Victoria Burke

OOC

Game	Journal	Portrayed By
The Breach	vivavictoria	Romola Garai

Basic Stats

Full Name: Victoria Cornelia Burke (née Rosier)
Nickname(s): None
Gender: Female
Age: 23
Date of Birth: January 14, 1957
Zodiac: Capricorn
Sexuality: Straight
Relationship Status: Married to Gaius Burke (Dec 1976)
Bloodline: Pureblood
Hometown: Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England
Current Residence: Hereford, Herefordshire, England
House & Year: Slytherin 1975
Occupation: Wife, mother-to-be, socialite, philanthropist
Wand: 8 in, elm, unicorn tail hair
Pet: None

Family

Father: Marcellus Rosier (wizard; Slytherin 1945)
Mother: Iris Rosier (née Greengrass; witch; Slytherin 1953)
Brother: Evan Rosier (wizard; Slytherin 1978)
Sister: Cassandra Rosier (witch; Ravenclaw 1979)

Husband: Gaius Burke (wizard; Ravenclaw alumnus)
Son: Marcus Burke (due October 1980)

History

There are times when an arranged marriage ends up being perfect and leading to, if not love, then at least mutual affection and dignity. The marriage between Marcel Rosier and Iris Greengrass was not one of those types of arranged marriages. No, it is simply not possible for any other couple to exist that is worse for each other than Marcel and Iris were for each other. Marcel was a contented rock while Iris was a caged bird aching for the freedom of the sky. Despite hopes that Marcel would be able to tame the free-spirited (by society's standards) Iris, their marriage was a tumultuous and rocky one. Neither was happy with the match, but they went through with the wedding regardless. By the time they "got down to business" and produced three children (Victoria first, followed by Evan and then Cassandra), they were as separate as two people could be while residing within the same house (at least Morningside House was large enough to accomodate them both).

The children were handed off to nannies and house elves, with Marcel being the only parent to take a hand in the raising of the children; Iris was hardly around at all, and she all but ignored the children when she was there. When she was much younger, Victoria did not think anything odd about this arrangement; she believed that all children were raised in such a manner; she still attempted to make her mother proud of her and worked in vain attempts to garner attention from the flighty Iris. It wasn't too terribly long before Victoria realised that, no matter what she did, nothing she did was enough to gain her mother's attention. She also began to realise that her family was not normal, that other children's mothers took a more active role in their lives. And so, instead of devoting herself to trying to please her mother, she instead turned to her siblings, and also decided to try to please her father, instead. She became content to focus on her siblings and her father and ignore her mother, as if Iris did not exist at all. She would be the perfect little girl, and show Iris exactly what she was missing out on by ignoring her own children. Anything she was given to do, she strove to do well and succeed in it, from piano to singing to horseback riding. She positively loved the plays that she, Evan, and Cassandra would stage, and she delighted in being given opportunities to sing or to play the piano at social functions, once she was old enough to attend.

While the children were growing up, Iris was off in a downward spiral of scandals and improper behaviour: gambling (and racking up quite a debt at it), attending parties instead of attending to her family, taking lovers (which was bad enough on its own; the fact that they were half-blooded or worse made it even more scandalous), visiting pawn shoppes … well. Marcel was careful to shield his children from his wife's indiscretions, but Victoria could hardly help but notice how little time Iris actually spent at home.

Of course, every young witch or wizard delights in the day that they receive their Hogwarts acceptance letter, and Victoria was no different. Although she was sad to be leaving her brother and sister behind, Victoria was absolutely thrilled to be finally going off to Hogwarts in September of 1968, a scarce eight and a half months after she turned eleven. She would excel in school, she knew, and she would make her father proud by being a perfect young lady who never once stepped out of bounds as a student. Being sorted into Slytherin was absolutely perfect, though she would not have objected to Ravenclaw, as the Hat briefly considered. The dungeons, though dank, were a rather acceptable home away from home, and she wrote letters to her siblings constantly, until Evan joined her at Hogwarts in 1971 (Victoria's fourth year) and Cassandra joined them in 1972 (Victoria's fifth year). When Evan joined Victoria in Slytherin, she was delighted to be able to show him around their common room, and although she was saddened that Cassandra did not join them in Slytherin, she was nonetheless proud of her baby sister for making Ravenclaw.

The biggest shock to Victoria was that she was forced to consort with half-bloods and mud-bloods. Of course, being raised to be a Proper Lady, (and knowing that you catch far more flies with sugar than with vinegar) she was (publicly) unfailingly polite to everyone, regardless of their lineage or their financial status. Of course, she did not go out of her way to spend time with mud-bloods or half-bloods, but she would not turn away from them in disgust.

In her fifth year, her devotion to being an exemplary student paid off in the form of prefecture. Her proudest moment was receiving the badge with her supply list for fifth year. She devoted herself, in the following three years, to being the best prefect that she could be: honest, fair, trustworthy. She was absolutely distraught when she was not made Head Girl, but ultimately decided that such an auspicious title might scare away potential suitors, or make her less acceptable as a potential wife. After all, proper society ladies shouldn't let authority go to their heads, and her desire to be Head Girl was just that: proof that her authority as a prefect was going to her head.

Academically speaking, Victoria devoted herself to doing well in all subjects, even those she disliked. After all, just because she disliked them, that did not mean that they were any less worthy of being studied. And she was always able to drop the classes that she disliked once she had sat through the OWLs (of course, she was utterly relieved that the new mandatory "Muggle Studies" course was added to the Hogwarts curriculum after she was finished at school). As soon as she had a choice in the matter, she dropped down to four classes, those which had held her attention and which she had thoroughly enjoyed over the past five years. All of her studies were to be culminated in her NEWT exams, which she spent the entirety of her seventh year preparing for (yet another reason why it turned out to be good that she was not named Head Girl; she was able to devote time to her studies that would elsewise be occupied in Head Girl duties).

Unfortunately, just before she was to sit her NEWTs, an owl from home came, bearing terrible news: their mother had died. Victoria, Evan, and Cassandra were rushed home, and they learned that their mother had drowned in a nearby lake. Two summers prior, she had nearly died after an "accidental" overdose of Dreamless Sleep Potion, and her death was ruled to be another unfortunate accident (though it was a secret that everybody knew that it was suicide: her wand lay snapped on the bank of the lake, and her pockets were filled with rocks). When Victoria finally sat her NEWTs, her concentration had been shattered and, with the loss of that important study-time, she did not fare as well on her exams as she had hoped, earning a horrifying Acceptable on one, a positively dismal Exceeds Expectations on another, and only two Outstandings. She blames her mother's ill-timed suicide for her marks, and (although she would never vocalise these thoughts to anyone), she does wish that her mother might have at least, for once, been considerate enough to take her children into account and commit suicide after their exams. Of course, by this point, Victoria was so far emotionally detached from her mother that her death no more impacted her than she would have been by a stranger (as Iris was essentially a stranger to her children), but the timing of the death, the funeral, the forced grieving period … it all simply conspired against her and drew her focus away from her studies.

Iris' death did have a sort of bright spot in its timing: as Victoria was just finishing up with school, she was able to gracefully take on the role as Lady of the House at Morningside. This was a perfect opportunity for her to display just how absolutely perfect she would be at being a Perfect Society Lady and how absolutely different she was from her mother. She personified grace and charm, showcasing exactly how well she had been raised, not tainted in the least by her mother's lack of social graces. She was the consummate society lady, and it was not long before Marcel arranged a marriage between Victoria and Gaius Burke, the heir to the Burke half of the store Borgin & Burkes (which Gaius was being groomed to take over his half of). Victoria was absolutely thrilled to be placed in such a wonderful match.

As soon as her fate was set in stone with the arrangement of the marriage (because breaking such an arrangement was purely unthinkable), she devoted herself entirely to her future family (while still, of course, fulfilling her duties as stand-in Lady of the House for her own family). Victoria and Gaius were married in December, 1976, and Victoria immediately set to work attempts to do her duty as a society wife: to bear an heir for her husband, to carry on the Burke name. To her dismay, she continually failed to get pregnant. She was positive that there must be something horribly wrong with her, that she was a failure as a proper wife to her husband. And, of course, the fact that muggles and muggle-borns were attacking proper witches and wizards certainly did not help in the slightest; she was entirely too worried about everything: the fate of the wizarding world and also her lack of an heir for her husband.

To her absolute delight, she found out in the spring of 1980 that she and Gaius were finally, finally expecting a child. Victoria vowed to follow absolutely everything that the midwife told her to do, down to the letter. She is steadfastly determined to have a wonderfully healthy baby when he is due in October (and it was just in early June that the midwife confirmed that the baby would, indeed, be a boy). Being pregnant is the absolute best experience that Victoria can imagine, and now if only the rest of the wizarding world would shape up and go back to normal, she can properly raise her child in a proper society environment..

Personality

To Victoria, there is nothing worth doing that is not worth doing well. There is really no excuse to not strive to do well in your endeavours. Victoria strove to do well in her classes in school, even those which she did not care for. Those courses were summarily dropped after sitting her OWLs, to better free her time to concentrate more on the courses that she opted to continue with. It is for this reason, this devotion to everything she does, that the Sorting Hat hesitated and considered putting her into Ravenclaw, before deciding upon Slytherin. She has the determination and discipline to devote herself to doing well in whatever it is she puts her mind to, whether it's scores in school or in being the perfect socialite.

A lot of what makes Victoria who she is are her parents. One of Victoria's primary fuels is the desire to Not Be Like Her Mother. In Victoria's eyes, her mother was a selfish woman who cared more for her own pleasures than either the good of society or the raising of her children. As such, Victoria has a deep-rooted desire to avoid anything that could be considered a vice that would take away from her expectations as a society wife and mother. She puts her own happiness last, because to put herself first would be selfish, and if she started caring about her own happiness first, if she pleased herself before she pleased everyone else, then she feels that this would turn her into her mother, which terrifies her more than anything. To avoid becoming her mother, she cannot let herself be happy until everyone else is, first. She works hard to first make sure that her husband, and then her family, is happy and cared for before she dares to consider her own happiness. And even before her own happiness comes her charity work. It has become that what makes her happy is knowing that she is doing exactly what is expected of her as a society lady, as a wife and soon-to-be mother, as a daughter and sister. If she has any free time, she devotes that to charities and to bettering herself as a lady of society.

Of course, she is a worrier. She worries that people will fear that the apple did not fall far enough from the tree, that she will become like Her Mother. She worries about her father and her brother and her sister. She worries constantly that she will be a poor mother, as she doesn't have a good example in her own mother to emulate. She worries that, although the midwife assured her that her unborn child will be a boy, it will be a girl, that she will be incapable of providing her husband with a proper heir. She worries that, despite her best efforts to the contrary, she will do something that would be seen as a failure. She worries that these dratted muggles and muggleborns will completely tear society down by its ears and set the entire world topsy-turvy. She could very well give herself a complex with all these worries. But she just saves her melt-downs and panic attacks for private, and she presents a composed, calm, put-together face to the public, as charming as the next seemingly-brainless socialite, knowing full-well that diplomacy is the best way to get things done, and being on good terms with people is the best way to get sensitive information from them. She could not quite necessarily be considered a schemer, but she does know that certain things must simply happen a certain way for everything to go well.

Something that she has inherited from her father is a bit of a sense of frugality. She refuses to spend one knut more for something that she absolutely must, and she avoids buying frivolous things as much as possible; anything purchased must serve a greater purpose, particularly for her husband or for her unborn child. Purchasing things on a whim is a waste of money, and purchasing things for her own enjoyment simply will not do, especially if the money could instead have gone toward something for her husband or child. Somewhat inconsistently, however, she will lavish gifts upon loved ones. This tends to tie in with her desire to make sure that those in her life are happy: extravagant gifts were so rare in the Rosier household that she has come to equate those with happiness and love. So while she wouldn't buy something extravagant for herself, she will perhaps gift friends and family with something fancy or extravagant for their birthday or for Christmas, because she wants for them to be happy — but of course, even when buying such lavish gifts, she still does not spend more on them than absolutely necessary, and she truly thinks the gifts through before shopping, rather than picking the first thing she sees on a whim.

And the war. The war distresses Victoria. These muggles and muggleborns, they're jealous, and they're taking out their jealousy on the innocent citizens of the wizarding world. Victoria sees them as a horribel disease, determined to destroy the history and culture of the wizarding world with their horrible jealousy, determined to undermine absolutely everything that makes their world great and wonderful. And that terrifies her. The fact that her father and her brother are involved in something to do with the Dark Lord (she does not know exactly what is going on, just that something is going on) concerns her and feeds into her worry: she worries about something happening to them because they are (in her eyes) standing for everything that is right about the world: the culture, the history, the heritage. She supports what her brother and father are doing, whatever it is they're doing, so long as they manage to preserve their lifestyle and come back alive.

Strengths & Weaknesses: Her biggest weakness is, of course, her inclination toward worrying. It is a highly distracting trait, one that draws her attention away from other, more pressing matters: if she is overly concerned with her worries and with holding them inside, she cannot be appropriately attending to whatever needs attending to. She also lives somewhat inside a bubble, not aware of the things that are done by the followers of the Dark Lord (or even that her father and her brother are among those doing these things). She absolutely believes that it is the muggles and muggleborns who are doing these horrible, wretched things, and all that she and those like her are attempting to do is to safeguard the culture and history from these barbarians who are set to destroy it. She cannot see the world outside that which she has been taught, and she steadfastly refuses to see beyond the bubble.

As far as strengths go, she is determined. Anything that she starts, she will see through to the end, no matter what. She will not give anything less than complete devotion to any endeavours that she takes on, and she will not give up.

Mental Health: Victoria is not insane. She does not see apparitions, she does not hear voices in her head, she does not have difficulties carrying on a coherent conversation. But to call her firmly mentally stable and sound might be a bit of a stretch. She has a few issues (primarily Mother Issues), and she is rather prone to panic attacks in private, but she puts together a calm and collected front when around others, even those with whom she is close: her family and close friends. She has been schooled from a young age to approach stress and pressues with grace and poise, and she saves any melt-downs for private, and so that is what she does. Her family and close friends may be able to pinpoint when she is on the verge of melting down (an increased rate of breath and her heart beating faster; widening eyes that begin to slightly dart about; longer pauses before speaking [so that she can better prepare her responses]; perhaps even a bit of a tremor or tightness to her voice; and, of course, excusing herself for a moment [so that she may go melt down in private and recompose herself before returning]), but she does absolutely as much as she possibly can to avoid melting down or having a panic attack in front of anyone, even her husband or her siblings. There is little doubt that those she is close to at least guess that there is something going on with her at times like these, but she does hope that those who do guess at least don't particularly go out of their way to provoke such reactions out of her.