Kayley Wood for causamortismods

OOC Information
Name:  Jeanne
Age:  24
E-mail // AIM:  serdaigle-at-gmail // fredadverb
Timezone:  US Eastern (GMT -5)
Previous RPG Experience:  Current and past games listed at _kyri

The Characters
Full Name:  Kayley Neve Wood, née Higgs
Date of birth // Current Age:  April 16, 1956 // 24
Blood Status:  Pureblood
Sexuality:  Heterosexual
Occupation:  Secretary, Department of Magical Games and Sports
Political Alignment:  Order of the Phoenix (future member)


Relevant family: Allan Higgs (father, b. 1927) & Caitlin Higgs, née Selwyn (mother, b. 1931) -- Kayley was close to her parents when she was younger.  They weren't particularly hands-on parents, of course-- there were nannies for those kinds of duties, after all-- but Kayley did, at least, respect her parents and obeyed them as well as she could.  Kayley never once thought that her parents had married for love-- that simply wasn't done, after all-- and her parents never showed anything but the most superficial kinds of affection towards one another.  They raised both of their children by the book, however-- Bertie and Kayley were to be the next generation of pureblood near-elite, after all.  The Higgs' were never that close to haute société, though they had aspirations to one day end up there, even if only through the marriage of their children.  Kayley might have gone right along with this plan, too, if she hadn't made friends and come into her own at Hogwarts- as she got older, she found that she much preferred her friends' outlook on the world to her parents'.  Where her parents were happy to stay in the ways they'd been raised, Kayley wanted to explore different things.  Her parents were content with considering this a phase-- until Kayley fell in love with a halfblood.  (See Personal History for further details.)

Bertie Higgs (older brother) -- Bertie is a few years Kayley's senior, and she looked up to him quite a lot when she was younger.  They were in different houses at Hogwarts, though they still stayed closer-- with Kayley's relative estrangement from the family, however, she's not sure what Bertie thinks of her and hasn't contacted him in some time.

Atticus Wood (father-in law, b. 1936) & Lizzie Wood, née MacKenzie (mother-in law, b. 1936) -- Kayley absolutely adores her in-laws.  They're the sort of parents that she tries to mimic in raising Oliver-- she can easily see how much better a life they lead, despite being considerably poorer financially (the only real consideration that her own parents would place any value in). 

Significant other:  Jamie Wood (husband, b. 1956) -- Jamie, Jamie, Jamie.  Where to start?  With Jamie, Kayley has found the sort of love that, clichéd or otherwise, she'd only ever read about in stories before.  Though she'd first expected dating him to be a fling, a school romance, it ended up being much more.  It isn't something she can always explain or quantify, either-- something about Jamie just fits with her.  The way he can walk into the room and smile, and she still goes weak at the knees, or the way he puts his hand at the small of her back and leans over to kiss behind her ear.  The way he holds Oliver, or the way he still seems grateful to wake up beside her every morning.  She feels comfortable and safe with Jamie, and she trusts him completely-- she always has.  Being with him makes her a better person, and she wouldn't give him up for anything.

Children:  Oliver Wood (son, b. July 22, 1976) -- Oliver is just over four years old, and there's not a day that goes by when Kayley isn't completely amazed by him.  If she didn't remember being pregnant, she'd hardly believe he was her son, believe that she could have had a part in creating something so wonderful-- every time he learns or does something new, it's a monumental event in the Wood household.  Oliver's first words-- "da", for Jamie, and "broo", for broom-- were marked with a celebration like a birthday.  Their house is full of pictures he's drawn and photographs that Jamie has taken of them all.  Oliver has made them a family.

Do you wish to have family members available for application?:  Bertie is already on the list, and Jamie is being applied for.


Personal History:  Kayley Neve Higgs was born to parents Allan and Caitlin on the 16th of April, 1956, the second child and first daughter of the family.  Though she was born at St. Mungo's Hospital, as was proper, the Higgs' lived in a moderately-sized but expensively-furnished and decorated home in Gloucester, England.  The pureblood wizard community in Gloucester wasn't a large one, and Kayley (along with her older brother, Bertie) were both taught at home through a series of various tutors-- Kayley's education, of course, was a bit more frivolous, leaning toward proper decorum and finishing rather than the real world things her brother was allowed to learn.  (Kayley didn't notice these differences at the time, per se, though it's obvious as she looks back on it now.)  Kayley's first sign of magic came at age four, when she re-lit the candles on her birthday cake so she could keep blowing them out.  Overall, her childhood was a happy, if simple one-- she had her training, and knew the path that her parents wanted her to take (they'd sold it to her, of course, to make it seem like it was her own decision, even though it wasn't).  Kayley never dreamed of deviating until she started at Hogwarts.

Once at school, Kayley was sorted into Gryffindor.  She was surprised by this, admittedly-- her parents had been a Slytherin and a Ravenclaw-- but she quickly found that she fit right in with her new house.  Her housemates were open and welcoming, and by the end of her first year there, Kayley felt like a completely new person-- one that she liked much more than the person her parents had been trying to make her into.  She had made friends with students of every sort of blood, having been quickly dissuaded out of the notion that only pure blood was worth anything.  She had learned to express herself more freely-- the decorum lessons quite happily pushed to the back of her mind or forgotten entirely-- and laughed loudly, and often.  Kayley did well enough in her classes-- she was never a star student, but this never bothered her, either.  She gave enough attention to learn the material, but she wasn't one to study overmuch.  In her third year she met Jamie Wood, who was in her house and year but had never particularly talked with her.  They were partnered together for Charms that year, though, and, well, she didn't really like him.  He was loud and sometimes obnoxious-- which normally Kayley would have found to be good, even attractive, qualities-- but to add to that he was an abysmal study partner, and... well, things didn't look very good.  Things went from good to worse when Jamie charmed her hair a vibrant shade of purple during class one day-- it had been an accident, he insisted, and one that was easily mended, but Kayley didn't care.  She refused to talk to him for several years afterward.

She couldn't say exactly where things had changed.  Kayley continued on as most students did-- she attended classes, cheered on her house's quidditch team, and laughed with her friends.  Somewhere in there, however, she found herself drawn to Jamie again-- watching him on the quidditch pitch, or hearing him laugh during classes.  Kayley was stubborn, however, and it wasn't until the spring of her fifth year that she decided to do something about it.  After one of Gryffindor's matches, Kayley walked straight up to Jamie and kissed him.  It took a bit to convince him that he wasn't dreaming, but, once she had, things went very well for them-- or at least the did until the end of their sixth year.  Jamie and Kayley had been dating for more than a year, and Kayley liked him quite a bit.  It was a fun school romance, and he'd become her best friend.  Just before they were set to go home for the summer, Jamie offered Kayley a promise ring and told her that he loved her.  Kayley-- well, she freaked out.  She wasn't supposed to be in love-- that was something real and serious, not what she wanted, and certainly not what she felt for Jamie.  Right?  She refused the ring he'd offered, and Kayley broke off their relationship, once again ignoring Jamie all that summer.  Her mother made no secret of how happy she was to see Kayley having come to her senses-- but Kayley was miserable.  She missed him.  More than she'd expected to, certainly-- enough so that when she saw Jamie again on the train back for their seventh year, she begged his forgiveness and spent much of the train ride snogging him to make up for the summer apart.

Jamie and Kayley were inseparable after that.  She passed her NEWTs that year, but they were, honestly, secondary to planning what they would be doing after graduation.  She and Jamie had all sorts of plans, of course-- plans that were cut short when Kayley had to return to her parents' house after finishing school.  She didn't have any money of her own-- she'd never had a job, even during the summer, and any family money that was promised to her was tied in with her dowry.  Once Kayley was back at her parents' house, however, her mother insisted on throwing her a debut, as was proper for a pureblood young woman of her age.  Kayley didn't want the party-- after all, she was already in love!  Her mother, however, refused to even acknowledge Jamie's presence-- and certainly had no plans on inviting him to the debut.  He was, quite simply, not a proper match for Kayley, regardless of her feelings for him.  The debut was, in a word, disastrous.  Kayley had shared all the details and all of her frustrations with Jamie, of course, and in the end he'd decided to sneak in.  Kayley was thrilled, and she snuck off with him as soon as she was able-- the guest of honor was quickly noticed to be missing, however, and it wasn't long before Kayley's mother found the two of them snogging in Kayley's bedroom.  Her mother was horrified, and demanded that Jamie leave-- which he started to, despite Kayley's vocal protests.  Kayley started to follow Jamie out, and her mother said, quite simply, that if she left with him, then, she wasn't welcome back.  It was the easiest decision she ever had to make-- Kayley took Jamie's hand and, still in her white debut dress, apparated away without a second thought.

It was a harsh change for Kayley, and she couldn't have done it without Jamie.  They lived off his parents' generosity for nearly a year, staying rent-free in an empty flat over their shop and saving every spare sickle they could.  Kayley found a job at the Ministry as a secretary-- it wasn't anything glamorous, but she found that she enjoyed it, and it made her feel productive, like she was doing something to help her and Jamie on their way to getting a real life sorted out.  It took more than a year, but in the summer of 1975 they were able to buy their own home in Kirriemuir, Scotland.  It was an old brick cottage, and it needed a lot of repair, but she and Jamie (as well as Atticus and Lizzie and seemingly innumerable Wood cousins) all worked to get the house restored to a real livable condition.  These repairs were put on hold for the duration of the winter months, but it was during that time that Kayley was surprised to find out that she was pregnant-- they hadn't been planning on having a baby quite so soon, and she was nervous to tell Jamie the news.  He took it surprisingly well, though, and proposed to her the same day-- something he'd been planning on doing anyway, of course.  They were married on March 3, 1976, in a small ceremony in their backyard.  Kayley sent wedding invitations to her parents and to Bertie separately-- the invitation to her parents was returned, unopened, and Bertie's was not returned but also not replied to (something that, rightfully or not, gives Kayley a bit of hope).  After their honeymoon, Jamie and Kayley again spent the spring and summer fixing up the house-- though this time in preparation to welcome a baby.  Kayley and Jamie attended a Puddlemere match on July 22nd, 1976, to celebrate Jamie's birthday, but a few hours into the game, Kayley's water broke and the couple hurried off to St. Mungo's.  Oliver Francis Wood was born-- early, but with no complications-- that evening.

Kayley took a leave of absence from her job for nearly a year in order to stay home with Oliver.  She took to motherhood almost surprisingly well-- she had been frightened, when she was pregnant, that she wouldn't know what to do, how to act.  She learned a lot from Lizzie, thankfully, who recognized in Kayley the same fears she'd had when Jamie was first born.  With Oliver, too, Jamie was a big help-- he seemed to really take to fatherhood the same as Kayley did to motherhood, and, overall, Oliver seemed to be a very happy baby.  When Oliver was ten months old, Kayley elected to return to work, though she made sure to enroll Oliver in the Ministry's sponsored daycare so that she could go visit him on her breaks-- she didn't want to seem like a horrible mother, after all, and she didn't like being away from him for too long.

As Oliver has gotten older, he's definitely gotten more, well, fun-- something that Kayley is increasingly grateful for.  He makes motherhood easy, and enjoyable.  She loves imagining the world through his eyes, where everything is new and exciting and just begging to be explored.  In May, 1980, Kayley found out that she was pregnant for a second time-- this time there were none of the doubts or fears as there had been with Oliver, and Kayley is eagerly awaiting the birth of hers and Jamie's second child.  Her days are full of family and love, and, really, Kayley feels like she couldn't be happier.





School Attended:  Hogwarts
House // Years:  Gryffindor // 1967-1974
Positions Held:  None
NEWTS:  Astronomy - Acceptable
Charms - Exceeds Expectations
Defense Against the Dark Arts - Acceptable
Transfiguration - Acceptable
Herbology - Acceptable


General Personality:  Kayley is a bundle of energy, always in motion.  Even when she was in school, sitting in class, she always felt like she had to be moving-- even doing something as simple as tapping her fingers, toes, or quill.  There's a near-constant buzz under her skin, and it's almost distracting at times-- there's nothing worse than boredom.  That being the case, Kayley's fortunate in that she's very rarely bored-- Jamie and Oliver can keep her attention for hours and longer, and she's never happier than when she's running around with (or chasing after) her boys.

Kayley is passionate, outgoing, extroverted, and playful.  Her passion guides her actions-- she's proud of who she is, who she's become, and that pride is a source of strength for her.  She's one to strike up a conversation with a stranger in a shop-- which would make her a good saleswoman, if it weren't for the fact that she always speaks her mind.  Though she can be sarcastic to her heart's content, Kayley really can't all-out lie-- or, at least, not very well.  She generally doesn't even try. 

There are really very few filters about her.  Kayley grew up in a rather rigid household, and has been rebelling against that since she went to school.  She revels in being able to say what she she wants to, without the fear of repercussions she had as a child.  She's determined to raise Oliver-- and any other children she and Jamie might have-- differently than she was raised, herself.  Kayley does all she can to make sure Oliver is encouraged to be his own person, not the person she and Jamie might want him to be-- though, in doing that, she's found that Oliver's always been someone she's incredibly proud of, and someone she's glad is her son.

Though she has an exuberant outward appearance and a playful attitude, Kayley is generally laid back in her opinions.  She comes from a long line of pureblood wizards, but holds no animosity toward those who do not-- obviously not, seeing as she married someone who is halfblood.  Jamie's blood status-- and, consequently, Oliver's-- isn't even something Kayley thinks about.  It never has been.  She loves Jamie for who he is, not who his ancestors were or weren't.  Kayley knows that not everyone is as accepting as she is when it comes to blood status, but in general she won't go looking for a fight or looking to press her opinions on others-- threaten her family, however, and she'll fight with any means necessary, as long as necessary.  Jamie and Oliver are her world, and she'd do anything to keep them safe.


Height // Weight:  5'9" // 150lbs (when not pregnant)
Physical Description:  Kayley is rather tall-- she takes after her father-- and she sees herself as being rather fit.  She's comfortable in her own skin, and it shows in the way she holds herself.  She has brown eyes and dark brown hair, which falls almost to the middle of her back in slight waves.  Kayley isn't particularly vain or fashion-conscious-- how could she be, with a four year old around?  She's more than happy playing in the grass or mud of the backyard with Oliver.  When she's not working at the Ministry, she's mostly found wearing a simple shirt and trousers-- anything that's easy to move around in-- though she will dress up on occasion.  A skirt, to make Jamie happy, or one of the Wood family kilts to match her boys.  Kayley fretted over her pregnancy weight gain with Oliver, though Jamie insisted it wasn't anything to worry over-- she's doing her best to push those worries aside this time.


Played-By:  Sophia Bush // 1, 2, icons