Mavis Grimsbane

Mavis is the Witch of Beechwood Village and has been for the last thirty nine years, ever since the old Witch retired. She lives in a Cottage about a mile from the village proper with her familiar Archie, a clever and loyal fox.

Appearance

Mavis is a tall and thin woman, with a strength that belies her size. Most of the time she wears her steel grey hair in a long, thick braid which hangs down to her waist, or is coiled in a tight bun on the back of her neck. Her features are sharp and angular, with a nose that is slightly too long for her face, high cheekbones and a strong chin. No one can seem to quite agree on what colour her eyes are, with colours ranging from an icy blue to a thunderous grey, regardless of the colour though everyone agrees that they see much further than they are comfortable with.
She believes in keeping herself neat and tidy, and her clothes, while not of the finest materials are always clean and well made. She favours long woollen skirts, button up blouses and a nice knitted cardigan, and of course she always wears her Hat, how else would people know she is a Witch. Every Witch knows that a good pair of sturdy walking boots is essential to their wadrobe and Mavis is no exception, she's even enchanted hers to be waterproof, no-one likes wet socks.

History

Mavis came to beechwood with her parents when she she was fourteeen years old. They spoke little of where they came from, though not from a lack of trying by the curious villagers to pry it from them, but worked hard and didn't cause trouble so eventually people stopped asking. Some folk commented on the oddity of their daughter, but when the then Witch, Hazel Farthing took an interest in the child, people stopped commenting about that too.
Mavis trained with Hazel whenever she wasn't helping her parents in their shop, and once they were able to hire on an assistant she took up training full time. Once Mavis had been awarded her Hat, Hazel immediately announced her retirement, much to the surprise of the villagers. But she said Mavis was more than capable of taking her place, and she desrved somewhere with milder winters so her knees didn't hurt so much. Mavis took up the role with a modicum of aprehension, not sure she was ready to take over from Hazel, but she soon settled into it, and before long the people of Beechwood stopped calling her the "New Witch" and she became "Our Witch".

Abilities

Mavis specialises in Curses. While almost every Witch has a passing familiarity with curses, and usually has one or two special ones that they concocted all by themselves, Mavis could write books on the subject, if she cared to share her knowledge of course. Not only is Mavis capable of creating curses on the fly, and being able to tailor them specifically to the subject, but she can craft them so subtly the subject is unaware they have even been cursed.
This ability to understand and weave curses, brings with it the ability to also unravel curses, another area in which Mavis understandably excels. There have been many occasions when one of her fellow Witches has sent an unfortunate soul to her door, when they have failed to relieve them of whatever curse has befallen them.

Personality

Mavis isn't really one for small talk, but she can be very witty when she wants to be and has a wicked sense of humour, probably one of the reasons she is so good with curses. She generally speaks the truth as she sees it, and while she never does it simply to be mean, she also isn't too bothered when the truth does upset people. She says it does people good from time to time.