Alexandra Christine St.Martin
Description:	More commonly known as Allie, Alexandra is a slightly overweight girl standing at four feet and nine inches of height at the beginning of her first year. Her hair, dark enough to seem almost black, has been charmed straight for as long as she can remember and cut short at the tops of her collarbones to provide an easy way to distinguish her from her twin sister and to necessitate minimal maitenance. She has a pretty, slightly rounded-out face and wide, long-lashed hazel eyes.
Personality:	Allie's defining characteristic is her innocence, mixed with dashes of idealism and optimism. She tries to see everything and one in a good light, often a better one than it is actually in, and looks for the good in everyone. If she can't find any, she will either make finding some a mission or simply make some good qualities up based on only the flimsiest of evidence, a tactic she has had to resort to with no few of her relatives. She finds it difficult to stand by when she believes someone else is being hurt or has become angry and will often try to offer comfort. This usually doesn't go as well as she planned, at least partially because of her tendency towards stuttering and losing track of her words whenever she attempts to speak her own mind instead of repeating back whatever her mother or sister tell her to say. Confusion and timidity are two of the constants of Allie's life, as anyone trying to speak with her at length will soon discover. Those of an aggressive nature will find her easily cowed by them. On the few occasions she does summon the nerve to stand up for herself, it surprises her so much she usually bursts into tears. Allie's great weakness is a lack of self-confidence. Though she is roughly on an academic level with other girls her age and is in possession of a fair amount of common sense, she has been completely and utterly convinced by her mother and twin that she's an unredeemably stupid dunce requiring constant supervision if she is to avoid shaming the family. She relies heavily on her immediate family and numerous cousins to tell her what to say and do. Her one defense mechanism is her inability to let insults from those she cares about get too far under her skin - she refuses to believe that they really mean it, but it's probably true anyway, so no harm done.
History:	Allie was born at Magnolia Grove, estate of the South Carolinian St.Martin family, three and a half minutes before her identical twin, Lila. Her parents, Roland and Sarah, were both disappointed that their firstborn was a girl, but made the best of it and named her for her late grandmother, Christine Alexandra. She received the nickname Allie while she and her sister and their cousins were learning to talk and could not say Alexandra properly. Since then, only Roland and Sarah have ever called her by her real first name. Allie's life ran smoothly until she was nine, when her Aunt Mary Wright died and her half-cousin Anne moved in, upping the number of people living at Magnolia Grove to thirteen permanent residents. Allie's attempts to befriend Anne have had no success so far, but she hasn't given up on it despite Anne telling her to get lost in every way the older girl knows. Allie's predictable, comfortable, and well-ordered life took a second hit when her stepcousin Gwenhwyfar Carey was almost disowned and was put on a form of probation, making her position in the family unclear. The best thing to happen to her since the February before she turned ten was receiving her Sonora letter, final confirmation that she was a witch and not a Squib, as her mother had feared. Unfortunately, this meant an increase in her mother's constant criticisms, meant to shame her into acting more like a proper pureblooded girl. Allie considers her family life to be absolutely perfect, as the only basis for comparison she has is the Carey and Wright families with all associated dramas. Her step-grandmother, Eileen, is head of the St.Martin family and widely considered to be two knuts short of a Galleon. Her father, Roland, is Eileen's stepson and recognized heir, and her mother, Sarah, is the recognized leader of the Aunts, the communal title of the knot of adult St.Martin and Whitefield adult women. Though they are both very critical of her and preferential in their treatment of Lila, Allie sincerely believes she couldn't ask for better parents. She loves her twin more than anyone else in the world and is very fond of her little brother, Alban St.Martin II. Her uncles, Julian St.Martin III and Taylor, live at Magnolia Grove with their wives, Anna and Emma, and Taylor's children Julian V and Lydia. The only discordant note in the family is Anne, and Allie really does think she's making progress towards accepting and being accepted by the family. Upon arriving at Sonora, Allie was horrified to discover that she and Lila were Sorted into different Houses, her into Teppenpaw and her sister into Crotalus. Though terrified of being without her sister for the first time in her life and worried about what a mess she might make of things without Lila to guide her, she put a real effort into keeping herself together and putting a good face on things so she didn't upset her twin. Despite her dismay at being separated from Lila, the split will probably be good for her, as it will force her to make decisions for herself and maybe even learn to talk properly without someone else telling her what to say.
Fear:	Though some, including her sister, would say that Allie is scared of everything, her worst fear is Lila's death. She thinks of Lila as her other, stronger half, and Allie doesn't believe she could live in a world without her twin in it and hopes she never has to find out.
Desire:	Lacking ambition as she does, Allie would like nothing better than to gain the honest approval of her parents and her sister, just once. She wouldn't mind at all if the St.Martins took a step down on the social ladder, as she finds the traditional pureblood lifestyle confusing and unwelcoming.
Other:	Allie's wand is seven-and-a-quarter inches of willow wood with a phoenix feather core. In the days before Anne came to Magnolia Grove, Allie was the innocent tag-along to the clique of pretty girls and heiresses inside the local families lead by her twin and Gwen Carey. The group more or less fell apart when Gwen was thrown out, though Lila still remains the top authority on who's who among the younger crowd at home. Allie brought her pet puffskein, Nana, to Sonora with her. Merlin only knows how popular or unpopular this may serve to make her with her roommates.

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