AHMADI-BERKOWITZ, Sloane

   Character's Legal Name: Sloane Ahmadi-Berkowitz

   Age: Twenty Four

   Ilvermorny House: Horned Serpents

   Blood Type: Muggleborn

   Species: Human

   Face claim: Alia Shawkat
   

The first thing people tend to notice about Sloane is her freckles. Growing up, she had some insecurities about her freckles, but as she began to embrace the idea of individuality being the best brand of beauty, she stopped caring. She’s not a huge adherent to any beauty practices but she takes good care of her skin and rarely puts on more makeup than some eyeliner and mascara. She has tan skin, somewhere between the tones of her parents, and a bit of a curved nose. Her eyebrows are thin and well-shaped and her hair is another point of individuality, with tight curls that she tends to keep short now, though she does on occasion lengthen her hair, relaxing the curls into waves. She’s curvy, with wide hips and a generous bust, but her penchant for running as a stress release has kept her waist trim. She likes 50’s style dresses and 90’s style jeans and crop tops. Her mother’s hatred for large companies has almost ensured that any Sloane ensemble is a thrift store find.

Spoiler:

   

Sloane is in a difficult period, a transitional one to be sure. She’s always been quiet, but it’s not because of a sense of modesty or shyness. She’s reserved simply because she’s never had the compulsion to share her feelings and thoughts. If there is one thing she really had impressed upon her, much by accident, is that there is no such thing as individual thought or someone so special that they are a complete original. Identities are compilations of psychological factors, moral codes, and cultural influences, so while there is certainly a variety, there’s no true original out there.

Beyond that, she’s never really seen what she has to offer that is so extraordinary that she would have to work hard to make it known.

Somewhere in her is a dreamer, someone with ambition to see the world and experience amazing things. It’s been largely suffocated by the realist in her. Her friends from school are all self-proclaimed dreamers and she’s watched most of them sell out or kid themselves, so she doesn’t really believe that people ever act contrary to what is practical and beneficial for themselves.

When asked to describe herself, Sloane typically goes on these tangents about people in general. She talks about her friend Tamara who had potential as an artist and now works as a barista and is super into that and has no time for her art, or how her friend Xander abandoned all of his moral judgments regarding honest media when one of those new-agey fake online magazines offered him a job. When pressed to describe herself, she can't find many words to describe who she is, relying rather on what she knows.

One might call Sloane questioning, if they didn't know her very well. She seems easily confused, constantly probing as much as is acceptable or worth the trouble, and she never seems truly convinced on any subject, though most chalk this up to a generally uncertain nature. What Sloane has yet to tap into is this sense of defiance in her. Having never had much reason to fight back, her truly assertive nature has not yet blossomed. With the right challenge, she may discover herself to be stubborn, obsessive, curious, clever, agile, witty, self destructive, and neutronic.

But, that does take a particular sort of challenge, doesn't it?

   

   Early Years: Dinah and Elias were both the black sheep of their respective families. Both grew up in heavily religious families, both poor, and both much too ambitious for their own good. Elias was a first generation American and the eldest of four siblings. He found his own faith shaken and abandoned fairly early for the sciences. His family knows where he stands and tends to consider it a difference of opinions. Dinah does not like to be told she isn’t practicing her faith. She participates in every holiday, can still speak Hebrew, and regularly rants in Yiddish. And yet she often slips into heavy criticism of religion in general, but especially her own. She knows full well that she’s stepped away – but try telling her that.

They were a perfect yin and yang. Their marriage was not immediately accepted by their families. And yet almost every single member of their families attended the wedding, even though some did it begrudgingly. The birth of Skyler, though still contentious in its own right, did plenty to bridge the gap between parents and children. One look at that beautiful little boy and all the aunts, uncles, and grandparents were smitten.

Dinah and Elias settled in New York City, enjoying the bustle and the short commute to their jobs at separate universities. Skyler was raised by a nanny, but received plenty of adoration from his parents. His sister was born four years after him, and Dinah and Elias could not imagine being more happy.

Sloane did well in school, as did her brother. Both were reported to be relatively bright, though did little to differentiate themselves from the other students. Sloane’s parents weren’t often home, but they did their best to make the times they were home memorable. They tried new food together as a family, would spend hours in museums, were present at art gallery openings. Absent minded professors as they were, they often could not help but get drawn into important conversation. This is when Skyler would save her. Gripped with a sudden mischievousness, he would take her hand and off they went to chase down an adventure.

When Sloane thinks of her childhood, she thinks of these times.

But by the time she was seven, things were beginning to change. An odd letter was delivered, and with it an even odder man. Her parents were strict believers in only the rational and the explained, so it was not easily accepted that their son was a wizard. In fact, it took more than a few home visits, more than few invitations to explore the magical world… and even then, they didn’t like it. Elias was easily the more resistant, as so much of what he was being told disobeyed the very science he had dedicated his life to. Dinah appeared to be the more open, but when it came time for Skyler to leave, she was the most outspoken on the subject. What mom wants to lose their baby? Elias reigned her in and told Skyler he could make his own decision.

So Skyler went, not with a blessing, but with reluctant permission. It took until his third year for the subject of Ilvermorny to not stir family dinners into a frenzy of frosty words and impatient sighs. It wasn’t until Skyler broke down, reminded them of what they had faced simply to marry each other, that it clicked for his parents. Apologies were made but all the time they treated him with shame rather than pride had left its mark.

Sloane only remembers bits of this, can only remember remembering these tense family moments. By the time she received her letter, it had been normalized. She would never understand, not as a child, how their parents’ willing acceptance of her magic made her brother resent her. She felt like it would bring them together.

But she was wrong.

   Ilvermorny Years: Sloane’s sorting was interesting. When she stepped onto the knot, she tried recalling each quality of the houses, trying to figure out which one she could possibly claim to possess. She knew, with certainty, that she would not be a Thunderbird. She was not adventurous. Probably not a warrior-spirit, a Wampus, like her brother. She was surprised, then, when not only the Horned Serpent responded to her, but also the Thunderbird. She stared at the bird and, certain it had made a mistake, joined the scholars of the serpents.

She promptly forgot a choice had been made.

Sloane’s schooling was relatively uneventful. Sloane was smart but relatively unambitious as a student. She excelled in muggle studies and joined an art club. She made friends, people more inclined towards lofty ambitions than she was, no one with particularly amazing talents but all those who fancied themselves to be future movers and shakers.

She got a bit of an odd view into her brother's life. He was certainly one of the smarter students in school, definitely one of the better liked. But he had a brooding nature she had never really witnessed before. Her one attempt to integrate into his social circle ended with very harsh words from him. She never asked him again to condescend to her level.

She graduated just like the hundreds of other students that graduated every year - no particular distinctions behind her, no particular plans ahead.

   After Ilvermorny: She went to New York University. She bounced between gender studies, anthropology, and art theory, before settling on sociology, with a minor in communication - majors generally considered to not lend to particular sorts of work. Because she didn't know what she wanted to do, not really.

She made some very good friends in college. Graphic designers, painters, musicians, activists - once again, people all who had vision, but she secretly doubted each one's ability to achieve. She got an internship at a marketing company after graduation and was able to move into an apartment in Brooklyn with friends from college.

She spent these years jumping between jobs. She taught English to adult learners for a year, briefly took a job as a nanny (that ended quickly), did some social work with a nonprofit, and has, like everyone she knows, worked in social media. Her ties to the magical world were there, certainly, but she had no true interests in magical subjects that kept her devoted to a world of magic. She had lives in both worlds, but with her parents' influences still strong, it seemed easier to stick to what she knew best.

As of this December, she was working as a personal shopper for an elderly Manhattan woman when she got the letter. Her brother, who had moved to England promptly after his own graduation, had been killed. His will dictated she was to handle the estate, and the letter assured here there were some deep complications to the entire case.

Sloane stepped into a logical role, despite her own grief over her brother's passing. Her parents were guilt ridden and insisted on getting involved, but she promised them she would go and figure things out. Once things seemed sorted, she would call them and arrangements were made. So she quit her job (good riddance), was given a nice stipend from her parents, and is now off to London to sort out this mess.
   

Cultural Information

Ethnicity: Arabian and White (primarily Russian)

Nationality: American

Languages: Some Arabic, some Yiddish

Religious views: Knows the ins and outs of Islam and Judaism, as her paternal and maternal families are staunch believers (respectively). Raised by two secular humanists.

Political views: Democrat

Favourite food: Thai cuisine

Favourite quidditch team: Egyptian National Quidditch Team.

Quidditch position: Hahaha, noooo. No coordination.

Favourite entertainments, hobbies, pastimes: The arts, art galleries, travel, foreign films.

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Other People

Biological Mother: Dinah Berkowitz, professor of anthropology

Biological Father: Elias Ahmadi, professor of physics

Siblings: Skyler Ahmadi-Berkowitz, deceased

Important Friends: She has a slew of artsy friends back in New York that she misses and may make guest appearances in London to help her.

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Out of Character

I'm Harry's half-sister, Dumbledore's daughter, Voldemort's niece, Sirius' cousin, Snape's daughter and Lupin's great grandmother...

   

   What should we call you: Jackles

   RP Experience: Zip

   How you found us: I tripped over you.

   Main Character (we'll PM you on this account): Ace Longbottom
   
   

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