InsaneJournal

Name: Eileen Wynn Snape née Prince
Birthday: 6 July, 1930
House: Slytherin Alumna
Year: Out of school since 1948
Kind of blood: Pureblood
Pet: None
Wand: None (she gave hers to her son shortly after his sixth birthday)

Physical Appearance: Eileen is 5'0" and weighs 7 stone (approximately 98 pounds), with a figure that is highly reminiscent of a 12-year-old boy, black eyes, an olive complexion, and inky black hair that falls past her waist when she has it down, though she normally wears it up.

Biography: Eileen Wynn Prince was born in Llanrwst, Gwynedd to Bethan Everard Prince née Wynn and Sayer Bran Prince. The oldest of three children, Eileen was a plain girl (the only one of the Prince children who clearly displayed the family's goblin heritage), and easily overshadowed by her handsome younger brother, Garedd (two years her junior) and her pretty younger sister, Fiona (three years her junior). Though both sides of the family were purebloods, the lines between the wizarding and Muggle worlds have remained rather blurred for centuries in Wales. Sayer Prince was a carpenter by trade, who used both wizarding and Muggle techniques (and from whom Eileen developed an appreciation for Muggle ingenuity). Bethan Prince was a brewer, homemaker, and midwife, who delivered all of her nieces, nephews, and grandchildren.

The Wynn family seat was formerly located at Gwydir Castle in Gwynedd (North Wales). As the family fortune dwindled, however, the magnificent Tudor estate was gradually given over to Muggle tourism, in no small part because it has the distinction of being one of the most haunted houses in Britain. The family subsequently relocated to nearby Conwy. Bethan's side of the family has a long tradition of producing Aurors (including Garedd Prince), the most famous of which was Bethan's celebrated grandfather, Everard Wynn, whose portrait hangs in both the Ministry of Magic and at Hogwarts. Everard became Headmaster of Hogwarts in 1889, having taught Defence Against the Dark Arts for a number of years once he retired from Magical Law Enforcement. Although the family has always technically been on the side of good, and as such opposed Grindelwald vehemently, they are also not above using the Dark Arts themselves when necessary -- with the understanding that whatever they did would be visited back upon them threefold. But being Slytherins, they consider even the Dark Arts fair game when used with good intentions.

As a young girl, Eileen adored watching her father work wood, and helping where she could, much to her mother's dismay. By the time her daughter started Hogwarts, Bethan Prince had decided to take it upon herself to make a proper lady of her daughter, which meant teaching her to cook, bake, sew, and brew potions and wine during her school holidays. Eileen resented this at first; she would have much preferred to help her father make birdhouses or furniture or game boards and pieces. She soon discovered that she had a knack for "woman's work," however, and began to enjoy those tasks for their own sake. Not to mention, as her mother told her, she'd find it easier to land herself a husband with her cooking than with carving a good chess set.

Despite her mother's encouragement, Eileen never had a so much as a date whilst at Hogwarts, though she did join the Slytherin Quidditch team (Keeper) and was captain of the school's interHouse Gobstones team. She watched both her brother and her sister marry, and start families of their own, and had resigned herself to being an old maid by her twenty-first birthday. Though that all changed when she attended a Quidditch match in April of 1959 in support of her national team (Wales) when they played Ireland to determine which team would represent Britain in the Quidditch World Cup. On the Isle of Man, she met Tobias Snape, a Muggle coal miner and native of North Yorkshire, who at the time was there on holiday. It was love at first sight (at least on Eileen's part), and they married six weeks later. In pureblooded circles, however, the prevalent whispers indicated that the last unmarried scion of the Wynn dynasty was with child, which necessitated a hasty wedding.

Soon after their marriage, Tobias found work at a coalmine in Gwynedd, since his young wife did not wish to leave her beloved Wales. They bought a cramped two-story house in the mining village of Spinner's End in Conwy. There Eileen Snape works as a home contractor for Brew-Rite Medicinal Potions, producing several potions on commission in her particular areas of expertise. The company delivers supplies to her home weekly and collects the prepared potions for repackaging and wholesale distribution to Healing facilities around the country. In addition, she brews other potions as well as nettle wine, which she sells locally for extra income.

Eileen has frequently regretted her impulsive decision to marry someone she knew so little about. In addition to being a Muggle, her husband has a violent temper, which she did not discover until over a month into their marriage. Behind on her brewing quota one day (due to morning sickness, since she couldn't abide the smell of certain potion ingredients), she asked him for his help with some routine housework whilst she caught up. The task was so unimportant she forgot what it was two minutes afterward. Tobias' response, however, was to backhand her, splitting her lip and sending her reeling, as he yelled at the top of his lungs that she should shut up and stop nagging him.

At the time, Eileen thought about simply leaving Tobias, but she didn't feel as though she had anywhere else to go. Her family, while not exactly disowning her (as they had nothing to withhold), made their displeasure as her marrying a Muggle quite well known. In the end she stayed, in no small part because Tobias apologised over and over and said it would never happen again. It did happen again, however -- many, many times, with increasing frequency over the next few years. By that time Eileen had two young children depending on her (Severus Bran -- born on 9 January, 1960, and Isolde Octavia -- born on 23 March, 1962) and needed the meagre income her husband provided. With access to medical potions through her work, she was able to heal her severe injuries quickly and became quite adept at hiding her bruises. No one outside the immediate family ever knew what went on inside the Snape household.

From the moment they were born, both of Eileen's children were her pride and joy. Severus, whom she calls cethin'n (Welsh for "my dark one" or "my fierce one") was exceptionally bright, talking in complete sentences before he could even walk. He asked her all manner of questions, some of which Eileen was at a loss as to how to answer. Many times she would simply make things up, only to have Severus prove her wrong later, once he'd found the correct answer somewhere in a book (and he never seemed to forget anything she told him). Isolde, whom she called gla'n (Welsh for "my fair/beautiful one"), took after her father, with lovely blonde hair, though she also had her mother's black eyes.

Unfortunately, Isolde died from ingestion of belladonna a month shy of her first birthday. Eileen was devastated, blaming herself in a number of ways: first, she was too busy talking to the Brew-Rite delivery man to notice what her daughter was up to; second, she'd left something as poisonous as belladonna within Isolde's reach; and lastly, if she'd only had some bezoars to hand or been able to Apparate, she could have saved her daughter's life. As it was, she had to take the Knight Bus, and Isolde was having convulsions by the time they had reached the wizarding hospital.

Upon arriving at St Mungo’s, Eileen was immediately surrounded by Healers who lifted the unresponsive baby from her arms -- whilst Severus screamed and cried, clinging to her legs -- but they could do nothing. Isolde was pronounced dead an hour later. Following his daughter's death, Tobias Snape became cold and distant at best, and even more prone to violence at worst, as he began drinking heavily. Eileen's reaction was quite different: she lavished all her love and attention on her surviving child. Though at the time he was barely tall enough to see over the lip of his mother's cauldron, Eileen also made certain that Severus knew everything there was to know about potion ingredients and brewing.

Though she excelled at nearly every subject at Hogwarts that didn't require wandwork, Eileen has never been terribly good with a wand. Her attempts at any such spells were inept at best and disastrous at worst. She even managed to set poor Professor Flitwick on fire whilst practising Summoning Charms in her fourth year. Once she was done with Hogwarts, in fact, she left her wand packed away amongst her school things -- until she gave it to Severus, following his sixth birthday. He had shown powerful magical ability by doing an impressive bit of wandless magic in the course of protecting her from her husband when Tobias was in a drunken rage.

Eileen often wondered why that wand in particular had chosen her, as it never really done much of anything for her. In Severus' hands, however, it was an awesome sight to behold. Eventually she concluded that the wand had chosen her specifically with the aim of being passed on to her son, since she couldn't afford to buy him his own wand when the time came. Much to her chagrin, Severus also frequently asked for his mother's help in learning how to cast some spell or other that he didn't quite understand. Rather than admit she didn't know how to cast them, or embarrass herself by proving it, she would simply tell Severus that she didn't have time for foolish wand-waving. How she hated to see the hurt look in his eyes on these occasions, but she imagined it would be vastly preferable to seeing shame there instead. And despite the lack of assistance, Severus quickly learnt spell after spell and even invented a few of his own.

Early in Severus' fourth year at Hogwarts, Eileen was dealt with another devastating blow when Madam Pomfrey wrote her for permission to send Severus to a specialist, which soon led to his being diagnosed with Marfan Syndrome. Despite her son's best efforts to reassure her that he was not in fact anywhere near death's door, Eileen could not bear the thought of watching her only surviving child die. When Madam Pomfrey recommended that Severus study Occlumency to help keep the progression of the disorder in check, she was all for the idea, not to mention hopeful, knowing that her son would be as brilliant at that as he is at nearly everything else.

Likes: her son and husband (believe it or not, even though she's more than a little afraid of him), brewing, books, Gobstones, and Quidditch

Dislikes: being knocked around, chess (she thinks it's highly overrated), wandwork, rats, not being able to give Severus everything she had when she grew up, and laverbread (though Tobias and Severus both like it, so she makes it regularly for their sake)

Hobbies: baking, cooking, needlepoint, reading, wood-working, making wine

Romantic history: Tobias gave Eileen her first kiss, and she married him a mere three weeks after discovering that she was pregnant with Severus (though Severus doesn't know this -- she's told him that he was quite premature -- and if Tobias had spurned her, Eileen would have raised her son on her own).

Astrology: THE MELANCHOLY WORKAHOLIC (Cancer/Horse) -- The Horse is able to give him- or herself up to a romantic passion and chuck everything -- including self-respect -- for the sake of love. Cancer/Horses are, with their Scorpio counterparts, about the most self-sacrificing. Love and its vicissitudes, the preservation of a home and kids and pets and insurance policies and telephone bills, can all be capably taken in hand by the Cancer/Horse. When questioned as to why he continues to struggle so hard and so seemingly alone without compassion or cooperation, the Cancer/Horse merely smiles. "It's for Janet. I love her." Or "It's because of the children, my home, my family." Cancer-born Horses make love the way they work: with zeal, technique, and devotion to duty. If you ever get into bed with one of these passionate people, you won't want to get out.

Status Before Dumbledore's Spell: Eileen Snape died on 19 November 1979, after her husband knocked her down the stairs in a fit of rage, breaking her neck. Tobias managed to convince the authorities that it had been an accident, which was technically true, insofar as he hadn't actually meant to kill her. During the inquest, he maintained that the purpling bruise on Eileen's cheek had come from banging her face on the railing of the stairs as she fell. Though the coroner clearly had misgivings regarding Tobias' testimony, he concluded there wasn't enough evidence to take the matter to trial. The autopsy yielded no indications of a history of abuse, due to the fact that Eileen had obliterated all traces of her previous injuries by healing them magically. As a result, Tobias was released and returned to his home in Spinner's End. Less than a month later, however, the Muggle papers reported his death as part of what is now recognised as one of the first Death Eater attacks in a Muggle area. This was the only time as a Death Eater that Severus Snape removed his mask -- so that his father would know full well who had killed him. And upon leaving the house, he derived a grim satisfaction from being the one to cast the spell that set the Dark Mark into the sky overhead.

DISCLAIMER: This journal is for role-play purposes only. I am not Frida Kahlo, nor do I own Eileen Snape -- more's the pity. If I did, I'd be rich, and I'd be writing about her for real, instead of merely playing her.