( cis woman | she/her | florence pugh ) —— isn’t that BERTHA JORKINS? yeah that is them, outside the three broomsticks! they used to be in GRYFFINDOR but apparently they now work as an SHOPKEEP at SPINWITCHES SPORTING NEEDS. sybill once said that they reminded her of carefully listening to conversations happening around her, late night telephone calls home, heart shaped golden lockets, fine chocolate imported from Belgium which seems about right. anyway i’ve heard they’re still a bit FRIENDLY, DITZY and NOSY, they’re TWENTY THREE now but some things never change! i wonder how being a HALFBLOOD is affecting them after hogwarts, especially now they’re NEUTRAL? i guess only time will tell…
𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓 / 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐆𝐄
tw : none
character influences : shirley ( last night at the telegraph club ) , alison dilaurentis ( pretty little liars ) , sharpay evans ( high school musical ) , louise grant ( girlmore girls )
full name : bertha lyra jorkins
nickname : none
name origin : bertha , bright one , german
ethnicity : white
siblings : none
age : twenty - three
date of birth : 5 may
sexuality : heterosexual
relationship status : single
patronus : crow
boggart : clowns
wand : english oak , unicorn , springy
affiliation : neutral
former house : gryffindor
job : shopkeep at spinwtiches
bertha jorkins was raised by muggles . or that’s what she always thought . in reality . elisabeth and flora were both tied to the magical world . but elisabeth was a squib who’s family worked for flora’s . thorugh their years as friends , they fell in love . unfortunately , flora was set to marry a pureblood wizard . when flora became pregnant , she and elisabeth decided to run away .
she grew up happy and loved by her parents , unaware that magic existed , safely nestled into a small cottage in the countryside . bertha was always a bit of a wild card . she loved talking to people and meeting people , which scared her parents , but they liked the idea of their daughter growing up tolerant of all people .
at the age of six , bertha had basically had befriended everyone in her small town . she would talk to anyone , didn’t matter who they were or how old they were . some people said that she just liked hearing her own voice and that was likely true , except she did just adore making new friends .
something had always seemed off about her though , but whenever she asked her parents for an explanation , they looked at each other and said that she was too young to know , which irritated her because she felt like she could handle whatever truth her parents would tell her . though she never did get the secret out of them .
thankfully , she did find out the truth sooner rather than later when her hogwarts letter arrived . her parents argued with her for weeks about going because they didn’t want her to go to the school . they were scared at what kind of place she’d be going to and what trouble people would give her ; bertha didn’t care about it , she wanted to know magic . so reluctantly , she was allowed to go off to the school .
sorting was an interesting thing for bertha , as she never was ambitious or honest or smart , but if there was something she was it was loud and proud of who she was . she would stand up for anyone who needed to be stood up for . bertha felt like she did belong in gryffindor , but hogwarts was a different matter . it was then that she realized her family’s history and how her parents had disappeared to be together .
during school , she struggled academically . she was better at socializing and gossiping with people than she was with school work . her favorite thing , other than watching quidditch matches , was gossiping with her friends . her grades were never anything to be impressed with , though there were classes that she did take seriously . while she didn’t graduate with the best of grades , she was average in every way .
bertha doesn’t know what she wants to do with the rest of her life , and determined to live on her own , she’s working at a shop keeper at spinwitches . while it isn’t her favorite place or job , it gets her enough money to live in wizarding london with a couple of roommates and keeps her parents happy enough that she’s happy and healthy ; and as angry as she is at them , she also does love her parents .
the growing tension in the wizarding world scares her , though not enough to do anything about it . bertha’s opinions are known as not aligning with the death eaters due to her parents stories about what they both went through . however , she doesn’t feel like she has anything worth adding to the war nor does she really want to get involved .
for the time being , she’s fine with living in an almost boring life , doing her best to keep herself occupied and happy . she wants to figure out her life first . bertha is doing he best to keep her head up and her opinions close to her heart . and as much as her parents hate her being where she is , she refuses to go home - and she refuses to admit just how much she misses home . but maybe one day she’ll be able to show them that the wizarding world is safe for them .
“ -and that’s why the holyhead harpies are going to beat both the bats and wasps. you know what, i’ll bet money on it too. “ moira scoffed. “ look at him, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. “ she remarked to the person next to her – oh right, them. moira did tend to get carried away, even if that included getting into arguments with random strangers and apparently putting aside the current conversation she was having. it was all done now, so back to bussines. “ anyway, what were you saying? before we were so rudely interrupted. “ she said, as if it wasn’t equally her fault.
quidditch talk reminded bertha of work and she was eager to not think about that , and the heartbreak of everything that came with that . she listened to the man pretending that he knew anything about a sport . bertha couldn’t help rolling her eyes at the whole situation regardless of if she wanted to talk about the sport . “ i was just wondering what if maybe we could get out of here ? ” personally , she didn’t really want to be out drinking , out with people who clearly wanted to talk quidditch . “ i need career advice . i’m thinking about quitting my job . trying to secure a job at the ministry or something . i don’t know . my moms are right . a shopkeeper isn’t a career . ”
English Oak: Something you have never grown out of, and has remained with you since childhood?
“probably a bit of an odd one, but waffles, my favorite cow on the farm. she’s big and fluffy and friendly, but she grew up with me. as much as i want to admit it, i will never grow out of my love for that farm and the animals i helped raise.”
“I’d back up a little bit if I were you,” Pandora noted, looking over towards the other person with wide eyes behind her crooked frames and cracked lenses. An expert in disaster, she would consider herself and a delver into the curiosities of the world around her. Arcana was no exception. Just because a few words worked in theory and didn’t seem to backfire too poorly in tests, didn’t mean that it worked in practice. “But if you insist, you can continue to stand in the line of fire. Don’t ask me to pay any medical bills. I did warn you.”
bertha took a step back, not really wanting to be in the line of fire of a rogue spell from someone she didn’t know that well. she’d learned that was apparently a thing she needed to be careful about these days. people seemed to insist on hurting each other for whatever reason and while bertha knew that likely she wasn’t going to get attacked right now, the other day was still fresh on her mind. “i’m curious to know what you’re doing, that’s all,” she said. “i don’t need another medical bill.”
“Why do you assume I’m going to take the time out of my day to listen to you whine?” Seph shrugged, not particularly bothered by the implication of some lack of solidarity. “You’re a stranger. I have no obligation to you one way or the other, and I’ve certainly got no obligation to get involved in something between you and another stranger.”
maybe she was just raised differently because bertha was never rude to strangers. she would have never been so rude to a random person. maybe she was just taught actual manners. “well... you’re wrong about that. mums always told me that women need to look out for other women. what kind of world do we live in where we hurt each other? and we’re not strangers. we went to school together.”
“Bear!” Graeme sits up at once, forgetting about his cracked ribs and regretting it instantly. He inhales sharply, wrapping his arm around his middle as if to hold himself together. Fucking ow.
It takes him a moment to recover, slowly settling himself more comfortably against his pillows. “Well, that makes two of us,” he jokes weakly, the barest flicker of a smile crossing his features. Graeme’s eyes flit between the card on the table and Bertha herself, edging towards the door. “You’re not going already, are ye?”
she flinches at the nickname. she’s still mad at him even if it’s not his fault. it’s just difficult to stay mad at him when something clearly happened. bertha stands close to the door, wondering if she’s making everything awkward or if it’s alright that she’s here at all. they haven’t spoken in what feels like forever.
“seems like for a reason though,” she comments, looking at him softly. bertha doesn’t know what she’s supposed to say and she’s never been at a loss for words her entire life. her mums both comment that she doesn’t really know when to shut up. she supposes that’s why she gets into so much trouble. “i don’t have to, but i... i’m helping with the cows. and i... was out all night. i just... i wanted to leave a card. so you didn’t think i didn’t care.”
Never in his wildest dreams had Graeme thought he’d end up back in this bed. It’s a different ward, of course, but the hospital still feels just as it did five years ago - somehow simultaneously too loud and too quiet. It sets his nerves jangling, so when he realises there’s somebody standing next to his bed, he stirs, looking hopeful beneath his injuries. “Can I go home yet?”
bertha had come in to st mungo’s for a checkup after being found outside a random pub in the morning. she didn’t even remember being there that’s how drunk she’d ended up. there weren’t gaps in her memory, just alcohol making everything fuzzy. she was on her way out and back home to the farm when she spotted a familiar face in one of the rooms. the strawberry blonde snuck off to get a get well card and planned on just... leaving it but apparently she’s louder than she expected. “i donno. i don’t even know why you’re here.” she set the card down on the table and backs up to the door. “i left you a card.”
arden was having a rough couple of weeks but she had done her best to keep that to herself considering that she needed to keep up a cool front especially lately due to her engagement being announced and having to do all the things that entails an engagement announcement. and if she were being honest? she felt alone in this whole thing. she didn’t know who she could talk to in fear that she were annoying them or that they wouldn’t understand. she had briefly thought of finn but tried to push that out of their head because they knew that it would cause her to spiral and she didn’t need that right now. which is why in fact she was about to do something for her, watching the other girl smile and dance with her, feeling the music and alcohol throughout her body had made her feel something she hadn’t felt in a very long time. “why not?” she says, with a smirk, “it’s fun showing people what they can’t have,” she says in a whisper, she pulls the other closer towards her, lifting her chin up and she cups her hands around her cheek and pulls her closer and presses her lips against her, their breath smells of alcohol and something she can’t quite name but in her drunken state it’s enticing and for a moment, just a single moment, she feels wanted and desired.
it wasn’t that her last few weeks had been rough. bertha was just being dramatic about what had happened. her parents were happy to let her stay with them for a bit while she took her break from work, but she knew she eventually needed to make a decision. personally, she’d run off to spain or something just to get out of england for a little while, except she knew her parents would hate that. bertha didn’t know what she was supposed to do now or act around any of her friends. it seemed like everything was probably going to change and she didn’t do well with that. thankfully, she didn’t have to party with her friends to have a good time. it was nice to know that she could go out and meet new people that wanted the same thing she did. usually, she didn’t care if she was the center of attention. tonight felt different though. this wasn’t the type of attention she was typically after though. it kind of made her uncomfortable, using sexuality to get people to watch her. bertha knew her mums wouldn’t stand for something like this. when the other woman’s lips met hers, bertha takes a step backwards, breaking the tension that was there previously. “i’m not gay,” she responds. there’s a buzz in her ears because she’s not sure how the other will take that. “i don’t want to do this here.”
for a long moment (it really … seemed to go on for a hellish eternity) mina had no idea what to do. she didn’t know what she’d walked into to begin with, no idea what the fight was about, but, clearly, bertha was not done. it took a lot of work – and especially when she was as drunk as she was, though, a case could be made that less effort was necessary for as drunk as bertha was – to keep a completely neutral look on her face, not a peep escaping her further until graeme had left. “what the hell was that all about, ya bloody bam? what’d graeme do to you to deserve that, bert? that’s uncalled for, and I know you know it.” her disapproval was stern, but nonetheless, the teariness melted mina, and she coddled her drunken mate, deserved or not.
“I think we’ve had enough. I know I have, and i’ve only been back a few minutes. you’re being … we’ve had enough fighting for the night,” she said, though, she wasn’t truly very concerned about it as a possibility at this point; bertha was dissolving very rapidly into the kind of tears you just couldn’t bounce back from in a pub (or in public at all) so she nodded her head in agreement, smoothing a hand over bertha’s hair and down the girl’s back. “you don’t want to hear this sugarplum, but silas hasn’t done anything. and he doesn’t have anybody, not like that. what he has is a few new friends, though, clearly, there’s one less than graeme and I had hoped to be able to drum up for silas.” again, though, mina chose to put her chiding tone away, and with a sigh, she dropped a kiss on her friend’s head. “alright, i’ll get you home to your mums, okay? we’re gonna go from right here, yeah? don’t even have to go anywhere take a deep breath, you ready?” mina had no idea, truthfully how well the tab was paid up at that point, but it wasn’t going to be any trouble to settle it up in the morning, she knew, so she got a firm grip of her friend (and gave bertha a warning first) and apparated them directly into the living room of bertha’s mums’ home. “I know it’s late, and i’m so sorry we had to travel like that babes, are you okay? are you dizzy? do you need the loo?”
she didn’t feel like she’d had enough yet. there was still fight in her, still pissed off at the situation and her own stupidity. but she couldn’t leave without getting the last word in, so now that she had, she relaxed a bit more. let him be angry at her all he wanted. bertha wasn’t at fault for her feeling when she’d been obvious about her feelings, even if she denied them that one time to mina. “it wasn’t uncalled for. he hurt my feelings.” she wiped the tears from her face, stepping down off the chair she was standing on. “it wasn’t uncalled for. i’m allowed to feel my feelings.” no one could make her feel bad about her feelings, even if maybe she was being a tad bit rude about them tonight. her best friend had hurt her and she always felt like second best.
“i want to go home.” she wanted her parents, not her empty apartment filled with happy photos of her friends and memories she didn’t care to think about now. she wanted the farm and her mums to hold her and tell her it would all be okay, even if maybe it wouldn’t be okay. she was drunk and she was angry. even in this state she knew it wasn’t a good idea to start a literal fight right now. bertha didn’t want to get banned from the bar. “what’s so special about him anyways?” she asked, wiping another tear out of her face. betha nodded at mina, just wanting to be home without leaving the pub. “i’m fine.” she hugged onto mina. “will you stay with me this evening? i’ll let you pet the cows in the morning.”
