Susan

Susan

Portrayed by Sarah Bolger

Name:	Susan Mairead Carmody
Aliases:	Su
Birthday:	21 December, 1924
Position:	Ravenclaw Prefect
Lineage:	Half-blood

Any woman who is sure of her own wits, is a match, at any time, for a man who is not sure of his own temper.
— Wilkie Collins, The Woman In White (1860)

Description

A slim girl with luminous skin and clear, unfocused blue eyes, Susan carries herself with poise although her thoughts frequently seem to be elsewhere. She wears her brown hair in long waves down her back, and flipped in front of her shoulder. Standing about 5'4", she is slow to speak, but when she does her words carry the smooth tones of a refined Irish accent.

Background

In the middle of the 1920s, Susan was born in County Kerry to Alice Carmody, a nice and perfectly ordinary Muggle woman who was housekeeper to a wealthy family in residence in a large manor house several miles outside Killarney, Ireland. The household in which she was born was presided over by Thomas Baring, Lord Cromer, an academic whose connections saw a steady stream of eclectic personages constantly through the house to enjoy the hospitality of his wife and himself. Presumably, it was one of these gentlemen of his acquaintance who was responsible for getting Miss Carmody with child. Certainly, at least, Lord Cromer seemed to feel some degree of responsibility for her plight, for despite the scandal when her condition became apparent, he declined to remove the housekeeper from her position but rather undertook to ensure not only that she retained her employment, but also took some philanthropic interest in the child as she began to grow up. As a child Susan was given access to the grounds of the estate as well as the sizable library on the premises, and the respectable tutelage she had alongside Lord Cromer's own children endowed her with a familiarity and interest in English and classical literature even before her magical aptitude began to make itself known. Although she is not wealthy in her own right, nor has any expectation in that regard, still her mother's employers' generosity has ensured that she has never known real want.

Wand

Ten and one quarter inches inches, holly, reasonably supple, with a unicorn hair core.

Pet

Dido, a gracious, elderly gray shorthaired housecat with golden eyes.

Only a few odd and inexplicable moments had manifested themselves in Susan's early childhood, and these occasions were easily brushed aside in a busy household where everyone had far more important things to worry about. For Susan, raised with fairy stories and mythology readily to hand, these happenings seemed not unusual and she accepted them serenely. She found it quite a shock to be informed that she did, indeed, possess a rare aptitude, and one she must keep secret from the rest of the Muggle world. Her transition to Hogwarts was carried out smoothly and without fuss by a brisk woman who seemed to be offering little more than a good chance for a charity education for a bright girl with poor prospects, and Susan understands that her mother must never know the nature of her current life. Susan's course of study at Hogwarts has tended to gravitate toward history and sociological studies, as she is keenly aware of both her status as a Muggle-born and the reality that the Muggle world is unwittingly vulnerable against the currents that are swirling through Wizarding society.

Quirks

Bookworm	All her life, Susan's constant companions have been books. When she's feeling a little disconnected from the social activities around her, books are always there for her - and they're filled with reams of useful information, too. She tends to have one or two about her person most of the time, just in case she needs to retreat.
Idealist	Susan has been known to be unrealistic now and then, letting her ideals outweigh the reality of the situations in which she finds herself.
Distracted	Susan's mind is always whirring, and a good deal of the time she tunes out her physical environment to focus on some idea or thought that's captured her attention.
Illegitimate	Susan's bastard birth is a shameful scandal and she keeps the knowledge quietly to herself. It colors her behavior, however, especially when she worries that it will be the one thing people remember about her.
Wealth: Comfortable	Susan's mother is housekeeper for a wealthy family in Ireland. Although the two of them are not well off, Susan is familiar with the trappings of luxury from her upbringing there, and has never seriously wanted for anything.

RP Hooks

Unknown Father

Susan's father had some kind of passing relationship with her mother that left her unmarried, yet pregnant. Since her mother otherwise seems to be a fairly upright sort, she assumes her father had to be a cad or there may be more to this story that her mother has seen fit not to share. Her mother is as Muggle as they come, and everyone assumes that she is completely Muggle-born, but it's possible that her paternal lineage carried wizarding into her bloodline, isn't it? The ambiguity of her lineage niggles at her, but ultimately it doesn't really matter. Still, she always has an ear open, just in case some hint of the truth reveals itself.

Muggle Studies

Susan considers Muggle Studies to be her best subject, and not only because she was raised as a Muggle until she entered Hogwarts. Since that time she's spent a lot of time studying Muggle/Wizard relations, and has some opinions and insights into these fields that are becoming more and more relevant in the current political climate.

School Performance

	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year
Classes	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Astronomy	E	A	A	A	E
Charms	O	O	E	E	A
Defense Against the Dark Arts	A	E	A	A	A
Herbology	A	A	A	A	A
History of Magic	O	O	O	O	O
Potions	E	E	E	A	E
Transfiguration	O	O	E	O	E
Muggle Studies			O	O	O
Study of Ancient Runes			E	E	E
Broomflying	A

Logs

Logs featuring Susan

Logs that refer to Susan

(1941-07-01) Shopping Trip Gone to the Cats (1941-01-10) Hogwarts Quidditch 1940-41, Game 03 - Slytherin vs Ravenclaw (1940-12-20) Gift Exchange Feast (1940-12-08) Evening Stargazing (1940-11-23) A Typical Night in the Ravenclaw Commons (1940-11-22) Hogwarts Quidditch 1940-41, Game 02 - Hufflepuff vs Ravenclaw (1940-09-01) Hogwarts Start-of-Term Feast 1940-1941 (1940-09-01) Hogwarts Express Arrives in Hogsmeade (1940-09-01) Hogwarts Carriage Ride 1940 (1940-08-25) Bunkered Down

Relationships

Family

Unknown Father: Susan really doesn't know anything about her father, save that he visited Killarney, Ireland sometime in the spring of 1924. Was he a rogue, or a seducer, or something else entirely? Was he a wizard at all? She doubts she'll ever meet him to find out.

Alice Carmody Mother: Susan's Mum is a pleasant, hardworking sort of woman, with an abiding sense of reverence. She taught Susan a lasting respect for the people who made sure that she was clothed and fed and educated, for without their consideration her childhood would have been a rather wretched thing indeed. Susan knows she can't tell her mother about her Wizard life, and now that she is nearing adulthood, their roles have reversed somewhat, with Susan feeling a sort of protectiveness toward her mother.

Ravenclaw

Penelope Fifth-Year. Although the two girls differ significantly in terms of personality and drive, Penny and Susan end up spending a goodly amount of time together simply by virtue of sharing a year and House. Penny is more mercurial and vivacious than Susan has any intention to ever be, but at a party she can help draw Susan out of her shell.

Brody Seventh-Year. Brody Iolar is another Irish student in Susan's House, a Quidditch player and boy who's obsessed with brooms. He wants to become a broommaker after he finishes his N.E.W.T.s, which is sort of a neat ambition! They had seemed to be hitting it off and becoming friends over the autumn of her Fifth Year, but they seem to have suffered some kind of falling out just before the holidays, and are barely speaking now.

Hattie Sixth-Year. Hattie Wilkins is a serious girl in Susan's House with whom she gets on extremely well. They both have a lot in common, and although Hattie is frequently so buried in her coursework that they don't have a lot of time to socialize, when they do they seem to have a grand time.

Other Houses

Abraxas Slytherin. Sixth-year Abraxas Malfoy is a Slytherin Prefect and Quidditch player, who seems cool and composed and master of himself (and his surroundings) pretty much all of the time. Their relationship can't be described as warm, and Susan is certain he harbors some distressing opinions about Muggles and Muggle-born wizards, but they have a cordial working relationship that emerges whenever they have patrol duties together, or meet in extracurriculars.

Faculty

Uma Librarian. Susan spends a ridiculous amount of time in the Library, and her productive and non-disruptive demeanor, plus the way she quietly shares her enthusiasm for books with other students, has endeared her to Madam Patil. She's recently applied to be a Student Aide in the Library, and hopes to be accepted there.

Paeonia Professor of Muggle Studies. Professor Palancher's poised response to the tensions in the curriculum during the 1939-1940 school year have earned her Susan's respect and trust completely. It certainly doesn't hurt that she teaches the subject matter that interests Susan the very most.

Back Home

Thomas Baring, Lord Cromer Benefactor. Susan's mother's employer and the man who is responsible for keeping a roof over her head and seeing to her education. He must be about fifty and they do not have a particularly warm relationship, but she considers him a kind man and owes him a debt of gratitude.

Charlotte Baring, Lady Cromer Benefactress. Lord Cromer's wife is twelve or thirteen years his junior, and the kind of responsible, deliberate actor that one would expect from a lady of her estate. She is kept quite busy with her social and charitable obligations and no doubt it is this that has seen her interest in Susan cool in more recent years. Most likely this is the natural result of her children growing up and assuming their proper stations, apart from Susan's.

Thomas Auberon Baring Childhood Companion. For much of her childhood Susan was raised in close proximity Lord and Lady Cromer's four children, and although the difference in their stations was ever-present, there were also times when all of them would let their hair down and simply play together. Tom is the heir to the Cromer estate and fortune, and two years older than Susan. He has just this summer volunteered for a post in the British military, and she intends to write him regularly.

Cecily Beatrix Baring Childhood Companion. The second child and eldest daughter of the Baring brood, Cecily is only six months older than Susan and there was a point in their lives when they were inseparable. That time has passed now, the walls of aristocracy and Wizarding rising between them, but Susan continues to correspond with her, albeit with a more respectful tone.

Agnes Pleasance Baring Childhood Companion. The second daughter and third child of Susan's benefactor, Agnes is not quite a year younger than Susan, and fondly remembered as a spritely, playful child that may be at odds with the young lady she is swiftly becoming.

Leopold Casper Baring Childhood Companion. The youngest of Lord and Lady Cromer's four children, Leo is four years younger than Susan and was only seven when she left to attend Hogwarts for the first time. He was inordinately fond of having her read to him, and she the letters she still sends to him are the most familiar of all those she sends to the Baring children.

Gallery