Simone Bardsley

Simone Bardsley is a second year Gryffindor, a Beater on the House team, and a complete flibbertigibbet.

Early History
Simone Bardsley was born the only child to a Muggle father and a witch mother. Her father was a Muggle postman and her parents had met when a package for her mother went astray and her father went to the extra effort to track it down.

Her mother was always something of a free-spirit and had come to Edinburgh on a whim not long after she had graduated from Hogwarts. The relationship had always been a little one-sided, with her father doting wholly upon her beautiful mother, while her mother enjoyed the attention and thought her father was ‘sweet’.

It wasn’t long until the tryst led to pregnancy and Simone’s father convinced her mother to marry him and settle down in Old Town, in a small flat above a fish and chip shop. Her mother agreed, almost thinking of marriage and motherhood as something new to experience, and while it remained a novelty, she was a great wife and mother.

Over the years, however, the demands of a small child and feeling shackled to home and husband began to way down on the woman, and she developed a serious case of wanderlust. A few times when Simone was young, she’d up and disappeared, leaving the child with a neighbour or at daycare and just taking off for points unknown. She’d always come back though, and Simone’s father, not wanting to ever turn the child against her mother, always made up something to tell the girl.

It wasn’t until Simone was 9 that her mother finally left for good. Her mother had been there in the morning to see her off to school as she did every morning, but when Simone came home, her mother was gone. She was on a trip, Simone’s father insisted at first, but as days turned to weeks and then months, even a young child started to realize she wasn’t coming back. In some ways, Simone accepted this fact much more quickly than her father did.

Her father turned his attention to Simone then, feeling as though he had to make up for her mother’s disappearance. He doted upon her and bought her anything that was within his ability to buy — which wasn’t a great deal since they didn’t have a whole lot of money. Still, Simone never really wanted for much — she wasn’t the sort of child who longed for expensive toys and fancy clothes; she was just as happy with something from the local Marks and Sparks.

The pair settled into a routine then, and while Simone never forgot her mother, it started to seem like life had always been this way. She had to see herself off to school, but her father was always there when she got home, and he always tried to have something special for them to do on weekends, whether it was painting her bedroom or taking a trip to the park.

Years at Hogwarts
When Simone turned 11, she received her Hogwarts owl. It wasn’t exactly a surprise, since her mother had always entertained her with stories about the wizarding world, but since Simone was half-Muggle, some part of her had worried she might not be invited to go. Suffice to say she was absolutely thrilled when she received her invitation, and she drove her father batty with her excitement until he finally agreed to take her to Diagon Alley for her school supplies, even though term was a ways off yet.

She spent the rest of the summer in frenzied anticipation. Her father, who usually hated to spend money ‘going on vacation’ when they could have fun at home, even took her on a trip into the Highlands in an attempt to take her mind off of things and let her blow off some steam, but it had only mixed success.

Finally, it was time to start term, and only then did the reality of it truly sink in: she’d have to say goodbye to her father. She worried about how he’d be on his own, for he was the sort who always seemed to do better when he had someone in his life to look after. But these fears were somewhat mitigated by her awe and excitement as she boarded the Hogwarts Express and set out for her first term at the school.

First Year
Simone's first year was not nearly as eventful as she would have liked, although she did have the chance to make some friends. Not really a scholar, she did well enough in her lessons, neither at the top nor bottom of the class. She just feels like she didn't make enough of a mark on Hogwarts, and so is determined to remedy that.

Second Year
Simone is getting ready to enter her second year. Much insanity is no doubt in store.

Personality
Simone is generally friendly and outgoing but also pretty silly and easily distracted — she doesn’t tend to take things very seriously, even other people’s feelings. On those occasions when something does manage to get to her though, she has a mood swing and will become extremely sad, angry or upset. Not very good at being quiet, she will generally try to avoid places where this is a requirement, like the library, although it is sometimes a necessary evil, in which case she usually ends up in trouble for being too loud.