Lydia Althaus

Name: Lydia Althaus
Date of Birth: April 3, 2027
Age: Varies; is 18 in 2045
Profession: None as of yet
Blood status: Pureblood

Family:
- Grandmother, Brunhild, Deceased [Homicide; Stefan]
- Grandfather, Lothar, Deceased [Homicide; Brunhild]
- Uncle, Conrad; age 54, disowned (Svetlana Kaminski’s Healer)
- Mother, Irene, deceased [homicide; Stefan] and brought back to life as an Inferi
- Father, Stefan, aged 62 in 2045; hates and fears him after having witnessed Irene’s murder at his hands
- “Half-sister”, Cheryl Welch. Deceased at age 4 [Homicide; Stefan]
- Brother, Kai, aged 13; contracted the Drain Illness from mother

Picture:

Playby: Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz [Beetlejuice movie]

Personality:
To put it quite simply, Lydia is a witch that loves to constantly test her limits to see how much she can get away with. Unless she likes you or you have her loyalty, that is. She has no fear of speaking precisely what’s on her mind, asking questions and voicing concerns with little thought of possible consequences. Her strongest desire is to help people that cannot help themselves, though she herself does not trust readily to the fullest extent. Upon first meeting Lydia expect her to keenly observe you from a distance and not say much unless she’s spoken to, as she’s always on the lookout for tricks or potential danger. It takes her a little while to open up, though if one plays their cards right it won’t take long at all.

Once you get to know Lydia one will see the extrovert that lies within the outward, loner-like outer shell.

(WIP)


History (Fixed Future):
Lydia was born to Stefan and Irene Althaus on the afternoon of April 3rd, 2027. She was born in the old Althaus Manor, in Nuremberg, Germany. It wasn’t until later in life, when she was old enough to understand, that her father had been present during her birthing. Their first meeting, of sorts, had been an awkward one for Stefan.

When she was only a few months old, Stefan had placed the Dark Mark on the instep of infant Lydia’s right foot. She doesn’t remember it, obviously, but she does still recall and experience a pain in her foot from the day it happened. Irene hadn’t known until after the fact, and did not approve at all of her husband’s actions.

Her earliest memories were of being with her mother quite a lot, Stefan being so busy working that he didn’t spend nearly as much time around her as Irene had. As a toddler, Lydia often wondered about the elusive figure that was her father. What he did, where he went, why he didn’t stay in one spot for very long voyaging from room to room. She knew he was her father, and reveled in the moments he did share with her: showing her some pretty sparkles by adding different things in a cauldron, being read funny or interesting stories in the German variety of the Daily Prophet, and – although rarer than some activities – simply holding her in his arms and performing some simple wandwork every then and again to amuse her.

The child learned early that while Stefan did various things to amuse her as a baby, he was also not one to be crossed. His form of discipline was very strict, almost to the extreme of being called abusive. It was also to be noted that as she got older the wizard became steadily more practical and a lot less whimsical in their limited father/daughter time. He urged her to learn to walk and talk, often refusing to allow her to do anything else until she made some form of progress.

In Lydia’s opinion her childhood officially ended sometime during her fourth year of existence, when it became clear she was a witch. To make a long story short Stefan had gotten angry with and punished Lydia for misbehaving. Lydia then took it upon herself to cause the spiders upon his tie to leap to life and attack her father, in retaliation for his harshness. By the look on his face, Lydia had been terrified her father would only punish her further once he took an anti-venom potion for the venomous spider bites. To both her and Irene’s extreme surprise, Stefan did nothing of the sort...

... However, he did take the day off from work and sat Lydia down to begin several long and rigorous hours in learning about magic, bloodstatus, and how to perform various spells. Stefan taught the child until she finally could stay awake no longer, utterly exhausted. It had been sometime passed two the next morning. That entire week had been the same thing day in and day out: wake up, get dressed, have breakfast, learn magic and have just enough break times for food and bathroom, then collapse into bed. It wasn’t quite the sort of ‘quality time’ she had been searching for from her father, but it sort of worked.

After that week, Stefan returned to work and gave her assignments to complete during the day. Irene often helped Lydia to complete the assignments, though didn’t dare do the work for her daughter with Stefan being as adamant as he was about education. The witch was just thankful Stefan was only sticking to simple magic to start out with.

Months down the road, with several simple spells in her repertoire, Lydia discovered that her mother was going to have another baby. She’d never asked for a younger sibling but now that she was going to be an older sister the girl was rather excited about it. Lydia often helped her mother as much as possible with various tasks, and even using magic to complete the ‘chores’. Stefan attempted to get Lydia into the habit of using a wand for everything, but it never did work out very well.

On March 15, 2032, Lydia was given a baby brother named Kai Althaus.

Lydia was somewhat pushed to the side when her brother was born, and for that she was both thankful and jealous. Her father wasn’t cramming magical knowledge down her throat until she fell asleep on her feet. Yet, at the same time, he had gone back to spending hardly any time with her. He caught her by surprise some weeks later with a weekend packed with lessons and activities that were somewhat fun for the little girl.

As Lydia reached the age required for magical schooling, Stefan and Irene got into several heated debates as to which school they would send their children to. The girl often heard these arguments as they were both loud and never contained behind closed doors. Most marital spats, in fact, took place right out in the open. After much arguing between her parents, Lydia burst out saying she wanted to go to Hogwarts and stormed up to her room. Stefan allowed it, though made it known that it was “only” because Amaranth Viper was a professor there that he was going to allow it.

It was, surprisingly, Stefan that took Lydia to acquire most of her school things. Irene went with her to get robes, as Stefan wanted nothing to do with clothes shopping. Lydia recalled it as one of the best days in her young life, for her father was slightly more lenient than normal and allowed her to splurge some money on things that were purely whimsical. The entire family went to Platform 9 3/4 to see her off to school, with Stefan – believe it or not – at his daughter’s side almost every step of the way.

A six-year-old Kai and Irene both gave Lydia teary farewells, but Stefan’s eyes were clear as could be. He didn’t shed even a single tear, and instead showed her onto the train and where her luggage could be placed. Before the train left, he muttered a few words of advice and caution, and a sincere ‘hope’ that she would be placed in Slytherin. The things he’d said made Lydia suddenly become very nervous about going to the magical school. Yet, from what she understood from her mother, Hogwarts’s class schedules weren’t nearly as grueling as her father’s!

Thus it was in September of 2038 that Lydia found herself in the Great Hall at Hogwarts. She immediately recognized two faces at the Head Table: Amaranth Viper, and her husband, Sevastyan Kaminski... though Lydia knew the former moreso than the latter. When she was called to try on the Sorting Hat, Lydia was as nervous as any other First Year and the hat certainly took its sweet time in choosing. Eventually, to her immense relief, it settled on Slytherin.

Tragedy struck the family during the winter months of early 2042, when Irene became deathly ill. Lydia had even gone home despite not being on break to see her as it wasn’t certain that Irene would last the night. Stefan could be found doing his best to lovingly nurse his wife back to health in his own twisted and slightly macabre fashion. It rather surprised Lydia, for the man rarely showed such love and tenderness even when he was trying to be what could just pass as kindly. When it seemed as though Irene were slowly recovering, Lydia was sent back to Hogwarts to continue her schooling. However, she made it a point to write home and got nervous if she didn’t hear back in what she considered to be a timely manner.

Despite all of Lydia’s blood-status drilling, she didn’t see what was so devastating about the diminishing of magic. At least her mother was still alive. It was great in the fifteen-year-old’s mind that her father was being so active in trying to be helpful, and for once Lydia understood why her father worked so hard with his research. By the summer Irene had lost any and all trace of magic, and had been so weakened by its slow drainage that she required much more assistance than before. About two weeks after Lydia came home, she noticed her father was starting to act a bit... strange... Stranger, really, given Stefan’s typical mannerisms being anything but normal.

Suspicious dark blue eyes watched their father prepare a beverage as part of Irene’s potion therapy, with a hint of something slipped into it that had been pulled from an inside pocket of his robes. Lydia had heard shouting and hitting moments previous and was entirely lost in regards to Stefan’s seemingly sudden change in behavior. From a place in secret she watched her parents seemingly enjoying a peaceful evening in watching the sunset...

That was when she heard the ugly truth:

”I had to do it, Irene... i-it’s for the Greater Good of the family...” Stefan confessed quietly.

“Do what, Stefan?”

“I’ve poisoned you... Your potion tonight had an... extra ingredient. A venom, to be precise. I expect you have less than an hour to live.

“I did this because I love you; because I don’t want to remember you as the woman who was stripped of her magic by disease. I want to remember you as my wife – excellent, pure-blooded witch that you are in all of your glory! Were I in your position, I would beg of you to kill me. I would be unable to bear the thought of life without magic... the laughing stock of the Wizarding World... Please know that if I thought there were any other choices open to me...”

“No...!”

Irene begged and pleaded for her life, yet Stefan ultimately did nothing but listen in silence. Lydia, crying shamelessly from her hiding spot, could only watch in horror as after thirty minutes of Irene begging for mercy Stefan had administered the Killing Curse to speed up her passing.

Lydia found herself rooted to the spot in terror and shock, a gasp escaping from her lips she hadn’t meant for any to hear. How could her own father kill in cold blood like that? The young teen’s mind couldn’t comprehend a bit of what had transpired. Yet, she did understand one thing loud and clear: whatever love Lydia might have had in the odd relationship she had with her father was gone. In her opinion Irene didn’t need to die like that – she had even begged Stefan not to kill her! And for that, all Lydia could hold in her heart for the man she called father was hatred. Pure, unadulterated hate.

The witch jumped when her father started, sending a cutting charm directly at her out of reflex. It clipped her shoulder, causing a trickle of crimson to cascade down the pale skin. Two pairs of sapphire orbs watched each other in frightened shock for a total of three seconds before Lydia felt the overwhelming urge to run – run, and not look back – as far and fast as her legs would carry her. Her terror only intensified further when she heard her father’s boots thundering behind her in chase. Lydia didn’t dare wait to see why he was following, as for all she knew he was following so he could kill her, too.

She screamed when Stefan grabbed hold of her injured shoulder and whirled her around, slamming her into the nearest stretch of wall. “How could you?! You killed her! Your own wife! She didn’t have to die! She begged you not to let her die like that!” Lydia shrieked at him. Stefan was shaking, and shaking her in the process. She was almost certain he was going to do to her what he’d done to her mother, and thus fought with him to be free. “You killed her!” she repeated over and over, hysterical through her tears, and attempted to pound on her father’s chest in protest.

“Lydia... hold still!” Stefan shouted, allowing her to hit him a few times. Her small fists assailed every bit of his upper chest that they could reach despite the fact he was tightly gripping her shoulders. When one of her hits finally caused pain he couldn’t tolerate any further, he forced the salt and oils from his thumb into the cut on her shoulder to quell the flailing young lady. Stefan was rewarded with a failed attempt at a groin kick. “Get a grip, girl! ... I said hold still and listen to me! I’m not going to hurt you as long as you settle down!”

Lydia did as demanded to a degree, keeping herself light on her feet in the event her father decided to sum up his speech with a few well-placed curses. “...She was little more than a muggle and of absolutely no use to us now without her magic! I did what I thought was best, for all our sakes. Your mother doesn’t have to suffer with the shame of losing her magical abilities – you and Kai don’t have to worry about contracting the same illness, and meeting the same fate as she did! If I lost my magic, I’d expect you ... no, I’d demand you kill me, or lock me up where I couldn’t infect anyone else, and move on with your lives!” he shouted at the teen, shaking her by the shoulders at every turn he made to emphasize his words.

Fifteen-year-old sapphires looked on in utter shock and revulsion at their father’s words. Something out of her mother’s control left her magic-less, and thus Irene’s no longer having magic justified the murder, in Stefan’s eyes. Despite the years of pureblood grooming, that just didn’t make sense to Lydia. It wasn’t right, it wasn’t moral, there was no goodness in the action. Nothing of what Stefan claimed made sense in the way she had seen him kill the woman he’d professed to love with all of his heart.

She glanced in the direction of the patio chair that contained the body of her mother, continuing to cry.

“Can I count on you to do that, if I fall ill? Would you kill or incarcerate me, to protect yourself and your brother from a similar fate?!” Stefan asked. His voice was hard as steel and rough as sandpaper, scraping against the girl’s ears without so much as a hint of mercy.

Silence...

“Answer me when I ask something of you!” he shouted, then backhanded the young lady. Stefan earned a yelp of pain for his efforts. “Also, no one is to know about this. Especially not your brother, any of the Saint Mungo’s staff, and most importantly not the authorities! Do you understand?!”

Lydia clutched the side of her face, eyes squeezed tightly shut. She tried to reply, but all that came out were anguished sobs. Her tears earned no pity from Stefan – only irritation. The witch suddenly felt her father’s strong hand clamp itself upon her lower jaw, forcing her to meet his gaze had she had her eyes open. Stefan shook the girl to get her attention, to which the teen replied with a wince and a whine. “Do you understand me?! ... VERSTEHEN SIE?!”

The harsh demand in German made Lydia’s eyes snap open, glinting with a surge of fury. “I hate you! Leave me alone!” she shouted and, after a bit of a struggle, managed to escape to her bedroom. She placed a strong locking spell on her door so her father couldn’t get in, then sunk to the floor and panted her immense relief. Lydia only hoped Kai was safe, too.

Terror filled the girl every time she went near her father from then on. It particularly spiked precisely one week after Irene’s death, when Kai started displaying the same magical-drainage symptoms. From a safe distance Lydia watched her father observe Kai and couldn’t help but find it disturbing as she couldn’t tell if he were formulating a possible cure or was simply getting a sadistic pleasure out of watching the boy suffer. It pained Lydia that Stefan had lost his air of favoritism for the boy once the Drain began its course, for she knew good and well the feeling of something like hero-worship toward the man and how being ignored despite that devotion tended to hurt. Her father was never an overly warm or cuddly personality in their lives, but it was noticeable that he had grown colder.

Eventually, Stefan had demanded Lydia start taking care of Kai. She gladly agreed, knowing that she could provide what Stefan was erratically incapable of showing since day one. In her heart the girl knew that the only reason she’d been relegated with the job was because her father was paranoid of contracting the disease as well. For a while Lydia entertained the notion that Stefan hoped the disease would transfer to her and leave Kai in peace, even though she knew the idea was absurd. By this time, however, she was solidly convinced her father was utterly insane anyway.

Once again, Lydia spotted her father acting stranger than his usually abnormal self on a day when she was bringing Kai some lunch. These days all she had to do was look into her father’s eyes to discern whether he was up to something nefarious or not. And Stefan appeared very sinister indeed when Lydia had started heading for the kitchen.

When Lydia walked into her brother’s room bearing a tray with soup and sandwiches, she gasped at the sight of Stefan towering over the bedridden Kai from the foot of the bed. All she could think about was the evening when her father stood over her mother’s body, and immediately she thought she was too late to prevent her little brother’s demise. Dropping the tray and ignoring the burn of soup splattering across her ankles, Lydia ran and shoved her father away from Kai to put herself between the pair.

“I won’t let you get away with this if you do it!” Lydia shrieked hysterically, flinging herself against the footboard of her brother’s bed. “I know what you’re thinking – I see it in your eyes!”

“What are you talking about, Lydia?” Stefan asked as innocently as possible, though glanced in the direction of Kai rather pointedly. Nonverbally, he cast a charm upon the boy so that they wouldn’t be overheard.

Lydia had also cast a similar spell, also without the use of wand or words, unsure her father had the decency to do so himself. Once certain Kai couldn’t hear them, she continued. “He’s just a child! I don’t care about your insane ideology about the ‘Greater Good’! Leave him alone!” Lydia practically screamed, making a plea she knew her mother would make if the woman was alive and knew what Stefan had planned to do.

“It’s for the Greater Good. He’s a threat to your magic, and mine, just like your mother was!”

“Neither of us has lost our magic yet. Don’t you think that if it were going to harm us it’d have spread to all three of us by now?! Instead of just one at a time?!”

With an irate glance at Kai, Stefan grabbed Lydia by the nape of the neck and escorted her out of the room. He locked the door once they were both out in the hall. “There is always a chance – always a risk. I’ve already lost one child to the blasted Muggle Disease, and I refuse to lose another because she’s too foolish to see the logical decision that’s right in front of her face!”

“Then do what you always do – research the damn thing! Do something productive to get his magic back! You’ve always said pure blood is a terrible thing to waste! For Merlin’s sake – he’s only a child!”

“You sound like your mother,” Stefan sneered.

“Someone has to be the voice of reason around here...” Lydia quipped, rolling her eyes mere seconds before Stefan had struck her with absolutely no warning. Despite the violence bestowed, the teen couldn’t help but feel as though it were somewhat worth it as her father went straight to work on her suggestion. Uncalled for, most definitely, but worth it if it meant her little brother wouldn’t meet an early end.

Confident her words had changed her father’s mind on killing any with the Drain, Lydia went about her usual business: hanging out with local friends, putting off her studies until Stefan would permit procrastination no longer, listening to music volumes louder than particularly necessary, and basically testing all of the limits open to those who were teen-aged. A few times an Auror brought her home to a very paranoid Stefan, who then decided further punishment was needed. Because of what had been done to her mother, and nearly been done to her brother, Lydia had made a promise to herself never to let Stefan think he had an easy road to single parenting.

One day while reading the Daily Prophet, Lydia found an article to bring to her father’s attention: one Damon Highever was working on a cure for the Drain, and was in need of assistants as well as looking for willing patients to attempt to cure. Although she wanted her brother healed Lydia refused to directly bring this news to her father’s attention – personally afraid she’d be hit or cursed for showing him he wasn’t the only one working on a solution to the illness. So, instead, she left the page open upon the kitchen table before making her usual social rounds.

Not even three days later Lydia and Kai were led by Stefan to the Highever compound, where all the research and testing was taking place. The young witch wasn’t sure how to take the words being exchanged between the two older wizards, but something told her the pair had not been friends by any stretch of the imagination when they’d been younger. While anyone that hated her father earned a mark on the good side of her book, Lydia wasn’t certain she could trust this wizard. Thus, she took every opportunity to ask questions, voice criticisms, and raise concerns – much to Damon’s clear displeasure.

During her school years, Lydia developed a friendly rivalry with one Viggo Kaminski. They remain good friends throughout school and even after, and still retain that aspect of competitiveness that keeps the relationship interesting. While she won’t admit it to anyone – even herself – Lydia had and to this day still has a bit of a crush on the half-Russian. However, the witch opted to keep silent about it, as he already had a girlfriend by the time she realized her true feelings.

Now eighteen years old, Lydia has no idea what she’d like to do professionally though is seriously considering either the Healing Arts or Magical Law Enforcement. However, for now, she is adamant on making sure her little brother survives to adulthood without becoming too screwed up in the process. At the same time she is also keen on helping her friends Emma Venice, Draco Viper, and Viggo Kaminski uncover the truths of both Damon’s operation and the ‘secret experiments’ going on under her father’s eye at the fairly-new ECHO complex.

Lydia Althaus is a young witch torn between the survival of her brother – the only family she feels she has left – and doing what she feels is right to protect those under the sinister gaze and malevolent devices of her father’s scheming.

At present, Viggo’s mother and Lydia’s father are none-too-secretively trying to urge them together, as all of the parentals involved are in disapproval over Viggo’s latest flame – a young witch infected with lycanthropy. The pair’s response? Mock flirting while keeping it all in good fun, of course!


Patronus: Dolphin

Animagi: TBA

Amortentia: freshly-cut grass, leather, coconut

Boggart: Her father; particularly the look in his eyes when about to kill

Other:
- Was tattooed with the Dark Mark on the instep of her right foot when she was 3 months old, by Stefan
- Hasn’t yet decided which side she’s on: wants her brother cured, yet isn’t certain she fully trusts Damon
- Very protective of her younger brother

- In Dark Future, was 2 years old when her father died. (Not yet decided if she lives or dies in DF)


Theme song: See Who I Am by Within Temptation

Other Songs:
Destroyed by Within Temptation
Numb by Linkin Park

More pictures...