Gem

sizeof_bullets @ 2008-09-26T22:32:00

2008-09-27T03:36:32Z

Don't ask me how I know this, I can't say. But there are very valid rumours that the muggle Ministry is working on a way to control us. To control our magic. To create some sort of bubble where our magic can't work and to place it over all of the UK. I don't know if this is the truth or not, but it was up for discussion within Parliament today. If they are able to do this, we'll be unable to stop it. They want to control us. To control what we can do. If the muggles think of a way to do this, I'm willing to bet our Ministry will be able find a way to make this on an individual basis. To somehow turn witches into muggles. Call me a conspiracy nut, but something tells me this could very well happen. Anyone else believe this could be bad?

sizeof_bullets @ 2008-07-24T22:28:00

2008-07-25T03:30:33Z

How to piss everyone off at once. By Gemma Yaxley

In order to piss off everyone you know in one statement, create a story about fucking someone you are not. Then sit and let everyone believe it is true. Sex isn't everything, guys. And so, that is all. I'm going to go back to solitude and pretend that people aren't shit heads.

sizeof_bullets @ 2008-03-13T22:36:00

2008-03-14T03:36:49Z

sizeof_bullets @ 2007-12-06T15:28:00

2007-12-06T21:30:17Z

My crazy angel
Personality: Gemma is the girl that never had a chance in life. Her families death still weighs heavily on her, and at times she can appear to be that same thirteen year old girl she was back then. She was always a quiet girl, always stuck in a book trying to keep to herself. Gem never thought of herself as anything more than a nerd and so that was the personality she kept. Though, her grades never reflected it. She is very soft spoken and only raises her voice when she thinks she is right or frustrated, most of her arguments in the past have only been with Sirius. She fights fiercely for what she believes in, most of the time following her heart instead of her mind even if what her heart tells her could cause harm to herself.

Gemma has deep trust in people, sharing with people she trusts what she feels are her deepest secrets and those that know of her past are the ones she feels will never betray her. She may have the tendency to let things about herself slip to other people, like things about her job and her children, but if one of her close friends tells her something, she won't tell another soul. She craves to just be in a relationship with someone that will be there. Gem has has horrible luck in life with her love life seeming to end up with the worst of guys at times. She falls for the bad guys, and she falls hard. It isn't hard to tell when Gemma likes you, though she is still a little shy around guys, she tends to have that dreamy look in her eye around them. A glow about her and a smile plastered on her face. Though she is a shy girl, it disappears when she is drunk, and it doesn't take much to make her drunk either. A drunken Gemma can be found jumping on the lap of the closest male and sliding her fingers under his shirt. She knows she shouldn't drink, and so she doesn't a good majority of the time. Her shyness goes away with time, and if you are around her for a time, the blushes go away.

She has the tendency to talk back to those that talk down to her. Bringing fights and grudges onto herself with out really meaning to. If she feels safe where she is, as if she was in some sort of relationship with someone she trusts, she grows a backbone. She feels she can take on just about anyone, even if she knows she can't. She is over protective of her child, trusting her to only those she trusts. She doesn't like leaving her with people she doesn't know fully, and that circle of people in that category is shrinking.

Gem disappears into the background, making herself almost invisible at times. She doesn't like to stick out, she doesn't like to be the center of attention and yet most people know who she is. It isn't like her to want to jump into a party and start dancing on the table for attention, she has a rather tough shell but she can be pried out of it if the person is persistent enough. It isn't that she feels uncomfortable around people, she just has never been allowed to have that wild streak that she admires in other people. If she is tempted enough, she will streak across a hotel lobby while screaming. But it wouldn't be her idea first. She has no problem speaking about her sex life on her journal, that is if she is with someone equally as out spoken on the subject. It all depends on who it is, if she is surrounded with people that are quiet, she will be quiet. If she is with a loud spoken, wild group of people, Gem will try to fit in with them as well. And if she is with a mass murdering, pig feeding gangster, she will claim to love pigs and death.

Her favourite word is 'why' and at most times she wants people to explain things to her. She has always been curious of why people do things and what makes them be a certain way. If she gets it into her head to know something, she will know everything about it by the end of the day. It doesn't mean she will be an expert at it, but she would know about it in a very theoretical sense. Gem can't do much magic at all, and the only times she appears to have any magical blood in her at all is when she is pushed. So, she may know everything there is to know about charms and be able to tell you the inner workings of a Patronus, but she can't produce one. She loves to learn and will try to teach others what she knows to an extent.

Although she craves being with someone, she also does love silence. She has spent weeks at work, either in her Chamber or underground in a quiet crypt just learning. It isn't any shock that her favorite place in school was a hidden spot in the back of the library. She also is a rather accomplished dancer, having taken many years studying at the Royal Ballet School in London when she was younger, her family thought it was best that she at least have some schooling in an art and ballet came easy for the tall skinny girl. She has started teaching her daughter some of it. It is something she usually does when she is alone though, as well jumping around in a pink tutu isn't something she really thinks everyone needs to see.
Fears: Gem fears the death of those she loves.
Habits: Gemma rubs her ears when she gets stressed quite a bit. Gem also wakes up before dawn and along with Saffy watches the sun rise every day that they are in Corsica, or somewhere with a beach. Gem has been doing it since before Saffron was born and has continued it ever since. It's calming and just something to start the day with.
Mental Health: She is a very codependent person and her mental health is steadied when she has someone to fall on. Currently, she is rather sane.
Boggart Form: Gem's boggart changes often as she runs out of fears. It has been in her past: her family dead, Billy, a needle, Saffron dead, Inferi, the Veil *Only in the first three weeks of working at the Ministry*, her Uncle Dorian Yaxley, the Dark Lord, Alice dead by her own hand, and Sirius dead. Currently, she has no idea what she fears the most.
Patronus: A rather large dog..bascically a Grim. That is when she can actually produce it. Most of the time it ends up being just a wisp of smoke. Gem doesn't really have that many happy memories to pull from, but she can do it if it was a matter of life and death.
Amortentia (love potion) smell: Roses, rain, wax, and wet dog. What can she say, she's a romantic at heart. As for the wet dog, well everyone knows why.
Mirror of Erised: Gem with a small family surrounded with a few close friends. She's basically got it right now.
Handicaps: Gemma gets horrible migraines which force her to become disoriented and is also fighting off an addition to drugs as she was kept on them to keep her from remembering who she was while with Billy.
Special Talents: Gem basically uses her abilities to the best she can, she is rubbish at most magic, she can't even apparate thanks to the fact that she just can't work it right. But, on that note, she is rather powerful, she just doesn't know it. Her power is inside of her and when pressed Gemma can unleash her attack wandlessly. She has only done it once, and it took the form of a rather lethal cutting hex that killed three men that were holding her hostage and threatening her and the life of her child. She still does not know how she did it, and has yet to have it happen again.
She also can call upon the voices of the dead, as that is what she does for her job but connected with that, she spent years attempting to block them from her mind as it can get to the point where it is painful for her to listen any longer. So, she began to force her head to accept the skill that would shut her mind off. She can keep her walls up most of the time, and there are few if any that can get past it. Her Occulmency isn't the best, she never read about it, she just learned on her own, but she can block her thoughts quite well.
Her connection to Amycus is proof of this talent. She is able to cut him off from her when she wants too, she makes it almost a one way street in their minds. So one could say that if she needed to keep something a secret, she could.
Medical Condition: It is a rare disease that has never been seen out of this line and no one is quite sure when it started. It simply creates a imbalance in the chemical make up of their brain causing the Seratonin level, which are part of the make-up of neuro-transmitters in the brain, to drop while raising the acidic level of Acetylcholine. With these two off balance, it creates near blister like substances with in their brain. When these pop, it causes blood to appear and eventually runs out of their ears. In the past, this was the end of many of the family, and it still does claim the lives of many of the Croaker family. In recent years, there have been enough medical advancements to create a certain formula of pills to bring everything under control. Gem has lost her uncle Edward from this, as well as both of her Croaker grandparents. Rupert is on the same medication as Gem and she takes Saffron in almost monthly to be checked for the symptoms. This is the disease she died from when she was young, it was from this death that she is the way she is now. So far it seems that Saffron is the first Croaker to not have this in four generations, though that could change at any time.

I hold on so hard
Height: Five foot ten
Weight: Her weight varies, but it is under 120 pounds most of the time. She is a very small girl.
Blood Type: O Negative.
Eyes: Very large blue eyes. She has slightly horrible eyesight as she has spent many years squinting at small print, but she does not always need her glasses. She usually only needs them when her head begins to hurt, or she has been reading for long periods of time.
Hair: Long, straight and white. She wasn't born with white hair, in fact her hair was a dark blonde color for the first three years of her life. The stress of the voices has caused the pigment from her hair to disappear and now she is left with her unusual colour.
Face & Complexion: Has a round face with a very pale complexion that looks like she does not get enough sun even if she were to sit outside for days. But she has a few freckles across her cheeks, but they are very faint and for the most part unless you look closely at her, you would never notice them.
Distinguishing Features: Gemma tends to have very cold to the touch skin, as if she could possibly be dead at times. She also has two tattoos. One of a pair of white angel wings that take up her entire back which she got when she was with Billy and a pair of dog paw prints on her chest as a reminder of Sirius.
Scent: She tends to smell slightly of kiwis and the ocean, well salt water. She's spent a lot of time on the beach, when she can. She also eats kiwis quite often as they are her favourite fruit.
Dress Style: Gem at the moment just steals what she can out of Sirius's closet, but will never be seen with out a pair of strangely coloured heels. She owns what has to be the most extensive collection of plain white t-shirts which she pairs with everything. She dresses up quite a bit of the time, and prefers skirts to jeans as she can never really find any that fit her. Though, she is one of those that will always stay in pefect uniform robes while in school.
Possessions Always On Her Person: Gem hardly even carries her wand on her at times knowing that she can't really use it, but she keeps it on her sometimes as she feels weird not having it. She usually keeps a snack in her purse as well, as she get hungry quite often now. Gem also always wears a small sapphire ring her father gave her with her families crest embossed on the top in silver. She received it her first year of school and has kept it on her since then. Also a black cord necklace that she got with Sirius on one of their real date type things and her wedding ring.
Manner of Speech: Gemma has adopted a French accent into her words, she spent a good amount of time there and there are times when she has a Yorkshire accent but she is slowly getting rid of it. Gem also has a very extensive collection of languages she can speak. It's a bit of a hobby to try and learn to speak the native language of where she lives. Currently she speaks fluently in; French, English, Spanish and Italian. She also has a working understanding of; German and Sicilian.

And pray that I won't say something wrong
Favorite Color: A pale blue colour. She also enjoys the colours black and white but only when placed together. Her townhome is a combination of all three of these and she finds it funny that her life revolves around these colours with out knowing it.
Favorite Book: The Ugly Duckling Hans Christian Anderson. Her mother got her addicted to it when she was younger and she feels at times that she is that character. She also loves Swan Lake, the ballet. She finds herself thinking she is a swan that has yet to find her prince.
Favorite Music: Only the classics and the Weird Sisters. She can be found listening to anything really. She doesn't really care what it is as long as there is a beat to it.
Favorite Subject: Divination.
Favorite Scent: She loves the smell of flowers, any kind.
Favorite Possession: A small stuffed swan she has held on to since a child. It was given to her by her mother after Juliana realized her daughter was obessed with Swan Lake.

Least Favorite Colour: Gem isn't a huge fan of the colour yellow. But she really doesn't have anything against any colour as she will wear anything in any colour. Yellow just seems to be the one that makes her look the most dead.
Least Favorite Book: Anything by John Steinbeck.
Least Favorite Music: Moonlight Sonata, she hates it.
Least Favorite Subject: Anything that involved a wand, she is rubbish at Charms, Transfiguration and DADA.
Least Favorite Scent: Honey.
Pets: Gem has mutiple pets. A white tiger for Saffron called Kitty. Two dogs called Vicious and Spegiel. Horses called Shadowfax and Sam and just about everything else that Saffron asks for.
Automobiles: Gemma has a '83 Porsche 911 Turbo that she refuses to let Sirius drive and she also rides with Sirius on his bike and in his Mini that he just recently got.

I look at the stars
Romantic Status: Unknown really.
Partner: Oddly enough, she's sort of with Barty Crouch, Jr.
Sexual Preference: Straight, even though she has been known to snog a girl on occasion if she is drunk enough.
Turn Ons: Gem loves someone that can control her. Someone that listens and that will be able to put up with her in her dramatic times. She wants someone to love her for who she is and someone that can take care of her. Gem doesn't worry about how people look, she cares little if she is with the hottest guy in the room. She is more after what is inside of their head than anything else. She would rather have someone smart than someone attractive. But that doesn't mean that she will just ignore a hot guy for no reason. She needs someone to be there when she needs them, someone to lean on when she is upset and someone that can read her emotions well enough so she doesn't have to explain everything to them. She can get frustrated easily but if she feels deeply about the other person they are stuck with her.
Turn Offs: Gem can't stand a man that will be unable to deal with what she is. She knows she acts like a child at time and asks questions to everything, if one was to get annoyed with that fact she wouldn't be able to be near them. She also doesn't like guys that can not take care of themselves as she needs someone strong enough to take care of her as well. It isn't that she can't live on her own, just she isn't sure what to do with herself most of the time and she needs someone that understands that.
Past Relationships: Gemma has been with the following for various amounts of times: Rodolphus Lestrange, Fabian Prewett, Severus Snape, Antonio de la Cruise, and about everyone else in the world that is male.
Crushes On: Barty Crouch, Jr.

And dream that the universe was ours
Personifying Songs:
Come On Home, Franz Ferdinand
You Are Amazing, Ocean Colour Scene
I Believe In A Thing Called Love, The Darkness
Avondale, Yellowcard
Mr. Brightside, The Killers
I Want To Save You, Something Corporate
Fade Together, Franz Ferdinand
Stay With Me, Finch
Stab My Back, All-American Rejects
Dark Secret Love, HIM
Fully Alive, Flyleaf
Sweet Pandemonium, HIM
Bittersweet, Apocalyptica
Bloomfield Ave., Catch 22
Watermark, The Weakerthans
Brown Eyed Girl, Sex Pistols
Polar Opposites, Modest Mouse
I Will Buy You a New Life, Everclear
Walk Away, Kelly Clarkson
Who Loves The Sun, The Velvet Underground
Konstantine, Something Corporate
Over My Head, The Fray
I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever), Stevie Wonder
Hello Tomorrow, Karen O.
I'm So Sick, Fly Leaf
Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, Green Day
Keasbey Nights, Catch 22
FNT, Semisonic
Keep Your Heart Broken, The Rasmus
For You I Will (Confidence), Teddy Geiger
Jude Law And A Semester Abroad, Brand New
Dirty Little Secret, All-American Rejects
Grim Reaper Blues, Tartan Terrors
Wikked Lil' Grrrls, Esthero
Mother's Prayer, MEST
Remnants of Percy Bass, Rasputina
Fashion Party, Daniele Luppi
That Certain Female, Charlie Feathers
Our Diabolikal Rapture, HIM
Hell, The Tiger Lillies
Not Like the Other Girls, The Rasmus
Transylvanian Concubine, Rasputina
Emily Chambers, Ocean Colour Scene
Anorexic Beauty, Pulp
Shadow, Ashlee Simpson
Confessions Of A Futon Revolutionist, The Weakerthans
Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down), Nancy Sinatra
Helena, My Chemical Romance
Alone Down There, Modest Mouse
Urami Bushim, Meiko Kaji
Do You Think I am a Whore, Kittie
One Word, Kelly Osbourne
Volcano, Jimmy Buffet
Goodbye We're Falling Fast, Aiden
Somebody to Love, Jefferson Airplane
We Were Made For Each Other / You Can Breathe, Jack's Mannequin
Kiss Me, Diss Me, Homegrown
Rich Girl, Gwen Stefani
Headstrong, Trapt
Letter of Resignation, The Weakerthans
Battle Without Honor or Humanity, Tomoyasu Hotei
All Tomorrow's Parties, Rasputina
Still Waters Run Deep, The 69 Eyes
The Blowers Daughter, Damien Rice
Crazy Angel, Kill Hannah
Shallot, Emilie Autumn
Knife Blood Nightmare, Aiden

I won't ever stop
Mun: Emma
Played by: Gemma Ward (Gemma), Michael Weatherly (Rupert), Jodelle Ferland (Saffron)
Font (Gemma): Phillipe
Disclaimer of Doohm: Look here all, I am not Gemma Croaker. Croaker belongs to a single line in GOF, the character of Gemma is all mine though. Of course GOF belongs to someone I am not and if I was her, I'd totally make the 7th book all about Unspeakables and the Sisters. All the icons, unless otherwise stated, were made by me in my crazy 'I must icon Gemma Ward' (whom I also do not own..which would really be odd wouldn't it?) moods. You take them, I will cry and then more than likely kill things. Do you really want to be the one that makes me kill kittens? The journal layout was found on livejournal and was made by someone a lot more intelligent with HTML than I am. Oh yeah, that's it.

sizeof_bullets @ 2007-12-06T15:26:00

2007-12-06T21:28:48Z

It's serious
I've got to find you when I start to feel this way
You mesmerize me all the time

So serious I've got to take you home again tonight
Name: Gemma Ignatia Yaxley (Croaker)
Gemma= Means "precious stone" in Italian.
Ignatia= English female variation on the name Ignatius. From the Roman family name Egnatius, which was possibly derived from Latin ignis "fire". This was the name of several early saints, including the third bishop of Antioch who was thrown to wild beasts by emperor Trajan, and by Saint Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits.
Croaker= someone who habitually predicts evil; it has that sense because croaking is a noise made by ravens and crows, who really are death omens as they are carrion eaters.
Black = The name Black in Ireland is mostly found in Ulster where it is of Scottish origin and connected to the Lamont, MacGregor and Duart clans. It was also brought to the country by Anglo settlers. The Gaelic Mac Giolla Dhuibh Sept of Galway who usually anglicized their name as Kilduff, occasionally used Black instead. From the word ‘dubh’ meaning ‘black’.
Nicknames: Gem, though mostly it's just Sirius that calls her that.
Birthday; March 14th, 1959
Ravenclaw Pisceans spend so much time dreaming or reading books of legends that it's a wonder they ever come down to earth. Care must be taken that they do not neglect their material needs, including those that involve sleep, food, and drink. These wizards are natural seers, and often specialize in things like horary astrology, cartomancy, dream interpretation, oracles, and the summoning of visions. Because they possess both intellectual acumen and emotional awareness, they are capable of great insight. They are quiet students, not always the best in their classes, but tend to be brilliant at subjects which they are personally interested in. Shy and nervous, they are easily bullied or intimidated, and need some looking after by more assertive students.
Wand Hand: Left
Wand: Lime wood, 11 inches, Veela hair core.
Lime individuals are said to be inclined to accept in a composed fashion whatever life hands to them. They detest fighting, stress, laziness and idleness. Limes are relenting people who will often make sacrifices for their friends. They possess many talents but lack the tenacity to make those talents blossom. Lime people can be somewhat jealous and complaining by nature, but are very loyal individuals
Alumni: Ravenclaw. Though the Sorting Hat did consider putting her into Hufflepuff but she asked to be put into the same house as her father. She thought it would make him proud.
Academic Record: Gem sat her O.W.L.s, but failed miserably. Most of them ended up in the Acceptable range, thanks to her overwhelming ability to pass the written portions with a perfect score. But her grades kept her from taking her N.E.W.T.s in any other classes, but she did O in three; Potions, Divination, and Astronomy. She kept those three classes and N.E.W.T.ed only in those.
Affiliation: Gem finally ended up joining the Order after being part of the other side.
Blood Line: Pureblood, for the most part. Her family dead she is basically the only heir to the Croaker line. Though Rupert is still alive, her father was the eldest and the wealth falls to her. She was disowned by the Yaxley side of the family, though it doesn't mean much. She can trace her family back around four generations on both sides. After that the Croaker family dosn't appear anywhere. She is unsure of what that means but for all social issues, she is a pureblood even if generations ago the Croakers didn't exist.

'Cause right now you paralyze me with your smile
Home: She lives in a Manor on Corsica and keeps a townhome in London when she needs to travel to work. She also has a flat in Paris, which she bought when she was seventeen, a flat in Milan she bought recently and a manor in Andorra she uses in the winter to go skiing.
Gem's townhome is four levels, a total of six bedrooms and four bathrooms. Her top floor opens out into a balcony, and she does have a large backyard but she never uses it. She also has a rooftop deck, but since she is scared of heights she hardly ever uses it. She bought it after her graduation from Hogwarts, wanting to be closer to her job. It is only a few blocks from the Ministry and she rather enjoys living there. At one point, everything matched the black and white colour of her house down to her dog.
Gem's home on Corsica was the second piece of property she bought. It is right out side of Bastia on the northern tip of the island. It was purchased when she was pregnant with Saffron as a place to get away to. She now uses it as her main home. It is quite large, over eighty acres and includes her own beach. It isn't nearly as large as some other purebloods manors, and it is quite a bit smaller than her place in Andorra, but she doesn't care about that. To her Corsica is her main home. There is plenty of room for her and Saffron with room for a pony. Which she has two of.
She also owns a small flat in Milan, purchased during her time with Billy as a place to stay when she was with him in the country. She also has a love of the area and vacationed there many times when she lived with the Yaxleys. It isn't very big, and she hardly ever has the time to get there but she still enjoys the place. It is a two bedroom flat on the second floor of a large yellow building.
But Gem's first home at the age of seventeen was the tiny apartment with a wonderful view in the heart of Paris. She was kicked out of the Yaxley manor and given her suitcase and told to have a nice life. She spent a week in a hotel before finding the place and moved in during the July of the summer before her seventh year. She spent that Christmas alone. It is only one bedroom with not quite a lot of space to go around, but to her it is her first home, and she will always carry a soft spot for it.
Gem's manor in Andorra is a secret that only a few people know that she even has. Miles from the city, it is within the region of Encamp. She is keeping it quiet as a place she had run to in case of trouble. Gem knows her alliance with the Death Eaters won't last much longer and she knows something will be done about that. She had her coworkers put up the strongest wards possible and made it Unplottable. She only hopes she will never need it like that. She spent last winter there, skiing with Saffron and has yet to return. The Manor is a former castle, and it's location is so remote that it takes quite a bit of effort to find. The only magical way to get to the manor is to floo from Gem's floo in Corsica. That is if the wards to her home will allow you in. She may be horrible at wards, but she works with some rather powerful people and has made sure that these two homes are as safe as they can possibly be.
House Elves: Gem has a small army of House Elves, last time she counted there were near twenty living in each of her homes. She grew up with out them, her first encounter with Elves was at her cousins manor and ever since she has been facinated by them. She knows that most people treat them like filth, but not Gem. She not only pays them for their work, she also celebrates their birthdays, gives out decent presents during holidays, allows them to have rotating schedules where they have days off and dresses them in the finest clothing she can find for them. For the most part, they live in Andorra as it has the most room, but they can get to anywhere she owns with in seconds. They all keep up with the day to day tasks of her homes, keeping things running and cooking. Gem cleans on her own, but she allows them to do their job. She feels they are just part of the family and almost treats them like her children. She also takes in elves that have been tossed out of their families for various reasons running almost like a small boarding house for them all.
Other Workers at Her Home: Gem has a nanny to help with taking care of Saffron when she isn't around. She spent years attempting to find someone she can trust and finally she came across Elisia Richelieu. She is a former Auror for the Ministry of Magic in France and is only a few years older than Gem. Shorter than Gem by over five inches with dark brown hair, she looks more like Saffron than Gem does. She keeps her own home, flooing into the Manor when she is needed. Gem trusts her when she is not able to be around her child, mostly just when she is at work. Elisia quit her job when she got married, wanting to start her own family, and has a small daughter of her own that Gem just adores. Saffy and Elisia's girl Mireille were fast friends and it helps Gem to know that she at least has a friend to be around when she can't be there.

As your wings discard their feathers on the ground
Mother: Juliana Odette Croaker née. Yaxley. Deceased. A French Pureblood, a Beauxbatons Alum and did quite well in Charms. She is the younger daughter of Gaspard and Ninette Yaxley, who was previously a Lestrange, and the sister to Dorian. She is ten years his younger, and was basically an accident. She was married by the age of seventeen to Jarvis having met him at the Ministry when she took her Apparation test, he was there at the same time and it was an instant attraction. Her appearance was passed down to Gemma, tall, blue eyed and blonde. She spoke with a heavy French accent having grown up in the countryside near Nice, France. She had Barry at eighteen and Gemma at twenty one. She was killed in an accident along with the rest of her family, though she was separated and died from an explosion in the car she was riding in at the time. She was thirty four when she died.
Juliana= Feminine form of Julianus. The Blessed Juliana of Norwich was a 14th-century mystic and author. This name was also borne by a queen of the Netherlands.
Odette= French feminine pet form of Odo. Originally a short form of various names beginning with the Germanic element od meaning "wealth, fortune".
Croaker= someone who habitually predicts evil; it has that sense because croaking is a noise made by ravens and crows, who really are death omens as they are carrion eaters.

Father: Jarvis Azrael Croaker. Deceased. An English Pureblood and Ravenclaw Alum who focused on Transfiguration. Jarvis was the first born of three sons from the lesser known Pureblooded family of the Croakers. They were not as well off as say the Black family but that does not mean they were not wealthy. He grew up around money and felt it to be a slight disadvantage and spent his time trying to distance himself from a pureblooded life. His family home was in Leeds with a small manor in the Northern part of the town, though he did visit his father's farm outside of Glasgow. Most of the married into the French bloodlines, or at least it was until Jarvis met Juliana. He flew through school easily, learning everything he could and collecting a large group of friends. He dated girls off and on while spending his time at Hogwarts but he never really loved any of them. He found a soul mate in Juliana for she had the same ideas about the pureblooded lifestyle. He proposed four days after meeting her. His father Anderson died when he was still in school and he grew close to his mother, Carmen, previously of the Mulciber family. He had a strange look over all, preferring to keep scruff on his face at all time and growing his hair out as long as he could get it before someone complained. Jarvis passed on his genetic make up to Barry. His family is cursed though, with a genetic trait that nearly every member of the Croaker tree has gotten. *see more under 'Medical Condition'* Jarvis was the one that gave in to Gemma at all times, she felt herself closer to him and with her he shared his love of books and learning. Jarvis was the first one Gem found when attempting to find her family after the accident, though there was nothing she could do to save him.
Jarvis= From a surname which was derived from the first name Gervaise. Possibly a Latinized form of a Germanic name with a first element deriving from ger "spear". Saint Gervasius was an early martyr from Milan.
Azrael= This is the name of an angel in Jewish and Muslim tradition who separated the soul from the body upon death. He is sometimes referred to as the Angel of Death.
Croaker= someone who habitually predicts evil; it has that sense because croaking is a noise made by ravens and crows, who really are death omens as they are carrion eaters.

Siblings: Fionnbharr Cerenus Croaker. Deceased. Gemma's older brother by three years, was only sixteen when he was killed in the same train wreck that killed the rest of the family. Was a former Gryffindor who played on the Quidditch team for two years before he just decided it wasn't for him any longer. He usually went by Barry to try and save people the trouble of remembering how to spell his name. He was loud and outspoken and the complete opposite of Gem. For the most part, everyone knew Barry by sight and she envied him for that. He never studied while in school but was still able to stay close to the top of his class. Magic came easy to him, much to the distaste of Gem who spent most of her classes just poking at things with her wand in a vain attempt to make something happen. Barry was always close to Gem, even when in school and tried to get his sister to be friends with his friends. Most of the time she trailed after him and tried to hide in his shadow, but after his death she had nothing to talk about with his friends and found herself ignoring them. They did try to help her, but Gem had cut herself away from everyone.
Fionnbharr= Means "fair hair", derived from Gaelic fionn "white, fair" and barr "head". Saint Fionnbharr of Cork was a 6th-century bishop who supposedly performed miraculous cures. The Barry Islands off Wales were named for him.
Cerenus= A demon who is known for being the serpent in the story of Adam and Eve. He was the serpent who tempted Adam and Eve with the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. "An Angel who did not so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards."
Croaker= someone who habitually predicts evil; it has that sense because croaking is a noise made by ravens and crows, who really are death omens as they are carrion eaters.

Children: A three year old daughter by the name of Saffron Fuchsia Black.
Saffron= From the English word which refers either to a spice, the crocus flower from which it is harvested, or the yellow-orange colour of the spice. It ultimately derives from Arabic زعفران (za'faran).
Fuchsia= Taken from one of Gemma's books she happened to be reading at the time. The character of Lady Fuchsia is described as the following, 'on a personal level, Fuchsia is a dreamer and a romantic who escapes the dull pace of life in Gormenghast by reading fantasy tales. She is also a spoiled brat who disappears for long periods into her secret attic rooms to fantasize and to sulk, scrawls on walls with charcoal, and makes wild claims.'
Black= Means either "black" (from Old English blœc) or "pale" (from Old English blac). It could refer to a person with a pale or a dark complexion, or a person who worked with black dye.
Born June 6th 1979. Saffron was conceived at a drunken Halloween party where Gemma fell easily for the charms of one Sirius Black, it is unclear if either of them remember taking any sort of precaution against the idea of pregnancy but it happened and Gem didn't want to give up her child, even if she didn't desire to tell Sirius of his child until much later. Saffy is only three but is already growing taller than the other children of her age with a very small frame taking after her mother. She has large grey eyes that seem to have a bit of the same distant look as Gemma does and though she has her mothers round face she has very nice cheekbones. A larger nose than Gemma herself has and a long mop of curly black hair tops the child off. She is usually smiling and well tempered even if she can have her times of being impossible.
Gem is also pregnant with another child, by the same father of course, Alexander Orpheus Black. He is expected to arrive sometime around December 11th, though Gem's children have a habit of showing up early.
Alexander= From the Greek name Αλεξανδρος (Alexandros), which meant "defending men" from Greek αλεξω (alexo) "to defend, help" and ανηρ (aner) "man" (genitive ανδρος (andros)). Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, is the most famous bearer of this name. In the 4th century BC he built a huge empire out of Greece, Egypt, Persia, and parts of India. This was also the name of emperors of Russia, kings of Scotland and Yugoslavia, and eight popes. Also, Sir Alexander MacKenzie was an explorer of the north and west of Canada in the 18th century.
Orpheus= Perhaps related to Greek ορφνη (orphne) meaning "the darkness of night". In Greek mythology Orpheus was a poet and musician who went to the underworld to retrieve his dead wife Eurydice. He succeeded in charming Hades with his lyre, and he was allowed to lead his wife out of the underworld on the condition that he not look back at her until they reached the surface. Unfortunately, just before they arrived his love for her overcame his will and he glanced back at her, causing her to be drawn back to Hades.
Black= Means either "black" (from Old English blœc) or "pale" (from Old English blac). It could refer to a person with a pale or a dark complexion, or a person who worked with black dye.

Other Family: Giselle Yaxley, a cousin by way of her mother, and by way of her marriage, Antonin Dolohov. Her relationship with Giselle is rocky at best. They were never close, even when they were living under the same house. Giselle didn't understand why Gemma was always upset, she couldn't understand why she would actually like her parents having issues with Dorian and Nimue. Giselle tried to help her for the most part, but was never able to connect with Gemma. So, she gave up and just forgot about her. When Gemma was kicked out of the Yaxley home, Giselle hated her for it. She feels that Gemma got the escape she needed, so she no longer cares to deal with her for it. She knew Gemma was a horrible Death Eater and so even though they were on the same side of the war, she still hated her. As for Gemma's relationship with Antonin, well she shagged him, at least a few times. Really, that's about it.
Also Rupert Croaker, her closest living relative. Her father's younger brother, older than Gemma by four years and works as Celestina Warbeck's manager. Rupert was at Hogwarts about the same time as Gemma, though they were never very close. Rupert was busy with his own life and dropped out of school before the end of his Sixth year. He was a Ravenclaw and helped Gem out for the most part when he could. But, he left to try and start his company before Gemma's family died so he was not around during that time. Moving to London, and living there in a rather pathetic flat before he met up with Celestina, he lived off of what inheritance he got from the family. He would have taken Gemma in if he could, and in fact asked to be placed as her gaurdian, but it was thought that she would be better off with the Yaxley's as he was still quite young being just 17. Since then, Gem has grown a bit closer to Rupert, and they have been attempting to repair the past.
Heritage: French on her mother's side; English and Scottish on her fathers.

I see a halo up above you
Financial Status: Gemma has no need to work as she is rather wealthy but does work because she wishes to.
Background: There wasn't much to say about the birth of the daughter of the Croaker family. She was born in a hospital in Leeds, not even in Mungo's because her mother just didn't trust the Healers, not any more. Not after the death of her brother in law Edward a year previous. So it was a muggle hospital for the little pureblood child with black hair and the bright blue eyes that her mother has as well. She was quiet even then, a simple baby that wanted nothing more than to be held. She demanded attention even if no one gave it to her, but she learned quickly in the week she spent in the hospital attempting to grow bigger, gain some sort of weight, that it wasn't going to be like that in this world. She was going to have to spend sometime alone and that was at one week old. She learned quickly how the world worked and when she was poked at by her brother of three, she reached out and clasped her fingers around the heir of the Croaker line, the one that she would be fighting for attention around later in life and smiled. It wasn't long before the doctors threw up their hands and let the little girl leave hospital in the arms of her mother. There was nothing they could do, she wasn't gaining weight, all tests came back negative and she was as healthy as a baby could be. She was just going to have to be small and the family was going to have to deal with it.

Being at home finally was strange for the baby, it wasn't to say that she really knew what was going on around her, she just slept a good amount of the time and was force fed more often than one child should be. Juliana was determined to make her daughter not be as sickly as she looked, but Gemma wasn't gaining weight at all. She was stuck in the weight she was when she appeared in the world and she was quiet. Almost too quiet for her tastes. For a time, the whole family assumed that there was something wrong with the child. But there was nothing wrong with her, Gemma was content and had no reason to cry at night, no reason to complain, no reason to be upset, she was happy. As time went on, Gemma's curly black hair fell out, a few strands at a time and was replaced with a sandy blonde colour that matched her mothers. Soon her head was covered in curly blonde locks that were impossible to keep from getting tangled and so it was concluded at six months that Gemma was to have short hair until such a time that she could keep it up herself and her hair was cut off leaving what can only be considered a large tuft of curls on top of her head. If Gemma had known what horrors her family had put her through during that time, she would have burned the photos. She learned quickly, around her first birthday she began to start to try and walk. Of course she was chased around her home in Leeds by a very over protective mother that was trying her best to keep the crawling child away from anything that she could get hurt on. The stairs most likely were her one place of trouble and the place Gemma loved to be. Pulling herself up on her legs, Gemma did her best to walk around but fell over more often than she got anywhere.

Age two came and Gemma found herself learning to talk, or at least attempting to make words out of the things floating in her head. She had always had ideas, her mother filling her full of fairy stories that she believed all little girls needed to know. She was raised on the classics of a princess being caught up in an evil plot and yet saved by her true love. Things like that were acted out wordlessly in her toys when her mother or father would be busy attempting to teach her brother things that she never understood. Magic wasn't a focus of her childhood. It just wasn't something that was important. She may have been a pureblood but there were no fencing lessons, no nannies, no house elves running about the place. The Croakers lived in an all muggle neighbourhood, the owl posts were few and there was no reason to run about having Quidditch games in the backyard no matter how large it was. So Gemma was raised for the most part by her mother, Jarvis keeping his job at the Prophet and trying his best to stay at home when he could. Barry was still quite a bit annoyed by the fact that he didn't get a baby brother and ignored Gemma for the most part during her childhood. The quiet child finally spit out her first word a few weeks before her third birthday in honour of the present that she had found. A large shaggy black dog stuffed animal that she was given by her brother, named simply Dog. She carried it with her for the rest of the year, refusing to let it go as she wandered about in the forest behind her house with Barry. Only three and her brother six, they didn't wander off far but it was still something they could do together. Barry was always able to transfigure something to make the little girl light up with joy, clapping her hands as she giggled and was presented with a small pink flower that came out of a stick, or something else that Barry would come up with. Gemma hadn't been given the chance to learn anything like his magic yet, she hadn't shown any signs that she was even magical and her family sercretly spoke of her being a Squib. It wouldn't be the first in the family, but they worried about the life she would live if she was in fact nonmagical. Barry, on the other hand, enjoyed having something that Gemma couldn't do. He'd spend time just making her giggle and enjoyed the attention that she was more than willing to give.

It was near midnight on June seventh of her third year, Gemma was woken up with a headache. It was nothing new, she had been getting them off and on for the last few months. There was nothing unusual about a child having a headache and so she walked down the stairs to her parents room, each step she took echoed in her head, each one making her dizzy as she tried to remember the way to the room from memory. The door creaked open and Gemma found her way across the room avoiding the squeaky floorboard that she knew was just three steps from the door and went to the side of the bed of her mother. A small touch to her mother's should and Juliana was awake instantly. It was at that point that Gemma gave a little smile and fainted. The house erupted quickly with screams from Juliana, waking Jarvis and even Barry at the top of the stairs. Gemma, at age three, was laying at the side of the bed, unconcious and bleeding. By the time they made it to the hospital, this time trusting Mungo's to treat what Jarvis was too scared to admit, Gemma's heart had stopped. The toddler was laying cold in the arms of Juliana and there was nothing that could be done. But, Gemma was a fighter from that moment and slowly her blue fingers moved on the cot, they flexed once as everyone had given up on her and her eyes flew open and she called out for her mother. She, from that moment on, was different. There was nothing to explain what had happened to her, no one had any clue how she could come back from the dead that way, with no help, with nothing but her own will to live. She was removed to the same hospital in Leeds, and Jarvis finally explained to her what was wrong with her head. Though, she didn't understand a good half of it. There wasn't much you could tell a three year old about having a disease that you needed to take medicine for daily. Jarvis simply explained that she would need to take these pills each day so that her head didn't hurt. It was simple enough for her to understand and a week later she was back to playing in the forest with Barry.

She tried to ask him what he did with the voices in his head, the idea that she had people talking to her at all times now was something she didn't quiet understand. Nor did she understand why her hair was white and why she was always cold, but that wasn't so much a problem, she didn't see anything wrong with either of them, she just was bounded up quite well by her mother now but the voices, they were odd. Barry just laughed when she asked and so from that point, Gemma didn't really question the fact that everyone had them in their head. She just assumed that talking with people in her mind was normal, after all who was she really going to ask about it that would believe a three year old? It was then that Gemma's family started to try and get her to do something magical. It didn't matter to them what it was, anything would work. A wand was forced into her hand with all hopes that she would be like her brother and do something. But no matter what they asked her to do, nothing happened. Her family sighed and let Gemma go back to her books of colourful images and her words that she was quickly learning. It appeared that she was going to be that Squib they feared and stuck her into as many muggle classes they could. Ballet was her favourite though and as she passed through the next few years quickly, Gemma soon found herself at the top of her class. Her weight was finally good for something and she was soon twisting through the air as if she wasn't bound by the laws of gravity. It was around the time she turned nine that she realized that she was going to be left at home alone with Barry off at school.

They were still quite close even though Gemma was spending most of her time attempting to perfect her status in her ballet school, the Croakers were sure that Gemma wasn't going to be attending Hogwarts after all and were working on getting her a spot in the Royal Ballet School in London. It was a trip to London that made them change their mind, it was after Barry was on the train and Gemma had chased after the train not wanting Barry to leave her behind but knowing that she would be with him in a few years and he would be back for holidays. It wasn't until they were halfway back to exit to the muggle world, that Gemma noticed that she was missing Dog. He was laying on the tracks and she didn't even remember leaving him behind. It was much too dangerous, was what was said by her father when she told him about it. Jarvis wasn't about to let his daughter go and play on train tracks and so with all of her might, Gemma made Dog fly back to her. Her parents locked eyes and smiled, she wasn't a Squib after all. But that wasn't to say they stopped her from ballet, or even pressed her to learn anything. They knew that she was magical and that one day, when she wanted to, she'd do something else. For now they were content to let her just read anything on it that she wanted. The little girls room was soon covered in books about magic from any source, she had a library of any book she asked for. Neither parent wanted to keep her from learning. Ballet was still her main excuse to entertain herself, even though her teachers were sure that her tiny frame wasn't going to be good enough. She was still quite short, her head not quite reaching the shoulders of the other girls her age, but the money that her family paid to the teachers was enough to ensure that she wasn't to be tossed out.

Barry would come home from school for holidays full of stories of what was going on in what seemed like another world to Gemma and she couldn't wait to be there with him. By the time she hit eleven, she was hardly able to hold back her excitement, but there was one thing she was worried about. Gemma was never very good around people her age, she was just fine at home with her parents, able to talk to them for hours about anything she was learning or something that was interesting to her. But when she got on the train platform with her brother by her side and the looks of all the other students that she had never met before, she closed up. For some reason she was sure they were all talking about her. About the strange short girl with the frizzy white hair. So she kept to herself, surrounding herself with her brother and the rest of his Gryffindor friends. She hoped to be sorted into the same house, if only to keep herself from having to make new friends. But when she sat down on that stool and was told where to go, it was a shock to her to hear Ravenclaw out of the hat. So she looked down at the table with the rest of her housemates and sighed. At least she figured they would be nice.

It wasn't too awful, her first year at school. Her inability to do anything remotely interesting with her little lime wood wand other than lose it around her dorm room was horrible to all of her teachers that were looking for a reason to fluff her grade higher. She failed quickly on any sort practical exam and luckily for all involved she was able to pass any written exam passed her way. It was the one thing that saved her in school and she was soon looked toward for being toward the top of the class in potions and well at the start of her third year, she picked up two classes she soon loved. Astronomy and Divination, she had to admit she had a bit of a help in Divination though. The voices that spoke to her in her head were quite a big help, she still hadn't quite figured out what they were but she was getting an idea. It wasn't hard for her to gaze into a crystal ball or tea cup and tell the future when it was told to her by a voice in her head. It was simple really and soon her grades in those classes were flying. Though, they were until she went home for Christmas.

A holiday to Italy was supposed to be fun, it was a simple train ride through the mountains, something they had done many times in the past. But this one was different, this one wasn't going to be as easy as all the others. It happened suddenly, the train derailed sending everyone in the cars flying around the interior and destroying the last three cars completely. It was then that Gemma lost her family, her mother in the fire, her brother and father crushed and herself with a badly broken arm and a concussion. She, to this day, has no memory of getting out of the train and to Paris. But she can remember waking up and looking into the dark eyes of her new family. Her uncle Dorian had taken her in, feeling it was best that she come to his home instead of going anywhere else. Gemma didn't even know this side of her family, she had never met any of them, and so when she was introduced to her cousin Giselle, the girl just a year older than her, she smiled and hoped for the best. There was no funeral for her family, just a grave site and an empty home in Leeds. Gemma didn't know what she was supposed to do and the arrangements had been taken care of by her Uncle. She soon sold the home in Leeds and added the money to a rather large vault in Gringotts. It was the day before Christmas that she discovered the real reason that she had been taken in by the Yaxley's. It wasn't well known about Dorian's lust for younger girls, Gemma didn't even know what was going when it happened but she was told to keep it quiet and she knew it was wrong. She had seen what happened to Giselle, she had seen the bruises and the hex marks that covered her cousins body. Gemma kept quiet about the nights her Uncle came into her room and into her bed. There were times she cried herself to sleep not knowing who to tell, or who to trust. No one seemed to take a second glance at the girl that was now occupying the spare bedroom.

Gemma didn't want for much while living with the Yaxley's, they lived like her family never did. The gardens spread across their whole manor, it was a huge house that she got lost in very easily, there were things called house elves that she hadn't really ever noticed before and she was given money to do whatever she wanted with. But what she really wanted was just her family back. There was one thing she was allowed to keep in her room, something other than the little toys and trinkets that were now nicely stored in, a small white swan that her mother had given her ages ago. It had come with her book The Ugly Duckling and she clung to it more than ever. Gemma didn't want to go back to Hogwarts and she refused to go to Beauxbatons with her cousins even though they offered to let her transfer due to the death of her family. But Gemma got back on the train to Hogwarts and back to where she didn't want to go. Of course she now sported small bruises of hands on her arms and legs, she didn't want to explain what they were, she didn't want people to know what her uncle did to her. She pulled herself into her own mind and tried hard to forget what she was going through.

Barry's friends tried to make her social, they had tried to break her out of her shell, but there was nothing that could be done for the skinny white haired witch that refused to speak to anyone now. Keeping her head down and her mind away from anything, she soon found a new place of being. She was the quiet girl in the back of the classroom. She didn't speak up in class and she simply finished her assignments as quickly as she could. Gemma didn't like to leave her bed, she never left it when she could and spent the rest of her third year in her dorm room. Things didn't change when she went home for summer break, she badly wished she had someone she could stay with, some friend that she knew from school that she could beg to just stay at their place over the holidays, but the idea of it never even got brought up to her uncle. The idea that she wasn't going to be living under his roof where she could be looked after and taken care of wasn't even an option. He wanted her back at home and back in her room. Dorian didn't care what she wanted, he wanted her and he took her when he could. Gemma shut herself off emotionally from the act, she just kept her eyes closed and hoped for the best. There wasn't anything she could do, fighting him was what he wanted and staying still didn't seem to change anything either. Gemma just counted down days until she went back to school and back to where she didn't matter.

Fifth year, Gemma started growing into her body, finally her lanky arms and legs shot her up to a height of five-ten and with her body still refusing to take any weight on it, she was suddenly invited to parties she didn't even know about last year. Gemma soon found herself under various members of her class, males that were drawn to her for her looks and the act itself didn't have any meaning to her. But then, she was introduced to one Sirius Black. She smiled and nodded thinking that he had been assigned to her to learn something, potions she assumed as she was still sitting at the top of her class but when it was said that she was to be tutored by him for her OWL level transfiguration classes, Gemma was sure it was the end of her. But she smiled and shrugged and tried to keep herself quiet around him but found it hard to not be slightly cheered up when he was around. It wasn't much, and she wasn't able to do anything he asked her to do, but just the association with him opened a few more doors to her. More parties and more times that she spent hooking up with whomever would take her to try and fill the void that she felt she had in her life. She forgot about him over Christmas while stuck with her uncle yet again and forgot about everything she could keep in her head. It wasn't until she was asked to start thinking about the future that things changed. It was a meeting with the Ministry of Magic representative that came to look just for her that changed her life, well at least slightly. She finally was able to talk to someone that understood that the voices in her head were something other than just voices and it was that day that she signed her contact to work for the Ministry of Magic at the end of her Seventh year.

Parchment still in her hair and a frown on her face, and Gemma finally finished her 6th year. It wasn't anything special about her year, there was nothing ground breaking other than dropping all of her classes but for three, potions, astronomy and divination. She hadn't OWLed in anything else and so there was no reason to continue with her classes. She already had a job with the Ministry and so there was no point in following any course of studies other than the ones she wanted to. Though, it was over the Christmas break that she was tossed from the Yaxley manor and given her freedom. She had rejected the idea of the Dark Lord and decided that it just wasn't what she wanted to hear. Rebellion overruled the desire from her uncle and she was given a suitcase and told to have a nice life. It was once again Christmas eve and Gemma was starting yet another life. She spent the next few days in a hotel room that she paid for out of her own muggle accounts and soon was able to locate a small flat in the middle of Paris to house her during breaks in school. She was of age in the wizarding world enough to be on her own and she actually enjoyed it. Until she realized just how alone she really was. There were no friends to owl her for Christmas, no family to open presents with, in fact there were no presents at all. But Gemma just stayed in bed the rest of break and tried to forget everything that had happened to her.

Seventh year was over quickly and she was free to wander the world like she wanted. The summer she spent before she walked into the Ministry to start work, she simply sat in her flat in Paris and watched the sun come up each day she was awake for it. She spent a good amount of time on sleeping potions to lock out what she didn't want to come to grips with. Her future was still in front of her but she couldn't let go of her past. So she walked into the Ministry for the first time and was shown to her room. It was an near empty cavern with seats that ran through out the whole of the room and at the center a veil. Gemma was drawn to it and smiled back at Bode assuring him that she understood what she was supposed to do. She found it easy to lose track of time in the room and soon found that weeks would pass before she even realized it. It wasn't like she had to worry about getting home to meet with someone, or friends to worry about where she had disappeared to, it was her life and she loved being solitary in her chamber. It was soothing to her and the voices that were forever in her head were finally coming together for her to be able figure out what exactly they wanted her to help them with.

She slowly got a few friends together, a relationship or two and she realized that she was rather more normal that she thought she was. Alice and Frank becoming rather close to her and before she realized it she was invited to parties with the rest of the group of friends around the Longbottoms. She dated for a week Fabian Prewett before they realized that it might just be a better idea that they just stayed friends and then she finally met back up with Sirius Black. Over Halloween, dressed in her best slutty pirate outfit, she did what most females at the time could say they did as well, she slept with Sirius and she didn't remember anything about it until a month later when she realized she was pregnant. There was only one option she could think of, no matter what her feelings for Sirius were, no matter that she still did like him to some extent, she ran. Gemma had found a manor in Corsica where she ran to and where she kept to herself and refused to speak to anyone about the father of her child. There was no reason for anyone to find out that it was a mistake, there was no reason for anyone to hear that it was Sirius's and there was no desire for her to tell him about the child. She was sure Sirius would want nothing to do with it and so she just kept quiet. It was Alice that was there for her when her daughter was born, and after that it was Gemma and Saffy against the world.

Life passed fast for the two Croakers on Corsica, Gemma hired a nanny from a circle of people she could trust and at most times just took the child with her to work. There wasn't a discussion with Bode about the safety, she was a single parent and did what she could really. She grew further and further away from the Longbottoms as they prepared for the birth of their child and suddenly felt very alone in the world she was in. Gemma was alone for the most part other than her child until the time she ran into one of the first men that would change her life. Her luck in relationships had always been tested but the one with one Rodolphus Lestrange was one that shouldn't have effected her as much as it did. It wasn't even a relationship, she was simply a toy for him to play with when he was tired of the other women in his life. Simply someone to cut into and whip when he felt like it, but to Gemma and her messed up views of how relationships worked, it was enough. She took the Dark Mark to want a place to belong, to want to have something that connected them and to have a family that would look out for her. She knew she was being an idiot but the fact that her research was already going to the Dark Lord made her just give in. There was no point in fighting what she was already doing and with that mark on her arm, she felt like she belonged. It ended quickly, there was no love there, she was used and spit out quickly with nothing but her Dark Mark and scars on her back.

It was then that she ran into the pub that was just a little too far out of her area, just in that dark corner of the alley that people didn't go into and she fell into the arms of yet another man to treat her badly and make her believe that she was in love. It was what she believed was right and what she believe that she deserved in her life. Gemma had never known anything else, she had never known that the idea of someone that was supposed to love you hurting you and treating you like you didn't matter wasn't something normal. And so she went with him and left behind her life with her daughter. Gemma was soon walking the streets with large bruises on her arms from the heroin addition that one couldn't help but pick up while with Antonio de la Cruise. He dealt in drugs and he dealt with whores, and that was exactly what Gemma became. Pressed up against brick walls and dirty couches, she earned her living taking off her clothing and stripping at the club that Billy, as he liked to be called, owned. She knew nothing else during her time with him, she didn't know she had another life outside of this and she didn't even try to remember. The lure of the drugs and sex were too strong. The idea that Billy loved her and that he was going to take care of her forced her to stick around. It was a year in his service that she spent, a year that she lost of her life and a year that she was a part of the Dark Lord's army and ignored everything that was told to her. She survived purely because she was useful and no one could find her. It wasn't until one day when she was walking the streets that someone recognized her and took her away from Billy, she was thrown into rehab and taken away from the love that she thought that Billy was giving her. It wasn't until she was sober for a week that she could remember the events that took place, it wasn't until then that she remembered that she had been pregnant with another child and that Billy had forced her to get rid of it. After all what good was a pregnant whore? She hadn't wanted to give up her child and the scars of the abortion still rest on her mind.

Free of the drugs, for now, Gemma went back to her life with Saffron and was welcomed back with tiny open arms. She had missed her daughter and pledged that she wasn't going to miss anymore of her child life. But she couldn't give up her habit, it was too easy to contact Billy, it was too easy for her to get a supply of heroin when she wanted it and it was too easy for her to overdose when she was on her own. It was thanks to one of those events that she finally got the courage to tell Sirius what she had done. He had accepted the fact that she kept Saffron from him for so long, he hadn't yelled and she hadn't expected anything like that, but she refused help from him, admitting that she was just fine on her own. She wasn't. It wasn't until months later that she realized what a mistake it had been to make her choices in the past. She had forgotten about Alice and Frank and it wasn't until one night in a dark park that she once again saw Alice. It was during the one battle that she was forced into attending because of her pledge and the one battle that she will always remember. She had nearly fought Alice and lost her mask in the process. Gemma knew at that point she couldn't stay what she was, she couldn't fight her only friend, and she couldn't come to grips with what she was now. Her mind broke and she ran again. Gemma disappeared for nearly a week and ended up being found in the street by Severus Snape and beginning one of the oddest relationships that could be thought of as happening. Though, it wasn't really a relationship at the beginning as she was saved from the grasp of the greasy haired Potion master once again by Billy. He saved her and brought her home, but she rebelled against his changed personality and the fact that he had proposed to her the night she returned. It wasn't until she met with Sirius later in the week, and ended up getting just a little too drunk and having sex with him in the loo of the pub she had gone to meet him that her second child was conceived. But Gemma didn't even know about it until later. She met up with Severus once again at the party that night, held by one of her old lovers, Rodolphus Lestrange, and was determined to leave with him. The next day she returned home to Billy and shoved him out of her live yet again.

Gemma stayed with Severus until a month or so later, it was nice for her to find someone that would really just love her for her but deep in her heart she knew she couldn't give him her entire heart, there was still a piece that belonged to Sirius and she couldn't ignore it. Though, she made another mistake. She knew Billy was looking for her yet again but she left the safety of Snape's house and returned to Corsica. It was a near fatal mistake as he was waiting for her there. It was a hostage situation for nearly a week, one where Gemma felt the pain in her leg from his bullet but learned that her heart really did belong to Sirius, even if she didn't want to believe it. She knew she was pregnant by that point, she had a feeling it was his as well and she couldn't do anything about it. She was saved of course and Billy was finally dead. Corsica was where she returned and where she stayed until she felt better. But once again her Dark Mark got her into trouble and she soon found herself in a cell in Azkaban with no one to turn to and a sentence for death the next week. Though, her medical condition finally worked for her as she was rushed to St. Mungo's on evening and from there and a little help from her friends, found herself in Canada once again in Sirius's arms. It was the beginning of a relationship that would take her through every emotion possible.

To Mexico and her leaving him alone after telling him of her pregnancy, positive that it was his and unable to deal with his response, to Sirius's disapperance, to the ordeal with the sick that spread from her department, but at the end of it all she returned to Sirius. He was there at the end of it all and it was how she wanted it to be. It was with him that she was happy and soon she gave birth to her son, Alexander and was on her way to living what could be considered a life that she wanted.