Ball of Sunshine

Played by Ana De Armas (link)
DESCRIPTION:You will hardly ever find Ari in the same outfit twice. She hates things that go the same way over and over again. As a result, her closet is filled to the brim - shoes, robes, dresses, jeans, trackies, shorts, t-shirts, jackets - you name it, she has it. Her clothes are often paint-splattered as well - it's a favourite pastime of Ari's. She's not very good with make-up, though enjoys attempting to use it occassionally, and nail-polish is one of her favourite things to do; she could sit for hours and do nothing but paint nails. She's slim, weighing about 60kg, and though she's rather fit, her muscles aren't immediately obvious. 

Ari is rather tall (5'11"), and the slimness and lack of muscles make her lanky and a little awkward. She never really knows what to do with all the extra limb she seems to have. Her eyes are a soft hazel and nearly always bright with the hint of a smile. That said, she's pretty much always smiling, too. Despite the fact that her long arms and legs make her a little clumsy, she always holds herself with next to perfect posture. Her head is always high, and she never hunches her shoulders. Her posture and near-constant smiling gives her a happy and upbeat look - she considers herself rather approachable.
Ari has a scar along the left side of her stomach and lower ribcage and another across the fingers of that hand from a fire she was in when she was eight. She's right handed with most things, and really doesn't use the left much any more, despite the fact that it is still fully functioning.
Ari's hair is naturally a mix of blonde and brunette, and the two colours streak together to form a rather pretty head of hair. Ari usually wears it up in a ponytail, but if she has to be somewhere nice, she lets it fly free - when down, it almost reaches her hips.




POSITIVE TRAITS: Friendly, intelligent, courageous, creative, loyal, fast learner, honest, caring, inventive, outgoing, fair, easy to please, kind, romantic, curious, affinity for duelling and history, protective, loves cats, determined, adaptable, motherly, open-minded, born leader, optimistic, bold, passionate and trustworthy.
NEGATIVE TRAITS: Unpredictable, rash, temperamental, defiant, often has unrealistic expectations, extremist, emotional, rebellious, prone to sudden changes of heart/mind, opinionated, proud, curious to the point of nosy, not very good at keeping things tidy, has some commitment issues, clumsy, and is terrified of thunderstorms and the dark (both things she hates to admit to).
LIKES: Making friends, cats, her cats, history, books, the outdoors, paint, art, fairness, children, nail-polish.
DISLIKES: Monotony, being bored, fire, closemindedness, being wrong, thunderstorms, the dark, bullies, nightmares.
HOBBIES: Painting, duelling, reading, cooking, helping people, petting her cats, snuggling with her cats, painting her nails and other peoples' nails.

GENERAL PERSONALITY: Ari is bright and upbeat. Her bubbly personality gains her lots of friends, and she has a habit of directly involving herself in other people's affairs. She hates people getting picked on, and, whether they ask or not, she's always there to help. In a sense, she's a bit of a mother hen - with a particular attraction to the underdog. She's curious, bordering on nosy, and is constantly trying to 'figure you out'. She makes an excellent guidance counsellor.

She hates monotony, and endeavours to make each meeting with a person different and exciting. She's a big one for excitement. And speaking of big things, Ari's expectations are exceedingly high. She likes to set large goals - she's a bit of a 'go big or go home' kind of girl. Trying your best is an essential in life. She's easy to win the respect of if only you try your hardest. Along with her disdain of monotony comes the unpredictableness that is Ari. She likes surprises, and rarely does the same thing twice. She can change her mind in an instant, and has a tendency to make split-second decisions that aren't always thought through.
She's brave enough to speak up about her beliefs, as well, and will fight for what she deems the right cause until the death. Her leadership skills come naturally to her, and she could probably lead an army into battle if you asked her to.
Ari is in love with the idea of love, but can't quite seem to grasp the concept. She's a hopeless romantic through and through, and dreams of amorous picnics and charming late night dinners under the stars. Her ideals of love, like her ideals for most other things, are high and verging on unrealistic - probably because she was so deprived of affection as a child. There's another side to that as well. She's afraid of attachment. She loves her friends, sure, but whenever she gets close to someone, the emotion terrifies the lioness and she runs away.




Parents: Danielle Marie Wilson née Smythe (mother, muggle, b. 29st December 1945, d. 9th April 1981) and James Matthew Wilson (father, muggle, b. 17th December 1939, d. 9th April 1981)
Siblings: None
Partner: She's been engaged twice, but didn't follow through with the marriages. Now she's single again, and ready to hop into a world of love.
Children: She wishes she had kids. But she does have her two gorgeous cats, Asparagus (Link) and Edgar Linky Link, Linky Link Link)
Other Family: None

Character History: Matthew Wilson grew up in London, raised by his stockbroker father in a world of business. He did fairly well in school, and was one of the few who went to university after completing high school. He earned a degree in business by the time he was twenty-four, and he followed in his father's footsteps. Matthew met the love of his life at twenty-five, and after two years, they were engaged to be married. Unfortunately, the girl, Daisy, died in a car crash before the wedding. Heartbroken, Matthew threw himself into work, becoming extremely successful. It was nearly a year later that he met Danielle.

Danielle was born to a pair of aristocratic out-of-wedlock-lovers in a small hotel called Smythe Lodgings. Panicked about a baby that had come from an affair, the two had her in the inn and then left her behind. The staff found the baby on the bed, crying, and when no parents could be found, the owner of the small hotel took her in. While the hotel-owners were not rich, she lived in comfort. She learned to read and write, and some basic math, but never went to school and wasn't one of the brightest girls in the town. However, she did learn useful and more practical skills while at the hotel - how to cook, clean and wait on customers. It wasn't surprising how easy it was for her to get a job once she moved out on her own at twenty-two. 

Danielle and Matthew met at a café she was working in. Though she had learned practical skills, she had never been rich, nor very clever, and was a little materialistic as well as superficial. She was convinced she was in love from the moment she laid eyes on him. She asked him to come back soon, and to her surprise he did so. Perhaps it was that Matthew was craving the attention of a woman, for he was still reeling from the death of Daisy, but he came back nearly every day for a month before he asked her to join him at the movies. 

Their dating was awkward at first, because while Danielle was excited, Matthew seemed an odd mix of interested and detached. It wasn't at all what Danielle had imagined as her first real romance. But she persisted, and eventually it ended in a marriage - nearly four years later. And a year after that, came Ariella. Unfortunately, marriage didn't suit the couple. Matthew wasn't engaged in the relationship, and Danielle became more and more frivolous with her requests of her husband. As a result of Matthew's disengagement, she desperately wanted to catch his eye - to be attractive enough to earn his attention. She began to want for the latest fashions - expenses they couldn't afford, particularly with a new baby. Arguing became pretty much a constant in the family.

Ariella was born in London in 1973. There isn't a moment she remembers of her childhood when her parents weren't fighting. They always seemed to be fighting about something. About money, about her, about love… She hated it. Especially since considering the fact that they were always fighting, they never seemed to have time for their daughter. After about four, Ari practically raised herself.
In 1981, when Ari was eight, Danielle and Matthew were killed by some of Voldemort's followers as random muggle victims for the drunk blood-purists. They didn't notice Ari, who had been pushed into the closet by Danielle (perhaps one of the only shreds of love her mother had shown her), and they disappeared after setting the house alight. Ari could never forget what she had seen. It was like her storybooks had come alive. The men had tortured her parents with a single wave of a stick; a wand. And with those same pieces of wood the group of three drunk men had ended their lives in the blink of an eye, and also set the place on fire. Terrified, she waited a little longer than she should have in the closet to make sure the men weren't coming back, and as she finally ran out of the door, the book that she had been reading in hand. But the fire seemed to chase her, weaving through the hallway after her in ghastly shapes - dragons and snakes and everything from her nightmares were alive in the fire, chasing her with flames licking at her heels. Though in the end she got away, the left side of her body was burned. The book in her right hand was a little singed, but otherwise fine, and Ari has kept it since.

A neighbour discovered Ari and sent her to the hospital, and, when she was healed, an orphanage. The fingers of her left hand were scarred, along with the left side of her stomach and lower ribcage. Everything else healed well enough to no longer be visible. Her time at the orphanage was in some ways better. The workers weren't the kindest, and she was blamed for things she didn't do quite often, for which being the oldest child in the establishment didn't help. However, being the eldest, she naturally took care of those younger than her, developing a very caring and motherly nature. She also learnt to be bright, happy and optimistic because it meant that the children had no reason to be sad, and it made it ten times easier to comfort them.

At eleven, she received a letter to Hogwarts. At first, Ari was terrified that it was some kind of sick joke or prank, and she was flooded with memories of the night her parents died. But a woman by the name of Minerva McGonagall came to the orphanage and told her the truth. She didn't tell the woman about her parent's death, but agreed to go with her to this school. While she would miss the other kids, they were all slowly disappearing - going off into families without her. And she knew she was getting too old to be adopted. Families wanted young, cute, moldable kids - not eleven year olds with burn scars on their stomachs and stories of another family to tell.
At Hogwarts, she was sorted into Gryffindor, and Ari, being Ari, befriended many brave Gryffindor Lions; probably most of the house, and quite a few of the other houses, too. One of her closest friends had a cat, and Ariella fell in love very quickly. She vowed that as soon as she was able she would buy a cat, and take it to the orphanage so that she could make all the kids as happy as the feeling of the soft fur under her fingers made her. Though not usually one to be prejudiced, Ari had a tendency to shy away from the Slytherins, as the more stories she heard of Voldemort, the more she was certain it had been his dark wizards who had murdered her parents. She's gotten over it now, but her eleven year old self couldn't quite break the barrier. She always excelled in her Defence classes, and Duelling quickly became one of her favourite classes. Ari also found she had a bit of a knack for both Ancient Runes and History, but she never really followed either up - they weren't interesting enough classes. She had a habit of 'adopting' first years, as well. She loved to help them or show them around. It was no wonder she was made Prefect fifth, sixth and seventh year. Unfortunately, she didn't quite make it to Head Girl.

Out of school, Ari wasn't quite sure what she wanted to do, and took up several odd jobs. She also bought a cat - a muggle cat called Spots, and visited the orphanage quite often with him, though most of the kids she had known had grown up and headed off to families by then. She met a man at one of her jobs - a Frenchman by the name of Jean. He swept her off her feet, and the two of them were exceptionally happy. He loved her cat, and he had a kneazle of his own, whom Ari loved as well. On a particular romantic picinic, Jean engaged, and it was wonderfully exciting. Telling all her friends, Ari began making preparations for the wedding, which was to be held in France, and revelled in the fun. But as the date drew closer, Ari began to second-guess herself, and wonder about the decision to marry. Just three days before the wedding was to go ahead, Ari panicked and called it off, disappearing back to England without explaining anything to Jean. She stayed at home as much as she could for the next three months until the boredom got the better of her and she ventured into society again. Ariella hasn't seen Jean since.

When Voldemort took control of the Ministry and Hogwarts, her friends warned to keep her blood status as quiet as possible - some even told her she should run away to the muggle world. But had no one in the muggle world, so she kept her head down, and stuck to her friends like glue. She was offered a place in the Order of the Phoenix by a few of her friends, and she did join, but she hasn't seen many of the members in a long while, her work keeping her from the last couple of meetings.

Ari can scarcely recall a happier day than the day the Dark Lord's reign ended. The battle was won, and Ari, sweaty and dirty from battle collapsed to the ground and cried out of sheer happiness. The war against muggleborns was over, even if some of the Death Eaters had escaped, and people were finally safe - it seemed as though the sun had finally come out of a dark storm. Many had died, and more still were injured, but Ari and her friends were safe, and it meant that the rest of the world was safe. Suddenly, Ari knew exactly what she wanted to do - she wanted desperately to have a job to help people. Ari dropped her few odd jobs of the time, and dived straight into Auror training, and became an Auror. She was there for emergencies; for people who needed her, and it was great to feel so needed. And she got to hunt down the people who made her recent life one of constant fear - bit of an added bonus, really. And after a year or so, she added Guidance Counsellor for a muggle children's home to her Job list, because it was something she felt rather strongly about. The extra funds allowed for a second animal, and Ari bought a half-kneazle-half-cat kitten. A little ball of black fur, Edgar has quite the temper, and can take a while to warm up to people. If he doesn't like someone, he'll make it clear.

A fellow auror became her second fiancée, and this time Ari was certain she was ready for the marriage. She was utterly in love, and their dates were as romantic as anything, and their snuggles were joined by the two furry residents of Ari's. But again, Ari couldn't do it. It frightened her, the idea of doing something that seemed so forever. She called off the wedding earlier this time, thankfully - about fifteen days before, rather than three. After the break-up, Ari decided to reset her sights. She was, being Ari, a little bored with having had the same job for several years, and she wished to avoid her ex-financée too, though she wouldn't admit that to anyone.

So Ari dropped the role of Auror, with some reluctance - it was rather fun, to find something new. To Ari, the most important thing is that she's helping people. She dropped her role as guidance counsellor as well, and decided to try her hand as a healer. About a year ago, she completed the training and became a Medi-witch - more excitement, and much more variation in the work that way. Around the same time that Ari reached the status of Medi-witch, Spots died, much to the dismay of the newly-promoted witch. She's still sad, but about a month ago, she went to a shop and bought another half-kneazle-half-cat, this one white with brown ears, face, paws and tail, and called Asparagus. Recently, she's also taken back the guidance counsellor job, but this time at a wizarding orphanage.

Ari's nightmares still haunt her from that night when she was six years old (though the cats, who, despite Edgar being a rather grumpy thing, are excellent snuggle buddies, help a lot with these), and there's very few people that she's told about her past.




Wand: 10", Sycamore, Phoenix Feather, Springy
Former House: Gryffindor
Affiliation: Order of the Phoenix, but she's been rather absent lately
Amortentia: Old books, nail-polish, hot cocoa, and fresh paint
Magical Abilities: None




I wasn't sure if you guys had a site-canon wizarding orphanage, so I just said 'a wizarding orphanage', let me know if I need to change that ^^