InsaneJournal

THE BASICS:

Full Name: Lydia Jane MacDougal (née Townsley, previously Podmore)
Age and Birthday: 23 & 23 May, 1957
House and Graduation Year: Ravenclaw & 1975
Current Location: Oban, Scotland (house)
Blood Status: Muggleborn
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
Marital Status: Married to Jackson MacDougal (divorced from Sturgis Podmore)
Family:

(•) JACKSON MACDOUGAL: Husband; b. 3 December, 1947; El Cielo School of Magic alumnus (1966)
(•) LACEY PODMORE: Daughter; b. 11 January, 1976

(•) STURGIS PODMORE: Ex-Husband; Hogwarts alumnus (Slytherin 1975)

(•) MORAG MACDOUGAL: Daughter; b. 30 April, 1980

LUKAS TOWNSLEY IV: Father; b. 4 August, 1931; Muggle
CATHERINE TOWNSLEY (née CARNEGIE): Mother; b. 29 April, 1934; Muggle
(•) LUKAS TOWNSLEY V: Brother; 23 May, 1957; Hogwarts alumna (Ravenclaw 1975)

HAMISH MACDOUGAL: Father-in-law
DOROTHY MACDOUGAL: Mother-in-law
(•) THOMAS MACDOUGAL: Brother-in-law; El Cielo School of Magic alumnus (1967)
GABRIELLE MACDOUGAL: Sister-in-law

• July 1975 - December 1975: Waitress at the Three Broomsticks
  
• June 1976 - October 1976: Intern Translator within the IMC
  
• October 1976 - Present: Translator within the IMC
  

Politics: Lydia's political views are simple and not at all surprising. Being a Muggleborn, she thinks that anyone that thinks lesser of her because of the family that she was born into -- something she had no control over, by the way -- isn't worth her time. The prejudice has always been very clear to her, starting on her very first day at Hogwarts when the other girls that looked so much like the ones she had been friends with at the private school in London that she had been attending before she found out that she was a witch. They were friendly enough with her, until they found out that she was a Muggleborn. It was so strange to her. Surely there was judgement in the world that she knew -- class, race, how many pounds were in your bank account. She might not have felt any ill will toward people that were different than her, but it still existed. To have people judging her because her family wasn't magical, though, was just odd to her, mostly because her knowledge on how the wizarding world worked was so limited.

She's older now, though, and has gone through many years of hearing Mudbloods and filth murmured in her direction. She has grown immune, but she still hates it. Being employed at the Ministry of Magic makes her feel as though she has a certain level of protection and respectability despite her bloodline, however. She feels that the Ministry is doing everything that they legally can do and she has faith in them. In the end, she identifies most with the Justinian Party, but she isn't quite as liberal minded as some in the group and still supports the Ministry.

Past War Involvement: Lydia has been fairly lucky at this point. The only person she personally has known was a senior translator that was killed in a Death Eater attack when he was acting as translator for an ambassador. It was early on in her career in the department and was rather jarring for her. She has also been by Jackson's side as he's had to see some awful things given his work.

DETAILS:

Random Facts: Here
Quote: "A different language is a different vision of life." -- Federico Fellini
20 26 Word Sentence Describing Your Character: Lydia MacDougal is a feisty translator that is pretty sure that she has gone through enough in her twenty-four years and wants less to worry about.
Personal History: When Lukas Townsley had been stationed in England due to his job, he was not terribly pleased. He had become an ambassador to the German government to travel to exciting and exotic locations... and the United Kingdom was certainly not exotic or exciting, something that he had learned long ago when he visited his paternal family in Yorkshire while growing up. Nonetheless, he took up the post that he was given, establishing his residency in London by the German Embassy. It didn't take long for him to see the light of England, so to say, and it was all because of Catherine Carnegie.

They had met one another completely by accident. Catherine's family was part of the British social elite, her parents having had shaped her long ago for a future of parties, philanthropy, and being a trophy wife of some sort of barrister or doctor. While Lukas's family was all in Germany, his high profile position eventually found him with an invitation of one of those parties that the Carnegies often found themselves attending. He almost didn't go, then thought again at the prospect of more contacts and elbow rubbing with the proper people. Instead, he very nearly spilled a glass of champagne on a very pretty young woman five minutes in, they introduced one another, and the rest was history for Lukas and Catherine.

After some time dating and Catherine getting more or less used to Lukas's demanding work schedule, the two were married. Lukas maintained his residency in Germany and applied for citizenship to England, all while traveling between the two countries for work, but the Townsleys -- by all intents and purposes -- lived in England. He still spent a lot of his time traveling, sometimes Catherine coming with but most often not as she didn't like sitting around in strange places as he worked, but after a few years they decided to start trying for a family. Before long, Catherine was not only pregnant but she was pregnant with twins who were born in May of 1957 -- Lydia and Lukas, named for his father in Townsley family tradition.

Growing up, both children were given the very both. The word is spoiled, really. While they didn't see as much of their father as they might have liked during their early years, he doted upon them when he was in the country and always made sure to call them when he was able to while abroad. Their mother was a bit more detached, sometimes preferring to let their nanny do much of the raising, but she was still a constant presence in their life as they grew through childhood. They were raised with the values and morals of a good, Christian home all while attending a religious (and elite) private school in their neighborhood. The two had one another for playmates, but they also had friends around the neighborhood that they would play with, Lydia often finding herself with torn tights and dirty dresses that her mother would tut over. They grew accustomed to learning how to be well behaved at dinner parties, but would often sneak away to stuff their faces with cake and strawberries (and champagne, in their later years).

Eventually, though, things shifted into being a little less normal when the twins were around five or six-years-old. It started with Lydia before starting with Lukas and no one can really put their finger on exactly when the oddities first started to happen, but they definitely did start happening. She would complain because she didn't like chunky peanut butter on her sandwiches and somehow the peanut butter on her sandwich would turn creamy. She would go outside to play in her Sunday's best and fall in a mud puddle, but by the time she ran home the stain would have completely disappeared -- which also saved her a lecture from her mother, so she couldn't complain about that one. They were little things that the Townsleys could just blame on coincidence or not paying attention, but they still lingered in the back of Lydia's mind.

The most notable oddity about Lydia started when she was seven-years-old and began taking a mandatory Latin class at her school. Other students struggled with the dead language, trying to put together vocabulary and sentence structure, but not Lydia. Her teacher was impressed at the natural aptitude that she had for the language. At first he thought it was nothing more than an advantage due to her having been raised in a bilingual environment (due to her father being German), but by the end of the first semester, the girl was able to hold choppy conversation with her teacher and he could hardly believe it. After discussing it with Lydia's parents, he began to experiment with other languages, the first being French. She picked it up just as easily as she had Latin. It was amazing to her teacher that this girl that had only average marks in her other classes could so easily exceed at something as complicated as a completely foreign language.

Over the years, Lydia began to really realize her talent and decided to take advantage of it. She continued through school and took every language course that was offered to her, which left her speaking Spanish and starting Italian by the time she was ten-years-old. Before she could get too far into learning Italian, however, a strange woman showed up at the Townsley's door. She introduced herself as Minerva McGonagall and she was very tall and sort of scary -- at least, she was in a young Lydia's mind. She came into the house and then proceeded to explain to the Townsleys exactly why Lydia and Lukas were able to do some of the odd things that they could. She told them how she was a witch that taught at a school of magic for other children just like the Townsley twins and that their names had been down to attend the school since they were born. They were a witch and wizard and if they went to the school, she and the other professors could teach them how to control their magic. She left them information for the family to go over and left just after advising them that the train left for the boarding school on the first of September.

It took a lot of thinking and discussing between Lukas and Catherine before they agreed to let their children attend the strange school. It took a lot for them to believe it all and to allow their young children to go so far away, but it began to sink in little by little until September finally came and they went through the wall (after watching several other people do the same thing and convincing themselves that it could be done) that led to Platform 9 3/4. It was that that made it all seem real, on top of the wand and the books and the fact that their post was apparently done by owl. Lydia and her brother boarded the train for Hogwarts, where they were soon after sorted into Ravenclaw house.

Hogwarts was big and exciting to Lydia at first, but she eventually began to get used to it all. She soon found that she was a bit of an oddity, having come from a family of non-magical people. It also didn't take long for her to figure out that some people didn't look too fondly upon her for it, which she never did quite understand - especially since so many of those that seemed to look down their nose at her for her background looked like they came from the same sort of society that she had. She did well enough in her classes, although she had to admit that sometimes the magic seemed to come a bit hard for her. But when she struggled, Lydia was sure to look around the room and remind herself that she wasn't the only one struggling and push away her concerns that perhaps her non-magical background was hindering her in some way.

The years went by fairly uneventfully for Lydia. She attended her classes and quickly found that Ancient Runes and Charms were her favorite classes. During her fifth through seventh years, she actually headed up the Ancient Runes Club. She was also in the choir all seven years singing alto. She made friends and her temper made sure she made a few enemies and once she got old enough she began to date. As Lydia found herself becoming acclimated to the new world, she found that it was easy to be just as normal here as it was at home.

It was during her seventh year that her world changed completely. It started with her dating Sturgis Podmore, a Slytherin in her year that she had always flirted with but hadn't thought that anything would come with it. Something did come of it, though, and when they weren't snogging in abandoned corridors at Hogwarts, they were spending the holidays doing a lot more. So much more that, a week to the day after they both had finished school for good, Lydia found out that she was pregnant.

Just like that everything was flipped upside down. She was having to turn down an internship at the Ministry as a translator, her parents were meeting Sturgis and giving her disappointed look after disappointed look for having gotten herself in this situation, and by the time July was out, her name was Lydia Podmore. Not wanting to take advantage of her parents' money (and, to be honest, wanting to prove that she could manage despite having had gotten herself into this sort of situation), Lydia took a job as a waitress at the Three Broomsticks. Being a young pregnant woman got her some strange looks, but her tips were good and she couldn't complain about that. It wasn't until she was eight months pregnant and very large that she finally quit and accepted some monetary help from her family, all at her father's insistence. A month later, Lacey Podmore was born.

Her relationship with Sturgis was tentative at first, the marriage having had been the textbook definition of shotgun wedding, but Lydia did find herself caring for him a great deal. Loving him, even. He was training to be a hitwizard, which she thought was terribly brave of him given the war, and he was very good with their daughter. But as time went on and Lydia went to work at the Ministry, juggling being a translator and a mother, it began to wear on her. It began to wear on the both of them, even. They were young, but they had been forced to grow up quickly, which was leaving her feel unfulfilled. And, at the end of the day, they were just too much alike, something that left them arguing and bickering. It kept escalating until a year after Lacey was born, Lydia brought up the topic of divorce. Soon after, given that neither tried to make it too difficult on the other, they were divorced. Lydia had primary custody of Lacey, Sturgis having every other weekend with her.

Being Lydia Townsley again, she engrossed herself in her work, spending time with friends, and raising Lacey. There was little else she could do until, one random weekend night, she found herself at a pub with a group of her friends. It was there that she met Jackson MacDougal, or Jack as he told her to call him soon after they introduced themselves. He was older than her, but he was also an American which Lydia found fascinating. They hit it off right away and soon began dating, which soon turned into an engagement with them walking down the aisle in fall of 1978. It was a fast turn around after her divorce with Sturgis, especially given that Lydia had sworn off men rather loudly after signing the papers, but she felt something with Jack that she had never felt with Sturgis. She just knew that they were right, so why wait? (Especially in a climate where war was the norm?)

It was because of that war that, while they had discussed children, they weren't a priority to Lydia and Jackson. Of course, things don't always go as planned -- something that Lydia knew all too well -- and she found herself pregnant only months after she and Jack were married. It was a surprise, but not an unpleasant one. Rather than dread and panic, like she had felt when she first found out that she was pregnant with Lacey, Lydia found herself feeling the excitement right away that didn't come until later on during her first pregnancy. In late April of 1980, their daughter Morag, named for Jack's grandmother, was born. Having a newborn again leaves Lydia and Jack's hands full, but she's been relieved to find that it's nothing like when she was with Sturgis. Between her two girls, her new husband, her job, and the war, Lydia has a lot on her mind. But she's happy, which she's holding onto.

moonshoes