FLORENCE ESTHER
MARIANNE GIBBON______________________________________________________________________________________
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INTRODUCTION------------------------------------------------------------
Florrie.
BIRTHDAY&AGE: February 10th 2013 | Fifteen.
SPECIES&BLOODTYPE: Human | Pureblood.
ALLEGIANCES: Neutral.
HOGWARTS HOUSE: Slytherin (Entering her Sixth Year).
WAND: Willow and Unicorn Hair, 14 inches, inflexible.
PLAY BY: Dianna Agron.
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APPEARANCE
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GENERAL APPEARANCE: For those that knew them well, it is plain to see that Florence has inherited much of her parents’ traits. She takes directly after her mother in terms of her appearance, though, taking more than her fair share from the Goyle side of the family. She has their lack of height in spite of the way her father towered over the world. She also inherited the willowiness of that side of the family – the long, thin limbs, in particular. She has that slightness of frame and their pointed features – although her nose is definitely her father’s. Her eyes are the shape that the Goyles are so renowned for but not the colour to go with it. The sienna brown and the emotions she can commune in them is entirely belonging to the Gibbons.
Florence has learned to blend. She would not be easily found in a room. She does not have much that distinguishes her from others. Her hair is long and blonde and that in itself makes her tricky to notice as many others share those traits. She chooses to dress in ways that are affordable and practical. She has very little frivolity and does not even have her ears pierced. The only jewellery she wears is a small bracelet that was given to her one year by the family who were going to adopt her. Other than that, she has nothing of particular value to her name.
She’s plain. Not exceptionally pretty. That is something she realised a long time ago and has since made it work for herself. What makes her stand out is what comes out of her mouth – the informed cleverness, the often barbed wit and acerbic sensibilities. She’s definitely not a charmer and her face isn’t all that memorable but her turn of phrase and cut of her tongue certainly does make her a special one.
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PERSONALITY
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TRAITS:001. Ambitious,
002. Compassionate,
003. Creative,
004. Dedicated,
005. Disciplined,
006. Eloquent,
007. Insightful,
008. Neat,
009. Patient,
010. Rational.
011. Aloof,
012. Brittle,
013. Cautious,
014. Faithless,
015. Hostile,
016. Melancholic,
017. Opinionated,
018. Resentful,
019. Tense,
020. Unsociable.
LIKES & DISLIKES:001. Biscuits,
002. Books,
003. Cream cakes,
004. Dancing,
005. Disney films,
006. Painting,
007. Photography,
008. Renaissance art,
009. Travelling,
010. Questioning things,
011. Being disturbed,
012. Bread rolls,
013. Cars,
014. Disagreements,
015. Essays,
016. Hogwarts politics,
017. Loud noises,
018. Oranges,
019. Riddles,
020. The Ministry of Magic.
GOALS: 001. Graduate Hogwarts with exemplary grades,
002. Reclaim her ancestral home,
003. Make sense of her place in the world.
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THE GIBBON FAMILY
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FATHER: Everett S. Gibbon | Pureblood | Deceased.
MOTHR: Rhea C. Gibbon | Pureblood | Imprisoned in Azkaban.
BROTHER: Alfred -. Gibbon | Pureblood | Graduated from Hogwarts.
PATERNAL GRANDPARENTS:Mercer L. Gibbon | Pureblood | Deceased.
Lucille V. Gibbon | Pureblood | Socialite.
MATERNAL GRANDPARENTS:Nestor I. Goyle | Pureblood | Businessman.
Marianne E. Goyle | Pureblood | Socialite.
FAMILY HISTORY
The House of Gibbon is a family that survives. Throughout times of civil war, regime change, and plague, times of plenty and times of little, they have survived. Hailing originally from the continent, they moved to the island of Britain sometime after the fall of the western Roman Empire. They established what are now considered their ancestral lands in Northumberland during the time of Æthelstan. Throughout the medieval and early modern periods, they were servants to kings and lords and anyone who bore the trappings of power. Magic did not enter their bloodline until the twelfth century and it was something that they embraced until much later, until their family depended on it.
For decades, those who had proved themselves capable of producing magic had been purged from the family. Those who were not killed were exiled and anyone who asked was told that they had died, often of the feared sweating sickness. It was not until the late eighteenth century, when the family had been ravaged by disease and war, that their policy changed. The sole heir to the lands, fortune, and standing of the House of Gibbon was magical. Samuel Gibbon’s life was saved because their future rested on his shoulders and the world that he opened up to their family was one that they never turned away from, one that enriched them more than the Muggle world ever could have.
Magic very quickly became a source of great pride for the Gibbon family. Within a generation, the amount of magical practitioners in their family more than trebled, with some coming to admit their powers and others being born into the with them and given the freedom to explore their power. They sought out others with the same powers as them, deliberately marrying their children to those who could preserve the power within their line. This created what has been come to be known as pure blood. The Gibbons were, by far, not the first to move to such a policy but they were crucial in making it a preoccupation within the the rapidly emerging wizarding society.
The House of Gibbon was put at considerable risk by their ambitions. They were heavily involved in the politics of the nation, in both the Muggle and Wizarding worlds. Their power and influence sealed their fate, in many ways. During the First and Second wizarding wars, revenge was enacted on them by their enemies. Their family’s stock was significantly reduced during both conflicts. With the scores of dead also went their standing and their power – especially when it became common knowledge what members of their family had done during both wars.
Florence’s line is an indirect one, a dozen or so branches away from the core family. Yet, with the depletion of the of their family during the wizarding wars, her line became incredibly important. Her parents, in particular, became the shoulders upon which the family’s future rested. Everett Gibbon was the youngest son of Mercer and Lucille. His marriage to Rhea Goyle, the daughter of Nestor and Marianne, was the acclaim of pureblood society. They were the embodiment of hope but it was with them that all hope for the family died. In so many more ways than one.
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CHARACTER HISTORY
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“There’s a copy of my birth certificate in the file that the Ministry keep on me. I don’t think I was ever meant to see it but, one time, I did. I was seven or eight. My liaison, Moira, left me alone for a little while so that she could go and discuss something with someone regarding my case. I was left alone with some ice cream in her office and I was curious. I couldn't help myself, really. I have a picture of it in my mind, still. It was yellowed and curling at the sides but it was mine. It was evidence of me and where I come from. I’m the daughter of Everett Gibbon and Rhea Goyle. Until that day, I didn’t even know their names. I knew my birthday but I knew nothing of where I was born. I’m a Berliner. There’s handwriting on the back of the page. It’s this curling, beautiful script – like nothing I’d ever seen. I think … it might have been my mother’s. On the back it … it says that the day was awful, that there was snow and ice everywhere, and that I was born early… not at home like they’d planned. My parents, that is. Like my parents had planned. Then underneath that it says something like … maybe we’ll stay a while. I think we must have done. I hope so, anyway. ”
—FLORENCE GIBBON, 2028
And stay a while, the Gibbons did. For the first, formative years of Florence’s life, she was brought up alongside her elder brother, Alfred, and their parents in an apartment overlooking the River Spree in the centre of Berlin. Everett, at the time, was working for a local Quidditch team, winding up his playing career and beginning to train for management. Rhea, meanwhile, was working on a several textbooks on Charms, having studied it after Hogwarts. It was a simple lifestyle, one that, had things worked out, they probably would not have departed from. In Germany, they were content. The children learned the language alongside English from the elderly neighbour who came round to sit with the children when Everett and Rhea needed to do work.
It was an easy, simplistic, and ultimately happy existence for the young Gibbon family. They were far, far away from the terrible memories of the wizarding wars which, in Britain, people were still coming to terms with. Crucially, also, they were far away from the prosecutions that were beginning to increase in number and success as the months went on. One of their reasons for disappearing and hiding in plain sight, as it were, was to avoid falling into the net of the Wizengamot that was closing around them. They knew that it wouldn’t be long before they were finally caught up with but they wanted to make provisions for their family first. If they couldn’t keep the skeletons in their closet from casting shadows, then they were determined that they wouldn’t drag their children into the darkness with them.
In the event, when the Wizengamot finally caught up with them, it was too late for them to provide for their family. It was too late for them to ensure that the future was bright for their children. They’d run out of time. No amount of preparation for what was to come meant that they were ready when it did, when the Aurors knocked down their door and arrested them. They were a couple, and indeed a family, that knew its expiration date before it had even begun. The real tragedy is not Everett and Rhea, or the Gibbon family at large. It’s the people whose lives they ruined with their actions, and at the bottom of that list, Florence and Alfred’s names are tacked on, too.
“GIBBON SENTENCED TO THE KISS…
Victory was celebrated in the Wizengamot yesterday evening as judges across the courtroom reached the unanimous decision that Everett Gibbon, of Quidditch fame (yes, readers, the Seeker that ended the Cannons-Tornadoes game last season in eight minutes), was guilty of the ten counts against him. The Chief Warlock ordered a thirty-minute recess and once everyone was re-seated, it was announced that his punishment would be the Dementor’s Kiss. The Daily Prophet was not provided with details of the crimes that Gibbon was found guilty of but rumours during the war tied him to the disappearance of Harry Potter. Now, this reporter is not suggesting that he has been charged with the murder of the Boy Who Lived but that at least ties him to the Death Eaters. From there, you can draw your own conclusions. His wife was also charged on five counts. Sources from the courtroom say that she could be linked to only half of his crimes, as evidence was spread thinly. The Chief Warlock declared she would serve a life sentence, suggesting that if there was a scale from bad to heinous in what they pair, married for six years, were accused of, her crimes were definitely verging towards the latter. They leave behind two children young children, whose names can’t be given for legal reasons, and who have since been taken into Ministry custody. This conviction comes after a string of Ministry prosecutions, making this the twelfth in six months. ”
—THE DAILY PROPHET, 2018
In the end, the evidence that had been gathered was overwhelming. The counts that Everett and Rhea Gibbon were found guilty of separated them from their children forever. Their crimes during the wars were unforgivable, in more ways than one. Association with the Death Eaters was the least of their errors in judgement. While association with the disappearance of Harry Potter was a fabrication, it required an imaginative mind to visualise just what they’d done. In the end, an Azkaban sentence was the only thing that could be given to Rhea but the Ministry of Magic reserved the Dementors for Everett. A winter passed before the date was set for his execution. He could have been forgiven for thinking it would never happen but their fate was set. They knew, really, that there was only one end for them. Everett’s end came quicker than his wife’s. Rhea’s end was a long, drawn-out affair. In many ways, so were their children’s.
The children were taken into Ministry custody. It was decided that they should be put with families who were Order sympathisers or ‘light magic’ users, families whose members had never been associated with the Death Eaters. The plan was to raise the children in such a way that they would never go down the same route as their parents. Alfred was immediately found a Half-Blood family living in Wales. They had a spare room and three sons who were desperate for another sibling. The family was happy to have him and absorbed him seamlessly into their lives. Florence, however, wasn’t as lucky as her brother, who had an innate charm and intelligence to him that made him loveable. She was, instead, a surly, unattractive child. Sullen and reserved, and painfully aware of how she’d been ripped from her parents, she couldn’t be the child that families would want.
Attempts were made, nonetheless, to find Florence a home. None of these homes were the stable oasis that her brother had found, however. For the remainder of her childhood, until she got her Hogwarts letter, Florence was moved from household to household, often getting close to being adopted before something went wrong. In one case, the couple downsized their house so they could no longer spare the room to her. In another, the family found her disagreeable and no longer wanted her to be a part of their lives. It wouldn’t be until she was in her third year that she was finally found a place to call home – and even then, that wasn’t destined to be.
“Ahhh, a Gibbon. Another Gibbon. More of a Gibbon than the last that past under my brim, I should think. Yes, you’re very much like your father. You are, believe me. I can see it all, after all. In your head here. Do you see your brother over there? At the --- table? You’re not at all like him. He flourished under the circumstances that the Ministry put him in. He became just what they wanted him to be. Isn’t that good of him? But you … you did not. You are their child. You’re a Gibbon. You’re a witch worthy of the name and worthy of Slytherin, too. Ambitious. Determined. Resourceful. And a survivor. You’re a survivor. Against all odds. I think that’s the only place you can go. Slytherin. Yes. They tried, didn’t they? They tried to wipe out the truth that is your family but you’re not … you’re not just any old witch that passes through these halls. You’re not any old Pureblood. You’re a particular sort. And you’re not as light as they’d like to believe you to be. ”
—THE SORTING HAT, 2014
It was to the horror of the Ministry of Magic that Florence followed her parents into their ancestral house of Slytherin. It was the first indication that her liaison had failed in her duty to ‘reform’ the girl. Slytherin was the last place that they had hoped Florence would go. They had been hoping that she would end up in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. She had shown an early love of books and learning. There had been hope that Ravenclaw would be the place she’d call home. In the end, there was nowhere else for her, really. Though she could have been forced to fit in with the other students, a magical hat wasn’t easy to buy off. He sent her exactly where she needed to go and in Slytherin, Florence flourished.
In the house of the snakes, she made firm friends almost immediately. There, she learned about the wizarding world in a meaningful way. Though she had never been outside of the wizarding world, or outside of magic, she had never truly felt a part of it, either. There, she made the friends that would see to it that she would never be far removed from their world. During the summers, she often spent time at her friends’ homes which allowed her, in turn, to spend less time with the families that the Ministry wanted her to become a part of. It meant she found families elsewhere, forged friendships that were like family. It meant that she wasn’t really as alone as perhaps she should have felt she was.
Academically, Florence was astute and gifted. She proved highly proficient in Defence Against the Dark Arts in her first year and her progress only improved as she moved through the school. Her skill in practical magic did not always transmute so cleanly into her written work, however. She spent a lot of time with her professors, as a result, all giving her their own feedback on how she could make her essays and written examinations better. Her improvement, once this attention was given to her, was almost instantaneous. As she spent time with each professor, getting a better idea of what they wanted from her, her marks shot up. At the end of her second year, she even received a little award from her head of house – one that noted her as the most improved Slytherin in her year group.
Hogwarts gave Florence hope. It made her feel as though she did have a future. It made her feel as though, somehow, everything would be alright in the end, even if it wasn’t at the moment.
“You might find that they’re actually a rather wonderful fit for you, Florence. They’re in their late forties with children near to your age. You’ll get along with them well enough, I’m sure. They’re Beauxbatons students, though. That’s why you’ve never met them. I think they’re quite a cosmopolitan lot. Both of the parents hold jobs in the Ministry and they live up north, near to where your parents used to live. I thought it might be nice to have that link to them. You’re not like Alfred, I know that. I never wanted to see it but I know now that you need something else in your life. You’re not him, however much the Ministry and I would like you to be. You’re you. We’ve realised that too late. But that’s who you are. You’re you. And these people will hopefully appreciate that. They’re lovely people, Florence, truly. Don’t … don’t look at me like that. Look, they’re also your last change, if we’re going to be frank about it. If this doesn’t work out, there is no one left for you and anyone mad enough to try will ask why you haven’t been taken in before. You’ll have to be housed with other children like yourself until you age out of the system. Just try to make this work, Florence, please. It’s in your interest, dear. ”
—ELOISE MARCH, 2026
Henry and Julia Trevethan were the last chance Florence had of finding a family. They were from the West Country, originally, although the illness of Julia’s parents had driven them north when they had first married. They had passed away decades before but the pair had stayed up there, choosing to renovate her parents’ old house and make a home and a life for themselves there rather than going back to their little flat in Penzance. Together, they had had three beautiful, clever children who Florence felt at odds with almost immediately. Unlike other children in this sort of situation, though, they were not unkind to her. They admired their parents’ generosity and modelled themselves on them almost to the letter. They were kind people who had created even kinder children – truly people who Florence felt were too good for her.
In spite of her reservations, Florence quickly found her place among the Trevethans. She was given a room to share with their youngest daughter, Hattie, who was her age. The pair immediately became inseparable. Hattie brought Florence everywhere with her, introducing her to her friends when they came to visit and the hobbies she kept. They became thicker than thieves and were often responsible for much of the mischief that went on around the house. For Henry and Julia, their friendship soothed two worries. They had not known how their children would receive Florence and seeing her with Hattie assured them that she would be fine. They also did not know whether Hattie would be alright with very few female companions over the summertime. She certainly couldn’t be hopping back and forth from France. Both problems were solved.
Florence became part of the family. Paperwork was put through the Ministry to have become a true part of their family but before it could, in the winter of her fifth year, tragedy struck the Trevethans. Just before Christmas, the pair caught a horrible strain of Dragon Pox that was going around the country. None of the children were allowed home from school that Christmas and Florence wrote to Hattie and to the boys throughout the holidays. In the New Year, Henry passed away. A few weeks later, Julia followed him. Their children were taken in by their aunt and the adoption collapsed – and with it and their deaths, so too did Florence’s world.
She met with Eloise March, her liaison, before Hogwarts broke up for the summer. Florence had been expecting to be shoveled off to a shared house for the summer but she was informed rather briskly by her frustrated liaison that there was no room in any of the “usual” places and they were loath to send her too far out of London. There was a room, however, in the home of an associate of the Ministry – she has since forgotten what March said but it was something along those lines. He was meant to meet her at Platform Nine and Three Quarters but, of course, the train never arrived, did it?
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OUT OF CHARACTER
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ALSO KNOWN AS: Eli.
RP EXPERIENCE: A bit.
HOW YOU FOUND US: I live here.
MAIN CHARACTER: Elijah Krum.
by Florence Gibbon Tue Sep 06, 2016 7:39 pm
