WELLES, briony veronica

Briony Veronica Welles

Personality

While Briony embodies aspects of Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff houses; her core values reside in friendships, loyalty and trust, which is likely why she went to the badgers. She doesn't consider herself a leader, but her drive has always been to bring people together. Besides: she would much rather count herself as one of the flock than the shepherd, which is what being a Hufflepuff is all about (in her opinion).

Briony is caring, empathetic and people-curious. She likes to consider the inner workings of others; what their passions are, and what drives them. But as much as she feels she understands people; Briony is far too trusting. She is naive, loyal to a fault and has a rather immature way of looking at the world as black and white. There are good people, and there are bad people. Still: this is something that she was likely grow out of, with more life experience.

She likes to think she is 'accepting of everyone equally' but this isn't the case. She judges, just as everyone else does. Briony is fairly sensitive, and sometimes finds it hard to swallow her pride. Her insecurities surfaces the most when she is criticised, and she often holds a grudge against those who have wronged her. Not that she will ever be bold enough to hurt them. She just sort of stews in her own annoyance of them, and will talk behind their back. She feels as though this is warranted, for 'horrible' people.

As a student she comes up as 'average' across the board, except for in one or two areas. Her forte resides in charmwork, and her struggles are with anything that requires close attention to detail: potions and arithmancy (which she dropped after third-year and took up care of magical creatures instead), for example. See, she can sometimes be quite scatter-brained and has a tendency to be away with the clouds, so to speak. You see where others think in logic and facts: her intelligence comes from team spirit, or emotion and connections with others. If she doesn't like her professor; it's unlikely she will find the drive to be any good in their class.

History

Briony grew up in a small suburban neighbourhood in the south of England called Singleton, where the general attitude was welcoming but not entirely accepting. Her neighbours, as well as her own parents, worked very hard in keeping up appearances. Gardens were neat, well-kept and slightly ostentatious; same as the interior of their houses, their cars and their children. But Briony didn't really like the snotty kids who lived there: there were the snotty kids, and there were the loser kids. She was one-hundred percent loser, and rather proud.

She and her friends were adventurers, investigators, and unintentional trouble-makers. They weren't rough kids (they didn't associate with the rough kids - they were in the neighbouring town); they were just curious. When they were very young, they spent their time play-acting detectives; like when their friend Timothy lost his eyeglasses, they knocked on doors and went through hedges and interviewed suspects as though it were a great mystery. It turned out that Timothy had left them in his coat pocket the entire time; but they had so much fun together, it became a weekend thing for them to become 'detectives'.

When Briony was nine, she approached her friends with what she called 'The Greatest Mysteries of Singleton'. At first she received an unenthusiastic reception; they saying that they were too old now for play-acting; but Briony insisted that these were real mysteries. Stuff that had been in Singleton's history for decades. There were The Great Three: the mystery of Bellerose mansion, the mystery of the basement room, and the mystery of Mrs Hansgrove.

The mystery of Bellerose mansion was something every resident of Singleton knew. It was a large, dark, creepy-looking house (not quite a mansion, but for some reason it was called that) at the top of the hill that was said to be haunted. Residents that had broken into there had sworn they had seen, heard and felt things that weren't quite right.

The group of friends went to the house, and they didn't find anything peculiar. It was an abandoned house: of course it was creepy, and imagination would run rampant. They were about to leave disappointed, when something appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. It was pearly, semi-transparent and had the face and body of a man. "Hello." He had said, clear as day. Briony had screamed, had fled, and when questioned by her friends afterwards; it seemed that they hadn't seen or heard anything. But Briony was certain... she had just seen a ghost.

They had gone onto the next mystery in an attempt to calm her nerves. It was a flight of stairs from an old, abandoned shop leading to some kind of basement accessible by the outdoor ground level. The mystery stated that nobody had actually managed to come in or out of there, or even get to the bottom of the steps leading to the door. So, naturally, the friends descended these steps. Most of them stopped very promptly half-way down, turning stony-faced and placid; stating that they had forgotten very important things, and had to leave immediately. Briony, however, felt something of an inner turmoil.

See, half of her felt as though she may have forgotten something; but the other half said 'no, I'm doing this right now'. When she found herself at the bottom of the steps, she blinked at the door.

The final mystery, Briony attended alone.

The mystery was simple: it was a woman - Mrs Hansgove - sitting at a bench in the middle of no-where, and suddenly disappearing. As Briony watched Mrs Hansgrove on this bench, the darkness of night swallowed her up until she 'disappeared'. So that was that. A crackpot old lady sitting on a bench in the pitch black.

Just as Briony was about to leave, however; something incredible happened. A triple-decker, violently purple bus sprung out from around the corner and Mrs Hansgrove boarded it. When she turned, she winked at Briony. Then it all disappeared into the night with a tremendous BANG.

Needless to say, she hadn't slept a wink that night. She vowed never to play detective ever again.

But, still, it was the turning point in Briony's life. Mrs Hansgrove had found her the next day and explained everything: that her maiden name was Bellerose ("You went to my family's old house, and met my dear dead brother.") and that where she currently lived was under that abandoned shop ("You weren't affected by my anti-muggle charms.") and that she worked on something called the Knight Bus ("That's where I go every night.") And Briony could only see and do these things because "You're a witch, my dear."

When Briony was eleven, she journeyed to Hogwarts. The Statute of Wizarding Secrecy had forbade her from saying anything to her muggle friends, or her extended family. The only people in her life who knew her true identity were her parents. She hated that stupid Statute: her once close friends now felt estranged, distant; wary of her.

She made it her priority to befriend people. Togetherness was very important to her, as well as the feeling of belonging. Good times with good friends. It didn't matter if they were uncovering some mystery, or eating a hearty meal, or pretending to study for their exams, or staying up late in a dormitory to discuss frivolous things. What she truly valued was friendship.

... and family.

In the spring before her fifth year, things changed for everybody. As the wizarding world faced mass exposure and a lot of people lost their lives. Everyone was affected in different ways. For Briony, it started with the murder of Julia Hansgrove: the muggleborn witch who had first told her about the wizarding world. Then came her Aunt with her anti-wizard stance: believing that the wizarding population could only cause harm more so than good. Her own parents have silenced her from admitting that she is a witch; although Briony is certain everything will come out, eventually.

Then Briony started questioning whether the Statute was bad after all; or had it really just protected them all...

Now she is preparing to return to Hogwarts for her fifth year, but this summer will likely be the longest of her life.