Staff
Post by Professor Rafe Cardozo on Sept 16, 2009 20:37:40 GMT -5
I hope this is the right place ^^;
~+Player Stats+~
Player Name: Kat
Activity Level: I want to be pretty active—I have obligations to other sites, but I have a feeling I’m gonna really like this one.
Other Characters: Just this one, as of yet, though I was thinking of requesting Victoire.
~+Basic Statistics+~
Full Name: Rafe Aurelius Cardozo
Nicknames:
Position: Head of Hufflepuff, Potions Professor
Length of Employment: Only a couple months—he’s a very recent hire.
Age: 34
Birthday: October 28th
Ethnicity: Portuguese and English
Bloodline: Muggleborn
Current Residence: A simple flat in London.
~+Physical Statistics+~
Height: 6’3”
Weight: 180 lbs
Hair Color and Style: Rafe has black hair, which is cut fairly short. It’s also usually touseled—not in a purposeful way, but rather from not bothering to brush it very often, and from how often he runs his hands through it in frustration.
Eyes: Dark brown, with some light lines in the corners from frowning so much. He discovered recently, to his horror, that his vision has begun declining a bit. Glasses make him feel old, so he only wears his reading glasses when absolutely necessary.
Face: Rafe could fairly be called handsome, though not without flaws. He’s got a strong, definite jaw that is usually lined in stubble. His nose is long and straight, and there is a small scar through one of his eyebrows.
Figure: Rafe has got a rather large frame, and when he was younger it was also quite muscular from fairly regular Quidditch practice. For the last several years, however, he’s been unable to exercise, so he’s not got quite the muscle tone he used to. He’s still fairly trim, but he suspects if he doesn’t find some sort of athletic outlet in the next few years, that might not last.
Tattoos, Scars, and Distinguishing Features: He’s got a scar that goes through one of his eyebrows. It could have been healed, but he decided to keep it since he thought it looked rather dashing. Don’t expect him to divulge how he earned the mark, however—it’s not a terribly thrilling story, so he prefers to keep people guessing.
Jewelry: Jewelry isn’t something he has much interest in, though he does keep two rings that he regularly wears. One bears his family crest, and was given to him as an heirloom. The other bears the Hufflepuff crest, which he got just recently, after becoming Head.
Clothing Style: Black and plain. His robes are generally simple and black, and otherwise his clothing in general simply dress casual (turtlenecks, slacks, that sort of thing). Often he’ll top it off with a Hufflepuff scarf for a touch of color.
~+Personality Statistics+~
Interaction: Rafe…doesn’t work very well with people. It’s not that he can’t so much as he won’t, preferring to say and do as he truly feels rather than mollycoddle or put on airs for the sake of niceties. He is, unless it would be truly unwise, honest to a fault. It could really be seen as both a good and a bad trait, but with his ill temper it’s more often a bad one. And as honest as he is with people he dislikes, those he likes are often grudgingly, and he’ll often only admit affection for people with a certain amount of gruffness. As for interacting with his students as a professor, he has very exacting standards that few students could really live up to. It’s his belief that without being pushed to do more, do better, do faster, that students will never learn the true depth of their abilities. Because of his own feelings, he tends to be even harder on Hufflepuffs, expecting them to be the best, though he does reserve the right to some Head of House favoritism (criticize Hufflepuffs in any way and expect to wake up on fire).
Inner Being: As honest as Rafe is, he’s not really all that different when on his own. He’s still a cranky git, just a bit less of one. When there is no one else around, he doesn’t have to put up a gruff demeanor to show that he won’t be reckoned with. To himself, he’ll admit that all his grumbling about his students or peers is partly to cover up the fact that he actually rather likes quite a few of them. He’s still easily irritated and prone to holding ancient grudges, but he’s not quite as ornery and unpleasant as he pretends.
Intelligence: Rafe is very sharp. You could call him intelligent or clever, but the best term is truly sharp. He’s got a quick mind and is very capable of thinking on his feet, and he’s quite knowledgeable, having spent his youth studying rigorously.
Fears: Being seen as weak or stupid. Failing someone or something he has given his loyalty.
Goals: stuffing students’ skulls with knowledge whether they like it or not; keeping Hufflepuffs firmly in line and up to a very demanding standard; serving the Headmistress as well as he can; keeping this job.
Good Characteristics: You’d be hard-pressed to have a more staunch ally. If Rafe considers you someone he has given his allegiance to in some way, he will do everything in his not inconsiderable power to give you every advantage. He’s also surprisingly uninterested in leadership, so he’d never backstab a superior unless perhaps he was strongly impressed that someone else would be better in the position but could not attain it on their own (which, paradoxically, would probably make him assume that if they couldn’t earn it on their own that they didn’t deserve it). Who needs to be in the spotlight when you could get things done more efficiently behind the scenes? He is also very honest: if you want a straight opinion, an unbiased observation, Rafe is more than happy to supply one. He is also very hardworking—he refuses to believe that anything is impossible if someone truly puts everything they have into it. He also does not expect things from people that he would not do himself. Rafe firmly believes in putting your shoulder to the wheel and earning your place; he wouldn’t expect others to do something he wasn’t similarly willing to put himself into.
Bad Characteristics: This much is pretty obvious, really. Rafe is, without a doubt, a rude git. He lacks the patience to be tactful and diplomatic, instead brutally telling people whatever he thinks. It’s not really that he doesn’t know his words might hurt people, but rather that he thinks that social dishonesty is pointless and that people should be able to take whatever he dishes out. Rafe is incredibly easy to irritate, as well, and perfectly happy to act on that anger. He also has a very good memory regarding who angers him (surprising, seeing as how many there are), and tends to hold grudges for years on end.
Secrets: That he doesn’t actually think himself infallible, and fears being seen as weak and stupid. Another secret is that he still has letters from his sister, some over twenty years old.
Likes: intelligent, studious students; Hufflepuff house; revenge; potion-making; people he considers worthy his respect; goblins; pudding.
Dislikes: bullies and layabouts; people who don’t earn their worth; insults to Hufflepuff; fools and bigots.
~+Abilities and Possessions+~
Special Abilities: He has the ability to cast a full Patronus, in the form of a wolverine. His uncle also taught him Occlumency, and though it is something he is capable of, it’s not a skill in which he excels.
Magical Strengths: He’s a skilled potion-maker, having excelled at it when at Hogwarts. He has a lot of knowledge about Divination, as well, cultivating skill in several obscure forms of it. His skills at offense magic and dueling are also not to be underestimated.
Magical Weaknesses: Rafe was never very good at Charms, and tries to avoid using them because of his difficulty in casting them. Arithmancy made him frustrated to no end, and he was wise enough to never sign up for Care of Magical Creatures because he knew he has never had a good rapport with animals. Similarly, plants don’t do well under his care, as he discovered after years of Herbology, so he only handles them in potions rather than in their actual raising.
Other Abilities: Since he grew up in the Muggle World, Rafe is quite familiar with it, though he hasn’t bothered much with it since he realized he was a wizard. Still, he has a flat in a building with Muggles, and he passes freely among them.
Wand Properties: A core of deadly boomslang venom encased in a sturdy thirteen inches of sequoia wood from a tree in a grove cultivated by a friend of his uncle’s.
Possessions: He owns a Foe Glass, which he keeps in his office, and usually has a pocket Sneakoscope on his person. He’s a pretty suspicious guy.
~+History and Family Information+~
Family:
Father: Luciano Cardozo, 65, businessman. Somewhat cold and authoritarian. He and Rafe have not spoken for years, and Rafe is happy to keep it that way.
Mother: Aurora (nee Bagley) Cardozo, 60, housewife. Originally a beautiful young trophy wife, she is not a very strong-willed person, but generally doesn’t mean ill. Rafe casually exchanges Christmas and birthday cards, that sort of thing, but they haven’t actually seen each other in years.
Younger Brother: Marco Cardozo, 32, sports player. Marco has always been just as hot-headed as his older brother, and in a lot of ways they are alike, but relations are incredibly strained. Marco is somewhat famous footballer, and he’s been married for a couple years and is expecting a child.
Younger Sister: Calisto (nee Cardozo) Géroux, 30, runs a daycare. Callie is the only one of his immediate family that Rafe is still in decent contact with, having sent him letters since she was nine. She’s now married, and her husband Isidore, to her surprise, is a wizard. He was equally surprised that she was aware of magic when he revealed this. They now have two small children, Raoul, age three, and Rosalie, an infant. Isidore works as a Hit Wizard.
Maternal Great-Uncle: Aurelius Bagley, 83, former Hogwarts professor. The family member Rafe is closest to, and basically the one who raised him. A bumbling, gentle man concerned with education even after retiring from his teaching post a long time ago.
Pets: No pets. He just uses school owls, or rents one from Diagon Alley.
History:
Rafe Aurelius Cardozo was born October 28th, 1984 to a Muggle couple by the name of Luciano and Aurora Cardozo. The couple lived in a comfortable home in the county of Essex, where Luciano kept up a profitable business that accounted for him having somewhat of a trophy wife in the beautiful and bit younger Aurora. Rafe was their first child, and though Aurora did her best to be a good mother, she was somewhat frazzled as she was still rather young and Luciano was usually away at work (though even if he weren’t, he most likely would have waved off any suggestion of him helping out). Still, that didn’t stop the couple from quickly enough producing two more children in the next few years: first Marco, another son, and then Calisto, their last child and only daughter.
As Rafe grew up, his mother began to suspect that there was something slightly odd about her son. It wasn’t that he seemed to have any sort of disability—in fact, sort of the opposite. He seemed to be able to do things that he should, for all rights, have not have been able to. If he wanted a sweet that his mother forbade him, it would somehow make its way from the highest shelf even if Rafe was outside playing. If Marco angered him, the next morning the younger boy would wake up perfectly bald. Aurora loved her oldest son, but something about him just seemed a bit odd, and she seemed to be the only one to notice it.
That is, until the letter arrived. It seemed crazy at first, but upon discovering that Rafe was a wizard, suddenly things began making sense. Rafe, personally, thought it was a dream come true, and was perfectly happy to go to this magic school that thought he should join them. Aurora was frightened by this, however—sure, things suddenly made sense and she no longer appeared insane to both herself and her husband, who had never believed her when she tried to explain what Rafe could do, but the idea that her son was strange and different was horrifying to her. How could she parent someone with the kind of abilities wizards seemed to have? And worse, what if Marco and Calisto were the same, as both of them greatly hoped? She’d have no way of taking care of a brood of…well, freaks.
As you can imagine, it was truly a terrible blow when Aurora discovered where this trait came from—it came from her. Her great-uncle, largely considered an eccentric by the rest of the family and rarely spoken of, showed up on their doorstep shortly after the discovery of Rafe’s abilities, bearing gifts. Certainly, Rafe received his middle name of Aurelius from the man, but only out of courtesy, really. Aurora had never really known the man other than that the rest of the family didn’t really speak of him. Aurelius cheerfully announced that he too was a wizard—the only known one in the family, though he did have his suspicions about Great-great-great Grandpa Alfie—and that because he used to be a teacher at Hogwarts that he had been granted the opportunity to be the one to introduce Rafe to the magical world.
The children all loved Uncle Aurelius, as he was a very kind and bumbling man who treated them to all kinds of magical gifts, often from Zonko’s or Honeyduke’s. Luciano, on the other hand, was not very pleased with the situation, and felt somewhat blaming towards Aurora, though he didn’t say as much due to her fragile mental state. Still, though neither parent was happy about the development, both were swayed by Aurelius to let him take little Rafe under his wing.
Soon enough, Rafe got to attend Hogwarts, head filled with as much knowledge of the magical world as his great-uncle could fit in. His parents awkwardly bid him adieu at the train station, only Aurelius and Calisto giving warm good-byes, as Luciano wasn’t one for shows of affection (especially not when surrounded by such dodgy characters), Aurora was terrified of everyone around her, and Marco was immeasurably jealous at the thought of waiting two years when his brother could go already.
When Rafe arrived at Hogwarts, the Hat sorted him with little difficulty into Hufflepuff House. At first this suited Rafe perfectly fine, as the other house members were incredibly welcoming and he met a lot of pleasant students, but he quickly discovered that Hufflepuffs were generally seen as useless by a lot of the other students, as weak and stupid. At first it left him very confused, as he’d never been pegged as either before that, but spending more time with his fellow housemates proved to him that it wasn’t true, especially as that year the school participated in the Triwizard Tournament and a member of his house was selected as being the finest of the crop.
During his years at Hogwarts, Rafe decided to put his every bit of will into proving to everyone just how strong and capable he was. He took as many classes as possible and worked himself hard to get the highest grades he could, usually ending up with O’s and E’s for his efforts. After hitting third year, he tried out for the Quidditch team and made Beater, and though he was a rather prickly soul even then he managed to make a small circle of friends. By all rights, his days at Hogwarts were fairly pleasant, for what he could make of them.
But not everything was within his power. For one thing, it was a dangerous time. His first year matched up with Harry Potter’s fourth, so Rafe witnessed for himself the death and anarchy the magical world went through during that period. After his first year ended with the death of Cedric Diggory, Uncle Aurelius volunteered to pick Rafe up alone, which his parents gladly agreed to. On the trip home, Aurelius was uncharacteristically somber, and told Rafe that it was best Aurora and Luciano not learn of the darker events of the wizarding world. Not wanting his parents to pull him out of school, Rafe agreed. In the coming years, the other members of the Cardozo family had no idea what dangerous things were going on in the world of wizards.
That didn’t stop there being problems at home, however. Aurora still felt sick over her son being a ‘freak,’ and though he was still a child, Rafe could sense his mother’s dread. Luciano wasn’t much happier about it, and he blamed Aurora, since it was her family that the magic came from. During the summer, Rafe could hear at night the arguments the two would have, and during the school year he only ever got letters from Uncle Aurelius, as his parents refused to use the owl system. His mother seemed frightened of him, and his father was rarely at home and no longer seemed to see him as his favorite child.
When Marco’s eleventh birthday came and passed without any owl bearing the good news, there was a lot of upheaval in the house. Marco was at first devastated, then murderously angry that he wasn’t a wizard. It was bad enough that Rafe was the oldest and Calisto was the youngest and only girl. Now Rafe would have yet another thing to make him special that Marco wouldn’t? The younger child threw an enormous fit, taking out most of his rage on his older brother. Luciano and Aurora, on the other hand, were greatly relieved. They didn’t want another wizard, and didn’t do a good job of hiding that feeling.
Frustrated by both reactions, Rafe blew his top. Well, technically, he blew all the lights in the house. He didn’t mean to, but the magic in him reacted to the anger boiling over in him. The Ministry quickly reacted, extracting him from the house and fix the lights. Aurelius quickly arrived to clear up the problem, and after speaking in private to Luciano and Aurora, he told Rafe that he and Rafe’s parents had decided that it would be good for him to stay with his great-uncle for extra lessons in controlling his magic. Rafe knew the truth, though: they wanted him out before the family got torn apart.
To say he was angry and bitter would be an understatement. Oh, he liked living with Uncle Aurelius, but he didn’t like the idea that he’d been kicked out like he’d done something wrong. He was angry at the rest of his family other than Calisto, who was the only one who made a concentrated effort to stay in contact with her brother. The others would see him for holidays and the like, but Callie would regularly exchange letters with him using Aurelius’ owl Bartholomew, whom she called Barty. Even after she discovered that she was a Muggle like Marco, she still kept in touch with her oldest brother, and to this day Rafe has every letter she ever sent him.
Things were better living with Uncle Aurelius, who was by all means a very kind caretaker and genuinely cared for Rafe, and with his teaching background he would help Rafe learn more during the summer, which Rafe was more than happy about. The extra help meant that he could pass the classes he was weak in, and he picked up a lot of helpful jinxes and hexes to protect himself with. School went easier with those summer lessons, and when Rafe returned to school he also experienced something new: he developed a crush on a Ravenclaw girl named Vanessa. She didn’t seem to reciprocate, but Rafe was happy just being friends with her and partnering up for Herbology class, one where she excelled.
Things were soon interrupted by the death of the Headmaster. Aurelius, fearing for his great-nephew’s safety, refused to let him return to Hogwarts that next year. Rafe was upset by this, and felt restless, because Vanessa and some of his friends were still there, away from him and in dire straits under the control of the Death Eaters. Aurelius’ fears proved to be valid, and after the defeat of Voldemort Rafe was allowed to return. Even though peace had finally been found, Vanessa among others had suffered during the last term, and wasn’t returning to school. Rafe was heartbroken.
Though he was frustrated at having to do an extra year, Rafe came out of that year with a lot of schooling in dueling magic among other things. The rest of his school years were fairly average in nature. As the wizarding world in general and Hogwarts in particular began to pick up the pieces, Rafe went back to his classes and Quidditch, working as hard as he could in his classes. As NEWTs drew closer he had to decide on a career, which posed a problem to him. He finally decided on being a curse-breaker for Gringotts, taking into consideration his knowledge of curses and admiration of goblins, not to mention the danger and excitement of it.
It was very difficult making the grades in Arithmancy, and to scrape by he had to do tons of extra credit work for the professor to pull his grade up, but he passed through exhaustive work and sheer will. He did a couple years of training upon graduation, and then spent the next ten years working mostly in Egypt and South America, breaking the curses on ancient tombs and bringing back gold to Gringotts. Rafe enjoyed that job. A lot. He worked well with the goblins and he was talented at breaking the curses, so he brought in a lot of gold and was quite successful in his job. That was, of course, until his accident.
Rafe had gotten sloppy, and it was sweltering out in the middle of the desert. He’s just broken a very complicated curse that had cost Gringotts the last curse-breaker they had sent out there, so he was feeling pretty good about himself, and went storming into the tomb. Which was, by all accounts, a very bad idea. There was another curse hidden underneath the first one, a more powerful one. It hit Rafe fast and hard, instantly paralyzing most of his body and quickly spreading. Cursing his lack of foresight, he quickly gathered his strength to Apparate all the way to Uncle Aurelius’ home.
He landed on his uncle’s coffee table, smashing it as he landed. Aurelius thankfully was home at the time, and was able to figure out that Rafe needed help. The old man Apparated them both to St. Mungo’s, where Rafe was rushed to treatment. The Healers were able to combat the curse, but it was a close call, and they informed him that he wouldn’t regain full mobility anywhere from months to years. He was lucky, and knew it, but that wasn’t enough to save his job. Gringotts didn’t need a paralyzed curse-breaker who would be unable to go out on jobs indefinitely, so they terminated him.
Bitter about losing his much-beloved job but knowing he didn’t want to be a burden on his uncle, Rafe quickly began looking for jobs as soon as he was discharged from St. Mungo’s, and soon got a job in the Ministry of Magic, using his experience and references working at Gringotts to get himself a position in the office for Goblin Liaison. Most people would find the idea of Rafe working in a diplomatic position, well…unwise…but he has a surprisingly good rapport with goblins and did a pretty good job.
That didn’t stop him from missing his old job, however, for its higher pay, excitement and mystique, not to mention just the liberty of being able to walk without help. He worked in the Goblin Liaison office for five years, and though bitter and still very slowly healing from almost complete paralysis, he did a fairly good job at dealing with the goblins and mending problems between them and wizards. What got him fired was a long history of complaints from co-workers, other Ministry personnel, and indeed people simply passing through the Ministry. As his boss noted when informing him of his termination, it says a lot that he managed to rouse the ire of people who spend their days working with goblins. With his job gone once again, Rafe felt he had little choice but to do as his uncle suggested, and apply for professorship at his old home, Hogwarts.
~+Other+~
Classroom Description: Rafe’s class is held in the dungeons, in one of the largest rooms down there. His desk, unlike in most classrooms, is in the front but off to the side, and really rather unprepossessing. Instead the centerpoint of the room is a large wooden table sitting on intricately carved legs. It is usually covered with potion-making equipment, whatever is needed for the class that day. Behind it sits a sizeable blackboard with a set of instructions clearly laid out in plain white text, sometimes accompanied by small drawings or diagrams. The walls are lined with many shelves full of ingredients for students to use, not to mention things Rafe decided to pickle and put in a jar just to make students squirm. There’s a few short footstolls near the wall so that students can reach things on the higher shelves. The room is otherwise somewhat plain, other than the floating lanterns situated around to both illuminate the dark room and to keep students warmer during the winter months when it can get very chilly in the dungeons.
Office Description: Rafe’s office is not in the dungeons, but still on the ground floor. Instead it is near the kitchens and Hufflepuff common room. It’s a rather large room, by office standards, though there isn’t much to it. There’s a large fireplace in the center of the back wall, with a small table next to it with a large pitcher of floo powder on top. On top of the fireplace rests his old Beater’s bat from his school days. In the middle of the room sits his desk, which is made of a rich red wood with intricate carving. On top of it usually are a handsome eagle quill and some rolls of fresh parchment, though occasionally his desktop may be found in disarray. Things he brought back during his curse-breaking days and got to keep sit on his desk or mantle, such as broken pottery and leering jewel-encrusted skulls that may or may not be real.
~+Roleplaying Sampler+~
As she passed through the living room, the television (which until that moment had been dormant) suddenly flicked on to static and roaring white noise. Honoka jumped, water sloshing in her glass and splattering. She went to snatch up the remote to turn it back off, but the T.V. didn’t react in the slightest, no matter what buttons she smashed, nor in what order. Ears aching from the intrusive droning, Honoka gave up after even the buttons the set itself wouldn’t shut the thing off.
Just great, she thought grumblingly to herself as she went to her room. Knowing her grandfather, he’d probably try to take it apart himself to fix it. Honoka would rather do without it altogether if that was the alternative. At least that way there wouldn’t be a week of plastic bits all over the living room while Hibiki swore quietly to himself before promptly starting an electrical fire.
When she reached her room, however, she discovered that her technological woes were not over. From the doorway she could see already that her computer was on, screen glaring a deep blue. “What the hell?” Honoka muttered to herself as she set down her glass and plopped down in front of the computer. She knew good and well that it had been off when she left that morning, and her family members should know better than to mess with it. Even if they did do it, what on Earth did they do? Maybe it had something to do with the phone and T.V., some sort of electrical prob—
Before she could finish the thought, the screen went black and the desperate whirring noise of the computer trying to do something died down. She stared blankly for a moment, wondering if it had died, when a soft beeping sound started and line upon line of zeroes and ones started flowing onto the screen. They formed into a wall of numbers on the monitor, the center of which became distorted, as if something was trying to push through from inside the machine.
~+Player Stats+~
Player Name: Kat
Activity Level: I want to be pretty active—I have obligations to other sites, but I have a feeling I’m gonna really like this one.
Other Characters: Just this one, as of yet, though I was thinking of requesting Victoire.
~+Basic Statistics+~
Full Name: Rafe Aurelius Cardozo
Nicknames:
Position: Head of Hufflepuff, Potions Professor
Length of Employment: Only a couple months—he’s a very recent hire.
Age: 34
Birthday: October 28th
Ethnicity: Portuguese and English
Bloodline: Muggleborn
Current Residence: A simple flat in London.
~+Physical Statistics+~
Height: 6’3”
Weight: 180 lbs
Hair Color and Style: Rafe has black hair, which is cut fairly short. It’s also usually touseled—not in a purposeful way, but rather from not bothering to brush it very often, and from how often he runs his hands through it in frustration.
Eyes: Dark brown, with some light lines in the corners from frowning so much. He discovered recently, to his horror, that his vision has begun declining a bit. Glasses make him feel old, so he only wears his reading glasses when absolutely necessary.
Face: Rafe could fairly be called handsome, though not without flaws. He’s got a strong, definite jaw that is usually lined in stubble. His nose is long and straight, and there is a small scar through one of his eyebrows.
Figure: Rafe has got a rather large frame, and when he was younger it was also quite muscular from fairly regular Quidditch practice. For the last several years, however, he’s been unable to exercise, so he’s not got quite the muscle tone he used to. He’s still fairly trim, but he suspects if he doesn’t find some sort of athletic outlet in the next few years, that might not last.
Tattoos, Scars, and Distinguishing Features: He’s got a scar that goes through one of his eyebrows. It could have been healed, but he decided to keep it since he thought it looked rather dashing. Don’t expect him to divulge how he earned the mark, however—it’s not a terribly thrilling story, so he prefers to keep people guessing.
Jewelry: Jewelry isn’t something he has much interest in, though he does keep two rings that he regularly wears. One bears his family crest, and was given to him as an heirloom. The other bears the Hufflepuff crest, which he got just recently, after becoming Head.
Clothing Style: Black and plain. His robes are generally simple and black, and otherwise his clothing in general simply dress casual (turtlenecks, slacks, that sort of thing). Often he’ll top it off with a Hufflepuff scarf for a touch of color.
~+Personality Statistics+~
Interaction: Rafe…doesn’t work very well with people. It’s not that he can’t so much as he won’t, preferring to say and do as he truly feels rather than mollycoddle or put on airs for the sake of niceties. He is, unless it would be truly unwise, honest to a fault. It could really be seen as both a good and a bad trait, but with his ill temper it’s more often a bad one. And as honest as he is with people he dislikes, those he likes are often grudgingly, and he’ll often only admit affection for people with a certain amount of gruffness. As for interacting with his students as a professor, he has very exacting standards that few students could really live up to. It’s his belief that without being pushed to do more, do better, do faster, that students will never learn the true depth of their abilities. Because of his own feelings, he tends to be even harder on Hufflepuffs, expecting them to be the best, though he does reserve the right to some Head of House favoritism (criticize Hufflepuffs in any way and expect to wake up on fire).
Inner Being: As honest as Rafe is, he’s not really all that different when on his own. He’s still a cranky git, just a bit less of one. When there is no one else around, he doesn’t have to put up a gruff demeanor to show that he won’t be reckoned with. To himself, he’ll admit that all his grumbling about his students or peers is partly to cover up the fact that he actually rather likes quite a few of them. He’s still easily irritated and prone to holding ancient grudges, but he’s not quite as ornery and unpleasant as he pretends.
Intelligence: Rafe is very sharp. You could call him intelligent or clever, but the best term is truly sharp. He’s got a quick mind and is very capable of thinking on his feet, and he’s quite knowledgeable, having spent his youth studying rigorously.
Fears: Being seen as weak or stupid. Failing someone or something he has given his loyalty.
Goals: stuffing students’ skulls with knowledge whether they like it or not; keeping Hufflepuffs firmly in line and up to a very demanding standard; serving the Headmistress as well as he can; keeping this job.
Good Characteristics: You’d be hard-pressed to have a more staunch ally. If Rafe considers you someone he has given his allegiance to in some way, he will do everything in his not inconsiderable power to give you every advantage. He’s also surprisingly uninterested in leadership, so he’d never backstab a superior unless perhaps he was strongly impressed that someone else would be better in the position but could not attain it on their own (which, paradoxically, would probably make him assume that if they couldn’t earn it on their own that they didn’t deserve it). Who needs to be in the spotlight when you could get things done more efficiently behind the scenes? He is also very honest: if you want a straight opinion, an unbiased observation, Rafe is more than happy to supply one. He is also very hardworking—he refuses to believe that anything is impossible if someone truly puts everything they have into it. He also does not expect things from people that he would not do himself. Rafe firmly believes in putting your shoulder to the wheel and earning your place; he wouldn’t expect others to do something he wasn’t similarly willing to put himself into.
Bad Characteristics: This much is pretty obvious, really. Rafe is, without a doubt, a rude git. He lacks the patience to be tactful and diplomatic, instead brutally telling people whatever he thinks. It’s not really that he doesn’t know his words might hurt people, but rather that he thinks that social dishonesty is pointless and that people should be able to take whatever he dishes out. Rafe is incredibly easy to irritate, as well, and perfectly happy to act on that anger. He also has a very good memory regarding who angers him (surprising, seeing as how many there are), and tends to hold grudges for years on end.
Secrets: That he doesn’t actually think himself infallible, and fears being seen as weak and stupid. Another secret is that he still has letters from his sister, some over twenty years old.
Likes: intelligent, studious students; Hufflepuff house; revenge; potion-making; people he considers worthy his respect; goblins; pudding.
Dislikes: bullies and layabouts; people who don’t earn their worth; insults to Hufflepuff; fools and bigots.
~+Abilities and Possessions+~
Special Abilities: He has the ability to cast a full Patronus, in the form of a wolverine. His uncle also taught him Occlumency, and though it is something he is capable of, it’s not a skill in which he excels.
Magical Strengths: He’s a skilled potion-maker, having excelled at it when at Hogwarts. He has a lot of knowledge about Divination, as well, cultivating skill in several obscure forms of it. His skills at offense magic and dueling are also not to be underestimated.
Magical Weaknesses: Rafe was never very good at Charms, and tries to avoid using them because of his difficulty in casting them. Arithmancy made him frustrated to no end, and he was wise enough to never sign up for Care of Magical Creatures because he knew he has never had a good rapport with animals. Similarly, plants don’t do well under his care, as he discovered after years of Herbology, so he only handles them in potions rather than in their actual raising.
Other Abilities: Since he grew up in the Muggle World, Rafe is quite familiar with it, though he hasn’t bothered much with it since he realized he was a wizard. Still, he has a flat in a building with Muggles, and he passes freely among them.
Wand Properties: A core of deadly boomslang venom encased in a sturdy thirteen inches of sequoia wood from a tree in a grove cultivated by a friend of his uncle’s.
Possessions: He owns a Foe Glass, which he keeps in his office, and usually has a pocket Sneakoscope on his person. He’s a pretty suspicious guy.
~+History and Family Information+~
Family:
Father: Luciano Cardozo, 65, businessman. Somewhat cold and authoritarian. He and Rafe have not spoken for years, and Rafe is happy to keep it that way.
Mother: Aurora (nee Bagley) Cardozo, 60, housewife. Originally a beautiful young trophy wife, she is not a very strong-willed person, but generally doesn’t mean ill. Rafe casually exchanges Christmas and birthday cards, that sort of thing, but they haven’t actually seen each other in years.
Younger Brother: Marco Cardozo, 32, sports player. Marco has always been just as hot-headed as his older brother, and in a lot of ways they are alike, but relations are incredibly strained. Marco is somewhat famous footballer, and he’s been married for a couple years and is expecting a child.
Younger Sister: Calisto (nee Cardozo) Géroux, 30, runs a daycare. Callie is the only one of his immediate family that Rafe is still in decent contact with, having sent him letters since she was nine. She’s now married, and her husband Isidore, to her surprise, is a wizard. He was equally surprised that she was aware of magic when he revealed this. They now have two small children, Raoul, age three, and Rosalie, an infant. Isidore works as a Hit Wizard.
Maternal Great-Uncle: Aurelius Bagley, 83, former Hogwarts professor. The family member Rafe is closest to, and basically the one who raised him. A bumbling, gentle man concerned with education even after retiring from his teaching post a long time ago.
Pets: No pets. He just uses school owls, or rents one from Diagon Alley.
History:
Rafe Aurelius Cardozo was born October 28th, 1984 to a Muggle couple by the name of Luciano and Aurora Cardozo. The couple lived in a comfortable home in the county of Essex, where Luciano kept up a profitable business that accounted for him having somewhat of a trophy wife in the beautiful and bit younger Aurora. Rafe was their first child, and though Aurora did her best to be a good mother, she was somewhat frazzled as she was still rather young and Luciano was usually away at work (though even if he weren’t, he most likely would have waved off any suggestion of him helping out). Still, that didn’t stop the couple from quickly enough producing two more children in the next few years: first Marco, another son, and then Calisto, their last child and only daughter.
As Rafe grew up, his mother began to suspect that there was something slightly odd about her son. It wasn’t that he seemed to have any sort of disability—in fact, sort of the opposite. He seemed to be able to do things that he should, for all rights, have not have been able to. If he wanted a sweet that his mother forbade him, it would somehow make its way from the highest shelf even if Rafe was outside playing. If Marco angered him, the next morning the younger boy would wake up perfectly bald. Aurora loved her oldest son, but something about him just seemed a bit odd, and she seemed to be the only one to notice it.
That is, until the letter arrived. It seemed crazy at first, but upon discovering that Rafe was a wizard, suddenly things began making sense. Rafe, personally, thought it was a dream come true, and was perfectly happy to go to this magic school that thought he should join them. Aurora was frightened by this, however—sure, things suddenly made sense and she no longer appeared insane to both herself and her husband, who had never believed her when she tried to explain what Rafe could do, but the idea that her son was strange and different was horrifying to her. How could she parent someone with the kind of abilities wizards seemed to have? And worse, what if Marco and Calisto were the same, as both of them greatly hoped? She’d have no way of taking care of a brood of…well, freaks.
As you can imagine, it was truly a terrible blow when Aurora discovered where this trait came from—it came from her. Her great-uncle, largely considered an eccentric by the rest of the family and rarely spoken of, showed up on their doorstep shortly after the discovery of Rafe’s abilities, bearing gifts. Certainly, Rafe received his middle name of Aurelius from the man, but only out of courtesy, really. Aurora had never really known the man other than that the rest of the family didn’t really speak of him. Aurelius cheerfully announced that he too was a wizard—the only known one in the family, though he did have his suspicions about Great-great-great Grandpa Alfie—and that because he used to be a teacher at Hogwarts that he had been granted the opportunity to be the one to introduce Rafe to the magical world.
The children all loved Uncle Aurelius, as he was a very kind and bumbling man who treated them to all kinds of magical gifts, often from Zonko’s or Honeyduke’s. Luciano, on the other hand, was not very pleased with the situation, and felt somewhat blaming towards Aurora, though he didn’t say as much due to her fragile mental state. Still, though neither parent was happy about the development, both were swayed by Aurelius to let him take little Rafe under his wing.
Soon enough, Rafe got to attend Hogwarts, head filled with as much knowledge of the magical world as his great-uncle could fit in. His parents awkwardly bid him adieu at the train station, only Aurelius and Calisto giving warm good-byes, as Luciano wasn’t one for shows of affection (especially not when surrounded by such dodgy characters), Aurora was terrified of everyone around her, and Marco was immeasurably jealous at the thought of waiting two years when his brother could go already.
When Rafe arrived at Hogwarts, the Hat sorted him with little difficulty into Hufflepuff House. At first this suited Rafe perfectly fine, as the other house members were incredibly welcoming and he met a lot of pleasant students, but he quickly discovered that Hufflepuffs were generally seen as useless by a lot of the other students, as weak and stupid. At first it left him very confused, as he’d never been pegged as either before that, but spending more time with his fellow housemates proved to him that it wasn’t true, especially as that year the school participated in the Triwizard Tournament and a member of his house was selected as being the finest of the crop.
During his years at Hogwarts, Rafe decided to put his every bit of will into proving to everyone just how strong and capable he was. He took as many classes as possible and worked himself hard to get the highest grades he could, usually ending up with O’s and E’s for his efforts. After hitting third year, he tried out for the Quidditch team and made Beater, and though he was a rather prickly soul even then he managed to make a small circle of friends. By all rights, his days at Hogwarts were fairly pleasant, for what he could make of them.
But not everything was within his power. For one thing, it was a dangerous time. His first year matched up with Harry Potter’s fourth, so Rafe witnessed for himself the death and anarchy the magical world went through during that period. After his first year ended with the death of Cedric Diggory, Uncle Aurelius volunteered to pick Rafe up alone, which his parents gladly agreed to. On the trip home, Aurelius was uncharacteristically somber, and told Rafe that it was best Aurora and Luciano not learn of the darker events of the wizarding world. Not wanting his parents to pull him out of school, Rafe agreed. In the coming years, the other members of the Cardozo family had no idea what dangerous things were going on in the world of wizards.
That didn’t stop there being problems at home, however. Aurora still felt sick over her son being a ‘freak,’ and though he was still a child, Rafe could sense his mother’s dread. Luciano wasn’t much happier about it, and he blamed Aurora, since it was her family that the magic came from. During the summer, Rafe could hear at night the arguments the two would have, and during the school year he only ever got letters from Uncle Aurelius, as his parents refused to use the owl system. His mother seemed frightened of him, and his father was rarely at home and no longer seemed to see him as his favorite child.
When Marco’s eleventh birthday came and passed without any owl bearing the good news, there was a lot of upheaval in the house. Marco was at first devastated, then murderously angry that he wasn’t a wizard. It was bad enough that Rafe was the oldest and Calisto was the youngest and only girl. Now Rafe would have yet another thing to make him special that Marco wouldn’t? The younger child threw an enormous fit, taking out most of his rage on his older brother. Luciano and Aurora, on the other hand, were greatly relieved. They didn’t want another wizard, and didn’t do a good job of hiding that feeling.
Frustrated by both reactions, Rafe blew his top. Well, technically, he blew all the lights in the house. He didn’t mean to, but the magic in him reacted to the anger boiling over in him. The Ministry quickly reacted, extracting him from the house and fix the lights. Aurelius quickly arrived to clear up the problem, and after speaking in private to Luciano and Aurora, he told Rafe that he and Rafe’s parents had decided that it would be good for him to stay with his great-uncle for extra lessons in controlling his magic. Rafe knew the truth, though: they wanted him out before the family got torn apart.
To say he was angry and bitter would be an understatement. Oh, he liked living with Uncle Aurelius, but he didn’t like the idea that he’d been kicked out like he’d done something wrong. He was angry at the rest of his family other than Calisto, who was the only one who made a concentrated effort to stay in contact with her brother. The others would see him for holidays and the like, but Callie would regularly exchange letters with him using Aurelius’ owl Bartholomew, whom she called Barty. Even after she discovered that she was a Muggle like Marco, she still kept in touch with her oldest brother, and to this day Rafe has every letter she ever sent him.
Things were better living with Uncle Aurelius, who was by all means a very kind caretaker and genuinely cared for Rafe, and with his teaching background he would help Rafe learn more during the summer, which Rafe was more than happy about. The extra help meant that he could pass the classes he was weak in, and he picked up a lot of helpful jinxes and hexes to protect himself with. School went easier with those summer lessons, and when Rafe returned to school he also experienced something new: he developed a crush on a Ravenclaw girl named Vanessa. She didn’t seem to reciprocate, but Rafe was happy just being friends with her and partnering up for Herbology class, one where she excelled.
Things were soon interrupted by the death of the Headmaster. Aurelius, fearing for his great-nephew’s safety, refused to let him return to Hogwarts that next year. Rafe was upset by this, and felt restless, because Vanessa and some of his friends were still there, away from him and in dire straits under the control of the Death Eaters. Aurelius’ fears proved to be valid, and after the defeat of Voldemort Rafe was allowed to return. Even though peace had finally been found, Vanessa among others had suffered during the last term, and wasn’t returning to school. Rafe was heartbroken.
Though he was frustrated at having to do an extra year, Rafe came out of that year with a lot of schooling in dueling magic among other things. The rest of his school years were fairly average in nature. As the wizarding world in general and Hogwarts in particular began to pick up the pieces, Rafe went back to his classes and Quidditch, working as hard as he could in his classes. As NEWTs drew closer he had to decide on a career, which posed a problem to him. He finally decided on being a curse-breaker for Gringotts, taking into consideration his knowledge of curses and admiration of goblins, not to mention the danger and excitement of it.
It was very difficult making the grades in Arithmancy, and to scrape by he had to do tons of extra credit work for the professor to pull his grade up, but he passed through exhaustive work and sheer will. He did a couple years of training upon graduation, and then spent the next ten years working mostly in Egypt and South America, breaking the curses on ancient tombs and bringing back gold to Gringotts. Rafe enjoyed that job. A lot. He worked well with the goblins and he was talented at breaking the curses, so he brought in a lot of gold and was quite successful in his job. That was, of course, until his accident.
Rafe had gotten sloppy, and it was sweltering out in the middle of the desert. He’s just broken a very complicated curse that had cost Gringotts the last curse-breaker they had sent out there, so he was feeling pretty good about himself, and went storming into the tomb. Which was, by all accounts, a very bad idea. There was another curse hidden underneath the first one, a more powerful one. It hit Rafe fast and hard, instantly paralyzing most of his body and quickly spreading. Cursing his lack of foresight, he quickly gathered his strength to Apparate all the way to Uncle Aurelius’ home.
He landed on his uncle’s coffee table, smashing it as he landed. Aurelius thankfully was home at the time, and was able to figure out that Rafe needed help. The old man Apparated them both to St. Mungo’s, where Rafe was rushed to treatment. The Healers were able to combat the curse, but it was a close call, and they informed him that he wouldn’t regain full mobility anywhere from months to years. He was lucky, and knew it, but that wasn’t enough to save his job. Gringotts didn’t need a paralyzed curse-breaker who would be unable to go out on jobs indefinitely, so they terminated him.
Bitter about losing his much-beloved job but knowing he didn’t want to be a burden on his uncle, Rafe quickly began looking for jobs as soon as he was discharged from St. Mungo’s, and soon got a job in the Ministry of Magic, using his experience and references working at Gringotts to get himself a position in the office for Goblin Liaison. Most people would find the idea of Rafe working in a diplomatic position, well…unwise…but he has a surprisingly good rapport with goblins and did a pretty good job.
That didn’t stop him from missing his old job, however, for its higher pay, excitement and mystique, not to mention just the liberty of being able to walk without help. He worked in the Goblin Liaison office for five years, and though bitter and still very slowly healing from almost complete paralysis, he did a fairly good job at dealing with the goblins and mending problems between them and wizards. What got him fired was a long history of complaints from co-workers, other Ministry personnel, and indeed people simply passing through the Ministry. As his boss noted when informing him of his termination, it says a lot that he managed to rouse the ire of people who spend their days working with goblins. With his job gone once again, Rafe felt he had little choice but to do as his uncle suggested, and apply for professorship at his old home, Hogwarts.
~+Other+~
Classroom Description: Rafe’s class is held in the dungeons, in one of the largest rooms down there. His desk, unlike in most classrooms, is in the front but off to the side, and really rather unprepossessing. Instead the centerpoint of the room is a large wooden table sitting on intricately carved legs. It is usually covered with potion-making equipment, whatever is needed for the class that day. Behind it sits a sizeable blackboard with a set of instructions clearly laid out in plain white text, sometimes accompanied by small drawings or diagrams. The walls are lined with many shelves full of ingredients for students to use, not to mention things Rafe decided to pickle and put in a jar just to make students squirm. There’s a few short footstolls near the wall so that students can reach things on the higher shelves. The room is otherwise somewhat plain, other than the floating lanterns situated around to both illuminate the dark room and to keep students warmer during the winter months when it can get very chilly in the dungeons.
Office Description: Rafe’s office is not in the dungeons, but still on the ground floor. Instead it is near the kitchens and Hufflepuff common room. It’s a rather large room, by office standards, though there isn’t much to it. There’s a large fireplace in the center of the back wall, with a small table next to it with a large pitcher of floo powder on top. On top of the fireplace rests his old Beater’s bat from his school days. In the middle of the room sits his desk, which is made of a rich red wood with intricate carving. On top of it usually are a handsome eagle quill and some rolls of fresh parchment, though occasionally his desktop may be found in disarray. Things he brought back during his curse-breaking days and got to keep sit on his desk or mantle, such as broken pottery and leering jewel-encrusted skulls that may or may not be real.
~+Roleplaying Sampler+~
As she passed through the living room, the television (which until that moment had been dormant) suddenly flicked on to static and roaring white noise. Honoka jumped, water sloshing in her glass and splattering. She went to snatch up the remote to turn it back off, but the T.V. didn’t react in the slightest, no matter what buttons she smashed, nor in what order. Ears aching from the intrusive droning, Honoka gave up after even the buttons the set itself wouldn’t shut the thing off.
Just great, she thought grumblingly to herself as she went to her room. Knowing her grandfather, he’d probably try to take it apart himself to fix it. Honoka would rather do without it altogether if that was the alternative. At least that way there wouldn’t be a week of plastic bits all over the living room while Hibiki swore quietly to himself before promptly starting an electrical fire.
When she reached her room, however, she discovered that her technological woes were not over. From the doorway she could see already that her computer was on, screen glaring a deep blue. “What the hell?” Honoka muttered to herself as she set down her glass and plopped down in front of the computer. She knew good and well that it had been off when she left that morning, and her family members should know better than to mess with it. Even if they did do it, what on Earth did they do? Maybe it had something to do with the phone and T.V., some sort of electrical prob—
Before she could finish the thought, the screen went black and the desperate whirring noise of the computer trying to do something died down. She stared blankly for a moment, wondering if it had died, when a soft beeping sound started and line upon line of zeroes and ones started flowing onto the screen. They formed into a wall of numbers on the monitor, the center of which became distorted, as if something was trying to push through from inside the machine.