BASIC INFORMATION
Character name: Rosmerta "Ros" Wilkinson Age: 45 Gender & Pronouns: Female. She/her Occupation: Owner of The Three Broomsticks Blood status: Pureblood Previous house: Slytherin Previous Affiliation: Order of the Phoenix Face claim: Hannah Waddingham Traits: Positive - charming, confident, generous Negative - Flirty, haughty, confrontational
Rosmerta Wilkinson was born in June 1936 to Charles and Margaret Wilkinson. Rosmerta had Charles wrapped around his finger the moment she entered the world, while Margaret, on the other hand, couldn’t help but feel… trapped. At least that’s how she had described it to Charles in the letter she had written a year after Rosmerta had been born. Despite their Irish Catholic background, the pair had never gotten married, seemingly making it easier for Margaret to leave her family in the middle of the night. Charles always suspected her parents played a role in her leaving due to the second-hand Catholic guilt they felt about welcoming a child out of wedlock. After the initial shock wore off, Charles didn't think much of it. He had a daughter to raise and a pub to run.
Rosmerta had grown up in The Three Broomsticks Inn, watching her father, uncles, and aunt run the pub. She watched as her father happily served customers, often into the wee hours of the morning. She watched as her aunt and uncles greeted customers as if they were family. Looking back, she probably shouldn’t have been in the pub as young as she had been, but her family lived upstairs. It was next to impossible to stop her from being there because it was her family’s pub. There wasn’t much she or her family could have done. And she wouldn’t have had it any other way. She loved the sounds of the bustling pub on a Thursday night. She enjoyed being woken up by the sounds of bar stools scraping against the floor.
As she got older, her family gave her more responsibilities. She was tasked with cleaning the pint glasses when one of the patrons finished or clearing the tables after people drunkenly left the establishment. It shaped her into the spunky, feisty young girl that she was.
So when she got her Hogwarts letter, telling her she was to go to school the year she turned eleven, she was saddened to know she wouldn’t be able to smell firewhiskey on her father’s shirts when she hugged him anymore, or she wouldn’t be able to hear the sound of glass shattering as someone threw a drunken punch. It had been burdensome, leaving her family and the pub she had grown to love more than life itself for the first time as an eleven-year-old. She was homesick and wrote home often. She was particularly close to her father, who reassured her that the bar would be there when she visited during Christmas and summer break. But it didn’t make it any easier.
Her first year at Hogwarts went about as normally as you would expect. It wasn’t surprising to her or her family when she was sorted into Slytherin, seeing as her spunk and feistiness grew as she found her voice, coming to the defense of other first-years who took the brunt of the older kids' bullying. The following years went smoothly as she found her own group of friends and flourished in her classes. Charms and potions fascinated her, which would do her well with her profession.
The years she spent at Hogwarts, her group of friends growing and dwindling as it does when you get older and become more sure of yourself, gave her a family away from her family. She had met friends she considered siblings, something she hadn’t had growing up. She had been an only child, her mother running off before she and her father could have more children.
Once Rosmerta graduated from Hogwarts, she moved back home to help her family run The Three Broomsticks. She had lost her Aunt Barb during her sixth year at Hogwarts. It was a devastating loss because Barb had taken over as her mum when her biological mother had run off. She was the one from whom she had inherited her feistiness and spunk from. But she knew it would make her aunt proud knowing she followed in her footsteps, hoping to run the pub herself one day.
Rosmerta helped her father run the pub for a few years before he decided he couldn’t do it anymore and retired, handing down the pub to his only daughter. Rosmerta took it in stride, and she loved every moment of it. Her father helped her immensely until she found her footing, and then he moved back home to Ireland.
Over the years working at The Three Broomsticks, Rosmerta had met people from all walks of life. She enjoyed talking to people and hearing about their life experiences. Rosmerta had had a few flings back at Hogwarts, but nothing serious. She had a few boyfriends here and there, but it wasn’t until after she graduated and started working at the pub that she realized she was queer. It was because of the vast clientele that came in and out of the pub that she realized that she was, in fact, gay. One customer, in particular, stuck out to her. They had sparked an immediate connection, and over the months that the woman came to the pub, they struck up a relationship. They were together for eleven years before they amicably broke it off. Since then, Rosemerta has had a few serious relationships, but nothing compared to her first relationship. She often thought fondly of the woman.
When the first war hit, Rosmerta made it a point to keep her pub open, if only to keep some sliver of normalcy for her and her regulars. It was the only thing she could do to keep herself sane. She joined the Order of the Phoenix, and she always made it known, however, that The Three Broomsticks was open to any of the members. Drinks were always on her, and if need be, it could be used for the organization.
Those several years of war hit Rosmerta hard. She was glad her father was home in Ireland, away from the mass hysteria, but she wished he was there with her. She could have done with his wisdom and charm. The pub did better than she expected, especially considering she was averaging a couple of customers a night towards the war's end.
