Gethsemane Prickle

Gethsemane Prickle
Biographical information
Nationality	British
Physical information
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Hair colour	Grey
Eye colour	Green
Skin colour	Light
Magical characteristics
Wand	Unknown length, wood and core
Affiliation
Occupation	Herbologist Potioneer Head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures
Loyalty	British Ministry of Magic Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures

"I'm Gethsemane Prickle, Herbologist and Potioneer. Pay attention and you'll do fine."

— Gethsemane Prickle

Gethsemane Prickle was a British witch and specialist in Herbology and Potions who, in the course of her work for the British Ministry of Magic, became Head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Gethsemane Prickle lived to be at least 61 years old.

Biography

The scion of a family of unknown wizarding descent, Gethsemane Prickle was born somewhere in the British Isles and presumably attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry during her formative years, as is the case with nearly all magical children born in the wizarding community of Great Britain. In adulthood, Madam Prickle became an accomplished Herbologist and Potioneer, and eventually, she found employment at the British Ministry of Magic, where she was hired by the Ministry's research wing and was assigned to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Over the course of her career, she would often be called in for consultation by the Beast Division, assisting among others Mathilda Grimblehawk and her partner in solving investigations tied to creature-related incidents.

At some point prior to 2006, she learned that a woman by the name of Penelope Padgett had joined the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and sent a memo to the Head of the Auror Office, Harry Potter, and tried unsuccessfully to warn him about her, suspecting that she had ill-intentions, as her parents had been strong and outspoken supporters of Lord Voldemort during the Second Wizarding War. Having carried out her duties competently for a number of years, she was eventually promoted to Head of Department by 2019.

After the Ministry of Magic became the Calamity World Centre in the wizarding world, she went on to help prepare members of the newly-created Statute of Secrecy Task Force who sought a career as Magizoologist prepare for the threat they would be facing. Apparently occupying a role of leadership, she he was in a position to demand that such individuals had to build an immunity to the stings from a Billywig in order to "earn their stripes" and join the task force. She would later on task one of them with sorting out an infestation of Doxies from the drapes somewhere at the Calamity World Centre, which would improve their spell-casting to the point of making it easier to hit evasive foes. At some point, she would also advise at least one of the members of the aforementioned task force to live among Centaurs. While this went horribly wrong, it did help said individual in acquiring many important survival skills.

Physical appearance

Gethsemane had medium length grey hair, white skin and green eyes with thin brown-rimmed glasses. She often wore a bright red beaded necklace with many brightly coloured bangles and rings on her arms and hands.

Personality and traits

While rather stern compared to associates such as Myra Curio and Sage Bragnam, being often brief and to-the-point and impersonally addressing those around her by their surnames, Gethsemane nevertheless maintained a fairly courteous and very professional demeanour around her co-workers, and was even known to have exchanged the occasional quip with those she got well along well with, such as Mathilda Grimblehawk, A straight-laced, conventional woman, she was known to have a strong dislike of aberrant developments during the course of her duties, such as when he passive-aggressively voiced her discontent to Grimblehawk and her partner with being sent a "bag of bones" to examine, only letting it slide without rebuking them because the former Magizoologist complimented her intellect. Secure in her own judgement and never shy about letting her voice be heard, she did not allow Harry Potter's celebrity status to colour her opinion, as seen by how openly critical she was of his decision to vouch for Penelope Padgett's promotion to the Auror Office, given her parents status both Death Eaters.

Magical abilities and skills

• Herbology: An authority on the subject of Herbology and a professional Herbologist, Madam Prickle was a certified expert on the topic of magical plants and fungi, and are as such highly familiar with their characteristics, classification, properties and their usages. She was also knowledgeable when it came to their roles as ingredients to various potions.
• Potions: Madam Prickle was extremely proficient in the subtle art and science of potion-making, being able to brew a wide variety of such concoctions for the colleagues when called upon to do so, without fail. She was also was able to identify different potions and their effects by examining their appearance and smell, even when she had only residue to work with. She also possessed an encyclopedic knowledge on potion ingredients and which ones were used in which potions, being even able to recognise if a given combination of ingredients could produce a viable potion known to Wizardkind or not.
• Magizoology: As a consultant to the Beast Division, and later as the Head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, Madam Prickle had a very high level of knowledge regarding magical creatures, knowing how to classify them and the various laws regulating the ownership of such creatures.

Etymology

• Gethsemane is a location in ancient Jerusalem, a garden at the foot of Mount Olivet, most famous as the place where, according to the biblical narrative, Jesus prayed and his disciples slept the night before His crucifixion.

Appearances

• Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World (First appearance)
• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite