Magnolia Nettlebottom
 | |
| Magnolia Nettlebottom | |
|---|---|
| Biographical Information | |
| Born | 15 November 1989, 28 |
| City of Birth | Tongwynlais, Wales |
| Blood status | Half-blood |
| Physical Information | |
| Gender | female |
| Education | |
| School | Hogwarts |
| House | Ravenclaw |
| Class of | 2008 |
| Character Information | |
| Playby | Taylor Momsen |
| SJ | |
Lead singer of Nola and the Knockturnals. A firm believer in Astrology, Magnolia feeds readily into the identifiers of the Ravenclaw Scorpio. She has let nothing stand in the way of her pursuit of fame, knowledge, and a large collection of ripped stockings. She thrives on the singular obsession of making Nola and the Knockturnals the most it can possibly be (this has a tendency to both motivate and annoy her band mates). Everything is done in excess, from drinking and experimenting with potions to week long writing benders in which little sleep or sustenance is had. Her singular focus can be off putting – but one thing is for sure you almost always know exactly what she’s thinking (even if you don’t understand why she’s thinking it or how it plays into the conversation).
Physical Description:
- Build: Slender, willowy limbs, seems to be mostly arms and legs with a rather short-ish torso.
- Height: 5'9" tall, as previously mentioned most of that height is in her spindle spider-like legs
- Hair: Light blonde in color, magically lengthened to reach at the very least her waist
- Eyes: Blue in color, rather large, often heavily lined in black with thick magically enhanced lashes; often compared to a "raccoon" by style and gossip rags.
- Skin tone and complexion: While Magnolia is naturally fair skinned, due to her nocturnal nature it has lightened considerably over the years. Tone seems to fluctuate depending on the care she is taking of herself - complexion ranges from peaches and cream to sallow or at times even rather jaundice.
- Style influences and impressions: Heavily influenced by the muggle styles of grunge and metal, tends to dress provocatively to garner attention only to rebut any advances made upon her person. A cross between muggle “biker chic” and “hobo”, to the untrained eye it seems haphazard at best but it is all rather calculated chaos. She could, possibly, be considered “mainstream” or “classically” attractive were it not for the way she dresses and carries herself. There is a certain note of “I just don’t care that much” feeding into her gritty style.
Personality Description
A firm believer in Astrology, Magnolia feeds readily into the identifiers of the Ravenclaw Scorpio. She has let nothing stand in the way of her pursuit of fame, knowledge, and a large collection of ripped stockings. She thrives on the singular obsession of making Nola and the Knockturnals the most it can possibly be (this has a tendency to both motivate and annoy her band mates). Everything is done in excess, from drinking and experimenting with potions to week long writing benders in which little sleep or sustenance is had. Her singular focus and little care for what other’s might think of her habits can be misread as selfish or cold, but it is more likely that Nolia is so consumed with the project in front of her that she has failed to see the larger picture and how her behavior impacts others in the grand scheme of things. She is not purposefully cruel and arrogant but she can be perceived as such. It is also in this vein (and given the darker nature of the Knockturnals’ lyrics) for people to assume she is a deeply unhappy or emotionally fragile witch.
It takes one short meeting with the twenty year old to realize Noli (while arguably a malcontent) is anything but delicate. Headstrong and completely sure of where she wants to be going; she will bowl over anyone who tries to get in her way. This has led to a rather split opinion over working with her in the studio. Some call her a nightmare perfectionist while others find her dedication and willingness to tirelessly work to better herself, her sound, and her band to be refreshing. If you underestimate or cross her she has a vengeful streak and has been known to “bite her nose off to spite her face” as they say. At such a young age and just coming up on the scene she has not yet learned that sometimes it is best to smile, nod, and then do what you want anyway rather than making demands and threats to walk off if said demands aren’t met. It is this attitude that keeps the bands second album from release given Nolia’s current relationship with her label. It is possible that her interpersonal networking skills need a little lot of work.
She considers herself to be “one of the boys”, and asks no special treatment. She isn’t afraid to do her share of heavy lifting to prove her worth in the face of her age and inexperience. Whether it is poker night, or dabbling in spells better left alone the leggy blonde shows little sign of fear or hesitation. It is in this spirit that she is drawn to the darker more arcane branches of magic. As a student she was a frequent sneaking lurker of the restricted section. Had she not found such a niche with her band of merry misfits, it was likely that she’d have gone to work as an Unspeakable or Necronomist. Though not her true passion she does enjoy dabbling with the effects of mood altering potions, herbs, and various other substances, and has made the friendly acquaintanceship of several less-than-reputable members of the wizarding underground. Time not spent in the studio or writing is spent in the cellars of Knockturn seeing what kind of troubled fun she can conjure up.
History:
===Pre-Hogwarts & Family=== Born in November of ’89 to a mostly happily married couple, Delwyn and Enid Nettlebottom, who were already the proud parents of three rather rowdy boys; Howelle(29), Bryn(26), and Owain (23). It would be fair to say by the time their little Nolia came along Delwyn (a member of the spirit division in the Ministry) and Enid (a mostly stay-at-home-mother who wrote the occasional freelance article for everything from the Quibbler to Witch Weekly) the duo was exhausted. They weren’t neglectful of their youngest child – just far more lenient. Enid has often been quoted as saying “By the time you get to number four there’s hardly a thing you haven’t dealt with at least once before. There are no surprises and you’ve long since given up the idea that children grow according to Wizarding parenting books”. It isn’t a bad parenting philosophy to have, in the grand scheme of things anyway. Of course some alarm bells should have gone off the more interested she became in her father’s work – but Enid felt if the two were bonding over something it was hardly her place to get in the way. It wasn’t as though Magnolia was an unhappy child, she loved her parents, she tormented her brothers, she liked to read and learn things. Always curious Nolie had mastered the art of simultaneously reading and walking by the age of eight. The next three years would be spent taking interest in her parents’ projects, most noticeably anything her father brought home about ghosts, death, and what lay beyond the thin veil that separated life and the afterlife.
Hogwarts
Entering the famed School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at the age of eleven Magnolia showed now real signs of being an odd or out of place duck. She was sorted into Ravenclaw, did well in all of her classes, got along with her fellow students and in general was bright eyed and eager to learn. This average-nothing-out-of-the-ordinary attitude would stay with her until the middle of her fifth year when there was a distinct shift in her personality. At the time it was chalked up to growing pains, trying to separate her identity from the mass of other Ravenclaws – there was no disenable trauma to her life at that particular age anyone could point at and say “That! That right there is why little Nolie is such a dark and twisty kind of person”. Dewey and Enid assumed it was a natural personality progression, the age of rebellion all teens went through. It was in this time that Magnolia became obsessed with both Wizard and muggle music, seeking out exposure to as much of it as humanly possible. She began writing bleak poetry and spending most of her free time down by the lake talking to the squid. Her grades never slipped despite the change in demeanor and dress. The most she ever really seemed to get into trouble for were uniform infractions. If one were to question the girl, herself, on the point of change and why they would be met with cool indifference. There was just something she felt drawing her to the darker side of the magic world, to face the “void of humanity” she felt most of her peers could not understand. It was also during this time of transformation she threw herself into learning as many musical instruments as possible and gathered a few fellow “misfits” from other houses and formed a band called “Nola and the Knockturnals”. They had relative success as a school band, and though there has been a rotation of members to come and go and even come back again, after graduation Magnolia decided that she would pursue her passion for music rather than a Ministry apprenticeship.
Post-Hogwarts
Two years out from Hogwarts graduation, Magnolia and her band mates have made some serious strides. They have played every dive pub with an open stage night, scrimped and saved enough to get studio time with the Duncan Flickwick (ok Nola might have hooked up with Johnny Flickwick at some point too), and managed to put out a self-titled debut album that garnered them enough attention to draw interest from a majoring wizarding label. That, surprisingly, was the easy part. It was something Nolia had been working for since she was sixteen, building a song catalog, finding the right mix, her obsessive need for control and perfection both inspired and drove band mates in equal measure. So what looked like six months of work to land on the wireless and start playing slightly more high profile gigs had actually been a tireless effort on the bands part before they ever left Hogwarts (at least the ones who stuck it through with the brassy blonde). Currently Nola is feeling the pressure of being under a label’s thumb, the push to change their sound, the Knockturnal’s image. She feels the limitations are stifling and is looking to get out from under a contract she regrets signing. This is the one area where her age really shows as she is more apt to throw a fit and go get ripped than consult a Barrister. She’s learning, slowly but surely, that her ego about the band is going to have to come second to the band if she wants them to get anywhere in the “real world”.
Though not required of her, Nola tries to have a hand in everything connected to the band. Early on she felt it was important for her to take a stab at playing any instrument being used in the formation of a song – not to prove that she could do it all but to have a greater grasp on the knowledge that the living breathing thing music becomes is as reliant on every other member as it is on her vocals and lyrics. She dabbles in designs for merchandise, and until they had a manager was the one banging on doors to get gigs. There isn’t a lot of effort put into costuming (and there is never a costume change at a Knockturnals’ gig), but she likes to make sure that band members’ fashion sense is represented.
[[Category:Musician|Template:Magnolia Nettlebottom]]
