Constance Arilyn Geroff

[Background] [Personality] [Description] [Outfits] [Family]

• Name Meaning
  • Constance: steadfast
  • Arilyn: unknown
• Birthdate: July 7, 1917
• Role: Aspiring Painter
• Former House: Hufflepuff
• Wand: Bendy Cherry wood, short, with an emerald crystal core
• Pet: Marrew, Lesser Sooty Owl -A small creature, this lesser sooty owl has black (sooty) feathers over most of her body, with varying shades of black and gray interspersed between. Her bottom feathers are white with dark gray chevrons pointing downwards until her talons, which are black, with pale gray toes. The wings and back are darted with silvery-white feathers here and there, which match the feathers on the face, which is round and edged in black. Her eyes are very large and have a black iris, contrasting with the dark yellow beak. She is not a very large owl, being only about fifteen inches in length.
• Pet: Gilbertine, Calico Cat

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Background

The saying goes that opposites attract, and in the case of Sylvie Winters and Ulaen Geroff, it seems to have rung true. Sylvie was from a poor, muggle family who had many children when she found out that she was a witch and was to go to Hogwarts. Ulaen was from a well-to-do pureblood family, and had only one brother. The two could not have come from more different backgrounds, and yet both ended up in Slytherin. Through the years, the two became fond of each other, and married about a year after their graduation in 1910. Sylvie began teaching at Hogwarts her first year out of school, and before her marriage in March of 1910, became the Chair of the Department of Practical Magic. She was also temporary Gryffindor House Head during this year. The next year, she became the Slytherin House Head, as well as being appointed as Deputy Headmistress during that year. Ulaen flitted from job to job for some time, until finally getting employment at the Ministry of Magic some time before their first child came. Evan Lucas Geroff was born in July of 1912, the couple’s first son. In Fall of 1915, Sylvie went absent from Hogwarts, working for the Ministry of Magic as a correspondent. By the summer of 1916, she was an Agent of Mysteries, and soon after that, in the same year, Minister of Mysteries. It was until July of 1917 that the couple had another child, Constance Arilyn, joined the family. In 1919, another son, Matthew David joined the family, and then in 1920, James Thomas followed. In 1922, Sylvie became headmistress at Hogwarts, at the age of thirty-one. She kept this post for only one term, leaving the summer after this to fill the post of Assistant Minister for Magic in the summer of 1923, and then being appointed to Minister for Magic in 1923. Brandon Casey became the family’s fourth son and fifth child in 1924. Another girl joined the family in 1927, named Delaney Candice, only the second daughter for the family.

Besides having a rather extensive family, the Winters-Geroff family was rather extended as well, since Sylvie took charge of several of her muggle siblings, incliding Paul, who had been born in 1908, Stacy (1910), Melina and Gary, both born in 1912, while she was expecting her own first son. Her younger sister, Julie, who had also been born with magical ability, had come to Hogwarts shortly after Sylvie did, and Sylvie took charge of her as well, getting used to caring for others at a young age. Julie married a wizard, Douglas Octavious Wilander after she left school, and had her first child, Theodore Jacob, in 1918. Her second, Rosemarie Mabel, followed in 1922. The house was always bustling with young aunts and uncles as well as her cousins visiting quite often. Constance, for her part, was rather used to the company of so many cousins around, and not at all bothered by the large family. Being the only girl until she was nearly ten, she had the luxury of having her own room, and therefore was able to escape into solitude when she needed to.

In a house where magic was rampant from her parents and aunt and uncle, it was difficult for Constance’s display of magic to be very apparent, and yet, when it happened, it was cause for rejoicing. It was a simple thing as Constance lost one of her paintbrushes while moving her easel and painting supplies from one room to another, and while searching for it, found it came to her hand. While only her younger brother was around to witness this on its first occurrence, it did happen more and more frequently, as she /was/ prone to losing at least one of the paintbrushes at various times. When her parents did happen to see this, she was not scolded for being careless in keeping her things together, but was, instead, congratulated for being gifted with magic as her older brother had been.

By the time Constance was six, Evan had gone off to Hogwarts and had, like his parents, been sorted into Slytherin. Constance, while attending to her own studies, became increasingly excited about going to Hogwarts. It seemed to the little girl that it would be ages before she was able to go to the school that she had heard her parents and aunt and uncle talk about, and the fact that her brother was already there did not help to ease her excitement and anticipation. Time did pass, however, and soon Constance found herself in the year before she was to go to Hogwarts. Only one year! It was a blessing that, during this summer, she found a family who had recently moved to Hogsmeade — the Wexler family. The family had three children. The oldest, Briony, would go into her third year after the summer, the next, Alden, would start after the summer, and the youngest, Alice, was Constance’s age. It was during this summer that Alice and Constance became kindreds, spending quite a bit of time together, sharing one another’s interests, and generally becoming good friends. Constance found that the time spent with the girl helped ease her impatience before she was to go to Hogwarts, though the two were able to look forward together to going to the place, being the same age.

Constance’s first year seemed a charmed existence. She was able to follow Olivia around after being sorted into Hufflepuff, and she seemed to amass a group of friends quickly. She made quick friends with Ali Chamberlain, as well as Verity Caldwell, both of whom seemed to be frequent fixtures at her side hroughout the year, in addition to Alice Wexler. The girl managed decent marks in her classes, though her charms and transfiguration marks were easily her best scores. Between her gaggle of friends who always seemed to be with her and her constant friendship with Alden Wexler, Alice’s older brother, it is a wonder how the girl managed to get any studying done.

In her second year, Constance was not much busier than in her first. She was filled with pride that her brother, Evan, had been made head boy and that Olivia had been made head girl. Between her chatter about the two of them and her pride at them getting engaged over the summer beforehand, the girl never seemed to stifle. Her friends didn’t seem to mind, however, as they were still frequent fixtures at her side. Her friendship with Alden Wexler did not diminish, either, and despite the youngness of their years had already begun to spark rumors.

Third year came about and Constance was thrilled to be able to choose additional classes to take. An easy choice for her was Magical Art, which she knew would be the most advantageous to her as art was her passion. She also decided to pick up Wizo-Music and Arithmancy, to fill out her schedule and make her OWL and NEWT scores look more rounded. Her social activity did not let up in her third year, even as she had more classes to keep up with. The girl spent much of the year talking about her brother and his new wife, and the letters that seemed to come frequently from home and family.

Things started to ramp up for Constance as she found she had become an older sister for the sixth time as well as becoming an aunt for the first. Classes were getting more difficult and she found herself with more challenges than the year previous and as a result, she was not quite as much the social butterfly as she had been in her previous three years. She also had the pressure and added knowledge that of all of her years, this year would be the most indicative toward possibly prefecture, which was something she desperately wanted. Her brother, mother and father had all been prefects before her and even if she wasn’t in Slytherin, Constance had every bit as much ambition as her parents and older brother. All year was spent posturing and talking nicely to her house head in hopes that he would pay more attention to her and pick her for prefect over the other girls in her year. Her fourth year was also the first year in which she seemed less preoccupied with frivolous and fanciful happenings and more concerned with the future. Her close friends took notice of the change for while she was still the cheerful Constance they had known all their lives, she was more serious than before and less apt to chat constantly as she had done. She was still the more dominant of the group of girls, however, and the change did not alter that. It still suited the group of them quite well, this scenario.

Over the summer, Constance learned that she had been chosen as Prefect for Hufflepuff, which pleased her greatly, and she took every opportunity to wear the badge proudly around the house. She looked forward to her fifth year, even though she knew it would be the most difficult year that she had academically experienced. Her excitement, unfortunately, was quickly tarnished when she spoke to her friend Ali Chamberlain, who had also, apparently, been made a fifth year prefect. Clearly this was an issue, since both Constance and Ali were girls, and obviously they couldn’t /both/ be Hufflepuff prefects. As it turned out, the house head, Professor Helit (the male one) hadn’t realized that Ali was, in fact, a girl and had chosen her as the boy prefect for the year. Rather than punish either of the girls, a decision was made to let them both be prefects.

Constance’s fifth year was easily the most difficult one to date in her life, while she juggled her feelings for Alden and grappled with her own ambition, not to mention attempting to keep up with her studies in preparation for her O.W.L. exams. She spent much of the year with a slightly shorter temper than was typical for the girl. Her testiness only increased as the exams grew closer, and it was only after the exams finally came off that she began to normalize.

The summer after Constance’s fifth year was easily the longest of her young life. She spent a lot of time socializing with the Wexlers and working on her paintings, but the stress of not knowing really how she’d done on her O.W.L. exams. Late in the summer, she got her owl with the resorts, and the squeal of joy that she emitted at the results. She got Os in Charms, Magical Art, Potions and Wizo-Music, and Es in Arithmancy, Herbology and Transfiguration, with her only A score in Astronomy. For the rest of the summer, the girl was on cloud nine, so to speak. Her joy was further augmented by the addition of her second nephew; her brother and his wife had another child, which meant that Constance had yet another young child to spoil rotten (and another willing victim to practice her portraits on).

Her sixth year began uneventfully. The stress of the O.W.L. exams was behind her, and she had no more exams like those this year. It allowed her a little more free time, though not much. The girl chose three N.E.W.T. level courses – Magical Art, Wizo-Music and Charms – which, while not the most challenging courseload that any student had ever taken (by far), was still challenging enough for her to keep her from getting truly bored. It was during this year that she and Alden really began to come to terms with the romance that they had been playing at through the years. They shared their first /real/ kiss in the winter of that year, and the rest of the year was spent trying not to let schoolwork distract them too much from one another.

Since the Wexlers lived so close by, Constance spent much of the summer after her sixth year, hidden away in Alden’s tower bedroom. While both were very clear that there was nothing nefarious going on, she certainly wasn’t doing a lot of studying for her N.E.W.T. level courses, and her summer homework only barely got done in time for her seventh year to start. It was a golden summer for the girl, as she was /almost/ grown up, with a very devoted boyfriend and friends galore.

To add to the girl’s enthusiasm, once she arrived at Hogwarts for the start of her seventh year, she found out that she had been made Head Girl that year, and by an interesting twist of fate, Ali had been made Head “Boy,” though by now all the faculty knew she was not, in fact, a boy (particularly Professor Helit). Constance let the power go slightly to her head throughout the year, and was admonished several times by faculty for being too severe on rule offenders, particularly those in Gryffindor house. She consistently denied any claims that she had any grudge against the house, but still it was mostly Gryffindor students who felt the wrath of her punishment. All in all, though, the year progressed well, and while the N.E.W.T. exams approached rapidly, she felt more and more prepared for them as they neared.

As her seventh year ended, Constance breathed a sigh of relief. Her schooling days were done. Of course, it didn’t mean she was done doing any amount of work – no, she had quite a bit to work up to. She had to wait for her N.E.W.T. scores, and begin to network so that she could become the famous portrait artist that she had dreamed of becoming since she was small. Despite the knowledge that she would have to begin working again very soon, the girl spent her summer in leisure. She took her closest friends – including Ali Chamberlain, Alice Wexler and Verity Caldwell, and together the took a non-educational tour through Europe. By about mid-summer, Ali decided that she needed to return home. Once one of their group had departed, the others seemed to all at once feel the homesickness that they decided ti was time to head home. They made it to only one more city after Ali went home before each of them decided to head back home. Constance spent the remainder of her summer and fall painting pictures from memory based on what she had seen, including a group portrait of all of them together.

Once winter rolled around, Constance was ready to return to work. Her first order was to create portraits of “very famous people.” Her first obvious stop was to paint her own mother, who she could do without extracting any fees for the work. From there, Constance began to network. Night after night, she would canvas shops and head to parties until she felt her head might explode, and then she would start it all over again. Much of her time was spent getting her name out and acquainting the townsfolk in Hogsmeade with her work. Other, larger areas would come later, she figured. Her first year post-Hogwarts was a very busy one for all of this.

While she did all of this, a constant companion for her was Alden. He made many of the party rounds with her in that first year, and the two were nearly inseparable when he was not at work at his internship. Despite hints that she might marry and begin her family, much in the same timeline as her older brother, Constance smiled and tossed her head at the idea of getting married just yet. She had plenty of time later. After all, she needed to establish her career before she could take time off for children! Constance’s life, in her head, was still quite planned out.

Personality

Confidence is one of Constance’s most obvious traits. From a fairly young age, she has been nearly fearless, able to be the first to stride into an uncertain situation. This has often worked to her advantage, but has a tendency to be a disadvantage as well, especially when her confidence overpowers her sense of logic and need for restraint. She is a natural leader, inclined to be the one to direct others as to what they should do rather than taking direction from anyone around her.

Ambition also seems to be a family trait and Constance has gotten a full helping of it. Her ambition is quite obvious to those around her, lacking the subtlety that others in her family achieve with their ambitions. Coupled with her ambition is a strong work ethic. Constance is not afraid to both figuratively and literally get her hands dirty. She is also incredibly loyal to her family and her closest friends. She is not afraid to speak her mind when it comes to those who she cares most about, especially when they are being down-talked.

Among Constance’s faults is her temper. Unlike some whose tempers flare up big then fizzle out, Constance’s tends to smolder slowly. She holds grudges, and is an expert at giving the silent treatment to those with whom she is displeased. Her energy also sometimes gets the better of her, and she can keep going longer than many of those around her, making her a force to be reckoned with when it comes to projects. The young woman doesn’t know when to stop for others’ sake. She can also talk the ears off of her friends, but many count this as just an average trait, classified as neither a merit or a fault.

Description

Curves are not lacking for this young woman. She has what could almost be considered an hourglass shape, though the top of her hourglass is slightly smaller than the bottom. She is of slightly above average height, reaching just over five and a half feet tall. Her skin is light, but not so light to be considered truly fair, and her face is dotted with freckles. Her nose is small and turns up at the end, and it sits above full, pink lips. Her eyes are green with with flecks of brown, and rimmed with dark eyelashes. Her long, straight hair is chestnut brown and hangs down to the middle of her back when it is left down. She typically has it pulled up in an ornate bun, which can be dressed up if she is going to a function or left be for the day-to-day.

Outfits

Purple Robes

Constance wears robes in deep royal purple. The fabric clings to her form in her waist, and flows down from her hips to cover her feet. The fabric is heavy, with an ornate damask pattern beginning faintly at her waist and becoming bolder as the fabric proceeds down to the floor. The top is cut wide, in a “boat” neck style. The sleeves are long, clinging to her arms down to her elbows, then begins to loosen up into a small bell shape, ending just at her hands. The sleeves have a white lace peeking out at the ends and the same lace pattern appears in a strip around her waist, accentuating her curves.

School Robes

Constance’s robe is crisp, with a new appearance to it. It bears the stock Hogwarts crest, and no house insignia as yet. The robes fit well, though the sleeves are slightly long, covering her hands almost all the way down to her fingertips. The length of the robe is not as long, however, coming only down to cover her shoes, though it is not long enough to cause the girl to trip overly often. Beneath the robe, sturdy black boots can be seen peeking out as she walks. They have a gentle sheen to them, and seem to be little worn, if not brand new.

Family

• Roger Mathew Winters (b. 1874)
  • Candice Ellen (Timur) Winters (b. 1872)
    • Sylvie Ramona Winters-Geroff (b. 1891)
      • Ulaen Branick Geroff (b. 1890)
        • Evan Lucas Geroff (b. 1912)
          • Olivia Christine (Baxtor) Geroff (b. 1912)
            • Christopher Ulaen Geroff (b. 1931)
            • Jason Evan Geroff (b. 1933)
            • Arista Sylvia Geroff (b. 1935)
            • Melia Elaine Geroff (b. 1937)
        • Constance Arilyn Geroff (b. 1917)
        • James Thomas Geroff (b. 1920)
        • Brandon Casey Geroff (b. 1924)
        • Delaney Candice Geroff (b. 1927)
        • Vanessa Astra Geroff (b. 1930)
    • Casey Daniel Winters (b. 1892)
      • Cecelia Emily (Lathurin) Winters (b. 1892)
        • Megan Elise Winters (b. 1913)
        • Nathaniel Jordan Winters (b. 1915)
        • Lawrence Oliver Winters (b. 1918)
        • Catherine Rose Winters (b. 1920)
        • Stephanie Mathilda Winters (b. 1924)
    • Julie Lauren (Winters) Wilander (b. 1893)
      • Douglas Octavious Wilander (b. 1892)
        • Theodore Jacob Wilander (b. 1918)
        • Rosemarie Mabel Wilander (b. 1922)
    • Evan Christopher Winters (b. 1896)
      • Lilly Marie (Cornell) Winters (b. 1897)
        • Julian Raymond Winters (b. 1917)
        • Cassandra Rachael Winters (b. 1918)
        • Marcus Frederick Winters (b. 1921)
        • Travis Howard Winters (b. 1923)
    • Christina Ashley Winters (b. 1899 ; d. 1900)
    • Martin Lawrence Winters (b. 1904)
      • Roseanne Elizabeth (Hunter) Winters (b. 1904)
        • Gregory Zacharias Winters (b. 1925)
    • Paul Isaac Winters (b. 1908)
      • Eleyn Siana (Sheldon) Winters (b. 1908)
        • Lillian Elanora Winters (b. 1927)
    • Stacy Amelia Winters (b. 1910)
    • Melinda Elizabeth Winters (b. 1912)
    • Gary Randolph Winters (b. 1912)