Elettra Berger

OOC

Game	Journal	Portrayed By
Operation: Oddjob	elettric	Catherine Zeta-Jones

Basic Stats

Full Name: Elettra Grazia Berger (née Volpe)
Nickname(s): Ellie, but only to her husband. She goes by her maiden name at work (Ms Volpe, or Elettra Volpe), but outside of work she is Elettra or Mrs Berger.
Gender: Female
Age: 38
Date of Birth: May 17, 1972
Zodiac: Taurus
Sexuality: Straight
Relationship Status: Married to Guillaume Berger
Bloodline: Pureblood
Hometown: Naples, Italy; Fiesole, Italy
Current Residence: Bath, England
House & Year: Beauxbatons 1990
Occupation: Pi Division: charms expert
Wand: 11 in, chestnut, manticore hair
Pet: None

Family

Father: Oliviero Volpe (wizard; Beauxbatons 1957; diplomat; b. October 21, 1938)
Mother: Renata Volpe (née Laguardia; witch; Beauxbatons 1957; socialite; b. March 12, 1939)
Brother: Giovanni Volpe (wizard; Beauxbatons 1985; barrister; b. December 5, 1966)
    Sister-in-Law: Agata Volpe (née Voltolini; witch; Beauxbatons 1985; b. May 31, 1967)
    Nephew: Benigno Volpe (wizard; Beauxbatons 2009; translator; b. November 28, 1990)
Sister: Tullia Laterza (née Volpe; witch; Beauxbatons 1986; obliviator; b. June 24, 1968)
    Brother-in-Law: Aurelio Laterza (wizard; Beauxabtons 1985; barrister; b. January 16, 1967)
    Niece: Clementina Laterza (witch; Beauxbatons 2008; healer trainee; b. April 7, 1990)
    Niece: Giada Laterza (witch; Beauxbatons 7th; b. September 2, 1992)
Sister: Annalisa Neri (née Volpe; witch; Beauxbatons 1986; works in International Trading Standards in the Italian Ministry; b. June 24, 1968)
    Brother-in-Law: Pietro Neri (wizard; Beauxbatons 1982; works in the quidditch offices of the Italian Ministry; b. August 9, 1964)
    Niece: Graziella Neri (witch; Beauxbatons 2009; assistant in the International Office of Law of the Italian Ministry; b. July 26, 1991)
    Nephew: Damiano Neri (wizard; Beauxbatons 2009; assistant in the office of the International Magical Cooperation of the Italian Ministry; b. July 26, 1991)
    Nephew: Michele Neri (wizard; Beauxbatons 6th; b. February 11, 1994)
Brother: Fabrizio Volpe (wizard; Beauxbatons 1989; diplomat; b. November 16, 1970)
    Sister-in-Law: Ilaria Volpe (née Tumicelli; witch; Beauxbatons 1992; reporter; b. October 14, 1973)
    Niece: Gisella Volpe (witch; Beauxbatons 4th; b. March 9, 1996)
    Nephew: Francesco Volpe (wizard; Beauxbatons 2nd; b. September 23, 1997)

Husband: Guillaume Berger (wizard; Beauxbatons 1975; translator; b. December 28, 1956)

History

Elettra Grazia Volpe was born the youngest child and third daughter (of five children) to Oliviero and Renata Volpe. The Volpes are an old pureblood family in Italy, and frequently involved in diplomacy and other governmental work. Oliviero, in fact, has served as a diplomat between Italy and France since shortly before Elettra was born. All of his children grew up learning to speak not only their native Italian fluently, but were also taught both French and English. Elettra's older siblings, Giovanni, the twins Tullia and Annalisa, and Fabrizio, all picked up the other two languages easily, but Elettra had difficulties for several years. When she was six, her father finally hired a language tutor for her, Guillaume Berger, a 21-year-old Beauxbatons alumnus from the Marseille area of France. Guillaume worked one-on-one with Elettra every day for five years, until she joined her elder siblings at Beauxbatons at the age of eleven. By that point, she had mostly picked up French to be passably fluent, but she wrote Guillaume constantly, asking for help when she was too shy to ask her brothers, sisters, or classmates, and he still worked with her daily during her vacations from school.

Elettra created a stir in the Italian pureblood community when she fell in love with her halfblood language tutor at the tender age of sixteen. It was, of course, chalked up to her being a silly little girl with a crush, but Elettra knew that it was much more than that. Even Guillaume knew that there was something there between the two of them, but he was nearly fourteen years older than her, and he'd known her since she was a little six-year-old in pigtails. He was also worried about the gossip that would come if he acted on any feelings he had for Elettra — feelings he'd developed after she had grown into a beautiful, mature, legal young woman — that he had been lusting after her from when she was a young child, that he might have behaved inappropriately with her, or that he was simply using his role as her tutor to make her believe that she was in love with him. But despite all the gossip and questions that they would raise, Guillaume began courting Elettra when she finished at Beauxbatons in 1990. Her parents threatened to disown her if she continued seeing Guillaume, but she didn't care: they eloped within months of her completion of her schooling, settling in Fiesole, well away from where Elettra's family lived in Naples.

Elettra followed her family into Ministry work, but not diplomacy or law, as many of her family members have done: instead, she went for experimental charms. She had always been incredibly skilled in charms at Beauxbatons, and she loved being able to turn her love for that into a career. Guillaume secured a job as a translator, and he continued helping his new wife with increasing the fluency of her French and with learning and becoming fluent in English. Their marriage was a happy one, even mostly cut off from her family as Elettra was. Her siblings, at least, reached out to her, which Elettra was grateful for. They were not quite so black-and-white as their father was, so over the next seven years, she met all eight of her nieces and nephews and was able to act as proud auntie for all of them. As she saw her brothers and sisters start families with their significant others, Elettra hoped to add to the flock of cousins with children of her own. She and Guillaume tried for years to conceive, but children remained out of their reach: Elettra was not getting pregnant. Finally, in 1996, Elettra sought out a Healer who dealt exclusively with fertility issues, and the news she was delivered (after several tests being run on both Elettra and Guillaume) was not good: Elettra was barren. She would never bear children of her own. They briefly discussed other options, things that muggles were trying such as using another woman's eggs, but they ultimately decided that it would be for the best to just accept their childless fate. They also considered adoption, but Elettra was not sure if she would be able to handle raising a child when she could not bear her own.

Over the next few years, as word from England came of the war (and its end), Elettra threw herself into her work, determined that even if she could not have children, she could at least leave a legacy in another way: through her work. She and Guillaume still loved each other and were still best friends, but intimacy between them felt strained after the revelation that they couldn't have children. Elettra often wondered if this was some kind of punishment for falling in love with a "wrong man," but she still loved Guillaume and would have been completely lost without him. The notion of cheating on him, or of him cheating on her, never occurred to her, and they were still happily married.

But Elettra also felt that she needed a change. In 2003, after having heard good things about Britain's Ministry of Magic's Pi Division in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, she applied on a whim to the program. She was absolutely amazed when she was accepted, and Guillaume put in for a transfer to the British Ministry, as well. Once everything was all set up, they moved into a small and cozy cottage in Bath, England, and began working at the Ministry in London, where they have both been ever since.

Personality

Elettra is very quiet and rather introverted. In part, it was due to her parents' notion that children be seen and not heard, in part from being the youngest of five, and in part because of her issues with learning French and English, and also in part due to simply quieting herself down after bringing about all manner of scandal when she fell in love with and married her tutor against her parents' wishes. She is very soft-spoken except when speaking in her native Italian, as she is unsure of her ability to speak other languages. She is most shy about speaking English, as it was her third language and her combination of accents can make it difficult for her to be understood, so whenever she does speak English (as she must around work), she has to make a concentrated effort to speak clearly and make herself understood. It is generally far easier to just stay quiet most of the time and communicate in writing whenever possible.

She is jealous of those around her who take their fertility for granted, for those who might terminate a pregnancy without a second thought, or those who have children then hand them off to nannies to raise. She sees other women with their children and wishes more than anything to be in the mother's shoes. Sometimes, she just can't stand it, she wants a baby more than she wants anything else in the world. But at the same time, she doesn't want to keep getting her hopes up with some of the experimental treatments that her healer back in Italy told her about, because she knows her heart wouldn't take it if she just kept getting her hopes up and then let them get dashed to pieces. Her marriage is slightly strained by the problem, but she still loves her husband with all her heart. He is her grounding force.

Elettra loves to read. Her favourite novels are from the "steampunk" fantasy genre, and she sort of loves the whole clockwork, steam-powered everything idea. In her off time, she likes poking around at muggle electronics, and on trying to build her own little clockwork creations, trying to see if she can create something that is charm-powered instead of steam-powered. With all her work in experimental charms, and now in the Pi division, she has lofty dreams of creating something great that would change the wizarding world for the good. With the lack of a genetic legacy to leave behind, she wants to leave behind a legacy of a different kind of creation. She wants to leave her mark on the wizarding world (in a good way).