Olive Clayworth

OOC

Game	Journal	Portrayed By
Caged	unmoldedclay	Vanessa Marano

Basic Stats

Full Name: Olive Nicole Clayworth
Nickname(s): Liv or Livvy
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Date of Birth: February 29, 1980
Zodiac: Pisces
Sexuality: Straight
Relationship Status: Single
Bloodline: Muggleborn, masquerading as halfblood
Hometown: Barnsley, Yorkshire, England
House & Year: Gryffindor 7th
Extracurriculars: Choir (mezzo-soprano); charms club
Wand: 9 in, poplar, unicorn hair
Pet: Brown fish owl (Hairball)

Family

Father: Jacob Clayworth (muggle; English teacher: Barnsley Sixth Form College)
Mother: Abigail Clayworth (née Smith; muggle; nursery school teacher)

History

As the only child of two muggle teachers, Olive grew up in a house where education was viewed as the most important thing. So Olive was a decent student, at least in terms of building up study skills, but sitting in a classroom all day with teachers just talking to her tended to just bore her. From an early age, the main class that got her interested was art. And yes, she has heard all the jokes about working with clay. She's worked with clay a bit, yes, but it isn't her favourite medium to work in. Her parents encouraged her love for art, but also continually nudged her to do better in her non-art classes, as well: a well-rounded education would open more doors for her later in life than one in which she just focused on what she was good at.

It came as a complete surprise to the Clayworths when a stranger showed up at their house when Olive was eleven and informed them that Olive was a witch. Even more surprising was the follow-up of an invitation to attend a special school just for witches and wizards. Of course, just the words "special school" made the biggest impact on Jacob and Abigail: if there was a school out there that would help Olive to live up to her full potential, then they were all in favour of it. It took them a little longer to wrap their minds around having a witch in the family, but they were eventually excited about the prospect.

So on September 1, 1991, Olive climbed aboard the Hogwarts Express for the first time and rode the train (her first trip on public transportation without her parents) to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Aboard the train, Olive shared a compartment with Shoshanna Fischer and Tracey Davis. They were sitting and talking (Tracey mostly reading), and it came up that neither of Olive's parents were magical. Shoshanna quietly suggested that Olive not mention that around too much, because there were a lot of people in the wizarding world who would judge her harshly for being a muggleborn (and Tracey piped in to agree). Olive was surprised (and a little hurt that people would judge her for something like that), but listened to her new friends' advice and kept her parentage to herself as much as she could around the other students. The sorting ceremony, once they arrived at Hogwarts, confused Olive because how could a hat talk? And although the hat sang about the differences between the houses, she wondered how it could tell which house was best for which student, just from sitting on their head. She could swear the hat snickered a bit at her when it was put on her head, as if it could hear her thinking all those questions! It called out Gryffindor for her, though Olive was wondering if her heart was really all that brave, or if she had the daring, nerve, and chivalry to really set herself apart. But then she realised she was questioning a hat. She was a little bummed that her new friend Tracey was sorted into a different house (Slytherin), but thrilled when Shoshanna joined her at Gryffindor … at least she had one new friend in her dorm already!

Her first year was … well, it was an experience. Learning her way around the castle, with stairs that moved and doors that sometimes wouldn't open (unless you asked nicely, or it was the right time of day), paintings that moved and talked, a professor who was also a cat, a professor who was a ghost … it was definitely a lot to take in for someone who, for the past eleven years, had believed that witches and magic and unicorns and dragons were the stuff of fairytale, myth, and legend. But she survived, and even managed to learn a few things (very little history though … for being taught by a ghost, that class was dreadfully dull). Of course, once she returned home from school for the summer and told her parents all about what she had been learning, they started tut-tutting the lack of proper education she was getting and set her up with lessons in maths, literature, British and world history, and sciences. So even when she was home from school … she was in school.

Second year was a scary time. Olive was extra-glad that she had taken Shoshanna's advice and not let it really get around that she was a muggleborn, because now she was afraid that whoever this Slytherin's Heir was, who was siccing his monster on muggleborns, would find out about her and send it after her. Unlike some of the school, she never thought that Harry Potter was the heir, simply because he was best friends with her roommate Hermione Granger, and Hermione was also a muggleborn, and she just couldn't see someone wanting to befriend the type of person they also wanted to kill. It was a definite relief to Olive that she was never a victim of the monster, and that it was — killed? Or something? — by the end of the school year. Third year, by comparison, was easy. Or at least a little less scary. There was a convict on the loose who apparently wanted to kill Harry Potter, but … well, at least she was safe this time? Sure, it was still a little scary, but at least there wasn't a monster in the castle that was being sent after muggleborns by a classmate.

Third year, also, was the time when Olive got to pick electives. She ended up adding two to her schedule: Muggle Studies (after two years of viewing the wizarding world from a muggleborn's point of view, she was interested to see how the wizarding world viewed muggles) and Ancient Runes (it sounded interesting, and she soon discovered there was a little bit of art in it, too). While she was excited to be able to add classes that she was interested in, she wished there were more art-like classes. Or any art class at all. She was basically left to her own devices with art, working on it in her free time.

Fourth year was definitely exciting. The tournament sounded amazing, and then someone in her own house was chosen! (Of course, it was Harry Potter again, and she was endlessly curious as to how he got his name in the goblet without getting a long beard like a bunch of other students did, and how the goblet chose two champions from Hogwarts.) Even though everything surrounding Harry being chosen champion was confusing and weird, she had to support him because he was in her house and all. Her favourite part of the year, however, was the Yule Ball. After having spent the past three and a half years practically unnoticed by her housemates, Olive was asked to the ball by a fifth year Gryffindor boy. Of course, she found out at the ball that he'd mostly asked her to make his ex-girlfriend jealous, but still … she had a date to the ball, and even though it wasn't love or anything, it was still a fun time. Of course, the end of the year wasn't nearly so fun: Cedric Diggory died, and Harry Potter was screaming that You-Know-Who was back, and that was terrifying news for a muggleborn who had heard from others about his reign of terror when they were all babies.

Over the summer, Olive had her usual extra-education courses over the summer, and without too much contact with the wizarding world besides letters back and forth with friends, and occasional visits, Olive mostly missed out on all the buzz going on in the wizarding world … most notably the Ministry vehemently discrediting everything about Harry Potter. So it was a bit of a surprise to board the train at the end of the summer and find the atmosphere to be different. The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, too, was an adjustment. (Not to mention: it was very hard to do well in that class, with a new professor every year, all with different teaching styles … and one of whom who seemed to have no idea what he was doing.) Professor Umbridge was … well, she was mean. Olive didn't mind so much spending the class time reading … it was a lot like her summer courses, but she felt like she wasn't really learning anything much. And she just really didn't seem like a very fair professor. But Olive kept her head down and just read the chapters like Professor Umbridge asked, she had long-since given up on the possibility of doing well on her Defense O.W.L. anyway.

The summer between fifth and sixth year was a little extra scary, because it was finally confirmed that You-Know-Who was back, and scary things were starting to happen. Olive finally used some of her pocket money to get a subscription to the Daily Prophet, so she'd have an idea of what was going on in the wizarding world while she was home for the summer. It was a relief to get back to school, where things were more normal. She took only four classes that year: Ancient Runes, Charms, Herbology, and Muggle Studies. Of her other classes, she either hadn't earned a high enough mark on her O.W.L. to take the N.E.W.T.-level class, or she just wasn't interested in continuing with it. Although the workload was higher for each of her classes, it was still a relief to have some more free time than in recent years — she was finally able to spend a bit more time on sketching and drawing, around her classes and homework.

It was completely terrifying when Headmaster Dumbledore died at the end of her sixth year. She had thought that Hogwarts was more or less safe, that the Headmaster would protect them all … but he couldn't even protect himself! And people were saying that Professor Snape was the one who had killed the Headmaster! It was … well, it was all almost too much to bear. Olive was almost tempted to just stay home the following year, and not finish school. If she'd known what was coming that summer, she wouldn't have even thought that: the Minister of Magic died and was replaced, and then shortly before school was to start up again, it was announced that attendance at Hogwarts was mandatory, and she would have to prove her magical background. Olive was terrified about that last part: she had no magical background at all. Six years of keeping her muggleborn status as quiet as possible were going to do nothing for her. In her desperation, she got help: from Zacharias Smith, a yearmate whom she'd struck up a friendship with over the past six years (mostly from helping him study). He helped her link her mother's maiden name of Smith to his family, gave her lessons about "their" family, and vouched for her purity when the time came. Olive was quaking throughout the whole ordeal, but was immensely relieved to have passed muster and was allowed to board the Hogwarts Express on September 1, 1997, to return to school for her final year.

Personality

Olive is the sort of girl who tends to go unnoticed. She doesn't speak up in class … or really even outside of class. She's shy, reserved, and introverted. It's not that she's anti-social, she just prefers to save up her energy on interactions that are worthwhile. She has a few close friends, and is friendly to others, but definitely isn't the outgoing and bubbly type. She's nice, though, and a real sweetheart … she wouldn't even hurt a fly. (Literally … she won't even hurt bugs. She doesn't like bugs, but she can't kill them. She really hated that spider lesson on the unforgiveables in fourth year Defense class.) She is just … well, ok. She's a nice girl.

Thanks to growing up with two teachers for parents, Olive knows how to study and how important an education can be … but at the same time, she's not necessarily a big fan of, well, … school. She'll study and do her best, but it's not something she particularly enjoys. She isn't sure what she wants to do with her life, besides be an artist, but she knows she doesn't want to be a teacher like her parents. She's practical enough to know that she won't be able to make a living as an artist (or at least not right away), but there isn't really a "practical" job that interests her right now. Olive is definitely an artist at heart, though: her favourite thing to do is find somewhere to sit with her sketchbook and some coloured pencils, or charcoal, or even just a graphite pencil, and just draw things: things she sees, things she's read, things she imagines.

Olive wasn't sorted into Gryffindor for nothing (although sometimes she does wonder about that). She is courageous … it's just a quiet courage that's tempered by realism: she's not going to go charging off, guns blazing, without thinking it through first. Likewise, in this coming year, she's not going to do anything to draw attention to herself, because she rather likes being alive and not locked away in Azkaban for something she didn't do (she doesn't know where her magic abilities come from, but she certainly didn't steal it from anyone, and she bought her wand fair and square from Ollivander's, thank you). Just the fact that, in light of everything going on right now, she's even willing to leave her bedroom and go to Hogwarts, as opposed to going into hiding or something, speaks volumes for her quiet courage. She knows that she's living every day in fear of being found out … but she wants to live those days anyway.

Because of all this, Olive has come to hate the views on blood purity being superior. Just because you can trace the magic in your family back to the Dark Ages doesn't make you any better than someone who is only new to the whole magic thing. She's seen way too many classmates who are from "dirty" blood who are great at magic (take roommate Hermione Granger, for example) and those who are from old purist families who aren't that great. Having a long tradition of magic in your family doesn't make you great, it's what you do with your magic that makes you great, and Olive wants to be great (even though she acknowledges that she's not excellent at some of the magic classes, at least she tries). She would never judge anyone based solely on their parentage, and hates those who would judge her if they knew hers.