Thea Barlow

Backstory

I was raised in a muggle-born family and I grew up in Diagon Alley as my place of childhood. Both of my parents owned a shop just below our flat where they sold Quidditch equipment and brooms for the potential Quidditch player, professionally or not. I’ve seen quite a lot of familiar faces passing through those doors, some I still have autographs of. This is where my love for Quidditch also came into play, because despite the irony of having two left feet, I was a very decent flyer.

As a child and reticent as I was, I always spent my time in the shop because my parents rarely left the shop, too. I was a very easy child, as my parents liked to call to say, because all they really had to do was hand me a muggle broom to play with for hours. They never got me the little league quidditch brooms, but I didn’t know they made those then, so I suppose they both saved themselves from hours of pleading and any injuries to our cat, Coda.

When I finally attended Hogwarts, I was so nervous and so pale in the face, I thought I’d regurgitate my breakfast at King’s cross right then and there. I was surrounded with magic my whole life but that didn’t stop the unfamiliarity to sink its claw into me. I missed my parents greatly and they made their emotions quite apparent as well – they were extremely proud, but I never realized they were that proud.

When it was my turn to be Sorted into a house, I was terrified because as soon as the Sorting Hat exclaimed Slytherin as my place of residence, I knew, for a fact, that I was going to face a lot of backlash for being muggle-born. A Slytherin muggle-born! I was thrown into a den of snakes and all the hope of having the best years of my life dissipated in that very moment. A couple years later, I keep to myself because nobody in my house even acknowledged my existence. But then that I tried out for the Quidditch team –out of spite because I was bullied that day for being as clumsy as I was – and made Chaser. I certainly brought pride to myself and the Slytherin house when we won the House Cup.

I’m hoping to continue to play Quidditch professionally, and with the help of my professors and my conviction, I’m sure I will do just that.