Eilis Halloran has always been a little...intense.

Now, don't take that to mean that she's unkind. On a general basis, Eilis is a perfectly friendly girl. Not the most charismatic, perhaps, always a little rough around the edges, but she was raised to be a compassionate young lady, and she's stayed true to those teachings. It's just that...well, she's also a young lady comprised of extremes.

She must have gotten it from her mother. Raised by her father, Cillian, and stepmother, Iona, in a household with four sisters, Eilis never knew her biological mother. She was a fling that took place between Cillian's first marriage--from which he sired his first two daughters, Alma and Maebh--and his marriage to Iona--who bore him his last two, Sorcha and Roisin, and she took off only two months after Eilis was born. Not another soul in the Halloran household has the same spitfire spirit as Eilis, so she can only assume it came from her biological mother.

In a household of peaceful, quiet artists, Eilis has always stuck out like a sore thumb. She has a competitive streak a mile wide and a sharp tongue, and strives to be the best in everything she does more for the sake of being the best than anything else. Factor in the magical abilities that no one else in the family has--another thing she likely inherited from her mother--and it's understandable that Eilis occasionally feels a little ostracized.

That's not to say that she doesn't love them. On the contrary, Eilis loves her family to pieces and they love her just as much in turn, but sometimes, she feels isolated when she's around them. None of them can truly relate to her, because she is too brash and too loud and too stubborn, and they are none of those things.

Hence why Eilis is so incredibly excited to head off to Hogwarts. Not only does she think she will find more challenge there than she ever has at home, but perhaps she'll finally be able to find some peers with similar attitudes to befriend.