Sally-Anne Wood

OOC

Game	Journal	Portrayed By
Sidelines	perky_wood	Blake Lively

Basic Stats

Full Name: Sally-Anne Laurel Wood (née Perks)
Nickname(s): Sally, Sal
Gender: Female
Age: 26
Date of Birth: April 13, 1980
Zodiac: Aries
Sexuality: Straight
Relationship Status: Married to Oliver Wood (Mar 31, 2007)
Bloodline: Pureblood
Hometown: Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England
Current Residence: Bowness-On-Windermere, Cumbria, England
House & Year: Hufflepuff 1998
Occupation: Photographer, owner: Perk Up! Photography
Wand: 10.5 in, maple, unicorn tail hair
Pet: Yellow lab (Dog)

Family

Father: Jack Aaron Perks (wizard; Gryffindor 1965; quidditch commentator)
Mother: Lauren Kelly Perks (née Higgs; witch; Hufflepuff 1965; magical-book binder)
Brother: Arthur Perks (wizard; Gryffindor 1989; Auror; b. September 30, 1970)
Brother: Michael Perks (wizard; Ravenclaw 1991; Auror; b. January 10, 1973)
Brother: Jonathan Perks (wizard; Slytherin 1996; Death Eater, presently in Azkaban; b. October 15, 1977)
Brother: Nicholas Perks (wizard; Ravenclaw 2003; proofreader at Whizzhard Books; writer; b. November 30, 1984)
Sister: Elizabeth Perks (witch; Hufflepuff 2005; trainee healer; b. July 3, 1987)

Husband: Oliver Francis Wood (wizard; Gryffindor 1994; keeper: Montrose Magpies; b. July 22, 1976)
Step-Daughter: Bailey Neve Wood

History

Born on 13 April, 1980, Sally-Anne Perks is a middle child. Not the middle child, as she shares that position with her brother Jonathan. She has three older brothers (Arthur, Michael, and Jonathan), a younger brother (Nicholas), and a younger sister (Elizabeth). Yes, Sally is aware that her family is quite large, but she loves her big family and couldn't imagine a life without her siblings around. Arthur and Michael were so much older than Sally and the other three, though, that she tends to be closer to Jonathan, Nicholas, and Elizabeth, though Jonathan was always her best friend.

Even though money was tight, there was no shortage of love in the Perks household. Dad Jack was a quidditch commentator and mum Lauren worked as a magical-book binder, so while they weren't exactly rolling in the money, they were still able to make ends meet with some money left over. Schoolbooks were often recycled down for the younger siblings, but all that really meant to Sally was that she felt closer to her older brothers by using the same schoolbooks that they had used, seeing their little doodles and notes in the margins.

The Perks children were sorted into widely varied houses, though each was a perfect fit for that particular child. Noble and brave Arthur went into Gryffindor, bookish and curious Michael into Ravenclaw, quiet and cunning Jonathan into Slytherin, loyal and friendly Sally into Hufflepuff, know-it-all Nicholas into Ravenclaw, and earthy and motherly Elizabeth into Hufflepuff. Sally was only ever in school with Jonathan and Nicholas: Michael graduated right before Sally started, and Elizabeth didn't start school until after the war, right after the end of Sally's last year. The different houses that Sally, Jonathan, and Nicholas were in made it hard for the three of them to spend time together, but they tried to visit as much as they could, sometimes eating a meal together at one of their house's tables.

But Sally made herself at home in Hufflepuff right away. She made friends with her roommates, especially Hannah Abbott, and she became the biggest fan of Hufflepuff quidditch that the school had ever seen. Her father had instilled in all of his children a love of the sport, but Sally couldn't play it to save her life. So she contented herself with watching the game and being the biggest fan that she could be. She really got into it, too: painting her face in yellow and black, making banners, and cheering until her throat was raw. In her third year, she even tried to get some of the other girls interested in starting up a Hufflepuff Cheerleading Team, but she couldn't get enough interest. She continued trying every year after that, even in her seventh year because she felt that cheerleaders were exactly what the school needed in the brewing war.

At the tail end of Christmas break in her fifth year, Sally was stricken with dragon pox. After a lengthy stay in St Mungo's, she was permitted to return home, but she was not allowed to return to school to finish up her fifth year. She missed taking the O.W.L.s with her yearmates, but her parents petitioned the Ministry of Magic and got special permission for her to take the exams over the summer. She had kept up with her work while she was sick, simply because she didn't have anything else to do, so she passed her exams more-or-less easily.

As she had recovered and had been given clearance by the hospital to return to school, Sally rejoined her friends in their sixth year. Sally was shaken by the death of Professor Dumbledore at the end of the school year, as well as the small battle that had raged inside the school (in which she hadn't taken part, as Defense and Charms were not her strong suits, and she would have been more of a hinderance than a help, so she stayed in the Hufflepuff Common Room and tried to keep the younger years calm and safe). After a summer of pushing away those feelings of fear into the deepest recesses of her mind, Sally returned for an eventful seventh year, with the Professors Carrow ruling the school. Sally struggled to hide her fear for her brothers' safety, as they were now both Aurors, by concentrating on her classes and on quidditch and trying once again to get a cheerleading team started. She strove to keep morale and moods high in Hufflepuff and among her friends outside the house, because they all needed that more than ever.

When the final battle occurred, Sally once again stayed out of it. She helped to get the younger students out of the school, then followed with them. She felt no guilt over leaving instead of staying and fighting: she would likely have only gotten herself and others killed if she had stayed and tried to fight. So instead, she left and waited for word from friends, waited for the end.

The end was victory, but it was a bittersweet victory for Sally. One of the Death Eaters who was captured during the battle was found to be her beloved brother Jonathan. After he had finished school in 1996, he had ended up joining up with the Death Eaters. Sally felt betrayed and confused, unable to connect the brother that she loved, her best friend, with the murderous Death Eaters. Denial became her new friend as she took the N.E.W.T.s that summer and began searching for jobs as a photographer, a passion she'd cultivated for years. She became very skilled at avoiding any questions about her brother, as well as any speculation that other members of the family might also be connected with the Death Eaters. She convinced herself that Jonathan was simply away on a very long vacation and that was why she hadn't seen him.

In late 2003, after Sally had managed to get herself a job as a photographer for Weekly World News (a weekly muggle newspaper based in London), she met Nathan. Nathan was a muggle and a reporter for the paper, and Sally was frequently his photographer on assignments. Sparks constantly flew between the two of them, and one night after a few celebratory drinks following a particularly juicy scoop they'd gotten together, they gave in to their feelings. A couple months later, on March 18, Sally was hospitalised for a week when the pregnancy that had resulted from that night abruptly ended in its eleventh week in a particularly difficult miscarriage. Sally tries not to speak of that time, she only ever refers to it as The Incident (even to herself) and leaves it at that. But her relationship with Nathan shattered, and she quit her job at the paper and has not seen or spoken with Nathan since. Only her best friend Hannah even knew that she had been pregnant, so she simply didn't want to have to start at the beginning to explain it to anyone else, especially not to her family — she didn't want to tell them that she had gotten pregnant out of wedlock, didn't want to disappoint her parents.

After The Incident, Sally got a job as a photographer for the Daily Prophet in early April, 2004, and she pushed her horrible feelings of hurt and sadness from The Incident deep down inside, letting them take up residence beside the feelings of betrayal from her brother's arrest. She maintained nothing more or less than professional relationships with her coworkers at the Prophet, and she also began staying home more in the evenings instead of going out, or going for long runs by herself, pushing herself to go farther and faster until the only thoughts in her mind are on running. That summer, she adopted a yellow laborador puppy (whom she named Dog) to be her companion and to have someone to join her on her runs.

She stayed like that for well over a year, and it wasn't until late 2005 that she finally started really going out again. And it was a good thing, too, because that was how she met Oliver Wood. What started out as a one-night stand soon evolved into so much more. Sally was already starting to fall in love with him when she was blindsided by the news that he had a young daughter, Bailey, who stirred up all the pain and sadness from The Incident that she had buried so far down inside. If she hadn't already been falling for Oliver, she might have simply walked away, but she just couldn't bring herself to take the easy way out this time. For months, she couldn't tell Oliver why she was so uncomfortable around his adorable, exhuberant daughter. Not until March 21st, when Oliver found a near-catatonic Sally at her house, after he hadn't heard from her all weekend. That Friday had been the anniversary of The Incident, and with Oliver and Bailey in her life, the pain of the anniversary had been too much to bear, and she'd broken down. Oliver held her as she cried, and she finally spilled the whole story to him, explained how seeing his daughter made her acutely aware of what she could have had, and how she was finding herself jealous of her boyfriend for having Bailey when she had lost her own child.

For the first time in her life, Sally was actually facing something unpleasant head-on, she fought to come to terms with The Incident, to actually accept it and move on with her life, and to become comfortable with Oliver's daughter and not be jealous of him. It was a long process, one that's still unfolding, but Sally loves Oliver dearly, and she also loves little Bailey as well, so she feels like she's well on the road to recovery. Even still, she's terrified of becoming pregnant again, afraid that there might be something wrong with her and, if she was to get pregnant again, she would lose that baby, as well.

Unfortunately, Sally's breakdown on the anniversary of The Incident meant that she missed several days from work, including commitments that she had wheedled her boss into giving her just weeks before. When that was coupled with the occasional missed deadline, her boss had enough and fired her. After struggling a bit with what to do, afraid that she'd be unable to get another job as a photographer for a publication (not after so suddenly quitting her job at the Weekly World News with little explanation, then her being fired from the Prophet), Sally started taking on freelance photography jobs — initially just for friends, then branching out as word of mouth spread — to pay her bills. Once she realised that she could maybe make a living with this, she gave it a name (Perk Up! Photography) and started really throwing herself into it. For a while, her new job consumed her life: even though she was self-employed and could set her own hours, she had hit on that old Hufflepuffian hard-workingness, and she really wanted to do well at it. After a few months, though, she tempered out, settling into an easy schedule of sorts that still allowed her to have a life outside of her photography.

In December of 2006, Sally received an early Christmas present from Oliver: although she had semi-teasingly informed him that all she wanted for Christmas was him, he took her up on it and proposed to her. Of course Sally said yes! Not wanting a particularly long engagement, they set a date for early 2007. With their wedding date now approaching, Sally simply cannot wait to become Mrs Sally Wood, and to finally be a mum to Bailey. And, maybe one day, to try again and have children of her own, though she's still terrified by that prospect. She has plans to keep her cottage, even after she officially moves in with Oliver and Bailey, and convert it into a studio for Perk Up! Photography. With the second bedroom already set up as a dark room, she could use the master bedroom, kitchen, entryway, reception room, and backyard for photoshoots, and it would at least give her something of a "storefront" for the business.

Personality

Above anything else, Sally is cheerful. She is a positive, outgoing, happy person who sometimes seems to see the world through rose-colored glasses. The glass is half-full, the grass is quite green enough on this side of the fence, and it's always a beautiful day outside, whether it's sunny and bright or gloomy and stormy. She also has an overabundance of energy, with plenty not only for herself but also for at least two other quite energetic people, as well. From a young age, she could never quite hold still, and this continued throughout her life. She's never been content to just sit around and be idle and do nothing, she always has to be doing something. She loves sports of all kind, particularly quidditch and muggle football, though she can't play quidditch herself as she has trouble staying seated on a broomstick. She can often be found in some wide open grassy space or other, kicking around a muggle football or just running.

Sally is also a bit of a flake. She'll frequently put something down in a random place and forget where it is. She was never all too skilled at charms in school, so accio is a bit hit-or-miss, which means that she spends lots of time digging around and looking for things. It would help somewhat if she was more organised, but it's still questionable how much that would actually help. For years, she would also forget appointments and meetings, so she finally bought a magical planner that would not only make noise if she ever lost it, but it also made plenty of noise to remind her of anything she wrote down in it (so now the only problem is remembering she has it and to write things down in it). She's lost a few jobs in the past, because of her flakiness and forgetting that she had a deadline or that she had to be somewhere on time, but in recent years (since The Incident), she's become somewhat better at that, so she managed to hold a job at the Daily Prophet as a photographer for almost two years. Running her own business (Perk Up! Photography, which started as her just being a freelance photographer after losing her Prophet job) has also helped to temper her flaky tendencies.

She is also incredibly loyal to her former house, her friends, and her family (not necessarily in that order). She would do anything including cut off one of her own limbs for them. She was always the person in the stands at the Hufflepuff quidditch matches cheering the loudest for her team, with her face all painted in black and yellow (and she would loudly cheer for any of her friends in other houses who were on their quidditch teams … so long as they weren't playing against Hufflepuff). She even tried to get a Hufflepuff Cheerleading Team started, though she remained the Unofficial Hufflepuff Cheerleader throughout her seven years at Hogwarts. She would also be willing to completely drop everything in order to be there for a friend.

She does, however, have some of that Hufflepuffian Hard-Work Ethic that the Sorting Hat sang about, it's just kind of buried. She is willing to put the time in to do the work necessary. In school, she would try to work hard in the classes that interested her. In work, she can manage to sit down and get her work done. If it's time for her to buckle down and take something serious for a while, she'll suck it up and settle down, if only for a little while (but then she's back to bouncing off the walls and running around acting goofy again).

Sally tends to hide her negative emotions. If she feels happy, the whole world knows it. If she's in love, she might quite literally climb onto a roof and yell it for the world to hear. But if something upsets or hurts her, she bottles it up and buries it down deep inside, trying to cover it up with smiles and sunshine because maybe then that will make everything okay. She just cannot manage to let her hurt and sad feelings out. But if something hits her really hard, like when her beloved brother was found out to be a Death Eater or The Incident, she loses herself and her way a little. She feels as though her world is flipped upside-down, and she can't find her way back up. She either retreats into herself and waits for the bad feelings to go away, or she tries to outrun them and leave them behind.

After her times spent in the hospital (both the month in fifth year with dragon pox, then the week following The Incident), Sally has developed a minor phobia of hospitals. They only seem to hold negative memories for her, so she tries to avoid them as much as possible. If she wants to meet her healer-trainee sister for lunch, they meet up well outside of the hospital walls, and Sally tries not to visit her at work.