Post by Alice Longbottom on Mar 4, 2014 15:21:22 GMT -5
[presto]
SIXTEEN
FEMALE
GRYFFINDOR
HALFBLOOD
HETEROSEXUAL
MELISSA BENOIST
ALICE EMILY LONGBOTTOM
 meet alice emily longbottom. neither she nor her family probably needs much introduction; the name longbottom is enough to make most people sit up and take notice at its very mention. while they aren't as famous as the potters or weasleys, or even as infamous as someone like the malfoys, neville longbottom is hardly an unknown face within the wizarding world. sometimes, alice is glad of this; most of the time, she really isn't. it becomes a little - well, no, very, really - it becomes very tiresome to be the daughter of someone who is both a war hero and a teacher. don't get her wrong, she loves her father absolutely to death, but sometimes she wishes he wasn't so famous. it makes her feel like she'll never have her own identity, really. couple that with being a twin, as well as being named after your grandmother who you know you have no hope of living up to, and you have the perfect recipe for someone who isn't quite sure who exactly they ought to be. and that's really what describes alice the best - unsure, you might even say confused. she's always been the more outgoing of the longbottom twins (but merlin, she hates that epithet, and feels a strong urge to hex whoever addresses her and abby collectively by that name), but she really is not what she seems. intrigued? well, then, it's time to learn something more about her. while she doesn't make it known quite as often as abby does, she too isn't the biggest fan of being a twin. however, her ideology of living pretty much boils down to 'if you're given lemons, make lemonade', and so she would try to bond with abby to the best of her abilities during her childhood. however, abby apparently did not believe in this saying, and so, most of the time, she would ignore alice. undeterred, alice never gave up her attempts to connect with abby. despite more than one of these attempts ending in disaster (the worst being when abby fell into a pit she was digging in the garden when they were both four), she firmly believed, and does to this day, that the two of them have no real reason to be as cold as they are towards each other. now, their relationship has progressed to such a stage that whatever alice tries to do to interact with abby, she's always snubbed and pushed away. she also feels, to some extent, that abby is the more popular of the two at school. while alice doesn't share abby's thirst for competition (another of the many ways in which the two differ), she hates that abby has that edge over her, and worries that she has convinced everyone in their year that alice is 'annoying'. however, she never displays any of this worry to people - not even grace or abby - covering it up with a sunny disposition and refusing to take most things seriously. the differences between alice and abby hardly ended there. while abby took a keen interest in herbology and loved to watch and imitate her father gardening, alice was more fascinated with how her mother handled everything around the house and the pub. the fact that hannah could be doing three or four things at once, and doing them all perfectly, really intrigued alice, and sometimes, without her parents' knowledge, she'd borrow one of their wands and try using the same little charms on her and abby's room. of course, she was never quite successful, her magical abilities not having developed fully by then, but that never stopped her from trying. that was one thing about alice that has remained consistent to this day - she is perseverant as hell. once she knows what she wants and sets her sights on it, nothing and no one can stand in the way of her achieving her goal. and if they do? well, let's just say that though alice appears cheerful, she can be as lethal as abby if required. she's a hard worker, and will do whatever it takes to get what she wants. she does have her limits, though - there's a reason she was sorted into gryffindor and not into slytherin - but for the most part, she's daring, bold and doesn't think very much before she acts. of course, this has come back to bite her sometimes, but for the most part, she feels like it's a pretty awesome way of living. as for the rest of her family, she's never really had much of a problem with getting on with any of them, really. despite her dad being away from home for the majority of the year, when he really was around, he spent a lot of time with all his three children, and though alice did not share his keen interest in herbology, she still looked up to her father very much. her mother, meanwhile, was definitely the parent she favoured (not that she would admit it if she was asked). she thought hannah was some kind of superwoman, really, with the way she managed everything. and if she's being completely honest, she never tried to get as close to her father, because she was afraid abby would push her away. it ashames her, but abby has always intimidated her a little, and sometimes she feels like she will never be able to do everything abby does and definitely not as well as her. grace, meanwhile - what is even there to say about grace? alice adores her and looks up to her, and she sometimes wishes she could have grace's sweet nature and eternally positive outlook on the world. she thinks it's impossible for anyone to dislike grace, really; and also that her ex-boyfriend is an absolute idiot for letting such a lovely girl go. if she ever needs any advice which she'd feel weird asking her parents about, grace is the first person she'd ask, because she knows that she'll be supportive and not judgmental in the least. so, as alice grew up, the distance between her and abby increased to a great extent. one thing that she knew both of them were happy about was their first sign of magic manifesting at different times; alice's happened one day when she was six. she was trying, as usual, to use her mum's wand to make her own bed. she had dropped the wand, but to her surprise, all her sheets somehow turned yellow. she was ecstatic that she was finally showing magic, and consequently, her attempts to use magic to do the little things around the household redoubled. her attempts usually made her parents laugh; however, sometimes they did end up causing serious harm, such as a time when she accidentally knocked over the bookcase in her room and got hit hard on the head. that is still one of the most embarrassing moments she can remember - her family never fails to tease her about it, either. she even has the bump on her head as a painful reminder of her attempts to do things she couldn't. that's been a huge problem with alice over the years; her perseverance backfires on her a lot of times. even when she knows something is out of her ability to do or to fix, she'll still try to do it, usually ending up hurting herself - both physically and emotionally, over the years. you'd have thought she'd have gained some understanding about it as she grew up, but her stubbornness simply does not allow her to accept that she can't do something. the rest of her childhood continued relatively normally; of course, the competition between her and her sister increased when grace went off to school, with both of them vying to be the first to write to her after she left for school or to share any important news with her. grace was sorted into hufflepuff like her mother, and alice, wanting to emulate her, decided that she wanted to be in hufflepuff too. so she set off on her first train journey to hogwarts - though she and abby were dropped off together, they separated from each other and from grace almost as soon as their parents left them alone. alice was one of the noisy crowd - you know the type, rushing through the train, chatting to everyone and everyone and generally being herself. as she was dashing up and down, she noticed that abby was sitting with a little group of girls, and they were all looking at her with rather distasteful expressions. alice was definitely very hurt by this, but by now, she had learnt not to show her hurt to abby; so she pretended like she hadn't noticed anything, and continued on her way. she was excited to be off to school, and she wouldn't let one small incident stand in her way. her sorting was rather an eventful moment for her. just a minute before she was called up, abby had been sorted into slytherin, and this had shocked alice about as much as it had everyone else. she hadn't imagined abby in slytherin, of all houses! regardless, when she was called up, hufflepuff was the only thing running through her mind. even though the hat told her gryffindor was the best fit for her, alice was her usual stubborn self and went on insisting on hufflepuff. a few minutes later, though, she realised that her father had been in gryffindor, too - it would be quite a nice house to be in. giving up (a rarity for her, to be quite honest), she allowed the hat to place her in gryffindor. as she's grown older, she's realised that gryffindor really is where she fits best; however, the same's not true for abby, who alice feels has grown into her house colours over the years, too. she knew how badly abby wanted to be in gryffindor, and when she found her crying about it, she tried her best to comfort and sympathise with her. but, as usual, she was snubbed. but then again, when has a snub ever really deterred alice? one thing she isn't quite sure whether to be happy or sad about, though, is the fact that she and abby got put in such diametrically opposite houses. gryffindor and slytherin - it's like a classic house rivalry, she sometimes thinks bitterly to herself. on the other hand, she's sort of glad that the two of them got put into different houses - isn't it what they both wanted, to establish their identities outside of being twins? other than the pseudo-rivalry with abby, which somehow turned into something involving their whole year (which alice thinks is absurd - really? why is it that someone can only be friends with either her or abby? are they really that different?), alice's first four school years passed as normally as they could be expected to. she was a slightly above-average student, not as good as abby, but better than a lot of her peers. her favourite subject was definitely charms, though, and she excelled in that, much more than she did in other subjects. outside the classroom, though, was a whole different story. from the moment she first set foot in hogwarts, it seemed like she was destined to create havoc there. she would act like a perfectly good, sweet girl in class, then play pranks on teachers and other students, sneak out at all hours of the day, and generally get herself in all sorts of trouble. the number of detentions she got in her first year itself were quite shocking to her family - especially to her father, who, after her fifth one within two months, took it upon himself to tell her off quite soundly. while this quietened alice down for a while, it definitely did not stop her, and she simply began to be more sneaky about her rule-breaking. up until her third year, she continued with this; then, she started to feel very silly and immature about it. she's still a very loud and cheerful person - she doesn't break rules for the sake of breaking them anymore, though. around her fourth year, though, you could say she, along with the rest of the people in her year, began to 'grow up', as it were. the whole year was abuzz with people crushing on each other, and talk of dates and boyfriends, and even things like alcohol and smoking. alice treated all those things in a rather childlike manner; she was intrigued by them and wanted to experience them, but at the same time, they felt like something rather wrong to do. so she held off on everything - though she did have her first crush around this time. it was on a boy in her year, but she never told the boy - there was never an active hope of a future, she thought, even though she liked him a lot. she sometimes regrets not telling him, though; who knew where it could have gone from there? if she's being completely honest, she still feels some butterflies when she sees him. around the same time, too, abby had her first relationship - and with a girl, too. alice didn't even know abby liked girls - she got the news of the relationship from one of their (very few) mutual friends, not abby, and she felt betrayed. was alice really not worth even telling her something so significant in her life? however, just as soon as it had started, it seemed to be over. alice doesn't know why it ended, but she does know that abby was at her happiest when she was with the girl. she tried asking her about it, and for once, she wasn't snubbed - while abby still wasn't totally open with her, the two of them, for once, acknowledged each other, and managed not to fight. the summer of her fifth year was really when things began to turn upside down for alice. suddenly, she began to develop a strange habit - she'd started pulling her hair out. she didn't take this very seriously at first, thinking that it was a strange habit that would cause no harm, but soon she began to do it even more and more. it became a kind of way of relieving stress for her; she'd do it when she was in the most nerve-wracking or scary situations, and at times like reading a book, when her mind was busy but her body wasn't. slowly, it began to take a toll on her, and her mother noticed the hair on the sides of her head thinning. not knowing about this new habit, she assumed alice was having some sort of a problem with hairfall, and took her to st. mungo's, where the healers prescribed her potions to grow back her hair. and it did grow back; at least, until alice pulled it out all over again. finally, after hannah happening to make alice's bed one day, she discovered her habit, and confronted alice about it. alice initially refused to say anything, but finally, she broke down and admitted to pulling her hair out. worried, hannah told neville, and the two of them wanted alice to see another healer immediately, to know whether she was suffering from something genuine or if it was just a habit she'd grow out of. not wanting to go to a healer, since she didn't want to let anyone else know about her condition, alice protested, and begged her parents not to take her to a healer. she promised she would try to stop the habit. her parents agreed, but on one condition - if they ever saw her doing it again, or got word of it from school, they would have to have her see a healer. and so, as alice went into her fifth year, she promised herself she'd try and chuck the habit. however, this was far easier said than done. she found herself having the urge to pull her hair out in class, or while she was in bed, a great deal, and often, gave into those urges too. she hated that she was giving in to the habit - she knew she was damaging herself, but she couldn't do anything at all about it. other people in her year saw, and began commenting on it. some of them were simply curious, others actively rude, and rumours of alice longbottom's peculiar habit began to fly around the year faster than light. ashamed, alice began to withdraw herself. she became a lot less social than she was for the first four years of her life; she was scared people would call her a freak if she tried to even talk to them any more. she stopped trying to get closer to abby, because she was sure she wouldn't at all approve of what her sister was doing, whether or not there was any love lost between the two of them. eventually, to hide the unevenness of her hair, she cut it all short, and began to hide her head with caps or scarves whenever she could. needless to say, with all the rumours flying around, a teacher was bound to notice her condition eventually; and who would she have wanted to find it out more than her father? neville had realised that something was seriously wrong with alice, and decided that they would have to take her to mungo's those very winter holidays. at mungo's, she was diagnosed with something called trichotillomania. her parents were shocked, as was she; she didn't know that she actually had a mental problem, she simply thought it was a weird habit that she'd grow out of eventually. she was put into therapy during those holidays, and she felt absolutely awful about it. having a mental problem was something to be ashamed of - something which made you an outcast. and that was what alice feared she would be from then on - an outcast. her therapy continued through the winter vacations, and it had a slight effect on the habit, but not enough to eradicate it completely. her condition isn't serious enough to warrant her being pulled out of school for treatment, but during the holidays, she continues with therapy, and despite a few relapses, she's managed to grow most of her old hair back. it's still a little choppy and uneven, but she's working towards it. she doesn't want to fix it with magic; she feels like that would be cheating. growing it back naturally, for her, would be a true sign that she's overcome her problem. though alice was incredibly shaken by a lot of the things that happened to her in her fifth year, and they did affect her studies over the year, she managed to do decently well on her owls. she scraped through most of them, and predictably got an o in charms, but luckily, she managed not to fail any of them. as for a career, she's never had a particular interest in herbology, so she doesn't want to pursue that, but the idea of being a magical researcher fascinates her greatly. that, and obliviator, are the two options at the top of her list of desired careers right now. she hopes to do better in her sixth year, and not to let her disorder relapse or affect her again. she's trying to become the old alice again - as loud and cheerful and daring as she was for her first four years of her school life. as for boys - well, that's another complicated issue with alice. she wants to be loved, and to have a boyfriend, but she doesn't mind in the least if she doesn't get one. what she's most intrigued with, though, is the idea of physical affection. she knows abby has already lost her virginity; alice, meanwhile, hasn't even been kissed once. she wants to experience all this and what it's like, and she might or might not try to do so in school - she's still weighing the pros and cons. but then, we all know alice well by now - does she really strike you as someone who won't do something after she's decided to? KITTY FIFTEEN GMT+4 |
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