Basic Stats
Full Name: Miriam Rachel Strout
Gender: Female
Nicknames: Mir
Date of Birth: April 20, 1957
Age: 17
Zodiac Sign: Taurus
Sexuality: Straight
Marital Status: Engaged to Lucas Williams
Hometown: Kent, England
House: Hufflepuff
Year: 7th
Bloodline: Muggleborn
Wand: 11 in, rosewood with a redwood handle, unicorn hair
Pet: Snowy owl named Salve
Extras: Prefect
Journal: heal_with_love
Played By: Lindze Letherman
Family
Father: Jacob Strout (muggle; doctor; b. 1930)
Mother: Abigail Strout (née Miller; muggle; housewife; b. 1935)
Uncle: Michael Strout (muggle; b. 1928; d. 1959)
Aunt: Laura Strout (muggle; b. 1932; widow of Michael)
Cousin: Daniel Strout (muggle; b. 1955)
Cousin: Denise Strout (muggle; b. 1957)
History
Miriam Rachel Strout is the only child of Jacob and Abigail Strout, a relatively conservative Muggle family from Kent, England. Jacob, a doctor, introduced his daughter to the world of medicine from a young age, in hopes that she would follow his footsteps and become a doctor, as well. Abigail was happy to just take Miriam into the kitchen and teach her how to cook.
Although Miriam had no siblings, she didn't grow up alone by far. Her father's older brother, Michael, died of a brain aneurysm when Miriam was two, and his widow Laura and their two children (Daniel, 4, and Denise, 2) moved in with Jacob, Abigail, and Miriam. Miriam, Daniel, and Denise practically grew up as siblings, instead of cousins.
When she was three, Miriam met Lucas Williams through a play-date that their parents had set up. Like Miriam, Lucas was three, and the two got on smashingly. He became her best outside-of-the-family friend, and the four of them (Miriam, Lucas, Daniel, and Denise) were practically inseparable. Until the summer that Miriam, Lucas, and Denise were eleven.
That summer changed everything, and yet things still remained kind of the same. One morning, an owl landed on the windowsill while the Strouts were eating breakfast and tapped at the window until Miriam — who was closest to the window — got up and opened the window. The owl deposited the envelope in its mouth on the counter — an envelope addressed to Miriam — then flew off. Miriam opened the envelope and found an acceptance letter to a school that she didn't recall applying to.
At first, the family thought it a joke — magic! honestly! — until they happened to mention it to a neighbor, who explained that it wasn't a joke. She was a squib, you see, a non-magical person born to a magical family, so she knew all about witches and wizards, and she knew that Hogwarts was the best school for youngsters like Miriam. Because she had always been a trustworthy woman, the family believed her, and at the end of August, Miriam left her family to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The first Christmas that she returned home, the family (nobody else had been told that Miriam was a witch, not even Lucas) was a little wary of her, at first, until they discovered that she wasn't any different than she'd always been. She was the same Miriam that they all knew and loved, and she wasn't going to hex them in their sleep!
The summer they were fifteen (just after Miriam's fourth year at Hogwarts), Lucas and Miriam started dating. When Miriam returned to Hogwarts the following September, things got a little weird as they tried to maintain a long-distance relationship through letters (sent via Miriam's family, so that Lucas wasn't wondering why he was getting owls delivering the letters from her, instead of the regular post), but after they got past that original weird period, things got easier, and now, two years later, they're still going strong.
On the school front, Miriam quickly developed a love for History of Magic, and displayed an amazing aptitude for Potions and Herbology. Astronomy was one she didn't quite do so well in. When she was able to add two extra classes in her third year, she chose Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. Ancient Runes became a guilty pleasure, kind of like History of Magic was, although she soon decided that she didn't care much at all for Arithmancy. During her fourth year, she decided that she was indeed going to follow her father's footsteps and become a healer. After she took the O.W.L.s in her fifth year, she dropped all of her classes except those required for her desired career: Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration, Charms, and Defence Against the Dark Arts, though she was a little sad to be dropping History and Ancient Runes.
Early on in her Hogwarts career, Miriam had taken to hovering around the Hospital Wing and pelting Madam Pomfrey with questions, then eventually asking her if there was anything she could do to help. Finally, the school nurse relented and let Miriam help out around the Hospital Wing, mostly with the small things here and there.
With regards to friends, Miriam was open and friendly at Hogwarts, but she was also honest about her parentage — she was a muggle-born and proud of it. It earned her a bit of animosity from the more "bloodist" pureblood students, but she chose to just ignore them. It didn't matter to her if they didn't like her, just because of her bloodlines (which was, quite frankly, a stupid reason to hate a person). She did make sure, however, to befriend those within her year and House, and others within her House, as well. In fact, she would befriend anyone who cared to be her friend, but left those be who didn't want to befriend the slightly odd muggleborn.
Ten Years Later
In ten years, Miriam will be: married, to her one true love, Lucas Williams. They got married in 1978, and Miriam held onto her own surname, Strout, at least for the professional part of her life. She was accepted into the Healer Training program at St. Mungo's and, after her training was complete, she ended up on the Janus Thickey ward, a closed, longterm ward for patients with permanent spell damage (in a few more years, she'll be the Healer in Charge of the ward). Although her home life with Lucas was mostly undisturbed by the war (Miriam put heavy wards on the house in attempts to keep it safe), her job was nearly heartbreaking for her. It was particularly bad near the end of 1981, when two patients were admitted to the ward, friends of hers from school: Alice (formerly Kipling) and Frank Longbottom. She hated the Death Eaters, hated what they stood for, hated what they did to her friends (and, of course, there were also the deaths of the Prewett twins, and the disappearance of Caradoc Dearborn, those shook her, as well, as they had been friends of hers, too). If not for her loving husband to return home to, her job may well have driven her into madness or depression. She remained a peaceable non-combatant in the war, working to help with those who were on her ward, as well as those in other wards whenever she was needed.
