The Journal of Patricia Stimpson

IV

2008-02-08T17:43:34Z

I have a date for the Valentine's Hogsmeade weekend.

III

2008-01-06T11:24:40Z

Epiphany. Which means it's finally the last day of Christmas. Surely I'm not the only person who finds the whole affair frightfully stressful? Fighting my mother out of the kitchen so she doesn't try and make the turkey into a tagine, trying to persuade Nigel to eat his sprouts, having to watch where I tread because Dad has decided to use the shiny baubles from the tree to 'make a study of light' so they're strewn all over the floor, keeping Emma from screaming a billion times a day... and then there's my grandparents. Both sides, in the house at the same time on Boxing Day. Whose bright idea was that? I know our house looks like a bomb has hit it, but do we actually have to turn it into a warzone?

New Year was better. Grandma took Emma and I to a rather posh party and ~~I helped~~ Emma managed to sneak some champagne. Emma and champagne is an amusing combination. I think she can't remember half of what she told me that night, which is probably just as well.

Once I've taken the decorations down I have the rest of the day free to do something a bit more relaxing, like NEWT revision.

II

2007-12-21T00:17:28Z

I have spent the morning dispensing advice on make-up, clothes, and general grooming to boys that have turned into girls. Some of them even asked.

I

2007-12-07T00:36:57Z

Oh my gosh. My mother just owled me this journal. I got it before term started but ~~Emma~~ somebody moved it and I didn't have time to look for it before I left ~~because Emma managed to get herself into trouble with one of the neighbours and I had to sort all of that out~~. Apparently it turned up at the bottom of the washing basket. First: eww. Second: why? Third: did it really take them until December to do the washing? That has to be a new low, even for my parents. I've hit it with all the cleaning spells I can think of that wouldn't actually damage it, but I still feel like I'm going to need to wash my hands when I've finished writing in it. That will wear off in time, I hope.

Who on earth was behind this mistletoe, by the way? It was quite funny, mostly. Luckily I was only caught beneath it the once and Nigel Ketterley helped me out so I was able to avoid the attentions of the less savoury boys of the school. Oakby is disgusting. I really don't understand how he can fail so dismally to change his ways when everybody tells him how off-putting it is to leer like that. Does he think we're lying and we like it really? Odd boy.

Has everyone done their Christmas shopping yet? I did most of mine before school, but I do have a few last-minute things to buy that I couldn't find. Now I just need to find a time to wrap presents without the other girls in my dorm coming in. Maybe I should post a look-out or something.

((ooc: Background info))

2007-12-06T00:51:00Z

Name: Patricia 'Patty' Stimpson
Gender: female
Date of birth*: 12th September 1977
Year: 7th
House: Slytherin
Blood status: pure. Obviously.
Physical characteristics: Patricia is slim and of medium height. She has longish brown hair that is meticulously groomed and styled at all times. Her eyes are green and her skin slightly pale. Her make-up is always impeccable if sometimes unsubtle and when not in uniform (which would always be on correctly) she wears well-cut fashionable clothes, designer if possible.
PB/Avatar: Nikki Sanderson

Background information:
Patricia is the eldest of three teenage children born to a pair of laidback hippies. Her father works in an art gallery and her mother spends most of her time fundraising for noble charitable causes. Both are purebloods, and whilst her paternal grandparents are similarly bohemian, her maternal grandparents are more your traditional pureblood family who are not at all pleased with the way their daughter turned out. Patricia has consciously become almost the opposite of her parents - where they are messy, she is clean and neat (verging on the obsessive-complusive); where they are laidback, she is uptight; where they are artistic, she is materialistic; where they have their heads in the clouds, she has hers firmly on her shoulders. To her credit, a great deal of this comes from feeling responsible for her younger siblings. She took to heart her maternal grandparents' criticisms of how the children were being raised and set about putting things right - cleaning, making sure the food on the table has the right nutrients, that torn clothes are mended, and they all have practical shoes (not Lithuanian traditional peasant shoes made out of grass reeds). She shares something of her father's artistic appreciation in her attention to detail and love of pretty clothes and accessories, and something of her mother's drive but applied to goals closer to home than Madagascan street children.
Patricia is a perfectionist, and not only that, but she wants perfection in everything. It is not enough to be wearing the latest fashions if her schoolwork is not up to scratch, and it is not enough to get good grades if she doesn't even have a boyfriend. She is really doomed to disappointment and will stress herself out over the tiniest of things, let alone something huge like NEWTs (hence the fainting during OWLs). She is taking five NEWTs (Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes) - a fact which she is very bitter about and bears a grudge against Madam Pomfrey for personally advising the headmaster not to allow her to take six for health reasons (her sixth would have been Astronomy). She'll most likely over-compensate by aiming for straight Os and going insane if she gets a single E.
Hobbies - Charms club, singing (she actually has quite a sweet voice), fussing over people (particularly her younger brother Nigel and sister Emma), shopping, grooming.
Her worst habit is of randomly criticising people. She doesn't mean any harm by it - she'd want people to point out if she was doing things wrong so she assumes they must want to know as well. She has very strict standards and has trouble understanding that other people don't share them. For all that, she can be quite sweet and she does try to be friendly to everybody. She doesn't hold it against people if they don't measure up, as nobody ever does. Similarly, although she does believe that pureblood is better, she wouldn't hold that against people either. She may well rub people up the wrong way by being on friendly terms with people like Monique Travers, though. Hopefully she'll pick up some better friends than that!

Ideas for the character's involvement/contribution to the game:
Patricia is neither a lover nor a fighter. She likely agrees with some of Umbridge's decrees and is not at all opposed to the Ministry interfering in Hogwarts (as Dumbledore is a little eccentric in her view), but she is not keen on some of Umbridge's methods (or her clothes, come to that). Although she is often quite outspoken, she would never take any kind of action of rebellion and wouldn't hesitate to keep her mouth shut if in doing so she could put herself at some advantage. Her main role in the game as I see it is to inadvertently wind people up :-)