Elise van Rijn // Belgium application

Elise is generally a cheerful and kind girl who doesn’t stand out a lot. She may look a little plain, though she’s not as boring as others may think. She cares about people and doesn’t like to see them hurt. When witnessing a fight, she will always be the one who tries to calm everyone down.

Despite her kind nature, she also has a mischievous streak. Rules weren’t really meant to be followed for this girl, leading her into trouble from time to time.

She likes to tease people occasionally, though can’t handle it well when the favour is returned. Specially not from her siblings. When she gets angry she can be quite bitchy. She can be stubborn and doesn’t like to be pushed around. She’s not as strong as she likes to think she is though.

One of the things Elise absolutely loves is cooking. She’s pretty good at it, too. Along with her love for cooking, goes her love for food. If she’s given something good, she’ll eat it. Especially when it concerns chocolate or waffles. The girl has an ever demanding sweet tooth. Because of this, Elise is a bit touchy about comments about her weight. Though she still manages to keep her nice shape.

This girl can also handle her alcohol. The best alcoholic drink is Belgian, after all. Besides beer, she also enjoys a good glass of wine. She’ll also drink other things though.

Elise has a fondness of animals, specially cats. She also adores little children and enjoys playing with them. She has a wish to become a mother as well, but knows she’s still too young for that now.

Appearance:

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When looking at a group of people, Elise is certainly not the first one to be noticed. When in regular clothing, she doesn’t stand out much. That doesn’t mean she’s bad looking though. And don’t go making jokes about that either. Like any other girl, she holds a certain pride in her looks.

She has golden blonde hair, which reaches up to her shoulders, green eyes and pale skin. Elise’s frame is a little fuller than some girls. Not to say she’s fat, as that’s not the case (though she is a little sensitive about this subject), but she’s not terribly skinny. Just the way it’s supposed to be, she says. Someone shouldn’t be able to feel your bones when you give them a hug.

Elise prefers simple, but pretty dresses, in which she can move around easily. Colours she often wears are green, blue or red. She doesn’t mind the required school uniform either though. One thing Elise is never seen without a headband or a ribbon in her hair. This is a habit she picked up from her mother, who often wore them as well.

When she is particularly amused, mischievous, or having inappropriate thoughts, the girl sports a cat-like grin.

Cooking. After she finishes school, she wants to open a magical restaurant with the most wonderful dishes. She is especially skilled in making desserts.

Charms. She really has a knack for these kind of spells.

Care For Magical Creatures. Elise just loves being around everything fuzzy and adorable, though she also has a way with the more fearsome animals they have to deal with.

Multilingual. She can speak Dutch, French, English and a bit of German. The benefits of growing up in a country with more than one official language.

Stressful situations. She tends to worry too much about things.

Lars. He is pretty good in getting on her nerves sometimes.

Chocolate, waffles and most other sweet things;

Cooking. Like mentioned before, the kitchen is where this girl is in her element;

Children. Her motherly instincts are great and she really wants to have kids of her own when she gets out of school;

Her cat. A male red Selkirk Rex, named Leopold. Though she’s fond of animals in general;

House-elves. She likes to sneak into the kitchens and talk with the elves about food. They exchange tips and tricks.

Her brother.

Being yelled at or pushed around;

Bullies. But be honest, who does like them?;

Being called fat. That’s just plain rude. You don’t say something like that to a lady;

Bad food. You just can’t expect her to eat something like that;

Her brother.

She fears that she might not be able to have any children, or that she won’t be a good mother. She loves children, so this would just break her heart.

During dinner she often will make remarks/complaints about how something could’ve been prepared better. She also takes notes.

She likes to try out spells on different kinds of food to see what happens. This way she is slowly but surely inventing her own little spells to make cooking easier and more fun to do.

Elise was born into a small, happy family in Amsterdam. She lived there with her parents and her older brother. The happiness only lasted a few years after her birth though. Her parents grew more and more distant from each other. When she was barely old enough to understand what was going on, it ended in a divorce. Her mother moved to Belgium, taking Elise with her. Lars stayed with their father in the Netherlands.

Elise didn’t like this situation at all, and wanted to go back, to her father and her big brother, but she couldn’t. While they saw each other rarely, she did write with Lars a lot. Eventually though, the visits ended all together and even the letters seemed to come to a halt.

When she and her mother moved away from the Netherlands, they ended up in a muggle village near Brussels. The signs of her magic ability started soon after. It was when she and her mother were baking cupcakes, she accidentally made them explode.

On her eleventh birthday she got a letter from both the Dutch school for Witchcraft and Wizardry and the French one, Beauxbatons. After a bit of pressuring her decision from her mother, she ended up going to school in France. She led a pretty normal life there (as far as a magic school can be normal, that is). For four years she went there, and she was just preparing for her fifth year when she got a letter for the exchange program of Hogwarts. She was thrilled at the chance to travel to the UK to go to school there, though at the same time she felt a little guilty.

Her mother had several attempts at a new relationship since the divorce, though none of them lasted. That’s why Elise felt bad to leave her to go to the UK. Eventually her mother convinced her it would be a great opportunity. Whether she went to school in France or the UK, she wouldn’t be at home either way. And with floo power or portkeys she could be home in the holidays in no time.


The first time Elise got a letter, she didn’t get just one. Neither Flanders or Wallonia were big enough to have a magic school for their own, and the two regions weren’t exactly known for their amazing cooperation, especially not in these times. Wizards and witches from Flanders usually went to the Netherlands to get educated, while kids from Wallonia went to Beauxbatons. Since Elise lived just below Brussels, where both French and Dutch speaking people live, she got a letter from both.

Her mother clearly had a bias towards Beauxbatons. It was known as a great school for young witches and wizards. And for some reason she didn’t seem eager for Elise to be going back to the Netherlands. Perhaps she was scared she’d meet Lars there again and ended up wanting to stay with him and her father instead of her mother.

Partly to console her mother, and partly because it was the logical thing for any young girl to do, Elise selected the prettier letter and went to Beauxbatons.


Elise wiped the sweat off her forehead. She had been working on this cake for hours. She was spending even more care to the decorating than usual. This was going to be her masterpiece. Well, her masterpiece in muggle pie making. Every summer as she came home she cursed the laws of no magic when not at school more and more. The summer was when she had the most time to bake and try out new things. How could she ever become a professional at this if she had to walk through half of the castle just to get to the kitchens?

A small sigh escaped her lips, on her face was an expression of pure concentration as she applied the whipped cream to the cake. She just reached for the can of chocolate sprinkles as a sudden sound made her jump. The first thing that came to mind was checking if she hadn’t accidentally ruined the decoration on her cake. Luckily she hadn’t messed it up.

She looked up and saw an owl had landed on the windowsill. It had a letter in its beak. When Elise reached for it, the animal dropped it into her hands and flew off. It was addressed to her, so she figured it must be her letter with the list of books for the new school year. Though when she flipped the envelope over she saw an unfamiliar seal.

Getting curious to what this could be about she opened the letter. Her eyes flew over the page, taking in the information. Apparently she was selected for an exchange program with Hogwarts school for Witchcraft and Wizardry. In the UK! She! Elise was more than a bit surprised, and in her mind there was only one logical thing to do now. And that’s exactly what she did.

“MOM!”


Elise waited nervously in line with the other exchange students until it was her turn. She cast a glance through the Great Hall. Every time the hat shouted a house, the students at one of the tables burst out in cheers. She didn’t really have a specific table she hoped to end up at. She’d wait and see. It was her first time here, after all. She didn’t have the right to prefer one house over the other.

“Elise van Rijn,” The professor with the list called out. Elise took a deep breath and stepped forward. She sat down on the stool and let the hat be placed on top of her head. She hadn’t felt this nervous since she was a first year. In a sense, she was a first year again, with the sorting and everything. She shouldn’t worry like this. Surely this hat would choose the right house for her. She had already heard several things about the houses. The people in Slytherin were arrogant, Gryffindors were loud, Hufflepuffs were lazy, and Ravenclaws thought they knew everything better. Those were pretty harsh things to say, Elise thought. She wouldn’t want people saying things like that about her house, neither did she want to be the one to spread rumors like these.

“Hufflepuff!” The hat shouted out. The Belgian let out the breath she’d been holding. The yellow and black coloured table broke into applause as she hopped off the stool and sat down among the Hufflepuffs. A smile graced her lips as she felt someone pat her on the back. The people were friendly at least, she felt right at home here.

It got even better later, when she discovered the common room was located right next to the kitchens.

You have no idea how much this rule actually bugs me but... Elise needs to get a letter first from her school of origin then the exchange letter from Hogwarts. Yeah... When I played a student here, I didn't add it too. Could you do that please? You still have loads of time on your application so I hope it won't be too much work.

In the mean time, I'll contemplate taking the letter part off or making it more clear.

<3

I actually played Canada here at the very beginning of the board, before it died. The letter from the first school wasn't required before, so I must've missed that bit and assumed it was the same, my apologies. ^^;;

I fixed it now. I also changed a few things, like the school she went to before Hogwarts. She went to Beauxbatons for reasons explained in the letter part.

Yup, that's all fine now! Accepted!