- In a Nutshell -
Name: Alanna Sparrow Honeysett
Age: 23 Birthday: August 28th, 1996
Blood: Muggleborn
Profession: Chaser for the Pride of Portree

- Family and Past History -
Ralph Honeysett was the son of an Idaho potato farmer, but his dream took him away from his family’s farm and on to the Air Force Academy. Once he graduated he went on to be a bomber pilot and his first assignment sent him to a base in England. It was here that he met his future wife, Anita. After two years of chasing her Ralph eventually won her heart and the two married, being inseparable ever since.
Ralph and Anita shared a love of flying, what with Ralph himself being a pilot and Anita being a bird enthusiast. Each of their three daughters go not by their first names (strong English names, each one) but by their middle ones, which are names of Anita’s favorite birds. Alberta Kestrel was the eldest, and she always took the job very seriously. Alanna Sparrow came next, managing to be born in England before the family was moved back to the states to a base in Texas. Arlene Robin was the youngest, sweet and innocent.
As with many military families the Honeysetts were a close-knit family, their ties being strengthened with every move to a new place. After a few years in Texas, Ralph managed to be stationed back in his home state of Idaho. It was here that Sparrow first started to show signs of having any magical ability, but oddly enough her mother recognized it. As fate would have it Anita had a youngest sister, Antonia, who had gone on to attend Hogwarts and live life as a witch.
Aunt Antonia was delighted to discover that she was not the only witch in the family. At first she wanted Sparrow to attend Hogwarts, but Ralph and Anita weren’t keen on the idea of sending their daughter that far away for the greater part of the year. Sparrow then had the option to attend several American institutions, and in the end Mooncoal Academy was it. Aunt Antonia still insisted on taking Sparrow shopping for school supplies in Diagon Alley, however, and getting her wand from Ollivanders.
Sparrow excelled at school academically, socially, and athletically. However much it appeared that she was good at everything she did have her struggles, namely with her older sister, Kestrel. Ralph and Anita accepted having a witch in the family with ease, and Ralph was particularly fascinated by the sport of Quidditch and proud of Sparrow’s talent on the pitch. But Kestrel grew to resent Sparrow, and it seemed that no matter how hard Kestrel tried she was never able to capture the limelight that seemed to follow her younger sister. Sparrow soon learned to dread the summer holidays, as Kestrel made her life miserable when she was home.
Shortly after Sparrow graduated from the academy tragedy struck their family when Anita and Robin were in a terrible car accident. The accident took Robin’s life and paralyzed Anita from the waste down, confining her to a wheelchair for the rest of her days. The weeks following the crash were the hardest in Sparrow’s life, as she and Kestrel helped their parents through the unimaginable pain of the death of their youngest child. On the eve of Sparrow’s eighteenth birthday she and Kestrel had an enormous fight during which Kestrel laid out all her fury. Sparrow felt driven from her family, and made the decision to move to England and settle there. Having been born in England she had always retained dual-citizenship.
She took refuge for a few weeks at her Aunt Antonia’s house in Portree. For several months she attempted to find a steady job and considered moving to London before her aunt convinced her to try out for a spot on the Pride of Portree reserve Quidditch team. After several years in the reserves she was finally moved up last season to play on the “big kids team”, and her arrival was met with great success.

- School -
Sparrow, being an American, attended Mooncoal Academy of the Arcane Arts. The academy is located somewhere in the mountainous northwest and known for its rivalry with the Salem Academy.

While at school Sparrow was a rather average student academically, managing to receive an appropriate number of both OWLs and NEWTs. Her strongest class was Potions and her worst class by far was Defense Against the Dark Arts. (Apparently the professor who taught the class at the time was particularly dismal.) She flourished in classes that did not require “wild wand waving”, such as Potions and Herbology.

At Mooncoal Sparrow also discovered her natural talent of flying. In her second year she was used as a reserve Chaser for her house team and joined the team as a fully-fledged member the following year. She played as Beater for a brief stint in her fifth year due to an outbreak of Dragon Pox that had half her team in the hospital wing for two of their games. Sparrow was overheard saying she “never could get used to hitting Bludgers instead of dodging them”, and happily returned to her position as Chaser when her teammates had recovered.

- Magical Ability & Wand-
While her Aunt Antonia proved to be particularly powerful witch, Sparrow is rather average when it comes to magical ability. She is fully capable of performing all the usual magic one might need for every day purposes (though she makes exceptional Pepperup Potion), but don’t expect any dazzling wandwork. The most powerful bit of wand waving she can muster is the ability to conjure small, simple items such as flowers, fire, and (thank goodness for her) hair ties.
When Sparrow was eleven years old her aunt took her to Ollivanders to receive her wand. She spent the better part of an hour waving about different wands to varying degrees of success. Finally Ollivander handed her a ten and a half inch long wand of cherry wood with a unicorn tail core. A single flick and purple and gold bubbles blossomed freely from the tip of it. Sparrow later declared it was “love at first swish”.

- Personality -
Overall: Sparrow is a fiercely loyal, compassionate, and generous individual. She’s the type of person who makes friends for life (or is at least willing to) and shows unfaltering devotion to her family (even with her current rift between herself and her elder sister). Despite how friendly she can be she is not tremendously social, though in her current situation she seems to be constantly surrounded by people. At the end of the day she would rather have a small circle of close-knit friends than a sprawling social network.
Patience is a virtue that seems elusive to many, but Sparrow appears to possess it in spades. This trait coupled with a desire to be of service to others makes her the world’s easiest person to talk to, and to top it off she even appears to enjoy listening to everyone’s problems. However much she seems to attract people who use her as a shoulder to cry on, she doesn’t seem to have any very close friends. She’s the kind of person you remember immediately the night your boyfriend dumps you or you get locked out of the house, but the moment you’re sending out invitations to your wedding reception or thanking people in your acceptance speech she’s the last one that seems to come to mind. This, of course, is slightly skewed now that she is a professional Quidditch player. All her old classmates are sending her owls asking for free game tickets, though to date all but four of them misspelled her name.

Strengths: Sparrow is the person everyone always hated in school because it seemed they were good at nearly everything. On one hand it’s a blessing, but on the other it’s a curse that Sparrow has always had to live with. She’s naturally quite intelligent and has a decent memory for facts and figures (though don’t except her to remember where she last set her wand down). She also tends to be rather athletic, with excellent hand-eye coordination and all that good stuff. Plus, she’s got social skills. She’s easy to talk to and seems to get along with just about everybody.
Expanding a bit on the athletic bit, Sparrow is an accomplished Quidditch player, being particularly proficient in her role as a Chaser. She is not the best at goal-scoring, having rather “noodley” (as she puts it) arms. She manages to make up for this in how well she manages to relieve the other team’s Chasers of the Quaffle, and then how quickly she can pass it off to her teammates. Sparrow is a superb flier.
Weaknesses: As much as it may seem at first glance that Sparrow is good at everything this is hardly the case. Her average magical ability aside, she is prone to be protective and loyal to a fault, sticking with people and defending them even if they really do deserve nothing more than a nice slap in the face. She can also be quite naïve and far too trusting. Sparrow tends to get so wrapped up in helping others that she ends up either burning herself out emotionally or being lashed out at by the very person she’s attempting to help.
Sparrow also thinks a bit too highly of herself when it comes to her own advice. When you’re the shoulder everyone cries on you tend to end up giving out a lot of advice you see. But Sparrow has done so much of it she thinks she can say no wrong. This is hardly the case. Her advice is often centered on her desire to alleviate the suffering of an individual who comes to her. As suffering is often a huge contributor in the area of personal growth her advice, therefore, is not always the most helpful overall. It’s good for quick-fixes though, and in general isn’t bad.
And her patience. It seems so often that one’s weaknesses are their strengths overdone, and this is the case for Sparrow when it comes to her patience. Second chances are a beautiful thing, but thirty-third chances? Not only does this fault place Sparrow in some nasty cycles with people who really need a shove out the door rather than a listening ear, but it is just one more thing that causes her sister Kestrel to hate her so much.

Likes: When it comes to values Sparrow appreciates loyalty, honesty, and genuineness. (Which are all givens when you think about the rest of her personality, duh.) But then when it comes to leisure preferences and favorite bands that category gets a little more interesting. Sparrow enjoys the opportunity to spend some good quality time with herself, be it reading a book, journaling, or taking a long, quiet walk.
One of her favorite pastimes is actually ballroom dancing. Early in her parents marriage, Ralph and Anita took up ballroom dancing as a recreational activity they both enjoyed and shared together. They passed their knowledge to their daughters, and Sparrow heartily enjoys a nice spin around the ballroom floor.
Sparrow’s love for all things cherry-flavored should also be mentioned here, along with her notorious sweet-tooth (though her mother would place the later in the ‘weaknesses’ category). While Sparrow likes nearly anything covered in chocolate or filled with sugar, she has a particular preference for anything cherry-flavored, especially cherry cola. It is a very common sight to see her holding a bottle of the stuff and sipping it from a straw.
Dislikes: Sparrow dislikes all the usual things, like lying, back-stabbing friends, getting gum on your shoe, and when the wind blows against the part in her hair. A few things she dislikes that are unique to her would be an aversion to deep water (she doesn’t know how to swim), cats (she’s also allergic to them), and traveling via Floo Powder. She always thought spinning through fireplaces was extremely uncomfortable and prefers either flying or apparation.
Perhaps the only candy she doesn’t like is black licorice. No, take that back, she also detests chocolate covered raisins.

Quirks and mannerisms: One of Sparrow’s most memorable tendencies is how she seems to do everything quickly. She doesn’t rush through life necessarily, but she doesn’t know how to do a task slowly. Even her movements are rather quick. This trait seems to go into overdrive whenever she is excited or worried, causing her to practically flit about a room.

- Appearance -
Hair: Thick, wavy, and an appealing shade of chestnut brown sum up Sparrow’s long locks. The summer sun causes her hair to naturally “blonde up” as she puts it, while in the wintertime it typically darkens a shade or two. Sparrow enjoys styling her hair in a variety of ways. For Quidditch she normally keeps it simple and wears her hair in a ponytail at the base of her neck.
Eyes: Sparrow is the happy owner of a pair of large, brown, and extremely expressive eyes, which get along very well with her equally expressive eyebrows.
Height: Being tall runs in Sparrow’s family and she proved to be no exception, standing at a proud height of five feet nine inches tall. Most of the boys in her year at school weren’t too happy she was taller than half of them, however.
Body Shape: Sparrow has a tall, willowy figure with reasonably toned muscles and moderate womanly curves. She is not rail thin nor is she overweight.
Clothing: While Sparrow is like most women and enjoys clothes (and especially shopping for them) she tries to keep it simple. She owns quite a bit of both muggle and wizard clothing, though at the end of the day she is most comfortable lounging around her house in panties and a long sleeve t-shirt.
Since joining the Prides she has ended up with a lot of clothing that is purple, which suits her just fine as she looks good in the color and likes it well enough. Her favorite article of clothing has to be her Prides scarf, which is purple and gold stripped, soft, and has “delightful fringes on the ends”.
Other: The rest of Sparrow’s appearance is easily taken in if one were to give a good look at her. She has pierced ears, just a single hole in each lobe, pretty simple, and tends to wear a myriad of rings (including toerings). From time to time she’ll don an extra bracelet or necklace, but those are usually reserved for special occasions. Her skin tone is on the fair side, but tans nicely in the sunnier months, and she has no freckles to speak of. She had a nasty bout with acne in her teenage years, but she thanks the stars that cleared up after she hit nineteen.

- Random Tidbits -
-When Sparrow smells Amortentia (the strongest of love potions) she smells a mixture of leather, rain, and cinnamon. The leather smell is the smell she most associates with her father, who, being a bomber pilot, owns and often wears a leather bomber jacket. One of Sparrow’s earliest memories is being held by her father while he was wearing his jacket and remembering the smell of it. Why she smells the other two has never been considered.
-If Sparrow were to ever learn how to produce a patronus hers would take on the form of, believe it or not, a sparrow.
-Sparrow’s boggort transforms into members of her family lying dead or shown suffering in some capacity. Yes, just like Molly Weasley’s boggort, they’re very similar in that way.
-Sparrow has always been ambidextrous, and this skill serves her well on the Quidditch pitch. She has been known to joke that she is unable to cast a proper hex when holding her wand in her right hand. This has never been confirmed, however.
-In a Quidditch match last season Sparrow was photographed snatching the Quaffle from a Falmouth Falcon Chaser just as he was about to throw it. The snappy move (or perhaps the photograph, who knows) garnered her quite a bit of positive publicity after it was published in the Daily Prophet. To this day, Sparrow’s Aunt Antonia walks around with a clipping of the picture, ready to whip it out and show to anyone who might still be unaware that Sparrow is her niece, doesn’t she just look so adorable in her game robes, and oh, how she can remember when Sparrow was only this high. . .
-One of the reasons Sparrow loves Quidditch so much is the fact that she was not naturally good at it. In fact, her first time on a broom she broke her nose after she collided with her flying instructor. It took her the better part of her first year and half her second to really get the hang of things, and she was the weakest player on the team during her third and fourth years at school. During her fifth year things really seemed to click and she’s better at flying than walking these days.


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The OOC stuffs
My name: Amber
How to contact me: I answer PMs. =D And email on a good day.
Roleplaying experience: Oh dear. . . I've been roleplaying in text-based, online roleplays for uh. . . years now. I started when I was 13 (maybe 14? long time ago) and was into Redwall. I've been in a few HP roleplays and have to admit it's my favorite to write. I like to think I'm good at this roleplaying thing hardly claim to be exceptional in any way and just like to have fun. And make whacky characters.