Darla O'Doherty

Darla O'Doherty (Higgins)
Biographical Information
Born	31 December 1974, 43
Blood status	Muggle
Physical Information
Gender	Female
Relationships
Extended Family
Ainbheartach O'Doherty Father-in-law Neasa O'Doherty Mother-in-law Suanach O'Doherty Sister-in-law Torna O'Doherty Brother-in-law) Kennedy O'Doherty Nephew Brona O'Doherty Niece
Married: Martin O'Doherty (Separated)
Children	Casey O'Doherty
Will

• Name: Darla O'Dorherty
• Age: 35, Dec 31st
• Position: Mother of Casey O'Doherty.

Permissions

Created by Will. PM him for permissions.

Appearance

Very frail, like a living Inferius, hair a muted brown like dead twigs. There are heavy bags under her eyes, her skin pallid. Like her son Casey she has a very weak immune system. While Casey is boosted by magical ability and wizarding medicine, Darla has not gotten this treatment. At the hands of neglect, Darla is nearly comatose and in high fever and delirium. She’s also as asthmatic, breathing weakly. After her recovery at St. Mungo’s, she starts looking healthier although still frail. There’s finally some weight to her skeletal frame although she’s graying prematurely, looks a decade older than she actually is.

History

Darla was a young muggle woman. Once upon a time she was rather beautiful but frail like a flower, an asthmatic along with low constitution. Unable to afford going to university, she found herself distraught until charmed by a handsome if hard feeling man, Martin O’Doherty. He wooed her with his magical ability and after they eloped he revealed he was a wizard. With part of his fortune they lived for a time at a manor estate in Northern Ireland. Darla’s health declined when the couple conceived a child. She had a difficult pregnancy, nearly dying in childbirth. Afterwards she was rarely out of bed.

Given his sick wife and newborn, with his fortune running out, Martin appealed to his parents for help. They provided money and the youngest house elf for assistance but worked to pull the rug out from under him, forcing him back to the family home. Not wanting a scandal or revelation to muggles of the magical world the O’Doherty’s shut Darla up in an attic room and promptly forgot about her. Only the elves, when they had a free moment, cared for her. The irregularity of this care didn’t help her health. She lies near deaths door.

Darla was the only one unfazed by Casey’s condition and had the common sense to raise Casey as one gender and to stick to that. However, her opinion was soon overruled by the O’Doherty family.

At Absit Omen

In the summer of his 3rd year, Casey checked on his mother’s condition after coming home from Hogwarts. He works to get her admitted to St. Mungo’s for treatment by staging her delirium as being from a Glumbumble bite. Most of his allowance goes towards transferring her to the long term floor and seeking available real estate outside the family holdings as a safe house.

As Casey’s 4th year begins, Darla is transferred to a cottage in Hogsmeade. The sign in the yard asks for quiet as she uses the time to rebuild her life, with Dingy assisting her whenever he can spare time. She takes up sewing again. It’s October before mother and child reunite, although as Casey was dressed as his alter ego it makes her believe that Casey still identifies as female. Zoe Torret brings the new residents a gift basket, befriending Hexy in the process. Thru Torret (among other rumor mills) Darla is attributed to be Primrose Claggin, Hexy’s “aunt” and hypochondriac recovering from the aftermath of the WBA attack of the hospital. As written about in a recent Quibbler.

Darla designs part of a costume for her daughter for the Yule Ball. Hexy attends under her Felinae avatar but is still unnerved about being unmasked by older students. Casey has a pair of linked Sneakoscopes to keep tabs on the security of Darla’s cottage. When a fire rampages Hogsmeade in the spring, Casey and Dingy rush from the castle to protect her cottage, with Casey smoothing over his involvement yet again as Hexy.

Going into Casey’s 5th year, his cousins let loose that Darla has disappeared from Doherty manor. Casey manages to get the warring sides of his brain in tandem to cover up the paper trail, requiring top work from both personas and Dingy. Particularly, when Martin makes an appearance in Hogsmeade his investigation hits the roadblock of Hexy, enough to drive him away.

The close call makes Casey realize two things: 1) he needs to achieve financial independence to protect his mother and 2) her time in the magical world is at its end, as it would be better for her to be “lost” from the family in the muggle world. In the summer of Casey’s 5th year, a new apartment in the city is found for mother and daughter. Using an overseas internship as an excuse, Hexy finds local work for clean money. She remains as wand-free as possible as she spends longer time around muggles, although backed by her various pranks and artifacts gathered over the years. Darla begins working from home.

Sometime in 6th or 7th year, during an impromptu vacation Casey finally comes clean about his identity to his mother. She doesn’t appreciate the deceptions all these years but it helps their relationship grow stronger. Once Casey is sure that her health no longer needs dedicated effort from house elves, he decides to free Dingy, Dollop and Dimple. Darla made the clothes Casey used for this endeavor.

As of 2018, mother and child remain close but don’t live together.