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Arlis Penrose
Status:
Muggle-born
Nationality:
English
Residence:
Martock, England
Function:
First year, Gryffindor
Wand:
24,5 cm fir wood and dragon heartstring
A young, playful child with a big heart, Arlis can alternate between being a joy to be around and a complete annoyance. She seeks thrills, adventure, excitement, and new experiences, immensely enjoying the feeling of adrenaline. A few other things that she wants are close, loyal friends by her side, happiness, and freedom. She won't settle for anything mediocre, definitely believes in "all or nothing", and thinks that people who won't spice up their lives with a little bit of adventure are incredibly boring. She doesn't like people who will only stay in their comfort zones and never try to push themselves. However, if someone is spontaneous, thrill-seeking, open-minded, loyal, and unpredictable, then they may well be a potential friend for her – especially if they share her liking of surprises and unpredictable/different/creative things. In return, she will entertain them, stick by them, and help to create fun memories with them.

She loves competitions regardless of whether she wins or loses, will never back down from a challenge, and will often turn everything into a game or competition. She will usually be jokingly cocky for the duration of it, but it's all good-natured. When she isn't competing, she's confident but not arrogant, as she wants to live life to the fullest without wasting time being shy or quiet. She also seems to not be able to feel embarrassment, as she has never had that feeling regardless of what she does. Being a performer might have helped with that, too, as she has a passion for acting, playing music, entertaining people, and most types of performances.

At home, she has a very close group of best friends that are like siblings but without being annoying, and they are better/have closer relationships than most siblings. The rest of the group is all male, but Arlis hasn't been bothered by that in the slightest. One of the only problems with it might be that she doesn't really know how to interact with girls because she grew up staying around boys, so girls are more of a foreign entity to her despite being one herself. In this group, they all live on the same street, and they would go outside a lot (they all love the outdoors) and play active games in the streets together, such as Muggle sports and other physical activities. Because they live very close to each other, the whole group of them basically shares everyone's houses and most of their possessions, but the parents don't mind since they are very good friends themselves and the kids are all polite, well-behaved, clean up after themselves, and are very careful not to break anything. Arlis and her friends were almost always together, whether they were sitting in the same area during class, playing together during the breaks/recess, playing active games in the streets after school, switching whose house they hung out in, or any number of other things.

Everyone in the group shares a love for music and they will crowd around the radios in their houses to listen to it and will work together to get money to buy CDs (which then become the treasured possessions of the group and they're all very careful not to break or damage a single one). The few people that have instruments will play for the others and the entire group all learned at the same time how to play them so now all of them are skilled with the instruments and will take turns playing (again, they're extremely careful not to damage any of the instruments in any way). To them, music is a passion, a hobby, a connection, and almost sacred because of their love for it and how hard they have to work to be able to get things like CDs or instruments. Arlis mainly plays the violin and the flute, as those are the two instruments that she owns, and she has become quite good at them from the years of passionate, dedicated practice. She will perform for her friends, with her friends, or for anyone who asks, sometimes just playing it in the streets for the sake of it, losing herself in the music and forgetting about who might be watching.

She grew up with loving parents in a family where they always worked through their problems together by talking about it. They are very tightly knit and her parents know the value of proper communication and honesty in a family. Her parents support her and will always love her no matter what (although they might not always approve of her decisions if they're bad ones, but they'll work through it). The family is slightly poor, not enough that they struggle too much, but they wouldn't be able to have whatever they wanted and they can't afford luxury items/unnecessary expensive items. Because of this, Arlis understands that she has to work for what she wants in life, she doesn't value material wealth, and she knows to appreciate and be thankful for everything that she has. She worked very hard to help get her instruments, for example, and they are some of her most treasured possessions.

Arlis is very much an adventurer and explorer at heart, and her parents encourage this in her as they're very much the same way and enjoy experiencing new things. Although her parents currently don't have enough money to allow them to all go travel the world as they can't afford the plane tickets easily, her parents tell her stories every night about the things they've experienced and seen (they grew up in slightly richer homes and have flown to different places many times) and promise that they'll go to some of these places someday. For now, they go on road trips and have gone to other parts of Europe that way, and they frequently go off on little "adventures", going to places around them and creating amazing experiences and memories, always trying new things.

Growing up in a happy home with close friends has definitely had an effect on her, and she is generally pretty happy. She walks with a bounce in her step, a smile on her face, and her head held high, and she has gained many good values because of her lifestyle. She can be quite bubbly and friendly, and she seems to have an infinite amount of energy and doesn't tire easily. She is a very loyal, sweet friend who will do a lot to put a smile on the faces of the ones she loves. However, her desire for adventure can also lead her to do things that aren't so good, causing her to get in trouble somewhat frequently. She is very honest, though, and doesn't want to truly hurt anyone emotionally or physically, which is why teachers and other people of authority are often confused why someone like her ends up in trouble and causing mischief. She does things like pranks and rule-breaking mainly because of the way it energizes her, and she also loves being in fights for the same reasons, whether it's verbal or physical. She often loses because she isn't clever enough with her words to win a battle of wit, and she's not that good at physically overpowering someone, but she enjoys it anyway if she's sure that the other person won't get too hurt.

Despite not particularly having a way with words, she enjoys debating and she can still be captivating/entertaining. She keeps people on their toes and either takes everything too seriously or nothing seriously at all depending on her mood and the situation. Even though she isn't normally, she can be wickedly sarcastic and mean, especially if someone hurts her friends or is rude. She has a tendency to be seen as frustrating or irritating, and she seems to get on people's nerves very easily, even just by being who she is and being playful (although she can admittedly be annoying). She is extremely stubborn, and will sometimes see all sides of an argument and then proceed to stand by her preferred side even if she is proven wrong. She will often try to do whatever she wants, as well, which can clash with rules or other people. She dislikes authority (mainly oppressive control), restrictions, and being cooped up or told what to do. She is rather rebellious, feisty, bold, and untamed.

She is good at heart and is still very childish. She doesn't understand or know about a lot of what is wrong with the world, and she is a little naïve and ignorant. She means well most of the time and wants people to be safe and happy.

When she was invited to Hogwarts and she was told that she was a witch, she was shocked and confused at first. None of it made sense, and even for her it didn't seem logical in the slightest. However, her desire for adventure led her to accept the offer, knowing that this was something that she couldn't turn down and that it would be an experience beyond her wildest dreams, one like no other. Her parents encouraged her to make this decision when they realized that she wanted to go. They took the whole idea of magic and Arlis being magical extremely well, talked about it, worked through their shock, and then became very enthusiastic about it. Although she is sad that she will have to leave her best friends, she knows that nothing will truly change between them and that they will remain close, and they would have had to split the group up during school hours anyway due to going into secondary school and possibly being in different schools.

Her magic first surfaced when she was 6 and her family's cat got stuck in a hole at the bottom of a mesh/wire fence near her house. She happened to walk by soon after the cat got stuck. She didn't know what to do and she couldn't pull the cat out or it would get injured, but while she was thinking very intensely and getting worried and close to tears, she wished the metal around the cat to bend upwards and away from the cat and it did. This made it large enough so that the cat could wriggle back out and Arlis picked it up and took it back home, glad to have the cat safe but utterly confused about what had happened. She tried to tell her parents, but she didn't really know what had been going on either, and so they all reluctantly dismissed it as overreaction from the slight trauma of the event.