Addison Avery-Burke

Backstory

I was born and raised in New York City, the daughter of a pureblood wizard originally from Birmingham who left England after emancipation from his family who disapproved of his attitudes toward non-magicals--specifically my mom, a public defender in the city My father worked as one of the head aurors of MACUSA, and he was the bravest man I had ever met. He was killed when I was 14 by the dark wizards he was meant to apprehend, and my life was thrown into a tailspin. Mom, my brother, and I relocated to London where I then enrolled in Hogwarts for my 5th year and onwards. I was convinced I would be sorted into Slytherin like my dad had been, but the sorting hat, after almost 10 minutes of deliberation and a series of publicly probing questions, saw through to my nerve and unflinching sense of morals and placed me into Gryffindor. I was shocked and worried for what I had heard about the house--that it was full of hot-headed, stubborn dangerously self sacrificing folk with overgrown hero complexes . But I was wrong. I found a community of enterprising, intelligent, loyal people with a real sense of adventure and who put the greater good above their own selfish needs. I've always been quick to judgement--perhaps that is my worst flaw. In school, I ended up excelling at Defense Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic, Ancient Runes, and flight, making headlines as a chaser for our quidditch team. We had a longstanding rivalry with Slytherin, who my dad had been the seeker for back in his day. Now the Malfoy brat (who is fortunately a pleasant man--dare I say, even a friend--now) loved taking all the glory not for the sake of the game. Unfortunately, I was particularly terrible at potions, to the dismay of my father’s old housemate Snape, and at divination (which I maintain along with Hermione Granger isn't a real thing anyway). As Tom Riddle (I refuse to call him a "lord" of any kind or by the silly nickname he gave himself) rose to power, it took a toll on all of us, especially in Slytherin. I saw many people I trusted and considered friends become corrupted, which hurt, because half my family is non-magical. I was able to slip by without being noticed since I had not been around long, and because my halfblood status and the (technically disavowed) name of my pureblood father shielded me from most trouble. I was one of the many Gryffindor who bothered to stick around for the battle of --I understand why others many didn't--I cannot imagine what it must have been like to battle their own families. And perhaps they had their own inner battles to take care of first. I kept my head down my eighth year after the victory, but I became better friends with the others in my year, for we all had something stronger to bind us than house loyalties. I decided first to follow in the footsteps of my father and become an auror, seeing as I have a talent for DADA coupled with no patience for dark wizardry. I completed the grueling training and served along side Harry Potter and Ron Weasely for a few years. I even got married to Neal--a creative, intelligent, and surprisingly fun former Ravenclaw I had been partnered with in double potions and was the reason I even passed (thank you Professor Snape for doing one thing right). But life, as always, had a way of beating me up and leaving me face down in the concrete. This time literally. I suffered a career ending injury apprehending the same dark wizard that had killed my father a decade before. I won, by the way, but I also lost quite a bit of motor function. It took every ounce of determination I had left in and the love of my family to not drown myself in Firewhisky. I instead threw myself into study and cultivating relationships inside the ministry, where Hermione was beginning to rise through the ranks. I knew I still wanted to work in justice, like my mom, like my dad, like I had, and it was one of the proudest days of my life when I was selected to serve on the Wizengamot, the high court of law, as its youngest member. I care about both defending the rights of the innocent--those who may have broken the law but for the greater good--and punishing those who see fit to use their gift of magic to harm and oppress. It is my dream to become chief warlock one day--Neal tells me I have the talent for it, but then I suppose he is a bit biased. My 14 year old self could not have possibly imagined my life unfolding this way--perhaps I got the details wrong, but I succeeded where it matters the most: I live without regrets, without words left unsaid, and without love left unshared.