Essa Josephine Nazari (b. August 2, 2010) is a Muggle-born witch born in Kilsyth, Scotland, United Kingdom. She is the sixth child to be born to parents Mustafa Nazari and Ghazal Nazari (nee Kartal). She was Sorted into Ravenclaw and will be going into her seventh year.
(Please Note; This is an on-going job and is significant to the character's personal plot-line. It is comprehensive and will take time. This is NEVER to be used ICLY unless it is learned ICLY but is allowed to be OOC knowledge. This is still being fleshed out as well.))
Family and childhood (including first signs of magic)[]
Ghazal Kartal and Mustafa Nazari met and fell in love just prior to 2003. In 2008, they fled Iraq to the UK with their four older children: Kris, Aisha, Jasmine, and Roxanne. Using his family connections Mustafa arranged to leave the country first by boat where they initially arrived in Greece before finishing the journey to Scotland by plane. When they arrived in Scotland, Mustafa and Ghazal discovered that they would have their fifth child, a son named Abbas. He was born on a stormy day in July 2009. Thirteen months to the day later, Essa was born.She was always small for her age and extremely clumsy as she grew. A serious child often called an old soul by her parents, highlighted her studious nature coupled with her love for nature and animals alike. Her soft-spoken ways and mannerisms would lead people to believe that she is a pushover, but underneath the gentle exterior lies the heart of a lion.
There was nothing unusual about Essa as a child. Sure, she was quieter than her older siblings and she was often content to curl up with a book instead of roughhousing or playing any of the sports that her siblings were involved in, including rugby and football (soccer for the American readers). Whenever her older siblings convinced her to join in, Essa did fair in sports, mostly out of sheer determination to keep up with them. Often, she would trip over her own two feet or the ball and fall.
The only place that she seemed to excel in physically was in the water. Essa learned to swim at an early age and often went to the public pool immediately after school for her swimming club meeting or to relax after school before coming home to the chaos of her family. She would savor the times in the water especially when it was just her and the water and the clock. She seemed to take the clock as a personal challenge to push herself further and faster every day. This passion led her to become involved in the local gym, training and developing her muscles and control as a whole.
Despite Essa’s enjoyment of books she often struggled in school. She would ask too many questions and often find ways to distract herself from her assignments and assessments, leading many of her teachers to become creative in how they determined how she performed for the year. Often, they would have to send her to an empty room to take any tests because of her habit of humming as she thought or the need to move to be able to process her thoughts. It took time, however, they found methods to allow her to move forward and slowly work her through different methods of handling her (at times) disruptive behavior.
First signs of magic[]
Magically speaking, Essa was a bit of a late bloomer with her first signs of magic. Her parents had observed the flashes of insight but hadn’t really put anything together until they observed a stuffed animal floating one night while their children were sleeping. They assumed that it was caused by a ghost but didn’t bother to tell their children about their ‘ghostly’ friend within their house. By the time Essa turned eight, her magic was starting to openly express itself. Out of a fit of anger and frustration with an older sister’s boyfriend, she caused an ink pen to explode. Unfortunately, this very act also caused her to withdraw more into herself and to focus more on swimming and her schooling.
A letter and a new beginning[]
When Essa turned eleven, a man dressed in a tweed suit arrived at her house carrying a letter inviting her to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The man introduced himself as Deputy Headmaster of Hogwarts and sat the entire family down to explain a couple of things to the Nazari family. First and possibly most important, she was a witch. This school would provide her the instruction to help her learn how to control and use her abilities. He also promised that the school is perfectly safe. Professor Oreyn Fox provided them with a list of supplies and instructions as to where to procure them. And with a wink and a bubble blown from his wooden pipe, Professor Fox excused himself from the Nazari household, leaving chaos in his wake. Essa’s father erupted in anger! Stuck in the old ways of Iraq and of the Kurdish people, magic was innately evil. And that provided the framework for their relationship for the rest of her life.
Hogwarts[]
Preparing for school/Diagon Alley[]
As her older siblings prepared for the new school year, Essa faced ridicule from her older siblings because she was going to be attending an “imaginary school” since everyone knew that witchcraft and wizardry didn’t exist. She watched with longing as her other siblings got their school supplies, notebooks, fresh pens and pencils, and paper, all of the things that she loved. She got a few things, but nowhere near as many as her older siblings. Her education at Hogwarts would include a whole new list of supplies. Most of which no one had ever heard of. Finally, a week before school began, she and her mother boarded a train to London to enter the mysterious wizarding world.
Their first day in London consisted of finding the Leaky Cauldron and finding a room for the week fairly close by. Essa was beside herself with excitement and nerves, finally a place where she wasn’t the commotion because of freak accidents. She barely slept that night. Instead, she stared out the window attempting to pick out the witches and wizards from those people who did not have magic--with little avail. The next morning though, when Essa and her mom went down for breakfast, Essa heard the most wonderful words, another girl naming off things that she had to get for school as well. Including a cauldron, a wand, and several books with the oddest names. The two women exchanged a look before moving closer to the small family if only to get a better idea of how to get into Diagon Alley. This was where the friendship between Emily Neutron and Essa began.
Arrival at Hogwarts[]
The two girls arrived at Hogwarts wide-eyed and quietly taking in everything in. Most of their fellow first years were similarly quiet on the boat ride across. There had been rumors of how they would be divided into separate houses including wrestling a troll or having to take a test, which gave Essa anxiety since she had no real understanding of how she made the magic happen, it just did. It was to her great relief that it was neither of those options. But, she was puzzled as to how a hat would decide as to what house she would put into.
The Sorting Hat[]
"Fledgling wings eager to test their limits and a thirst of knowledge but you have a heart of a fighter, with the loyalty to others to a fault and such a hard worker. Such a mix. Three different houses to choose from, such a hard decision. And yet, there seems to be something more hidden in you..." The hat seemed to ponder over the decision for several minutes, causing Essa to question if she was even supposed to be there. The hat softly murmured in her ear a chuckle. "Ah Yes. You belong here, and your thirst of knowledge and wisdom will serve you well in the RAVENCLAW HOUSE!"
Education at Hogwarts[]
Years 1-3[]
Essa spent much of the first half of her first year hidden away in the library or the Ravenclaw tower. She was allowed to attend Hogwarts under the condition that she would also work on her “normal” school work. She would spend much of her free time trying to handle the muggle school work so spent very little time making friends or practicing on her magic. The winter holidays led to another earth-shattering revelation for Essa. Her mum had a magical sister. Magic was in her family!
The second half of her first year was filled with mystery and danger that began with her classmates and friends that she had made hearing whispers and voices of their friends and family who were not at the school. Essa somehow found herself pulled into the mystery, taking careful notes of what was going on around her and reporting them to older students. Meanwhile, as she continued to grow, her sleeping habits became erratic and her dreams were filled with nightmares of what might come. She was always on edge, feeling a never-ending press of danger. An older student took her under their wing and together, they were able to puzzle out what was happening. A secondary type of magic was beginning to awaken and emerge within--gifting that many wixen believe to be a hoax--that of the Sight. The end of her first year was climaxed with a battle between a dark wizard, Professor Digby, and Professor Fox. The two professors enlisted several older students to help with the duel as well. It came to a close with the Dark Wizard’s removing his arm and magicking into the night and with the introduction of a future enemy, Judy Dorchester.
The summer between First and Second Year was spent in the Wizarding community at Brighton Bay. The sun and beach filled days were filled with time spent with friends and the gossip about the dragon’s skull that was found on the beach. The gossip only gained speed when the Bay flooded and the Bloody Bride arrived warning of a creature that would try to kill them. Towards the end of the summer, there was a landslide, revealing a long-forgotten mine under one of the cliffs of Brighton Bay. Spurred on by curiosity, Essa and other students began to explore the mines, unaware that they were trespassing on dragon territory until it was too late. Several students managed to steal dragon eggs for their own reasons and ultimately the dragon escaped the mines and had to be put to death because of the danger that it posed to both the wizarding and the mundane worlds.
Essa’s second year was full of growth. As part of punishment and repentance for her part of the dragon fiasco, Essa was tasked by the then headmistress, Hannah Fischer, to find and tend to the dragon eggs. She was also marked as a target by mysterious groups called T.B.H.S and S.E.R.P.E.N to be tortured in different ways including poisoning. Towards the mid of the first term, Essa had her first vision--one that to this day she will only refer to it as the Zombie Fischer vision. It raised her concern for the headmistress’ health, who had been cursed the prior year by a dark witch as she was being expelled by the school. The winter holidays were uneventful and despite everything else she enjoyed herself.
The second half of the year was when things began to become dangerous again. Headmistress Fischer’s health began to fail and she, along with Professor Fox both vanished. Then, in late February, Judy Dorechester and her deputies arrived in the school during the hearty party. Their arrival triggered a series of sweeping changes throughout the castle beginning with required uniforms at all times outside of the dorms. These changes soon swept through other aspects of the castle life including the kitchens where the house elves were required to serve increasingly bland food until the foot itself became the consistency of gruel. Students banded together across house lines and created a club that was simply known as the Thornberries. This group of students would get together in a secret room a couple of times every week to cook and prepare meals that they would secret into the commons for their peers to enjoy. The Thornberries soon branched out not only amongst the students but also into the ranks of the professors who wanted to help their students however they could.
The Dark Tower[]
Around the time of the creation of the Thornberry’s students who would speak up against Dorchester and her cronies would vanish for days at a time only to appear later. Much leaner and compliant with what the demands were. Around late May into early June, Essa was amongst those who vanished. She was placed in the Dark Tower as punishment for potentially being involved with the Thornberries. She was held for 10 days with limited food and water and no access to hygiene. Her last afternoon in the Dark Tower a shadow came to her and offered her a chance of her lifetime. Her freedom for the betrayal of her friends. She rejected the offer and was ultimately released. The school year came to a close with a battle for the very heart and soul of the school. Ending with an invasion of inferi and the Shade perishing (at least, that is what has been whispered over time).
During Essa's third year summer, she made several short (no more than two days at a shot) visits to her family. Never once, did she fully relax though. Essa's third year was a remarkably peaceful one. Outside of a small run-in with the Pygmy virus, nothing major happened. The peace was good for her mind and soul. However, this season of rest was just that, only a season
Years 4-6[]
After a peaceful third year, Essa’s fourth year started off with a blast. Edna, a hybrid magical plant, began to grow because someone angered her. She took over the long gallery and was only soothed with music. It seemed almost as soon as the school managed to soothe the plant, a new danger emerged. It came in the form of a vampire attacking the students. It seemed that before any attack, the Sight would flare just before--but with never enough time to warn anyone that an attack was going to happen--just that it had happened.
Desperate to learn more about her abilities and to see how far she could push them, she petitioned her professors to allow her to participate in the Årsgång, also known as a Year Walk, which would serve as a prediction as to what would come for the coming year. Professor Dracheblume served as an escort as Essa walked the grounds of the school until the Sight came for her. She saw a series of images that would haunt her for the rest of the school year. A portrait of a girl with blonde hair sliced apart with claws, the full moon, a ginger cat in the forbidden forest, and a woman in a fur-lined hooded robe.
This was just the beginning of the end of the year. Students were attacked and Essa, with the help of others, were able to piece together a horrible story about a former prefect, Eleanor Lovelace, who had been attacked by a werewolf (and thus turned into a werewolf) and allowed that bitterness to take root within her. She began to attack students, not transforming them but attacking them. Always leaving them without a memory of the attack but leaving them bloodied and spending time in the hospital wing. Lovelace’s reign of terror ended when she kidnapped those that she had attacked and transformed them into wolves. These “wolves” were used to attack the school, peer against peer. But the battle ended with a duel between Lovelace and Professor Fox.
Essa’s fifth year was one of healing and restoration for the girl. The summer was spent with her family, hanging out in a renovated attic space that was hers. This opened the door for a restoration in the relationship between her and her father. A bond renewed--it wasn’t completely healed but it was a starting spot. The school year as a whole with the fifth year was peaceful. At least, that is, the day of the first annual brew off. Chaos filled the air and then the future came for her.
Shadows will fall upon the darkened castle of Hogwarts. Panic, chaos, will ensue. And the banners will fall to the ground. Once all hope is lost, light suddenly engulfs all.
This prophecy later came true on the last day of the school year. The banners changed and then the attack came. A dragon attacked the school, destroying several towers and setting other parts on fire. Then, members of Umbra, a secret shadow organization, demanded to be given an item that was hidden in the castle. When Headmaster Fox refused, the members of Umbra prepared to cast a spell that would curse the castle and all that were within it. Headmaster Fox gave his life with a powerful, unknown, enchantment that created a shield to keep Umbra out of the castle.
The summer going into the sixth year allowed Essa to return to Brighton Bay and there she was able to attend her first Quidditch World Cup. Up until then, she had an indifferent opinion over the sport as a whole. Now, she has at least a mild appreciation of the sport, however, she still isn't aa rabid fan as some of her other friends but she can appreciate the sport for what it is. The summer also led to a pleasant surprise, prefectship of her beloved house.
This year was one of the most trying years thus far. An unknown entity in the form of a pipe organ within the castle began to steal voices --and people-- of those within the castle and who touched it. If a person touched it their voice would be stolen and a new set of pipes would appear somewhere within the school. Essa, in a moment of rash judgment, had touched the pipe organ and spent the next several weeks in silence, though she also spent the time practicing a new skill within the magical world, nonverbal magic. It was a school wide effort to help restore the castle and destroy the pipe organ.
Later that year, another issue came up. This time, a long-forgotten death eater had taken over the forest. He had convinced the centaurs and the Acromantulas within the forest to do his bidding. A school wide assembly was called one afternoon in the Long Gallery and a battle raged in the Forbidden Forest. Lives were lost and Hogsmeade itself was destroyed in a fire. Essa, Emily, Jo, Bonnie, and Andrea all went to the town after they were released from the ‘assembly’ and rolled up their sleeves helping fight the fire to try to save as much of the town as possible.
The end of the year was filled with yet another mystery. The object that Umbra hunted was still being sought for within the castle by a Ministry Official. He enlisted his son and one of his friends to try to find a mysterious Lentrillion's Orb. The mystery official approached Essa and claimed that the Deputy Headmistress Blighty recommended her to “help” with the research. That was around the time that the castle began to reproduce pages from the ministry official’s diary. The Orb, it seemed, needed to be removed from the Castle. And the Castle insisted upon it. It was soon discovered that anyone who was of age could not see the Orb and they were mentally affected by being in the presence of the Orb. And Essa was called upon by the Headmistress to help. Seeing as her seventeenth birthday wasn’t until August, she was able to retain her memories and help remind the professors that had assembled of what their mission was--to Destroy the Orb. Throughout the chaos, it came out that the ministry official was working for an unknown patron. However, the orb itself was destroyed. So, for now, all crises have been averted.
Physical Appearance[]
Slender and with long arms and legs, Essa is fairly tall for her age. She takes after her family Kurdish heritage with her long black hair that is either tied back in a braid or covered with a lightweight covering (normally cotton or silk). She has amber-brown eyes but they are hidden behind her glasses. Her skin is an olive-brown color that only seems to get darker in the summer months when her tan fades, freckles remain as evidence of her time in the sun. She shies away from using makeup outside of the occasional usage of lip gloss for special occasions.
Magical Abilities and Skills[]
Essa is a seer, but it is unpredictable. When a vision does happen, she will describe it later as the Sight coming for her without warning and took her to whatever it feels needs to be seen.
Her academic subjects of charms and transfigurations are some of her strongest subjects along with muggle studies and history. She is also skilled within any of the arcane arts though, most of the time, she isn’t completely sure what she is doing, but is operating more out of instinct than knowledge.
Rumors about Essa[]
Second year Hufflepuff: "I hear that bag of hers is charmed to help her carry it. Have you picked it up? There's like a small kitchen in it!"
First year female Ravenclaw: "Have you heard her sing? I heard it's bad enough to bring a muggle army to it's knees."
A fifth year Gryfindor: "Don't get between her and food, did you see what she did to Zero's hand with a fork...over a cube of cheese!?"
A first year Slytherin: "Is it true that a muggle born second year has faced a dragon and survived?"
A NPC second year Ravenclaw: "She wakes up in a cold sweat almost every night! Last night, she woke up with a scream and I swear she woke up the entire room!"
A NPC second year Ravenclaw: "She takes something right before going to bed and then she's out for most of the night. I think she's addicted to sleeping potions."
An older Ravenclaw, "She couldn't have gone far, maybe got buried under a pile of books in the library or something....."
Behind the Scenes[]
Essa Nazari is a character portrayed by Sayshy Luik in the virtual world Second Life® @ Mischief Managed, a devotional sim created by Anya Ohmai and voluntarily maintained by various creative Administrators and players. You can find out more information here: http://mischiefmanagedsl.net
The name Essa means star and her surname of Nazari is of a village in Iran.
Essa's theme: Loyal, Brave, and True