Ravenclaw
Post by Julian Baines on Nov 12, 2009 1:03:42 GMT -5
~+Player Stats+~
Player Name: Kat
Activity Level: Good-ish.
Other Characters: Prof. Cardozo and Clara Mulciber
~+Basic Statistics+~
Full Name: Julian Damien Baines
Nicknames: Most people pretty much call him Julian, really.
Year: 3rd
Age: 13
Birthday: January 20th
Classes: Potions, Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, History of Magic, Astronomy, Charms, Arithmancy, Divination
Quidditch: Maybe—he loves the sport, even if he’s only fair flyer.
Clubs: None.
Ethnicity: A hodgepodge of African and European
Bloodline: Halfblood
Current Residence: A flat in London.
~+Physical Statistics+~
Height: 5’3”
Weight: 110 lbs
Hair Color and Style: Short-cropped and black. He likes it cut close so that he doesn’t have to pay too much attention to it.
Eyes: Dark brown.
Face: He’s got a calm, friendly sort of face, with dark skin and a shy grin.
Figure: Eh, fairly average, really. Kinda skinny and a bit tall, but not terribly noticeably.
Tattoos, Scars, and Distinguishing Features: None, really.
Jewelry: Er, no. No jewelry for him.
Clothing Style: One of the very few places where his father Daniel and grandmother Esmé strongly disagree is about is Julian’s clothing. Esmé wanted him to dress in a more colorful, eccentric style like her own, which his father Daniel wasn’t too keen on (“If you lot insist on wearing these robe things, you could at least choose something understated”). So the decision came down to Julian himself, who quickly sided with his father, preferring something that would not draw attention to him. So his clothes are all quite normal for wherever he is, whether Muggle or wizard worlds, and really quite plain.
~+Personality Statistics+~
Interaction: Julian’s a pretty pleasant boy, all around. He isn’t aware of having any prejudices, unless maybe you count an aversion to really stupid people. Even then, though, he just tends to avoid people he finds particularly stupid, not be mean to them. He reserves harsh words for people who antagonize him, and then only when it’s prudent. He won’t call out people who could possibly take offense and make things difficult for him. That means that pointing out the deficiencies of professors, no matter how great, is not something he would do if he thought there was any chance it would get back to them. The same generally goes for older students, but mostly prefects and the like. He treats anyone in that kind of position with careful respect, even if he thinks they’re the biggest git to ever walk the earth. They’d really have to anger him to have him say anything.
That said, the older he gets the more sharp and sarcastic he’s grown. So he quite often wants to say cutting things to people, he just holds it back. This is partly out of the wisdom in knowing he could get himself in trouble, and partly from learned experience the first time he indulged in such a comment and got a world of trouble from his grandmother, the person the comment was directed at. When among friendly and trusted company, however, he will sometimes share sarcastic commentary he bottled up, with the hope that it’ll amuse them as much as it did him, and make him feel better about not being able to say it to the person that inspired it.
With students around his age, he’s more open and friendly. Being an only child without even any cousins nearby, nor any children his age in the area, he’s a bit lonely. He wishes he knew more people, and—being fairly self-aware—has decided to be as pleasant and approachable as possible. In particular he enjoys talking to people who like the same music or Quidditch teams he does, or are as sharp as he is. While a lot of smart kids tend to be intimidated by people who appear to be more intelligent, he finds it curious and tries to see how he can learn from them.
Unfortunately, like his father, Julian isn’t very good at dealing with emotions. He can carry on a long chat about hinkypunks, but if pressed to tell a friend he missed them over the summer and he simply ceases up. He just cannot quite, as hard as he tries, reconcile himself with expressing his feelings. It doesn’t come up often, but when it does he trips over himself and loses his normally calm manner.
Inner Being: Julian is rather pensive on his own. At heart he’s a pleasant and mild-mannered sort, and has learned as only children often have to, to entertain himself. As a kid that often involved studying whatever books he could find, which helped keep him ahead of the curve. His mother greatly encouraged this, and would often go out and find new books she thought he would like, and he still enjoys learning. Upon coming more aware of his heritage, he particularly devoured books about things in the wizarding world, wanting to know as much as possible.
While perfectly happy with the Muggle world, Julian truly enjoys lots of wizarding things, especially Quidditch. He’s an avid fan, and will happily drone on about the subject, such as what team he thinks will win when, and what maneuvers he thinks are the most effective. Living in London, he doesn’t exactly have any chance to try it, but he takes whatever opportunity he can to keep up with games and usually attends those at Hogwarts, even if Ravenclaw (naturally his favorite team) isn’t playing. He’s also quite the music fan, and comic books as well.
Intelligence: Julian is very intelligent. That alone would ensure him good grades, as he really is just that bright, but on top of that he has a very strong natural curiosity. He wants to know all he can, and enjoys reading and otherwise absorbing whatever factoids catch his fancy—and with his razor-sharp memory, he can recall quite a bit. He also isn’t afraid of a little work, though he rarely has to.
Fears: Losing another loved one, succumbing to disease like his mother, being alone and unable to have any close friends due to his problems expressing himself. Also: clowns. And needles.
Goals: To get more friends; to overcome his shortcomings; to get his hands on the first issue of The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle, a vintage comic book.
Good Characteristics: intelligent; witty; curious; friendly; prudent.
Bad Characteristics: emotionally distant; cuttingly sarcastic; lonely.
Secrets: His problems expressing emotion—after all, if he could tell someone about it, it wouldn’t be a problem, would it?
Likes: Martin Miggs; The Weird Sisters; The Hobgoblins; Quidditch, especially Pride of Portree; reading; Potions
Dislikes: Celestina Warbeck; Wimbourne Wasps; officious or stupid people; Divination
~+Abilities and Possessions+~
Special Abilities: None come to mind. When he does learn to create a Patronus, it will be a few salmon.
Magical Strengths: He’s good with Potions, Transfiguration, and Astronomy—basically the sort of classes he can rely on his intellect for.
Magical Weaknesses: History of Magic is hard because of Binns. It’s hard to make out the squiggly blobs in Divination. Defense Against the Dark Arts is difficult because he’s not good at thinking on his feet what spells should be used.
Other Abilities: Julian can live easily in the Muggle world. He also has a great memory.
Wand Properties: Hazel, fourteen inches, unicorn hair, flexible.
Possessions: A Cleansweep Seven.
~+History and Family Information+~
Family:
Father: Daniel Baines, 47. A well-meaning but decidedly cool Muggle man, never quite able to express his feelings. Though very intelligent and truly caring for his son, he always counted on Camille to express affection to their son. After she died, he felt uncertain what to do, so he resolved himself to being a good provider and letting his mother-in-law help raise Julian, a decision especially helpful for things he couldn’t possibly help with, such as things regarding magic.
Mother: Camille (nee Moreau) Baines, deceased. A gentle, wonderful woman, whom Daniel loved very much. She was a witch, and a good one at that. She maintained a cute little shop at Diagon Alley selling potions, a business she maintained until her death. She loved Julian very much, and he still has very precious memories of her.
Maternal Grandmother: Esmé (nee Rousseau) Moreau, 65. A witty and practical woman, she’s been a good fill-in parent to Julian despite her deep grief over the death of her daughter. A bit plump and loves wearing brightly colorful robes. She’s retired, but when she was younger she worked as a Healer.
Pets: Blodeuwedd, a barn owl.
History:
Camille Moreau was a very sweet, kind girl from a small wizarding community in England, to an older couple. Cammie, as her parents called her, was early on a very quiet, well-behaved child who enjoyed reading and learning, something that made her parents—who only ever had one child—very proud. When it came time for her to go to Hogwarts, the Sorting Hat had a hard time choosing between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff for her, but eventually decided to place her in Helga’s house due to her gentle nature. The next seven years were relatively quiet and uneventful—she was never a prefect nor a Quidditch player nor immensely popular. Still, she had consistently good grades and a small circle of close friends that left her quite content.
When it came time to prepare for graduation, Camille—inspired by the many healing salves and concoctions her mother Esmé handled in her career as a Healer at St. Mungo’s—decided to focus her final studies on Potions and Herbology, two of her best classes. Upon leaving Hogwarts, she worked for a few years at St. Mungo’s as a lower-level employee, quietly tidying up and brewing potions. She wasn’t satisfied, however, and soon decided to look into opening up her own apothecary in Diagon Alley. On her first visit there in years and the first without her parents, however, Camille managed to get lost in the rush of London. That was when she met Daniel Baines.
Daniel was a distant but good-natured man, who was quite instantly infatuated with Camille against all his normal reserve. Camille never did make it to Diagon Alley that day, but she did a few weeks later, quite happily dating Daniel. She did end up getting her shop, and it was mildly successful with a small stable of loyal customers, though it could have been a sinkhole and Camille still would have been happy. She and Daniel came to love each other greatly and be a very complimentary couple, but after a year of serious dating Camille realized that it was getting harder and harder to hide the truth of exactly where she worked, and the sheer oddity that she and her family sometimes portrayed.
Nervously, Camille eventually told Daniel she was a witch, ready to use a Memory Charm if he reacted poorly. Though not exactly overjoyed at the idea that his girlfriend could fry his brain if she so wished, Daniel would have accepted her if she had revealed that she was a troll. Now fully aware of the magical world, Daniel was rather in awe, and his acceptance cemented Camille’s affection for him. The two dated for a few more years before deciding to get married. It wasn’t too many years later that Camille informed Daniel that she was pregnant.
Though his father was somewhat worried about the idea of raising a child with magical powers, Julian was born to a very happy family. He was born healthy and well-loved, with especially frequent visits from his wizarding grandparents. Camille continued working in her shop while Daniel proceeded to climb the ranks as a Muggle businessman. Julian had a very happy childhood, and his mother in particular doted on him, often taking him with her to work, where he became quite popular with the customers.
Julian turned out to be like his mother with his early love for learning, often reading whatever books he could get his hands on. Camille eagerly encouraged this, and regularly went out to find new books for him to devour. He was precocious and always quite excited to learn something new. When he started Muggle school—to learn the basics before going to Hogwarts—he had an advantage because of his hunger for knowledge. He did quite well, and though close to his parents was quite happy to go to school.
When Julian was about seven, however, things took a huge turn for the worst. Camille was diagnosed with an illness, one that had progressed too far undetected for her to have a chance at being cured. It wasn’t long before she died, leaving Daniel, Julian, and her parents all very lost. Daniel drew even deeper into himself, almost ignoring Julian, which was what prompted Esmé to take over a lot of the parenting just to keep the family afloat and to put aside her own grief. There was a long time where Julian refused to pick up a book, and it wasn’t until a few months after Camille’s death when Esmé slammed a large pile of dusty tomes in front of him—wizard books, when most of his old ones had been Muggle ones.
That kickstarted him into learning again, eager to learn more—including about the heritage that connected him and his mother. It took a couple of years, but he was just starting to get used to things when his grandfather, Esmé’s husband and Camille’s father, died of natural causes. Having another loss struck Julian hard, and his grandmother yet again had to work them both through their grief. Daniel, only just beginning to recover from his wife’s death and painfully aware that he couldn’t connect well to his son, invited Esmé to move in.
It’s been a few years, and Julian has grown more comfortable with the loss of his mother and grandfather, partly by learning as much as he can about the wizarding world. He particularly grew to love Quidditch, becoming practically encyclopedic in his knowledge of the ins and outs of the game, and keeping up religiously with the current standings.
~+Roleplaying Sampler+~
Bloody damn screeching hell.
That was where Rafe found himself. There was no way that this place could be Hogwarts, the place where Rafe had spent the majority of his own adolescence. That had been a rather treasured period in his life (well, other than all that death unpleasantness), and the setting had been the very castle Rafe found himself feeling rather…well…trapped in. More specifically, trapped with a raging horde of loud, messy creatures called ‘students’. He had been under the impression his pupils were to be witches and wizards, but instead they bore (to his recollection of the day before) an uncanny similarity to baboons.
To be fair, his own students seemed rather promising. The Hufflepuff house seemed in about the same shape he had remembered, and despite himself he felt a certain pang of sympathy when he ran into a rather lost-looking Muggleborn first year who looked very much homesick. Though undeniably stilted in manner, he had done his best to console the boy and assure him that he would grow used to things in time. The first year had seemed intimidated by the rather gruff teacher, but also appeared to have taken the words to heart, and Rafe had made a note to himself to check up on the student and his fellow first years another time.
For now, however, he had his first staff meeting to attend. He would dare say he was running late in arriving, but a fourth year had made the unfortunate decision to set off a Portable Swamp in the common room. As anyone familiar with him could imagine, Rafe had not taken the event kindly. Student appropriately dealt with, Rafe made took up a swift pace until he arrived at his destination.
Rafe entered the room in time to catch the introduction of a young American man as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Scanning the room briefly, Rafe first noticed the two people he was previously acquainted with: Professor Rosenthorn, the new Headmistress, and Professor Vespers, the mad German who attempted to assassinate Rafe over the summer. It took a great deal of self-control not to narrow his eyes at the latter, but he managed by looking at the others. From the feast, he recognized the other two as Professors RoseWolf and McDemiguise, the Heads of Gryffindor and Slytherin respectively.
Flicking his gaze back to Rosenthorn, Rafe said, “Apologies if I’m late.” To the three he didn’t really know, he introduced himself: “Rafe Cardozo. Potions.” With that succinct summation of himself, Rafe walked over to take a seat on the other side of McDemiguise from Smith, which seemed the most strategic spot. It was near the other new professor, but most important was the Head of Slytherin. When the two had tea (which really made the event sound far more civilized than it was, given the attempted murder), Vespers had specificially singled out McDemiguise when speaking of teachers. Uncertain quite the angle Vespers was playing, Rafe could not quite figure out if it was meant to draw him towards the woman or push him away, but whatever the case was, he would probably benefit from speaking to her in private at the first opportunity.
Player Name: Kat
Activity Level: Good-ish.
Other Characters: Prof. Cardozo and Clara Mulciber
~+Basic Statistics+~
Full Name: Julian Damien Baines
Nicknames: Most people pretty much call him Julian, really.
Year: 3rd
Age: 13
Birthday: January 20th
Classes: Potions, Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, History of Magic, Astronomy, Charms, Arithmancy, Divination
Quidditch: Maybe—he loves the sport, even if he’s only fair flyer.
Clubs: None.
Ethnicity: A hodgepodge of African and European
Bloodline: Halfblood
Current Residence: A flat in London.
~+Physical Statistics+~
Height: 5’3”
Weight: 110 lbs
Hair Color and Style: Short-cropped and black. He likes it cut close so that he doesn’t have to pay too much attention to it.
Eyes: Dark brown.
Face: He’s got a calm, friendly sort of face, with dark skin and a shy grin.
Figure: Eh, fairly average, really. Kinda skinny and a bit tall, but not terribly noticeably.
Tattoos, Scars, and Distinguishing Features: None, really.
Jewelry: Er, no. No jewelry for him.
Clothing Style: One of the very few places where his father Daniel and grandmother Esmé strongly disagree is about is Julian’s clothing. Esmé wanted him to dress in a more colorful, eccentric style like her own, which his father Daniel wasn’t too keen on (“If you lot insist on wearing these robe things, you could at least choose something understated”). So the decision came down to Julian himself, who quickly sided with his father, preferring something that would not draw attention to him. So his clothes are all quite normal for wherever he is, whether Muggle or wizard worlds, and really quite plain.
~+Personality Statistics+~
Interaction: Julian’s a pretty pleasant boy, all around. He isn’t aware of having any prejudices, unless maybe you count an aversion to really stupid people. Even then, though, he just tends to avoid people he finds particularly stupid, not be mean to them. He reserves harsh words for people who antagonize him, and then only when it’s prudent. He won’t call out people who could possibly take offense and make things difficult for him. That means that pointing out the deficiencies of professors, no matter how great, is not something he would do if he thought there was any chance it would get back to them. The same generally goes for older students, but mostly prefects and the like. He treats anyone in that kind of position with careful respect, even if he thinks they’re the biggest git to ever walk the earth. They’d really have to anger him to have him say anything.
That said, the older he gets the more sharp and sarcastic he’s grown. So he quite often wants to say cutting things to people, he just holds it back. This is partly out of the wisdom in knowing he could get himself in trouble, and partly from learned experience the first time he indulged in such a comment and got a world of trouble from his grandmother, the person the comment was directed at. When among friendly and trusted company, however, he will sometimes share sarcastic commentary he bottled up, with the hope that it’ll amuse them as much as it did him, and make him feel better about not being able to say it to the person that inspired it.
With students around his age, he’s more open and friendly. Being an only child without even any cousins nearby, nor any children his age in the area, he’s a bit lonely. He wishes he knew more people, and—being fairly self-aware—has decided to be as pleasant and approachable as possible. In particular he enjoys talking to people who like the same music or Quidditch teams he does, or are as sharp as he is. While a lot of smart kids tend to be intimidated by people who appear to be more intelligent, he finds it curious and tries to see how he can learn from them.
Unfortunately, like his father, Julian isn’t very good at dealing with emotions. He can carry on a long chat about hinkypunks, but if pressed to tell a friend he missed them over the summer and he simply ceases up. He just cannot quite, as hard as he tries, reconcile himself with expressing his feelings. It doesn’t come up often, but when it does he trips over himself and loses his normally calm manner.
Inner Being: Julian is rather pensive on his own. At heart he’s a pleasant and mild-mannered sort, and has learned as only children often have to, to entertain himself. As a kid that often involved studying whatever books he could find, which helped keep him ahead of the curve. His mother greatly encouraged this, and would often go out and find new books she thought he would like, and he still enjoys learning. Upon coming more aware of his heritage, he particularly devoured books about things in the wizarding world, wanting to know as much as possible.
While perfectly happy with the Muggle world, Julian truly enjoys lots of wizarding things, especially Quidditch. He’s an avid fan, and will happily drone on about the subject, such as what team he thinks will win when, and what maneuvers he thinks are the most effective. Living in London, he doesn’t exactly have any chance to try it, but he takes whatever opportunity he can to keep up with games and usually attends those at Hogwarts, even if Ravenclaw (naturally his favorite team) isn’t playing. He’s also quite the music fan, and comic books as well.
Intelligence: Julian is very intelligent. That alone would ensure him good grades, as he really is just that bright, but on top of that he has a very strong natural curiosity. He wants to know all he can, and enjoys reading and otherwise absorbing whatever factoids catch his fancy—and with his razor-sharp memory, he can recall quite a bit. He also isn’t afraid of a little work, though he rarely has to.
Fears: Losing another loved one, succumbing to disease like his mother, being alone and unable to have any close friends due to his problems expressing himself. Also: clowns. And needles.
Goals: To get more friends; to overcome his shortcomings; to get his hands on the first issue of The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle, a vintage comic book.
Good Characteristics: intelligent; witty; curious; friendly; prudent.
Bad Characteristics: emotionally distant; cuttingly sarcastic; lonely.
Secrets: His problems expressing emotion—after all, if he could tell someone about it, it wouldn’t be a problem, would it?
Likes: Martin Miggs; The Weird Sisters; The Hobgoblins; Quidditch, especially Pride of Portree; reading; Potions
Dislikes: Celestina Warbeck; Wimbourne Wasps; officious or stupid people; Divination
~+Abilities and Possessions+~
Special Abilities: None come to mind. When he does learn to create a Patronus, it will be a few salmon.
Magical Strengths: He’s good with Potions, Transfiguration, and Astronomy—basically the sort of classes he can rely on his intellect for.
Magical Weaknesses: History of Magic is hard because of Binns. It’s hard to make out the squiggly blobs in Divination. Defense Against the Dark Arts is difficult because he’s not good at thinking on his feet what spells should be used.
Other Abilities: Julian can live easily in the Muggle world. He also has a great memory.
Wand Properties: Hazel, fourteen inches, unicorn hair, flexible.
Possessions: A Cleansweep Seven.
~+History and Family Information+~
Family:
Father: Daniel Baines, 47. A well-meaning but decidedly cool Muggle man, never quite able to express his feelings. Though very intelligent and truly caring for his son, he always counted on Camille to express affection to their son. After she died, he felt uncertain what to do, so he resolved himself to being a good provider and letting his mother-in-law help raise Julian, a decision especially helpful for things he couldn’t possibly help with, such as things regarding magic.
Mother: Camille (nee Moreau) Baines, deceased. A gentle, wonderful woman, whom Daniel loved very much. She was a witch, and a good one at that. She maintained a cute little shop at Diagon Alley selling potions, a business she maintained until her death. She loved Julian very much, and he still has very precious memories of her.
Maternal Grandmother: Esmé (nee Rousseau) Moreau, 65. A witty and practical woman, she’s been a good fill-in parent to Julian despite her deep grief over the death of her daughter. A bit plump and loves wearing brightly colorful robes. She’s retired, but when she was younger she worked as a Healer.
Pets: Blodeuwedd, a barn owl.
History:
Camille Moreau was a very sweet, kind girl from a small wizarding community in England, to an older couple. Cammie, as her parents called her, was early on a very quiet, well-behaved child who enjoyed reading and learning, something that made her parents—who only ever had one child—very proud. When it came time for her to go to Hogwarts, the Sorting Hat had a hard time choosing between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff for her, but eventually decided to place her in Helga’s house due to her gentle nature. The next seven years were relatively quiet and uneventful—she was never a prefect nor a Quidditch player nor immensely popular. Still, she had consistently good grades and a small circle of close friends that left her quite content.
When it came time to prepare for graduation, Camille—inspired by the many healing salves and concoctions her mother Esmé handled in her career as a Healer at St. Mungo’s—decided to focus her final studies on Potions and Herbology, two of her best classes. Upon leaving Hogwarts, she worked for a few years at St. Mungo’s as a lower-level employee, quietly tidying up and brewing potions. She wasn’t satisfied, however, and soon decided to look into opening up her own apothecary in Diagon Alley. On her first visit there in years and the first without her parents, however, Camille managed to get lost in the rush of London. That was when she met Daniel Baines.
Daniel was a distant but good-natured man, who was quite instantly infatuated with Camille against all his normal reserve. Camille never did make it to Diagon Alley that day, but she did a few weeks later, quite happily dating Daniel. She did end up getting her shop, and it was mildly successful with a small stable of loyal customers, though it could have been a sinkhole and Camille still would have been happy. She and Daniel came to love each other greatly and be a very complimentary couple, but after a year of serious dating Camille realized that it was getting harder and harder to hide the truth of exactly where she worked, and the sheer oddity that she and her family sometimes portrayed.
Nervously, Camille eventually told Daniel she was a witch, ready to use a Memory Charm if he reacted poorly. Though not exactly overjoyed at the idea that his girlfriend could fry his brain if she so wished, Daniel would have accepted her if she had revealed that she was a troll. Now fully aware of the magical world, Daniel was rather in awe, and his acceptance cemented Camille’s affection for him. The two dated for a few more years before deciding to get married. It wasn’t too many years later that Camille informed Daniel that she was pregnant.
Though his father was somewhat worried about the idea of raising a child with magical powers, Julian was born to a very happy family. He was born healthy and well-loved, with especially frequent visits from his wizarding grandparents. Camille continued working in her shop while Daniel proceeded to climb the ranks as a Muggle businessman. Julian had a very happy childhood, and his mother in particular doted on him, often taking him with her to work, where he became quite popular with the customers.
Julian turned out to be like his mother with his early love for learning, often reading whatever books he could get his hands on. Camille eagerly encouraged this, and regularly went out to find new books for him to devour. He was precocious and always quite excited to learn something new. When he started Muggle school—to learn the basics before going to Hogwarts—he had an advantage because of his hunger for knowledge. He did quite well, and though close to his parents was quite happy to go to school.
When Julian was about seven, however, things took a huge turn for the worst. Camille was diagnosed with an illness, one that had progressed too far undetected for her to have a chance at being cured. It wasn’t long before she died, leaving Daniel, Julian, and her parents all very lost. Daniel drew even deeper into himself, almost ignoring Julian, which was what prompted Esmé to take over a lot of the parenting just to keep the family afloat and to put aside her own grief. There was a long time where Julian refused to pick up a book, and it wasn’t until a few months after Camille’s death when Esmé slammed a large pile of dusty tomes in front of him—wizard books, when most of his old ones had been Muggle ones.
That kickstarted him into learning again, eager to learn more—including about the heritage that connected him and his mother. It took a couple of years, but he was just starting to get used to things when his grandfather, Esmé’s husband and Camille’s father, died of natural causes. Having another loss struck Julian hard, and his grandmother yet again had to work them both through their grief. Daniel, only just beginning to recover from his wife’s death and painfully aware that he couldn’t connect well to his son, invited Esmé to move in.
It’s been a few years, and Julian has grown more comfortable with the loss of his mother and grandfather, partly by learning as much as he can about the wizarding world. He particularly grew to love Quidditch, becoming practically encyclopedic in his knowledge of the ins and outs of the game, and keeping up religiously with the current standings.
~+Roleplaying Sampler+~
Bloody damn screeching hell.
That was where Rafe found himself. There was no way that this place could be Hogwarts, the place where Rafe had spent the majority of his own adolescence. That had been a rather treasured period in his life (well, other than all that death unpleasantness), and the setting had been the very castle Rafe found himself feeling rather…well…trapped in. More specifically, trapped with a raging horde of loud, messy creatures called ‘students’. He had been under the impression his pupils were to be witches and wizards, but instead they bore (to his recollection of the day before) an uncanny similarity to baboons.
To be fair, his own students seemed rather promising. The Hufflepuff house seemed in about the same shape he had remembered, and despite himself he felt a certain pang of sympathy when he ran into a rather lost-looking Muggleborn first year who looked very much homesick. Though undeniably stilted in manner, he had done his best to console the boy and assure him that he would grow used to things in time. The first year had seemed intimidated by the rather gruff teacher, but also appeared to have taken the words to heart, and Rafe had made a note to himself to check up on the student and his fellow first years another time.
For now, however, he had his first staff meeting to attend. He would dare say he was running late in arriving, but a fourth year had made the unfortunate decision to set off a Portable Swamp in the common room. As anyone familiar with him could imagine, Rafe had not taken the event kindly. Student appropriately dealt with, Rafe made took up a swift pace until he arrived at his destination.
Rafe entered the room in time to catch the introduction of a young American man as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Scanning the room briefly, Rafe first noticed the two people he was previously acquainted with: Professor Rosenthorn, the new Headmistress, and Professor Vespers, the mad German who attempted to assassinate Rafe over the summer. It took a great deal of self-control not to narrow his eyes at the latter, but he managed by looking at the others. From the feast, he recognized the other two as Professors RoseWolf and McDemiguise, the Heads of Gryffindor and Slytherin respectively.
Flicking his gaze back to Rosenthorn, Rafe said, “Apologies if I’m late.” To the three he didn’t really know, he introduced himself: “Rafe Cardozo. Potions.” With that succinct summation of himself, Rafe walked over to take a seat on the other side of McDemiguise from Smith, which seemed the most strategic spot. It was near the other new professor, but most important was the Head of Slytherin. When the two had tea (which really made the event sound far more civilized than it was, given the attempted murder), Vespers had specificially singled out McDemiguise when speaking of teachers. Uncertain quite the angle Vespers was playing, Rafe could not quite figure out if it was meant to draw him towards the woman or push him away, but whatever the case was, he would probably benefit from speaking to her in private at the first opportunity.