Stelliger Vesper, Scolace's grandfather, had little experience in raising children. When Scolace's mother had been little, times had been different; all that was expected of Stelliger was that he bring home a living to support his wife and child. Now he was faced with a completely different challenge.
He believed in discipline and order, but so long as Scolace dared not to set a foot out of line, he was content to treat her as an equal. Chores were laid out, and expected to be done each day without reminder. Idleness was wickedness to the elderly Stelliger, so Scolace was to keep herself busy at all times. Beyond these rules, they lived as two unrelated people having to share the same space.
Hugs and bedtime stories were not likely to happen. In fact, there was no bedtime at all - as young as six years old, Scolace was left to get herself to bed at a reasonable time - there was to be no lying about in the morning.
The rules and impersonality of it all was not easy on the young girl. Her parents had been wonderful, in her eyes, and her grandfather was a wicked old man who did not love her. She was left to books and her imagination for company - television was out of the question, as Stelliger was convinced it could rot the mind.
Then, when she was 9 years old, Scolace came down with a horrible bout of pneumonia. She was stuck in her bed for over a year, perhaps allowed to get up and walk a bit around the house when she was not feeling too awful, so as to keep her muscles from atrophying. But the great outdoors was beyond her reach, and she could do little but shuffle around the old house for a few minutes before she'd be reduced to a coughing fit that would leave her breathless and unable to move.
Still, despite the horrible severity of her illness, Scolace always looks back on this time with fondness. Her grandfather, not knowing quite what to do with a sick child, left her medical care up to all of the experts he could afford. But that still left her bored and lonely at the end of the day. So Stelliger decided to share his love of the stars with his young granddaughter, his only true passion in an otherwise cold and unfeeling life.
He'd had a telescope tucked away in his closet since long before Scolace's mother had been born. It needed some repairs, but Stelliger quickly had it up and working. He brought it into Scolace's bedroom, and the two would stay up long into the night peering up into the heavens above.
Scolace was just beginning to grow stronger again when her letter from Hogwarts came. Being Muggle, Stelliger had no idea what to make of it, and was hesitant to send off his little girl just as she was getting well again. But Scolace was determined, and when she found out that the school offered a course in Astronomy, the matter was decided.
Her years at the school were relatively unexciting. She was sorted into the Ravenclaw house, and her upbringing of books and discipline tranferred easily into high marks. Her favourite subject remained Astronomy.
The year that she graduated, her grandfather fell ill. She returned to the Muggle world to help take care of him as he had helped her during her own time of need. They spent the next four years star-gazing and coughing together (Scolace's cough had never entirely cleared up). The girl taught her grandfather everything she had learned about the sky at school. Their roles as teacher and student, and patient and caregiver had completely reversed, but it was just as old times.
In 1970, when Scolace was 23, her grandfather passed away, leaving her truly alone in the world. She had enough money to live comfortably in the Muggle world, but was unhappy there. Two years later, she applied for the job of Astronomy professor at Hogwarts and has been there ever since. For company, she bought a black cat named Astrus, who is usually seen following her around.
Professor Sinistra has a reputation for being a tough but fair teacher, completely unorthodox in her methods, and utterly uncaring of others' opinions of her. She plays no favourites and listens to no stereotypes - students are expected to work hard, regardless of house or reputation. Anyone can easily fall into her good or bad graces and back again.