Flora Carrow (31 Oct 1980 - 2 May 1998) was a pure-blood witch and member of the Carrow family, a house apart of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. She and her twin sister, Hestia were born in Belgravia, London, England. They were the daughters of Amycus Carrow and his wife, Mrs. Carrow. She was sorted into Slytherin House with her sister Hestia in 1992.
For much of her school life she stuck to a group of Slytherins that bullied and tormented others. She tagged along with her sister Hestia and Clotilda Avery, a mean-spirited girl who, along with her twin sister, was the ringleader of the group.
During the 1997-1998 school year, when Flora was a sixth-year, her father, Amycus Carrow, became Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts, and taught, essentially, the Dark Arts. This was the breaking point for Flora, and she sought refuge with Dumbledore's Army in the Room of Requirement to escape her father's regime.
The members of Dumbledore's Army, including many that she'd bullied over the years, were initially suspicious of her, but Flora proved herself during the Battle of Hogwarts, paying with her life. She died aged seventeen during the Battle, after taking a killing curse for Stanley Ingham.
After her death, Flora was honoured among the Fallen Fifty in a memorial that was placed on the grounds of the school. Her twin sister, Hestia, who had been fighting with her father and the other Death Eaters, pleaded insanity after seeing her twin sister's body. Her father, Amycus, and aunt, Alecto, were both sent to Azkaban.
Biography
Early life (1981-1992)
Flora and her twin sister Hestia were born on 31 October, 1980, in Belgravia, London, England, to Amycus Carrow and his wife Mrs. Carrow. The daughter of a Death Eater, Flora was raised to strongly believe in the importance of blood purity.
The Carrows' were very proud of their Pure-blood and social status. Flora's father Amycus, and aunt Alecto, were both Death Eaters who avoided imprisonment in Azkaban following the First Wizarding War by claiming that they had been under the Imperius Curse. They did not search for Lord Voldemort after his first downfall but were forgiven after Voldemort's return in 1995 and joined the Death Eater ranks in the Second Wizarding War.
Hogwarts years (1992-1998)
Flora and her twin sister Hestia received their Hogwarts letters in the summer of 1992. Sometime before attending, she purchased a wand made of cypress and unicorn hair at Ollivander's Wand Shop in Diagon Alley. Flora and her sister boarded the Hogwarts Express at King's Cross Station in London on 1 September 1992, and both of them were Sorted into Slytherin House that night during the Sorting Ceremony.
Flora and her sister shared a dormitory with Clotilda Avery, Theresa Higgs, and Mavis Purcell. For the first few years of school, Flora's sister Hestia and friend Clotilda were extremely mean to others, and bullied people such as Philippa Beutel, for things such as her German accent, Stanley Ingham, Molly Roper, and Colin Creevey for their blood-statuses, Aquila Black for her Squib brother, Bertram Aubrey Jr. because they thought he was weird, Ophelia Brown because they thought she was stupid, and Maisie Cattermole for her scars. Flora did not do anything to stop them, though only occasionally participated herself when an insult was practically handed to her by her sister.
Fifth year (1996-1997)
In 1996, Flora and her sister Hestia were invited to be apart of the Slug Club, an exclusive group made up of Professor Horace Slughorn's most well-liked and sometimes even famous students. Other members included Harry Potter (the Boy Who Lived), Ginny Weasley (for her impressive Bat-Bogey Hex), Aquila Black (for her influential family), and Molly Roper (for her extremely high Potions grades and red hair). Marnie Hargrave was also invited, but avoided the group when she found out that Flora and her sister would be there.
Along the course of the school year, Professor Slughorn would hold various club get-togethers (most often dinners with fine food and around 10 student-attendees). Slughorn would lead the conversation in order to get to know the members better and encourage them to associate with one another. For the grander parties he would invite famous former members, such as professional Quidditch player Gwenog Jones.
Sixth year (1997-1998)
In Flora's sixth year at school, her father, Amycus, was made Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. The Ministry of Magic had fallen to the Dark Lord Voldemort, who returned with a vengeance. Her aunt, Alecto, was appointed Professor of Muggle Studies, but the class turned into a lesson of pure-blood philosophy and supremacy. Flora's father ended up transforming Defence into essentially a "Dark Arts" course, where he forced students to perform illegal curses on first-years. Flora's sister Hestia took to the challenge with tenacity and learned to perform the Cruciatus Curse, but Flora found that she could not stomach hurting innocents, and turned to Dumbledore's Army for support. They were ultimately suspicious of her, as it was being led by Ginny Weasley, Aquila Black, Luna Lovegood, and Neville Longbottom at the time. However, they let her into the Room of Requirement when they found that her intentions were true.
During the Battle of Hogwarts, Flora fought with Dumbledore's Army on the side of the Order of the Phoenix, along with Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger, Aquila Black, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Colin and Dennis Creevey, Stanley Ingham, Michael and Matilda Corner, Terry Boot, Ernie Macmillan, Lavender and Ophelia Brown, Geoffrey Cresswell, Zacharias Smith, Dean Thomas, George and Katie Bell, Parvati and Padma Patil, Molly Roper, Anthony Goldstein, Hannah Abbott, Arthur Dodge, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Evander Bourdillon, Henry Marlowe, and Susan Bones. She ended up facing her sister, Hestia Carrow, on the other side of the battlefield, and they duelled each other, but Hestia escaped.
Flora was killed after she took a killing curse for Stanley Ingham, a boy that her twin sister had bullied for several years. She stuck to Stanley as well as Evander Bourdillon and Henry Marlowe during the Battle, as they had been the least frosty to her welcome.
Post-mortem (1998)
After the Battle of Hogwarts, Flora's father was sent to Azkaban along with her aunt, where presumably they carried out life-long sentences for their crimes. Her sister, Hestia, was admitted to St. Mungo's after pleading insanity when she saw her sister's body in the Great Hall, despite having killed two students- Colin Creevey and Philippa Beutel, victims that she had bullied all through school.
Flora was honoured with the rest of those who fought for the light side in a memorial on Hogwarts grounds. She was honoured separately in another memorial that listed the students killed in the battle, including Lavender Brown, Colin Creevey, Philippa Beutel, and others.
Personality and traits
Flora was considered the less extreme sister of the two of them. Her sister, Hestia, often belittled and mocked others for their blood status, family name, or other reasons, such as money. While Flora never stopped her, she never directly participated in this herself. When Hestia mocked Aquila Black for the form of her Boggart (her brother, Altair, who had been a squib), Flora said nothing. She also kept quiet when Hestia decided to make fun of Ginny Weasley for her family, which not well off like the Carrows, and Colin Creevey for being a "mudblood".
In her sixth year of school, everything changed. She was able to witness firsthand the horrible acts that her father, Amycus, and aunt Alecto committed against the student population. Over that year, she grew sickened with the dogma of blood purity and what Voldemort stood for. She witnessed her sister Hestia's descent into darkness and sadism, and had a huge change of heart. Flora escaped to the Room of Requirement when her father forced her to practice a Cruciatus Curse on a first-year boy. Understandably, they were suspicious of her at first, namely because her father was Amycus Carrow, and her aunt was Alecto, and for several years her twin sister Hestia bullied most of them. It all came to a climax when Flora did not evacuate with the rest of Slytherin House at the beginning of the battle, and stayed to fight with Dumbledore's Army to prove her loyalty.
Etymology
"Flora" comes from the Latin flōs (meaning "flower"). Flora was also the name of a Roman fertility goddess whose domain was flowers, Spring, and youth. This goddess was not of Greek origin, unlike many Roman gods, instead coming from the lore of the Italic Sabine folk.
In English, the word; "Carrow", can refer to two places. "Carrow" in Norfolk, or "Carraw" in Northumberland. The first is assumed to have its name derived from the Old English word "carr", meaning "rock", and a word of Celtic origin; "hoh", meaning "spur of a hill". While the second appears to have been named either after the plural of the Old English word "carr", or after a mixture of a form of "carr", and another Old English word; "raw", meaning "row".