Kettia Ferox

Backstory

Kettia Violet Ferox is a half-blood witch, the younger half-sister of wanted criminal Benton Ferox, older half-sister of Gwyneth Ferox, cousin of Lia Ferox, and daughter of Kadmus Ferox. She was raised in the London Borough of Camden by her muggle parents, mother Grace Grimm and step-father Thomas Grimm.

Kettia learned she was a witch at age eleven through her muggle grandmother, Rose Marie Gaines, after a letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry arrived for her. She began attending Hogwarts in and was sorted into Ravenclaw house.

Family lineage -

The Ferox family is a respected upper-class pure-blood family, descended from long lines of ancestors from all over Europe. The family is well-connected, with a history of having hands in various wizarding businesses and governments. Recent scandals have taken a slight toll on the United Kingdom based branch of the family, which has taken a step back to avoid attracting additional attention, but Scandinavian counterparts continue to thrive.

Kadmus Ferox, was the first Ferox to openly marry a Muggle without being stricken from the Ferox family tree. It is speculated that the leniency granted him was only given because he already had a pure-blood son, Benton Ferox, from a previous relationship. Kettia was his second child, and the first tolerated Ferox half-blood, paving the way for half-bloods; Gwyneth and Lia Ferox.

After the dissolution of her parent's marriage, Kettia was raised by her muggle mother and a muggle step-father, alongside four younger half-siblings. They kept Kettia in the dark about her wizarding family and rejected all attempts to reach out to Kettia and be involved in her upbringing by the Ferox family. Unknown to her, Kettia's biological father was killed in a duel not long after she turned seven.

Her older brother, Benton Ferox, became an accomplished Hit Wizard within the Ministry of Magic's Department of Magical Law Enforcement after his graduation from Hogwarts, where he was sorted into Gryffindor. However brief his one-year career was, he was showered in accolades for the duration. As Kettia was beginning to show signs of her lineage, Benton was busy learning the truth of his family's desecration of justice. While his motives were known only to him, Benton went rogue and left the Ministry. He is now a wanted criminal for cases of felonious assassinations and abductions.

Early life -

Kettia was born on the 13th of October to wizard Kadmus Ferox and muggle Grace Gaines. Their relationship dissolved soon after Kettia's birth, following arguments about whether to bring her up within the muggle world or wizarding world. Kadmus disappeared entirely from Kettia's life and memories, due partly to irresponsibility and partly to threats from her mother. She was raised as if a muggle and without any awareness that she had a different biological father than her four half-sisters.

While smarter than her siblings, she was also the black sheep far more taken with daydreaming and imagination—something her family hardly thought practical or productive. Kettia was happiest when ignored and left to bury herself in books, as it meant she didn't face the usual bullying or scolding. Kettia's mother was a teacher while her step-father was an insurance agent. Their home was far too small for the family of eight, including her grandmother who was one of few to show her kindness. Her step-father had moved to Camden to work in the music industry, but his spirit was crushed with time as he joined his wife's condescention of creativity. Living in such a place had its effects on the young girl, who became all the more eccentric and was infused with a fiery spirit.

A late bloomer in regard to magic, Kettia's first memorable display of magic occurred between the ages of eight and nine after her sisters teamed up in bullying her. Her eldest sister bit Gwen hard enough to draw blood, but when she pulled away, her tongue was firmly stuck to the roof of her mouth. This was a likely example of an accidental wandless casting of the Langlock jinx.

From that point on, her mother was suspicious and scared—enough so to forcibly teach Kettia to never defend herself. Her above average intelligence and inferior height made her a prime target for bullying in and out of her home, but she'd been instilled with a deep fear that she was an extreme threat to others.

Years later, after Kettia turned eleven, a letter arrived for her inviting her to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Her grandmother, Rose Marie Gaines, found it first. She sat Kettia down and told her of her true paternity and half-blood status. Her mother was adamantly opposed to Kettia attending Hogwarts and would have done anything in her power to prevent her attendance. Fortunately, Rose Marie was able to contact Tyrisia Ferox, Kadmus's younger sister. Rose Marie and Tyrisia were able to concoct a complex charade about Kettia attending Woldingham, a renowned all-girls boarding school, on a scholarship. Unable to resist the potential to brag and inflate her own social standing through her daughter, her mother fell for the lie and Kettia went to live with her aunt Tyrisia to attend Hogwarts.

Physical appearance -

Kettia's black hair is artfully disheveled, often covering one of her upturned eyes, which are blue with tinges of gray and accented by long, thick lashes. Her face is round with a ski slope nose and full lips. She has subtle features of many different ethnic groups, as became common among the very ethnically mixed Ferox family. She often sits and stands in abnormal positions, but she walks with confident purpose and earnestness.

Personality and traits -

Kettia is mostly machiavellian and an ethical consequentialist. While she does have friends and a desire to impress, her own interests and goals come first. She seeks answers and new information at almost any cost, believing knowledge is the ultimate power and that the ends justify the means.

Her deepest fears include things she does not or cannot know for certain, to include what others are truly thinking, the outcome of relationships, and especially death. This causes her to either make educated guesses and take them as fact or fixate on the matter. It also makes her prone to occasional fits of paranoia when progress cannot be made.

Kettia is highly intelligent but often impatient; she is the sort to prefer instant gratification and results. When bored, she redirects her attention by plotting conflict and how she could solve it. It becomes more and more enticing to create challenges for herself, regardless of traditional morality, which she views as flexible if for beneficial reasons. Her impatience also results in a quick temper, not unlike her father's; she is usually explosive when pushed too far. If not overtly angry, Kettia has a habit of stewing and behaving numbly while internally angry or hurt.

Kettia enjoys much of the muggle world, but she prefers her new life and detests her muggle mother. She resents being a half-blood and half her mother's daughter, so she enjoys rumors that she is a pureblood. She also believes she may have been better suited for Slytherin, this feeling growing alongside her irritation with Ravenclaw housemates. Her patronus is a raven.

She is very interested in music, writing, and drawing. Kettia focuses on potions, charms, and transfiguration primarily, believing that they are the most challenging and productive, but she has a special fondness for care of magical creatures and divination. While she wants to obtain O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s in most subjects to secure a respectable Ministry future, she actually wants to be an author, both through journalism and writing books on her research, travels, observations, and discoveries.

Possessions -

"Pine. Eleven and three-quarter inch length. Dragon heartstring core. Unyielding. It will not protest to experimentation and non-verbal magic, and it is not so unlike your brother's. He too was creative and independent. His wand, however, was far more flexible. Unyielding—now that is intriguing."
— Wandmaker on Kettia's wand.

Kettia's most prized possession is her wand. It is both of the same wood and core type as her brother's, but hers is longer and extremely inflexible. She obtained it from Ollivanders in Diagon Alley with her mother. During her years, she finally "earned" her wand, realizing that she needed to stop bending. She stopped caring for house points, detentions, or changing herself and her "ways that work" to cater to some of the stricter staff, becoming as unyielding as her wand.

Kettia's pet is a small grey fluffy owl gifted to her by her aunt before her first year. She named him Valor and the two have grown very fond of one another. He delivers all of Kettia's letters for her and visits her nightly. Valor was injured by Kettia's mother during winter holiday of her first year. He has since recovered, but Kettia is more protective of him than ever.