One need not be a chamber to be haunted,
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.
-Emily Dickinson
Lachesis Rae Monroe was born on a sultry summer night in St. Augustine, Florida. Her muggle parents, David and Shelley Monroe, are both graduates of Flagler College and heavily involved in the St. Augustine artist and psychic communities. David owns and operates Monroe Ghost tours, and Shelley works Tuesday through Sunday at the tour souvenir shop. In their off time, David and Shelley are amateur monster hunters. The fact that they have yet to find any does not deter them in the least. There are three Monroe children, with Lachesis being the youngest by eight years. Her older bothers, Sebastian and Carlo, are both drivers for the ghost tours. Lachesis spent many hours in her childhood riding in the front seat of the tour hearses, listening to her father and brothers repeat the local lore and lies as they cruised by St. Augustine's many "haunted" locations.
Because Lachesis was an unexpected addition to the family, neither of her parents felt obligated to alter their free-spirited lifestyles much to accommodate the new Monroe when she arrived. Thus, the pale, dark-haired little girl was left to herself much of the time. When Lachesis reached the age of six, her maternal grandmother began paying for music lessons for the quiet and withdrawn child. When Lachesis wasn't practicing her cello, she filled her hours with horror novels and movies, which the family had an abundant supply of given their obsession with unorthodox creatures. By the age of ten she had an impressive grasp on the works of Stephen King, Anne Rice, and past and present horror movie greats.
What David and Shelley Monroe couldn't know was just how different their daughter was from the rest of the family. With each ghost tour, each ride through a cemetery, each visit to a haunted hospital, church, or house, the small girl grew more silent until she hardly spoke at all and then only in whispers. For while her family told yarns of haunting entities and chased storybook fiends, Lachesis saw the wandering ghosts and heard the footfalls of monstrous beings in the night. She knew the chill that creeps in from unknown regions at the approach of malevolent spirits. She had seen the red eyes of the vampires in the pine forests near the Florida shoreline. And until her acceptance letter from Hogwarts arrived, she assumed that the rest of the family did too.
Overall, Hogwarts is a welcome change for Lachesis. Here, ghosts and poltergeists wander the halls freely and apparently in plain sight of the other students and the staff. Monster components are mundane enough to be part of the daily classwork. She finds comfort in the routine of classes and curfew, and looks forward to her DADA and History of Magic classes in particular. In her free time she reads book after book on the subject of Defence Against the Dark Arts and practices her music in the Conservatory. The biggest adjustment for Lachesis has quite possibly been the weather. After years in the damp Florida heat, the new climate is a persistent discomfort.
Lachesis' most obviously striking physical feature is her eyes. Ice blue and fringed by black lashes, they are startling both in the lightness of their color and the candor of their expression. Anyone who assumes the quiet girl to be timid and plain is forced to alter their opinion after one direct look from her. Unfortunately, her gaze is usually fixed on the ground. Her only other notable feature is her grin, though it is seldom seen. Her teeth are white and even but for the canines, which are unusually sharp and pointed. She walks quietly wherever she goes, with her head down and her hands usually in her pockets. Shoulder-length black hair frames her thin face and makes her pale skin appear even lighter. A long, slender nose and full lips give her the appearance of a woman confined to the limits of a child's features. She communicates mainly through nods, speaking only when she has no other option. Often she will stand very, very still for extended periods of time, head tilted to one side and eyes unfocused. When asked, she will only say that she is listening...
