Mehra, Zyra

Name: Zyra Mehra
Age: 19
Class: Witch
Blood: Half-blood

Mother:  Vaani Mehra
Father: Ranveer Shergill
Brother(s): Zorawar Mehra
Sister(s): None
Other: None

Playby: Kriti Sanon
Hair: Zyra has thick black hair that curls wildly near the ends and tends to get very frizzy and difficult to manage in humidity.
Eyes: Zyra's eyes are a deep, chocolate brown that look almost black in certain lights.
Height: 5'9"
Build: Zyra has a lanky build, which she has tried to counter with an aggressive fitness regime and even more aggressively gluttonous behavior.
Skin: Olive
Clothes: Zyra is very dramatic and her personal style carries the same flair. She doesn't shy from standing out because of throwing in quirky or over the top pieces in her outfits, and does not believe that one can ever really be over-dressed for any occasion.
Overall Appearance: (At least a paragraph)
Zyra has a love-hate relationship with her hair, which is simultaneously her biggest annoyance because of being so difficult to manage and the most fun styling choice for her owing to her love for hair accessories. As a result, her go to look is a messy bun or top knot, depending on the heat, and always one hair accessory - be it a hairband, clip, or exaggerated hair ties - looped in. She loves make up, but doesn't have the patience or skill to run through the whole routine on a daily basis and sticks to eyeliner and lipstick for her everyday look. She loves to shop and has an extensive wardrobe that she regularly rotates through, as she dislikes being associated with one style of dressing for too long. Her job makes heels impractical so she opts for sneakers and combat boots, finishing her look with one out of her assortment of backpacks.  

Nationality: Indian
Good Qualities:(At least three)
- Empathetic (to the extent that Zyra can never say no to anyone crying before her)
- Dependable
- Imaginative
- Protective

Bad Qualities:(At least three)
- Short-tempered
- Cynical
- Egoistical
- Possessive

Likes:(At least three)
- Huge fan of South Asian and South-East Asian pop culture
- Football
- Quidditch
- Food

Dislikes:(At least three)
- Being put on the spot
- Any interference or assertiveness in her life choices
- Sharing her possessions
- History of Magic

Fears: (At least three)
- Heartbreak
- Failure
- Drowning

General Personality: (Write at least a paragraph)
Zyra tries her best to keep a facade of being a fun and effervescent person to be around, as that prevents any one from getting too emotionally close to her. She is best at deflecting any talk about the deeper emotions in life with often mistimed jokes and nothing makes her more uncomfortable than talking about her feelings. Her biggest struggle on this front is her extremely quick anger and easily manipulated heart. Her negative experiences childhood have made her very defensive and her chosen shield is anger. She is quick to escalate situations and has often been involved in physical altercations. Despite this, at her core she is very protective and caring towards her friends and can never turn away from anyone who comes to her in need, whether this may be real or feigned.  Her mother's life has taught her that love can never be depended on, but her diet of South Asian and South East Asian films and movies have also fed her that love is an all-healing, all-powerful force that trumps everything. The result is that she is constantly derisive of these fantasies, but also very much believes in them and would like to be true. Her greatest fear is that the only sort of love she knows, i.e., the one in her fictional realities will never translate to real life and real life love will never match up to her expectations, ending in her heart breaking. Her solution to this is to very determinedly stamp out all potential romance from her life, now if only her mother co-operates.

Early Years: (At least a paragraph)
Vaani Mehra was the daughter of an elite pureblood Indian family based in Delhi. She fell in love with the muggle Ranvir Shergill and married him despite disapproval from her family who believed that the muggle boy could never truly accept her for magical heritage. Vaani circumvented this minor problem by never telling her husband about her magical powers and hoping that a settled family would be enough for them to work out the eventual fallout when her children start showing signs of magical aptitude. After Zyra's birth, it seemed that Vaani's wish had been granted because to her amazement, the young girl did not show any signs of magical ability in her infancy. In fact, Vaani believed her to be a squib, a fact that secretly pleased her as it meant she could continue to live her chosen life as is. Her happiness was short lived however, and it turned out that Zyra was a witch after all, just a fairly late bloomer.

Unable to reconcile this paradigm shift in their reality coupled with India's superstitious outlook on witches and wizards, the Shergills forced out a pregnant Vaani and five year old Zyra of their house. The incident, because of its peculiar and murky details, and the involvement of two of their circles most known families resulted in a social scandal in the small, elite community of Delhi. The Mehras were unwilling to bear this social humiliation and in need of cooling down the rumors of witchcraft surrounding Vaani and Zyra chose to pack the two off to live with distant relatives in London. Vaani, who was hit with the double whammy of her broken marriage and social ostracism from the only life she knew, became extremely embittered and calculating. She hyper-managed Zyra's social circle and was determined to claw her way back into the glitzy, glamorous lifestyle she had known all her life. However, she failed to realize the stress this placed on her young daughter and the lasting damage being wrought to her personality.

Zyra was young when she shifted to London, but not young enough to not remember anything of her old life or fit in immediately with her new surroundings. Easy to rile, her first day in her new school was horrible for her and her constant bullying through the course of the day ended with a failed attempt to break her classmate's arm and a visit to the principal's office. Her mother's cold dismissal of her problems and bitterness that placed unreasonable expectations on Zyra impacted her deeply and she frequently was involved with problems in her school, both caused by her and ones she reacted strongly to, over the course of the next few years till her enrollment at Hogwarts.

Hogwarts Years: (At least a paragraph)
By the time Zyra turned eleven and it was time for her to begin her magical education, she has turned extremely resentful of her mother. So even though she was very happy to finally be out of her 'mother evillest's' control, she was unwilling to leave six year old Zorawar vulnerable to the 'batty old woman's' influence. Not that she had much of a choice in this though, and reluctant or enthusiastic, she had to begin her schooling with most other wizarding kids her age. Before she left, Vaani of course studiously drilled into her daughter's head that she must make connections with the 'right' crowd (i.e., kids from the most rich, prestigious and well-connected wizarding families) and predictably, Zyra was determined to do the exact opposite.

However, nothing could really prepare her for Hogwarts in all its force and Zyra was forced to confront an entirely new understanding of social acceptance. Within the castle walls that she was quick to fall in love, Zyra could truly fit in with her peers and call this her home. She also realized that no one questions an easy-going, fun and generally happy person too hard and so she played up her humor, suppressing any real emotional connection because of her innate distrust of others. It helped that her role as the beater in the house quidditch team provided a familiar outlet for her anger and any frustration, allowing her to really build a facade for herself.

Other than flying, Zyra was not motivated in any other subject in her first year, and ending up scoring quite terribly on the academic front. Such a result was unacceptable to Vaani, who double downed on the pressure on Zyra to begin performing better in her studies, and she wasn't above using Zyra's known weakness for her brother to get the girl to comply. Luckily, the second term of the second year opened up the beater position on the quidditch team and finally Zyra could begin to balance her negative emotions with the need to better her grades. Overall, Zyra graduated with some academic distinction, though her grades in History of Magic still give nightmares to her mother, and only Zyra is aware how exactly she managed to pass Potions.  

After Hogwarts / Adult: (If Applicable)
Zyra's ambitious goal after Hogwarts was to begin playing for professional Quidditch teams as a beater. Unfortunately, she soon realized that her skills on that front were not polished enough to translate into any real success in the sector and she quickly abandoned her plan. For a few months, she took a break at home to try and figure out her next step and possible career option. Vaani meanwhile, had decided that Wizengamot was to be Zyra's goal and  began pressuring the girl to begin a career in magical law. To her surprise, Zyra gave in quite easily, only for Vaani to realize that Zyra had actually applied for a position on the law enforcement front, as a trainee auror. Zyra's decision did not go down well with her mother, who gave her the ultimatum of being kicked out of the house or choosing a career in magical law. Fed up by her mother's continuous controlling nature and hurt by the dismissal of her own dreams, Zyra chose to move out of the home, spurred by the comfort that Zorawar had begun his schooling at Hogwarts and was well into his fourth year.

Her mother however, is made of no less sterner stuff than Zyra, and last she heard, her mother had begun full fledged planning to set her up on a series of marriage appointments to reclaim her way back to 'high society'. It doesn't help that her father never ended up re-marrying and return to respectability on either the magical or the muggle sense would only better her claim as the potential heir for either side of her Indian family.

Alias: Guncha
RP Experience: on and off, a decade.
Other Characters: None on this site.
How did you find us?: Forumotion listings.
RP Sample:  
Zyra Mehra was not a morning person. She hated mornings and her reluctance to get up on time in the mornings was no small reason behind her refusal to go to University. In that respect, her career change was definitely for the better – regardless of the lack of her free will in that choice. Yeah, well, Lucky Strike pays me well, has some amazing times where I work nights and sleep through the morning and never miss breakfast, the brunette had a little spring in her step as she mentally listed down the good things that came with her job, oh, and small mention to the owners who might just kill me if I screw this up. The last thought caused her to halt in her walk and take notice of where she was. Evening walks in Diagon Alley had their own charms but the purpose of her excursion was something very different.

Till this day, Zyra had no idea how exactly she managed to land the job. She had applied to the Lucky Strike after chancing upon the gambling den as she shifted into her new room in the markedly cheaper Knockturn Alley. She had just walked in and fudged a little through her application process, completely sure that she would not even get the job so what did it even matter. But apparently, Lucky Strike was also as just as desperate as her because in half a week’s time she received an owl from them telling her to start from the coming weekend. That, or she had fudged a little too well in her application. Whoops.

Now she had been working with the Lucky Strike for close to three months and was better acquainted with the nature of her job and the nature of her employers. Needless to say, if Zyra could not deliver on the impression she presented things would not end well. She was not a complete novice at mixing drinks and to her own surprise, she had been able to hold her own for these past months and had faced no problems. Okay, some minor problems had arisen. It had taken her one three whole weeks but she had finally decoded the entire menu of drinks offered and some two more to acquire some expertise in them and she no longer had any trouble whipping up anything on offer. The problem came with the customizations. Patrons of the bar did not just come to drink the night away. They came for the entire experience the Lucky Strike offered, for the adrenaline rush that gambling provided. And they had a very specific idea of what kind of drinks constituted their experience. The trouble was that she was not skilled enough to concoct entirely new drinks off the top of her head. While she did try some experimentation on her own time, she soon realized that the cost of liquor was draining her saving faster than any material benefit could be derived. She needed to acquire some help before she began to try things on her own. She could have invested in some books but her pinched financial situation meant that she did not want to take a chance on wasting money on a guide that turns out to be useless. Seeing that it was bleedin’ hard for her to swallow her ego and ask around for help, she had chosen the next best thing – scouting.

This was the reason that she was now seated at the bar of the Leakey Cauldron, to observe the bartender of the establishment. It helps that this place brings back so many comforting memories of coming all excited to Diagon Alley in the holidays, she recalled with a soft smile as she set shop. A notebook, three quills and multiple colored inks and a dubious corner for her to lurk in, yes, Zyra was all set to begin her ‘training’.