Holly Jamma Branaugh

[hollybranaugh]

Holly Branaugh

The Roleplayer

Name/Alias: Robyn
Age: 20
Location: South Africa
How did you hear about this site: too long ago, can’t remember
Any other Comments: been too long and couldn’t keep away

The Character

Name: Holly Jamma Branaugh
Nicknames: Hols, Hol, Bran (or other grain-related names) and her brother calls her Berry
Age: 15
Year: 6th
Blood: Halfblood

Wand: 12” Holly wood wand with unicorn tail hair core.
Pets: Cat named Schrödinger (she thinks she’s funny)
Patronus: an immature ocelot
Boggart: a clown

Personality: Holly is your everyday, easy-go-luck, brash-talking, take no nonsense kind of girl. She is very caring for people she likes and can be attentive, when she isn’t off in some daydream or other. She is easily impressed and things that excite her friends excite her too. She has an infectious personality and is easily affected by others moods. She tries not to be so affected by others but it rarely helps. Small things amuse her and small things can make her very mad too.

When she gets mad at you there is no more care. Your feelings are no longer important to her. Your thoughts on any subject, your input in any field, your state of health and wellness all fall into an abyss and she simply does not care anymore. It is very difficult to mend bridges with Holly once they have been scorched. Luckily with time she forgets, or rather chooses not to hold onto those hateful feelings any longer.

In general, to everyone she knows, Holly is very straight forward. When she is upset she will say so. When she is happy/excited about something it will be all that she can focus on. Always honest, Holly cannot lie. When she tries to lie, her nose crinkles and her eyes water, which gives her away. This doesn’t happen often though because of her “honesty is the best policy” notion. She doesn’t understand why people should lie so she simply doesn’t. She can be rather tactless with her honesty though but her playful nature is often enough of an indicator that she rarely means harm by it. She can be quite judgemental though, enjoying watching people wonder by and critiquing their outfits. She loves clothing and dressing up and finds every excuse to. She enjoys going into town some afternoons and simply trying clothing on, just to pass the time.

There is one secret, though, that Holly keeps very close to her chest. The loss of her father, when she was so young, left what to her feels like a hole inside her chest. She can’t truly explain it. It is a hurt that is always present, always on her mind. Sometimes it makes breathing difficult, when she thinks about home and how difficult it is to get her brother and mother to get along, or when she is arguing with a close friend.

Holly is quite flirtatious and likes very much to go on dates with boys bother her age and older, but more the older boys because they seem very cool. She very much enjoys getting to know new people and old friends too. She does this through spending quality time with people. Quality one-on-one time is how she connects with people and builds her friendships and relationships, although she is not holy or stringent about it as her brother is. Sentimental, Holly has all sorts of keepsakes that she hordes. Likes compartmentalising, keeping love letters and notes passed in classes in one box, small toys and things she finds on walks in another box, birthday cards in another. And she will spend hours poring over them when she wants to cheer herself up or just to make her smile.

Appearance: When you first meet Holly the first thing that catches the eye is her smile. It is wide and always plastered to her face. Her body-shaking laugh pours easily out of it. She has, honestly, a big mouth, which she uses to its full extent as much as she possibly can. She has an oval face with a long nose and large blue-gray eyes. Her face, neck and chest are lightly dusted with the family freckles (though she doesn’t have it as bad as her brightly ginger brother and mother). She doesn’t have the violently orange hair, instead she is strawberry blonde. Her hair is wavy when wet but straightens out when it dries. She likes to curl it and prefers to wear it loose.

Standing approximately five foot six, Holly is slender but curvaceous. She has next to no upper body strength and so has very skinny arms, though with all the walking she likes to do she has strong legs. She doesn’t enjoy exercising so is always surprised as how slender she is. Holly loves clothing so will take every opportunity to dress in a new and (sometimes) strange way. She has fun with clothing, though when she is relaxing there is nothing better for her than her favourite pair of jeans and a T-shirt.

History: Jareth Branaugh and Debra McCoy met while the two were at Hogwarts (as most of these stories start). At first Deb (as Debra was more commonly known) thought that Jareth was egotistical and arrogant. Jareth always liked Debra and did his best to impress her at every turn. They shared many classes together, though they were in different houses, and Deb learnt that Jareth was more of a show off than she had given him credit for after there was an accident involving a bench in their sixth year, which ended with Jareth breaking his arm in several places and scratching his freckled face. It was sorted out no problem but from then on the two were inseparable and they started dating. After Hogwarts, Deb went on to work for the Ministry in the Department of Magical Defence while Jareth followed his passion for music. After a few years the two got married. Their first child, Celyn, was born in February of 2087 and on May 4^th, 2090, Holly Jamma Branaugh followed. The two parents were happy with a boy and girl and decided to move to Scotland where they were both originally from.

Living in Glasgow, they grew up in a loving environment where they were respected and trusted by their parents and in turn respected their parents. When Holly was three years old, however, her father died. She didn’t really understand what this meant and she kept expecting him to come home. But he never did. Celyn became the man of the house at six years old and grew up quickly. He became Holly’s own fierce protector, always standing up for her when she was picked on (even when she didn’t realise she was) and he started becoming aggressive towards everyone but Holly. His more fragile side he only ever showed to Holly, as he believed that she was the only other person in the word who could understand what they had lost. She never did though. She found that there was a great emptiness that sat inside of her – on top of her chest – that she could not explain or love away. Holly’s mother threw herself into her work and so became absent and Celyn began to resent her for it, using it as even more of a reason to look after his little sister. “It’s just you and me, Berry,” Cel would always say. He never approved of the way that their mother was never there and this caused some friction between the two. None the less, Debra and Holly were always quite close. As the years progressed, Celyn and Debra grew further and further apart, butting heads more and more often, and it became increasingly difficult for Holly to find her place between the two, loving them both dearly.

And life carried on. Holly found that her strange and quirky mannerisms attracted people to her, they found her funny and fun to be around. She liked being that person for them and cultivated a strong, witty behaviour. Her many friends – muggle and magical alike – she treated with love and kindness, for that was how she was always treated. That became her philosophy: treat me how you want and I shall treat you the very same. She was frank and, at times, brutally honest and she found that (certain) people respected her for this. Still, she wondered the streets and corridors in a half dream, slaying dragons and escaping from rock slides and attacking hordes. With her mother always working, she was never afforded the chance to see how a lady should act so found herself enjoying the company of boys more than girls, finding girls silly and boys easy to get along with. She went through a tomboy phase that lasted well into her third year at Hogwarts but more on that later.

When her letter from Hogwarts arrived, Holly was ecstatic. She had been dying to go so that she could be closer to her bother, whom she missed while he was at Hogwarts. She had a number of close friends that stuck with her all through her childhood, those extra special people who challenged her and didn’t simply accept her playfulness. These friendships sustaining her when her brother was away at school as the feeling of being alone set in heavily then. Not understanding what this feeling was, Hol grew up ignoring it as best she could and generally being a happy little girl. Some of those close friends ended up going with her to Hogwarts and this made her all the more excited for it: not only would her best friends be with her but her brother would be as well. That was her hope, anyway, the reality was very much different. Celyn had his own friends and spent much of his time with them. Holly did the same and so the two missed each other for a lot of the time. Then, after a few months, Holly suggested that they pick a weekly time and place where they would meet and catch up and talk. Fridays at three every week from that point on for roughly an hour the two would spend with just each other: they would talk about their classes, their strange friends, their even stranger professors. They would often start wondering the grounds, letting their feet just carry them.

Hogwarts was a fine time for Holly. She was learning about magic and finding she wasn’t half bad at it. She continually get distracted though, finding more and more as the years went on that boys were seeming less like good friends and more like possible boyfriends. This scared her a little as she wasn’t entirely sure what it was until her friends sat her down and told her straight what it was. After that point, in her third year, she started enjoying things like skirts and lower neck-lined shirts. She started wearing jewellery and embraced her inner girl. From her fourth year she regularly had dates and while this drove her bother insane, Holly simply had a ball. Rarely did they lead anywhere or for very long but happy-go-lucky Holly was very much relaxed about the whole thing.