Miriam Strout

OOC

Game	Journal	Portrayed By
Confundo	rebellions	Kaya Scodelario

Basic Stats

Full Name: Miriam Irene Strout
Nickname(s): Mir
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Date of Birth: November 6, 1959
Zodiac: Scorpio
Sexuality: Straight
Relationship Status: Single
Bloodline: Halfblood
Hometown: London, England; northeastern coast of England
House & Year: Ravenclaw 7th
Extracurriculars: None
Wand: 10 in, black walnut, phoenix feather
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 International Magical Cooperation)
Sister: Laura Elizabeth Strout (witch; Hufflepuff 1975; beautician; b. June 16, 1957)

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 Laura 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 more 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. But that's about the only benefit, so far as Miriam can see. Her dad lives in a quaint little cottage on the northeastern coast of England, which has been in the family for generations. The house is full of books and scrolls in all manner of arcane languages, most of which are "DO NOT TOUCH OR DAD WILL KILL YOU." Both girls have their own rooms at the cottage, and since their father's nose is always buried in some archaeic tome down in his study, they are generally free to do whatever they wish. Whenever she is staying with her father, Miriam likes to spend hours wandering around outside (whatever she's doing while wandering depends on her obsession of the moment, whether it is observing wildlife, picking flowers to decorate the cottage, or contemplating rock climbing). In all, though, Miriam is more or less ignored when at the cottage, no matter what she does (unless she messes up her dad's books or scolls, and even she doesn't have that big of a deathwish).

Her mum, on the other hand, lives in a small house in the heart of muggle London. As such, very little magic is done around the Miller household, and that which is done is done inside, away from the prying eyes of the neighbours. Of course, Miriam couldn't use her magic at home until this past year anyway, but as a result, the girls spent a bit more time at their father's when they were growing up, where there was more freedom for the little "accidents" that occur around young witches. When Miriam and Laura are at their mum's home, however, Abigail tries vainly to be Mum of the Year. She tries to get the girls together for family supper, she takes them out for shopping and beauty-type stuff (mani-pedis, facials, etc), she tries to find out everything there is possibly to know about her daughters' lives. Laura soaks up the attention from their mum, so she's more or less the favoured one in that household, while Miriam prefers the solitude and quiet (and freedom to be a bit mischevious) of her father's house.

Overall, things in the two households are far more peaceful than they were before the divorce. William and Abigail are just two people who really had no business being married. They agree that they made two lovely daughters together, but that's about the only thing that they can ever agree on, besides the decision to send the girls to Hogwarts. They fight over everything else, from money (both wants to pay entirely for the girls' school supplies and provide them with all the pocket money that they would want, which often results in both girls getting extra pocket money because they get some from both parents) to custody (both wants full custody of both girls, but custody is shared between the two of them, with the girls moving between the homes on a biweekly basis during the summer hols from school (winter hols are split on a weekly basis, because they are so short, and Christmas day itself is split between the two houses, with Christmas Eve custody switching yearly — yes, William and Abigail were this picky during the custody battle).

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 Laura 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. Laura was often the only one who noticed her, though. When Laura 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 Laura had been sorted into Hufflepuff, Miriam was sent to Ravenclaw, so even though they were at the same school, Miriam still couldn't see Laura 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. While it was heavily suggested to her that she only sign up for two or three of the five options, she balked at the idea: what if one of the two classes that she could not sign up for were exactly what her thing was? Laura 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. So, ultimately, she didn't choose: she added all five elective classes to her already-full schedule of the required seven, ending up with a total of twelve classes.

Fifth year was an interesting time for Miriam, with twelve OWLs looming ahead of her. Although she met with Professor Flitwick as all the other Ravenclaw fifth years did, to discuss future career possibilities, nothing that her head of house suggested or mentioned seemed right for her. Or, rather, it was worse: everything sounded intriguing and interesting, and she was once again completely indecisive, though this time she couldn't remedy the situation by just doing everything. With no idea on what to do with her future, and her desire to do well (she was aiming for straight Os on her OWLs), she didn't know what to consider dropping in sixth year.

When she finally got her OWL results, Miriam was furious. After months of studying for her exams, after foregoing every semblance of a life for weeks, she had only managed to earn one measley O, earning mostly-straight Es otherwise, with the exception of a rather DISMAL A in Divination. And, instead of helping to guide her in deciding which classes to drop, it only made her more determined to continue taking every single class. Even Divination. Or, perhaps, especially divination. Unfortunately, Professor Vablatsky wouldn't take her into her NEWT-level class with an A on her OWL, especially as Miriam was already taking so many other classes, so she was forced to drop it.

So sixth year was much like a busier continuation of fifth, with the more-involved levels of the classes sucking away at what little free time Miriam had. Even with her more in-depth studies of her eleven classes, she found time to pursue her random new pet obsessions. She started taking on and shedding new obessions far more quickly than before, frantically trying to find something that would click with her, something to become her THING. She managed to survive her sixth year, and opted to continue again with all eleven classes into her final year at Hogwarts, absolutely terrified that the one class she might opt to drop would inevitably turn out to be drastically useful to whatever her THING eventually turned out to be (and, of course, she's still worried that she'll develop a latent skill for Divination, as that was the class she was forced to drop). Is she overwhelmed? Yes. But she's determined, and she's going after her classes like a dog with a bone, and won't give up until it kills her.

Personality

Most of Miriam's rebelliousness stems from the fact that she doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. The fact that she's eighteen and on the brink of finishing school without a purpose in life only makes everything worse. She has nothing to focus her energies on, so she finds herself bouncing from interest to interest, trying to find what's right for her, instead of just doing what other people think is best for her. The other aspect that feeds into her rebelliousness is the lack of real, personalized attention that she gets from her parents. Her father all but ignores her in favour of his studies, and her mother treats her exactly the same way that she treats Laura, and that is like the girls are little dolls for her to dress up and play with whenever it suits her. Her rebelliousness and acting out are her attempts to get attention.

She wants to be noticed. She is loud, she is sarcastic, she is mischevious, and she can be really creative with ways to get into trouble, when she wants to be. Her trouble-making, however, is usually limited to things that would only get her (or other willing participants) into trouble, and things that do not harm others (for example, she might decide to go swimming with the Giant Squid — with or without clothing —, but she wouldn't throw anybody else into the lake do or anything that would hurt them). Any protest she might participate in (like her yearly protests against the uniform) is peaceful. She might cast charms on the suits of armour around school to cause them to belch whenever anyone walks by, but she wouldn't charm them to do anything scary or harmful to passersby.

STRENGTHS: Miriam has heart. That is probably her biggest strength; everything she does, she throws her whole self into it, she doesn't do a half-hearted, half-arsed attempt at anything. It is remarkably hard to discourage her from doing something if she really wants to do it: once she sinks her teeth into something, she is like a dog with a particularly juicy bone.

With regards to academics, Miriam is quite skilled at Charms, thanks to all of her extra-curricular studying (okay, lots of practice at hair charms, but that still counts), but with regards to her other classes, she manages fairly decent grades. She refuses to fail any class, even the utterly boring History of Magic, because failure just isn't an option (she hopes that getting good grades will get her father to notice her — it didn't work so much with the OWLs, though she's convinced that if she can get straight Os on her NEWTs, that would do the trick). Other than Charms, however, there are not any particular classes that Miriam is exceptionally good or exceptionally bad at, she mostly approaches all classes as equals. Well, perhaps Divination, she did get an A on the OWL.

She is very strong-willed and not easily led. She has to see something with her own eyes to believe it, and any attempts to get her to do something she doesn't want to with the argument "everyone else is doing it" will just get a laugh from her: she's a rebel for a reason, she doesn't particularly want to do what "everyone else" is doing. If "everyone else" wants to jump off the Astronomy tower, then good for them. Miriam will be down at the bottom, trying to calculate how much the jumper's weight, clothing (skirts vs. pants), and jump style (cannonball, dive, spread eagle, etc) affects how fast they fall.

WEAKNESSES: Miriam doesn't know what she wants to do with her life, so as a result, she bounces around from interest to interest, trying to find something that resonates with her. As such, she will have spurts of manic interest in some subject or something, only for it to eventually wane (each interest lasts a different amount of time, mostly depending on how much information there is on the subject for her to absorb, plus some things just don't hold her interest for very long) and then she promptly forgets nearly everything she's just spent so much time learning. This is considered a weakness because her new obsessions take over her time, and she often spends more time finding and reading every book ever written on the subject than she does on her assignments for her classes.

While Miriam understands why rules are important, that does not stop her from occasionally breaking them, but only if she finds them to be stupid rules. For example, the school's uniform: does it matter what clothes she is wearing under her robes? Why wear the same thing as everyone else when she could wear her own clothes and be more comfortable? Because she would be more comfortable in her own clothes, logically she would be able to pay better attention in class (that's her argument for why the school shouldn't have uniforms, anyway).

Questions

(Due to Miriam's penchant for sarcasm, some answers have been translated. See parentheticals.)

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

A bologna sandwich. Mmmm-mm!

What is your greatest fear?

My greatest fear? Being too pretty. Then everyone else would be too jealous of me. (Going unnoticed. Also being unable to figure out what to do with her life and ending up doing nothing with it.)

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

The inability to juggle. You'd think Hogwarts was where everyone who couldn't get into clown school ended up. (Laziness.)

What do you do when you get nervous?

I get un-nervous. (She's prone to wringing her hands or tapping her fingers on the nearest surface. She also tugs on her hair and clicks her tongue.)

What do you do when you get angry?

I smile and laugh and pretend I'm happy. (Oh, Miriam's not a great person to be around when she's angry. She's prone to fits and shouting and throwing things and … well, she says things she's sorry for later.)

What do you do when you get happy?

I growl and clomp around and brood like I'm angry. (She's a cheerful little bugger when she's happy, all smiles and, yes, she skips.)

What do you do when you are sad?

Eat my weight in ice cream. I really actually weigh five thousand pounds, I just hide it really well. (She acts out for attention.)

Do you have any interesting habits? If so, please list them.

I can touch my tongue to the tip of my nose. I can cross my eyes. I wake up every morning and go to sleep every night. I can say my ABCs backwards. I'm capable of walking, talking, and breathing all at once. I can even chew gum at the same time. (She is very easily distractable. Tell her something's not allowed, and that's like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Every year, she stages a protest against the uniforms.)

On what occasion do you lie?

Why, I never lie! I'm a perfect little angel who's always 100% honest, no matter what. (Pretty much almost any time she opens her mouth, really.)

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Absolutely nothing. I'm perfect just the way I am. Though maybe I'd make myself a little less pretty, so everyone else doesn't have to be jealous. See answer to greatest fear. (Although she'd never say so, the biggest thing she'd change about herself is her indecisiveness. She wants to be able to make a decision about her future!)

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Being able to walk and talk and breathe and chew gum at the same time. (Honestly? Surviving OWLs and sixth year with 12 and 11 classes, respectively.)

What is your greatest regret?

My inability to juggle.

What is your motto?

I don't have a motto. That's my motto.