Imogen Selwyn

Backstory

General

• Full Name: Imogen Adela Morwen Eumelia Selwyn


• Blood Status: Pureblood, Sacred Twenty-Eight


• Wand: Willow and phoenix feather, 9"


• Patronus: Hippogriff


• Qualities: Curious, prideful, loyal, insecure, determined, vindictive


• Likes: Transfiguration, obscure branches of magic (legilimency, spell invention, etc.), forbidden magic, the Daily Prophet


• Dislikes: Potions, large animals, glasses, flying

History

Both of Imogen's parents were Death Eaters in the first wizarding war. Her father, Cygnus, was killed by members of the Order of the Phoenix two months before the Dark Lord’s defeat. Lucretia Selwyn née Rosier, Imogen’s mother, was arrested by Alastor Moody as part of the initial batch of Death Eaters captured immediately after the Dark Lord’s defeat. However, almost all the evidence the Aurors had on Lucretia was either circumstantial or actually pointed to her husband and relied on her having known what he was doing, which she flatly denied. She was ultimately acquitted, though the Auror Office has kept a close eye on her ever since.

In the three months leading up to her mother’s trial, Imogen stayed with Lucretia’s sister, Hortensia Nott. Despite her aunt’s best efforts to keep Imogen in the dark about the details of the trial, Imogen took to stealing newspapers and hoarding every mention of the Death Eaters she could get her hands on. Following the trial, Lucretia withdrew from society, isolating herself and Imogen inside Selwyn Manor. For the next few years before she left for Hogwarts, Imogen’s only link to the outside world was the Daily Prophet, and her only human contact – save her mother – was with their house elf, Witton.

Personality and Skills

From Ollivander’s entry on willow wands:

“Willow is an uncommon wand wood with healing power, and I have noted that the ideal owner for a willow wand often has some (usually unwarranted) insecurity, however well they may try and hide it… It has always been a proverb in my family that he who has furthest to travel will go fastest with willow.”

Imogen is skilled in Transfiguration and fascinated by both the Dark Arts and spell invention. She is… less skilled in Potions, much to the dismay and disappointment of her mother, a talented potioneer.

Going into Hogwarts, Imogen fully expected to be sorted into Slytherin like her parents, and she was bitterly disappointed when the Sorting Hat placed her in Ravenclaw. But, as the Sorting Hat pointed out, she read her entire Transfiguration textbook over the summer because she was bored, and she loves spell invention because she thinks it’s “neat.” There was no other house for her, and no amount of arguing with the Hat could change that. It takes her a while to come to terms with this.

Partially as a result of her mother’s isolation, she is very shy and insecure, and she has a bad habit of pushing people away even if—or especially if—they show her kindness. She gets defensive easily and often lashes out.

Politically speaking, her loyalties lie firmly with her parents, but she knows the dangers of expressing any pro-Voldemort sympathies—especially so soon after the war ended—and she keeps a tight lid on that sort of talk at Hogwarts. She’s just a kid parroting her parents’ views. She’s scared and hurt and lonely and too young to really understand that what her parents believe—and what she grew up believing—is wrong. All she knows is her dad is dead, and she wants the people who killed him to know exactly the kind of pain that caused her. With some luck and compassion, she’ll grow to be more accepting of others and more confident in herself.