Shayla Lennox - 27- Curator

[Shayla Lennox]

Shayla Rhianne Lennox

PB: Rose McGowan

Name: Shayla Rhianne Norcutt-Lennox
Nicknames: Shay, Little Pea
Age: 27
Birthday: March 29, 1969
Education: Graduated from Hogwarts in 1987, Ravenclaw House.
Place of Birth: Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, United Kingdom
Hometown: Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom
Current Place of Residence: Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom
Profession: Curator of Forbidden Texts for Library of the Ministry of Magic
Previous Employment: English Teacher (Russia 1992-1993)
Assistant Collections Manager for Russian National Museum of Magic (1993-1995)
Languages Spoken: English, Russian

Appearance: Shayla has small deep blue eyes and dark brown, almost black, hair. Her hair is flows a bit past her shoulders and is naturally a mix of wavy and straight. She usually tries to wear it in some sort of loose curl to add uniformity. She wears her hair down most of the time, unless she is feel particularly lazy, in which case she throws it into a messy ponytail. She keeps a hair tie around her left wrist so she can easily pull up her hair if she needs to. She uses her hair to hide her ears, which stick out and are very noticeable. They remind her of elves ears (pointy and large) though they really aren’t that noticeable. She has a pale complexion and her skin burns easily in the sun. She stands 5 foot 2 inches tall and is quite slender


Personality: Most people describe Shayla as a kind, considerate person. This is true to an extent. Shayla was raised to treat strangers kindly and behave in public no matter what. She still carries this with her and treats everyone, no matter how vile, with a standard level of courtesy. She does have quite the temper though, and when the right buttons are pushed, it doesn’t take much to get her angry. She is an expert at hiding her true feelings. She puts on an air of happiness when she feels quite the opposite. She is easily led to feel guilty about how situations turn out now matter where the actual blame lies. She worries a lot about small decisions and is impulsive when it comes to making big decisions.

Shayla is a very neat person. In order for her to work in a space it must be clean and organized. She is an avid reader. She loves to learn new things and explore different ideas and ways of thinking through reading. She generally loves spending time in the outdoors, especially in forests. Something about the quiet and isolation brings her peace. Her favorite food is chocolate. It is a small pleasure that calms her down when she is stressed or angry. Her hobby is doing crafts, such as sewing and knitting. She finds fulfillment in completing a project and watching others enjoy her work.

Strengths: Critical Thinking, Focused, Independent
Weaknesses: Indecisive, Impulsive, Short Temper

Hobbies:

Favorites:
Color: Royal Blue
Food: Chocolate

Music:
Places:


Dislikes:


Mother's Magical Status: Witch
Father's Magical Status: Wizard
Strongest Ability: identifying enchantments
Weakest Ability: brewing potions
Wand: 11 inches, Hazel, Phoenix feather core


Father: Asher Briscoe Norcutt, is a pure-blood wizard. He was in Slytherin when he attended Hogwarts. He is 47 years old and works in his family’s trade of potion making and invention.

Step-mother: Desta Patricia Norcutt (née Mac), who 45 years old. She was in Hufflepuff and is a pure-blood. She is a housewife.

Mother: Mary Louise Roberts (née Lennox), is 46 years old. She is a half-blood witch and was in Ravenclaw House. She owns a shop selling homemade bath salts, shampoos, soaps, etc to muggles and wizarding folk alike.

Step-father: Keith Michael Roberts, who 44 years old. He is a muggle and works with his wife Mary.

Half-siblings:
Marius Norcutt, 22 Slytherin alum
Jenny Louise Roberts, 9

Personal History:

Shayla’s parents, Mary Lennox and Asher Norcutt, met at Hogwarts. They were not in the same house, they were not even in the same year (Asher is a year older), but somehow they became friends. From friends they became lovers. The pair had very different backgrounds and beliefs, but they had very similar personalities. Asher’s parents were quite appalled that their son had fallen in love with a halfblood, but they knew it wouldn’t last long so they let it pass as teenage rebellion. His parent’s were right, but they could not foresee that their son would end up getting his new infatuation pregnant.

Asher and Mary were determined to make things right. They moved in together and got jobs to support themselves. They never married though. In March 1969 their daughter Shayla was born. Pretty soon, the stress of a child began to wear on the couple and they broke up. Mary took Shayla and moved in with her parent in Richmond. Asher moved back to his family estate in Kent. Every four or so months, he would travel to Richmond to visit his daughter. His visits were generally tense. Both Mary and Asher were quite stubborn and refused to let the past go. Shortly after Shayla turned four, Ahser stopped visiting. He sent money to Mary, but Mary always sent it back.

Shayla had a nice childhood despite the fact that her father was absent. Mary was determined to make it on her own, and bought a small flat in Kingston Upon Thames when Shayla was six. She worked several jobs to earn enough money to open a shop selling homemade bath salts, shampoos, and soaps. She never really dated as Shayla was growing up.

Shayla went to Hogwarts in September of 1980. It was no real surprise that she was sorted into Ravenclaw. She excelled in most of her classes, although she seemed to have a difficult time in potions. She loved flying and joined the quidditch team as a chaser in her third year. The summer after her third year, her mother married a Muggle named Keith Roberts. He was a very nice man, and he made Mary extremely happy, but Shayla was very surprised by their union. She was a little upset that she had to keep magic a secret from Keith, but she got over quickly as he became more and more like her father.

Things changed a lot for Shayla in her fourth year. A first year boy named Marius Norcutt was sorted into Slytherin. Shayla tried to shake it off as a coincidence that they shared the same last name, but the fact that he looked like her and was sorted into the same house as her father made it hard for her not to think they were related. Her friends cheered her up a bit reminding her that if they were related, he was likely just a cousin. Shayla was able to push her worries about Marius to the back of her mind and focus on school, quidditch, and even boys.

Her suspicions about Marius proved to be true at the end of her fifth year. Shayla happened to be riding in the same train carriage as Marius on the trip from Hogwarts to London. She followed him off the train and onto the platform and right to his parents. Shayla had not actually seen Asher in 11 years, but she had memorized his face from photographs. The man she saw with Marius was definitely and older version of the man in the photographs. She was overcome with anger when she pieced it all together. In an impulsive fit of rage, she began yelling expletives at Asher as everyone nearby looked on in confusion and horror. At first, he seemed confused, but he was quick to figure out that the petit girl screaming at him was his daughter. He left a very confused Marius behind with this mother and led Shayla, blind with anger, to parking lot. He spoke to her, but to this day Shayla cannot remember what he said.

Shayla hid of all this from her mother. Mary was finally happy and Shayla did not dare ruin it. She suffered silently for most of the summer. Returning to school for her sixth year was hard for Shayla. She was not looking forward to all the ridicule she would get for her meltdown at Kings Cross, and she certainly did not want to be anywhere near Marius. Her first months back were fine, but then she began getting mail from Asher. At first she didn’t even read the letters he wrote. Eventually she began to read them aloud to her close friends, mocking his words as she did. Then she began to write him back. She had always wished for him to come back into her life, she just hadn’t imagined it would be because of her brother.

Toward the end of her sixth year she began to develop a relationship with Marius. It wasn’t much, but she wanted him to know she didn’t blame him for anything that had happened. As far as she could tell, he had no idea she existed until that day at Kings Cross Station. That summer, Mary told Shayla that she was expecting a child with Keith. Shayla was excited, though a little overwhelmed at the thought of having another sibling. She still hadn’t told Mary about Marius, but she figured that now was as good of a time as any. Mary was naturally upset that she was left with the burden to raise Shayla alone while Asher was off starting another family, but she was more concerned about how Shayla was dealing with it all.

Shayla’s seventh year saw the birth of a new little sister (Jenny) and the passing of several NEWTS. Unlike most of her classmates, Shayla had not settled on a specific career path. She worried about this quite frequently but never made any decisions. After leaving Hogwarts in June of 1987, she spent the summer living with her father and the rest of her paternal family at their manner near Kent. It was quite stressful for Shayla. She often felt resentment toward Marius for having had such a nice, spoiled childhood. She left Kent and returned to Kingston in late August and remained there until the end of the year.

In 1988 Shayla decided that she wanted to see the world. With money given to her by Asher, she headed off for Spain. She travelled around from city to city, soaking in the culture and sights. In April of 1989, while at a quidditch match in Italy, Shayla met stunning Russian man named Yuri Patsayeva. She was just 19, while he was 25. She was drawn to him in ways she could not describe. He seemed to be so carefree. Nothing was too great of an obstacle for him. Six months after they met they were engaged, and on the one year anniversary of their meeting, they were married in a forest in Tasmania. They hoped around from country to country making money doing odd jobs. He taught her to speak Russian and she taught him how to cook. They never stayed in one place for more than four months.

While stopping in England to visit Shayla’s family (who had not seen her since she left), they decided to settle in Russia and get real jobs. Shayla was still pretty happy. She loved Yuri and was excited to live make a home for herself in Russia. In the summer of 1991 they moved to the town of Anapa on the edge of the Black Sea. Yuri got a job managing a pub and inn owned by his cousin and Shayla got a job as an English teacher. A year later, Shayla moved on to a job working in Collections for the Museum of Russian Magic. Things were great for a while, but by the beginning of 1993 Shayla began to realize why Yuri had been traveling the world at 25 instead of working a steady job. To put it simply, he wasn’t cut out for a normal job. He got bored. He began to come home late smelling like firewhiskey and perfume. She ignored it for a while before confronting him about it. This only made things worse. He became verbally abuse and blaming her for how horrible things were. Shayla earned a promotion, which allowed for her to travel every few weeks, visiting foreign ministries and magical settlements. It also gave her time away from Yuri.

Shayla tried to fix things with her marriage. She didn’t want to fail at it, sort of like her parents had, but she slowly began to realize that there was really nothing left to fix. Yuri was not good husband material, at least not for her. Just after their 5th wedding anniversary in 1995 she decided to leave him. She left one night while he was out, leaving behind a letter for him. Within a few days, Yuri showed up in England to fetch her. She had already set up interviews with the British Ministry of Magic, but he promised to do whatever it took to make her come back. Shayla agreed to split her time between England and Russia in order to try and work things out, but it became obvious that while she was away, Yuri was the same drunk, cheating husband he’d been for the past few years. In mid-September of 1995, Shayla left Yuri for good and moved into her mother’s old flat in Kingston. She sent Yuri divorce papers a few weeks after arriving, and he promptly signed them and sent them back. Shayla was confused, upset, and embarrassed at how things had turned out. She wasn’t sure how she let her life become such a disaster but she was determined to turn things around. She secured a job as the Curator of Forbidden Texts for Library of the Ministry of Magic shortly after her permanent return to England. She found the job to be quite the exciting opportunity that allowed her to learn new things and put her interests and knowledge to some use.

On June 11, 1996 Shayla gave birth to a daughter named Nadia Louise Lennox.