bumblingbadger (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bumblingbadger) wrote2011-10-01 03:39 pm
bumblingbadger) wrote2011-10-01 03:39 pm
Info: History
A note: Janey's story takes place well after the life, achievements and death of Harry Potter. The Battle of Hogwarts has become but a lesson in a textbook and a story grandparents tell their children. Janey has Harry's chocolate frog card, though.
Janey was born as the fourth and final child to Alice and Roger Whittmore. While her parents were often away while she was growing up, both of them having rather important jobs and needing to make sure they had the money to raise their family, she and her siblings were as tight-knit as it got and so she grew up with them as her best friends. Twin brothers four years older than her, Eric tried to teach her courage and strength, and Thompson gave her an appreciation for the world's intricacies and literature. With her mother gone so often, her big sister by two years, Mel, became Janey's go-to 'girl talk' person and she instilled curiosity and tried to pass a sense of adventure into her baby sister.
Life went on uneventfully for a while, with the children almost raising each other and their parents busy fairly constantly. Janey was only six (going on seven) when her older brothers left for Hogwarts, but she remembers it well; she had watched Eric jump around and hoot and holler when he got his letter, and had been there to wave off the train as they left. Throughout the next two years, Mel and Janey, unsure what to do with the home's sudden emptiness, were attached at the hip. The summers and holiday breaks that followed were completely taken advantage of and the four of them barely got a moment away from each other.
Two years later, Mel was off to Hogwarts as well and aside from the holiday breaks, Janey was alone until the summer. Her parents did make an effort to be around more often, but with just two more years until she was off to Hogwarts, too, there was still tuition to be paid for and work to be done for it. Janey found escape in the outdoors around her home, taking advantage of Mel's insistence that she learn to explore. She took Eric's sense of adventure in manageable doses and did things that for her were considered huge steps—climbing trees, wandering unfamiliar territory, going to public places... And of course Thompson's determination to refine her tastes had her reading through the books he'd left behind. During this time without her siblings, she started to retreat even further into her little shell of isolation and worry.
Things may have been lonely, but they got better. Another two years after Mel's departure, it was finally Janey's turn to go to Hogwarts. Her siblings—Thompson in Ravenclaw, Eric in Griffyndor and Mel in Slytherin—had argued and debated just whose house she would end in for the entire summer before. Mel and Eric even had a bet going on. Janey, though, wasn't sure what she wanted. She didn't even have the slightest idea where she belonged.
"Shouldn't it be obvious?" the sorting hat had given as an answer to her doubts, "Plain and simple, you're a Hufflepuff!"
At first, Janey was dejected about the situation; the houses her siblings represented were all known for strong exemplary traits, but she didn't have any of that. She was just one of "the rest." While unsure, she resigned to her fate, even as Mel tried to insist she was just so well-rounded and Eric made a stink with professors because his little sister was "too good for those bumbling badgers." Thompson was a little more helpful and told her about famous Hufflepuffs and subtly dropped hints about the house's best characteristics and how she exemplified them, trying to tell her that there was nothing 'wrong' or 'less' about her because of her house.
The turning point for her was a friendship formed with two upperclassmen. Kate Stuart, as nosy and noisy as she was absurdly tall, and Martin Bell, an artistic Qudditch captain, were two fifth-years who had decided to "adopt" Janey as their first-year protegee the second they saw her sit at the Hufflepuff table. Made nervous by Kate's loudmouth, prying personality and the mere fact that a Quidditch MVP was reaching out to her, Janey rejected them at first but they were persistent. They adjusted (read: Kate shut her mouth) to make her comfortable and helped her whenever her siblings couldn't, and one day Janey just realized that they really were her friends and she'd grown comfortable around them.
That was the same time that she completely embraced her Hufflepuffitude. Being one of "the rest" didn't mean the other houses were better—if anything, hers was so much more well-rounded! She radiated kindness, fairness and loyalty. Martin insisted that Helga Hufflepuff herself would have been proud. She may not have been brave, but she wasn't arrogant. She wasn't wise, but she wasn't so stuck-up or competitive, either. She wasn't clever, but she wasn't manipulative. What she was, was happy.
It's worth mentioning that sometime in Janey's second year, Kate and Eric began dating. It was a match meant for trouble—on everyone else's end, that is—but they are happy and it's a pleasant change compared to how much Eric badmouthed Hufflepuff before.
With Janey now in her third year, Kate and Martin are about to graduate (along with Eric and Thompson) but they have promised to never lose touch. Thompson has even let Janey use his owl to deliver letters. While Janey is still clammed up tightly inside her shell of shyness and insecurity, her friendships have made her a much happier person, even if it's not always completely evident, and she really does hope to one day truly succeed.
Janey was born as the fourth and final child to Alice and Roger Whittmore. While her parents were often away while she was growing up, both of them having rather important jobs and needing to make sure they had the money to raise their family, she and her siblings were as tight-knit as it got and so she grew up with them as her best friends. Twin brothers four years older than her, Eric tried to teach her courage and strength, and Thompson gave her an appreciation for the world's intricacies and literature. With her mother gone so often, her big sister by two years, Mel, became Janey's go-to 'girl talk' person and she instilled curiosity and tried to pass a sense of adventure into her baby sister.
Life went on uneventfully for a while, with the children almost raising each other and their parents busy fairly constantly. Janey was only six (going on seven) when her older brothers left for Hogwarts, but she remembers it well; she had watched Eric jump around and hoot and holler when he got his letter, and had been there to wave off the train as they left. Throughout the next two years, Mel and Janey, unsure what to do with the home's sudden emptiness, were attached at the hip. The summers and holiday breaks that followed were completely taken advantage of and the four of them barely got a moment away from each other.
Two years later, Mel was off to Hogwarts as well and aside from the holiday breaks, Janey was alone until the summer. Her parents did make an effort to be around more often, but with just two more years until she was off to Hogwarts, too, there was still tuition to be paid for and work to be done for it. Janey found escape in the outdoors around her home, taking advantage of Mel's insistence that she learn to explore. She took Eric's sense of adventure in manageable doses and did things that for her were considered huge steps—climbing trees, wandering unfamiliar territory, going to public places... And of course Thompson's determination to refine her tastes had her reading through the books he'd left behind. During this time without her siblings, she started to retreat even further into her little shell of isolation and worry.
Things may have been lonely, but they got better. Another two years after Mel's departure, it was finally Janey's turn to go to Hogwarts. Her siblings—Thompson in Ravenclaw, Eric in Griffyndor and Mel in Slytherin—had argued and debated just whose house she would end in for the entire summer before. Mel and Eric even had a bet going on. Janey, though, wasn't sure what she wanted. She didn't even have the slightest idea where she belonged.
"Shouldn't it be obvious?" the sorting hat had given as an answer to her doubts, "Plain and simple, you're a Hufflepuff!"
At first, Janey was dejected about the situation; the houses her siblings represented were all known for strong exemplary traits, but she didn't have any of that. She was just one of "the rest." While unsure, she resigned to her fate, even as Mel tried to insist she was just so well-rounded and Eric made a stink with professors because his little sister was "too good for those bumbling badgers." Thompson was a little more helpful and told her about famous Hufflepuffs and subtly dropped hints about the house's best characteristics and how she exemplified them, trying to tell her that there was nothing 'wrong' or 'less' about her because of her house.
The turning point for her was a friendship formed with two upperclassmen. Kate Stuart, as nosy and noisy as she was absurdly tall, and Martin Bell, an artistic Qudditch captain, were two fifth-years who had decided to "adopt" Janey as their first-year protegee the second they saw her sit at the Hufflepuff table. Made nervous by Kate's loudmouth, prying personality and the mere fact that a Quidditch MVP was reaching out to her, Janey rejected them at first but they were persistent. They adjusted (read: Kate shut her mouth) to make her comfortable and helped her whenever her siblings couldn't, and one day Janey just realized that they really were her friends and she'd grown comfortable around them.
That was the same time that she completely embraced her Hufflepuffitude. Being one of "the rest" didn't mean the other houses were better—if anything, hers was so much more well-rounded! She radiated kindness, fairness and loyalty. Martin insisted that Helga Hufflepuff herself would have been proud. She may not have been brave, but she wasn't arrogant. She wasn't wise, but she wasn't so stuck-up or competitive, either. She wasn't clever, but she wasn't manipulative. What she was, was happy.
It's worth mentioning that sometime in Janey's second year, Kate and Eric began dating. It was a match meant for trouble—on everyone else's end, that is—but they are happy and it's a pleasant change compared to how much Eric badmouthed Hufflepuff before.
With Janey now in her third year, Kate and Martin are about to graduate (along with Eric and Thompson) but they have promised to never lose touch. Thompson has even let Janey use his owl to deliver letters. While Janey is still clammed up tightly inside her shell of shyness and insecurity, her friendships have made her a much happier person, even if it's not always completely evident, and she really does hope to one day truly succeed.