Cadence Hope Ballard
Love is a magic more powerful than any.
Basic Information Name: Cadence Hope Ballard
Nicknames: Cadi, Cade
Gender: Female
Year: Fifth Year!
House: Hufflepuff
Age: 15
Birthday: September 9
Magical Descent: Half-and-Half. Her dad is a Muggle and her mom is a witch.
Relationship Status: Single! (And loving it!)
Best Friends: Melanie Lockhart and Torin Kane
Close Friends: Ziva Holden, Avery Donner, Mina Bennett, Carter Phillips, and Ella Westwick
Personality:
Sweet and good-natured
Hates making enemies
Loves to laugh and have a good time
Doesn't like confrontation
Wants to be liked and loved and to give her love to others
Feisty when upset
Powerful, but doesn't like to use it
Friends and family are the most important things to her
Will give up anything for the people she cares about
Naturally intelligent
School is easy for her
Loves love
Will always give people a second chance if they want it
Likes: Sunshine, laughing, gymnastics, dancing, music, spending time with her friends, chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, yellow, snow, shopping, flowers, spending the night on her trampoline, DADA, charms, transfiguration, swimming, pizza, purple, nice people, dresses, and making friendship bracelets.
Dislikes: People who are mean for no reason, violence, confrontation, flying, her grandparents, gymnastics Coach, people who judge others without trying to get to know them, oboes, organs (the instrument), grey, cooked spinach, corn beef, shoes, crying, saying goodbye, big dogs, ab workouts, climbing ropes, and pointless rules.
History
Cadence was in born in England, and spent most of her primary school years attending an all-girls boarding school on the countryside. Her parents loved her very much: her father was a muggle, and her mother was a witch. They felt that as she was growing up, it was important for her to experience life both as a Muggle and as a witch so that she could function in either world. Thus, why she attended a Muggle school until coming to Hogwarts.
When leaving her muggle school on holidays, Cadence was never quite sure where she would be taken by her parents. They traveled all-over the world participating in a peace-keeping organization. Cadence has seen a lot of the world, and yet she's experienced so little of it. Whenever they were not at their home in England, there were always adults keeping a close eye on Cadence so that no harm would come to her.
Eventually, her Hogwarts letter came, and she was ecstatic that she would finally be learning about magic!
She came to Hogwarts at age 11 with wide eyes and a mind open to learning anything and everything. That all changed very quickly, however, when she received a letter from one of her parents' friends telling her that they had been killed. This was a devastating blow to Cadence; she had always been so incredibly close to her parents. She was daddy's little girl and mommy's little helper. With the help of her friend Melanie and her boyfriend (as much of a boyfriend as you can have at 11) Set, she managed to press forward, though she was unsure where she would be going after the school year ended. Before Cadence had even adjusted to this, though, her boyfriend Set was murdered in the library. Now all of Cadence's hope and faith and trust that the world was a good place was shattered. Days after his death, she became so disturbed and angry that she actually destroyed the Hufflepuff Common Room, not stopping until Mr. Masterson came in and grabbed her right as she passed out.
Cadence woke up weeks later in St. Mungo's not remembering anything about her life after Set's death. She didn't remember destroying the common room or Mr. Masterson's kind help. Nothing at all. After being awake for a couple days, her grandparents finally came to visit her. Cadence had never seen nor talked to these grandparents. These were her mother's parents, her father's having passed away before Cadence was 3, and they had wanted nothing to do with her mother after she had married Cadence's Muggle father. The Grogans were purebloods and felt that all wizards should carry on the pureblood tradition. They were not affectionate nor compassionate during their visits. On the contrary, they blamed Cadence's unbalanced behavior on her less-than-desirable breeding.
Nevertheless, when the time came for Cadence to leave St. Mungo's, her grandparents offered her room and board provided she stick to her room and stay quiet except at meal times. Most teenagers wouldn't mind so much living with their grandparents, but Cadence's grandparents had taken her in out of pity and because it would make them look bad to not take her; it had nothing to do with loving her. Eventually, Cadence was allowed to start school again, primarily in the form self-education. Once a week, a tutor would visit her and check over her work, and a therapist would come talk to her about how she was doing. For all of this, Cadence stayed in her room. After months of begging, Cadence finally got her grandparents to bring a dance instructor in twice a week. Cadence had convinced her therapist to tell her grandparents it would be good for her.
Those were the only times she was happy at her grandparents house, when she was dancing. When she was dancing, she could be free and let go of everything else in the world. Those four hours a week were wonderful. Her dance instructor also provided her with her only glimpse of freedom. One day, he showed up at her house and whisked her away before her grandparents could put up too much of an argument. He took her to dance studio, gave her a beautiful dress, had someone do her hair and make up, and then they took her to a ballroom competition where she competed in her favorite dance, waltz. Cadence won the competition but was kept under even closer surveillance until her return to Hogwarts.
Cadence returned to Hogwarts last term, socially awkward and emotionally unstable. She had a tendency to overreact and be unnecessarily dramatic. Cadence made many friends, though her best friend Melanie remains her best friend. In addition to friends, she made a few enemies. She fell in love for the first time with Nate King, and went to his grandmother's house in Florida for the holidays. While there, she received a letter telling her that her parents were still alive. The letter sent her on an adventure with Nate and her friends ultimately ending in her discovery that her parents are still alive. All of this time, they've been in hiding, perpetuating the story of their death to protect themselves and Cadence. However, now the danger has passed, and Cadence has been able to happily return to the loving home of her parents.
Over the summer, Cadence grew up a lot now that she was in a loving home with two great parents who had gone to great lengths to ensure that she would be as happy as possible at home. Her mother had used a lot of intense magic on the house, putting in a dance studio and gymnastics training gym for her in the basement level. They also created a mini-movie theater for her and her friends to watch movies together, and put in a pool in the backyard as well as buying a trampoline for outside. During the summer, she grew a lot closer to Torin, who she now considers to be something of a big brother to her. While in Diagon Alley one day, she also met a boy named Jude and immediately became good friends with him. A few weeks later, she and Jude started dating, and she spent most of her spare time during the summer with him.
Cadence is different this year, but I suppose everyone will just have to wait to see just how different she is.
OOC: Hai! I'm Tara, or Tar, and I've been consistently on SS since about December though I've been a member for... a bit. Basically my life consists of theatre; it's pretty much all I do and think about, though sometimes I make space in my brain for Spanish, dancing, writing, and dreaming about traveling around Europe. I'm a university student majoring in Theatre Education with a minor in Spanish (meaning, yes, I want to teach teenagers). Next spring I'll be studying abroad in Europe, so if anyone would like to offer their couch for me to sleep on as I traverse that continent, that would be lovely! I love love LOVE meeting new people and making new friends, so if you'd like to talk to me, you can find my contact information on my profile!