Nora

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Character Information
Portrayed by Gabriella Wilde
Name: Honora Melissa Summerbee
Aliases: Nora, Honey, Honeybee
Birthday: November 29th, 1920
Position: Potion Maker
Lineage: Pure-blood

Description

A young woman in her latest teens or earliest twenties, Honora 'Nora' Summerbee stands a few inches over five feet in height. She has long, wavy honey hair, hazel-blue eyes, and a slight build. Her posture is generally tense, guarded, never fully relaxed; she doesn't fidget much, and her movements are typically slow and deliberate. She's attractive, more or less, but a bit off-putting: while it's not at all true to say she never smiles, her more cheerful expressions usually pass quickly and look a little forced.

Clothing conceals all but her head; a voluminous dark gray robe covers everything most of the time, and even her hands are protected by gloves. This isn't that unusual for someone that works with potions as a hobby and a profession - when you work with potentially caustic or poisonous potion ingredients all day, exposed skin is a liability.

Background

Honora Melissa Summerbee was born and grew up near Ottery St. Catchpole, the only child of Nathan Summerbee and Felicitas Lovegood. Her mother is a scholar and a writer on magical theory and philosophy, though not widely-published, and her father is a skilled potioneer known locally for producing high quality but slightly quirky potions. Both are loving parents and were able to provide well for their daughter, but they're also quite dedicated to their respective jobs and were not as attentive as they could have been. Ultimately, Honora had a relatively comfortable and happy childhood, but a slightly lonely one. Living where she did, she grew up slightly closer to the Lovegood side of the family than the Summerbees.

Honora (who had by this time learned to introduce herself as 'Nora' to avoid her name being shortened to 'Honey' with a last name like Summerbee) was accepted into Hogwarts in 1932. Fully expecting to follow in her parents' footsteps as a Ravenclaw, she was crushed when she was sorted into Hufflepuff. Slytherin would have been almost acceptable. Gryffindor would have been okay, though unexpected. But Hufflepuff? They're where all the wizards not good enough to get into a better house go! At least, that's how Nora viewed it. Nevertheless, she worked hard (arguably demonstrating a core Hufflepuff virtue admirably) and excelled in Potions and, to a lesser extent, Herbology, going on to do well in NEWTs for both. In classes requiring quick thinking or coordination, such as Charms and Broomflying, however, she struggled, scraping by with mediocre performance no matter how hard she studied or practiced.

Since her recent graduation (class of '39), Nora has stayed in London rather than returning home, trying to make a living on her potioneering skills. She continued an internship at MacDiarmarda Apothecary into a proper job, and hopes to follow in her father's footsteps and own her own little shop someday, or perhaps to invent a potion that shops everywhere will sell. Her job is also her hobby and a portion of the money she's earned has gone toward buying herself better ingredients and brewing equipment so she can experiment with unusual potions and variant recipes at home, in her free time. That's not to say she has no life outside potions, but when she ventures out into public it's generally been because the potion she's currently working on at home needs to brew undisturbed for a few hours.

RP Hooks

  • Potioneer — Nora works at MacDiarmarda's Apothecary to make a living, and spends a good chunk of her free time brewing potions and preparing ingredients besides. Need a potion? She might be able to help, though things she's brewed in spare time tend to be a little experimental and unreliable.
  • Reluctant Hufflepuff — Nora was a Hufflepuff at Hogwarts, though not happily so. If you were in her House, you likely remember her as quiet, distant, clumsy with magic, and lacking House pride. A good person to have as a partner on a Potions or Herbology project, though.
  • Pragmatic Heroics — Honora is normally shy, risk-averse, and unambitious, but on some level she's aware that her self-doubt is a luxury. In the face of immediate danger, Nora keeps a clear head, does what she can, and generally manages to put off the panic attack till after danger has passed.

Quirks

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  • Wealth: Comfortable — Nora's family isn't stupendously wealthy, but their support has helped keep her safely out of any debt and she's saved up a good portion of the allowance her parents used to provide her while she was attending Hogwarts.
  • Deliberate — Nora's not very good at thinking on her feet, and she's kind of a klutz when she's in a hurry. She deals with both problems by taking time to consider her actions carefully.
  • Independent — Nora wants to prove to herself that despite her lack of skill in some areas (especially spellcasting), she can succeed on her own merits. Letting someone else help her too much would be cheating.
  • Distracted — Even when she's out and about, Nora generally has a potion bubbling back home; part of her mind's always on that, worried that if she loses track of time her potions will boil over. Or explode. That's happened before, and it's an awful mess to clean up.

Logs

Logs featuring Nora Logs that refer to Nora

Relationships

Augustin

Augustin
He's charming and attractive, intelligent, thoughtful, and pretty romantic. Until recently, a mutual misunderstanding had each convinced that the other wasn't interested, but Nora is at least infatuated with the Rosseau.

Rook

Rook
Nora's cousin. Like her, he was sorted into Hufflepuff despite coming from a primarily Ravenclaw family; unlike Nora, Rook seems fairly proud of his House. The two are on good terms, and Nora helped him with his Potions classes during her last two years at Hogwarts.

Alphard

Alphard
While Nora hasn't had trouble with the guy directly, he's still a bully, and at the least he's unfriendly to both Augustin and Rook. As he's both physically and magically more powerful than her in nearly every way as well as being part of a family with greater social status, Nora doesn't dare antagonize him; her current strategy when dealing with him is to be as diplomatic as possible and hope he gets bored and leaves.

Gallery

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