Alexis Ketteridge
OOC
| Game | Journal | Portrayed By |
|---|---|---|
| Find the Horcruxes | sculpts | Evan Rachel Wood |
Basic Stats
Full Name: Alexis Laurel Ketteridge
Nickname(s): Lexi
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Date of Birth: May 23, 1961
Zodiac: Gemini
Sexuality: Straight
Relationship Status: Single
Bloodline: Pureblood
Hometown: Appleby, Lincolnshire, England
Residence: Appleby, Lincolnshire, England
House & Year: Hufflepuff 1979
Occupation: Sculptor; waitress: Fly Me to the Moon (Italian restaurant); shop assistant: Eye of the Beholder (art supply shoppe); assistant/receptionist: Geriakos Magical Veterinary Clinic
Wand: 8.5 in, chestnut, unicorn hair
Pet: Assorted cats
Family
Birth Father: Patrice Nott (wizard; Slytherin 1957; historian; Death Eater; b. July 12, 1939)
Birth Mother: Sophie Campbell (witch; Hufflepuff 1959; b. April 19, 1941)
Adoptive Father: Spencer Ketteridge (wizard; Ravenclaw 1944; magical greeting card designer; b. September 2, 1925)
Adoptive Mother: Isla Ketteridge (née Morgan; witch; Ravenclaw 1944; magical book binder; b. February 15, 1926)
History
The summer was 1960. Sophie Campbell had been out of school for a year, and boy did she love the freedom. She didn't so much love having to work, but she loved knowing that she was an adult, which of course automatically made her so much more responsible and mature. Still, though, she was a bit of a naive girl, not nearly as grown up as she liked to believe she was. When she caught the eye of the handsome Patrice Nott, she felt like the luckiest girl in the world. Even when "things didn't work out," she still felt incredibly lucky to have had his attention for a short while … and to have been in his bed. She felt considerably less lucky a month or so later when she realised she was pregnant. Thinking back, she determined that Patrice was the only one who could be the father of her unborn child, so she sought him out and told him the (supposed to be) joyous news: he was going to be a daddy!
Patrice's reaction was not one that Sophie expected: first denial, then an attempt to buy her off. Offended at the thought of being paid like some common trollop, Sophie gathered all her remaining dignity and huffed off … something she later regretted when her parents turned her out for getting herself knocked up, and she was forced to work to support herself and the growing life in her womb. Finally, only a few weeks before she was due to give birth, she again attempted to seek out Patrice, but only found his father, an imposing figure who scared her into silence and away from trying to get any money out of their family. Alone and dejected, Sophie gave birth to a baby daughter that she named Alexis, and even tried to raise her for a few months, but she was simply not made to be a mother. When Alexis was only three months old, Sophie wrapped her up in blankets, put her in a bassinet with a note (giving simply her first name and date of birth), and placed it on the front steps of the Artemisia Lufkin Orphanage on Diagon Alley.
It was at this orphanage that Alexis spent her first few years, though she remembers none of it. Although nobody at the orphanage will admit to it, and Alexis does not consciously remember it herself, her claustrophobia began there, when, at the age of three, she was locked into a cupboard by a mean-spirited older boy at the orphanage, who proceeded to make such a racket that nobody could hear Alexis' cries for several hours. Although the boy was reprimanded, the orphanage personnel figured that Alexis was much too young to remember the event, and so it wasn't worth worrying about. Not long after the incident, Spencer and Isla Ketteridge approached the orphanage to adopt a child. They had been trying for years to conceive a child of their own, but Isla was infertile, so they decided to adopt instead. And so, Alexis was brought into the Ketteridge family. They decided that, at least for now, they would not tell her that she was adopted, and asked their family members to treat Alexis as if she had been born into the family.
And so, having been too young to remember her orphanage years, Alexis grew up believing that she was Spencer and Isla's birth daughter. Life in the Ketteridge household was always interesting as Alexis was growing up. Spencer worked out of the house, designing magical greeting cards, and Isla worked as a magical book binder with flexible hours. But there were always extended family members visiting, and visits to grandparents and aunts and uncles, and life in those households was always considerably more explosive. Dating back to great-times-something auntie Elladora Ketteridge, who discovered the properties of gillyweed by eating it (and then almost suffocating until she dunked her head in a bucket of water), the Ketteridge family has always been very big on discovery-through-trying. It was from her family that Alexis learned to give everything her all, even if it seemed like a really stupid idea to others, or even if it seems like a really small or menial task: Spencer insisted upon his daughter learning that there is no such thing as a small task, only small people.
When Alexis was eleven, she went off to Hogwarts, where she was sorted into Hufflepuff. The hat was almost tempted to send her to Ravenclaw, but in the end, it decided that Hufflepuff was a better fit for her. After such a wild childhood with her family, Hogwarts was considerably tamer, though Alexis was determined to be good and stay out of trouble: she had heard all sorts of stories about Filch and Mrs Norris, and she had no desire to be hung by her thumbs in the dungeons. While at school, Alexis spent little time in the Hufflepuff common room, preferring to spend as much time outside as she could, where she was better able to breathe and felt less hemmed-in. Even when the weather was cold and gray, she still bundled up and sat outside to do her work, only retreating to the common room or library during storms or if it was too windy. Her hard work and determination to "be good" paid off when, in her fifth year, she was made prefect. Alexis was proud to wear the prefect badge, and continued working hard in her last few years at Hogwarts.
In June of 1979, she finished school and moved home with her parents, until she could get a job and her own place; she still believed that she was Spencer and Isla's child by birth. In the fifteen years since they had adopted her, the Ketteridges had continually told themselves that they would tell her "when she was older," but they just kept delaying it, waiting for "the right time." Eventually, they decided that it was for the best that Alexis not know: they wanted her to feel like she was loved and wanted, and they felt that telling her that she had been abandoned at the orphanage would just make her feel the opposite. Spencer and Isla were happy to let their daughter believe that she really was theirs, because to them, she was.
However, when it was announced in November of 1979 that all citizens would need to carry ID cards, Spencer and Isla realised that they could not delay telling their daughter any longer. Not knowing exactly what would be going on the cards, or how that would be checked, they decided that it was finally the right time to tell Alexis the truth about herself.