Character Info--
Age: 28 (born in Terryglass, Ireland)
Graduation: Dissendium Academy of Magic, Ireland
OWLs/NEWTs:
W.O.T.S.I.T.s (OWLs): O Transfiguration. O Charms. EE Potions. O Magical Defense. O History of Magic. A Magizoology. O Arithmancy.

G.O.L.D.s (N.E.W.T.s): O Transfiguration. O Charms. O Potions. EE Magical Defense. O History of Magic. O Arithmancy.
History:
Childhood
Luce was born to Howard and Jennifer Simington on October 5th, 1989. Being an only child, she grew up knowing the solitude of living in a rural neighborhood with two parents who worked long hours at menial jobs to support themselves. Luckily, the old woman who babysat her was a retired English teacher with an extensive personal library. She taught the young, doll-like Lucinda to read at the age of two and a half. When she was five and had read everything in the woman’s library four times each, her parents scraped together what little money they had and sent her to a preschool for gifted children.

She excelled there but maintained her solitary existence, keeping only one or two close friends. This was fine for young children; but as she and her peers moved into the “preteen” years, she found them more and more preoccupied with boys and society than books and learning…and so, she was alone again.

After a few more years of high-level Muggle schooling, her Dissendium letter arrived in the mail. It came as an extreme surprise to the entire family, and while her parents were convinced it was a kind of joke, Lucinda was intrigued. She convinced them to take her to the location indicated in the letter, where something called a Portkey would take her to the school. Once there, they met a few other students with similar letters and instructions…and at precisely eleven, the ragged old boot she was touching transported her to an old Irish castle.

Schooling
Her first few years at Dissendium were spent much the same as her years in Muggle schools were: she was reclusive but brilliant, at the top of her class. She was sorted into Crionna (Ravenclaw), and made only one close friend, Becca Fisher. She and Becca were alike in some ways but fundamentally different in others (Becca being somewhat more forthcoming than Lucinda) and it was those differences that made their friendship work, for the most part.

In her fourth year she met a seventh year Seirbhe (Slytherin) named Damien Reed, and he asked her to tutor him in Transfiguration. His motives were not entirely wholesome, however, and he tricked Lucinda into falling in love with him. He unintentionally fell in love with her in return, an unforeseen complication that Damien found himself welcoming. Their relationship, however, was doomed to failure. The Reeds were a high-ranking Irish pureblood family, and Lucinda was a poor Muggleborn from a small town. Though they admitted that she was “pretty as a pureblood” they refused to allow Damien to even think of being with her.

He disappeared from Lucinda's life (it was later revealed that his family had kept him in seclusion following his graduation, forbidding him to see anyone outside the Reed family). The poor girl was distraught, confused, and angry; she retreated once more into her academia. As time wore on, however, she became frustrated with herself and took steps to become someone new, someone who wasn't held back by her troubles but made stronger by them.

Her seventh and final year at Dissie began with honor: she had finally gotten over Damien, and was beginning the year as Ceannaire (head girl). But the events of the year ruined her more than any Seirbhe boy. The school year started off with a masquerade and a murder, and Lucinda found herself new acquaintances with whom she shared a common goal: finding the murderer, with or without the help of the school or the Irish Council. Ivy Ballantine, Holly Vlammende-Schoen, Aiden Daniels...and Alex Sheridan, a boy Lucinda had begun to care for and who she ended up hurting.

Each of them had their own reasons for wanting to find the murderer, but Lucinda's were very personal. Her hunt began with a series of dreams and visions in which she herself remembered killing poor Kieran Brynn; she was convinced that finding the killer would lead to an explanation for these “memories.” She and the others concocted a plan to search for the murderer. Two of them, Ivy and Aiden, succeeding in finding her, identifying her as a girl named Marion Fry, but were unable to capture her; both suffered injuries thanks to the involvement of one Bram Jayden. Lucinda's dreams increased in frequency as tension in the school escalated and she did what a self-respecting Crionna always does in times of trouble: she researched it. It was then that she discovered that Marion Fry was actually the product of wizarding multiple personality disorder, a complication caused by extreme stress which results in the expulsion from the body of said stress in the form of another personality, encased in a magical body.

Marion was still free at the time of Brynn's funeral, and during the funeral she launched an attack on the students of Dissendium. It ended with Lucinda dispatching her with a killing curse. Her reputation was shattered, her sanity was questioned, and her heart was broken twice over by Alex and the return of Damien Reed. She left the school bitter and mentally fragile. She spent two weeks in Dagda and was released; after being rejected as an applicant to her old school, she got a job in Callinan’s bookstore in Balleygalley.

The Revolution Years (18-24)
The summer after her graduation was tumultuous for Lucy. She became more reclusive than she had been as a child, constantly haunted by the ghosts of her past. Marion, though physically dead, remained a psychological burden to Lucinda as long as she allowed her depression to conquer her. Lucinda, however, no longer had the passion for life that would have allowed her combat Marion's influences. She kept to herself, talked to no one, and went nowhere but home and work.

That summer, she met a young man named Dermot Ballantine. He was the older brother of her friend Ivy, and he saw through Lucinda's pain to the girl inside. They fell in love quickly and deeply, hardly realizing what was happening. He persistently sought her and drew her out of her shell. Lucinda had transformed from a naïve young girl into a hardened, untrusting young woman, and with Derry's help she began to rediscover happiness and contentment even among the stressful events that permeated their relationship.

Their plans—marriage, children—were thrown off by the Irish Blood Revolution, in which they both became involved. Lucy had personal reasons, again, for becoming a “Free Blood” fighter: she was Muggleborn, and her old lover Damien was one of the fanatic supporters of ultimate wizarding purity. She joined Derry, the rest of the Ballantines, other pureblood families like the Grahams and Everards, and many others in working against the purists. She wasn't much of a fighter, so she put her skills to other uses: she studied medicine and became a pseudo-mediwitch; she also worked with the spy network, cataloging and relaying the incoming information. For awhile, it seemed that if they all just stuck together things would turn out alright.

The world was not kind, however; Lucy lost Derry and many of her other dear friends in the Council Blood Bath, the calamitous “final battle” of the Revolution. No longer the weak-willed individual who allowed herself to be completely ruined by trauma, Lucinda moved away from her home to London, hoping that a change of scenery would help her regroup after her losses.

When in England
Though she was twenty-four years old, she'd had very little work experience; a few years in the bookstore was all she'd managed before being completely swept up with the revolutionaries. Though she'd received training from the Fearghus (Irish Aurors) during those tempestuous years, she had no desire to make a career out of it. Her heart had been set on teaching, but it seemed to lack the appeal it had once had for her.

She had a little money saved, and with some help from her parents she was able to procure a small flat in Westminster. She supported herself by tutoring school-age children, wizards and Muggles (though she had to brush up on what Muggles would have been learning in school, she was somewhat ashamed to say). In her free time, she set about putting her sad story, and that of her friends, into words. The going was, and still is, slow, and she often puts the manuscript aside for months at a time.

Generally, these days, Lucy keeps to herself. It seems strange to her to consider her life already full circle and complete at twenty-eight, but that's the impression she carries with her: that she is old at heart, having seen the trials of life already and lived through them, and is now just patiently waiting for her time to go.

Or at least...she was waiting.

Recent events have sparked life in Lucy again: meeting Darien Holywell, Derry's veritable twin; Ivy's sudden appearance; the discovery of a connection between Ivy and Junior Undersecretary Edward Garrow—

And the return of someone very special...who turned out to be her fiance himself, Dermot Ballantine. After a tearful reunion the two rushed off to get their marriage license. Lucinda Simington officially became Lucy Ballantine on August 14th, 2018.
Personality: Lucinda is by nature an academic. She has always been a studious girl and has since she was little placed great stock in what a person knows. As she grew older, her perception of intelligence changed, of course, but it’s still very important to her. Formerly, she would become discouraged in conversation if she sensed any ignorance on the part of the other person—a bad habit and a conversation killer. Over time, she's come to be more patient with less-knowledgeable persons, and will calmly listen and make polite responses.

She is highly intelligent herself and, though she is very conscious of it most of the time, tends to show off without realizing it, simply because she doesn’t think about the fact that not everyone will know what she’s talking about before she speaks. She used to be incredibly shy but since fourth year and her encounter with a certain Seirbhe, she has come out of her shell and enjoys participating in clever banter and debates. She’s very opinionated and very dedicated to those opinions, though she is more tactful with them now than she once was.

Immediately following her graduation from Dissendium, she suffered many extremes in her personality. She became quite bipolar, and though at times she seemed like her old self, she could rapidly change into any number of characters: shy and unwilling to speak, or nasty and angry, lashing out at the smallest irk. Derry and the other Ballantines, coupled with her experiences as a young adult, had the effect of toning her down, and these days she is a very placid person. Cordiality and politeness are most often described in relation to her. Her main concern is for her comfort and what she can do for the comfort of others.

There are times, of course, when she is reminded of her past and she becomes depressed; often, during these times, she shuts herself up in her flat for days, canceling all but the most urgent of appointments until the storm passes and she can lift her head up again.

Her sense of her own sexuality is highly diminished; when it comes to love and romance, she presents herself as a widow who has no desire to love again, though she and Derry were never able to marry. This, however, does not cause her any misery. She is proud of the love that she and Derry shared, and feels that another man would be hard-put to measure up to it—surpassing it is an impossibility.
Appearance: Lucinda is tall. That’s the first thing anyone notices about her. At 5’10”, she towers over most of her peers. The next thing that’s noticed is usually her hair, something she’s very proud of: long, blonde and naturally possessing a slight, gentle curl, it was the only part of her appearance that gave her any pride for a long time. Her eyes are a dark blue that is bright sometimes and engulfing at others. Her skin is pale, and thus it’s easy to tell when she’s embarrassed or excited: her cheeks can become inflamed in two or three seconds. She’s thin, on the threshold of underweight.

OOC Info--
Name & Contact Information: Spiv! PMs are wonderful.
Previous Roleplay Experience: Role-playing close to five years now, much of it done on so-described “higher level” sites. Extensive experience with character development *wink*. Also spent probably four years admining various sites.

I've got this sentimental heart that beats

• Carmen Snidgeton: Lucinda and the reporter began their relationship in some opposition: English v. Irish, agitated v. calm, desperate v. reticent. Further encounters will surely lead to further frustration. [x]
• Darien Holywell: The Healer bears a striking resemblance to Lucinda's lost fiancé, Dermot Ballantine; while Lucinda is fascinated by this she resents him for being, personality-wise, nothing like her dead lover. [x] [x]
• Dermot Ballantine: Lucy's husband, who returned from the dead shortly after his sister to reclaim his fiancée. [x] [x] [x]
• Ivy Ballantine: Ivy was one of Lucy's closest friends during the Revolution, one that she thought had died almost six years ago. By chance, it seemed, Lucy found her in the Leaky Cauldron and took her home to take care of her...and get the answers to some questions of her own. [x]