Miriam Strout

OOC

Game	Journal	Portrayed By
(Never Mind the) Bollocks	indecisively	Jessica Fox

Basic Stats

Full Name: Miriam Irene Strout
Nickname(s): Mir
Gender: Female
Age: 15
Date of Birth: November 6, 1959
Zodiac: Scorpio
Sexuality: Straight
Relationship Status: Single
Bloodline: Halfblood
Hometown: Coast of Northeastern England; London, England
House & Year: Ravenclaw 5th
Extracurriculars: None
Pet: None

Family

Father: William Jacob Strout (wizard; Ravenclaw 1955; historian)
Mother: Abigail Beatrice Miller (witch; Ravenclaw 1956; assistant to the Head of the Department of Magical Transportation)
Sister: Rebecca Laura Strout (witch; Hufflepuff 1975; intern at the Daily Prophet)

History

William Strout and Abigail Miller went to school together, Abigail a year behind William in the same house (Ravenclaw). They did not particularly get along; in fact, they tended to fight more than anything else. Surprising themselves and all of their friends, they fell suddenly in love in William's seventh year. They still fought, but their fights were usually ended when one decided to end it by kissing the other. Their year apart tempered their love some, but they wound up together again after Abigail finished school, ultimately eloping that September. A scant nine months later, daughter Rebecca was born in 1957, followed just over two years later by a second daughter, Miriam, in 1959.

Wiliam and Abigail were still fighting the whole time, and after Miriam was born, they were fighting nearly constantly (in fact, their fights were only briefly broken up by make-up sessions, or when William was at work — Abigail stayed home to take care of the girls). By the time Miriam was two, they'd had enough and they divorced in early 1962. The custody battle over the girls was dirty and drawn-out, full of more arguments between the parents. At first, William was given sole custody because Abigail was unemployed and he was a paid researcher; after she secured a low-level Ministry job, she petitioned for custody. After two years of fighting over custody of the girls, it was finally split evenly between William and Abigail, with conditions drawn into it to cover the years that the girls would be students at Hogwarts, so that their barristers did not need to go through the whole mess again in just a few years' time (dealing with those two would be enough to send even the most calm and collected barrister into an early retirement).

Miriam was five when the custody battle between her parents was finally settled, but she felt anything but settled afterwards. She was bounced from house to house on a monthly basis, but at least she was able to attend the same primary school (a small primary school for young witches and wizards) regardless of where she was living for the month, thanks to her parents being able to apparate or use the floo to get the girls to school. The only real benefit that Miriam saw to the two houses was that she pretty much got two of everything, so there was little that she had to bring between the houses.

William was always engaged in his research and studies whenever the girls were with him, and Abigail climbed the ministry ranks until she was made assistant to the Head of the Department of Magical Transportation, so she was steadily having less time to devote to the girls when they were with her. While Rebecca seemed to do just fine with the little bits of attention that she got from their parents, Miriam found herself doing whatever she could to get her parents to pay attention to her. Rebecca was often the only one who noticed her, though. When Rebecca went off to Hogwarts in 1968, Miriam felt even more alone, and her acting out increased, but she still wasn't getting the attention that she wanted from her parents.

Finally, in 1971, Miriam joined her sister at Hogwarts. While Rebecca had been sorted into Hufflepuff, Miriam was sent to Ravenclaw, so even though they were at the same school, Miriam still couldn't see Rebecca very much. However, she found that it was easier to demand attention at school than it was at either home, so she didn't miss her sister as much as she had thought she would.

Miriam's first two years passed fairly uneventfully, but it was the end of her second year and the start of her third year that triggered her wild attempts to find her passion: she had to start choosing "elective" classes, classes beyond those that she had already taken for two years. The fact that she could not simply sign up for all of the classes irritated her. What if one of the two classes that she could not sign up for were exactly what her thing was? Rebecca tried to ease her sister's mind by pointing out that if the classes weren't interesting enough that Miriam would want to sign up for them, then surely they weren't the right ones for her anyway. Miriam's problem, however, was that none of the classes seemed any more or less interesting than the others. All held boundless possibilities, and she hated having to choose. But choose she did, though quite unwillingly, as she would have preferred to take all five. Ultimately, she decided against Divination and Ancient Runes, but she still regrets the decision, wishing that she could have added those classes anyway, at least for the experience.

Now in her fifth year, with the O.W.L.s looming ahead, knowing that she can expect a discussion with Professor Flitwick regarding her thoughts for a future career, Miriam is as unsure as ever about her future (and wishes that she hadn't discredited Divination, perhaps it could have shown her what her future held, career-wise), still unable to find her niche, the thing she would want to spend the rest of her life doing.