Biography

~ * Elaine Temperance Burke 22nd of December, 1972 ~ ∞ Alexandru Mihail Văduva 21st of May, 1995 ~ Professor of Dark Arts at Durmstrang Institute August 2005 - August 2018 ~ DADA Professor at Hogwarts September 2018 - August 2021 ~ Head of Gryffindor at Hogwarts July 2019 ~

Personal

Full name: Elaine "Elena" Temperance Văduva Age: 48 years old Wand: 21.5 cm cherry wood and troll whisker, pliable Patronus: Thestral Species: Human (Witch)

Elaine has long dark hair, dark brown eyes and fairly light skin with some freckles strewn across her cheeks. Her mouth his bigger than usual, her lips very full and her chin pointy. She has one of those faces were you can never really tell the person's age, stuck in an eternal limbo somewhere between thirty and fifty for reasons that are not entirely natural. It makes her hard to read, especially since she is not an expressive person by nature.

For a woman Elaine is tall, though she isn't slender and was a bit fitter in her twenties than she is now. Normally she wears wizarding robes in dark grey or dark brown colors that are always long-sleeved and closed up to the neck. Sometimes, when there is more light than shadows, one can catch a glimpse of movement on her skin however, at her wrists or on her neck, a part of something darting across her body. Those aren't only shadows or delusions, they are tattoos, magic inked into her skin in a way that isn't legal in most countries. Elaine wears them with pride but also with caution, aware of the damage they are able to cause.

The only form of embellishment that can otherwise be found on her person is a golden pendant of a double dagger that she wears on a chain around her neck, and the wedding band made of a dark metal on the ring finger of her left hand.

History

Elaine Temperance Burke was born on the morning after the longest night, when the light began to retake the world from darkness. A good omen, her parents called it, something to rejoice about, proof that she wouldn't follow in the footsteps of centuries of pure-blood tradition that were in her blood. What they forgot however, was that while her birthday was the first day of the growing light, it was also entangled with the darkness this day had risen from.

She had known that her parents wanted two children, her mother lonely without siblings, and her farther burdened with three who cared nothing for him. So they tried for two to find a balance between themselves. Elaine was six the day she walked into their living room, a green, fresh apple their old neighbour had given her in hand, and saw her mother sobbing on the couch, her father kneeling in front of her. No other kids, the healers had said. Elaine was their miracle, there wouldn't be any more. She watched them, her crying parents, holding each other in pain and grief, and then turned around and left the room as quietly as she had come. The apple had turned brown and shrivelled in her hand, a first sign of magic her family would never know about.

Elaine was always drawn to the dark. Growing up with muggle children for friends and parents who avoided the unnecessary use of magic whenever possible, even though it was in both their blood, she was a blank page when she arrived at Durmstrang, and still she excelled at the Dark Arts from the first day. It delighted her teachers and frightened her parents, an almost Squib shunned by his family and a woman who had suffered under the pure-blood prejudice of hers for decades. They had hoped for a child with a placid demeanor, as unremarkable as either of them strived to be.

A placid child they had gotten, a calm, modest girl with few ambitions. Talent was what set her apart, passion what made her shine.

In her last year of school she shared her dormitory with one Yekaterína Ivanovna Kashirina, a half-vampire. Katya was the person to introduce her to the beings of the dark, vampires and hags and werewolves, a Veela once when they had graduated, a coven of sirens off the coast of Albania. They traveled through Eastern Europe together, Elena on the hunt for knowledge, Katya on the hunt for connections.

It was in an ancient castle in Romania where Elena, whose interest had turned towards the arcane over the years, not spells but rituals, the conjuration of the innate magic of the places they visited, first met Alexandru Văduva, the only son of one of the oldest Romanian wizarding families. Between them they shared a thirst for the more abstruse practices of the Dark Arts, blood magic, sacrificial magic, the old ways. So, while Katya wandered on to new lands to meet new people, Elena stayed behind, choosing to walk her path with Alexandru at her side instead.

Now, more than twenty-five years later, Alexandru is long dead; dead as his mother and father, dead as his father's first wife and the unborn sibling he never got to meet, and Constanta has declared war on the Drăghici, determined to settle the blood feud and wipe them from the earth once and for all. Gabriela, her niece, her daughter, is hidden away in Germany and Elena was forced to flee Romania on the oath she swore at her wedding. Obedience to the family head, once and forever, on blood and soil and bone.

Family

	Alexandru Mihail Văduva * 11th of July, 1970                                        † 4th of September, 1998 Her husband. Even twenty and more years later Elena remembers him often. She remembers being twenty and telling him that stepping over that warding line would cleanly cut his head off. She remembers his first ever gift, an ancient tome about Persian Blood Curses older than both their family lines combined. She remembers their wedding day, standing opposite him in Bârsana on that beautiful early summer day… she remembers the moment Valeriu Drăghici put a silver sword through his heart. Avatar: Henrik Fallenius
	Constanta Aurica Văduva * 9th of February, 1962 Her sister. The blood feud with the Drăghici cost her her mother and both her brothers, one a babe still in the womb and the other a man full grown. It made her bitter and unyielding. Constanta wants them dead, all of them, and she will see the deed done even on the price of her life. She expects obedience from her own above all  else, sent Gabriela to Germany and banished Elena to Scotland. Her sister is a harsh mistress, but she knew that long before she swore an oath to the family. Now Elena is bound by it, forced to go where she is told. Avatar: Cate Blanchett
	Gabriela Alexandra Văduva * 10th of October, 2001 Her daughter. She's the last hope of their family of women, the one thing they are both willing to sacrifice everything for. It was Constanta who bore her and Elena who raised her, two mothers because they are the only ones left. She says that she does not need a father, declares it like a challenge to all who will listen. Gabriela is like Constanta in that regard, unbending; she is daring like Alexandru was, but when she browses through the family library, she has that look in her eyes, the one Elena knows is like her own. Avatar: Frances Cobain

Family Tree

Reducio

*1 muggle, werewolf, assassinated on a full moon night
*2 pure-blood, poisoned at 5 months pregnant

Trunk

Stats
Stamina: 12
Evasion: 10
Strength: 4
Wisdom: 20
Arcane Power: 12
Accuracy: 12

Abilities
Fearless
Perfectionist
Sixth Sense
Non-Human Enthusiast