Nicole Tomlinson

Backstory

Nicole Tomlinson

Born November 16

Scorpio

Pronouns: she/her

Nicknames/Preferred name: Cole

Muggle-born

Slytherin

Nicole Tomlinson is the eldest and only daughter of Billy and Christine Tomlinson. With that status came a great responsibility. A responsibility to always take care of her two younger brothers, Will and Thomas, while also tidying and helping to control her father's eratic moods when her mother wasn't home. This brought stress to her life, but not any more than she could handle, at least until she got older and odd, unexplainable things began happening around her. 

Her youngest brother, Thomas, had a train set he adored. When her other brother, Will, accidentally stepped on and broke part of the track, she somehow put it back together by simply pressing the two pieces together while holding it for her father to superglue. 

"It's magic!" she had cheered. 

Her father had not been very pleased at that. 

"There's no such thing as magic!" he'd growled. "It simply wasn't broken and you were holding it in such a way that it fixed itself!"

Nicole doubted it made since to him either, especially as he stormed out the backdoor, leaving her to give Thomas his toy again and take Will out of timeout. 

Other odd and unexplained things began happening around her. Changing the color of her shirts by accident. Throwing a chicken nugget with her mind. It was all strange and unexplainable. 

At least until she got her letter. 

That day had been the best and worst of her life. 

"There's no such thing as magic!" her father had screamed, stomping around the living room, shaking her letter in his fist. "This is all some stupid prank to get her riled up!"

"Does that official seal look like a prank to you?" her mother had tried to reason, but Nicole could hear her voice raise. 

They may have thought she couldn't hear them. They were in the next room and she was supposed to be asleep, but she had a habit of staying up until they went to bed. She couldn't sleep listening to them argue and scream at each other from the other room, but she supposed it was better her hear them than her brother's. 

She vaguely heard the sharp snap of paper and her hands curled into fists beneath the blanket. Her letter from Hogwarts. The place she'd only dreamed about since reading the "fictional" stories of Hermione Granger-Weasley! He had no right to go around stomping and growling about something that involved her life! Not his! No one was forcing him to go! This was her, her right. 

She threw the blankets off her body and stormed out of her room, the door hitting the wall in her wake. She had been brave enough to confront her father before, but he was a man and therefore demanded respect from herself and her mother. Without it, he could become mean. He'd never hit her, but sometimes words hurt just as much as a punch. Today though, she would not let him win. 

"Go back to bed," he had snapped. 

"No," she snarled. 

This seemed to catch him off guard. She was generally well behaved, but he was crossing a line. 

"Who do you think you're-"

"I am going to Hogwarts," she snapped. 

His face contorted in anger. 

"Like hell you are!" he screamed. 

She stood her ground, something she could tell also surprised him. 

"I'm going and you can't stop me," her voice was calm, but her eyes were ablaze with fury. "And if you try, I'll leave anyway. I've been sneaking out for a few years now. I know all the good places."

She'd made him speechless, but that wasn't to say he wasn't angry. 

"Whatever," he growled, stomping off. 

And that was the last word her father uttered to her before she was on the train. It stung, it did, but it was he who had pulled the strained relationship so tight a butter knife cut it. She was tired of being looked down on. Perhaps that attitude is how she ended up as a muggle-born in the Slytherin house.