Special thanks to Bri for the picture.Born in the heart of up scale wizard London to a notoriously Slytherin and muggle-hating family of straight black hair and pale eyes, Charisse Amelia Banning made a stark contrast with her silky auburn hair, dark amber eyes, and kind heart. The eldest of two children, Charisse did her best to both raise her younger brother, Zeik, and live up to her parents expectations. Dorian and Edlyn Banning, Charisse’s parents, were distant at best. Dorian was a Governor of the Ministry along with his close friend and cousin, Lucius Malfoy. Edlyn was a socialite who spent the majority of her time attending or hosting one high class social gathering after another, leaving her children with house elves, servants, and various nannies. By the age of six, Charisse had become a mother to her two year old brother and had come to look upon her bother’s exiled brother, Sirius Black, as a father figure and wrote to him daily through the five years that he wrongfully spent in Azkaban prison and was the first to welcome him home. Upon arriving for her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Charisse was, to her dismay and the great disappointment of her parents, sorted into Hufflepuff house. That very night, Charisse received a letter from her parents informing her that they were very disappointed and that as far as they were concerned, she was no longer a member of the family. To her relief, the very next morning she received a letter from Sirius inviting her to live with him. Things began to look up for Charisse when she was reunited with a pair of Gryffindor boys, Gerrard Rayne and Zarek Yeran, that she had met on the train and whom soon became her two closest friends. By the end of her first year at Hogwarts, Charisse had become one of the more popular girls and possibly academically highest in her class.
Exiled himself for having been sorted into Gryffindor during his time at Hogwarts, Sirius made the perfect companion for Charisse that summer. He had emerged from Azkaban with a new motto: “Do and learn all you can while you have the chance.” With this thought, and the goal of helping Charisse forget about her family, Sirius set about teaching her everything from daring Quidditch moves and trouble making techniques to the best ways to pass classes and how to become an animagus.
The following year and summer progressed much as the first and it appeared as though the third would be much the same until Charisse caught the eye of a fifth year Hufflepuff by the name of David Nelson. He was an outspoken member of a family well known for their dislike of Slytherins. David, with his tall, strong build, sandy blonde hair, stunning green eyes, and his position as the Hufflepuff team keeper, quickly fell into Charisse’s good graces. A relationship sparked, much to Sirius’ delight, in the beginning of October. Charisse was quickly swept into a new world of giggling girls and gossip, and soon found herself unable to face her old friends; particularly Gerrard who was himself the Gryffindor keeper. After the initial guilt and elation wore off, Charisse decided to rekindle her friendship with the two Gryffindors, only to come to find that David had a jealous temper and was convinced that she would leave him for either Zarek or Gerrard. Charisse tried twice to sneak out at night to join the boys on one of their midnight excursions, only to find David waiting at the foot of the stairs. On several occasions over the remainder of the year, summer, and the following year, Charisse found herself in the hospital wing or St. Mungo’s with everything from black eyes to broken bones all caused by David, who by this time has decided that Charisse was after any guy that she so much as glanced at, including a few professors. In turn, Charisse found David to be a dull, bumbling idiot but couldn’t bring herself to end the relationship, partly out of fear, but most out of pity. Through all of this, Charisse found a friend in Hufflepuff Quidditch captain, Cedric Diggeroy, who was possibly the most popular and desired boy at Hogwarts. With the exception of Sirius, Cedric was Charisse’s only and much needed source of relief through her fourth year at Hogwarts when things grew particularly rocky between Charisse and David. The following summer horror struck the young couple when David finally realized that Charisse came from a family of Slytherins. Instead of realizing that Charisse was more unlike a Slytherin than nearly anyone on the planet, he saw only the blood ties. Charisse soon found herself not only shunned for relations to the very people that had cast her out, but under a new barrage of suspicions and accusations of unfaithfulness mostly based around Gerrard and Cedric. Charisse and David were having tea alone in Sirius’ study the first day of summer when David began his accusations; starting first in a quite, brooding manner before standing and shouting obscenities, his wand trained at Charisse. Whether she had simply had enough, or was acting in self defense, Charisse raised her wand as well, quickly disarming David and breaking his wand before sending a dozen frantic curses his way. David responded in the only way he could: by snatching up a nearby letter opener and charging at Charisse, attacking her in a way that one of his relatives had been killed. Before she knew what was happening, Charisse was on the floor, her shirt had been ripped open and David sat over her, the letter opener pointed dangerously at her midsection and as quickly as he had thrown her down, he proceeded to cut out her liver with the letter opener. When he realized what he was doing, David dropped the letter opener and fled, leaving Charisse and the organ bleeding on the floor for Sirius to find when he returned home a few minutes later. Charisse was quickly rushed to St. Mungo’s where she remained for the following two months, able to return to school only under the condition that she not overexert herself.
As the beginning of the term neared, Sirius accompanied Charisse to both Diagon Alley and Platform 9 ľ, as they were both slightly worried that David would attack Charisse again. As this was David’s last year at Hogwarts, he had made a deal with the ministry: he would be allowed to finish his education permitting he stayed out of trouble, and would stand trail the following July as an adult. It turned out that there was no reason to worry as Charisse didn’t so much as catch a glimpse of
David until the sorting ceremony and even then he was seated at the opposite end of the table. She did, however, meet up with an old friend on the carriage ride up to the school-- none other than Gerrard Rayne. He didn’t question her about the past two years, didn’t demand answers he simply pulled her into a conversation and by the time the Great Hall was full of excited students, she had rekindled her friendship with both Gerrard and Zarek. All in all, it seemed as though this year would be very similar to the first two with only a few slight exceptions: This was Zeik’s first year at Hogwarts and was, as expected, sorted into Slytherin; Zarek had made seeker for the Gryffindor team; Charisse had invited Gerrard and Zarek for Christmas at her house; the school was busy with rumors of Cedric and Charisse secretly dating (which were more than likely sparked by Cedric’s ever more frequent advances); and the attraction between Charisse and Gerrard had grown undeniably stronger. But the biggest news of the beginning of the term was that David had been expelled and in turn, sent directly to Azkaban for “terrorizing and threatening fellow students.” He had returned to Hogwarts in a worse mood than ever before, perhaps from guilt or anger, and had proceeded to insult, curse, or threaten nearly every Slytherin in the school before the end of the first week of September. By the third day of school he had one chance left before he was expelled. This happened to be the first day of Hufflepuff Quidditch practice and Charisse, Gerrard, and Zarek were celebrating on the pitch. Upon hearing the approaching players, Charisse took her animagus form (a one foot tall Golden Lion Tamarin by the name of Ari) and rode on Zarek’s shoulder as he and Gerrard left the pitch, but were soon stopped by the drawling monotonous tone of David asking if they had seen Charisse anywhere. When they responded a negative, David launched into a full-fledged warning against and verbal attack upon Charisse, which made not only Gerrard and Zarek, but also Ari, rather angry. Before they could stop her, the golden figure had launched herself from Zarek’s shoulder, bouncing off of Gerrard’s and straight at David, tiny but mean looking claws stretches toward his eyes. Two pairs of hands closed on her before she could strike, but she managed to cut a deep gash into David’s cheek as Gerrard and Zarek pulled her away. The team quickly took David to the hospital wing and then to Dumbledor’s office, Cedric yelling at him all the way and making it quite clear that should David somehow manage to stay at Hogwarts, he would could kiss Quidditch goodbye. David was seen only once more at Hogwarts and that was as he was taken away by Ministry officials.
The remainder of the year until December was barely less eventful but much more trying as well. With both Zarek and Gerrard at nearly daily Quidditch practices and the homework of Zarek’s eleven and Gerrard’s twelve classes and Charisse, having inherited a rather large amount of Slytherin ambition, determined to receive “O”’s on each of her twelve O.W.L.’s, it was a wonder they had any time together at all. In the end, they somehow managed to spend more time together than ever before, sneaking out after hours, throwing parties on the Quidditch pitch, scaring Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle out of their skins, and at one point pulling a prank on Snape that had him dancing with “Lord of the Dance” written across his forehead for an hour before it was replaced by the scrolling “I am Draco Malfoy‘s mother” which lasted several weeks.
As Christmas vacation drew near, the three grew impatient and finally Charisse called Sirius who talked to Remus Lupin, and soon they were leaving school three days early to “attend a Defense Against the Dark Arts training camp.” Shortly after they were relaxing in the warm elegance of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place amidst the sweet smell of Charisse’s baking and Sirius’ cheerful singing. Charisse was hardly seen through the first couple days at Grimmauld Place, popping up here and there to serve meals. Life here seemed to be something straight out of a storybook until one fateful day when Charisse walked in on Sirius telling Gerrard and Zarek about Charisse’s past two years and asking them to look after her. Then, as it had been threatening to do for years, something in Charisse’s brain snapped and after yelling at the group that she could take care of herself, she ran out into the snow-covered street and down to a nearby park dressed in only a pair of jeans and a tank top. When Zarek came to find her and give her her jacket, Charisse responded by threatening to kill herself and when they stopped her from that, she attacked, jumping at Zarek in an attempt to slit Zarek’s throat with her fingernails. Then, as Gerrard pulled her away from Zarek, she turned on him, biting his shoulder as hard as she could and in a blur of color, Charisse was thrown into the air, landing very still on the ground a few feet away. By the end of the night, Charisse had been restored to nearly normal, but the truth had come out: that Charisse had been left less than mentally stable by the events of her life. By the time Christmas rolled around things had been restored almost to normal; Charisse and Sirius had decorated in a stunning display and, in an attempt to spite both Sirius and Charisse’s parents, an absurd amount of mistletoe had been hung around the house. This year also turned out to be Charisse’s turn to cook for the large dinner party they had every Christmas Eve with the Weasley family and various Hogwarts teachers, and she seemed determined to make this the best ever. Zarek and Gerrard were finally able to coax Charisse away from the kitchen a few days before Christmas. They decided to take a walk in the snow-covered streets, which resulted in a full fledged snow battle. As the day progressed they went from snow wars to snow art, making everything from angels to walking hippogriffs out of the powdery snow. As the sky began to darken with the arrival of early evening, and Zarek had gone inside for a spot of tea, the one thing that Charisse had yearned for over the past five years finally happened. Lying on the soft snow in the empty lot across the street from Grimmauld place, Charisse and Gerrard shared their first kiss.
Gerrard and Charisse rapidly grew closer, and soon the entire school knew of their relationship. The year progressed fairly uneventfully until O.W.L.’s, on which Gerrard and Charisse receive twelve O’s and Zarek eleven. They then turned their attention upon helping Zarek train for tryouts as the Chudley Cannons’ seeker.
Gerrard Rayne
Zarek Yeran
Cassandra MacPherson
Riona Nolan
Home
