Playby: Caryn Franklin
The Basics
Full Name:Florence Cecelia Kettlewick
Known As: Florence
Nicknames: Flo, Flora
Current Age: 42
Date of Birth: November 12th, 1923
Place of Birth: Aberdeen, Scotland
Place of Residence: Hogwarts castle, now that she's a portrait
Race: Witch
Blood Line: Fullblood
Education: Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft
Appearance
Florence is a woman who is clearly middle-aged, as shown by her numerous new wrinkles on her face, and the appearance of quite a few gray hairs. She’s a particularly thin woman, with dark eyebrows and brooding eyes. A smile is not a comfortable thing on this woman’s face. She wears no excessive jewelry, as it would only be in her way. Florence’s hair is cut short, and falls right below the ears, falling into natural curls.
The Person Behind the Portrait
Florence Kettlewick never intended on becoming the subject for a painting. She was a woman who had no time to waste with such frivolities and silliness. Florence always had places to be and things to do. Ms. Kettlewick was born in 1923, to a pureblood family that lived in Scotland for decades upon decades. She possessed magical ability as well, and attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry between the ages of 11 and 17, where she was a typical, if not constantly flustered and irritated, student. Florence’s lifestyle was fast paced and stressful, as she always tried to fill every moment of every day with tasks, for the simple reason that she liked to be busy. Being busy to her meant she was doing important things, even if it wasn’t really the case. She was often viewed as odd and uptight by her peers, and it had been said plenty of times that Florence Kettlewick wouldn’t know what humor was if it bit her right in the behind.
Florence went about her life after leaving Hogwarts, settling back in with her parents for nearly six years as she wasn't ready to live alone just yet, but ended up not being able to handle living with them as their attitudes and ideas clashed too severely. She then moved out on her own, and held a simple secretarial job at a muggle business office near where she lived, where she met a man by the name of Nicolas Emberwand. He too had magical abilities, Florence soon found out, and they became very good friends. Nicolas was an aspiring artist who only kept his job at the muggle work so he could fund himself as he tried to make his name known in the world of art. He always pressured and bothered Florence to let him paint her, just one simple time, but she always declined, thinking the whole thing silly.
Nicolas decided he would paint a portrait of Florence anyway, and surprised her with it for her 35th birthday. It was a painting of Florence in a simple top, with her curly hair and clear features proudly dominating the canvas. She immediately disliked the portrait even if it was of superb quality and talent. Florence thought the notion of her owning a portrait of herself made her as stuck up and snobby as her parents, and so the woman hid the large painting behind her even larger dresser, where she hoped to never find it again.
After Florence died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 42 (the cause of which was attributed to her constant high stress and unhealthy blood pressure levels), her relatives searched through the small house to see what they could take of hers. Finding the portrait, it was passed around from person to person, until it was agreed upon that none of them could bear to keep it. In company, they would claim it was too much of a reminder of their sudden loss, but in actuality it was simply because they didn’t want a portrait of Florence constantly complaining at them.
Florence’s parents sent correspondence to Hogwarts to ask if there was a possibility that the portrait could be hung within the school, along with the hundreds of other portraits, so Florence might not get too lonely. When it was agreed upon, the portrait was sent to Hogwarts, where it just sat around for a while in one of the storerooms until the caretaker at the time decided to hang it within the girl’s bathroom on the fourth floor of the castle. That bathroom was particularly lacking in décor at the time, and the addition of the painting did add some spark to the room.
Living in a bathroom, clearly, might make one quite upset. Upset couldn’t even come close to describing Florence. The woman in the painting has always been very bitter about where she was placed. She’s been residing in her portrait in a bathroom for years now, and while she does know she’s free to roam about the other paintings, Florence does not get along very well with the other paintings. Living in a bathroom does have it’s interesting sides, though, as she found out. Florence has seen hundred of pranks, heard all the gossip there is to hear, and even experienced a severe flooding accident that happened in the winter of ‘85. Her existence thus far has been rather quiet though, even if it does involve regular spats with the students and portrait inhabitants at Hogwarts.
