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profile: senior year
uh oh, see another mountain to climb
but i, oh i, i got stamina
but i, oh i, i got stamina
GENERAL
NAME: Clementine Sidonie Decourt. Despite being ridiculously French, her name is pronounced with her father's drawl throughout (KLEM-en-tein SID-nee de-KURT).
NICKNAMES: Clem, almost exclusively. At Ilvermorny people called her "Tiny", but she hates it now.
AGE/DOB: 17 / March 3, 1997.
BLOOD STATUS: Half-blood.
GENDER/PRONOUNS: Nonbinary. Currently identifies as female. She/her.
While Clem doesn't really have the language or resources to express her gender identity she fits somewhere in the range of androgynous/genderfluid. She'd describe it as feeling like a boy and a girl at the same time rather than feeling like some third option entirely. She experiences bouts of mild gender dysphoria and will sometimes dress in androgynous or boy's clothes. Other times, she's perfectly fine getting dressed up pretty and wearing dresses. Occasionally she'll feel like someone who's not a girl but wants to be one, and then she feels bad, because... isn't she? This is all very confusing and she keeps a tight lid on it.SEXUALITY: Bisexual.
HOMETOWN: Gold Gulch, California. A very small town in the Sierra Nevadas, it was founded during the gold rush and was ironically famed for its silver mine. The mine is long since depleted, and all of the nomaj residents left decades ago, leaving only the small and isolationist wizard population.
CONCEPT: Tunnel-visioned career athlete is small, packs a big punch.
PHYSICAL
APPEARANCE: Although Clem still has a penchant for wearing athletic clothes as casual wear, her appearance this year is much more polished and feminine. She keeps her hair brushed and braided when she's working out and occasionally wears make-up to class. She's also a little more meticulous about wearing her uniform to dress code. This is all driven by her desire to be "more grown-up", both because of her home life and because of the endgame events of Y1.
She has a tattoo of a moon on her right wrist, to match Veronica Powers' sun tattoo. After winning the Quidditch cup last year she also got a tattoo of a bear on her ribcage. Both of these were done by the tattoo artist in Gold Gulch, who is a cousin of hers, and have the basic accouterments of magical tattoos: the moon shifts through phases, the bear has a subtle animation, and both of them are vanishable if she needs to hide them. Her grandparents definitely don't know that she has these tattoos and her cousin would get in a BOATLOAD of trouble if they found out.
Clothes reference: her idea of "Nice Casual" is a 90's nightmare, further proof, more casual clothes, lots of off-plum athletic gear, letterman jacket 24/7, Puffer Jacket 2: Puffer Vest.
HEIGHT: Five foot. And a quarter.
PB: Amanda Leighton.
PERSONALITY
LIKES: Quidditch. Chocolate chip cookies. The Sweetwater All-Stars. Snakes, bugs, and creepy crawlies. Hiking and camping. Being outdoors. Her roommates. Being up and about before the sun comes up. Arts and crafts, even though she's bad at them. Big floppy sweaters. Calla lilies. Anything Sy gets her, even if his taste is questionable.
DISLIKES: Eating her vegetables. Losing. Awkward silences. When people show up late for plans. Being second-best. Horror movies. Rain and snow. Being cold. Quidditch drills. Standing still. Her bratty baby cousin.
PERSONALITY:
Clementine is a very physical person. She has a lot of pent up energy, and any way she can find to expend it is good enough for her. Sometimes this lends itself to constructive efforts, like her passion for Quidditch, but sometimes it gets her in trouble, too. She's prone to getting into fistfights at the slightest provocation, will take any dare that's presented to her, and has a reputation for being willing to kiss absolutely anyone. Her thoughts-to-actions filter is almost nonexistent; if she thinks of something she wants to do, ten seconds later, she’s doing it.
Even though she has a predisposition to getting into physical altercations, she doesn’t relish debating or arguing. She’s not particularly quick-witted, and all her best comebacks come to her hours after the fact. If there’s one thing she hates with all her heart, it’s losing, and she loses most of the arguments she gets into after losing her temper or delivering a childish “well, so are you” kind of retort. Bad sportsmanship is definitely something that gets written up in her evaluations.
Social interactions are actually the only area in her life that she doesn't take those kinds of risks in. Even though she tries very hard to maintain the image that she doesn't care what people think of her, she does very much, and her abandonment issues are deep-rooted. She doesn't make the first move if she's got a crush on somebody, and she's also never the first person to apologize if she gets in a fight. Her stubbornness doesn't do her any favors when it comes to maintaining her close relationships, and she also has a bad habit of trying to push people away to see if they'll come back.
Her pathological need to win and hatred of being second-best is probably not completely unrelated to her parental hang-ups, but she'll deny it if pressed. She's an intense and all-or-nothing kind of person. She doesn't see the point in half-assing something, and she hates feeling like she's done less than her absolute best. The concept of "can't" is a foreign one to her: she's always believed that if she tries hard enough, she can do anything she sets her mind to.
Overall she’s fairly upbeat and optimistic. When she’s not in a bad mood, she’s in a very good mood. Especially in the mornings; she’s an early riser, and is annoyingly good-tempered from the moment she wakes up. It’s all that energy brimming up inside of her; she’s not built for laying still in bed for 8 hours every night. Too much to do! And she is very industrious. She puts in the hard work she needs to achieve her goals. Unfortunately for her, she’s not good at casting a wide net, and nearly all of her free time goes towards her pursuit of being a nationally ranked pro Quidditch player. Once again at the behest of her teachers, she’s trying out a few new clubs and activities this year, but she doesn't particularly expect any of them to stick.
Since last year, Clem has become extremely fixated on being more "grown up". The idea that she needs to be more mature and emotionally stable has been growing in her mind since her brother was born last year, and the helplessness she felt having to be rescued during the endgame events cinched it for her. She doesn't quite know what grown-ups are supposed to act like, though, so this has inconsistent effects on her actual behavior. She's trying very hard to pick fewer stupid fights and break approximately 0 of her bones, but she's also arbitrarily decided that acting more stereotypically feminine is involved, probably because her grandmother is a very traditional woman. She's grappling with it already, but it'll take her the better part of the year to figure out that this isn't a good fit for her.
SKILLS
LANGUAGES SPOKEN: English.
PATRONUS: Banded mongoose; can cast. Info here.
SKILLS:
HISTORY
FAMILY MEMBERS:
Billy Decourt, father. A retired quodpot player, he now works as a handyman and construction worker for one of Clem's uncles.
Willow Decourt, mother. Although she once had aspirations of becoming an auror, she now works as a bartender at The Rail Screw, one of five bars in Gold Gulch.
Russell "Rusty" Decourt, brother.
Constance Bellamy, grandmother. Teacher at the Gold Gulch school.
Nathaniel Bellamy, grandfather. Mayor of Gold Gulch.
Hartson Bellamy, cousin, Azurcrest freshman. Clem and Hartson have had a troubled relationship since they were small children, and she doesn't think of him as particularly bright. But he's a gifted herbologist, and is expected to take over the family lumber business. With their prized redwood trees struggling to thrive, the Bellamy family decided to send Hartson to an out-of-town school to get a prestigious education, and he's at Gooseberry on an academic scholarship, much to Clem's dismay.
Clem has many relatives in Gold Gulch, including the current owners of the lumber mill, several members of law enforcement, and several local business owners. There are really only about thirty discrete families that live in Gold Gulch; the Bellamys are the most influential of them.
HISTORY:
FAMILY HISTORY. Magically shrouded and remote, the abandoned mining town of Gold Gulch is now home only to wizards who don't like to interact with the rest of the world. Their primary claim to fame in wizarding America is exporting redwood to the wandmaking Quintana family and other magical artisans. Though they were once only physically separated from the nomaj world, the isolation became a dogmatic and strictly adhered-to town ideology, and some residents of the town never set foot out of its boundaries in their lives.
But Clementine’s mother always felt out of place among her small-minded relatives, and when she was only ten she took it upon herself to apply to Ilvermorny. An exceptionally bright girl, Willow immediately excelled in her classes, and was a favorite of her teachers and classmates. She was also popular, pretty, and funny: a golden girl in every sense of the word. Nobody was surprised when she started dating the star athlete of Thunderbird’s quodpot team, Billy Decourt, in fifth year.
When she left for the spring semester of her final year at Ilvermorny, she tersely informed her mother and father that she wouldn’t be returning again come summer; she was going to travel, move in with her boyfriend, and apply to a prestigious New York auror program. The Bellamys did not receive the news well, and the fight that followed was explosive. They told her that even if she changed her mind, she would not be welcomed back; this was fine by her, she said. She didn’t intend to return.
But for all her potential and ambition, Willow’s bright future quickly fizzled out. Just months after graduation, she found herself pregnant. She and Billy were married, and she delayed applying to auror programs to raise her child.
CHILDHOOD.. Clementine was born in March; in May, there was yet another shake-up in the family. Billy had been moved up the roster to first-string reserve, which meant that he would be traveling with the team for the new season. The Decourts tried travelling together, but found that it was too hectic a lifestyle for a young child. So Willow made a decision she felt to be selfless at the time: she dropped Clementine off in Gold Gulch to live with the Bellamy family.
The Bellamys were not expecting their daughter back, and had no idea that she had had a child or even gotten married. Her muggleborn husband was oil to the oldblooded Bellamy family's water, but he had no family of his own and wasn’t making good money playing quodpot. Although they were initially furious, Constance and Nathaniel took Willow and her family in. But though she stayed for a few months, with Billy occasionally dropping in as well, when the next season rolled around, she disappeared again to follow her husband.
Left to raise their granddaughter, who was now two years old, the Bellamys did their best to treat her like their own. For the next seven years of Clementine's life, her parents were little more than a loving but flighty presence. If she was particularly lucky, they'd take her with them on an away game or two. Those were her happiest times, and her grandparents knew it. For all they did to try to make Clementine the good Bellamy daughter her mother never had been, they could always see her parents' wildness in her.
But although Constance and Nathaniel were strict, they were good guardians to Clementine. They gave her more personal freedoms than they did their own children, allowing her to decorate her room however she wanted, dress herself, and even encouraging her to take flying lessons. As a small child, Clem was extremely taken with broom sports; she idolized her father and wanted to be exactly like him. Quidditch was the favored sport in Gold Gulch, with its old-world sensibilities, and so her passion bloomed for that sport instead of the more popular Quodpot. Her grandparents hoped if they indulged her, she wouldn’t resent them the way her mother did. And, in a small way, it worked: she has fairly good relationships with both of them. This preferential treatment, however, did deepen Willow’s resentment for her parents, and that relationship has never quite mended.
Her grandmother was a teacher at the local magic school, so although she was not as naturally talented a witch as her mother, she was given a thorough and individualized education. Her grandmother has always noted her natural aptitude for physical magics like transfiguration and artificing, and at one point had hoped to secure her a wandmaking apprenticeship with the Quintana family, but Clem had no interest in pursuing that career path.
When she was ten, her father was badly injured in a fall, and had to retire prematurely. Once the whole family was settled in back in Gold Gulch, Clementine's wanderlust became all the worse. Her grandmother had hoped that having her parents back would be the catalyst that made all three of them settle down, but all it did was demonstrate to Clementine that her parents were miserable trapped in the small town.
ILVERMORNY. When the time came, she applied to her parents' alma mater and was accepted there. Willow and Billy were more than happy to see her go; they were itching to get out of the town themselves, but had felt beholden to staying close to their daughter while she was there. Her grandparents were quietly disappointed, but instead of ostracizing her they tried to focus on ways they might get her to eventually return. At this point they began to discourage her from pursuing professional sports, which caused a rift between them as she grew into a difficult and defiant teenager.
She was sorted into Wampus house, which was a slight disappointment to her Thunderbird parents, but she did well there. After picking several fights with housemate Ulysses Quayle they formed a long-standing rivalry. In her second year, she started playing Quidditch for the Wampus team (along with Ulysses, which has always been a point of contention for them). And she was good at it. First as a reserve seeker, and then as a starting chaser, she served the team well.
In areas that weren't Quidditch, though, Clem tended to struggle. She was known for being ill-tempered and easy to pick fights with; she frequently got in trouble for punching older classmates or picking on younger ones. Her captain on the Wampus team tried to be a positive influence on her, but she needed an authority figure who was willing to discipline her more than she needed a friend, and her captain was the latter.
FRESHMAN YEAR. As a starting chaser in her third year, she drew the attention of Gooseberry scouts and was offered a sports scholarship to the school. Quidditch wasn’t and still isn’t Ilvermorny’s favored sport, so she readily accepted, glad to be on a team with other people who were really passionate about the sport and talented at it, even if it meant being a reserve again.
Gooseberry suited Clem much better than Ilvermorny had. Even though she'd always felt restricted in her small hometown, the castle on Mount Greylock had been too enclosed and crowded for her liking. The outdoorsy campus and curriculum of Gooseberry appealed to her much more, and the small student body made it easier for her to thrive socially. The support from the staff and her drive to keep her scholarship both helped her work harder to fit in and not seek out trouble.
SOPHOMORE YEAR. Her second year at GBHS saw Clem return to a starting position; spending a year as a freshman reserve had been difficult for her, but she worked hard over the summer to get in shape for team try-outs. She was a little disappointed that she didn't get the seeker position, but was still excited to be back on the starting team, even if it meant playing alongside Ulysses again.
Over the summer before her junior year, her parents dropped a bombshell on her: they were expecting a second child. This pregnancy was planned, and they were finally settling down just as Clem was getting ready to go off into the world. She couldn't help but feel a little like they were replacing her – or like they had never wanted her in the first place. If they had, why hadn't they put up the same effort when she was born?
JUNIOR YEAR. Going into junior year, Clem had no idea just how much it would be not like her other two years at the school. Things went smoothly for the first few months. Ebonhide really killed it at their first game of the season, and even as strange things began happening to her classmates, she remained blissfully unaware, going about her business as usual.
In December, she started dating Sy Stoker, although it took another four months for either of them to admit it. In January, she made the Gooseberry school team as a starting chaser. Around this time, Ulysses Quayle went missing for several days. Despite their strained relationship, this was the first Clem really became aware of the supernatural goings-on in the woods.
Despite all that, the year should’ve ended on a high note; Ebonhide won the Quidditch cup, and things were going well with her and Sy. But right before leaving for the summer, she was among the students abducted by the white moose. She was rescued and even helped rescue some others, but didn’t like that she’d seen into her classmates’ subconsciouses and that they’d seen into hers.
LAST SUMMER. When Clem attended the Quidditch World Cup finals with her father in Patagonia, he confronted her about her increasingly serious relationship with Sy. This culminated in him telling her that she didn't want to wreck her life like he and her mother had by getting pregnant. She made up with her father a few weeks after they had this argument, but she was very badly hurt by the acknowledgment that he thinks of having her as a mistake.
SCHOOL
YEAR: Senior (Grade 12)
HOUSE: Ebonhide (Former Wampus)
SORTING: Much like she almost ended up in Thunderbird at Ilvermorny, Clementine very, very nearly went to Azurcrest during her sorting at Gooseberry. She can at time still seem out of place among her more reserved and introspective classmates in Ebonhide. Her decision to go with Ebonhide was maybe a moment of insecurity on her part; the Bird told her that she should take a risk and learn to rely on other people, and the Bear cinched the sorting by correctly assuming that she has a passionate and intense perfectionist streak.
WAND: Redwood & white river monster spine, 9 1/2 inches, unyielding. The handle has a wenge wood inlay. This wand is made from redwood from her family's mill, and was crafted by Thiago Quintana just a year before his death. It originally belonged to her great-grandmother. Redwood wands often choose "witches and wizards who already possess the admirable ability to fall on their feet, to make the right choice, to snatch advantage from catastrophe". Wenge wood is associated with level-headedness and focus.
FAMILIAR: A California Kingsnake named Bones, or occasionally "Mr. Bones". (Clem's rat, Buttons, is alive and well in Gold Gulch. She decided not to bring him back for her senior year, because by the end of last year he was getting on in rat years and having trouble escaping Madoc and Maleficent's clutches.)
CLASSES: Core: charms, herbology, outdoor education, transfiguration. Elective: artificing, magical rudiments, magizoology.
ADVANCED STUDY: None.
SENIOR PROJECT: She's making a broom! Her aunt has furnished her project with magically cultivated redwood from their family's mill.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: Although she's not a particularly motivated student when left to her own devices, she keeps her grades up dutifully so she doesn't lose her scholarship. She becomes frustrated with subjects that don't come easily to her very quickly, and as her school career has gone on she's tailored her schedule around classes that she has a natural aptitude for. Outdoor education, herbology, and artificing are her favorite classes, with magizoology coming in a close fourth. She likes working with her hands and you can find her elbow-deep in fertilizer or flobberworm goo without having been prompted by a teacher. Artificing is a subject in which she's more technically skilled than she actually realizes; Mr. Oakes mentioned this to her grandparents at parent-teacher conferences last year, and they've since encouraged her to work in that subject for her senior project.
EXTRACURRICULARS: Quidditch (chaser/co-captain), archery, fencing & dueling, outdoor exploration, boating.
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