Emilija Draganov

NAME: Emilija Sofija Draganov.
GENDER: Female.
AGE: Thirty (30); appears in her late twenties (20s) due to slightly slowed aging.
DATE OF BIRTH: 27th December, 1986.
PLACE OF BIRTH: Sofia, Bulgaria.

HOUSE: Emilija did not attend Ilvermorny.
WAND: 14”; Dragon Heartstring; Blackthorn; Slightly rigid.
BLOOD TYPE: Halfblood Vampire.

PROFESSION: Potions Mistress.

APPEARANCE: Emilija is very tall and very skinny; she stands at six feet even (6’0”), and weighs 120lbs when soaking wet. Quidditch has kept her in shape, but after her mother’s death, she just retreated back into herself; she stopped eating much as well. She has been told her face looks much like her father’s though she has neither ever met nor ever seen photographs of the man to substantiate these claims. The most notable traits she has inherited from her father is her slightly high forehead, cat-like brown eyes, long straight nose, small mouth, and her almost haughty-looking cheekbones. Her hair is red, but is ever quite sure if it wants to be the color of blood, a normal red, orange-blonde, or perhaps a dark auburn like her mother’s.

Lija attributes this to an extreme case of accidental magic in her youngest years, and doesn’t think much of it. She seems to possess a wiry power, but with how asocial she is, she hardly ever puts this on display. (The power itself comes from her half-vampiric nature, as do her slightly elongated canines.) Given her retreating back into herself during her teen years, her body has been affected. Despite the lean muscles in her arms and legs, if one were to see her topless, her ribs could be counted and her hip bones seen clearly. (This is also likely another reason she never lets anyone close to her and her emotions.) Also, her near-permanent frown has etched small lines around her mouth, thus enhancing her resemblance to her father just that much more.

PERSONALITY: Emilija is a quiet, studious individual. She's always been bright and happy, but also content to be by herself with her books and her mother. (She was quick to be judged as asocial, and she just accepted this as it was.) Or, that was before her mother passed away rather suddenly. Following that, her personality changed to reflect her emotional and physical changes. The most noticeable, was that Lija hadn't spoken since she learned of her mother's death when she was fifteen. Once full of life and a zeal for learning, Emilija became somewhat despondent and depressed. Though she would learn and do well on tests and things, no-one got a single word or even an enthused reaction from her since her mother passed away.

It was almost as if, when her mother died, a good part of Emilija died as well. Her likes were few after that, and some only she herself knew of, such as that she was attracted to women. Otherwise, things that tickle her fancy – to put it lightly – were and still are reading, Quidditch, potions, and her mother (the last falls under the “love” category, but that is neither here nor there). Lija also dislikes few things, but the most prominent happen to be men, divination, heat, rain, disappointing her mother, and though she will never admit it, she still holds a dislike for her father. (The fact that he, too, is no-longer among the living means nothing to her.) Not that this judgment was hasty, on her part. How could anyone like the person whom supposedly fathered them, if said person sent a (questionable) total of five letters in twelve years?

As to her fears, strengths, weaknesses, and habits, they are all easily enough explained. To begin with her fears, she fears being hated, though she doesn’t ever show it or let on to it, and has almost been turned to insomnia by her recurring nightmares of her mother’s passing (even if she was at school when it occurred). Her strengths lie in potions, her intellect, and schooling her expression blank. On the other hand, her weaknesses lie in her emotions (expression, dealing with, or otherwise), her temper (that is one thing she most definitely inherited from her father), and her ability to hold grudges/hate. To conclude, her habits are slightly less profound. She tends to place her hands into her pockets often, bite her nails when she’s extremely nervous or scared, and she has the bad habit of not taking her medicating potions (appetite stimulant, anti-depressant, dreamless sleep).

HISTORY: Conceived in April of 1985 and born in January of 1986, Emilija was most definitely not a planned baby. She was told of the circumstances surrounding her conception and birth when she was older, and Lija can’t really say she was surprised. Her father's explanation – in a letter, she still notes with disgust – was that, when he had come across Aneliya, her resemblance to his first and only love had been what drew him in. He had been unable to help himself. Things had taken their course, and Emilija was born nine months later. She was also not surprised that neither of her parents had felt anything for the other, save for one night of attraction. Being raised by her mother, whom remained single, in Bulgaria, Emilija's childhood was relatively quiet. She began reading at a young age, and her mother made it a point to foster her daughter's love of knowledge in whatever way she could. Emilija also quickly showed an uncanny aptitude for knowing about herbs and plants, especially about what they were used for, where to find them, and the best way to gather them. She began showing that talent at six, being able to rattle off the aforementioned information after having only heard it three times at most. Emilija had very few friends while growing up, but she liked it that way. She could spend more time with her mother learning, or reading without the noise and mess of other children to deal with. Some called her self-absorbed, and uncannily asocial, but Aneliya just put it down to her daughter's scholarly nature, which she must have inherited from her father. As for how others saw this, Emilija would always hear people whispering, saying things about her; mostly that she was so strange because she was half-foreign. As a child, she ignored them; as an adolescent and young teen, she would fling harsh words right back at them.

Emilija started attending Durmstrang when she was eleven. Here, she quickly transferred her knowledge of herbs and plants to potions, finding that she both loved the subject, and had an innate knack for it. She was placed in the dorm which would have been equivalent to Ravenclaw because of her intellect. Though she knew a few children in her year, she never really had friends. As when she was a child, she preferred to be alone with her studies and her books. The next three years passed quietly. For Emilija, nothing much changed. She still had few friends, and still excelled in her studies. In her second year, she began receiving sporadic and extremely formal letters from her father. There would be many months between letters, but Aneliya still began teaching Emilija English, so that she could eventually write back herself. As with all her studies, Lija grasped the language quickly, and practiced whenever she could, be it in writing, reading, or speaking. She didn't know at the time how much she would be grateful for this knowledge. Just two months before Emilija turned fifteen, her mother took sick and passed away shortly after. Emilija was both shocked and incredibly saddened by this. She withdrew completely, speaking to no-one, and not even communicating to teachers. It was as if she had gone mute. (This later developed into selective mutism.) It was suggested she be sent to live with her father, but as he could neither be found nor identified – only Lija knew, but she wasn’t telling, and her natural Occlumency barriers kept anyone from reading her mind to retrieve the information – another situation was proposed. She would be treated, essentially, an emancipated minor. That decided, she obtained a part-time occupation at an apothecary, and was allowed to continue to live in the home she and her mother had previously shared. She was given help monetarily only if she asked for it; otherwise, her income was her own business.

So far as her schooling was concerned, nothing much changed, save for the fact that her few friends withdrew from her. It wasn’t like she minded, really; she hadn’t been close to them to begin with, and it gave her time to deal with her grief on her own. As said, she had stopped consuming any sort of human food, but this really wasn’t the issue; she had stopped paying attention to her blood intake, as well. Though she never attacked anyone, a few emergency blood transfusions were performed during her fifth and sixth years of schooling, after she collapsed into a nearly catatonic state. Over the summer between her sixth and seventh years of schooling, she somewhat got her life together, though she still refused to speak or to show emotion. It was her own way of mourning her mother’s death. As for her seventh and final year of schooling, Emilija tested out as quickly as she could, receiving all O’s, save for an E in Charms. She spent the next ten years studying for her potions mastery, leaving Bulgaria and all her memories of her mother behind once she had acquired her certification in 2013. She first went to England to try and find her father, but after discovering that he had died in an event known as the Battle of Hogwarts, she quickly left the country, deciding that there was nothing else for her there. Moving to America, she settled in New Ashford, Massachusetts, the closest place to Ilvermorny school that was also somewhat secluded and remote. She began teaching there in 2014, and became head of House Horned Serpent in 2015. Only the Head of the School is aware of her… heritage, and she is perfectly comfortable with that.