#a couple of fcs have been changed as well due to lack of resources

[bdrmhymnz]

idk why it took me so damn long but my mobile muse pages are officially overhauled! check em out if you like here. everyone now has small blurbs and any full bios are also available on mobile friendly pages as well 🙂‍↕️🫶🏼 now that theres proper info up for everyone if theres anyone that catches your eye im always happy to plot and talk abt them!

[veritas-roleplay]

CORDELLA FIGG ♦︎ SLYTHERIN ALUMNA ♦︎ ORDER MEMBER ♦︎ FC: ADRIA ARJONA ♦︎ TAKEN

B I O G R A P H Y :

(tw: child abuse)

Cordella Figg’s childhood was idyllic. True, the Figgs lived in the smallest house in their neighborhood, and money was always tight, but what they lacked in finances, they made up for in love. Nowhere was this more evident than in the relationship between the two daughters, Arabella and Cordella. On the surface they looked like complete opposites. Arabella was girly, always in a clean dress and a prim bow. Cordella was a tomboy, more likely to be wearing grass-stained jeans than anything else. Arabella was fierce and opinionated. Cordella was quiet and shy. Despite this, the two girls were as close as sisters could be, and they took care of each other. Arabella stuck up for Cordella when she wouldn’t do so herself. When a boy stole Arabella’s hair ribbons, Cordella snuck into the classroom during recess to steal them back. Arabella helped Cordella with her homework, and Cordella helped Arabella take care of the stray cats she was always rescuing.  

If anything was missing from Cordella’s life, it was friendship. True, she and Bella were as close as can be, but they were still sisters, and three years apart to boot. Sometimes they got on each other’s nerves, and sometimes Bella didn’t want her little sister tagging along. So Cordie did on occasion find herself a little lonely. This changed when the McKinnons next door adopted their first child. Hercules was the exact same age as Cordella, and she decided from the moment he arrived that he would be hers, not Bella’s. Her responsibility to welcome to the neighborhood. Her best friend who she could do fun things with when Bella was hanging out with the big kids. Luckily, Hercules was just as eager for a friend as Cordie. Together, they learned Morse Code so they could communicate via flashlight after bedtime. When they got older, Herc would drag Cordie up to the roof to look at the stars and talk about life. Yes, Cordella Figg’s childhood was idyllic, until it wasn’t.

Life is not fair. It was Cordella’s earliest and hardest lesson. As a little girl Cordella idolized her older sister; to young Cordie there was nothing Arabella could not do. It was some time before Cordella realized just how wrong she was. She was the last person in the family to give up on Bella, believing she would receive a Hogwarts letter all the way through her 11th birthday. It didn’t matter to Cordie that Bella had never shown a lick of magical ability, she had faith in the universe that things would work out right in the end, and she knew that things wouldn’t be right if the Figg sisters didn’t attend Hogwarts together. When Arabella’s birthday came and went without an owl, Cordella was by far the most upset. The rest of the Figgs had lowered their expectations; even Arabella was quietly resigned to her fate. The Figgs were the quintessential British family, taking everything with a stiff upper lip. It was a trait Cordie hadn’t learned yet; she raged. She screamed at the sky, cried into her pillow, put quill to parchment to tell Hogwarts it had made a mistake. In the end it was Arabella who stopped her, who first uttered the words, “life is not fair.”

The phrase twisted around Cordella’s heart and haunted her like an unwelcome ghost. She was reminded of it every day as the Figg family slowly fell apart. It quickly became clear that Mr. and Mrs. Figg didn’t know how to relate to their squib daughter and Arabella began to pull away from her entire family, even her little sister. Three years later when her own Hogwarts letter came right on time, Cordella heard the words echoing in her head. She threw them back at the Sorting Hat when it tried to put her in Hufflepuff, the house of justice and fairness. She used them as an anchor, keeping her expectations low when they tried to creep up, tamping down her natural optimism. She was an unusually, and even to some people alarmingly, serious 11 year old. She had trouble making friends, always fighting to be the best at everything, to prove, even though she didn’t fully realize it, that she deserved this great chance that the far superior Arabella had been denied. It didn’t help that Cordella’s shyness came across as stuck up.

Other classmates assumed Cordella fit right in with her fellow snakes in Slytherin house, but the truth was not quite so simple. She was not ambitious so much as driven, and while the frugality she’d learned from her parents was certainly resourceful, it was the sort of thing many of her housemates sneered at, and even more simply didn’t understand. She quickly learned it was better to keep her head down and that some secrets kept you safe. Emerald and silver ended up being a somewhat awkward fit for Cordella, and she clung to what few friends she had from before Hogwarts, particularly Hercules and Anthea McKinnon. It was by virtue of their friendship that she wasn’t completely alone and that she, eventually, gained some friends of her own. Slowly, over the course of several years, she found her footing at Hogwarts. A small but true group of friends kept her company when she wanted it, and in her fifth year she finally earned a place in her house as, if not Slytherin’s best chaser, at least its hardest working one.

As Cordella’s prospects brightened at school, they darkened at home. Before she’d left for Hogwarts Cordie had held the Figgs together by sheer force of will, but as the years went by her absence in the Figg household was more and more noticeable as the rift between Mr. and Mrs. Figg and their eldest daughter widened into a gaping chasm. The final break came when Arabella turned 18. She was of age by muggle laws, and she planned to leave her parents house and strike out on her own, and she told Cordella this when she was home for Christmas. With time, Cordella would come to understand her sister’s decision, but in the moment it was devastating. She didn’t understand how her sister could abandon her. To cope, she leaned on the group of friends she’d built around her, spending more time at the McKinnons’ house next door than her own home over the holiday. When she returned to Hogwarts, she threw herself even deeper into her studies and spent most of the rest of her time practicing quidditch.

That old phrase that had followed her for so long came back to mind. Life is not fair. Life’s not fair, but this time it was different. This was not the whims of fate gifting one sister but not the other, this was Bella making a choice, and it was a choice that, to Cordie’s thinking, was not fair. It was a turning point in the life of Cordella Figg, when her earliest and hardest learned lesson took on a new facet. Yes, life is not fair—but everyday we make choices that make it more or less so. Slowly, she processed this new truth, turning it over in her mind in a methodical way, letting it chip away at the weight that had covered her innate optimism for so long. When the idea finally settled, it became her raison d’etre. Cordella went in for her 5th year career consultation knowing she wanted to do something that would help her make choices that would make life more fair for everyone, or at least more than just herself. Her end goal was a seat on the Wizengamot, and her head of house told her the best way to get there would be as a lawyer. So, for her last two years at Hogwarts, Cordella tailored her studies to a curriculum that would be appealing to a prestigious law firm, because if she learned one thing being a Slytherin, it was if you’re going to do something you might as well be the best at it.

For a while following her graduation, it seemed like everything was coming up Cordie. After three years of little more than cards for Christmas and Birthdays, Arabella attended Cordella’s graduation party, and even spent a few days at home with her afterwards. During this time, Bella explained that she’d never intended to shut Cordie out of her life forever, but she’d needed some time to learn who she was beyond a squib, and who she could be in a world where no one cared that she didn’t have magic. She also apologized for shutting Cordella out and making her feel abandoned. This was the beginning of healing for the Figg sisters. When Cordella aced her interview with one of the most eminent law firms in wizarding London, Arabella was the first person she told, and the sisters celebrated together. Since then they’ve been steadily rebuilding their relationship. Cordella happily shares in Arabella’s muggle world, but it’s still difficult for Bella to be a part of Cordie’s magical one. Nevertheless, the sisters are now very nearly closer than they have ever been.

While Cordella’s relationship with her sister flourished, her legal career was more of a mixed bag. She quickly proved herself to be a valuable asset to her firm, commanding the courtroom with an imposing presence that was belied by her otherwise soft spoken and unassuming manner, but it wasn’t long before her trouble with authority reared its head. Cordella wanted to be able to choose her own cases, not be handed the scraps that none of the other, more senior attorneys wanted, and she didn’t like the stuck up, often guilty, and always rich clients such a well known and expensive firm attracted. She did her best to stick it out, but it quickly became clear she didn’t have the patience necessary to pay her dues and work her way up the ladder to the senior partnership that would be necessary for her to have the kind of autonomy she wanted. She’d been at the firm less than six months when she was asked to defend a couple charged with negligent abuse of their squib son. Cordella refused, quit, and offered her services to the social worker advocating for the son instead all in the same day.

It would be nice to say that there was an air of kismet about the whole affair. That Cordella and the social worker shared a righteous fury over the boy’s plight that carried them to victory, but such was not the case. The social worker was simply desperate, and low on funds, and Cordie was very nearly the only person willing to take the case, and far and away the cheapest. Cordella put up a compelling argument in the courtroom. She fought tooth and nail for a guilty verdict, but try as she might, and she certainly did, she couldn’t rouse enough sympathy in the jury. The battle was lost, but Cordella’s reputation was made. She became known as the champion of lost causes, the person you go to when you’ve been laughed out of every other office in the city. Immediately following the trial, Cordella was dreading going on the job hunt and having to defend her choice to represent a squib, and her subsequent loss, to potential employers. She was shocked to find that she didn’t have to. Cases found her, even without the support of a firm backing her, and Cordella began to see a way she could practice law on her own terms, and no one else’s. She still loses more cases than she wins, but the odds get better every year. More importantly, she’s made a name for herself as the primary thorn in the side of firms just like the one she used to work for, and she finds that intensely gratifying.

D E T A I L S :

☛ CANON INFORMATION : [ sister of Arabella Figg ]

☛ AFFILIATION : Order of the Phoenix

☛ BLOOD STATUS : halfblood

☛ AGE : 26

☛ FORMER HOUSE : Slytherin

☛ TRAITS :

     Positives : resourceful / brave / diplomatic

     Negatives : jealous / judgmental / secretive

☛ OCCUPATION : barrister 

C O N N E C T I O N S :

ANTHEA MCKINNON, HERCULES MCKINNON, ROSMERTA MALLOY : close friends

FLORENCE FORTESCUE : secret crush, admires

BEATRICE PUDDIFOOT : former tutor, close

LUCIUS MALFOY, CORNELIUS FUDGE, GILBERT GAMP : finds suspicious, curious about

EDGAR BONES, ALICE BARNETT, KINGSLEY SHACKLEBOLT : finds too intense

MARGARET MCKINNON, MARLENE MCKINNON, DORCAS MEADOWES : family friends, protective of