Biography
Name: Melinda Josephine Bobbin
Gender: Female
Date of birth: October 10th, 1978
House/Year: Slytherin, 1990-1997
Blood status: Pureblood
Sexuality: Heterosexual
PB/Avatar: Stephanie Sherrin
Physical characteristics: Melinda stands at 5'6 and is thus taller than the average girl, but not sufficiently tall to stand out in the crowd. The same goes for her hair - although it is of a lovely, shiny dark shade of red, it is so thick (though not untidy to Hermione Granger's standards) that only copious amounts of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion would allow a fine styling comb through it. Melinda would describe her eyes as the only part of her appearance she really likes - a sparkly blue-green. It is not the colour so much as the emotional expression she can get from them with little effort that she likes. Other than that, she is fairly normal looking, perhaps pretty in a nondescript, girl next door kind of way.
Distant History: Melinda was born to Yolanthe and Icarus Bobbin on October 10th, 1978, in a Muggle hospital. Despite both her parents coming from a long line of purebloods, Melinda's birth came about after her mother and father had been attendance at an amateur match of the Muggle sport, cricket (Yolanthe had been excitedly celebrating the fall of an opposition wicket when she felt her waters break). This unusual arrival into the world set the tone for her later growing years, as Mr and Mrs Bobbin taught their only offspring to appreciate the finer things in Muggle life, as well as the Wizarding world, feeling that such a wide cultural knowledge could only be of benefit to their beloved daughter's future. Highly ambitious for their daughter, they wanted her to have the best start in life, even if other pureblooded families (with the exception of the Weasleys) felt that they were at the very best, extremely eccentric.
To that end, Melinda spent her formative years attending both a Muggle primary school to improve her basic academic skills, and private tutorials in the evening. These were held at the house of her Uncle Jakob, her mother's sister, who taught several young sons and daughters of magical families the beginnings of their cultural knowledge of the wizarding world. This included everything from the works of wizarding playwrights to the greatest symphonies of magical composers.
As a result, when Melinda first received her acceptance letter for school, she was probably one of the least phased pupils in Hogwarts' history. After a brief consideration of Ravenclaw, the Sorting Hat promptly chose Slytherin instead, recognising the unmistakeable fact that her appreciation of knowledge was not for knowledge's sake, but for her own ends. She was a bright but not exceptional student, nevertheless getting good grades in her NEWTs - obtaining grade O in Herbology and Potions, E in Care of Magical Creatures and Charms and A in Transfiguration.
Recent History: Melinda graduated in 1997, or, as she puts it, 'in the nick of time'. She sat the last of her NEWT exams before Dumbledore's death, and as a result was a school-leaver and her parents could not stop her from remaining behind to attend the funeral. Having had a lot of respect for the Headmaster, and unlike some of her housemates, a certain fondness of his eccentricities, she was deeply affected by his loss. Knowing that trouble lay ahead, she spent the start of the summer almost exclusively in her bedroom, writing various letters and deciding what to do. By the time that Muggleborns were required to register with the Ministry, the Bobbin family decided to keep their heads down and save their necks, to not openly interfere with the new government, and to keep their business going without the expansions they had planned. Of course, certain restrictions were placed upon them, such as not being permitted to sell ingredients to Muggleborns or those known to associate with them, but Melinda's rebellious nature (and her parents' indulgence of her whims) led a new black market to flourish, and hefty profits to pile up in a Swiss Gringotts account. The Order of the Phoenix were amongst her biggest personal clients.
Although being a Slytherin prevented her from joining the DA whilst in school, she had been staying above the Hog's Head in the weeks before the Battle of Hogwarts, being in Hogsmeade to source plants that grew on the Scottish hillsides. Her many talks with Aberforth Dumbledore led her to become aware of the rebelllion within the school, and she began to smuggle in supplies for the DA also. When the Battle began, she joined in straight away, surprising several people - and Death Eaters in particular - by showing off some rather impressive duelling skills, despatching one Death Eater by herself and teaming up with others to hamper several more. Her personal relic of the fighting is a scar that runs from just under her chest to the middle of her stomach, having been hit in the stomach by an unknown curse. Luckily, the fighting was almost over by that point and she was quick to receive treatment.
Following the restoration of the legitimate government, she has been busy using the illegal funds from that secret stash to set up a foundation in memory of those killed in the last battle. She named it the Albus Dumbledore Fund, and amongst its many benevolent acts it has funded the Hogwarts education of several poorer students, and erected statues around Wizarding Britain to those who perished. Personally, she didn't lose focus of her own career and her private finances are also flourishing...well, she is a Slytherin, after all.
Current employment status: As well as being Director in Chief of the ADF, her cunning work in supplying the rebels during the war has paid off and she is now Vice-Chair of her family's chain of Apothecaries - Bobbin's. She is mainly in charge of the public aspect of the company, such as deciding how to increase customer satisfaction and forming relationships with other organisations. However, she harbours ambitions of one day being able to spend her money as she wishes - half of her salary is paid into a trust fund that she will be able to access upon starting a family or turning 30, whichever is sooner - and becoming overall director of the company when her father retires, thus obtaining financial control also. She is currently the favourite to obtain this role, although there are some members of the board she has yet to win over. Even with only 50% of her salary being paid directly to her, Melinda is still rather wealthy and can live very comfortably in comparison with her peers.
Personality: The sort of person who would best get along with Melinda is basically someone equally independent who would let her do her own thing most of the time - although she enjoys having close friendships, she doesn't have many and hates it when people become too clingy. Where possible, she strongly feels that people should stand on their own two feet as soon as possible. She enjoys it when she is able to have a silly and light-hearted conversation with someone, and someone who doesn't put down her enjoyment for the frivolous things in life. She feels there is nothing wrong with being materialistic on occasion.
She doesn't like it when people are too weak-willed or become overly offended on someone else's behalf - unless it concerns you directly, she feels you should keep your nose out of someone else's business, unless their behaviour is entirely wrong or illegal. She also dislikes having deep and meaningful conversations about emotional issues, and rarely asks for advice herself, feeling that more often than not, some common sense is all that is required.
There are certainly advantages to being flatmates with Melinda - if you are someone like her. If you want a flatmate who will leave you to it and not do things a certain way, Melinda's your girl. She won't pick you up on the things you eat or the clothes you wear, and will basically let you do what you like without consequence, assuming it doesn't affect her too much, of course (that's when she gets her temper). The most she'll do is raise a perfectly groomed eyebrow and go back to her own business. However, if you take the time to become friends with her, you have a friend and ally for life.
However, this independence has its own downsides. She has little sympathy for minor ills and issues, and if nagged about it will just tell you to get on with it. She flat out refuses to do things for people who a) annoy her, b) won't do something in return or c) don't deserve it. As she does things like cooking for herself, she'll get very cross if you use any of her food without asking, emergency or not. She can't abide bad manners and if she cleans the flat one week, woe betide you if you don't at least offer to help do it the next.
Gender: Female
Date of birth: October 10th, 1978
House/Year: Slytherin, 1990-1997
Blood status: Pureblood
Sexuality: Heterosexual
PB/Avatar: Stephanie Sherrin
Physical characteristics: Melinda stands at 5'6 and is thus taller than the average girl, but not sufficiently tall to stand out in the crowd. The same goes for her hair - although it is of a lovely, shiny dark shade of red, it is so thick (though not untidy to Hermione Granger's standards) that only copious amounts of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion would allow a fine styling comb through it. Melinda would describe her eyes as the only part of her appearance she really likes - a sparkly blue-green. It is not the colour so much as the emotional expression she can get from them with little effort that she likes. Other than that, she is fairly normal looking, perhaps pretty in a nondescript, girl next door kind of way.
Distant History: Melinda was born to Yolanthe and Icarus Bobbin on October 10th, 1978, in a Muggle hospital. Despite both her parents coming from a long line of purebloods, Melinda's birth came about after her mother and father had been attendance at an amateur match of the Muggle sport, cricket (Yolanthe had been excitedly celebrating the fall of an opposition wicket when she felt her waters break). This unusual arrival into the world set the tone for her later growing years, as Mr and Mrs Bobbin taught their only offspring to appreciate the finer things in Muggle life, as well as the Wizarding world, feeling that such a wide cultural knowledge could only be of benefit to their beloved daughter's future. Highly ambitious for their daughter, they wanted her to have the best start in life, even if other pureblooded families (with the exception of the Weasleys) felt that they were at the very best, extremely eccentric.
To that end, Melinda spent her formative years attending both a Muggle primary school to improve her basic academic skills, and private tutorials in the evening. These were held at the house of her Uncle Jakob, her mother's sister, who taught several young sons and daughters of magical families the beginnings of their cultural knowledge of the wizarding world. This included everything from the works of wizarding playwrights to the greatest symphonies of magical composers.
As a result, when Melinda first received her acceptance letter for school, she was probably one of the least phased pupils in Hogwarts' history. After a brief consideration of Ravenclaw, the Sorting Hat promptly chose Slytherin instead, recognising the unmistakeable fact that her appreciation of knowledge was not for knowledge's sake, but for her own ends. She was a bright but not exceptional student, nevertheless getting good grades in her NEWTs - obtaining grade O in Herbology and Potions, E in Care of Magical Creatures and Charms and A in Transfiguration.
Recent History: Melinda graduated in 1997, or, as she puts it, 'in the nick of time'. She sat the last of her NEWT exams before Dumbledore's death, and as a result was a school-leaver and her parents could not stop her from remaining behind to attend the funeral. Having had a lot of respect for the Headmaster, and unlike some of her housemates, a certain fondness of his eccentricities, she was deeply affected by his loss. Knowing that trouble lay ahead, she spent the start of the summer almost exclusively in her bedroom, writing various letters and deciding what to do. By the time that Muggleborns were required to register with the Ministry, the Bobbin family decided to keep their heads down and save their necks, to not openly interfere with the new government, and to keep their business going without the expansions they had planned. Of course, certain restrictions were placed upon them, such as not being permitted to sell ingredients to Muggleborns or those known to associate with them, but Melinda's rebellious nature (and her parents' indulgence of her whims) led a new black market to flourish, and hefty profits to pile up in a Swiss Gringotts account. The Order of the Phoenix were amongst her biggest personal clients.
Although being a Slytherin prevented her from joining the DA whilst in school, she had been staying above the Hog's Head in the weeks before the Battle of Hogwarts, being in Hogsmeade to source plants that grew on the Scottish hillsides. Her many talks with Aberforth Dumbledore led her to become aware of the rebelllion within the school, and she began to smuggle in supplies for the DA also. When the Battle began, she joined in straight away, surprising several people - and Death Eaters in particular - by showing off some rather impressive duelling skills, despatching one Death Eater by herself and teaming up with others to hamper several more. Her personal relic of the fighting is a scar that runs from just under her chest to the middle of her stomach, having been hit in the stomach by an unknown curse. Luckily, the fighting was almost over by that point and she was quick to receive treatment.
Following the restoration of the legitimate government, she has been busy using the illegal funds from that secret stash to set up a foundation in memory of those killed in the last battle. She named it the Albus Dumbledore Fund, and amongst its many benevolent acts it has funded the Hogwarts education of several poorer students, and erected statues around Wizarding Britain to those who perished. Personally, she didn't lose focus of her own career and her private finances are also flourishing...well, she is a Slytherin, after all.
Current employment status: As well as being Director in Chief of the ADF, her cunning work in supplying the rebels during the war has paid off and she is now Vice-Chair of her family's chain of Apothecaries - Bobbin's. She is mainly in charge of the public aspect of the company, such as deciding how to increase customer satisfaction and forming relationships with other organisations. However, she harbours ambitions of one day being able to spend her money as she wishes - half of her salary is paid into a trust fund that she will be able to access upon starting a family or turning 30, whichever is sooner - and becoming overall director of the company when her father retires, thus obtaining financial control also. She is currently the favourite to obtain this role, although there are some members of the board she has yet to win over. Even with only 50% of her salary being paid directly to her, Melinda is still rather wealthy and can live very comfortably in comparison with her peers.
Personality: The sort of person who would best get along with Melinda is basically someone equally independent who would let her do her own thing most of the time - although she enjoys having close friendships, she doesn't have many and hates it when people become too clingy. Where possible, she strongly feels that people should stand on their own two feet as soon as possible. She enjoys it when she is able to have a silly and light-hearted conversation with someone, and someone who doesn't put down her enjoyment for the frivolous things in life. She feels there is nothing wrong with being materialistic on occasion.
She doesn't like it when people are too weak-willed or become overly offended on someone else's behalf - unless it concerns you directly, she feels you should keep your nose out of someone else's business, unless their behaviour is entirely wrong or illegal. She also dislikes having deep and meaningful conversations about emotional issues, and rarely asks for advice herself, feeling that more often than not, some common sense is all that is required.
There are certainly advantages to being flatmates with Melinda - if you are someone like her. If you want a flatmate who will leave you to it and not do things a certain way, Melinda's your girl. She won't pick you up on the things you eat or the clothes you wear, and will basically let you do what you like without consequence, assuming it doesn't affect her too much, of course (that's when she gets her temper). The most she'll do is raise a perfectly groomed eyebrow and go back to her own business. However, if you take the time to become friends with her, you have a friend and ally for life.
However, this independence has its own downsides. She has little sympathy for minor ills and issues, and if nagged about it will just tell you to get on with it. She flat out refuses to do things for people who a) annoy her, b) won't do something in return or c) don't deserve it. As she does things like cooking for herself, she'll get very cross if you use any of her food without asking, emergency or not. She can't abide bad manners and if she cleans the flat one week, woe betide you if you don't at least offer to help do it the next.