblood. The Chang sisters’ father is of mostly wizarding descent, but their mother is a Muggle. However, this is where things get interesting. Mrs. Chang’s mother is actually a Muggleborn, but she did not inherit any magical ability. In interviews J. K. Rowling has stated that the magical gene is the dominant one, which means it is likely that powers will be passed down to offspring, but not a guarantee. Mrs. Chang therefore hit that 25 percent chance jackpot which means that she got the recessive gene traits. Her older sister, however, is a witch. Somewhat as a reaction to this outcome, Mei’s aunt on her mother’s side and her father’s relatives seemed to have decided that by virtue of being accepted to Hogwarts first due to little more than an accident of birth, Cho is the more witchlike of the sisters while Mei the more Mugglelike, and have distributed praise and shunning accordingly.
Age/Birthday: September 20, 1980.
House/Year: Hufflepuff, Sixth year
Classes: Potions, Herbology, Arithmancy, Charms and Muggle Studies. The former is her best class while the latter is her favourite, though that won’t be the case this year. Strange that!
Sexuality: Heterosexual, and dully so. Mei has never had any of those thoughts or inclinations regarding other girls, and isn’t even remotely curious to find out. As she’s neither hideous nor has an off-putting personality, she has likely dated one or two boys by her current age, but isn’t as popular as Cho was and doesn’t seem to have a serious relationship of the Cedric-and-Cho vein.
Appearance: Mei is 5’5” and a bit, making her rather tall for an Asian but not of notable height for someone living in the United Kingdom. She is several inches taller than her sister, which despite being the younger sibling often caused relatives and family friends to act like Mei was the older of the two and give her more responsibility and expect more of her. She is slim with rather striking colouring; her dark hair and eyes serving as a contrast to her pale skin. Despite being born and having grown up in England, she still doesn’t quite understand her female housemates who try to tan as a hangover from her Hong Kong Chinese heritage. She is quite pretty, but not as much so as Cho.
Mei’s height and willowy appearance may suggest some grace and athleticism, but it is only her sister who is the Quidditch player. In reality Mei is rather terrified of flying and heights and during her first flight lesson only allowed herself to be coaxed off the ground when two classmates promised to accompany her.
In terms of grooming Mei prefers simple clothing that is still feminine. She doesn’t embrace the glamour charms with the same vigour as the Parvatis and Lavenders of the school, but so long as it’s not impractical does not see any harm in girlifying herself up a bit. When out of uniform she favours clean, tailored lines in solid colours and dressing up a basic outfit of jeans and a jumper with simple silver hoop earrings and a scarf. If she was an American Muggle, the Gap and Banana Republic would be two favourite stores. She wears a subtle amount of make-up: that being light foundation, powder, eyeshadows of quiet shades and a swipe of clear lip gloss. She likes the look of heels but seldom wears them out of England, as in Hong Kong the added height would draw too much attention to herself.
History: While Britain was suffering from the onset of Voldemort, China (more specifically the magical population located in the south) had its own problems. Mei’s parents, her mother at the time being three months pregnant with her older sister, migrated to England to escape the reach of dark wizards in Hong Kong, Mei’s family being prominent in the pureblood community and her mother as a Muggle prime blackmail target. They were much lesser known in the British Isles, the pair reasoned, so they would be safer over there. After a year or so of laying low and masquerading as Muggles, their theory proved correct. Lan Chang, a clever and British-educated young woman (she had attended private schools in Hong Kong) commenced study of an education degree and her husband got a low-level clerical job in the Department of International Magical Cooperation. At that time Cho was an infant and Mei was a few months old.
At their mother's behest Mei and Cho attended Muggle schools until it was time for both to attend Hogwarts. By the time Cho had received her letter Mei was already showing the signs of telltale magic. Of course, being halfbloods who (unlike Harry) were raised with an awareness of sorcery, they knew what it was all about, but while Cho seemed popular and well-liked, Mei always felt limited and held apart by her magical heritage, as if she was something of a fraud to her Muggle classmates. When Mei Sorted the house for "duffers" while her sister had got into Ravenclaw two years previously, it seemed to confirm the opinion of many of her relatives that she was sloppy seconds to Cho. Her own parents didn't treat her any worse for it though, her mother in particular insisting that Hufflepuff was an environment in which important values and life skills could be learned.
In her first term at Hogwarts Mei was bullied by older students, but no more than the average first year and certainly not to the extent someone like Neville Longbottom would have suffered. The Hufflepuff prefects at the time did a good job of stamping out any negativity happening towards students on their home turf, and her third year sister (already friendly with the fifth and sixth years in Ravenclaw) similarly appealed to those with authority in her own house to put a stop to things. Within Hufflepuff Mei grew to be a student who wasn't considered popular in the party girl sense or had the vast group of friends Cho did, but who was quietly liked and respected by fellow Hufflepuffs. The phrase used to describe Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility ("He is the type that people say good things of often but very seldom to" - roughly paraphrased from memory) could well apply to her. People gradually noticed that whenever things were assigned to Mei, they were finished quickly and finished well, and this among other things led to her earning a prefect's badge in her fifth year.
Mei has not had any serious relationships. This not because of a player's convenience in making her character's past love life as simple as possible, but because it would be OOC for Mei to be notably savvy around boys. She likely has decent enough people skills to know when to trust and not to trust them, but it is unlikely that she would have dated more than one of two boys casually. Presently she seems to have crushes on a few of the Ravenclaw seventh years, but would never dream of approaching them. They're older and intellectual and cool (even Anthony Goldstein!) and far too intimidating in her point-of-view.
Personality: “Hufflepuff Virgos are incredibly hard workers and bright, if quiet, students. They excel at any magical arts related to domestic life or healing. They must be watched carefully to ensure that they do not overstress their systems by performing too much work; these wizards have a very hard time learning the meaning of the word "no," and are thus easily taken advantage of for their work ethic. Let other people do the leading and the decision making; they are content to serve. And on their backs rests the industry of the world. Without people like them, civilization might grind to a halt, for who would take care of the practical details?”
Blurb taken from Harry Potter Astrology
It's virtually impossible to talk about Mei without mentioning Cho, and additionally is almost as much so for the girl herself to do. Whenever she is asked about herself or how she is doing, she automatically provides a response for her attractive, athletic older sister as well as herself. Unless it is a female (but not male - !!!) housemate or close friend doing the querying, she just assumes that they are more interested in Cho than herself and really want to know how she is - and why not? While the girls' parents treat them equally well, extended family members seem to view Mei as little more than a sidecar in Cho's life, a role Mei is not so much resigned to but accepts without question. It is a measure of the girls' bond that not only does Mei not resent Cho for being the favourite, but Cho does not take advantage of this status or pay attention to any implicit encouragement she may feel to do so.
In Hogwarts Mei is a hard worker but not particularly ambitious, unless being hard-working is considered a form of ambition. This again relates to how she sees herself positioned lower than her sister. However, because of the traits that her diligence tends to acquire, such as a (deserved) reputation of being responsible, reliable and organised, she can sometimes have positions of prestige and power thrust upon her, which ironically more ambitious people have strived towards and missed out on. Being made a prefect in her fifth year is one such example. Mei does neither feel proud of nor resent this position. She just accepts it as it is and uses it to do her best by her housemates and the other people around her.
If Mei was a Muggle and had been IQ-tested, hers would have fallen in about the 110 to 119 range, ie. of above average intelligence but not enough to distinguish herself. This coupled with her organisational skills and work-ethic means that she usually achieves around an "E" average. Currently she is taking five NEWTs, ie. the safe range where she can be considered hard-working and in the upper half of her class in terms of intelligence, but not enough to be accused of being overly ambitious or a brown-nosing swot. "Safe" is perhaps the operative word where Mei is concerned, and "under the radar" its equivalent phrase. She dresses well enough to not be considered a slob or a nerd, but not so well (or badly!) that she's accused of being a fashion whore or a slag obsessed with her own appearance. She is pretty enough for boys to enjoy looking at her, but not so pretty that she causes jealousy in other girls. She takes on enough work in her prefect role for the teachers and head students to be reassured that she's pulling her weight, but not enough to appear as though she is trying to show others up or gun for the head girl role.
It is difficult to glean exactly what Mei wants out of life. If asked she'd likely do her usual and rehearsed response of, "Whatever it is that other people want/need me to do," which still manages to come off sincere every time. Because she does mean it. Barring a major shake-up, she'll probably graduate and pick whichever area her highest NEWT scores best qualify her towards, then steadily work away in that without dreaming of a promotion or eventual leadership role. She may feel the occasional twinge of resentment that her hard work and unconditional dedication isn't as acknowledged as it ought to or she would like it to be, but she'll quickly shrug off this impulse. She's the one who's being selfish and unreasonable, don't you know?
Questions
What does your character think of the current situation at Hogwarts, especially the Carrows?
Mei both hates and fears the Carrows, but is astute enough to accept that she had a very finite ability to do anything about it. She’ll come to realise that she can best serve her school by continuing her prefect duties and flying under the radar, though covertly helping her fellow students. While she’d not rush off and join a resistance organisation like the DA, she believes in honouring commitments that you’ve made, which is why she’ll be disappointed with Zacharias Smith when news of his actions on the night the school was attacked reach her. In that moment she may very well saddle up, lock and load to defend her fellow students, but until then she’ll present a neutral face.
What's your character's deepest, darkest secret? Who might know this?
This isn’t particularly a deep, dark secret and is not even known to Mei herself, but she had a crush on Cedric at the time he was dating Cho. As it is not known it cannot be shared, but Cho possibly may have suspected. If so it wouldn’t have caused any conflict between the two girls as Cho would have trusted both her sister and Cedric, and additionally the difference in age would have made the possibility of any sort of relationship impossible.
Describe your character's Sorting. What about them caused them to go in their house?
The Sorting Hat would not have deliberated where to put Mei. While there are Hufflepuffs who are obviously ambitious and seem to think that the world owes them half a million Galleons (you can put your hands down now, Messiers Macmillan and Smith), she is not one of them. She's smart enough to be a Ravenclaw like her sister, but doesn't possess the love of intellectualism for intellectualism's sake or lust for learning in itself. If she thought about her studies as an entity in themselves, she'd come to the conclusion that they were a mere tool to make oneself more useful and lead to more useful things.