Professor Sorelle

Backstory

Name:  Lea J. Sorelle
Birthday:  23 March
Wand:  A 12½" reasonably supple fir wood wand with a Dragon Heartstring
Patronus:  Pine Marten

✦ Upbringing

Lea grew up in a rural area just north of Christchurch, New Zealand that fosters a small wizarding community. She lived with her parents and her two older half-brothers.

Lea's father worked for the New Zealand Quidditch Association, importing equipment for NZ's Quidditch teams. She did not take much liking in the sport herself, though her two brothers did and one of them was even selected for the national team while she was at Hogwarts. 

Her mother was a gifted healer. With her father travelling or attending trainings, Lea often accompanied her mother when she visited her patients. She always pushed Lea to be curious and pursue education. It was observing her mother’s practices that helped found her meticulous approach to magic.

✦ Schooling

Before any wizarding education, Lea attended a Muggle primary school like most young witches and wizards in NZ do. 

At age 11, she started at Hogwarts. Halfway through her third year her parents pulled her out when news got around that an Azkaban escapee was targeting the school. Lea reluctantly returned to NZ, where she was enrolled in a wizarding tutorage programme through which she completed her education. 

Lea enjoyed and excelled in Spellcasting, Wizarding History, and Divination. Ancient Runes, to her dismay, was not a subject offered in the programme. However, she would later encounter runes and other early scripts rather frequently throughout her career.

✦ Career

After completing her schooling, Lea embarked on an 18-month apprenticeship with an ex-dragonologist who advised the New Zealand Ministry of Magic on defences against black-market artefact importation. 

During this experience, she was drawn to the many secrets the universe had to offer and began researching the unearthed magical treasures and artefacts in NZ and curse-breaking practices. After her apprenticeship, Lea travelled all over the country, becoming somewhat of a self-taught Curse-Breaker. The Ministry had a difficult time tracking her down when they heard rumour of Gringotts Curse-Breakers gallivanting around Australia. She was employed by the Ministry to find (the rest of) and protect the country’s magical relics.

Her quick success in this role earned her a permanent position as a magiarchivist. She worked for the Ministry for nearly 17 years, maintaining archives of precious artefacts and oddities, creating protection schemes, and working closely with the Department of Magical Foreign Affairs to recover misplaced pieces. Over this time, Lea encountered many different ancient Polynesian scripts. Nordic scripts were common too, given their perpetuance in the wizarding world.

Eventually craving a change of scenery, Lea left the Ministry in 2017 and headed to Cyprus where she undertook a six-month magiarchaeology programme. After completing it, she remained in the Northern Hemisphere and partook in several digs across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. In 2019 she wound up with an eccentric group of magiepigraphists in Ireland from whom she learnt more about Ogham’s magical applications. A year later, she returned to New Zealand with fresh expertise and resumed her employment at the Ministry. This was until word of her endeavours reached Britain and she received an offer to teach at Hogwarts which she couldn’t pass up!