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[senob]

Character
Name: Susan Lenora Bones
Gender: Female
Date of birth: August 23, 1980
House/Year: Hufflepuff/1998
Blood status: Halfblood
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Suggested livejournal username: Senob
PB/Avatar: Kirsten Dunst http://www.livejournal.com/allpics.bml?user=susan_hy
Physical characteristics:
Susan's red hair is painfully straight and thin, though she wishes it were otherwise. After spending ages in the bathroom trying to get her hair to be curly, Susan has little to show for it, and it's during these times that she impatiently piles her hair at the top of her head, just to be done with it. Ten minutes later, she lets it down, brushes it out, and her hair appears to look the same as when she started curling it.

Susan doesn't think that she's pretty, though she likes her blue-grey eyes and the one dimple she has in her left cheek when she smiles. She was blessed with a small waist, and a decently sized chest. She still feels self-conscious when wearing a bikini or a small top for just how boney she looks. Everyone can clearly see the ridges of her spine and the outline of her ribs. Since she turned fifteen, she's stayed at the same 5'4 in height, and 114 pounds in weight. She's never been an unhealthy eater, though she does try to stay in shape by taking several long walks during the week.

She often wears darker coloured clothes or soft yellows and blues. She hates wearing bold colours as it goes horribly with her hair and she just doesn't feel comfortable standing out in a crowd. She tries to avoid wearing trousers, instead preferring to wear skirts or dresses. She loves the way that it feels around her legs. The only time she wears trousers is when it's too cold for tights. Susan also has an addiction to shoes. Since her feet haven't changed, and the shoe styles she chose haven't gone out of fashion, Susan's been able to wear the same shoes since she was a fourth year. Merlin, she adores shoes. She has several pairs for every outfit she owns, and she sometimes changes her shoes several times a day, just so she can wear them all.

Distant History:

Susan is a mixture of different nationalities. She is Spanish, Portuguese, French, Irish, and English. Susan relates more to her Spanish ancestry than anything else, though. Her family on her mother's side is loud, fun, and loving. Her family has a complex network of sons and daughters of her great-aunts and uncles. Susan knows them all by name, where they live, and when their birthdays are. Her abuelo (grandfather), Jaime Lorca, was the oldest child of five, while her abuela (grandmother), Modesta, shared the middle position of six. When Susan's mum, Maria, was 2, Modesta and Jaime packed up their five children and moved from Spain to England when Jaime's job was transferred. The family moved to Harlow, Essex in 1964 and there, the two remaining Lorca children were born. Jaime was the breadwinner of the family, working hard and always increasing his knowledge in order to find a better job. When the youngest child was born, the oldest twin sons were ten. During this time, Jaime was working two jobs, while Modesta was raising the family and doing odd jobs for richer families. Above all else, the Lorca family valued education. Their children grew up in a "homework first, play later" household. After Jaime found a comfortably paid job, he was able to spend more time at home, and with his children. Jaime also became a bigger influence with his children's education. If he felt like his children weren't learning as much as they should, he would supply them with more reading material. The move was good for the children, and for Jaime, but Modesta acted as if they hadn't moved at all. Even though her husband and children all knew English, and could speak it fluently, Modesta stubbornly refused to learn. She wanted to keep as much of her heritage as possible. Even when most of her children had grown up and moved away, she still refused to learn English.

When most of the Lorca children had left the house and started their own lives, they took the important values their parents had taught them. Even when Vito (the fourth child) went out to see the world, he eventually came back to settle a few miles away from his parents. All the other children stayed close to their parents. Almost every child was on the right path for the beginning of their lives, except for Maria.

Maria inherited her father's kindness, and her mother's soft heart. Unfortunately she didn't inherit their stubbornness or unchangeable beliefs. The seventeen year old was the perfect target for thirty-four year old Alfred Bones. By chance he happened to come into the cafe she was working. She had a cute face, and he was taken in by the way she rolled her "r"s. Each day after that first meeting, he came to the cafe in hopes that she was working. After a month, he asked her out, and she fell fast and hard for him. On the day after she turned 18, they were married. This was the happiest time of Maria's life, and the worst time of Alfred's. A few days after their wedding, Maria was given a crash course in wizarding life. Of course strange things had been happening when Alfred was around, but Maria had no idea that he was a wizard. Maria took the information fairly well, considering the circumstances. She didn't care what her husband was, as she only cared about how much she loved him. She was even okay with the odd creature called a "house elf" walking around her brother-in-law's house. What she wasn't okay with, was being brought into wizarding life in the midst of a war. William and Sandra Bones had already been murdered by Death Eaters two years before. Even though Amelia Bones was their eldest child, and Alfred was the oldest boy, the family home went to Edgar and his wife, as they had a greater need for the house. Their family was rapidly expanding with three small children, Mackenzie (four), Nathan (one), and baby William. With his inheritance, Alfred purchased a modest two bedroom house for his new wife. Since the money he had received from his parents was substantial, Alfred convinced Maria to quit her job, and to familiarize herself with a few wizarding history texts. Happy to please her husband, Maria accepted the books gladly, and the first few months of their marriage passed fairly comfortably. In the third month of their marriage, Maria and Alfred were both ecstatic to learn that Maria was pregnant. Her pregnancy went smoothly, and her siblings and parents often came by for visits and to see how she was doing.

With the war gaining momentum, and his foolish brother being a member of the Order of the Phoenix, Alfred knew it was inevitable that something would happen. On July 29, 1980, something did happen. Edgar and his family was murdered by Death Eaters just two weeks before little William's first birthday. The house was left to Alfred and his soon-to-be family, and on August 23, 1980, almost a month after the death of most of the Bones family, Susan Ophelia Bones was born. From the very hour of her birth, Alfred tried to distance himself from his daughter, while the rest of the family fell in love with the small redhead. Even though Voldemort had been destroyed, Alfred still feared the Death Eaters still at large. He locked himself in the study, refusing to see Susan. It was easier to distance himself, than fall in love with the baby, and then lose her to Death Eaters. The house-elf, Snorky, helped Maria when diaper changes were needed, and of course the odd relative who decided to stop by also helped. For the first year of Susan's life, she had been held by her father for a total of two hours. Over the year, Maria tried repeatedly to talk with Alfred about his behaviour, but he ignored her attempts. The death of his brother's family turned him into a very different man. Instead of being kind and fun-loving, as he had been, he spent his time drinking and wondering why he had even married. He didn't love his wife anymore. She was a thorn in his side. What he wanted was a wife who came from a Pureblood family, and throw large, extravagant parties. He wanted a family who wouldn't draw attention to their faults. Maria moved out of their bedroom into her own room with Susan's crib in the room with her. On Susan's second birthday, Amelia temporarily moved into the Bones' home to talk sense into Alfred. She had always been a firm, bossy influence on Alfred, and her two week visit turned into a nine year residence. Someone had to keep her brother on a short leash, and his wife wasn't doing it. As Susan grew older, Alfred took a more active role in her life. Susan wasn't allowed to attend Muggle primary school, so instead she was taught by the tutor her father paid for. He made certain that the tutor was French, so by the time she was eleven and off to Hogwarts, Susan could fluently speak French, Spanish, and English.

Susan grew up in two distinctly different worlds. On one side, she had her muggle relatives teaching her how to be true to herself and how to laugh when life became hard. Then she had her wizarding father telling her what to eat, what to wear, and forcing her to memorize every single pureblood family as part of her wizarding education. During the day, Susan tried to be the perfect daughter. Her hair was neatly brushed, her dress without a wrinkle, and she proudly recited poetry and sums in French.

At night, she could be herself. Her hair was piled messily on top of her head, her stuffy dress was replaced with a jean skirt and a loose shirt, and her feet were bare. She squealed and giggled madly as her mum flicked flour in her direction as they made biscuits and pies. Susan listened as her mum told her stories about the Lorca side of the family in rapid Spanish. Maria was Susan's best friend, and Susan would have done anything for her.

In between the two worlds was Amelia. She was stern, yet loving with Susan. Susan listened as Amelia told her about various wizarding policies going into effect and what was happening in the Ministry. Yet there were some days when Amelia marched into Susan's school room and tell her tutor that Susan would be spending the day outside, and if he had a problem with that, he could take it up with Alfred. Amelia then marched Susan outside, where they spent the entire day walking around the yard, dipping their toes in the pool, and climbing trees.

With all the different aspects of her life, Susan grew up to be fairly normal. She found a happy balance with everything that she did, and her long days of schoolwork were rewarded by fun nights with her mum. The only playmates her age that she had were her cousins. With a family as large as hers, there were different groups of cousins. Susan was in the second group with four others. Celestina, Kenneth, Pedro and Pepe were her friends, and they all adored each other to distraction. They told Susan all about life at a Muggle school and she told them everything that she could never tell her parents.

Susan's greatest love is her piano. Even though she had been forced into taking lessons when she was only a toddler, she found it freeing to play. Of course when she was little, she hated practicing and learning ridiculous songs. However, when she became old enough to choose her own music and practice without guidance, she fell in love. She could finally express herself without feeling guilty about criticizing her parents. Her music reflected her moods and she made herself work harder and harder. At ten, she was playing songs most older teenagers would be envious to learn. She worked obsessively until a song was perfect. Of course, that was fairly impossible for a ten year old to accomplish, so she set a rule of three. If she could make it through a song with less than three mistakes (no matter how small), it would be perfect. She still follows this rule today, though she's playing significantly harder pieces.

The day Susan received her Hogwarts letter, it was one of the few times in her life when she really cried. Every day she waited by the window for the owl to come telling her that she could go. She hadn't shown any signs at all of being a witch, though she knew that she was one. How could she not be? She was from a semi-powerful family and not a single squib had been born. Yet the fear was still there, and on the day she finally received her letter, she had run straight to her room to cry. She wasn't a failure to her father and she would be going to a school for the first time in her life.

Susan's first year at Hogwarts was difficult for her. She had never actually met many people her age outside of her family, and she had learned how to socialize in the comfort of her home. She was awkward and often said things that made her sound twenty, instead of eleven. She was overly polite and she had no idea about pop culture references. She grew up listening to classical music, not rock music. She didn't really make any friends, and she was terribly homesick. At Hogwarts, she had nothing. She was by herself for the first time without her piano or her parents. After a few months of trying, Susan gave up and just went to her room after her lessons were done. She worked quietly to get her homework done, and in her spare time, she studied sheet music her mum sent her.

During her second year, things were improving for Susan. Her marks were high, and even though she still wasn't really making friends, she had bought several owls for her various family members (ten in total). Her aunts, uncles, and cousins could now owl her as much as they wanted to. Not a single day went by where she didn't receive at least one or two owls from her family. She now had enough to do to keep her busy all night when she couldn't sleep. She was slowly making friends at school, though. She had spent the summer holiday researching various bands and celebrities and other things of interest that she could add to conversations. Thankfully she was Sorted into Hufflepuff and they were very nice to her. She also developed her first crush on fellow housemate, Justin Finch-Fletchley. When he was attacked by the basilisk, she went to the hospital wing several times a week to make sure that he was okay. She thought that maybe it was like a coma victim, so she told him everything that was going on at Hogwarts while he was Petrified. At first she was embarrassed, but soon it became therapeutic for her to tell him everything that was on her mind, even if he couldn't hear her. When he was finally well again, she took up a journal, exchanging that for him. She was rather glad he hadn't heard any of what she told him, too....

Her third and fourth years were rather uneventful. She finally had friends, and she feared for her life, as well as the life of her friends. She was able to take more classes and she was as busy as ever. For a brief time, everyone at school seemed to know who she was. They all knew the murderer of her family was at large and they just had to know what it was like for Susan. She had never been so awkward in her life. When Cedric had been named as the Hogwarts Champion, she had celebrated with her house mates, and when he had died, she had mourned with her house mates.

Susan's fifth year has been her most traumatizing and busy year. She found out about a secret organization starting that would guarantee that she could learn advanced spells, and also go behind Professor Umbridge's back. Shortly after joining Dumbledore's Army, Amelia warned Susan that she ought to keep her head down. Things were stirring at the Ministry now that You-Know-Who was back. Harry Potter had a full criminal trial for something simple like underaged magic. Something was definitely happening, and it wasn't good. But after four years, Susan finally felt comfortable at her school. She felt like she actually belonged to something important, instead of just watching from the side. However, she was never meant to fight. She had promised her aunt that she woldn't, and she was too lost in her own thoughts to even remember to check her coin.

In April of her fifth year, Susan discovered something that would change her for the worst. Her parents were getting a divorce. Of course she had known that it would happen. She never once saw her parents kissing or hugging. They barely spoke to each other at all. Susan didn't fool herself into believing that they were happy together. The only two reasons they were together was because her mother was a strict Catholic and didn't believe in divorce, and Maria stayed with Alfred because of Susan. Maria had no skills, and hadn't had a job since before Susan was born. They'd be no possible way for her to make a living and still support herself and Susan. Only something big would make Maria leave Alfred. Unfortunately, something big did happen. Maria had caught Alfred with another woman. A much younger, much prettier, and very pregnant woman. Her name was Camilla White, a nineteen year old Pure-blooded witch, and Alfred was the father of her pure-blooded baby. In less than a week, everything that Maria owned was packed away and the divorce papers were drafted. Maria wanted nothing from Alfred and she refused his every offer of help. She moved in with her parents and she found a full time job at a grocery store. The first thing she did was purchase a tiny one bedroom flat a mile from Kings Cross Station. Susan was given the choice of whether she'd want to move in with her mum or stay with her dad and his new wife. Without a second thought, Susan packed away her things and moved in with her mum.

Susan had never been so angry in her life. Her mum had devoted years to Alfred, learning all about the wizarding world from him and how to be a proper society wife. He never once took an interest in the Lorca's, not going to any family events. He took everything of importance from Maria and left her with nothing. At the end of her fifth year, Susan said good-bye to her friends and together, she and her mum left the station, carrying her trunk in between them. The new flat was a far cry from the seven bedroom home Susan had grown up in. Maria and Susan shared a bed and their two dressers shoved against each other were the only other furnishing in their bedroom. The expensive white sofa had been replaced with an ugly monstrosity straight out of the sixties. Instead of her yearly shopping trip to Paris, Susan wore last year's clothes and got her first job. Everything that she made went straight to paying rent and food. Rent was always paid first, then food. Instead of fancy four course meals, Susan was eating pasta with plain sauce. Maria refused to accept anymore help from her family, though small, anonymous presents of biscuits and money arrived on their doorstep often.

During this time, Susan felt torn. Her mum needed her, and Susan hated her dad for what he did, but she also had a little sister to look after now. Susan couldn't stay away from her little sister just because she was now the perfect pure-blood daughter that Susan suspected Alfred had wanted. Madison was born shortly after Susan arrived back in London, and Susan had been the fourth person who had ever held Maddy. She instantly loved her sister, and though Susan hated Camilla, she went to her old home a few times a week.

A month later, the unthinkable happened. Susan received an urgent owl from her father telling her that her auntie Amelia had been found dead inside her flat. The woman who had helped to raise Susan was dead. What scared Susan the most was that it could have been her, too. She had spent the entire morning and afternoon with her aunt that day. They had made plans to go see an Apply Arrows match together for the next week in celebration of Susan's O.W.L results. Amelia had taken Susan back to Maria's flat, and three hours later, she was dead. For months Susan couldn't move. Every day and night was spent on the couch in her flat, staring blankly at the telly. She felt as if her mother had died. There was now undeniably a war happening, and Susan was counting down the hours until her own death. Eight of her family members had been murdered, and three were left, including Madison. It wouldn't be hard for You-Know-Who to end the Bones line. Two more visits and it would all be over.

However, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named didn't come hunting the rest of the Bones family. Though she begged and pleaded, Susan was forced to return to Hogwarts. At school, she had no motivation to do her work, and she often went to bed early. It was much more than mourning for her. She was scared. She didn't know what was going to happen with the fast approaching war, and every time she looked at someone she pictured them dead in gruesome ways. It took her months and months to heal with the help of her friends. She had cried for the loss of her friend's mother and she made a promise to herself that if someone were to threaten her friends, she would do whatever she could to protect them.

Things have significantly changed for the Bones family. At the beginning of the summer, Susan begged Maria to leave England and to not come back. Susan couldn't leave, but she refused to allow her mum to stay in one place, should the Death Eaters come looking for her. Maria refused to leave Susan alone for the summer, and despite how much Susan begged, Maria stayed at her flat, going about her life as usual. When Susan read about the Muggle Proclamation, she figuratively hit her mum below the belt. Susan went straight to her abuelo and told him the situation and her fears. Susan knew that she'd have the safety of Hogwarts, and Maria would have nothing to protect her. Jaime Lorca told Maria to leave and she knew better than to disobey. Susan couldn't concentrate on surviving and worry if the Death Eaters had gotten to her family as well. So, she severed ties with them. Her mother moved to Spain to stay with relatives, and Susan lived by herself in her mum's flat for the duration of the summer.

Seventh year was hard for Susan. For the first time in her life, she didn't receive at least one letter a day. Her muggle relatives couldn't send her post, and her father chose not to. For a good majority of the year, Susan was in a deep depression. Her world was falling apart, and she either had to side with the Death Eaters who had killed her relatives, or she could fight with the D.A. Despite her fear and helplessness, Susan managed to find love with fellow D.A member Anthony Goldstein. They had been friends for years, but with the added stress of the Carrows and the looming war, they found support in each other. With his help, she chose to fight with the D.A when the time came. She was there at the Battle of Hogwarts, fighting with her peers, feeling terrified. At any moment she could die or see one of her friends die. When she saw Zacharias leaving before the battle even began, she was both relieved and annoyed. Hufflepuffs were supposed to be loyal until the end, but there was Zacharias fleeing with the first years. At least she knew that he would be safer than the rest of her friends.

Recent History:

The years after the war weren't good for Susan. Seeing so many people dead and wounded destroyed the fragile wall she had erected to protect herself from getting hurt. Everything was too much for her all too soon. The war was over, her father wanted her back in his life, her mother was safe, some of her friends were dead, and there were too many feelings.

She stepped away from the wizarding world, leaving her friends, Anthony and her father behind. She refused to read any letters sent to her, she never went to Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade, and she tried to erase that part of her life from her memory. She was comfortable in her anonymity in the muggle world. During the day she worked for a fashion shop, while at night she went home to her mum's flat.

Her relationship with Anthony was more difficult. She still loved him and wanted to be with him, but she just couldn't be with anyone. For a while, she did try to keep their relationship going, only it was harder to just be herself around him. She wanted to be held by him, but at the same time, she wanted to be alone. Neither Susan nor Anthony were at good points in their lives and neither could let go of their memories of the war. She went to France for several months to find freedom from London and her thoughts, while he stayed behind. In some ways, it was easier to stay together and rarely see one another than to end things when there was still love between them. However, the lasting memories of the war eventually tore them apart in November of 2001.

With everything in her life, Susan felt restless. Her jobs lasted for two months at the most and no matter what she did or tried, she just wasn't happy. Though she loved music, she gave up her dream, since it seemed too hard to accomplish. After taking a long look at her life and her future, she realised that she didn't have a future at all with music. Instead, she turned to temporary jobs until she could find something else she wanted to do.

Now single and her heart finally mending, Susan has decided to come back to the wizarding world and to her old school friends. More than anything she wants her old life back While at school, she had dreamed of being married with children by the time she turned twenty-one. Instead, she has nothing to show for the last four years. She's been fairly active with various things, but nothing of substance has lasted. She gave up on her relationship and on her life. Now, it's time to start over and start following her dreams again.

Current employment status: Working as a part-time nanny for her little sister and brother, and working at a small book shop. Working as a part-time nanny for her little sister and brother, and working at a small book shop. Once she decided to come back to the wizarding world, Susan went to her father's house in order to be the older sister Madison and Edgar should have had all along. Unfortunately, her decision to get closer with her siblings also brought Susan into contact with her step-mother, Camilla, once again. Susan doesn't care for her Camilla at all, as Camilla tends to view Susan as her personal slave than step-daughter. Camilla wanted children she could see and not hear, and now with Susan around, she finally can get her wish. Susan comes to the house every other day to clean up and to care for her siblings, leaving Camilla free to come and go as she pleases. Susan doesn't mind the work, but it does leave her too busy for much of a real social life.

Her actual job is at a small book shop, selling mostly used books. The work isn't particularly glamorous or well-paying, but she does get to read any book she wants for free. Susan has only been at this job for a few weeks, but she likes it well enough. Money is certainly tight, but she doesn't plan on working at the shop for very much longer. She's in the process of finding someone to be her mentor so she can get her music career back on track.

Personality:
Susan hates and loves with equal passion. She gives her entire heart to something, and she usually ends up hurt. When she meets someone, her relationship with that person is rocky at best until she can establish if they're a new friend or just someone she doesn't care for at all. There are no such things as acquaintances for Susan since everyone has the potential of becoming her best friend.

Susan is a hard worker, and she always has been, to the point of obsession. She makes lists compulsively with things that she thinks ought to be accomplished for the day, and she won't rest until everything on her list is done. Just as she loves with her all, she also gives everything she has to a task. She considers sleeping in being able to stay in bed for seven hours, instead of her usual four. She tries her best, and rarely does she have a breakdown. She tends to look at life with a positive outlook, but since the war, it's been hard for her to do. She has no concept of being used as she sees the best in almost everyone. It's nearly impossible for her to say no, which is why someone could find her at three in the morning making dozens of biscuits for a charity event. Susan will do whatever she can to make a friend happy, even if it makes her miserable.

Susan does her best for other people, rarely is it for herself. She feels that people have expectations of her and she couldn't stand to disappoint anyone. When she accomplishes something huge, she doesn't bask in the praise of other people or even sigh with relief. The only thing she feels like she can do is work on the next big goal. There has never been a moment of rest for her, though she has made attempts to calm her life down. When she takes holidays, she's able to sit for an hour at most before she's up and running around again. It's physically impossible for her to stay still for more than five minutes. She hates the feeling of having nothing to do, believing that she's wasting her life away if she doesn't always have something lined up. Even when she has to remain in one position for an extended amount of time, she can't sit or stand still. She's continually shifting about looking for a new comfortable spot or tapping her quill against her parchment. She also has another motive for moving around all the time. Susan has claustrophobia issues, though not many people know. For the most part she's okay when in a large room, though she can't stay in a small room for more than a short period of time. She also has to get outside for at least an hour a day, sometimes more depending on how she's feeling. On her outings, she takes long walks, savoring the fresh air for as long as she can.

There is a part of her personality that she isn't at all proud of. Despite any good intentions she has of being the best person she can be, Susan can become a whingy and somewhat cruel when she's jealous of someone. During her childhood, her father didn't much care of her, but her mother's side of the family more than tried to make up for it. She has never been in want of attention and her needs have always been met. She's never much cared about material objects, but when she wants all of someone's attention, she hates sharing.