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Tennessee so named after the famous American playwright and not the place, as his plays were her mothers favourite growing up; had much in the way of big shoes to fill. A distant relation was said to be the Irish playwright George B. Shaw but no one ever truly confirms it. Born in 1997 to Michael Shaw and Aggy Elliot, she fast became the apple of their eyes. An only child, though they did try for others but being so far unsuccessful are happy with Tennessee.
She was a quiet child, not giving to mood swings or temper tantrums like her cousins. A curious nature that had her into all sorts from an early age but even though everyone thought she would continue in this vein, by the time she was ten she had changed course and began writing instead. Living just outside of Rathmullen, she has spent all her life in the Gaeltacht area and so when her letter for the JWA arrived, she was ill prepared for it. No one in their family prior to her, to the best of their knowledge, had been magical before and so any knowledge of the English language they felt was unnecessary. Explaining the situation to the headmistress was difficult enough so a translator had to be brought in. Her studies were to continue at home while she also took up English lessons.
Tennessee disliked learning the English greatly but knew she had little choice, or was given little at any rate. Her parents wanted the best for her and wanted her to fulfill her potential, her mother believing that they only had the one child because so much had gone into creating her. She was special and needed to be aware of this. Tennessee however, would have been quite content to stay at home, sitting on the cliff edge over looking the ocean writing her poetry but it so happened that the tutor that was found for her was not English nor Irish for that matter but a Russian man who's sister should also have been in attendance at the JWA but for her own reasons could not. She became interested in this girl but only as the means of a possible character for her stories that she had begun to write.
Over time, she befriended Lyka Garin, one of two inhabitants on the Great Blasket Island off the Kerry coast. Her new friend did not speak but they were bound together by the fact that Tennessee could not speak English and so in a strange roundabout way, as Vitaly taught Tennessee the foreign language, his sister learned it also ... though just never spoke it. They studied together, sometimes were tutored together and sometimes spent time exploring together. Once Vitaly was happy however with Tennessee's progress, he wrote to Minerva McGonagall with the recommendation that she start immediately at the JWA so that she could at least absorb some of the way of life there before moving on to Hogwarts. The headmistress agreed completely and so after the Spring Break, Tennessee began her first and final term at the Junior Wizarding Academy.
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