FULL NAME
Piper Annemarie Bancroft
NAME MEANINGS
Piper - flute player, English
Annemarie - gracious, Hebrew
Bancroft - smallholding, English
BLOOD STATUS
Muggle-born (supposedly)
SPECIES
Seer (unaware) / Witch (aware)
DATE OF BIRTH
23 November, 2007
CURRENT AGE
Eleven
SCHOOL YEAR
First
HOUSE
Hufflepuff
WAND
Chestnut wood, unicorn hair, 25.5 cm
PERSONALITY
Piper is the product of a loving home, and it shows in everything she is and everything she does. Outgoing by nature, Piper won't hesitate to walk up to someone who looks lonely, stick her hand out for them to shake, and ask if they'd like to be friends. She's someone who enjoys having companions, and even more, enjoys entertaining those companions and making them happy. She's got a thousand jokes up her sleeve and a million stories in her mind, and she always jumps on the opportunity to share them. Her imagination is vast and nearly endless, definitely her most defining trait, and if an assignment leaves her room for creative freedom, she will almost uncertainly ace it.

For on top of being a little fanciful, Piper also possess a very bright and curious mind. Despite dyslexia giving her a bit of trouble in an academic setting, she does genuinely love learning, and soaks up information with a fervor not shared by many of her peers. Unfortunately, her curiosity can easily turn into nosiness, and her desire to learn often conflicts with her constant, near manic energy. She likes to be in motion, enjoying physical activity and adventure, and as such, rarely has the patience or attention span required to give schoolwork her full focus. Hopefully, this is something she will learn to overcome in the approaching years.

In addition, Piper has one particularly troubling flaw, and that flaw is her dependence on being perceived as a happy girl. While most of her positivity is entirely genuine and she is a naturally optimistic person, Piper is cripplingly afraid of letting people down or making people upset by being distressed herself. This is undoubtedly a result of her upbringing, with her older brother putting so much effort into taking care of her with her happiness being her only reward. If he felt he was doing poorly and that she was upset, it'd crush him, and she couldn't allow that to happen. This dedication to being happy for other people's sake has carried over even now that she's out of her home, and it will take a lot of pushing to get Piper to admit when she is angry or sad.
APPEARANCE
Piper's round, almost cherubic face and naturally rosy cheeks have garnered comparisons to a little angel, while her upturned nose and cheeky grin have had her likened to a pixie. Regardless of what delicate, fantastical creature people chose to equate her to, they all seem to agree on one thing: Piper is an undeniably adorable young girl. There's a smattering of faint, youthful freckles across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose, and her skin is often tanned from all the time she spends outdoors. Arguably her best feature is her eyes. Wide, round, and incredibly expressive, they're a dark blue-grey color, and always seem to be alight with some new idea or story.

Her hair, a fair platinum blonde shade, is soft to the touch and often interwoven with numerous tiny braids. For convenience, she keeps it cut to her chin. As of now, Piper stands at exactly five feet, with a narrow figure and lithe limbs. The average height for her age is about four feet and seven inches, so while she's a little tall for her age now, the fact that Piper isn't expected to grow much more likely means she won't be for long.

Piper's style is very eclectic. As long as it's colorful and comfortable, she doesn't really mind what the article of clothing is. As a result, she often looks like she got dressed in the dark, with vividly bright and wildly patterned pieces of clothing that often clash horribly with each other. But then, given that she's been relying on bargain bins for her clothing much of her life, maybe others should be a little sparing with their judgment. After all, it isn't as though she has a plethora of choices.
HISTORY
All things considered, Piper Bancroft is a very happy young lady. Her house was always full of love, and she was always dearly doted on. However, that doesn't mean her life was without hardship.

Piper never knew her father. Her mother had only dated him for about a month, and by the time she learned that she was pregnant, he was already long gone. It wasn't as though he was some monster who abandoned his pregnant girlfriend--their relationship was only only ever intended to be a fling, and the split was amicable enough--but still, Piper holds a deep seated resentment towards him for, in her eyes, depriving her of a father figure. Little does she know, that's not all that his absence deprived her of.

Suffice to say, if he had been involved in her life, her magical abilities would've been less of a shock.

As it is, Piper was raised exclusively by her mother, Eileen, and her half-brother, Theodore, who was already eleven years old when she was born. Though, truth be told, it may be more accurate that she was raised exclusively by Theodore. Not for lack of trying on Eileen's part, mind you. She loved both of her children with every ounce of her being, and if she'd had her way, she would've handed them both the earth on a string.

But Eileen was clinically depressed, and had been so for years. Compounding this depression was the painfully long hours she had to work at multiple jobs to even begin to provide for her children. By the time she finished her workday, she was often so physically and emotionally drained that she couldn't find it in herself to spend time with them, and instead would collapse into bed or her favorite arm chair the moment she got home. And so, it fell to Theodore.

Despite these less than ideal conditions, Piper was a happy child, growing up. There was no one in the world she loved more than her brother, and she blossomed under the attention and support he gave her. Every fleeting hobby, every passing interest, Theodore encouraged Piper to pursue it, regardless of whether they ever actually panned out into a proper talent. As a result, Piper grew up to be a confident and outgoing young lady, sure of herself and always looking to try new things.

When Piper experienced her first instance of accidental magic at seven years old, accidentally alighting the one and only picture Eileen had of Piper's father and burning his image away, it was Theodore who soothed her, and who soothed her mother. She was still the same Piper, he told them both. She was the same Piper, just with...new talents. That's all it was.

Such accidents kept occurring, some more explosive than others, and try as Theodore might to guide her, he was way out of his depth. That was the only reason he let in the representative of Hogwarts School who visited them a few weeks before Piper's eleventh birthday into the house. They said they knew Piper had been doing odd things, said they could help, said they could do the same things and knew of a place where children like Piper could be taught to control their abilities. While the thought of being separated frightened the whole family, Eileen and Theodore both knew they couldn't deny Piper the chance to learn more about herself and the things she could do.

So, with their blessing, Piper boarded the train to Hogwarts on the first of September.

• Curious Little Creatures | Great Lake | Open

EILEEN BANCROFT, MOTHER
Piper's relationship with her mother is complicated, to say the least. The first, most important thing to establish is that Piper loves her mother. She really, truly, deeply does, and her mother loves her just as much in turn. However, Eileen's battle with depression means that she's often struggled to provide Piper the attention that she so desperately craves, because she doesn't have the time or the energy to keep up with her. As soon as she was old enough to comprehend it, Theodore sat down with Piper, explained what it was afflicting their mother and what it meant, and Piper understands it, she does. But still, as much Piper hates herself for it, hates herself for being (in her eyes) selfish, she still resents how largely absent Eileen was from her upbringing. And she's so disgusted with herself for being resentful that she acts like she's the polar opposite, never faulting her mother, always doting on her, and constantly working her very hardest to please her.
LACHLAN FAIRBAIRN, FATHER
Lachlan doesn't know Piper exists, which should say plenty about their relationship. All she really knows about the man is his name and a vague memory of what his face looked like in an old photograph, and yet, Piper holds a well of resentment towards him that runs so deep she doesn't think she'd ever be able to find the bottom. Logically, she knows it isn't fair. His relationship with her mother wasn't intended to be long term, and it's not his fault that he happened to leave before Eileen learned she was pregnant. Still, Piper has childishly (for she is a child) used him as a scapegoat to blame all the negative aspects of her life on, tying them all back to the lack of a second, proper parental figure. If he'd been there, then this wouldn't have happened. If he'd been there, then this would have happened. It's easiest to blame him, so she does. And yet, try as she might to deny it, Piper still desperately wants to meet him.
THEODORE BANCROFT, HALF-BROTHER
The bond Piper has with her big brother is unlike the bond she has with anyone else in her life, and she's nearly certain it's one she'll never be able to replicate with anyone else. Whenever she's troubled, she turns to Theodore. Whenever she's excited about something new, she tells Theodore. Whenever she's feeling lonely, she goes to Theodore. He's been her rock for as long as she can remember, always the one to encourage her to follow her passions and bandage her scraped knees when her attempts at doing so fell short, and Piper absolutely adores him. However, given that he's been her main pillar of support her whole life, she may have grown to be a little overly dependent on him, and as such, as much as she wants him to be happy, the thought of Theodore leaving home and starting a family of his own terrifies her. What if he stops having time for her? What if he has a little girl, and suddenly, he loves her so much that there's no love left for Piper anymore?