Character Information
Basics:
Full name: Erica Payton Kauffman.
Nicknames: --
Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts.
Age and Birthday: Sixteen [July 5th; 1995].
House and Year: Junior in Roanoke.
Boggart: Her father. With an expression of anger on his face that she knows all too well.
Riddikulus: John, as if he were a balloon being pricked by a needle, deflates to nothingness. Leaving behind just a pile of an empty business suit and shoes.
Patronus and Why: When she learns to do it properly, it is likely that Erica's charm will appear in the form of a hedgehog. These little animals represent resourcefulness and self-preservation/protection. They are experts at taking care of themselves, and despite their small size they are always ready to defend themselves if they have to.

School Information:
Wand: Springy dogwood with a core of kneazle fur, nine inches.
Electives:
- Advanced Potions I
- Wandless
- Muggle Studies
- Advanced Flying.
Extracurriculars:
- Quodpot [Runningback/Safety]
- Dueling Club
- Band [Piano]
- Cooking Club
- Muggle Sports

Strongest Subject: Potions.
Weakest Subject: Charms.
Animagus Form, if applicable: N/A.

Family and Relationships
Parents: John & Lisa Kauffman [Father & Mother].
Siblings: John Kauffman Jr. [Older Brother; Former Shenandoah], Emily Kauffman [Older Sister; University House], & Erin Kauffman [Younger Sister; Roanoke Sophomore].
Extended Family: Her paternal grandparents passed away before she was even born, and her maternal grandparents died fairly close together about four years ago. There are aunts and uncles on her father's side, but they haven't spoken to their brother in over a decade.
Familiar: Delta, an albino lavender California king snake.
Sexuality: Generally straight, but not close minded.

Appearance:
PB: Valerie 'Lights' Poxleitner.
Physical Description:
Out of herself and her siblings, Erica is the one whom most closely resembles their mother. Erica's hair is long, reaching her mid-back, and usually kept down, although sometimes with a headband or bandana wrapped around. Her hair is very dark brown, nearly black, and stands out brilliantly when framing a face as pale as her own. She has small hazel eyes with long lashes, and which are almost always accented by a bit too much eye make-up. She has a slightly angular nose that runs in her family. Erica's smile is wide and bright with straight and white teeth, the result of years of charms on the part of her mother. Erica's teeth were terribly crooked throughout her childhood, but her mother never gave up on her even if a few spells might have backfired.

With her slightly fair skin, she much prefers keeping up a darker olive complexion over her body. She hates being pale. She enjoys tanning, and tries to keep her summer color up, stretching it as far as she can manage. She hates how sick she looks when she lets her color go to waste, and much prefers the tanned look, even if she has to go through a few sunburns to get it. Her face a little angular, like her nose, with thin lips and thin eyebrows. She stands a little taller than most of the girls her age, reaching five feet and nine inches, just a few inches below her older brother.

Her physique is lithe and athletic but petite; she almost looks a little lanky, other than her well toned legs. She doesn't have exactly the ideal build for playing Quodpot, but she is hoping that spending time on the team has been changing that. Having been diagnosed with Celiac while she was still a toddler, her growth was always just a little delayed, and she had always a bit smaller than her peers but she took a growth spurt after freshman year and did some decent catching up to the other girls. It's this growth spurt that gave her a little push in height. She is glad to finally be able to hold her own with girls her age, it much helps on the field too.

Erica has no piercings, although she wouldn't mind getting them in the future. She does have two tattoos, however. She has a quote split between both forearms which reads; "now & always have the blessing of the father and remain blameless until the end".

She got the tattoos just a summer ago, convincing Julian Prideaux to come with her as her adult supervision.

When it comes to fashion, Erica loves dark colors, lots of blacks and grays, and has an affection for cocktail dresses, khaki shorts, bandanas and kicks. She loves to get dressed up for events at school, and doesn't waste a bit of detail when it comes to getting ready.

Personality:
Likes: Cooking, baking, piano, playing quodpot, running, basically any movie in 3D, anything related to KISS, watching Seinfeld, shopping, getting riled up for a game, giving advice to others, keeping a small number of true friends, relaxing in sweatpants, grape juice, bonfires, the colors red and black, handmade clothing, wooden art.
Dislikes: Her father, men who hit women, feeling weak, being taken advantage of, loss of control, needlessly crude or rude people, parents fighting in front of their kids, seeing children hurt, cheap stitching in clothing, perfect couples, nuclear families, rare steak, poor quality tissue.
Quirks:
~ Erica's favorite band of all time in KISS, and she won't hesitate to tell you so. She was first exposed to them during her first year at Blue Ridge, through a muggleborn friend she made in one of her classes. She has been going strong for the KISS Army ever since.

~ She doesn't consider herself the most experienced advice columnist, but she finds herself in the role among her friends and her siblings. She was her mother's shoulder to hold onto during the entire ordeal with her father and still somewhat is, and that has helped her come more into her supportive role. Even if she doesn't really believe in herself just yet.

~ Abuse is a huge trigger for Erica. Child abuse and spousal abuse hold a special place of distaste for her, but they aren't the only sort that set her temper and get her into a defensive mode.

~ She has Celiac disease, or gluten intolerance. She is also an asymptomatic sufferer, which only makes the condition worse since it means she shows no outwardly ill effects to ingesting gluten. The damage happens inside and detecting the damage to her body is much more difficult. In addition to this allergy, she is allergic to shrimp, pecans, and gets pretty watery eyes every spring.

~ In order to pump herself up for quodpot, she listens to Shout It Out Loud by KISS before all games and practices. She's considering suggesting on making it the teams new theme song or something.

~ While she is genuinely polite to most people, there are very few people that Erica trusts completely.

~ Erica learned to bake and cook at a young age. This came about originally due to her battle with Celiac, and she sometimes views her baking as more of a necessity and less of an enjoyment. She does not cook and bake solely for her own pleasure. It is an utmost necessity for her to know what is in her food, and what goes into it. It's often safer in her eyes just to prepare her own snacks & treats. This fact, coupled with much practice and spending early years toddling around the kitchen after their housekeepers, has given Erica an acute skill in this area.

~ Erica hates to cry in front of anyone outside of her family, if she can at all help herself.

~ Erica can be extremely defensive, and tends to take things personally and dwell heavily on them. Even what started out as a joke often ends up really hurting her feelings, or at least giving her something to dwell long and hard about.

Secrets:
~ Although she acts as if every cute couple she knows is just the sweetest thing around, Erica holds a lot of contempt for people that she views as too perfect. She is skeptical about love, and about people who appear to have everything going for them in their lives. While she might call you and your boyfriend cute to your face, it's quite likely that she is gagging on the inside.

~ She claims she's joking whenever she brings it up to anyone, but Erica really would like to have a nose-job one day; whether through magic or otherwise.

~ It hurts her feelings more than she'd like to admit that people consider her a slut. Especially hearing it from her siblings. She just doesn't feel comfortable enough to settle down.

~ Erica likes hanging around with older students, finding them more exciting and stimulating than people her own age, most of whom she silently views as immature. It was this affection for older friends, particularly older boys, which led her into sleeping with and losing her virginity to a senior during her freshman year. The secret part being that the night together wasn't totally voluntary on her end. He's since graduated, and she doesn't really think about it.

~ She has considered suicide numerous times through her life. Most notably during the height of her father's trial, when her family was falling apart. Erica always ends up backing out of the mindset by reminding herself that it wouldn't do any good to bring even more anguish to her mother's plate.

~ Her father is a dark wizard and convicted murderer/rapist. Most people who read the paper at all in the last few years would know this, but Erica doesn't like to talk about it and doesn't offer any of her insight/knowledge to the situation. She wouldn't even acknowledge having a father, if she could get away with it.

~ Despite loving him deep down even if they've never been close, Erica is a little bit scared of her older brother John. He looks and acts so much like their father at times that it freaks her out. She would defend him to anyone if she had to, but a feeling of unease sometimes creeps it's way in when she looks into his eyes long enough.

Amortentia Smells Like: Sawdust, salt water, and the smoke from smoke machines.
Strengths: Loyal, good problem solver, excellent at proofreading reports/papers, listens well, supportive, energetic, friendly [mostly], good at Quodpot, fast runner, knows how to sew well, great cook, great baker, informed about sports, convincing liar, hides her emotions well, has a logical way of viewing life/love/etc, likes to comfort, maternal, takes charge easily, can provide a clear head in emergencies [knows CPR, First Aid, etc].
Weaknesses: Doesn't trust easily, skeptical of love/affection/relationships/etc, views herself as faulty or damaged goods, has big-time daddy issues, promiscuity, overly sensitive at times, takes things to heart, has a bad temper when provoked by the wrong thing, thinks too much in black & white sometimes, doesn't attach herself to people easily, allows herself to be used at times, severe allergies, gets frustrated with others quickly [despite not voicing said frustration aloud], needs to work on her patience in general.

Detailed Personality:
Although Erica is far from perfect, she tries to project the best possible image of herself, despite all of her flaws. She can appear calm and cool, but still be full of turmoil on the inside. She likes to leave the sunny side facing up, smiling whenever she can. She keeps up a facade of goofiness and carelessness, but there is a much deeper side to her that only her closest friends get to see. Despite being rather friendly, Erica is a desperately private person who doesn't often like to share much about herself, or whatever she happens to be feeling. She is more than ready to let a friend open up and cry on her shoulder, but she is often reluctant to accept a returning of the favor.

Erica's issues with her family run deep, and have left a prominent mark on her view of the world. She plays the constant role of her mother's support system, and has from a young age. She was always the favorite. Even as a young girl, she was accustomed to girls days out together to relieve her mother's stress, and being the one to sit in her mother's lap while the woman cried over how John treated her. Erica is also fond of her siblings, although they are not extraordinarily close; if push came to shove, she would support them, but she doesn't force herself on them. She hopes that they know well enough to come to her if they need her.

Even now as a teenager however, Erica still fits into that supporting protector role for her mother. During John's trial, pushing aside her own feelings about her father, Erica spent the entire thing focusing on her mother and helping her out in whatever ways she could manage. She loves her mother intensely, and is silently glad that her father is put away, where he can't hurt her mom any longer. She has a strong sense of maternal instinct, from all of the care she has given and received from her mother over the years, and this instinct extends to anyone close to her in her life. She likes to know people are okay, and to hold them when they are weak. It's easier to help them and be strong and brave than let herself break down.

Erica's feelings about her father are mixed, but mostly negative. She supposes that she might have what other people may call 'daddy issues', but she doesn't advertise about it. She detests him for everything that he has done, how he treated his family and particularly his own wife and children, but she can't deny that he is still her father and somewhere inside of her she does love him. Even as much as she may not want to. She doesn't hate men because of him, but she is sometimes a bit wary of them, even if it doesn't show that outwardly. She has a terrible temper, something that she has inherited/learned from him, and something that she is working on fixing and is not proud of. With even a small bit of provocation, Erica can end up going off and quickly regretting it. Luckily, she doesn't often get violent, although she does get quite mouthy. Living with her father has given Erica a pure hatred for abuse in any form. She has no tolerance for people who abuse others, especially men abusing women, and this is a sure fire way to set off that temper.

She has had issues with low self-esteem, having bouts of depression at times and even having considered suicide in the past. She lets herself get down on herself over little things. She is hyper-sensitive, even if she doesn't show it, and tends to take things personally and to heart, dwelling on stupid little things for days at a time. She over-analyzes situations and off-handed comments from others, and she has a knack for getting herself worked up over nothing. She views herself as damaged goods, and doesn't understand what anyone could possibly see in dating her, which has kept her out of relationships mostly. She'd rather like a guy, sleep with him, and move on before he realizes what a mess she is.

Her view on love and dating is skeptical at best. She doesn't believe in 'true love' by typical definition, and thinks things like 'soul mates' and 'together forever' may just be a crock of shit. She views things in the realm of romance with a very logical eye, and has a tendency to pick things apart, or dig too deeply into it. She isn't sure anyone would want to love someone like her anyway, despite what others might try to convince her. She isn't on board with other teenage girls, fawning loudly over the latest cute boy or celebrity. She'd rather fuck them than talk about how dreamy they are, and sometimes it leaves her feeling that she might just be faulty. She doesn't get what boys see in her, and she isn't sure that she wants to. If the right person exists (and that is a big if), he'll find her, and that'll be that. She isn't into exclusive dating, long term boyfriends, PDA, or guy drama. Even boys she has extended relations with, she has never told 'I love you' to anyone outside of her family and cannot see herself changing that too close in the future, if ever.

That isn't to say, of course, that she isn't sometimes attracted to other people. Just that she knows how to keep herself safely distaanced. She has been known to have more-than-friends-with-benefits crushes once in a while, but keeps it private, and keeps it at a casual status. She just spends more time with them as subtly as possible when she's favoring a boy. She can be a bit promiscuous, and a bit of a cheater by the opinion of others. She doesn't like the idea of being held down to one person, and would rather move around to find momentary affection where she can. Holding down to one person makes her too vulnerable, and eventually, she'll have to explain herself to them or let them hurt her, something she doesn't want to do. Keeping encounters casual, and never calling it a relationship, she doesn't run the same risk of becoming hurt, or having to talk about things that make her uncomfortable. Boys who might think they are dating her are often not, at least not in her eyes. Despite her hate-on for drama, this can lead to quite a bit of drama, confusion and hurt on their end.

Smiling and acting brave and casual are Erica's natural defense mechanisms, and she intends to keep them in frequent use, no matter what else she may feel.

Personal History
Erica's family is directly descended from one of the Salem witch trial victims. Walburga Kauffman was executed on 1692, and the witch in question was a generally disliked and foolish old woman, abandoned by the entirety of the family. Her demise came with great shae, after losing her temper and publicly hexing a woman in front of several witnesses after a verbal spat.

Three hundred years down the road, the Kauffman family has long since moved along. Their involvement in the business of wand-making has been in the family for generations, a hundred or so years even before Walburga's time, and has become the main source of their income and prestige. However, most immediate family members are scarcely involved in the actual physical act of crafting wands anymore. Working up to executive decisions is where most Kauffmans are found, not whittling the wands with their bare hands anymore.

Three hundred years also gave the Kauffmans time to come around on the subject of Walburga. Once viewed as an unpleasant blemish on the family tree, she has become sort of a symbol for Kauffman wand-making. Most view her as a victim of an ignorant time rather than the unpleasant woman that she was, and the family has always been keen to use her as proof that their wand-making experience predates even the witch trials. It would seem in addition to her skill for hexing muggles, Walburga also had a knack of her own for magical craft.

Over these many years, the family has also dispersed throughout the country. Many generations after her witch-trial era relatives had lived and died, in the early 1990s, Erica and her siblings were born in Boston, Massachusetts.

Meeting during their own education at Blue Ridge School, John Kauffman and Lisa Danvers were the typical high-school sweethearts, and no one could have predicted how sour their relationship would one day become. They married and moved to John's hometown of Boston shortly after graduation, high school for Lisa and university for John, and had their first son less than a year after that. One year after John Jr was born, Emily came along next, followed by Erica, and then Erin.

Growing up with lots of siblings and a loving mother was a blessing, but growing up with John for a father was not an enjoyable life. It was more like living with a bear. Just like so many Kauffman family members before him, Walburga included, Michael was often angry and generally abrasive, bordering on abusive. Toward both his wife and his young children. One of Erica's earliest memories of her father is from around just after her sixth birthday, when he made the family dog disappear in order to punish her for breaking a glass while setting the table for tea. She can still recall him screaming at her, his breath warm on her face, and his expression bright red with anger. Weeks later, she found the dog's bloody leather collar in the yard while playing with Erin.

Lisa did what she could to deal with her husband, and trying uselessly to protect her children, but she was blinded by her affection for the man. Every time he did something terrible to either his wife or the children, John would usually apologize, make amends, assure her that he would work on improving himself. In all honesty, things never changed, not for any longer than a few measly days. Erica's early memories of home are riddled with recollections of his many screaming matches with her mother, and his incredibly cruel punishments. She hated the way her father would look at her and her siblings as if she meant nothing, and the feeling it left lingering in her has stayed with her for her entire life.

It was just before John Jr went away to school that John began acting even more distant than ever. It was clear that although Lisa still tried to love her husband, John's love for her was long gone, and he had began to wander from the sacred union between them. He went away on business frequently, often being gone for days at a time, and Erica remembers being simply glad that he was gone. She loved spending days where there was no screaming, no fighting, her mother wasn't crying. John's demeanor even began to improve slightly for this time, and Lisa said absolutely nothing that would risk changing things back to the way they had been before.

Erica was particularly close to her mother during these times. With John gone from the house, Lisa found herself without much to do, without him around to tell her what to do and how to do it, she began to spend even more time doting on her middle daughter. Unlike her older brother, whom Lisa fretted over for being so very withdrawn and serious, Erica was a mostly happy and sociable child. She loved having tea parties with her mother, and playing in the back yard with her younger sister. She hated staying inside, and was often outdoors, exploring whatever she could find. Without John around as much, Erica was less worried about getting in trouble over trivial things, and was able to blossom more readily without his angry words at every turn scolding her for every little action that he saw as wrong.

Looking back and realizing what her father had been doing during this otherwise quiet time, however, makes her feel sick to her stomach. Erica cannot deny that they were some of the happiest days of her life, even if her father was ruing other lives at the same time. It felt, for that time, almost like a more normal family. It was her break from all of the negativity being focused on herself and her family.

When it became time for choosing which school to attend, Erica was given a choice of education. She could have stayed in Boston, but eventually settled on Blue Ridge School, just as her parents and older brother and sister had done before her. Even if it was pretty far from home, it was a better quality of learning. Or at least it was in the eyes of her mother, which is what really tempted Erica into taking the plunge.

Erica was sorted into Roanoke; the same as her mother had been before her. It wasn't much of a surprise to her, and her mother was proud, sending a letter of praise as soon as she heard the news.

When she arrived, one thing she noticed straight away that people were often surprised that she was even related to her brother; if not for the family resemblance. She made friends easier than he did, but kept them at a distance. She was happy, but she was guarded, and she feared it was apparent. Opening up was something she had never been taught, and trusting other people did not come easy, no matter how nice they were. She had learned from watching her father that a kind facade did not always mean a truly kind person. She felt comfortable among her peers, even if she knew she was different. Other children spoke highly of their parents, of their siblings, and Erica found she didn't have much to say. She didn't like talking about her family, and she didn't think they would want to be talked about. She knew she didn't.

It was during her first year of school that Erica happened to glance across the table at breakfast, and caught her father's face on the newspaper in the hands of another student. The expression on his face was familiar, it looked very similar to the way he looked when he had once screamed bloody murder at her for tracking mud across the kitchen floor. It was the same face that she had seen as he tossed her into her bedroom every time she misbehaved as a child, slamming and locking the door behind her. It was an expression of pure rage glaring at her from the photograph, stern and cruel.

She read the words silently, gathering the gist of the situation, and feeling her stomach knotting as she read each one.

John Kauffman, 40, head of Kauffman family wand-making being investigated by the League of American Wizards. Suspected of having potentially raped and murdered up to five muggle women.

She recognized one of the women in the five mug-shot style pictures at the bottom of the page. It was one of his old secretaries, Erica had met her once years ago as a child. The woman had smiled vibrantly, she really was pretty, and Erica vaguely recalled that she had given her a peppermint. She felt her stomach twist at the realization, it made it feel genuine, made it feel like reality. She knew that woman, and it was real.

She went into denial as a knee jerk response to the news, surely he was awful but not that awful, but a call from her mother that evening confirmed it. Erica's immediate reaction had been to cry, but she swallowed it down, deciding that her mother needed the comfort more than she did. Even at a young age, she began to realize this, and it quickly became a habit and trend. Along with her mother, Erica kept close eyes on the investigation and on the trial. Even as John Jr drifted further away from them all at this time, becoming more withdrawn and cold, Erica only drifted closer, supporting her mother at every turn, and coming home every single weekend to be with her, just in case she was needed. She felt it was the least that she could do for her. It was all she could offer at such a young age, but she did her best.

Within a couple of days of the news going mainstream, it was like everybody remembered who the Kauffman family was all of a sudden. How Erica's peers reacted was a mixture of fascination, horror, and morbid interest; some students teased or bullied her, called her the daughter of a psycho, called her crazy. Some tried to start fights, others tried to pester her for details. Muggleborns avoided her, pure-bloods flocked to her, it changed from day to day. All in all, people whom hadn't even known she was alive last week suddenly seemed to want to be her friend, to try to talk to her, to get the scoop. Even the older kids, whom barely acknowledged younger students, came to her looking to know the truth.

She revealed next to nothing, avoiding the attention at every cost. Some less savory pure-blooded students even came to her with congratulations, wanted to know how it felt to have a father fighting-the-good-fight, to know how proud she felt. Mostly, she just felt sick. It was during this time that she first considered suicide, wanting to get away from everything, from her father, from the pestering of others. She decided against it, unable to handle the idea of further hurting her mother, no matter how much she wanted to escape life in those long months. She began wanting nothing to do with her father, and only attended the trial to support Lisa. It was a hassle, dealing with others, dealing with their curiosity, their nosy questions. No one wanted to be her friend for the sake of being her friend, they wanted to be her friend for the gossip. Erica couldn't have been happier when the wave of interest died down, and people simply began to leave her alone again. She could go back to life, as best she could. Or at least try to.

While the attention of her father began to fade, Erica thrived in the upper grades, with most of the drama of first and second year faded into the background. People were slowly forgetting who the Kauffmans were once again, other than a wand shop. People no longer tried to seek her out to ask how her father was doing. She was able to flourish on her own, to make her own friends, and set her own boundaries. She got along especially well with students even older than herself, finding them more suited to her interests and views on life. She has also been building her love for Quodpot, but not the boys who played it. Her taste seems to ruin in the vein of musicians rather than tough guys.

Tags: !biography, !ooc