InsaneJournal

NAME: Esther Noelle Smith. She does respond to Essie or Es, but generally prefers Esther.
AGE/BIRTHDAY: 20 / 21 December 1960.
BLOOD STATUS: Pureblood.
FORMER HOUSE: Hufflepuff, 1972-79.
OCCUPATION: Esther acquired a position as a photographer for The Daily Prophet shortly after graduating. She is technically an assistant to several regular writers, and pulls her weight despite occasionally chafing under too much direction. One day she'd like to be able to photograph wildlife independently, but for now she's content enough with editorial work.

FAMILY:

Jonah Smith, father. B. 9 April 1913. Hufflepuff '31. Attorney, International Magical Office of Law.
Emmeline Smith (nee Runcorn), mother. B. 12 December 1933. Ravenclaw '52. Finance Personnel, WWN.

Deborah MacDougal (nee Smith), half-sister. B. 10 April 1941. Gryffindor '59.
Susanna Smith, half-sister. B. 11 August 1944. Hufflepuff '62.

Micah Smith, brother. B. 27 February 1959. Hufflepuff '77.

SEXUALITY: Esther is essentially asexual, though if asked she identifies as heterosexual and likely actually sees herself that way. That said, she has never had any inclination to have a sexual relationship with anyone, nor does the idea interest her. On an objective and occasionally romantic level, she finds men attractive.

SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Esther has been in a relationship with Rabastan Lestrange since the summer.

CHILDREN:: None.

LOYALTY/ALLIANCE: Though not a Death Eater herself, and finding their more extreme methods fairly odious, Esther nonetheless supports the overall cause. She isn't very outspoken about her politics, and doesn't believe she needs to be - as far as she is concerned, a young woman of pure blood and good family should very well be assumed purist to some degree, or at least sympathetic. It's a naive view, but Esther's outlook on these things still hasn't matured as much as one might hope, especially considering her job.

ROLE IN THE WAR: As legitimately useful talents go, Esther can claim high competency in dueling and is a well-rounded spell-caster. She traveled a fair amount in her teenage years due to a friend's connections, and though she is not fluent in any languages other than English, she has a knack for reading body language and nonverbal cues and can usually intuit her way through situations in which language barriers may prove problematic. She is highly observant in general, and is good at going unnoticed while managing to glean a lot of information. A lover of animals since childhood, Esther has almost encyclopedic knowledge of wildlife magical and otherwise. Esther is young, and has had a fairly pampered life - she's fully aware that her useful skills are limited at the moment (and is a bit embarrassed by the fact), and is eager to glean an arsenal of more practical abilities.

POLITICAL VIEWS: Esther's views on the current political climate are very much a product of her upbringing. Her parents are hardly fanatically purist, but their is a certain inherent prejudice to their thinking. Purebloods just are superior by dint of their heritage - it is no one's fault, and though half-bloods and Muggleborns of course hardly choose their inferiority, it is nonetheless something tragically inborn. It thus would follow that diluting bloodlines would dilute magical prowess. There are branches of the Smith family that are less-than-pure, and because Esther's happens to have maintained an unsullied bloodline, she tends to just ignore this factor. She admits that having knowledge of Muggle customs, strictly on a practical level, is not a bad thing, and may even be helpful to some. Still, she is as ignorant as the average Wizard or Witch when it comes to Muggles and their ways. In the case of werewolves, vampires, and other non-wizard Beings, Esther feels similarly, though is considerably more informed. Although, in their cases, the immediate and well-documented dangers they pose tend to instill more a sense of fear than an idea of potential interest.

APPEARANCE:
The first thing most people probably notice about Esther is that she is tall, at about 5'8", and lanky. When she was in her early teens she was (and still is, by some estimations), a bit awkwardly built - luckily, she's figured out how to carry herself in a way that doesn't draw as much attention to the fact that she has bony knees, sharp elbows, and is a little bow-legged, or that her limbs are perhaps too long for someone as thin as she is. While she's somewhat gawkily built she's also remarkably pretty. She has high cheek bones, round green eyes, and full lips, and despite a slight overbite has a genuine, sweet smile. Esther's hair is dark brown and wavy, and she's worn it long for basically her entire life.

Esther is a practical dresser; dressing up never appealed to her even as a child, and while she certainly knows how to look put-together, she has no patience for frills and excessive embellishments. While she finds some trends appealing, she'd rather have a wardrobe that is always fashionable than one that is constantly in flux as certain looks go in and out of style. She does, however, tend to wear the same pair of boots on a regular basis, and can only be parted from them is an occasion calls for formal dress. Though relatively free of tics or tells, Esther does bite the nails on her left hand when especially stressed, and tends to stare when not engaged in conversation. She speaks quietly, and her voice has a low register to begin with, so it is not uncommon for people to ask her to repeat herself.

CHILDHOOD:

When his first wife passed away in 1950, Jonah Smith was left a widower at thirty-seven with two young daughters but, luckily, a solid career, generous income, and genuine affection with which to support them. For a number of years, he never sought to remarry. In fact, it hardly seemed necessary and he was grieving, after all. Yet in 1957, he met Emmeline Runcorn and for the first time in his memory the notion of another woman entering his life didn't seem unthinkable. It was even desirable. They married after little more than two years, and in 1960 welcomed an unintended heir to the family when their son Micah was born. Jonah hadn't planned to become a father again at nearly fifty, but Emmeline was young and wanted children of her own, and it worked out rather well to have a boy at last, didn't it?

It was far less expected when Emmeline became pregnant again barely a year later. Esther was absolutely an accident but, for Emmeline, a happy one. Jonah's older daughters, Deborah and Jemima, were not as welcoming of doting from a step-mother whose age made her more suited to be their own older sister, had not really taken to her, and never would. Esther was without doubt her mother's favorite from the start, and it was made quite obvious. The baby girl was shamelessly spoiled with a glut of material goods and a severe lack of discipline. Emmeline was not a very good disciplinarian and was a little silly at that, and Jonah was beyond the age where he really felt like parenting anymore, as much as he cared about his children.

As a result, Esther grew up with essentially no rules, and excessive stimulation in the form of toys, holidays, and clothing. Fortunately, she had a fairly docile temperament. While her brother Micah took full advantage of the lax environment and ran fairly wild in his younger years, Esther was placid and thoughtful, if a little isolated and secretive. She liked quiet activities and spent the greater part of her days writing stories in her room; still, she wasn't above getting into some trouble, and it wasn't unheard of for her to torment the House Elf now and again, or to draw all over her bedroom walls. Due to their vastly different personalities, Esther and Micah never became especially close in spite of their closeness in age. They were more likely to be found playing tricks on one another, and the only person who ever seemed capable of getting a rise out of sweet little Esther was Micah.

Though she lacked the regular company of other children her age, Esther never seemed very lonely, and in fact preferred being left to her own devices. Family and holiday parties were fun, when they happened, and it was nice to have cousins to play with, but it all tended to wear on Esther quickly. She was probably at her happiest during the two years that Micah was away at Hogwarts before she began her own education there. It made her feel like an only child, and that she had full freedom to do and act as she pleased without worrying that an annoying sibling might tease her or nose around in her private things. Not that a nine-year-old had much that was truly worth the "PRIVATE" label, but Esther had a very serious sense of personal property.

HOGWARTS:

If Esther thought it was difficult to keep one person out of her private things, she would find Hogwarts quite trying at first if only for the fact that she suddenly had to share a living space with four other girls, at the very least. She wasn't especially cheerful on her first train ride to Hogwarts castle. Though, even as a child, she was emotionally rather staid, it was clear to her compartment-mates and anyone else that might encounter her at that time that Esther was a little on the sullen side. It didn't make her immediately very popular, which was discouraging to her. It was difficult to make friends as a natural introvert, and though she was sorted into Hufflepuff like Micah, she didn't want anything much to do with him. Esther missed being at home, with its lack of restrictions and greater personal space.

While it took some time, by the end of her first fall term Esther had eked out a few promising friendships in her year and was finding her footing academically. She was a good student overall - fortunately for her, she was of the sort that didn't actually need to study very much to get by with slightly above-average marks. It made her a little lazy as a student, and it took her a while to come to terms with the fact that there would be some classes for which she might actually have to apply herself to reap the full benefits. Still, she was at her best in Defense Against The Dark Arts and Care of Magical Creatures; her notes for most other classes were more often than not more recognizable by the abundance of doodles and drawings than useful information.

Esther's social circle didn't grow much between her early and later school years. As she became more comfortable with her peers she began to come off as friendly enough, but she was more interested in strengthening the connections she'd made early on then building an intricate web of tenuous, useful relationships. She tended to gravitate toward more male friends than female - in fact, aside from one of her dorm mates with whom she became incredibly close, nearly all of Esther's other close friends were boys. Although her mother often expressed a wish that Esther would find more girl friends (and made efforts to try to force such friendships at family parties), she also entertained the notion that these friendships with boys would inevitably transform into a lively pool from which Esther would have her pick of boyfriends and suitable matches when she reached her teenage and early adult years.

For Esther, these thinly veiled expectations were very irritating. She had never been keen on the idea that, on reaching a certain age, she was expected to start thinking about things like finding a boy she might consider marrying one day. While her parents were not of the mind that their daughter would marry within year or two of graduating, they were still traditional enough in their thinking. Esther might have a job after leaving school, but it naturally wouldn't be long until she also got married and began thinking about having her own children. The truth was, Esther was not only not concerned with these things - she actually had no interest in them. To be precise, in having a typically sexual relationship. For a while, she didn't think this was unusual. Not everyone developed an interest in those things at the same time, after all. But by the time she reached her seventh year, Esther was very much aware of the fact that her thoughts on dating, romance, sex, and all that didn't seem to match up with those of her peers on even basic levels.

Boys certainly showed interest in her, and Esther dated one or two of them, but there was always a gap when it came to expectations. It occurred to her very early on that she simply didn't like all the kissing and groping and stages of sexual exploration that everyone else seemed to crave, whether it be with boys or girls. After a while, Esther just started turning down offers for dates because she no longer felt comfortable trying to force herself to be interested in things that just felt like a chore. She decided to stop letting it weigh on her mind. At the end of the day, it wasn't that important, and Esther assumed that when she was ready to deal with those things, or even want them, she just would. She actually found it much more interesting to see how her friends' own romantic foibles played out, and avoiding much of the hormone-driven drama gave her more time to focus on her personal interests. Which, in many ways, is just how she liked things anyway. Esther wasn't much for clubs, although between her third and seventh years she doggedly tried out for the Quidditch team despite being barely competent at the game, and casually attended meetings of the Charms club.

With her seventh year coming to a close in the spring of 1979, Esther became increasingly aware that she would need to find a tolerable form of employment sooner rather than later. Having never been made to think that she would ever want for anything, her mind naturally gravitated to the "hobby job" more than to anything practical, a bit boring, but necessarily lucrative. So what if she wasn't raking in huge amounts of galleons? Her parents had always provided for her and surely still would, at least supplementarily. Esther still took the undertaking of actually finding a job (even if it ended up being frivolous) very seriously, and spent the better part of her final term sending inquiries to a number of businesses that had positions that interested her - her targets ranged from the Ministry's Department for Care and Control of Magical Creatures to a counter girl at a bakery she especially liked in Hogsmeade. When May came around, Esther completed her schooling with a decent number of NEWTs considering her study habits, and with a photography job awaiting her at The Daily Prophet.


POST-HOGWARTS:

As she had with nearly all of the other jobs she had applied for, Esther pursued the photographer position because she enjoyed taking photographs and was not too shabby at it. Well, she was at least good enough to have landed a job at it, and that must have meant something, right? It wasn't a dream job, but Esther entertained the notion of eventually being able to be a photographer on her own terms - which was to say, following wild animals around worldwide and maybe compiling her work in one of those glossy, heavy tomes people paid tons for and had on their sitting room tables for bored guests to flip through when conversation lulled. Yes, Esther thought that one day it would be nice to have a coffee table book or two under her belt. For now, playing assistant to a few of the Prophet's regular writers was good enough, and besides, would give her the experience she needed to actually become a legitimately good photographer.

Her first year out of school went much more slowly than she anticipated. As busy as Esther was, she was living at home once more, and the familiarity of it all made the rush of being suddenly on her own in the world feel much less urgent. Aside from the fact that she spent most of her day in an office or on locations and was bringing in a regular paycheck, Esther's life felt very much the same. Meals made for her, laundry always done, room always tidied seemingly of its own volition. As much as she felt like an adult during the work day, every time Esther set one foot back inside the Smith family home she couldn't help thinking something was off about the fact that she was still so...taken care of.

The solution to this problem, in Esther's estimation, was to start flat-hunting. Her mother Emmeline, on the other hand, located the issue elsewhere - obviously it was, once again, Esther's inability to keep a damned boyfriend for more than three months. And when was the last time that girl had mentioned she was going out on a date? The poor thing was probably so bogged down with that job she didn't even have time for a proper social life! And so began the redoubling of Emmeline's efforts to find her daughter a more appropriate (i.e. marriageable) social circle.

This time, Esther found it much easier to ignore and side-step the "opportunities" her mother sent her way on a bi-weekly basis. She really liked her job and got a bit of an egotistic thrill out of seeing her photography published on a regular basis. The improvement she saw in her own abilities just in the first year of her employment was notable and something she took a lot of pride in. With that and finally renting her own place at the beginning on 1980, Esther was starting to feel like a proper adult at last. She even bought herself a pet in the form of a remarkably dog-like cat called Marlowe. Admittedly, she was still accepting some financial help from her parents, but just having her own space lifted some of the guilt Esther had been starting to feel. It also made it much harder for her mother to actually keep tabs on her social life or lack thereof.

Still, by June Esther was starting to find Estelle's not-even-slightly subtle attempts to pique her interest in any sort of dating scene increasingly trying. When she accompanied her mother to a WWN function, a retirement party for one of their more popular radio personalities, she was conveniently introduced to Rabastan Lestrange. He had the usual qualifications - good-looking, good-to-excellent family (in this case, certainly excellent), some level of charm, employed - and while ordinarily this wouldn't have swayed Esther, the timing was good. With other things falling in to place rather well, she determined it might not be the most horrible thing to entertain her mother's plying for once, for a few months at least. It was an opportunistic move in many ways, but in others Esther really did think she could become fond of Rabastan. She could, at least, glean a friendship from this, she hoped. Merlin, as long as he didn't try to marry her.

The most exciting event in Esther's recent life was her first ever international assignment. She is currently spending time on assignment in Egypt, along with a reporter and another photographer, to cover the International Alchemy Convention. She is aware that several other papers are covering it, likely with journalists far more seasoned than she is, and while intimidated is, more than anything, a little giddy just for being so far from home on her own.

FIVE THINGS:
• Well, my initial interest in taking up any character was as a response to the requested "Rabastan's Beard" line. The storyline sounded like it might be funny to play out, and in this case I opted to write up a character who is essentially using Rabastan as a beard as well (albeit in a slightly different way). As of now I think we sort of decided they're mutually invested in keeping this up for largely the same reasons and have an understanding, so mostly I'm looking forward to developing Esther's friendship/respect for Rabastan and the fact that she legitimately enjoys knowing him, if for entirely different reasons than most would assume.

• While Esther's on the introverted side, I'd definitely like to see her make some friends abroad. She really values her friendships and tends to get on better with men, but I think it would be nice if she could bond with another girl at some point.

• Possibly ending up in the company of the Death Eaters? Esther likely is not aware of Rabastan's involvement, but I would think if she keeps in touch with him and, with the way these wacky traveling exploits tend to play out, she may cross paths with the larger group at some point. And possibly join up with them. By her own will or otherwise remains to be seen. I am fairly confident that in either case their antics would drive her up the wall.

• Photo-journal! Esther genuinely loves photography. To her it's so much more than just her job, and I'd like for her journal to have tons of photos and drawings (or gifs, even, you know, ~magical photos~) accompanying her entries. She's all starry-eyed at being on her first assignment abroad so she's probably photographing everything anyway.

• Esther may be nearly twenty years old, but she is still a child in a lot of ways. Her independent-living skills are still pretty limited, and I think as things progress she's going to learn a lot on that front. But I also expect her naivete may be shattered in a lot of ways, and she'll have to come to terms with the fact that her actions affect others, and that other people aren't always going to be taking care of her, either.