Hebe Bang-Bala

[Hebe Bang-Bala R7]

Hebe Bang-Bala

The Basics:[/color]
House: Ravenclaw
Year: 7th year
Age: 17
Blood: Muggle-born
Wand: Aspen, 13 inches, Phoenix Feather
Pet: None

Physical Description:[/color]
Hebe could be described as rather pretty. She is slim, with striking features, dirty-blonde hair and searching blue-green eyes. She tends to move around quite quickly rather than lingering in one place and doesn’t always look comfortable with her surroundings. This is largely as a result of not wishing to be noticed. Her expression is often stubborn but if you look at it closely you will find hides a lot of pain.

Personality:[/color]
Hogwarts has turned out to be quite a liberating experience for Hebe; some of the time she is able to get away from thoughts of her grandmother and will show to her friends quite how nice and caring she can be, as well as the fact there is an interesting person beneath the hard (but brittle) shell she has made around herself. But she can be extraordinarily shy, and at times will go to great lengths to avoid other people. She can also be very stubborn. When with friends it is possible to laugh at this; when it involves her grandmother it is usually because she feels she must take a stand for her rights.

Hebe suffers from a lot of conflicting emotions and tends to prefer solitary pastimes as she finds it hard enough to hide these from herself, let alone other people. However, occasionally her strong opinions lead her to be rather bluntly, and unexpectedly outspoken. Hebe is intelligent and hard-working, widely-read and an avid reader still. She also spends a lot of her time drawing and sculpting. The only hobby she really has which requires anyone else is chess. Hebe tends to take this rather seriously and can be a deadly opponent. She has become self-sufficient, not prepared to rely on anyone else, but she is also her own worst enemy.

History:[/color]
Hebe Bang-Bala was born on July 7th 1983 in Bradford, Yorkshire, into a Muggle family. Well, their blood wasn't exactly entirely Muggle - there were quite a few witches and wizards integrated into the line along the years. Hebe’s grandmother was a Muggleborn witch, although her parents would not allow her to attend Hogwarts, and her uncle is magical although he is a rather shady character she doesn’t see very often at all. Magic did not seem to run strongly in the family but there was always family legend; some parts of the family were able to accept it more easily than others.

Unfortunately for Hebe, her mother and father were not part of the more lenient side of the family, and her letter from Hogwarts led to her parents’ divorce. Both were adamant that she would not attend Hogwarts when she was the correct age, but were also quite helpless against the influence of Hebe’s grandmother.

Hebe's grandmother had steeped herself in study of magic and the dark arts, the fact that she had been denied the chance to attend the famous wizarding school of Hogwarts still rankling even in old age. The rather weird, aging woman took Hebe under her wing and brought her up without much input from the girl’s parents while she progressed through her years at Hogwarts, covertly using Hebe to teach her the magic she had not had the opportunity to learn in school. At first Hebe, though a little intimidated by her grandmother, was happy to do just this, feeling honoured that she was needed. As time went on though her grandmother became more tyrannical with what she demanded of Hebe and Hebe also became more uncomfortable with the spells she was teaching her grandmother to perform. But as her grandmother’s power grew she had less and less choice in the matter.

Hebe first viewed Hogwarts as she sailed up to it as a nervous first year, unsure of what the future held for her. She was sorted into Ravenclaw, which her grandmother was quite happy with, feeling she evidently had the potential to achieve. Hebe strives to do just that, although she isn’t quite sure yet where to focus her attention, even with her OWLs upon her. In Hebe’s third year her cousin Melody came to Hogwarts and was sorted into Gryffindor. Hebe is fond of the cheerful girl and takes an almost protective attitude towards her, although she does envy her cousin slightly.

Since Hebe first started attending Hogwarts, her grandmother has been slowly losing her sanity (though it is questionable how much of this she possessed in the first place). This is a great source of unhappiness for Hebe – the old woman is still as wilful as ever she was. This is also the source of her envy towards her cousin. Melody has both her parents, whereas Hebe barely gets to see hers. She doesn’t understand how her parents could be so opposed to her developing magical powers whereas it was nothing but a source of pride for Melody’s, and wishes it wasn’t her who had to live with her power-hungry grandmother.

Going into her seventh year, Hebe has not decided what to do with herself yet. Partially due to a wish to impress and please her family, she is quite ambitious and thinks that she would like to go into the Ministry of Magic, although she is also turning over in her mind whether she should become a professional chess player or sculptor. She yearns to be accepted by her parents again and has an idea that if she can get a job in the Muggle world, they might forget the idea that she is a witch. However, her grandmother and uncle have... other ideas for her.