xxx♪♫BASICS xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
NICKNAMES Sona, Rosewhisper
GENDER Female
SEXUAL ORIENTATION Straight
AGE 18
BIRTHDAY June 21, 2031 -- Gemini
LANGUAGES English, Chinese, random words in a variety of other languages
BLOOD STATUS Halfblood
WAND Aspen and Phoenix core, 10 inches, reasonably supple with featherlike carvings on the handle.
PATRONUS Piebald deer
MORE-THAN-AVERAGE Animagus--Nightingale
FACECLAIM 11-12ish? drawn by Allison Aerie
Random pictures for other ages. Brown-black hair, brown eyes.
HEIGHT 5'6" (168 cm)
WEIGHT 136 lbs (62 kg)
APPEARANCE Light scar on the back of her left hand; Tattoo on the left side of her back: Jonah Castor Lane written in script and garnished with a gemini symbol and bird. In her nightingale form, this is visible when she spreads her wings as a black outline around a tertiary feather.
xxx♪♫SCHOOL AND CAREERxxxxxxxxxxxx
ATTENDED Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
HOUSE Ravenclaw Head Girl and Prefect
CLASS OF 2049
CLUBS
■ Music club
■ Quidditch--seeker (yr 7), reserve seeker (yr 2-6), reserve keeper (yr 1)
■ Dueling club-- captain (yr 6+)
■ Astronomy Club (yr 2-5 occasionally attended for tutoring)
■ Adventurer's Guild (yr 3+ occasionally attends to listen to the campaigns and doodle)
O.W.L. SCORES
Astronomy ~ A
Charms ~ O
Defense Against the Dark Arts ~ O
Herbology ~ EE
History of Magic ~ A
Potions ~ O
Transfiguration ~ O
Arithmancy ~ A
Ancient Runes ~ EE
Cursebreaking ~ O
Healing ~ EE
Music ~ A
Wandless Magic ~ A
N.E.W.T. SCORES
Charms ~ O
Defense Against the Dark Arts ~ O
Potions ~ EE
Transfiguration ~ O
Ancient Runes ~ EE
Arithmancy ~ A
Cursebreaking ~ O
Healing ~ A
Music ~ EE
Wandless Magic ~ A
Other Electives
Exam Thread
Animagus: (Registered) Sonora was relieved and thrilled to actually be a bird in her Animagus form. Even after completing the transformation, Sona dedicated many hours to familiarizing herself with her bird form, including shifting mid-fall or in potentially dangerous situations, and incorporating being a bird into dueling. She is comfortable spending long periods of time as a bird--sleeping on her friends as a bird was a quick way to power nap without going all the way back to the dorm-- and is getting better at shifting fluidly between forms.
Apparation: Apparation is not Sonora's preferred form of transport. She can do so safely, but at relatively short distances and only with absolute focus. Her seventh year was dedicated to primarily towards NEWT studies and familiarizing herself with her Animagus form, and so while she can apparate, many more years of practice will be needed before she can use it adroitly.
Alchemy: Driven by her interest in Transfiguration and Potions, Sona took Alchemy her third year. She loved it but ultimately decided to drop it in favor of other classes going forward. She maintained her interest and later read up on alchemy as part of her light reading.
Care of Magical Creatures: Initially excited to learn about the magical creatures she might run into on cursebreaking adventures, Sona eventually decided against continuing in favor of healing.
Advanced Flying I & II: Taken in years 2 and 3 to help with Quidditch, Flying had always been a dream of Sona's and served as her stress relief later on.
Wandlore: While Sona had fun in Wandlore year 3, she decided to focus on her cursebreaking-focused electives going forward.
Animagus: (Registered) Sonora was relieved and thrilled to actually be a bird in her Animagus form. Even after completing the transformation, Sona dedicated many hours to familiarizing herself with her bird form, including shifting mid-fall or in potentially dangerous situations, and incorporating being a bird into dueling. She is comfortable spending long periods of time as a bird--sleeping on her friends as a bird was a quick way to power nap without going all the way back to the dorm-- and is getting better at shifting fluidly between forms.
Apparation: Apparation is not Sonora's preferred form of transport. She can do so safely, but at relatively short distances and only with absolute focus. Her seventh year was dedicated to primarily towards NEWT studies and familiarizing herself with her Animagus form, and so while she can apparate, many more years of practice will be needed before she can use it adroitly.
Alchemy: Driven by her interest in Transfiguration and Potions, Sona took Alchemy her third year. She loved it but ultimately decided to drop it in favor of other classes going forward. She maintained her interest and later read up on alchemy as part of her light reading.
Care of Magical Creatures: Initially excited to learn about the magical creatures she might run into on cursebreaking adventures, Sona eventually decided against continuing in favor of healing.
Advanced Flying I & II: Taken in years 2 and 3 to help with Quidditch, Flying had always been a dream of Sona's and served as her stress relief later on.
Wandlore: While Sona had fun in Wandlore year 3, she decided to focus on her cursebreaking-focused electives going forward.
DREAM JOB living the dream
CURRENT OCCUPATION cursebreaker for an independent research organization
xxx♪♫PERSONALITYxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
REFLECTIVE A childhood of metacognitive assessments and tasks has made a habit of discussing feelings, organizing thoughts, and analyzing situations with someone close to her. Although she still gets emotional about her mistakes and failures, she’s used to organizing her thoughts for analysis and improvement, and tries to do the same for her friends.
FOCUSED Sonora gives her full attention to whatever she's trying to do in any given moment, whether that be reading a book, practicing a spell, or just letting her imagination run wild. When she’s somewhere or with someone, she paying attention to that, or at least focusing on how she can support or contribute. It’s not that she doesn’t get distracted, but rather she has strategies for managing them. Staying focused doesn't mean being stuck on one subject though-- Sona learns by building connections and recognizing patterns to things, and as part or learning a concept or technique as best she can, she tries to come up with creative ways to apply them.
POSITIVE Sonora believes everyone can be happy, that there doesn't need to be an antagonist, and that everything will definitely be alright. She’s not actually an idealist--she knows things won’t always go smoothly, but at least for herself she's going to believe that everything will be okay, or at least happen for a reason. Even when she's feeling insecure or down, some part of Sona always sees the silver lining--or at least tries to.
CONSISTENT Sonora very much likes and relies on the structure of her everyday schedule. And while mediocre to start at anything, Sona excels with diligent practice and creative use of what she knows and has. That said, she enjoys spicing up individual study sessions with new methods or creative tactics and is always happy to adjust her plans for impromptu adventure with friends, and practices being prepared for the unexpected.
ACCEPTING Sona is gentle and friendly to everyone she encounters and would genuinely like to see everyone happy. Her time and care is on her and hers-- herself, Jonah, her family and her handful of closest friends--but she accepts that everyone is living with their own demons and respects the futility that she can only really encourage them, not change what they're going through or believe.
♫HOBBIES
■ Reading--fiction and nonfiction, wizarding and muggle
■ Hiking and relaxing on a hammock at the end of a trail.
■ Music-- listening and practicing
♫LIKES
■ Birds
■ Cute pranks
■ (Slightly) Cold weather
■ Hammocking
■ Bookmarks
♪DISLIKES
■ Being micromanaged or told she “should”
■ Books too large or heavy to be conveniently carried
■ Small spaces
■ Breaking routines (like morning walks) because she's not waking up rather than because she planned it that way.
■ Boggarts. They're parasitic liars and disgusting in principle.
♫STRENGTHS
■ Picking up on beats and rhythms-- in music, in routines, in emotions
■ Even-tempered/ patient
♪WEAKNESSES
■ Reserved-- While usually Sona takes good care to pay attention to what she feels and thinks, she doesn't always express them to those closest to her.
■ Sheltered-- Sona doesn't anticipate malicious actions or intentions except from boggarts, and she's quick to believe the best in people, despite knowing what people are capable of.
♫DREAMS
■ Going on magical adventures and travelling the world~
■ Marrying Jonah.
♪FEARS
■ Being trapped
■ Forgetting someone -- Sona feels like she's gotten close to so many people over the years and while realistically she knows people will drift, she's scared and sad that she might just...forget her memories with them.
xxx♪♫BACKSTORYxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
♫♪EARLY CHILDHOOD
Sonora was born to a life of emotional privilege, the only daughter of Elmond Li and Verine Winchester. Verine is a potioneer with an emphasis on research and development; Elmond is an event coordinator for a nearby hotel, but spends most of his time taking care of his daughter and the home. Sonora grew up surrounded by the busy guests of the hotel, and she was mostly content to follow her parents around on their daily adventures. Her mother was very mysterious and something just odd, but her father seemed to understand, and Sonora figured that in time, she would too.
In her primary education, Sonora performed proficiently but otherwise unremarkably. Her afternoons were spent in piano classes or doing homework in her father’s office, occasionally saying hello to a guest or client who came to see her father. If they were well-behaved and didn’t disturb the furniture, she and her best friend, Zina, would be allowed to play in an empty conference room. Evenings were spent at home reading or “debriefing” their days with her father, but there was the occasional hotel social function or concert they’d attend. Weekends were spent reading novels at the end of a hiking trail or volunteering for some cause. Breaks were usually spent camping in Ireland with Sonora’s maternal grandparents, a strange couple very disconnected from the modern world with fantastical tales. She's also close to her cousins-- her paternal cousin, August, stays with them every summer and her young maternal cousins live in an estate across the city.
Magic was not formally acknowledged in the family until a camping trip gone wrong revealed Sonora’s latent magic when she was eight. Thereafter, her mother explained the existence of magic and the wizarding world--and had a very clear discussion of how no one could know about the existence of magic, not even Zina. No Muggle could be allowed any inkling that a magical world existed, with her father being the sole exception to this rule. Sonora's actual schedule showed very little change. But knowing that her grandparents’ wild stories were true (albeit heavily embellished), and being allowed to accompany her mother to the shop was a dream come to life. She was taught only how to conceal her magic but read voraciously from the wizarding world, and as soon as her Hogwarts acceptance letter arrived, Sonora spent every moment at home eagerly asking or imagining what being part of the magical community would be like.
♫♪SCHOOL YEARS
♫FIRST YEAR Sonora was homesick much of her first year, but found solace in music and Quidditch practice, and her new friends, particularly in Jonah Lane and Vespera Salazar's pranking each other. Classes were really fun, aside from Herbology which she was always a little nervous in and Astronomy, which she was constantly sleeping in. With her childhood friend away for summers, Sona found herself missing her friends at the castle as much as she missed her parents at home when she was there. She did get a bird from her grandmother, who took in rescues. Skyfire is an American kestrel rescue who stayed with Scytharia's owls during his fledgling years and was trained to deliver mail like one.
♪SECOND YEAR Sonora made a solid effort to be more social this year and stay up for Astronomy. She joined the Dueling Club, got tutoring from the Astronomy Club, adopted Lee, and organized a winter picnic. Life is great.
♫THIRD YEAR Signing up for 10 electives was a terrible idea, as Sona found out. Even though she enjoyed all her classes, Sona found herself constantly stressed, tired, and definitely not doing as well as she wanted or even as well as she had before. Her normal routines were thrown off and nothing seemed to be able to fix them--or the constant exhaustion. Winter break was only a temporary reprieve and by finals she was tired of being tired. Throughout all this she relied on her friends for support, so it hit particularly hard when she mixed up Kam and Iggy. Later, she tried to comfort Kam in their argument, but generally felt useless.
Summer started off wonderfully, but her sleepover with Jonah and his family was interrupted by a werewolf attack. Rion was taken out almost immediately, Sona was terrified and barely able to land a few spells on the wolf--and if it weren't for Jonah's quick thinking she'd definitely had been more hurt. She had barely managed to land a few spells in, but it was only thanks to another wolf intervening that they got away. Sona did manage to pull herself together enough to make up a story for the muggle hospital, and ultimately walked away with only torn clothes and a gash that later healed into a mere line on the back of her hand. In the aftermath, she tried to keep her spirits up and resolved to be less helpless, but a bit of self-doubt was creeping into her usual positivity. The Magizoology Festival and being around friends again helped, but come start of the school year she found herself nervous instead of excited for the first time.
♪FOURTH YEAR After the summer encounter with a werewolf and only terse replies from Jonah, Sonora took to fourth year with somber determination. She had a moment of weakness where she considered dropping Quidditch on top of the few classes she'd dropped since last year, but was soon reminded how much she loved flying. Luckily, classes went smoothly anyways. She was happy for Jonah and Iggy when they got together, but devastated that Jonah and Vespera seemed to be avoiding her and found herself feeling lonely and distracted. The first part of the year was spent quietly practicing her spells and learning to string them together for dueling strategies. Throughout the year, she spent most of her time with Kam, studying, practicing and ready. To great relief, she did finally reconcile with Jonah before winter break, and with Vespera in the spring.
♪FIFTH YEAR Summer started with another scare from Iggy in the hospital, but she was happy that he and Kam had reconciled. Even though she didn't really know what to expect, she happily agreed to date Kam towards the end of summer. They enjoyed morning walks, studying, a few dates, and an awkward kiss together, but as winter neared, Sona was forced to confront her growing feelings for Jonah. It broke her heart to break up with Kam and spent Winter Break crying. It didn't help that Iggy and Jonah broke up once they were back at Hogwarts. She kept her feelings to herself, and focused on trying to comfort her friends the best she could. She spent most of the second semester studying for OWLs with Vespera or working on things in preparation of Animagus transformations.
♪SIXTH YEAR With many of her weaker subjects dropped this year, Sonora thought her coursework this year was much more manageable-- even if the work was more challenging, for (most) classes this was the enjoyable kind of challenging she had missed. She was excited to be working on Animagus preparations in earnest with her roommate Lara, but keeping the mandrake leaf in her mouth tested her patience to the extreme.
Early December, after a third unsuccessful mandrake leaf, Sona broke down in hysterical sobs and Jonah took her up to the Astronomy tower to vent. Afterwards the two finally confessed their feelings for each other and shared a kiss under the stars. Sonora was ecstatic to be with Jonah and their relationship came easily. A few months later, he was the first to see her new Animagus form-- his nightingale, just as he'd said years ago.
♪SEVENTH YEAR Sonora's final year was kept very busy with NEWTs, Dueling captainship and head girl responsibilities, among which was planning the Valentine's Dance-- She was very happy to finally see August and Rhea together by the end of the night. Working with her good friend Vinny was a great experience, and while she never got to reprise her picnic idea, Sona felt like she got to know and support a lot of students through the experience. When not otherwise busy or studying, Sona dedicated her time to familiarizing herself with her Animagus form. Quidditch was another highlight of the year--and Sona was thrilled to catch the snitch in neck-to-neck races every game.
The cherry-on-top of a perfect year came just after NEWTs while discussing post-graduation plans. Jonah proposed, and while surprised, Sonora was ecstatic to accept.They agreed the wedding would probably be a few years off to allow them to settle into their careers (and to give Rion and August a chance to calm down and agree to come), but they were officially engaged before graduation!
♫♪POST-GRADUATION
Sona's parental grandfather's health declining brought the entire Winchester/ Li family together in Taipei; Sona invited Jonah along to meet everyone, as he would soon be family too. Unfortunately the gathering turned into a funeral.
They returned to the U.K. in early July for work: Jonah would be studying the migration patterns of hippogryffs and Sonora would be studying cursebreaking sites. As they anticipated having to travel regularly, they opted for a magic-friendly yurt instead of a permanent residence.
xxx♪♫RELATIONSHIPSxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
FAMILY
■ Parents Verine Winchester, potioneer (halfblood); Elmond Li, event coordinator (muggle)
■ Cousins August Li, confidant and close friend; Wren Winchester, softer than he thinks, Sparrow Winchester II, fellow musician,
■ Pets Skyfire (American kestrel), (at home: Whisper (parakeet), Charlie Ace Squawk (parrot))
FIANCE Jonah Lane, her one and only, absolutely and completely
FRIENDS
■ Best Friend Vespera Salazar
■ Mentor Lena Davisson
■ "Super Seven": Vinny Cloutier, Iggy and Kam Hepburn, Aeryn Quinlan
■ Cassidy Bolan, Lee Holt, Rhea Lane, Charlotte Richardson-Connelly, Lara Soyinka
xxx♪♫UPDATESxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
CREATED 1 August 2018
UPDATED 12 April 2020
UPDATES MADE
■ Updated to graduation! includes newts
■ Reorganized personality and added a dream and fear.
■ (recent update)
PENDED BY Weasley 8/3/18
ACCEPTED BY ~ ❤ Cara ɱк [8/22/2018]
RECENT UPDATES ACCEPTED BY (do not touch this)
CREATED 1 August 2018
UPDATED 12 April 2020
UPDATES MADE
■ Updated to graduation! includes newts
■ Reorganized personality and added a dream and fear.
■ (recent update)
PENDED BY Weasley 8/3/18
ACCEPTED BY ~ ❤ Cara ɱк [8/22/2018]
RECENT UPDATES ACCEPTED BY (do not touch this)