— anastasia yaxley, the serpentine, is played by ( sage ). the ( 21 ) year old GRYFFINDOR identifies with the pronouns SHE/HER and has chosen to SUPPORT the uprising. Anastasia yaxley is closed.
— ( + ) practical, crafty, inventive
— ( - ) snide, bitter, thievish
BANG, SHOTS FIRED ;; About
— Anastasia came into the her life screaming her head off, her chubby cheeks red with the effort, blonde ringlets plastered to her head. Her mother had never seen anything so wonderful and she embraced her daughter immediately, her father coming in to complete the picture of happy family. Ana’s parents were not married when she was born but they had chosen to keep and care for their child. There was a reason people usually married before having kids and Ana had to learn that the hard way. Mr. Yaxley was an accomplished and prestigious business man, a force within the ministry while her mom taught people how to surf, the freezing English waters not a bother to the robust woman. Eventually the gap between incomes caused issue, which led to more issues until she got so used to hearing her parents fight that she had trouble when things got too quiet. The sound machine by her bed was the one thing she cared most for, it played the sound of waves at almost all hours. Whens he was five she felt sick when she was too far from a body of water and it was when she was nine, her hair and skin become pearly, nails hard as scales that her mom admitted the truth of what she was. It was this truth that broke them all, her father left them, though he sends money each month per the court order, he never visits Ana and she has accepted her one parent family.
Keeping her status a secret was quiet easy for the most part, she was only ¼ nereid and the things she had experienced was about as bad as it got. Long with her pearlized skin and hair she was able to hold her breath underwater for minutes at a time, she was faster in the water but away from it she got ill, it got worse the older she got. At Hogwarts she had the Black Lake, though she didn’t need to swim in it she’d dip her toes in every so often, for her own sanity. It wasn’t easy to be different and it didn’t help that classes couldn’t hold her attention, she had read ahead and couldn’t stand having her book read to her. Instead she’d turn in her assignments early and spend the class time in most subjects making up spells in her notebook or slipping small trinkets that belonged to others into her pockets. Anything shiny she coveted and soon she had a trunk full of other people’s things, her spellwork changing to help her avoid detection and sneak around easier. Even without enjoying class she managed high scores and all her professors encouraged her to enter the ministry but she refused, purposely tanking her NEWTs to avoid that fate, and her father. She ended up unemployed when she graduated and spent a year travelling, taking copious amounts of photos and nicking things all over the globe. When she returned it was to chaos.
Joining the uprising as it formed felt like a fun thing to do, she thought their speeches were cute but had never really experienced the pain and persecution they had. Still, they needed help and when Hogwarts ended up being headquarters they turned to her to help them protect it. Anastasia worked her ass off to create new spells and to strengthen existing ones, she worked with others to put the wards up and was the mastermind behind the invitation only barrier. But the conflict only seems to keep raging, escalating and their leader is faltering. The massacre changed everything, the power shift was palpable and within the uprising things were uneasy. Ana could tell something was about to give, it was the same feeling she had as a child just before her parents finally split for good. If she were to be asked she’d support Remus publicly but she isn’t an ass kisser and she’d bring up how ridiculously bad he’d been running things recently. In the end it didn’t matter to her who was running the uprising, as long as it still offered her a home, safety, a cause she could fight for and complain about it the entire time. If anyone threatened to take all of that from her she was more than prepared to fight, though she was not a dueler she could do her best to protect everyone.
— classic cars, professional camera equipment, leather furniture, salt in the sea, wind lifting your hair, leatherbound journals, spell invention, the soft splash of waves hitting sand, dark water, silver jewelry, the click clack of a computer keyboard, holding your breath, never studying and acing the exam anyway, daddy issues, two am target runs, falling asleep at your desk, other people’s things, adrenaline rush, single mom, white dresses, blowing bubbles, unsent texts, good pet mom, innovation is the name of the game, scattered polaroids, dark rooms, rollercoaster rides, abandoned beaches.
IF HISTORY IS DEAD AND GONE
“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
She was born of water, a little guppy for a mother shark. When Anastasia was very young she remembers being in the water all the time, her mom had been dead set on a house with a pool and her dad had obliged with one, though they weren’t married they tried to be a happy family. When her mother had told him she was pregnant they were happy, when she was born they were happy, when she learned to walk and talk they were happy but after the milestones hit the euphoria seemed to wear off, the distance between them grew. Once Anastasia’s parents had been the sand and the sea, shoreline meetings every evening when he came home from a long and hard day at the ministry and his girlfriend smelled of salt and sea. They were happy, until they weren’t. Ana was a perceptive kid, she liked to watch and learn and it wasn’t hard to miss the changes in her parents. More and more often her dad missed dinner, more and more often she heard him raise his booming voice. Sound was her favorite thing, music, nature and voices until his became one she feared hearing, turning up the volume dial on her sound machine, letting the comfort of fake ocean waves soothe her to sleep or drown out the hatred she could discern. Ana was well adjusted, all things considered, she didn’t let the fighting change the happiness that bubbled inside her, but she stopped holding her dads hand, stopped enjoying hugs, until she was avoiding him and he let her do just that without protest or hurt.
When Anastasia began to change her mother took notice, she spent more time with her and took her with her to work more often. Despite missing school Ana didn’t fall behind, she did her work when at home but she couldn’t focus for too long. Eventually Ana was homeschooled, until she was nine and her mother made a confession as she lay in bed with a fever, desperate for a glass of cool water, her tongue craving salt. When Mr. Yaxley heard the truth of what his wife was he left for good, suitcase packed. Ana’s mom changed the locks, she tried to be brave for her daughter but no sound machine could drown out the crying she heard for months after. But then, she had to focus on herself for a little while, she spent hours on the computer doing research and keeping up with school as best she could. For two years she learned about what she was and how it changed her life, she spent an abundant amount of time with her mom until they were impossibly close, until the day a witch popped into their home.
Balancing three different natures was no easy task and it took most of her focus in her first year at Hogwarts. For the most part she identified as human but she couldn’t deny her Nereid nature, she felt sick when she didn’t visit the lake for too long or it got too hot outside, she had to remember to stay incredibly hydrated or she’d feel sick, she had to field questions about her behavior and appearance. But all of that would have been easy if not for the questions about her family. Ana was fine, she was happy with her home life and her mom but she had grown to resent her dad and yet she had his surname, a surname that carried weight and history and wealth she just had never experienced. Anastasia found herself invited to all sorts of events just because of her surname and she never enjoyed them, preferring to ignore her schoolwork and teach herself how to code, doodle in her notebook, invent spells. Life was a breeze if her attitude was any indication, all of her hurt and confusion subtle and suppressed.
When her professors encouraged her to enter the ministry due to her talents she all but shut down, she stopped turning in assignments and with one final act of defiance and bitterness toward her father she tanked her NEWTs on purpose simply by not doing them. Anastasia showed up and wrote her name and then she sat there for four hours and didn’t write a single word or fill in a single bubble. In her practicals she stood still, she didn’t even bring her wand. With that failure she found herself unemployed after graduation which suited her fine. Travel bit her hard and she spent a year exploring the world, she found underwater caves and mountains covered in ice and snow. She found friendships and truly enjoyed being normal for what felt like the first time in her life, just a teenager taking a gap year. When she came back to London the place was a shit show and she ended up in some support group for half breeds, on the ground floor of the Uprising movement.
Though she was not a radical or a revolutionary she joined up, she was given a job and she worked hard to get it done. Despite appearing to be lazy and avoidant she did love to work and she masterminded the invite only barrier around the school. Though she was told she was an integral part of the Uprising she didn’t really care for the political angles and she certainly didn’t believe in Remus much after the Massacre. Secretly she believed Lily Evans should take charge, the girl had co founded the whole damn thing and she was tired of watching everyone else watch their work fall apart because Remus couldn’t step up. The non revolutionary is still doing her job, reinforcing spells and charms each day, trying to live an adventurous life despite it all but her blood is beginning to boil with the first stirrings of true rebellion, she wants the Uprising to succeed if not for her than for those that had lost so much just because of their dna. Anastasia needs the world to be normal again so she can get back to a wild life, so she can be free to do just that.
HOW DID WE GET HERE, MY GOD, MY GOD
MARLENE MCKINNON: same house, same year, it was inevitable they’d bond. It would be difficult to say the word friend, neither girl was keen on such a label all they knew was they made each other laugh way too hard. Marlene never knew that Ana was stealing but then Ana never took anything from Marlene, a rare immunity. When everything between Dorcas and Marlene happened it was Ana who was there to help Marls blow off steam, to get over it without having weird emotion spilling cry fests. Ana got her tubes of cookie dough and took her to degnome the gardens in the middle of the night. Ana encouraged the recklessness in her friend and vice versa, they fed off each other’s carefree enjoyment of life and neither seemed to care for the consequences. Some of their best times were in detention. When Ana took her gap year she stayed in touch with Marlene but when she came back things were different, she joined up with the uprising and marlene stayed neutral, not that Ana faulted her, she’d have preferred that if she didn’t need to make a living. Now Marlene is running Ana fully plans to vote for her, Remus be damned.
DAVEY GUDGEON: Davey was such a vulnerable soul, ana felt her empathy grow three sizes for him when he arrived at Hogwarts. During school she tried to look out for him, she would beat people up if they breathed on him wrong. Ana had never had siblings and she felt a sort of sisterly affection for Davey, and she fiercely protected him due to this. When she left before he did she made sure to stay in touch, she wrote him two or more times a week and she has a box she keeps all his letters in too. Even to this day she worries for him, if he’s taking care of himself, if people are hurting him. It’s odd for her, to feel so maternal almost and there are days she wishes she didn’t feel that but Davey is her brother, blood or not.
AUGUSTUS ROOKWOOD: she loves him, she loves him so much that she removed herself from his life. In school she tried not to fall, and so did he, but she was drawn to him like a moth to a flame. Augustus was different, he had matured fast and despite his apparent trauma and effort to keep himself guarded he let her in and she fell into his arms and his heart. Things were good, she had fun with him but he was not quite as adventurous as she was, he hesitated when she leapt and he certainly disapproved of some of her questionable decisions. They went from fun to arguments in just a few months until she realized what she was doing to him. Being with her was causing him stress he didn’t need, she could see it taking a toll on him and it helped her ignore the toll it took on her. Just before they would celebrate a year she broke it off, she made it brutal so he’d build up those walls again and never let her back inside, it was the only way to keep them both safe from further heartbreak at the hands of each other.
