Post by Abraham Grey on Apr 13, 2010 12:52:23 GMT 1
Abraham Orion Grey
thirty, male, heterosexual, pureblood, professor and author
thirty, male, heterosexual, pureblood, professor and author
the factfile[/font]
Height: 6'
Build: Thin and lanky. Abe clearly isn't cut out for activities that require a lot of strength and stamina.
Wand: An unusual fusion of Apple and Alder wood. Abe's wand has the weakness of there always being the split between the two woods. At times the nature of the two types of wood are in conflict which can make spell casting a tricky art. The fusion gives him the advantage of a wide breadth of skills and attributes even if each skill cannot be developed to a level as high as can be achieved with a wand of a single wood type. The core is Phoenix Feather. Abe‘s wand works well with transfiguration spells, is better in direct traditional combat rather than dark arts curses although it does allow him skill in illusion magic. It is weak during charm work. The wand is long and spindly looking at eleven inches and it almost seems as though it could snap in half at any moment. There is a two-tone wood effect spiraling up it‘s length.
Patronus: A zebra: a herd animal, Abe would quite like to have his own harem, but he'll have to wait until he's strong enough to challenge other males for the females... or something. To summon his patronus Abe thinks about his achievements such as getting his first Arithmancy paper published in a journal, holding the first copy of his own book and getting the job at Hogwarts. He may not be able to summon one at all while the pain of losing a student is so fresh in his mind.
Boggart: Abe is deathly allergic to bee stings (or so he says) and so his boggart always appears as either an angry swarm of them or one giant killer bee. He's so afraid of bees and wasps that he'll shriek and stand on his chair if one finds it's way into his classroom in the summer months.
Dementor: He's never met a dementor, but he's convinced that if he did the memory confronting him would be either falling off his broom in his second year and realising he'd have to quit the team or the look on his father's when he said he wanted to quit the family business and finding out that Jacaranda had slept with another guy at the firm on the same day. In reality the recent attack on his Hufflepuffs August Jensen and Finlay Mackenzie has affected him more than he's willing to admit and it will probably haunt him for years to come. (Seeing Silas and Jac going at it on the desk wasn't one of his high points either.)
Amortentia: Fresh parchment, firewhiskey and willow blossom.
Nicknames: Abe, but you can call him Professor.
Clothing Style: Coming from a traditional pureblood family Abe has never worn anything but the finest wizarding robes. He is used to style, comfort and quality and would probably kick up a fuss if he was forced to wear anything less than the best. However, shopping is not his favourite thing to do and he avoids it if he can, which means he only gets new clothing once a year when his mother buys him new robes for Christmas or his birthday and the rest of the time he's left looking a little scruffy and outdated. This becomes even more pronounced at the school, where there is always something to distract him from freshening up and looking neat and tidy.
[/font][/ul][/size]the biography
Siblings: Jeremy Grey (36, Partner of Grey Accounting), Kathleen Grey (34, Junior Accountant), Markus Grey (33, Cursebreaker).
Relatives: Grandparents: Lawrence Grey (Deceased) and Sylvia Grey (Deceased),
Xavier Prince (Deceased) and Millicent Prince (80, Retired).
Jeremy's Family: Ruth Grey [nee Bulstrode] (36, Secretary),
Milly Grey (12, 2nd Year Slytherin), Rebecca Grey (9).
Anthony Donahue (25, Cursebreaker, Markus's civil partner).
Other Important Figures: Silas Rosier (35, Scores Owner)
Jacaranda Mulciber (32, Scores Accountant)
Willow (25, Escort)
Pets:
Pickle: A magical guinea pig that changes colour. He is a good tempered pet who puts up with any amount of poking and prodding so long as he‘s being lavished with attention. Abe often brings him to class, leaving him on the desk rather like a furry paperweight that changes colour every so often. Many of the students are aware that radish is Pickle‘s favourite treat. Pickle doesn't believe in moving very much and travels in style instead in the comfort of Abe's pocket.
Kristoff: A grey kitten that Abe rescued from the clutches of the whomping willow a few years back. Nobody stepped forwards to claim him and so Abe was stuck looking after him. Krissy has a nose for trouble and will often explore places like up the tapestries or inside the suits of armour and then get stuck. For this reason Abe spends quite a lot of time looking for him. As most kittens tend to do Kristoff grew up into quite the bruiser of a cat, which made him no less curious, just more likely to get stuck in small spaces. So much time trapped in the dark has hardened him to the world, scratching anybody who tries to rescue him and staring Abe down until he relents and gives up some of his dinner. Occasionally he sits on Abe's lap in front of the fire and digs his claws in if Abe even thinks about moving.
Pensieve: Abe is a product of the merge of two wealthy and influential pureblood families. The Prince family have a long history of being sorted into Slytherin and through political influence have amassed a great wealth. The Grey family pride themselves on their intelligence and magical prowess with many of the family sorted into Ravenclaw. Both sides have a rather ruthless policy of disowning any squib family members. Abraham grew up in this highly pressurised situation with the expectation of being sorted into either of these two houses so he could follow in the footsteps of many generations.
From a very young age he was taught how to behave properly during the many adult parties his parents threw, often with the soul aim of boasting about the achievements of their children. His oldest brother, Jeremy, was sorted into Slytherin and played for the school Quidditch team in the role of keeper. Kathleen was a Ravenclaw, prefect and managed to get a perfect 100% in five of her OWLs. Markus appeared to be a bit of a rebel and while he was sorted into Slytherin their parents never gave him much praise, even going so far as to forget him from the family newsletter one Christmas.
Clearly Abe caught a bit of this rebellious streak from his brother because he was the first member of his family to be sorted into Hufflepuff in nearly 5 generations on either side of the family. He was delighted to find a bit of freedom from his parents and siblings for the first time and quickly set about making friends. Abe also wanted to prove that being sorted into Hufflepuff was not a failure (as his parents had now left him off the family newsletter too). He joined the Quidditch team as a substitute and played competitively as a chaser, even going up against his brother (who was a seventh year at the time) and coming out of it a little the worse for wear.
There might have been more than one reason for his sudden interest in Quidditch, a sport he had never really followed before he got to the school. Abe had quite the crush on on Ruth Bulstrode, who had wrangled her way onto the usually sexist Slytherin team as a beater by the simple expedient of looking like she could crush skulls both on and off the pitch. Unfortunately Jeremey and Abe's mother had other plans and when Abe found out that Jeremy and Ruth were dating with wedding bells in the future and every opportunity for Ruth to begin popping out little pureblood babies (as any proper pureblood wife should do) he was devastated. He even went so far as to sulk for a week and burn all the 'I heart RB' messages from his textbooks with an incendio charm.
During his third year he suffered a bad knee injury by falling from his broom while trying to tackle the ball from the opposing team during a friendly match. He would have completely recovered, but instead of allowing his knee time to heal he got back on the broom and only did himself more damage until his head of house was forced to make him retire from the team. Abe the switched his focus to his studies, trying to take on his sister's legendary intelligence instead. He spent the rest of his years at school studying as hard as he could and learning the hard way that Quidditch made you infinitely more popular than being smart. While he just fell short of her impressive OWLs score he managed to equal her when it came to NEWTs and still claims to this day that if the invigilators had just agreed to remark his charms paper he would have beaten her.
It seemed this hard working attitude finally got him noticed by his father and he was offered a apprenticeship at the family's magical accounting firm for two years, making him the youngest Grey sibling ever to receive such an honour. His brother Jeremy had to spend two years taking an extra NEWT in Arithmancy and his sister had to work her way up from the bottom, getting a job as a secretary until nobody could ignore the fact that she was smarter than most of the people in the building. Abe may have landed himself in a fairly junior position in the company, but everybody knew his father had plans to make him a partner in as little as five years so he could pretty much do as he pleased. He hadn't been working there long when he met Jacaranda Muliciber and was instantly smitten, wearing her down until she agreed to be in a relationship of sorts, that mostly involved them sneaking off to the stationary cupboard.
During his time there his passion for Arithmancy grew and Abe realised that he didn't really want to be an accountant. He began to talk loudly about wanting to leave the corporate life of accountancy behind and follow a path in academia, not caring who was listening. Nineteen-year-olds can be rather self-centred and he didn't even consider that this might not be the news Jacaranda wanted to hear or that she might think leaving the company meant leaving her too (considering they'd never been on a date outside the office unless you counted slipping away at the pureblood functions they attended to try and drum up new accounts).
Abe had never really been one to get into direct conflict with his parents and they'd even mostly forgiven him for the Hufflepuff thing provided he didn't mention it too often. So naturally he was terrified of telling his father he wanted to quit the family business and shift into the field of Arithmancy. It pretty much went as badly as he could have predicted, his mother accusing him of trying to sabotage her reputation on purpose and his father giving him that disappointed look that hurt more than any of the openly voiced complaints his mother made. The only reason he didn't get cut out of the family inheritance entirely was that Markus chose that moment to announce he was getting married. To a man. Having one of her sons come out of the closet put things into perspective for Philippa and she concentrated on disowning him instead.
The timing of Markus's announcement couldn't have been a coincidence and Abe found himself forming an alliance with the brother he'd never really paid much attention to before. When Abe asked about it Markus just said it was the first time he'd seen his little brother show some backbone and he wasn't about to let him crash and burn for it. He was much nicer than either of Abe's other siblings and Anthony was a pretty cool guy too. He spent an increasing amount of time with them as he finished his apprenticeship, realising rather belatedly that life wasn't all about pureblood politics.
All that was left to do before he left Grey Accounting for good was tell Jacaranda. He even bought her a necklace, hoping to make their relationship official with half a notion that his mother might hate him less if he was dating a nice pureblood girl and if it had to be any pureblood girl then he wanted it to be Jacaranda (in fact if it had to be anybody he wanted it to be her). But Jacaranda had already heard the news, likely from his sister who was quite the gossip, and had reached her own conclusions about Abe's insistence that he wanted to sever all ties accountancy. She'd taken matters into her own hands and found herself another man to ssneak away with at office parties, a man who was older, richer and higher up the corporate food chain.
Yet again Abe found himself heartbroken and he moped his way through the rest of his apprenticeship, throwing folorn looks at Jacaranda when her back was turned and arguing with her whenever it wasn't. Once he left he threw himself into Arithmancy, writing several papers that got him quite the reputation in the field and even earned him a nomination for Witch Weeklies Most Charming Smile Award, but he was pipped to the post by the never waning popularity of one Harry Potter. By this point he'd decided he didn't really care what his family thought and he went through a rebellious streak, only being saved from total exile by Markus and Anthony gatecrashing whatever pureblood gathering Abe was making a fool himself at and dragging him away before he could say anything he regretted while he was drunk.
It was at one of these parties that he became reacquainted with Silas Rosier, a man he vaguely remembered from school and years of being made to sit together at the kids table at pureblood dinners. Rosier had plans to open a strip club, but he was having trouble getting the backing from wizarding companies who didn't want to associated with anything that might damage their clean-cut reputations. Abe saw this as the perfect opportunity to annoy his parents and offered a bit of free accountancy advice while Silas was getting set up. The two of them became fast friends after that or at least Abe thought they were and he couldn't help feeling a little (okay a lot) smug when Scores became one of the most lucrative businesses in the Wizarding world.
Finally he decided to go into teaching and took up a teacher training course for a year so that his skills could be applied in the classroom. He got the job of Arithmancy professor at Hogwarts by writing persistent letters to Professor McGonagall every week for 3 months. During his first year teaching at the school Abe got some of the best results out of his students in nearly 10 years. This and his enthusiasm for teaching eventually got him the role as Hufflepuff head of house, although he had to work away at McGonagall for 3 years before he succeeded.
He was the youngest person to ever getting a teaching job at Hogwarts let alone become a Head of House, but it was a title he only managed to hold on to for a year as Adrian Connery became a member of the staff and Gryffindor Head of House. To this day Abe is rather bitter about it and believes Connery only got the job by using his ministry connections, which only fuelled his dislike of Gryffindors in general, using his power to terrorise the first years and deduct house points for “looking scruffy”. Most recently Abe has been affected by the attacks on students, in particular the death of Hufflepuff Head Boy August Jensen and trauma suffered by Finlay Mackenzie. He blames the ministry, the school and himself for not doing enough to protect them.
[/ul][/size] [/font]the inner workings
- Fire Whiskey - Abe has developed quite a taste for expensive liquor and he's happiest when he has a whiskey on the rocks in his hand.
- Women - He's definitely fond of the ladies, despite having atrocious luck in the romance department.
- Coffee - An essential part of his diet. Abe relies on his coffee to pick him up after strings of late nights.
- Wizard‘s Chess - The strategy required and his competitive nature make wizard‘s chess a perfect game for Abe to play. He’s won a few competitions and plays as often as he can.
- Honeydukes fudge - Abe doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, but if you‘re looking for something to bribe him with he has a weakness for Honeyduke‘s famous fudge.
- Teaching - Abe was lucky enough to get a role teaching a subject he is really passionate about. He likes interacting with the students as he finds they often produce ideas even the top minds in the field haven't explored. He also quite enjoys being the smartest person in the room.
- Hufflepuffs - Sure they're not always the brightest bunch, but Abe is loyal to his old house and passionate about looking out for their best interests now he's Head.
- Fame - As far as Abe is concerned every piece of press he gets for himself is more proof that he can make his mark on the world without the interference of his family.
Dislikes:
- Paperwork - He prefers debate and working verbally. Abe hates having to write up reports and his lessons always contain the very minimum of required theory work so he doesn’t have to do as much marking.
- Gryffindors - It's not like he needs are reason for this one, smug bastards.
- Adrian Connery - One of Abe's closest friends on the Hogwarts staff, but also the Head of Gryffindor House, bleh. Not only that, but he had the nerve to replace Abe as the youngest teacher and Head of House in the history of Hogwarts.
- The Ministry - Most of the time Abe thinks they're bumbling and incompetent.
- Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans - He had a bad experience with the flavours as a child.
Quirks and Habits: Expects other people to get a round in, isn't happy unless there's clutter and always has ink stains on his fingertips.
Mirror of Erised: To get married and have kids, to be rich(er than Silas),
In Depth Personality: Abe was raised in a very proud pureblood family and so from a very young age has had the idea that they're superior drilled into his head. Of course he is capable of thinking for himself and making up his own mind on the matter so he long ago decided that he has no problem with muggleborn and halfblood wizards. The lingering belief that pureblood lines are better still remains though.
He is generally one of those people that is easy to get along with. On a purely superficial level he seems approachable and so he has little trouble gaining the trust of his classes, especially first years, despite his unorthodox teaching style. He is clearly passionate about the subject he teaches, but this doesn't necessarily help him all the time. In class he'll often go off on several tangents and completely forget the main aim of the lesson in the first place and has even been known to absentmindedly dismiss students without setting any homework.
Abe follows the wizard's chess competitions held within the wizarding world almost obsessively. He's even been known to join bets on which of the great players will win and he always has an opinion to share about strategy. Politics is another area that Abe is interested in. He keeps track of public opinion on muggle integrating policy and also tries to follow all the rumours about any possible Death Eater uprisings. Abe does a lot of research work in the field of Arithmancy, developing new ideas and theories as he likes to be on the cutting edge of the topic.
While Abe is quite satisfied with his own appearance, so much so that he rarely bothers to spend much time on it, he isn't quite so lenient with himself about his achievements. Even though he succeeds at almost everything he tries, through a combination of hard work, determination and at times just plain intelligence, this doesn't stop him from feeling unsatisfied. He is a perfectionist and not only expects the best from the people around him, but also from himself. He always tries to take on bigger and more ambitious projects so he can compete with his own previous achievements and try to improve himself.
Once Abe sets his mind on something he pursues it almost obsessively. He won't make a rash decision, but if he’s mulled something over and made up his mind there is little anybody can do to stop him. As far as he's concerned if everybody gave up as soon as they were told to stop none of the important breakthroughs in the magical world would ever have been made. He also possesses a natural intelligence. He is quick witted and can draw on a seemingly endless number of facts that are stored away deep in his brain. He enjoys puzzles and spends a lot of time “exercising” his mind. Not that he spends all his time locked away studying (just most of it). Abe enjoys company, he likes to talk and share his ideas with whoever will listen. His need to socialise is the only reason he hasn't completely withdrawn into his work and become an insane recluse. He also believes he has some of his best moments of inspiration while bouncing his ideas off of other people.
Abe can be very arrogant. He's had a lifetime of pretty much being the most intelligent person in the room and so he doesn't take kindly to people challenging his ideas or achievements and will often belittle them and then dismiss their worth. He isn't one to get into a lot of fights and he generally tries to avoid conflict. However if you annoy him or get on his bad side he won‘t forget it. Abe gets so wrapped up in his passion for his work that he becomes forgetful and scatterbrained. No matter how obsessively he plans a lesson the night before he always manages to forget something. Following a strict plan doesn't really suit his teaching style anyway and so at times any kind of structure to his lessons is lacking.
[/ul][/size] [/font] behind the mask [/font]
Experience: I taught Shakespeare everything he knows.
Time Zone: BRITLAND
How Did You Find Us?: Rifling through BinBon's bins.
Play By: Daniel James (DJ) Callum Blue
Sample:[/size][/ul][/font]
AHAHAHAHAHAH..... hahaha.... ha!
