Application
The player
Name: Bons
ANY contact information: All letters are to be addressed to Sheep #454336564
ANY experience: I’m completely inexperienced, innit.
The character.
Name: Ingrid Dorothea Burke
Gender: Female
Year & House: Alumni Ravenclaw
Affiliation: Leaning towards Death Eater. :D
Appearance:
Ingrid takes after her mother, with a naturally thin frame, she doesn’t seem to really gain or lose weight. She is willowy, taller than her elder brothers but shorter than her younger brother, and she likes to add to that by wearing kitten heels and stilettos. She has an oval face, with a small nose and reasonably high cheekbones, with thin, ashy lips. Ingrid has blue, almond-shaped eyes, almost feline in their appearance, that are framed by reasonably high eyebrows. She appears to have inherited some Black family traits from her great-grandmother, with a regal sort of air around her. Her dark blonde hair, which she likes to keep at a reasonably long length, is wavy, with a small fringe that she tends to tuck away behind her small ears.
Ingrid sees herself as the face of Borgin and Burkes that prospective sellers see, and as such, likes to dress conservatively, but when out to impress, she can be almost raunchy at times, wearing clothing with plunging necklines and raised hemlines that seem almost criminal in their appearance. However, instead of looking like a tramp, Ingrid manages to still look classy, her regal features giving her a sense of class that she couldn’t shake off if she tried.
PB: Ellen Pompeo
History:
Ingrid Dorothea Burke was born on 15 March, 1959 to purebloods Elladora and George Burke in their small home just outside of Ashford-in-the-Water, Derbyshire. She was the third of four children, with two older brothers; Alexander (4) and Herbert (8). Her parents managed to follow the Burke tradition of having a majority of male offspring, having another son, Edmund, a year after Ingrid. George Burke ran the small shop ‘Borgin and Burkes’ with his father, Caractacus Burke and Cepheus Borgin. Ingrid and Alexander would often go to work with their father, preferring the strange artefacts in the shop to the silly little games Edmund played with their mother. Ingrid was especially close to Alexander, preferring his company more than anything else in the entire world. With Herbert off to Hogwarts, and sorted into Hufflepuff, it was automatically assumed that Ingrid and Alexander would be different, and head into Slytherin, the house of their ancestors.
Ingrid showed subtle signs of magic, her hair lightening and darkening with her moods, glasses breaking when she became angry, her hair returning to its normal bob when her mother cut it too short. Elladora was sure this was a sign her little girl was magical, and took it upon herself to buy her all sorts of magical books and toys. Not that Ingrid was interested; she preferred to help out in the shop than to play with toys and things.
Ingrid was five when Alexander received his Hogwarts letter, and was shipped off to the castle in Scotland. She couldn’t think of anything worse, now she was alone with her little brother and mother, if her father decided to stop her from coming along with him to work. It was even more shocking when Alexander was sorted into Gryffindor, a house full of muggle lovers and black people, her father shouted at nobody in particular. Nevertheless, she sent him owls every week, demanding to know everything about Hogwarts.
George, Caractacus and Cepheus enjoyed having Ingrid help out in the shop, even if all she did was lick stamps and write prices on price tags. Her being around the shop gave it a sort of family feel, one that attracted women and their husbands to come look. Herbert had decided to work at Gringotts, a silly place, George insisted, and he was now looking to his younger children to carry on looking after the shop.
The Burke household was tense as Ingrid’s 11th birthday approached. It was a general hope that she would not turn out like Herbert or Alexander, and would be sorted into Slytherin. Elladora even bought her a green cloak, for good luck. She boarded the train with Alexander, talking with his friends, who were mostly all Slytherins. She was excited, and almost strutted up to the Sorting Hat, putting it on her shaggy mane of caramel hair with a grin on her face that was almost criminal.
Ravenclaw. Ingrid could not have been more disappointed. She was meant to be sorted into Slytherin, to make her parents proud. The hat hadn’t taken any more than five seconds before making its decision. Ingrid was just another Burke that hadn’t ended up in the right house.
Nevertheless, she made friends, and soon adapted to life in Ravenclaw Tower. Just like Alexander, she showed a flair for business, but rather unlike her brother, she excelled in academic subjects. Ingrid showed particular talent in Defence against the Dark Arts and, later, Ancient Runes, both subjects she thought would make her parents proud.
To Ingrid’s absolute delight, her younger brother Edmund was sorted into Hufflepuff a year after she had been sorted, showing no particular talents except for his ability to turn water into rum. Out of all her siblings, Ingrid was the closest to being a Slytherin, and because of this, she soon became her Father’s favourite, to Alexander’s disgust.
When Alexander left Hogwarts, Caractacus and Cepheus retired, leaving the newly graduated Borgin and Burke to work in the shop. Needless to say, Ingrid worked as a salesperson in the summer, becoming familiar with the faces and tastes of the Slytherins, trying her best to fit in amongst them.
Ingrid left Hogwarts with three O’s (Ancient Runes, Charms and DADA), three E’s (Transfiguration, History of Magic and Potions) and one A (Astronomy). Alexander offered her a job at Borgin and Burke, and she accepted immediately, returning the shop to its old name, Borgin and Burkes. Edmund attempted to get a job there after he left (he only just passed Charms and Potions, failing miserably at the rest), but was denied. Nobody likes a Hufflepuff.
Currently, Ingrid works on acquiring rare and dangerous artefacts, leaving the selling of the artefacts of Alexander. She also researches the items stocked, making sure to exaggerate the histories a little, important things sell better. Ingrid holds a 34% share in Borgin and Burkes, and with her share of the profits, has managed to buy a small flat just south of Diagon Alley.
Personality:
Ingrid is a businesswoman, first and foremost. She knows what needs to be done in order to run a business, and can often be found telling Alexander and Borgin exactly what she thinks needs to be done in the shop. She often does more than her share, believing herself to be the more capable business partner out of the three. She isn’t afraid to do what needs to be done in order to gain a rare artefact, or an illegal one, even if it means bribing Ministry officials to turn a blind her to her illegal activity.
Ingrid is a keen opportunist. She takes advantage of people in need in order to gain stock for Borgin and Burkes, in order to prove herself better than Alexander and Borgin. She became rather well known among higher pureblood circles after she managed to get a completely sober homeless mans possessions (which included his clothing, hair, cardboard box and grandmother’s wedding ring) in exchange for a paper bag filled with salt. She manipulates and lies to people in order to get what she wants, a Slytherin trait she has grown in herself.
In her spare time, Ingrid likes to treat herself to expensive dinners and nights out on the town with whomever she manages to rope into coming with her. She likes going out partying in Muggle London, watching the muggles having their fun without magic. It really is quite extraordinary, how they have managed to do almost all the things that wizards do, without magic. Not that she would tell anyone that, if she wants to fit in with the crowd that shop at Borgin and Burkes, she could never be a muggle lover.
To most, Ingrid comes across as cold and almost heartless. She takes from the poor, is interested only in furthering herself and having power over people. She puts up a front, trying to show herself off as the girl the Sorting Hat got wrong, instead of the Ravenclaw whose common sense and intellect has saved Borgin and Burkes from ruin more than once. Emotions are things a businesswoman does not need, she tells herself, especially one that works in taking things from others.
Ingrid is happy to help anyone out, as long as they give her something worthwhile in return. She likes the idea of ‘an eye for an eye’; rather upset that executions aren’t common practice, and that, when someone is getting executed, it isn’t a public event. Ingrid loathes the Ministry purely because they do not punish their criminals well enough. If push came to shove and someone did something wrong to her, she would probably try her best to ruin them, and then failing that, she’d probably pay someone to bludgeon them to death in a dark alleyway. Ingrid is one person you would not want to wrong.
She has a strange obsession with all things cardiac. When she was 15, her father came into possession of a beating human heart in a glass jar, and she demanded he give it to her without delay. Ever since, she has started her own personal library on the human heart, keeping the heart in a place of pride in her magically-expanded flat. She finds it fascinating, that such a small little thing keeps the blood running through her veins.