Claire Almer was new at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. The beautiful 16-year-old girl had dirty blonde hair, grey-green eyes, and a medium complexion. She had originally gone to a very small, almost unknown Magic school in the past five years, because her parents had no money, and could not afford the books and everything that she required for Hogwarts, even though they were a pure blood wizarding family.
The reason for Claire's family's lack of money was her Aunt. When Claire was little, her mother's sister Heather broke up with her long-time husband, Rhys. Heather's life was 'apparently' in ruins. Rhys had had an affair with another woman, breaking Heather's heart. Heather had then come to stay with Claire and her family, and soon seemed to get back on her feet. Then, instead of moving out into a place of her own, she stayed with the Almers, and whenever they asked her to leave, she would pretend that she had been looking and looking for a job and a house, but had no money. So whenever Mr. Or Mrs. Almer gave her money, she would go out and spend it on alcohol, coming home late every night, blind drunk. The alcohol made her aggressive and angry. This anger she took out on Claire. She would beat her, and threaten to kill her if Claire told anyone.
It wasn't until her Father had walked in late one night to check on Claire, and saw his sister-in-law beating his daughter, then things finally stopped. He literally threw Heather out of the house, screaming bad words at her, threatening her with the most horrible things if she ever came within a thousand miles of his daughter again. After a lot of counselling, Claire was back on track, her parents helped her through her ordeal, and now she was a strong, assertive and absolutely stunning girl.
The expenses of Heather's massive spending, and then proper counselling and medical help for Claire had run down the family's money to almost nothing, and so Claire had to be sent to her tiny, inexpensive Magic school, but she didn't mind or complain a bit. She was just so grateful to her parents for getting her through her ordeal. She made the most of her school, excelling in all her classes, and known to be friendly to everyone. If someone was mean to her, she always knew just what to say, always coming back with a sharp, witty, but not too offensive answer.
After the family's loss, one of Claire's friends at school decided to report their situation to the ministry of magic, hoping they could help the Almers with their financial problem. The Ministry of Magic decided to grant the family a VERY large amount of money, to compensate for what they had lost.