praveena ezhil iyer, 26, ravenclaw alum, simone ashley FC, CLOSED, original character
Birthday: September 13
Blood Status: Pureblood
Gender & Pronouns: Cis-female, she/her
Occupation: Auror
Sided with: Order of the Phoenix
Positive Traits: dynamic, curious, creative, devoted, independent
Negative Traits: single minded, bitter, defiant, uncommunicative, defensive
Summary: As a child, it was mostly Praveena’s good traits that dominated her personality. She was lively and intelligent, charmingly precocious for the most part, if sometimes annoyingly curious. She never minded being the only child of two hard working parents, keeping after herself in whatever surroundings they put her in. It wasn’t until she got older that some of her worse traits became apparent. She was forever getting in trouble for one thing or another while at Hogwarts, and she often chose not to share the perfectly reasonable explanation for her actions that would have saved her, and her professors, a world of frustration. She often ends up with blinders on when it comes to the importance of her own goals, and the bitterness of her coming of age still sits heavy in her heart.
childhood (trigger warning: death of a parent)
The match between Ajay Iyer and Priyanka Patil was made by their parents in the hope that Ajay’s steady demeanor might cool some of Priyanka’s passion. Instead, Priyanka’s fire provided the spark Ajay had always been searching for. Together, they became a force to be reckoned with, rising through the ranks of the Ministry on parallel trajectories. As Ajay moved from trainee to auror to head auror to youngest ever Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Priyanka climbed from being an unimportant secretary in the Wizengamot Administration Services to claiming, in a controversial move since by then she was an Iyer by name, the Patil family seat on the Wizengamot itself, the first female member of the Patil family to do so. The Iyers were the shining stars of the Ministry, and everyone had their eyes on them.
It was into this family that Praveena was born at the end of an unseasonably warm September day. From the outset, it was clear that she had inherited her mother’s fire. Praveena was an opinionated infant with a wail that filled the Iyer family’s impressive townhome, and even the Wizengamot courtrooms when Priyanka brought her into work. But as Praveena grew, and learned, and explored, pastimes both of her parents enthusiastically endorsed, it became clear that all her similarities with her mother could not outweigh her admiration of her father. At a young age, Praveena taught herself to control her temper and adopt her father’s calm and deliberate mannerisms. While it was Priyanka who brought the youngest Iyer into work, the end of the day often found her in the corner of Ajay’s office, watching every little interaction with captivated eyes.
Whenever she managed to corner an adult in a one on one conversation, something her parents’ more senior staff and closest associates learned to avoid, she was a bottomless font of questions. Praveena had an insatiable appetite for knowledge, and proved quite adept at synthesizing that knowledge into understanding. She learned to read early and enthusiastically, and her parents chose not to restrict what books she had access to. As a child she lived more on the second floor of the Ministry than in her own home and associated more with adults than other children her age. She was her grandparents’ Monkey’s Paw wish; the perfect balance of her two parents’ temperaments, but in the opposite way of what they’d intended.
By the time Praveena turned eleven, there was no doubt of her future course. The family had known from her earliest signs of magic that she was bound for Hogwarts and it was abundantly clear that she would be suited for no house but Ravenclaw. Ajay and Priyanka had even arranged a respectable marriage for her, under their parents’ guidance, and Praveena herself had settled on a career in the Investigation Department of the DMLE as her goal after graduation. But Praveena’s time at Hogwarts was more of a trial than she expected it to be. She chafed under the strictly regimented existence of school life after the unbridled freedom of her childhood, and she found children were rarely as easy to get along with as adults.
It took time, but Praveena slowly learned balance, channeling her father as she did in all her most stressful times. She learned to split her focus in class so she could listen to the professor’s lecture and work on more interesting studies at the same time. She forced herself to get her required homework done first thing after classes ended so she would have as much time for her own pursuits as she wanted in the evening. She never became popular, but it was through her mother’s blessing that she found friends. As Praveena got older and the clouds of war left the distant horizon and began to loom over the British wixen community, lines were drawn and, thanks to Priyanka’s fierce ideals and unwavering morals, Praveena knew exactly what side she was on. So she gathered a cohort of like-minded students who would become dear, devoted friends. It was never in doubt, Praveena would stand for what was right and good, for equality and justice, just as her parents did.
The only problem was, the entire country knew as well as Praveena where her parents stood. Ajay worked to identify corruption and blood prejudice in his own department, determined to rip it out at the root. In the Wizengamot, Priyanka was one of the only voices advocating for the kind of aggressive legislation that would clip the wings of the budding blood purity movement. They became a problem for the Death Eaters and, in time, they became the Death Eater’s first publicly claimed assassinations. Praveena was fifteen when one of her father’s aurors came to Hogwarts to give her the news. Ajay and Priyanka Iyer had been found dead in their townhome when a green cloud floating over the residence gave neighbors cause for concern. It wasn’t until later that Praveena found out the Death Eaters had also carved “blood traitor” into both of their foreheads.
With Ajay and Priyanka gone, the Patils took charge of their devastated niece. Praveena stayed with her uncle and aunt when she wasn’t at Hogwarts, but it wouldn’t be right to say she lived with them. Part of Praveena died along with her parents, and what remained became a hollow-eyed fury, fueled by vengeance. Praveena’s plans changed, and she spent the rest of her time at Hogwarts focused on earning a place in the auror training program, working hard to bring her dueling and offensive magic up to scratch. She turned her back on the pureblood society life her grandparents had planned for her, refusing to attend functions and galas with her aunt and uncle and breaking her childhood engagement.
The drive she’d inherited from her father was finally awoken, and her parents’ death became the spark to light her fire as Priyanka’s life had been for Ajay all those years ago. By the time she graduated from Hogwarts, Praveena was the auror program’s most promising new recruit. She might have gone out in a blaze of glory, burning too bright and too fast to last long, but some of the older aurors, aurors who had come up under Ajay Iyer and still honored his legacy, took Praveena under their wings. They taught her her father’s way of being an auror. It was a way driven not by bloodlust but by conviction. You did not fight against hate, you fought for love. And just like all those years ago, Praveena learned from her father, and she slowly became a soldier who could balance righteousness with compassion.
By the time Praveena finished her training and became a fully fledged auror, she was a force to be reckoned with in her own right. She would also quickly become a vocal opponent of Barty Crouch Sr., who’d replaced her father as department head. Praveena joined a small but opinionated group of aurors, many of which were the same aurors who’d taken her under their wings during her training, who criticized Crouch’s extreme measures. They advocated for capturing suspected Death Eaters and giving them fair trials, and only killing as a last possible resort. Praveena herself has always been proud that she can say she’s never used an unforgivable curse. She is not ashamed of the blood on her hands, because she knows she only took lives when she had no other option.
Of course, Praveena has never been naive, and just because she didn’t approve of Crouch’s extreme measures doesn’t mean she never took extreme measures of her own. She’s never been afraid to play outside the rules if a situation called for it, and it was that fluid relationship with authority that led her to the Order of the Phoenix. She was never uncomfortable with the vigilante nature of the group; they were an unavoidable result of the Ministry’s refusal to take necessary action. She got on well with the other members, they were a band of brothers, and sisters and siblings, and she had their backs just like they had hers. But she was still her mother’s daughter, never afraid to say what she thought even if it was an unpopular opinion.
So Praveena’s young adult life revolved around the war. She fought during the day in an official capacity and she fought at night in an unofficial capacity. When she slept she dreamed of her parents, of the comrades she wasn’t able to save, and the civilians she failed to protect, and when she woke she carried on in their honor. She hunted down Death Eaters, brought them in whenever she could, testified at their trials, and escorted them to Azkaban whenever they were convicted. It didn’t bother her that she was repeatedly passed over for promotions. Barty Crouch, Sr. had a bone to pick with her and she didn’t want to be a part of his kind of DMLE, anyway. Besides, it kept her boots on the ground where she could do the most good, and she’d never been that great at riding a desk.
With the war over, Praveena finds herself with an itch she can’t quite scratch. She feels accomplished, having pushed back the darkness that loomed for so long, but she doesn’t feel fulfilled. Something is missing. Sometimes she dreams about her father teaching her Tamil or her mother exploring caves with her when the family vacationed at the sea. Praveena is beginning to realize that she’s lonely. She pushed away what family she had left after her parents died and her friends and mentors at work and in the Order are people she’d lay down her life for, but not necessarily have tea with.
As her twenty-seventh birthday looms, Praveena is thinking less about the fact that her father had become a department head by her age, and more about the fact that he’d already married her mother. She can’t remember the last time she went on a date, but she’s pretty sure it had been a couple courtesy drinks at a bar before a quick trip to someone’s bedroom. More and more her thoughts stray back to her childhood, meandering through memories long put aside of her parents, strolling arm in arm through the Ministry atrium or with their heads bent together over some proposed legislation on the dining table. Without the war to focus on she’s realizing there is a gaping hole in her life, and she’s not as okay with it as she would have expected.
But the thought of filling such a hole, and getting such a late start on it, is daunting, and you’ll always find something to distract yourself if that’s what you’re looking for. Praveena used to be a supporter of Dumbledore; her parents had always respected him, and he’d founded the Order of the Phoenix. He’d also been running against Crouch Sr., and there was no way in hell Praveena would have voted for him. But now, a year out, it’s looking more like the election was less of a victory for goodness and justice and more of a choice between the lesser of two evils. Even worse, she’s not entirely sure she made the right choice.
Alastor Moody: When Praveena’s parents were killed it was Alastor Moody, her father’s youngest and favorite protege, who became the strongest adult presence in her life. It was an odd pairing from the outside, but they made it work. Praveena did not need a parental figure so much as someone who, despite her youth, respected her and didn’t want to shield her from the truth, and Alastor provided that.
Elijah Nott: Betrothed in their youth, Elijah and Praveena got along well everytime their parents pushed them together. The match was considered quite promising, until Praveena decided to turn her back on everything she’d been raised to, including her betrothal. Since then Praveena has been distancing herself from pureblood society, especially her former fiance.
Peter Pettigrew: From their first meeting as a member of the Order, there was something about Peter that didn’t quite sit right with Praveena. She thought they were just nervous, unsure of their place in the group, so she tried to lend a hand. Attempts to adopt a mentor-like role were met with mixed results, and now that Peter has been exposed as a double agent that makes a lot more sense.
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