Sassy McSlytherin

Played by Britt Robertson (link)
DESCRIPTION:Ashley tends to exude an air of flippant confidence. She knows who she is and what she can do, and she makes it quite clear that nothing anyone else thinks is going to bother her. Her walk is light and casual, almost as if she doesn’t have a care in the world. She also smiles a lot more than most pureblood heirs her age, although it’s typically a sassy smile almost daring people to call her out. While she’s always well dressed, her clothing is usually more functional than extravagant because money just keeps getting tighter since her family’s fall from grace. People going purely off her appearance tend to mistake her for a typical shallow pureblood party girl. But make her angry and you’ll see a fire in her eyes that could give the fiercest of Gryffindors a run for their money.




POSITIVE TRAITS: smart, thick-skinned, knows how to get what she wants, determined, not easily intimidated, doesn’t need anyone’s approval, capable of separating logic from emotion
NEGATIVE TRAITS: ends justify the means, unintentional habit of treating people as objects to be used, bit of an adrenaline junkie, fully prepared to hang the rules if they get in her way, emotionally guarded, angry about the way society has treated those like her (purebloods and Slytherins), still working on shaking many of the prejudices she was raised to believe in
LIKES: competition, winning, being sassy, intellectual challenges, the Slytherin common room, being underwater
DISLIKES: not being in control, being wrong, being underestimated, being mistreated for her name or former house, people who think they’re better than her, when people expect certain things from her
HOBBIES: Quidditch, swimming, Potions

GENERAL PERSONALITY: As the youngest child in her family, Ashley naturally became a bit of a boundary-pusher. While she does possess the same poise as any other carefully groomed pureblood heir, she tends to play things a little looser than some of her high class peers. Especially when it comes to showing anger or having a good time. (Girl definitely knows how to party.) But she can still slip back behind an unreadable Slytherin persona with practiced ease. In fact, her rebellious and seemingly flippant air can often lead people to be surprised at just how cold and calculating she can become. Then again, maybe that’s precisely the point. Nobody ever truly knows exactly what she’s thinking. Which definitely came in handy as a teenager because some aspects of the typical pureblood indoctrination didn’t take quite as well with her as with some of her peers. While she definitely accepted most of the old values (she’s still having a hard time letting some of them go), her sharp mind and natural urge to question the rules kept her from getting sucked quite as far down the rabbit hole as others did.

Ashley tends to have a one track mind in the sense that once she becomes focused on something, nothing can distract her from achieving her goal. Plus she loves a good challenge. When others throw up their hands in surrender, Ashley cracks her knuckles and sets to work. She’s highly determined and fiercely competitive with a dash of perfectionism, which makes her superb at anything she tries. Mostly because she won’t touch something unless she knows she can succeed. She also has a certain knack for landing on her feet and twisting any situation to her advantage. That, combined with her sharp mind and natural ferocity, can make her a truly devastating enemy. Like a true Slytherin, she knows how to make revenge hurt. And she can wait as long as it takes for her plans to come to fruition. The flip side of that is her undying loyalty. While her independent nature and emotional walls make it ridiculously complicated to earn, it’s also nearly impossible to lose. Ashley will quite literally do anything for the rare few she deems worthy. (She can count that list on one hand.) As a rule though, she rarely cares what others think of her. Everything just seems to slide right off, at least on the surface. But like all the best Slytherins, Ashley is an iceberg. There’s far more going on than most people ever see. Events near the end of Voldemort’s reign shook the very foundation of her life, so she’s still trying to figure out what she actually believes and how she fits into this new world. There’s a lot of inner conflict still trying to sort itself out inside her head. But a person would never know it by looking at her. Turns out she’s a lot better at hiding her emotions than her family realized.




Parents: Alastair Avery (a.k.a. Avery Jr., Death Eater, died in the Battle of Hogwarts) and Juliana Avery née Parkinson (deceased)
Siblings: Alec Avery (26, currently in Azkaban), Adrian Avery (would be 24, deceased)
Partner: n/a
Children: n/a
Other Family: @julia2 (uncle, surrogate father), Catherine Avery née Fawley (aunt), @kallie (cousin/goddaughter), Alberik Avery (paternal grandfather, deceased, was a school friend of Tom Riddle and became one of the first Death Eaters), Rowina Avery née Rosier (paternal grandmother, deceased), Pansy Parkinson (cousin via Ashley's mother)

Character History: Ashley was the third child and only daughter to be born to the first son of the Avery family. Her mother was glad to finally have a daughter. Her father, on the other hand, didn’t care much for his little girl. He already had two male heirs. The only thing a daughter could provide was a strong marriage alliance. As such, he took precious little interest in his daughter’s life. Actually, the family philosophy that children should be seen and not heard left little attention for any of the children. But what interest Alastair did show was directed at his two boys and turning them into suitable heirs for the proud house of Avery. Little Ashley was expected to follow the rules as a quiet and proper lady. Unfortunately, the pressure had the exact opposite of the desired effect. Even as a young child, Ashley was precocious, always asking questions and pushing the limits of what she was allowed to do.

One day when Ashley was four, Juliana took her daughter and youngest son to visit a high class friend of hers. Like the Avery family, this friend and her husband had supported the Dark Lord but had managed to weasel their way out of paying for their crimes after Voldemort fell. (Alastair Avery had pled the Imperius Curse and thus been set free.) The day went badly wrong when a group of aurors arrived at the mansion to bring in most of the host family on new evidence tying them incontestably to the Death Eaters. A fight broke out as the former Death Eaters fiercely fought back against their arrest. Somewhere in the chaos, the large house was set ablaze with Fiendfyre. Juliana and Adrian died in the flames, along with several aurors and most of the family they were visiting. Ashley, too young to sit still properly like her brother, had been sent out into the garden with a house elf and so managed to survive the blaze. Her father never truly forgave her for coming out alive when his son and wife did not.

With Juliana gone and Alastair more distant than ever, Graham and his wife stepped in to help take care of the children since they currently had none of their own. It was meant to be more of a temporary thing, a way to help out until Alastair recovered from his grief. But it didn’t take long to see he had eyes now only for his surviving son. Graham, however, had always had a bit of a soft spot for his niece. Perhaps he saw pieces of himself in her – the youngest child who asked too many questions and didn’t always agree with the answers. Whatever the reason, young Ashley came to bond far stronger with her uncle than she ever had with her own father.

All too soon, Ashley was old enough for Hogwarts. She was sorted into Slytherin just like the rest of the Avery family. While she did well enough in most of her classes, it quickly became apparent she was something of a prodigy with potions, and her herbology and flying skills weren’t half bad either. It was during her first year of school that her Aunt Catherine finally became pregnant. Ashley began to worry she might be replaced by the baby, but Graham actually wanted his twelve-year-old niece named godmother to his child. Catherine wasn’t exactly thrilled, having wanted to ask one of her friends to fill the role. Eventually Graham won out though. And while most of Catherine’s attention naturally drifted to her new daughter, Graham still maintained a strong bond with his niece.

The world began to change that summer. People began coming by the house more and more to talk with Alastair behind closed doors. All the secrecy made Ashley antsy. Something big was coming. Then a riot broke out after the 1994 Quidditch World Cup. Alastair Avery had a perfectly solid alibi that his house elf and son confirmed, but Ashley, who had been unable to sleep that night, knew her father had actually been absent from the house. After that, the number of late-night visitors to the manor only increased. Uncle Graham came by more often as well, although he was more on edge than usual. He also seemed to be fighting with his wife quite a lot. But Ashley was sent back to Hogwarts before she could figure out what it all meant. The school was especially crowded her second year thanks to extra students attending for some tournament. Aside from a fascinating spectacle with dragons, Ashley didn’t really see the point. Still, the school year blazed by, only to end with the revelation that the Dark Lord had apparently come back from the dead.

After that, life at Avery manor changed drastically. A number of shifty characters began coming and going through its halls. Large meetings were held in the formal dining room, meetings Alec and Ashley would often try to listen in on with mixed results. Alec had just graduated from Hogwarts and was eager to prove himself a man by taking part in the growing movement. Ashley herself believed in blood purity and the other old values as much as her brother, but something held her back from feeling the same enthusiasm he did. Maybe it was her rebellious streak or her nature to question things. Whatever the reason, while Ashley certainly supported the rise of the new regime that would create a world she had been raised to view as utopia, she saw the movement through slightly more critical eyes than her sibling.

It was during the first semester of Ashley’s third year that Alec got his wish. Ashley returned home for Christmas to find her brother bearing the Dark Mark on his arm. But while his enthusiasm was still very much there, it was now accompanied by a strong fear of the Dark Lord. Alastair too seemed oddly cowed whenever his lord was mentioned. Ashley never did manage to get the full story out of her brother, but she learned enough to piece together that Alec’s initiation into the Death Eaters had been more to punish some terrible failure of Alastair’s than to reward his ambitious son.

The rest of Ashley’s third year was fairly uneventful. Hogwarts had come under the control of the Ministry, which, though staunchly denying Voldemort’s return, seemed to have a rather large soft spot for those of pure blood. As a result, Ashley and most of her house received far better treatment than some of the troublesome Gryffindors. She even became a substitute chaser for her house Quidditch team, her natural talent overruled by the fact that the other chasers had seniority. Still, Ashley knew enough to realize it was worth being pushed around by the older boys in order to learn what they knew. So she quietly sat the bench, watching and learning what she could.

The day after Ashley’s fourteenth birthday, some kind of battle broke out at the Ministry of Magic, which was finally forced to admit that Voldemort was indeed back. Alastair Avery was one of the Death Eaters involved, and he was captured and sent to Azkaban. With Alec falling deeper and deeper under the sway of the Death Eaters, Ashley moved in with Graham and Catherine and two-year-old Kallisto. Now that she could see her aunt and uncle’s fights up close, Ashley finally began to understand what the problem was. Catherine wanted out of the Death Eater business to protect their daughter. Graham, on the other hand, believed staying with the Death Eaters was the best way to ensure her safety. Ashley had originally been incensed over her father’s arrest. Much like with Alec, the incident had only served to fuel her belief that the Ministry needed to be stopped. But as she spent night after night with her ear to a closed door secretly listening to her aunt and uncle argue, she began to have the first stirrings of doubt. What if the Dark Lord’s way wasn’t actually the best to bring about the world they all desired?

The world only became grimmer as time went by. Attacks by Death Eaters began to grow in frequency. Tensions at Hogwarts were running high as well. And the divide between the Dark Lord’s followers and those who opposed him was rapidly becoming more and more apparent. Despite Ashley’s brilliance and her remarkable talent for potions, her last name and her father’s current residence in Azkaban caused her new Potions professor to pass her over for membership in his illustrious Slug Club. Her Quidditch career didn’t fare much better as she once more found herself taking a substitute role thanks to older but arguably less talented players. Christmas vacation didn’t help matters. Ashley came home to find Graham in a deeply worrisome state, apparently nearing the end of his rope. By the time she returned to school, she was starting to wonder if her uncle was still as loyal to the Dark Lord as he claimed to be.

Things finally came to a head near the end of the school year. Draco Malfoy let a group of Death Eaters into the school, and Albus Dumbledore was killed. Term was declared over at that point and the students were allowed to go on home if they wished. Ashley was among the number who did. It was only a matter of days later that a group of Death Eaters escaped from Azkaban with Alastair Avery among their number. He rejoined his son at the manor, and Ashley was told to return and resume living with them. While Ashley was reluctant to leave her uncle, especially now that she was more certain than ever he was up to something, she did as her father ordered. The man was known for having a harsh vindictive streak, and Ashley knew better than to defy him.

By the end of the summer, the Dark Lord had essentially taken over the country. The school Ashley returned to for her fifth year was much changed. Her former head of house, now openly a Death Eater, had been instated as headmaster with two more Death Eaters as his deputies. While the open teaching of pureblood philosophy sat quite well with Ashley, the methods employed by the Carrows slowly began to bother her. Being ruthless in pursuit of a goal was one thing. But torturing students seemed like a pointless display of cruelty. She kept her discomfort to herself though, knowing better than to sabotage the preferential treatment she received as a member of a pure house supporting the Dark Lord.

While Ashley was home for Christmas break, her uncle’s home was attacked by Fenrir Greyback, a werewolf Death Eater. Ashley’s young cousin was unharmed, but her beloved uncle was bitten while protecting his daughter. Ashley was heartbroken. But it was a few days later when she walked by her father’s study and overheard him talking with another Death Eater that Ashley’s world truly shattered. Kallie had been intentionally targeted by the werewolf on the orders of the Dark Lord because Graham was working against him. Not only that, but Alastair had known the attack was coming. Angry that he himself had been imprisoned for his loyalty while his brother chose to betray the cause, Alastair had made no effort to warn Graham. It was in that earth-shattering moment that Ashley came to a decision – she couldn’t side with the Death Eaters, no matter how much her views might line up with theirs. Not if it would hurt the only people in the world she actually loved.

She resumed her fifth year with a secret but no less fierce determination. Openly fighting back would have been suicide. Besides, what could one fifteen-year-old do? The only defiance possible was subtlety. She pretended not to have seen or heard things that should have been reported to the Carrows. She let herself appear to struggle in Dark Arts class. Not so much that she herself would be punished, but enough that the students she practiced on didn’t have to go to the hospital wing. It wasn’t much. In fact, it was so slight that no one else would have even noticed it was happening. But just knowing she wasn’t letting herself be a pawn of the man who had hurt her surrogate father helped keep her sane. Graham, having been demoted from a Death Eater in a position of power to little more than a dog, completely disappeared a few months later. But Ashley didn’t have long to worry about him because at the beginning of May, Harry Potter returned to Hogwarts and the school erupted into battle.

Slytherin house was evacuated from Hogwarts along with the underage students of the others houses. They were escorted through a secret tunnel into Hogsmeade, where several Slytherins promptly circled back toward the castle to fight beside their families in the name of the Dark Lord. After some internal debate, Ashley followed in the hope that she could talk her father or at least her brother out of this madness. It didn’t take her long to stumble across Alec. He had noticed the students joining up with Voldemort’s army and had headed for the village in the hopes of turning their escape route into a way inside for the Death Eaters, who so far had been unable to enter the castle. Ashley tried to reason with her brother, even telling him the Dark Lord had ordered the attack on their uncle. She insisted the lives of their family meant nothing to Voldemort, but Alec just scoffed at his sister’s words. As he brushed past her, fully intent on finding the tunnel students were still coming out of, Ashley’s eyes fell on the school. The light of spells from the battle made it look almost as if the castle were on fire. In that moment, she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt the Dark Lord wasn’t going to end up bringing about the pureblood utopia he had promised. All he would accomplish was burning the wizarding world to the ground. And pure blood or not, Ashley couldn’t let him do that. So she did the hardest thing she had ever done in her life. She drew her wand and pointed it at her brother.

At first Alec couldn’t seem to understand what had happened. He seemed certain it was some kind of joke, or maybe an attack of nerves. But the pleading look on Ashley’s face finally convinced him. Alec’s own face twisted in anger as he finally saw the truth his sister had managed to hide for so long – she wasn’t actually backing the Dark Lord. Alec drew his own wand, calling his sister a blood traitor and telling her she was no longer part of the family. Ashley’s response was that she was doing this for their family. For Graham and Catherine and little Kallisto and even for Alec, even though he couldn’t see it. Because this crusade he believed in so strongly would only chew him up and spit out the broken pieces. Because victory for Voldemort would only mean destruction for the Avery family.

It was Alec who cast the first curse. He was quick, but so was Ashley. And she had spent the last year being officially trained in the Dark Arts by two professionals. Even so, the duel was infinitely harder than anything she had ever experienced in the classroom. There was no doubt in her mind that losing would result in death, either by her brother’s hand or that of another Death Eater. Somehow a combination of adrenaline and talent kept her alive. And then, by some miracle, Ashley managed to get the upper hand. A brutal curse she had learned in class knocked Alec unconscious, wrecking havoc on his body in the process. Ashley’s own muscles and lungs were screaming in exhausted agony as she stepped over to Alec’s broken and bleeding body. Despite knowing her brother would probably have finished her off given the chance, Ashley couldn’t bring herself to do the same to him. Instead she left him unconscious and presumably bleeding out for someone else to deal with. Utterly spent and knowing now there was no point looking for her father, Ashley instead found a villager willing to apparate her to her aunt’s home so she could check on Catherine and Kallie. If the Dark Lord won, they would have to flee the country. Only once Ashley got inside and saw them both safe did she finally let herself break down.

Catherine and Ashley packed what they could, and then they waited. Finally word came that Voldemort had been defeated and the Death Eaters were on the run. Alastair had been killed in the attack on the castle. Alec, however, had apparently not been as close to death as Ashley thought. He had survived her curse, barely, and his body had been healed so he could stand trial for his crimes. Ashley forced herself to attend the harsh ordeal that came in July. But even after Alec trying to kill her, seeing him chained to a chair with his cold eyes boring into her skull as one accusing voice after another listed off his terrible crimes was a lot for a sixteen-year-old to handle. Her brother never did tell anyone how he came to end up unconscious and bleeding on the ground. It took Ashley a while to figure out why he would stay silent, but the realization she finally came to was chilling – Alec didn’t want anyone else taking away his revenge. He was banking on the idea that someday he would have a chance to come after her himself. Even after he was sent away to Azkaban, it took Ashley a long time to convince herself he wouldn’t be getting that chance.

Graham was still in the wind, so Catherine and Kallie both moved in with Ashley. The adult and teenager agreed it was safer for them to stand together, especially since they were essentially all that remained of the Avery family. The pressures of that summer forced Ashley to grow up even faster than she already had been. There were dwindling finances to be sorted and a house to protect (they only barely survived a call to seize property from all pure houses that had backed the Dark Lord), not to mention little Kallie. Repeated face-offs with the press and other people who clearly hated her name made Ashley’s thick skin even thicker. Her heart, broken by the disappearance of Graham and what she had been forced to do to Alec, also got considerably colder. But she pushed bravely on because her cousin and aunt needed her.

Hogwarts resumed in the fall, although it seemed almost ridiculous to be sitting in a classroom again after all that had happened. But while most of the fighting was over, the hurt it had kicked up was not. Anti-Slytherin feelings were soaring at Hogwarts. Ashley, refusing to be intimidated, stepped up to become a full chaser on the Slytherin team. It made her a bit of a target for harsh words and the occasional bullying, but she stood her ground, even going so far as to get in a physical fight with a Gryffindor who called her a Death Eater. The resulting detention did little for Ashley’s growing bitterness. The only upside was that Slytherin house closed ranks like never before. There were a whole slew of other snakes who had lost family or property or both. Students who had never worked a day in their lives were now trying to balance finances and care for empty estates they hadn’t the faintest idea how to manage. Heirs to bloodlines stretching back centuries suddenly found themselves the last of their illustrious names. The very foundations of their worlds had been blown to smithereens, and they had no idea how to handle it. So they reacted by pulling together.

The months slipped by, and soon Ashley was in her final year of school. The attitude against Slytherins was only getting worse. An attack in Diagon Alley resulted in several Slytherin alumni issuing a mass apology. At Hogwarts, pranks continued to escalate. And while Ashley and the others hit back just as hard, the anger was getting close to simmering over. Then the home invasions started. Ashley had to get permission to leave the school for a few days when the Avery manor was hit in November. Luckily, the damage was reparable and neither Catherine nor Kallie were hurt. But Ashley returned to Hogwarts with a burning rage against those who would dare attack her family. For all their talk of the greater good, it seemed those who had defeated the Dark Lord could be every bit as cruel as he had been.

Tensions finally exploded in January when the Slytherin team, now captained by seventeen-year-old Ashley, was attacked during a practice and the whole group had to be taken to the hospital wing. As soon as she was fit to leave, Ashley marched herself straight to the headmistress’ office to deliver an ultimatum – if McGonagall didn’t do something about the state of affairs, Ashley and the other angry Slytherins would. And it wouldn’t be pretty. Confronting the headmistress was admittedly just a hair shy of suicidal. But at the time, threats seemed like the fastest way to get results. And the woman was actually remarkably understanding in her own intimidating way, assuring Ashley there was already a plan in motion to deal with the tension among the houses. And also making it crystal clear that any vigilante justice would be met with severe consequences. A few days later, the Inter-House Unity Tournaments were announced. Ashley herself was highly skeptical of them fixing anything. But after a very rocky start, the overall atmosphere at Hogwarts definitely began to improve.

There was another good thing that came out of the attack on the team – a letter from Graham. After almost two years with no word from her beloved uncle, Ashley had begun to give up hope she would ever see him again. But he wasn’t dead or hiding in some far away country. He was simply trying to stay away from his family, specifically Kallie and Ashley, until he could get a handle on his lycanthropy and rebuild some semblance of a life. (Catherine had apparently known this for some time, and she and Ashley got into a rather large fight over the fact that Ashley hadn’t been told her aunt had heard from him.) But hearing about what had happened to the Slytherin team had apparently convinced him that his niece needed him sooner rather than later. And while he might have worried at first about how Ashley would respond to him now that he was a werewolf, no amount of instilled prejudice against such filthy creatures was enough to make her turn her back on the man she still saw as a father. The two of them began writing letters back and forth under old nicknames with the express understanding that Ashley wouldn’t go looking for Graham until he was ready to be found. A promise Ashley naturally had absolutely no intention of keeping.

Spring brought Ashley’s long-awaited graduation. Somewhere along the way she had set her sights on becoming a healer (probably because of her aptitude at potions and herbology), and she passed all the necessary NEWTs with Os, although she was a little surprised to have pulled it off in transfiguration, one of her weaker subjects. Shortly after graduation, Ashley was approached by a scout from the Holyhead Harpies saying the team wanted her as a reserve chaser. She very nearly turned them down due to a combination of hating the public eye and already being busy with healer training and helping Catherine raise young Kallie. But in the end, Ashley’s love of flying and adrenaline won out.

The next few years were something of a blur, to be honest. Ashley progressed quickly through her healer training and settled on a specialization in Potion and Plant Poisoning. The urgent rush required and the mental gymnastics of trying to determine what exactly did the poisoning and how to undo it without making things worse was a perfect fit to her sharp mind and love of adrenaline rushes. She spent a lot of time practicing with the Harpies as well, although she sat the bench for the better part of two years before finally being moved up to a regular chaser. Personally, Ashley was convinced it was due to the public being prejudiced against her last name, although she could never prove that. Death Eater attacks came and went, and eventually it almost became normal. Ashley did get a little concerned at the removal of Dementors from Azkaban and again when a handful of Death Eaters managed to escape. (She didn’t get much sleep that week, even after learning her brother wasn’t among the escapees.)

It was about a year ago that Ashley finally stumbled across Graham. Purely by accident, oddly enough. Up to that point, all her subtle efforts at tracking him down had turned up nothing. And then one day Ashley entered a very sketchy hole in the wall apothecary looking for an exotic ingredient for an experimental potion and quite literally ran into her uncle. Recent years had clearly taken a toll on him, but he was still Graham. And Ashley was thrilled to have him back, even if it was in an altered capacity. After that joyous reunion, she refused to let her uncle fade back into the background. She began helping him in every way she could. (Being a healer who specialized in potions definitely helped.) She even managed, after a great deal of arguing and yelling and door slamming, to convince Catherine to let him see Kallie for short visits, if only to remind him what he was fighting for. The process has been slow, but they seem to be making progress.

Which brings us to the present day. On the whole, things seem to be looking up. Ashley has finally reached where she wants to be in both her jobs, and she’s settling in quite nicely. There are still occasional Death Eater attacks that make it hard to sleep some nights. Plus the public still isn’t a fan of the pure houses. The Harpies had to make most of their practice sessions private after a few incidents aimed at Ashley, and security at the first few games she played was a nightmare. But her skill on the pitch has helped matters immensely, both for herself and for others like her.

Things at home can get a little interesting sometimes. Ashley and her aunt Catherine do a fair bit of arguing (typically about Graham) despite each being more or less all the family the other has left. But while they may fight like cats and dogs, they truly do love each other. And they agree on protecting (and spoiling) Kallie, now nine years old, so that gives them something to unite over. Graham is still slowly but surely working his way back toward a normal life and a permanent place within his family. It’s not easy, by any means. There is still very much a long way to go. But Ashley is determined to someday bring him home for good. Assuming she doesn’t take a well-aimed bludger to the head from one of the league’s Muggle-born beaters first.




Wand: hawthorn, phoenix tail feather, 11 inches
Former House: Slytherin
Affiliation: Neutral - At the end of the day, Ashley's allegiance is to her family. Right now she's more concerned with keeping them safe and out of the political mess than with actually picking a true side.
Amortentia: spring rain, jasmine, broom polish, antiseptic, the mix of water and stone (a.k.a. the Slytherin common room)
Magical Abilities: n/a




Do I have to?