#grace acker

[mischief-managed-memories]

"You know, you do look gorgeous first thing in the morning."

"Shut up."

Grace Acker, taken by Lorcan Scamander

[mischief-managed-memories]

Grace and Lorcan, taken by a sneaky passer-by

[mischief-managed-rumors]

Who do I think will get hitched first? Well, that's a good question. There's just so many couples that it could be. Though they aren't engaged yet, Peter and Loraly seem to me moving in the direction of marriage, fast. But it's not going to be them. I can almost guarantee it. Someone's going to beat them. The only question is who?

Camryn and Warren might have had a chance, but now that Victoria is back in the picture, and with a child, I don't think that relationship is long for this world. Same goes for Rose and Aidrik. As sweet as they might be, now that Scorpius is back, the inevitable pull that always seems to drag them back together is surely going to start acting up again. Unless Rose has finally learned how to fight it.

That leaves three couples. First we have Lysander and Reilly. Sure, they might be engaged, but it's been five years. I'm starting to think these two are never going to tie the knot. I mean, at what point are they going to realize that they can't sit around forever. Meanwhile, Demetri and Alice have been stable for a while. More then stable, actually, they've been pretty happy. So it could be them. But if I was a betting woman, I'd put my money on Lorcan and Grace. They're engaged and happy, and haven't been sitting around with the ring for five years.

Then again, who really knows? The course of true love never did run smooth, and things are far from calm around here. As a matter of fact, anything can change in the blink of an eye.

[mischief-managed-memories]

Aidrik, Lorcan and Demetri at the beach.

- Taken by the girlfriends. 

[mischief-managed-memories]

Reilly and Lysander

"Do you know how much I love you?" 

"I'm sure I do, but enlighten me love."

"To the edge of the universe and back."

Taken by Grace

[vanishinggrace]

Scars || Grace Acker

“It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.” 

― Rose Kennedy

As an adult, when Grace thought back on her very first time using wand magic, it would always strike her as being a bit funny and ironic that the little girl whose words would go on to become so destructive would choose for her first uttered spell to be for the purpose of healing.

The choice, as many choices tend to be, was made more out of necessity than any explicit desire to heal but looking back there seemed to be something appropriate about the spell that she would end up using both to heal herself and to heal others countless times over the course of her life being the first taste of the power she would eventually come to feel from inflicting scars of her own.

It had been a sunny day, if Grace's memory served correctly, but an ever present cloud hung over her father's house, casting shadows through the windows and dragging Grace's usually pleasant mood down to a point of sadness unknown even to some adults. Her father had left not too long ago, storming off in a drunken rage, slamming doors all over the house and muttering her mother's name until a heavy silence had fallen and Grace had finally dared to unfold herself from the cabinet where she had taken refuge from her father's storm and survey the damage. The house looked none the worse for the wear, much to Grace's surprise, and she had managed to run away from him and hide before he could drunkenly aim too many spells in her direction or dropped the wand in favour of his hands. The cut on her shoulder from the one spell that had actually hit its target had almost stopped bleeding, but Grace could tell that it was going to leave a mark if she didn't do something.

She trudged through the house, avoiding her father's room and only stopping once to pick up his wand from where he had dropped it next to the half empty bottle of alcohol and finally made her way to the one door in the house that always stayed closed. She quietly opened it and slipped inside. Her mother's study looked the same as always, nearly untouched since the woman who had once occupied the room in all her spare time had left six months prior. The scent of her perfume lingered faintly in the air, giving Grace a break from the stench of alcohol that seemed to have wormed its way into the rest of the house over time. The last book her mother had been reading, a spell book of some sort, lay propped open on her desk. Grace climbed onto the chair in front of the desk and laid the wand next to the book. Stuck to the page was a small note, pointing to a passage, on which her mother had hastily written 'for minor cuts, scrapes, burns and bruises' followed by a crossed out section which Grace could have sworn she could see the word sorry underneath all the scribbles. She shook her head and brushed the thought off. Her mother didn't know the meaning of the word sorry.

The instructions looked fairly simple, just wave the wand a certain way and say the word. There was no harm in trying, was there? It wasn't as if Grace lacked the magic, she frequently had random bursts of magical energy that sent things flying and had once even transfigured a flower into a spoon, so she decided to give it a shot. The wand felt heavy in her small hand, and after a few practice attempts at the gesture she turned to read the short word that held so much power.

Episkey.

As she spoke the spell and felt the magic flow through her fingertips and out the wand, Grace felt strangely powerful. Little did she know how well acquainted she would become with the spell in the future. She did not know that she would come to use it almost daily while living with her father. Nor did she know that one day she would use it to heal cuts she would inflict on herself. And she could have never known that one day, when she found herself healed in a way no spell would ever be able to accomplish, she would turn the wand onto others and help heal scars that she had helped to cause.

At that exact moment, Grace had no idea what her future held. For now she was just a little girl with a too big wand and a cut on her shoulder that was slowly healing as magic began to pull the edges back together until all that was left was a slightly uneven white line, almost unnoticeable if you didn't know exactly where to look. As the magic faded away and Grace dropped the wand the spell the power had cast over her ended, but something bigger had begun. She touched her shoulder and traced the scar, her first one, with her fingers. In time it would be joined with more faint white lines, weaving together to create a story on the blank canvas of her pale skin, a story of magic and pain and power and love that was only just beginning.

[vanishinggrace]

Character Development 1 - Grace Acker

What is your real, birth name? What name do you use? Do you have any other aliases?

My real name is Grace Emma Acker, I go by Grace. I don't have any aliases, though creating a few surely wouldn't be a bad idea if I'm going to start collecting gossip and rumors more actively than I already am.

Do you have a nickname? What is it, and where did you get it? 

My father used to call me Gracie, though if anyone tried to call me that now, they'd likely end up severely hurt or socially outcast by the next morning. Most people know the Rumor Mill, which I take great pleasure in writing, though I suppose no one would ever be able to connect that to me, so it's just Grace.

What do you look like? (Include height, weight, hair, eyes, skin tone, apparent age, tattoos, scars, and any other distinguishing features)

I'm fairly tall for my age, around 5' 9", and I don't weight much. People usually say I'm very skinny, and I don't have many curves. I have pale skin and a few freckles, which I actually quite like, and I was also genetically blessed with my mother's red hair and light blue eyes. When I'm in my uniform, I often get mistaken for someone younger than I am, but when I dress up, people usually guess my age as 16, which is right. I'd like to think I'm pretty, and though I've been told that a few times, the lack of attention I get from anyone seems to indicate otherwise. Though I do have a few scars from some incidents with my father in my childhood, I hide them pretty well, and so I don't have many distinguishing things about me. Other than the hair, of course, but in a school full of Weasley's, you can hardly say that red hair is uncommon.

How do you dress most of the time?

Most of the time I just wear my school uniform, but when I'm not in my uniform I'm fond of jeans and pretty shirts and I love skirts, though it's rarely warm enough to wear them here.

How do you “dress up?”

Pretty well, if I do say so myself. Almost unrecognisably well sometimes. I can do many things when I put my mind to it.

Do you wear any jewellery?

I wear earrings, and sometimes I wear a locket that used to belong to my... Emma. Most of the time I'm jewellery free, though.

In your opinion, what is your best feature?

Once upon a time, I would have said my hair, but Emma and Arnold took away any and all chances I had of liking it. The more time I've been away from them the more I've started to like it again though. If I had to pick my overall best feature, I think I'd have to go with my mind.

What’s your real birth date?

My birth date is October 17th, 2006.

Where do you live? Describe it: Is it messy, neat, avant-garde, sparse, etc.? Does anyone live with you (room mates, family, significant other)?

I live at Hogwarts. It's a lovely old castle. I have a few roommates, the other girls in my house and year, though I rarely speak to them. Or, should I say they rarely speak to me.

Do you consider yourself to be part of any race, nationality, religion, or subculture? Is this important to your identity?

I'm pretty proud of being a Slytherin, because of the many strong, ambitious wizards that have come from that house, but it's not hugely important to my identity. I'm sure it's influenced me slightly, but I turned out to be who I am because of my own doing, and not because of anyone else.

Are you disabled in any way? If so how?

No, I'm not.

Do you have a particular diet? (overeater, vegetarian, food allergies, etc.)

No. I don't eat much, but that's more so because I'm never hungry, and not because I'm on any sort of diet. The food in the castle is fairly good, so I'll basically eat anything that they serve.

Have you ever committed a crime? If so what did you do and were you caught and/or punished?

That would all depend on what you consider to be a crime. As for whether I've been caught... Well, I'm still the same old invisible good girl Grace of Hogwarts School, so that would be a no.

Are you responsible, financially or otherwise, for anyone other than yourself?

No, not particularly. I'm responsible for the Rumor Mill though, if you consider that, and I can kill friendships, relationships and reputations with just my words. But actually being responsible for someone other than me? No. It doesn't particularly appeal to me.

[vanishinggrace]

Fact 4. In place of making friends, Grace took to exploring the castle, finding many secret rooms and passages while doing so.