1981
– Godric's Hollow is attacked. Lily and James Potter are killed along with their son, Harry, the supposed target of the prophecy.
– The Longbottoms are also personally attacked by Voldemort in the early hours of the morning. None survive.

1982
– Prophecy revealed by the Dark Lord to followers and, as a result, the magical world as a whole.
– Morale begins to dwindle; many more purebloods join the Death Eaters.
– Violent attacks on various Wizarding villages increase tenfold.
– Minister Bagnold resigns due to vote of 'No Confidence'. Replaced by Fudge.

1983
– Hogwarts enrolment drops by 1/4th for the first time since the Second World War.
– Most violent raid on Diagon Alley (thus far). Many shops remain empty even after the battle.
– Auror Department destroyed in explosion, killing 20.
– Azkaban broken into for the first time.

1984
– Trials of captured Death Eaters begins. None prosecuted.
– Book of Names stolen from Hogwarts. Many Muggleborns lost.
– Minister Fudge resigns due to vote of 'No Confidence'. Replaced by Lucius Malfoy.

1985–1989
– Muggleborns stop attending Hogwarts.
– No teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts at all.
– Many students drop out to help the war effort on both sides.
– Continuous attacks on various Muggleborn and occasionally Half-Blood homes.
– Civilians given permission to use Unforgivables in combat.
– Umbridge sent into Hogwarts; several teachers fired including McGonagall.

1990
– Vigilante raid by the Order of the Phoenix on Malfoy Manor. Minister is assassinated. Minister Rodolphus Lestrange takes over.

1991
– Ministry officially comes out in support of the Dark Lord.
– Nicholas Flamel and wife are killed. Philosopher's Stone stolen by the Dark Lord.
– Order of the Phoenix forms several splinter groups due to internal conflict, including the first whispers of 'The Ashes'.
– Slytherin House has double the number of residents of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff combined.

1992 – 1995
– Muggleborn Registration Act signed, the movement spearheaded by Bellatrix Lestrange.
– Azkaban raided. Sirius Black killed. 13 Grimnauld Place inherited by Draco Malfoy.

1996
– Wards on Grimnauld Place broken in a surprise attack with many casualties. The Order moves to the Burrow.
– Hogwarts taken over by Voldemort during the summer. Teaching in Hogwarts stops.
– *ALBERT ALDENBERG inducted into The Ashes. Aldenberg Manor becomes new base of operations.

1997
– Britain's borders close through official channels.
– The Burrow is destroyed and the Order scattered.
– Horcruxes discovered. The Ashes begin to hunt them down.

1998 – Present (1999)
– Albus Dumbledore dies. The Ashes rise up to fight against Voldemort.
– *LUTHER CUNNINGHAM's sister, Lilly, is imprisoned in Azkaban.
– People of varying blood status begin to disappear. Unknown.

Many thanks to the lovely Jig for writing this out!


Aldenberg Manor is a fairly old building in Nottingham (roughly the middle of England). It became Aldenberg property in the mid-eighteenth century through the beautiful system of marriage, and has remained in their hands to this day.

Albert inherited the manor from his parents when he moved to the UK permanently, where it has been his primary residence ever since. It became the base of operations in 1996 upon Albert’s joining the Ashes full-time, back when the organisation was growing in popularity.

While the Death Eaters knows where the base is, it is protected by the Fidelius Charm. The official story is that Albert returned to the Netherlands upon the closing of Hogwarts, and that the Ashes are basically squatting in his manor, sealed even from Albert by the Fidelius Charm. For this reason, Albert is not the Secret Keeper to the manor: should he be in some way quizzed, he is unable to give away the location. The Secret Keeper is actually Ronan Findley.

The manor is comprised of three separate parts. The manor itself comprises communal rooms, including a two-storey entrance hall, two-storey library, two-storey ballroom, parlour, study, dining room and morning room, as well as huge downstairs kitchen. The West wing is the ‘residential’ wing, featuring six rather luxurious bedrooms, including the Master bedroom (ie: Albert’s pad). Obviously, this is not enough to house the entirety of the Ashes, and so the bedrooms in the much-smaller East wing for the long-since redundant servants have become in use again.

Out the back, there are some formal gardens and a small lake, at the centre of which is a duelling strip, as well as an enormous greenhouse attached to the back of the house, which acts as a second parlour.

The manor has a long history of magic and the Aldenbergs, though much of the latter has been recently stripped. For reasons of security, the house-elves were dismissed and the many portraits and artefacts removed; because of this, the house now has a ghostly, empty feeling to it. However, the house is still steeped in magic, and, for this reason, many muggle technologies do not work. Combustion engines are ropey - electricity is a complete non-starter.

It is worth noting that, although Albert has donated the manor to the cause, the Ashes are, in his mind, his guests. For this reason, he does have house-rules that he expects to be obeyed. Mainly this is is to respect the house itself (by keeping it tidy, not blowing things up in it, not slamming doors, etcetera) and also to respect the traditions the house represents: apparently, he expects men to stand when women enter the room, food to be eaten exclusively in the dining room, and that the guest bedrooms are allocated to female members of the Ashes. Bad luck, gents.

RONAN FINDLEY
ALBERT ALDENBERG
JIA SHANG
KYLE MCCARTHY
TANYA PIETERS
LUTHER CUNNINGHAM
SIOBHAN MACFUSTY
DAVID HOWELL
MIA DUBOIS
ERIC FRIEDMAN
DELIGHT DULLAHAN

NAME:
AGE: (Preferably 18+ – remember, Hogwarts closed 3 years ago!)
GENDER:
NATIONALITY: (Other than British, members of any European (or Commonwealth) country are also acceptable; however, Americans will be judged warily.)

BLOOD PURITY: (Muggleborn/Half-Blood/Pureblood/Squib)

MARKED?

APPEARANCE: (If using picture, no anime.)

PERSONALITY:

SKILLS AND TALENTS: (Magical or Non-Magical, both included.)

WAND:

BIO: (Optional, can be as long or as short as you want.)

OTHER:

NAME: Luther Cunningham
AGE: 32
GENDER: Male
NATIONALITY: British

BLOOD PURITY: Half-blood

MARKED?: Assuming you mean the Dark Mark? If so, then yes.

APPEARANCE: (See pictures below) Luther is a respectably large man, weighing 250 lb (113 kg) at 6'0 (1.8 m). He is fairly muscular compared to the average wizard, at the cost of some wand finesse. He has dull blue eyes and a blond faux hawk, with a light beard; more than stubble, but not long enough to truly be considered a beard. He has a dragon fang piercing in his right ear, and a celtic tattoo on his left arm, which ends at his elbow. Beneath this is the Dark Mark, branded on him by the Dark Lord. Being a wizard, he rarely wears anything more interesting than a standard wizard's robe.

PERSONALITY: Luther is remarkably loyal (so much so, in fact, that the Sorting Hat almost made him a Hufflepuff!), and very resolute in his decisions. Once he has decided to do something, little more than death can sway him to change his mind. To strangers he is reserved and mysterious, but to those who he becomes attached to (especially his sister, Lilly) he can be extroverted, and something of a clown. He cares about Lilly very much, and would do anything to protect her from harm without a second thought, even if the cost was his life.

SKILLS AND TALENTS:
Strengths

• Being stronger than most wizards, Luther excels in close-quarters combat. Who needs a wand when you have fists?


• Luther is especially adept at curses, but unlike what would be expected of a Death Eater, he will very rarely use an Unforgivable Curse, only as an absolute last resort.

Weaknesses

• Although he may be stronger than most, he is not the best with a wand. He can be trusted for most things, but in a situation where stealth and/or precision are key, you probably shouldn't trust Luther with the job.


• Luther cares about his sister, Lilly, perhaps too much - he values her life more than his, and would gladly do anything for her. This could easily be used against him as he would never do anything that would lead to her being hurt, if he had a choice.

WAND: Ebony w/ a Dragon Heartstring core, 14 inches,

BIO: Luther was born the child of a witch, Lucille Cunningham, and a muggle, Arthur McKinley. Luther, being a Halfblood, had of course grown up with a Muggle father, Arthur. His mother, Lucille, had hidden her magic from him until Luther received his acceptance letter to Hogwarts, and she had no choice but to tell him. Arthur was stunned, and soon "realized" that most of the bad things that happened to him were because of their magic (or rather, attributed everything to them instead of accepting things for what they really were) and grew increasingly resentful, and this left Luther with a poor view of Muggles. Him being sorted into Slytherin only further aided in his dislike against Muggles, as the children of Death Eaters indoctrinated Luther in the same beliefs that their fathers had taught them. The only exception that Luther made for his beliefs was his sister, Lilly.
Shortly after returning home from his first year in Hogwarts, Luther was slapped for taking his wand out of his trunk by his intoxicated father, and in retaliation Luther set him on fire with Incendio, causing third-degree burns. He received a warning from the Ministry of Magic for performing underage magic, and soon after Luther and his mother moved out, and lived in Godric's Hollow for the duration of Luther's time in Hogwarts. Luther also adopted his mother's maiden name, Cunningham, in an effort to remove everything connecting him to his father. Immediately after finishing his final year at Hogwarts he became a Death Eater, and his view on Muggles remained the same until his sister's imprisonment. His loyalty made the Dark Lord favor him, and Luther was branded with the Dark Mark during the First Wizarding War. He remained loyal to the Dark Lord longer than most when he disappeared, but eventually he too gave up the notion of his master ever returning, and assimilated back into the world as best as he could. When the Dark Lord returned he immediately went back to his side, ready to be as loyal as ever.
When the Muggleborn Registration Act was established, Cunningham helped his younger, bastard sister, Lilly, go into hiding for although she happened to have magical blood like him, she was a product of an affair between Luther's father and a mistress, making her Muggleborn. The Dark Lord eventually found out about this betrayal, however, and made sure that Luther was present when she was sentenced to life in Azkaban on account of being Muggleborn, in addition to evading the Dark Lord. After witnessing his sister, who he was very close to, dragged away by Dementors to be taken to Azkaban, Luther's allegiance to the Dark Lord was shattered. How could he have any loyalty to someone who'd put his innocent, fragile sister into Azkaban?
He began to see the Dark Lord for what he truly was; a monster. Not only did he realize that the Dark Lord was a monster, but he realized that just because his father was a terrible person, that didn't make all Muggles bad. Although at times he still has moments of Pureblood supremacy (old habits die hard), for the most part he has become far more tolerant and respecting of Muggleborns and Muggles alike. He's heard rumors that the Order still exists in some form, and has made it his duty to find them, and join them to put an end to the Dark Lord's run of terror, and rescue Lilly from Azkaban before she becomes the lifeless shell that Dementors are so famous for creating.

OTHER: N/A

Face/Hair:
Tattoo:

NAME: Eric Friedman
AGE: 37
GENDER: Male
NATIONALITY: British

BLOOD PURITY: Pureblood

MARKED? No

APPEARANCE: (Minus the jersey, of course)

PERSONALITY: Eric is a very friendly person, and isn’t really on bad terms with anyone (as far as he knows). Having been a Hufflepuff, he doesn’t have the bravery of a Gryffindor, nor the cunning of a Slytherin. He does have the wit of a Ravenclaw, but his friendliness and loyalty gave the Sorting Hat no choice but to put him in Hufflepuff. As a product of his friendliness, he is a very social person, and is more than happy to stop for a chat with someone, even if theres a voice nagging in the back of his head, reminding him that he has something to do, and doesn’t have time to chat. Due to the nature of his work, Eric doesn’t think badly of Muggles at all. It is annoying having to Obliviate masses of them just because of their status, but he doesn’t blame them for it. After all, if the wizard/witch who needed the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad to repair their damage had been competent enough, he wouldn’t have to do anything to begin with.

SKILLS AND TALENTS:
Obliviator


Accidental Magic Reversal


Friendly


WAND: Holly w/ Unicorn hair core, 9 inches, slightly springy.

BIO: Eric was sorted into Hufflepuff when he arrived at Hogwarts, and has made many friends there, including Albert Aldenberg (who Eric had a friendly rivalry with, due to their conflicting personalities) and Kyle McCarthy (Eric was a Chaser for the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team, and Kyle was a Slytherin Beater; they made it something of a game to see how many times Kyle could hit him during their matches). He never got into any real trouble while he was in school, and eventually became an Obliviator in the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad in the Ministry of Magic when he finished his schooling.

After Kyle graduated 4 years later, he became an Auror-in-training, and due to the increased number of attacks on Muggles at the time, they ended up working together in the field a lot. He stayed there until about a month or two after Voldemort’s takeover of the Ministry, because he simply couldn’t work for someone so awful and unfriendly. Prior to his decision to leave, however, Kyle contacted him, and Eric agreed to pass on information from inside the Ministry to him; he (Kyle) was in the Order at the time, as well as the fledgling splinter group known as the Ashes.

When Eric finally left the Ministry, he was recruited by Kyle into the Ashes, and he became a middleman between Kyle and some of Eric’s friends who were still in the Ministry; this gave Eric an excuse to chat with people, so he had no complaints.

NAME: Siobhan MacFusty
AGE: 33
GENDER: Female
NATIONALITY: British (Scottish)

BLOOD PURITY: Pureblood; 'Blood Traitor'

MARKED: No.

APPEARANCE:
Siobhan is fairly short and dainty at only 5'3” – unlucky in that respect as she hasn't grown any taller since she was twelve or thirteen. Her curly blonde hair is cut raggedly out of necessity, uneven in places as she chopped it off herself. Blue-grey eyes, a characteristic of her lineage, seem older than her face despite the first worry lines forming due to stress. She is ghostly pale with light brown freckles; however, she is covered in scars from claws and teeth and breaths of fire.

In terms of clothing she dons fashionable witch's robes in her spare time, usually in vibrant, eccentric colours that always match. When out on the field, Siobhan drops the wizarding clothing for easy to wear Muggle gear.

PERSONALITY:
Despite her diminutive size, Siobhan is loud-mouthed and opinionated, an extrovert who seeks to include everyone in her group of friends. Loneliness is something she hates both in herself and others and is often heavy-handed in her attempts to stave it off. She isn't very tactful, preferring brutal honesty to beating around the bush – bedside manner is something she does not have.

Overall, she is quite intelligent; however, it often falls by the wayside in favour of laziness (when faced with the prospect of having to learn something) and foolish bravery (against anything to do with Death Eaters or danger). She also has a damn good memory for faces and names and makes a point of trying to find out what everyone likes and dislikes.

Although Siobhan has a tendency to ignore any wounds she receives – “'Tis but a flesh wound” is something she can see herself saying – she despises it in others and will ruthlessly tease anyone who gets injured (while helping them out, of course).

SKILLS:
Trained Mediwitch – Siobhan's knowledge of all the basic healing spells (and healthy number of texts to look up those she doesn't) can be incredibly important to the cause, even if it's... not exactly designed for humans. At the very least, she completed a course at St Mungos and has been helping out the Order (and at one point, assisting in Hogwarts) ever since.

Speed – Used to diving and dodging around vicious dragons for most of her childhood in order to care for them, she has a healthy appreciation for movement. In addition to this, she is well aware that her position on any away-mission is important enough for her not to get caught.

Keen Eyesight & Observation – It could come from a variety of reasons but her time as Gryffindor's seeker back from 1978 to 1985 definitely increased her ability to spot things others might not. Even without her practice, her vision is above-average at 20/10. In the past it has saved her life and others, having spotted a group of Death Eaters preparing a ranged strike on her group once from a good distance away.

WEAKNESSES:
Spotty Education – Siobhan barely paid attention in her later years at Hogwarts, too preoccupied with worrying for her family and the war effort, and while she knows the basic spells (the ones she was tested on), that's about it. In addition to this, she picked subjects that were considered easy like Divination and Care of Magical Creatures.

Reckless – Siobhan's always been a sucker for a lost cause. If there's danger, she'll follow it – or rather, charge into it without thinking like a bull. She never had a mind for tactics.

Careless Magic – Sometimes, in the thick of it, Siobhan's spellwork gets sloppy. Although she is careful to keep her healing spells correct, in combat her pronunciation can slur producing unwanted effects.

WAND: Sycamore, 14½” with a core of dragon heartstring (Hebridean Black). Extremely flexible.

HISTORY:
Siobhan was born into the prestigious MacFusty Clan in the Hebrides Islands, known for keeping the largest (and only) collection of Hebridean Black dragons in the world. The youngest of five children, she was given the choice of what she wanted to do and yet had impossibly large shoes to fill to live up to her siblings'. Her oldest brother was a translator for various magical species; her two sisters were a diplomat and an auror, and her other brother – the one closest to her in age yet still years away – became a Death Eater for many complex reasons, the first of which being to keep the family safe from attacks.

While she was at Hogwarts, she had the time of her life and graduated having been Quiddich Captain for the Gryffindor team and their star seeker, despite worries for the war in the outside world which distracted her from her studies and had her seek out the few pleasures she could find in life. During the summers, she apprenticed on the dragon reserve, hoping to become the manager of it since none of her generation seemed to be stepping up to take on the role, but after school – while Siobhan was on a course for the basic medical training needed for her chosen career path – her clan's home was attacked by Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Her parents were killed and livelihood stolen, kept for rare potions ingredients as and when the Dark Lord required them. Her former home is one of the main hubs for dark activity, behind Azkaban and Riddle Manor.

Following the attack, she joined the Order and somehow convinced her brother to become a spy, sending her (and whatever orginisation she was in) details on Death Eater activity. With her future destroyed, she went into full-time training at St. Mungos, rarely targeted by the dark forces for her pure and formerly neutral heritage. When the prospect of a more brutal and definitely more effective group arose, she switched to The Ashes, becoming one of its founding members.

NAME: Ronan Findley
AGE: 40
GENDER: Male
NATIONALITY: French

BLOOD PURITY: Half-Blood

MARKED: Yes.

APPEARANCE:
Ronan is of a slight, stick-like build and looks as if the lightest of breezes could blow him over. He is pale with long black hair often pulled back into a ponytail, though strands often fall down to block his view. He looks tired, with dark bags under his eyes, but his hazel eyes are always sharp and alert, devoid of any emotion. If there is such a thing as a Slytherin mask, Ronan has perfected it.

He is never seen out of fancy, well-tailored wizarding robes that touch the ground and his jewelled cane shaped in the form of a snake is always present. Ronan walks with what appears to be a painful limp.

PERSONALITY:
Ronan is jumpy, paranoid that everyone and anyone is out to get him. He trusts few people in the world – one of them being Siobhan MacFusty, his personal healer, and the other being Albert Aldenberg, whose house he resides in – and for good reasons. Even so, he is stoic in his refusal to show pain either emotional or physical as he desires more than anything else to never seem weak.

With a mind for tactics and research and, well, everything, Ronan can be considered a jack of all trades. He is a perfectionist who is never happy with the result of whatever it is he has been doing; a workaholic who spends more time worrying about the war than his own ailing health.

Surprisingly, he is never plagued with self-doubt; he is determined and utterly ruthless in his quest to reclaim Britain, even if it is for the wrong reasons: to settle an apparent 'debt' he owes to his dead father. It is why he keeps his good manners and morals even when surrounded in the middle of a war. He cannot be considered even a decent soldier, however, as he fears for his own life too much to be of any use in a situation other than a guaranteed win.

SKILLS:
Dueling – In his youth, Ronan was the winner of the 'Junior European Dueling Championship' from the ages of 11-17, where he advanced to the adult level. Before he could make a name for himself, however, he stopped to join the war at Voldemort's call. He was known for his vast spell repertoire and lack of hesitation in his fights.

Warding – Ronan's perfectionist nature comes in handy for once when it comes to researching spells to protect The Ashes' main base of operations. He is practically self-taught in this area but is fairly good at creating and tearing down the spells.

Occlumency – A necessity, given his family history, Ronan was forced to learn this to keep his thoughts a secret from his father and was later a great boon to isolate and contain the pain from his curse as well as keep the location of The Ashes' base a complete secret.

WEAKNESSES:
Cursed – Only three years ago, Ronan was hit by a painful curse that has been slowly turning his body to stone, having taken most of his left leg and patches on his forearm already. It leaves him unable to walk quickly, or duel (due to the movement required) and as far as he knows, nobody currently living in the Wizarding World knows of a counter-curse. With it, he is practically housebound and waiting for death.

Perfectionist – Ronan's battle-plans are the work of many sleepless nights and days of single-minded effort. In part, it is because it reflects poorly on him if something goes wrong during a mission, but he is obsessive about everyone leaving alive and in good condition. He never gets enough sleep, usually by choice, as he is always working.

WAND: 11½”, Elm, with a phoenix feather core. Stiff.

HISTORY:
Ronan is the illegitimate son of Lord Stephen Findley and a French Muggleborn who was not identified until his seventeenth birthday. Having attended Beauxbatons, he moved to Britain to work in the Ministry of Magic first as an assistant then as the ambassador. It was good that he left home, given his awful reputation for womanizing and Dark Magic – he had a wild youth that he managed to escape after a few decades.

When his mother died unexpectedly, Stephen Findley found his son and offered him a place to stay and made him the heir of the family, given it would go to distant cousins anyway since he was childless. Of course, Ronan was a difficult young adult, already taken in by Voldemort's ideals as a Death Eater. His abilities as a duelist were used extensively by the Dark Lord and he was favoured, for a time, before he was delegated to a spy in the Ministry – a job that quickly became defunct when it was taken over completely.

Half-heartedly, he threw himself back into raids; however, his father made him promise to leave the ranks as his last request on his death-bed. Voldemort, of course, wanted his inherited manor so as to have another base of power in the Isles. Ronan offered it to him, though kept control of the wards. Stephen Findley's last words had shaken his resolve, and he offered his services to the Order as a spy.

It was short-lived but undeniably useful; however, in his haste to stop a raid on Diagon Alley with his information, he failed to check its reliability – it was a 'red herring' of sorts. When he tentatively returned to the Death Eaters, he was tortured, cursed to eventually turn to stone (though it has been slowed considerably with constant healing and check-ups) and barely escaped with his life. Shortly thereafter, Ronan joined The Ashes.

NAME: Tanya Pieters

AGE: 25

GENDER: Female

NATIONALITY: Belgian

BLOOD PURITY: Muggleborn

MARKED? No

PERSONALITY: In school, Tanya was the student known for being too curious for her own good. She was the one who would question the teacher, not for the sake of intellectual pursuit or debate, but to simply see how far she could push him or her. Not knowing what's around the corner or what is locked away in a secret chest would drive her mad. To Tanya, rules are meant to at least be bent to point of breaking, if not broken whenever possible. She is carefree enough that punishments or volatile reactions seem to simply slip over her head, and clever enough that she would find a way around anything that didn't.

This however doesn't mean she's not loyal or brave enough to stand her ground. Because she can be, although it might take awhile for her to lay down her life for someone due to some trust issues. Because she tends to have a lot of acquaintances and only a few close friends, when she does defend someone, it can be nasty and dangerous to be at the receiving end. Instead of constantly standing up for those in need, she likes to watch how events play out, and sometimes even provoke situations if it will make things more interesting.
Although this type of almost childish behavior can seem naive, and well childish, it's a kind of defense mechanism for Tanya. Deep down she understands the gravity of the situation, but until it becomes truly dire, she will often remain light-hearted even in the face of danger.

SKILLS AND TALENTS: Magical: Tanya is more proficient at various jinxes, curses, and some hexes. Her style of spell-casting is often indirect, creative, and quick to counteract, though not always disciplined. Skilled with flying a broomstick.
Nonmagical: Surprisingly athletic, though sometimes a bit of a klutz.

WAND: Maple, Unicorn Hair core, springy, 11"

BIO: Tanya is the child of two muggles, who were quite dismayed when their six year old daughter began performing accidental acts of magic all over the house. Although no one in the immediate or extended family knows it, Tanya is the great grand daughter of a witch, on her father's side. The parents tried to be skeptical about her powers and blamed them on anything other than magic, even resorting to the possibility of ghosts. But, they gave up on logical explanations after Tanya managed to grow her hair out nearly ten feet so she could climb out her second story bedroom window. After that, her parents did their best to keep her powers hidden until she came of age to attend Hogwarts.
Tanya was sorted in Slytherin and instantly almost all friends made on the train were lost. In her spare time and sometimes during class, Tanya did her best to explore every inch of the castle. Her grades were mediocre at best and hardly any of the friends she made were from her own house. Among others, Tanya was somewhat confused at first as to why she sorted into the house of ambition and power. But soon she realized that she didn't quite belong in any particular house anyways. After awhile she let it go and decided to accredit the hat's choice to her pranks and small rebellious streak.

NAME: Scott O'Riley
AGE: 29
GENDER: Male
NATIONALITY: Irish
BLOOD PURITY: Half-Blood
MARKED? No
APPEARANCE:
PERSONALITY:
SKILLS AND TALENTS: Magical; Can perform easy to intermediate level spells without a wand flawlessly. Ability to understand what common animals say to him.
Non-Magical; Parkourist & Ability to solve puzzles
WAND: Sycamore w/ Dragon Core, 11 & 1/2 inches, slightly springy
BIO: (Optional, can be as long or as short as you want.)
OTHER:

NAME: Jia Shang
AGE: 42
GENDER: Female
NATIONALITY: British

BLOOD PURITY: Muggleborn

MARKED? No

APPEARANCE:

PERSONALITY: Jia has taken a lot of pain in this war. Her family has been scattered - she prays they escaped Britain, but she fears they're dead - and every day it seems one more of her friends is dead. She feels like the oldest one left standing, and she's tired and embittered. Even more than her weariness, she's angry and vengeful, and not given to a lot of moral hand-wringing or mercy anymore. The Death Eaters have taken everything from her except her life, and she's more than happy to return the favor. There's a gentle side to her, under the iron-hard, bitter anger, but it takes a lot to coax it out. Most of the time, she's just doing her work professionally, cold and dispassionate until the time comes to let the fire out and turn a Death Eater into dust.

She has an iron-hard determination and a tendency to throw herself physically and mentally at a problem until she either batters it down or finds a weak point and exploits it. Jia has nearly endless reserves of patience.

SKILLS AND TALENTS: Jia is a veteran fighter, having been part of fighting this war since it began. She has a keen mind for tactics and strategy and a good head for people, their character and talents and how to best utilize them. In battle she relies on the environment to take advantage, sometimes something as simple as good cover more than an opposing wizard expects. As far as magical talents she's a jack of all trades, not excelling in any one field but reasonably adept at all. She's rarely the perfect person for any one spell, but she's usually an adequate choice. She's Muggleborn, and has spent a lot of time within the Muggle community, giving her the edge in navigating that world compared to the hidebound, usually pureblood Death Eaters who think the automobile is a hot new invention.

During summer breaks in her youth she received a compressed but complete muggle education, and as such is far better versed in mathematics, the sciences, muggle history, and most other muggle school subjects than nearly any wizard.

WAND: Rosewood and Phoenix Feather, 12 inches, nicely flexible.

BIO: She had a fairly normal childhood, raised by Londoner Muggles, a doctor and his wife. When they received the letters and the visitor from Hogwarts they were naturally taken aback, her parents being atheists and skeptics. It was a bit of a shakeup, as one might imagine. Despite their misgivings they eventually agreed to allow Jia to attend. Jia, for her part, was absolutely thrilled at the idea of learning real magic, her mother having told her many stories of the heroic Xia of Chinese legend, and her later childhood had continued that interest in books, cartoons, and movies.

During her time at Hogwarts Jia proved to be a good student, not by virtue of any great talent, but through hard study and determination, cramming textbooks and training into her eyes and hands until it nearly flowed out her ears, and was rewarded by a line of E and O O.W.L.s and similar marks on her N.E.W.T.s. During this same time she kept up her muggle studies, ostensibly being homeschooled but in reality spending her summer months being privately tutored, and graduated from high school with similarly excellent marks.

Initially following her graduation from Hogwarts she planned to begin work for the Mysterium Cabali, a pompously-named but quite aboveboard organization dedicated to the study of rare forms of magic. The outbreak of war changed all that, and she canceled her plans with the Mysterium Cabli, instead joining the nascent Order of the Phoenix, at the time just a fresh-faced kid, brand new out of Hogwarts and spoiling for a fight against evil. Years would burn this childlike enthusiasm away as the war turned against them, Dumbledore's supposedly unstoppable power withering away, men and women who were heroes to her like James Potter being slain, or worse turning to the Dark like Sirius Black. As time went on Jia found herself among the last of the Order, training a new generation for a war that rapidly seemed hopeless, and somewhere along the way she lost that enthusiasm and heroic courage.