Alexander Birch

[Alexander Birch]

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Alexander Birch.
Gender: Male.
Age: 29.

Education: 
Hogwarts, Slytherin, Class of 1963.

Residence:
Primary Residence is a London Townhouse

Occupation:
Politician

Do you plan to have a connection to a particular existing place (example St Mungo's, the Ministry, Shrieking Shack) or to take over an existing shop in need of new management?
The Ministry of Magic.

Requested Magic Levels:

• Charms: 9.
• Transfiguration: 9.
• Divination: 4.
• Summoning: 12.

Do you wish to be approved as a group with any other characters? If so who and for what IC reason?
Not personally.

Please list any other characters you already have at the site:
Edward Bishop.

Special Phrase: Tibbles beard of power

Biography: (300 words minimum.)
Eldest son of Theodore Birch (Slytherin ’42), an Auror with the ministry of magic, and his wife Claudia,  Alexander Birch spent some time as a child at Mortenmar Castle, the home of his grandfather Arthur Sylvestor Birch Sr. (Slytherin, 1896) which was owned by his step-grandmother Elizabeth (Slytherin, 1905, heiress to the notorious Cassius Mortenmar.

   When it came time to begin his formal wizardly education, he attended Hogwarts and was unsurprisingly sorted into Slytherin like the rest of his family.  His wand is inflexible with a basilisk skin core like his father and grandfather’s, except that his is made of pure ivory rather than hornbeam.  He was a Summoning & Conjuration prodigy at a young age, as speciality with that school of magic was always most common in his family, and proved no different.  However, he always felt he deserved better than the marks he earned in the rest of his classes.  What he resented most was not being accepted to train an Auror, following his father’s footsteps.  This would leave him bitter towards Hogwarts for many years.  However, the truth was this was due to his near-blindness to the Otherworld and the other things of Divination, his mind being firmly planted in things of a physical nature.  In fact, he barely even scored an “S” on his divination levels, and was denied Auror training based on near-lack of danger sense.

   He married at the unusually young age of seventeen before graduation to a witch in his class from a fellow pureblood family, Seren Prothero, and whether out of love or mutual desire to propagate their pure family blood, they had hoped to produce a brood of pureblood children.  Unfortunately they had only produced two:  their eldest son is Theodore Vincent Birch, age 11, and an only daughter Emma, age 7.

   When his step-grandmother died in 1959, Cassius Hurst, the son of his ‘half-blood’ cousin, Elizabeth, inherited the family castle and most of the fortune along with it, though his father inherited enough to keep their branch quite comfortable, he grew to resent loss of the castle and a greater portion of the inheritance, thinking his purity alone sufficient to produce a superior claim, after all his grandmother had raised his father as her own.  Adding insult to injury, the heir has left the grand property vacant.

   He was deeply affected by the apparent death of his father in 1968, and took the opportunity to become even more involved in both the lives of his children, as well as his own political career in the Ministry of Magic.  While he did not follow in his father’s footsteps as an Auror, he would certainly show the Wizarding World what a true Birch was capable of.


ROLEPLAY
Reply as your character to the following:

It was impossible for Dianne to stay out of trouble. It wasn't that she was looking for trouble, it's just that trouble always managed to find her. Today she wished she could find something equally familiar but more comforting.

The five-year old girl hugged her puffskein closer to her and brushed her face in its soft fur for comfort. She had named him herself and he was always her special pet. No she was certain she had never gone down this side street before. Her anxiety increased every second as darkness fell as she walked down the road. A loud noise came to her left and she buried her face in her pet's fur completely. The scared girl bolted the opposite way slamming the both of them into the wall of the nearest building. Tottering back a few steps she found a door a few feet to her right and ran to open it. What light there was inside spilled out into the darkness and she spilled into the room.

Once in, she was caught between the impulse to curl her cloak up more tightly around her and loosen her grip on it. She wasn't alone anymore but she was now among strangers instead, which was nearly as terrifying. Her puffskein had recovered from the shock of the wall and now was purring contentedly as the girl hugged it, causing a mildly calming effect on the girl. Gathering her courage, she marched up to the nearest person, pulled on the nearest clothing hem and blurted out in a loud voice:

"I'm lost and it's dark and I wanted to know where I am but I'm not scared but I am worried that Sambundeakin is scared because he's little and needs something to eat and wants to go home."

She paused to draw a breath in her nearly never-ending sentence, "He misses my and his mommy."

To explain the scared girl held up the custard-colored puffskein. Sambundeakin the puffskein, however simply purred as if nothing on earth was wrong in the world.

Roleplay Response:
Alexander wrinkled his nose slightly as he looked down to the girl.  She was most likely halfblood, he imagined.  Yet... still, something about her reminded him of his own seven year old daughter, Emma.  "What is your name, girl?" he inquired of her, more interested in her surname than given name, and would press her for it if neccessary.

He then introduced himself to her politely, "I am Alexander Birch, child, and I have a daughter Emma not much older than you," he leaned down and pet the puffskein she held up once to reassure her he meant her no harm and continued, "Why don't you come with me, you can play with my daughter while we locate your family."

He thought to himself, what 'kind of family looses a five-year old daughter anyway? A mudblood one surely', but he was more civilized than a man who would leave a child like her wandering about lost, at least she would provide a playmate for Emma for a while, she had become somewhat lonely lately at home now that Theodore had gone off to Hogwarts. 

Then a slight grin slowly crept upon his lips as he thought, 'perhaps if Emma likes her enough I could always delay contacting her family, and if Emma doesn't care for her at all, well then...' and with that thought he smiled, looking at the girl and awaiting her reply.

[Professor Tibble]

Your magic levels add up to more than 32, could you adjust them?

Note that the lowest magic level should normally be no less than half the highest level. That can sometimes be permitted under exceptional circumstances, but we will need more of a justification as to why it's the case - perhaps some disadvantages it gives him beyond merely not being good at using Div magic? (D4 would get you, at best, a 'P' in the OWL exams, so it is quite poor for an adult).

[Alexander Birch]

Upon consideration, I submit request for the following:

Requested Magic Levels:

• Charms: 10.
• Transfiguration: 9.
• Divination: 6.
• Summoning: 12.

Along with the Exceptional Character Application Roleplay as Required:

Mr. Grunch smirked as stepped into the shadows beneath the overhanging eaves at the side of the street. There was a sort of alcove here, where two buildings came together, and the wall was set back just a couple of feet to make space for a drain from the battered lead guttering. It made it difficult to see if anyone was standing there until you were almost on top of it, and the shape of the roof up above cast an almost permanent shadow even then.

There were a number of such places along Knockturn Alley and Mr. Grunch knew them all.

Seeing nobody was nearby, he quickly cast the concealment spell that would obscure his features, making him unrecognisable, just a blur beneath the cowl of his thick, but worn, robes. He knew his target, had identified them some time before, as they entered the Alley. He had shadowed them, discretely, and now, he knew, they were heading back out again, towards the safety of the better lit Diagon Alley.

He heard the footsteps approaching. This was it, then. Just before they reached the alcove, he stepped out suddenly in front of his target, wand raised and ready.

"Give me all yer galleons, and any jewellery yer got! Don't try to hide nothin', 'cos I'll know, right? Do it now!"


Roleplay Response:

Alexander Birch was walking with determination to get home, and quickly, he was soon to be late for taking his daughter Emma for ice cream as he had promised her at noon sharp.

"Give me all yer galleons, and any jewellery yer got! Don't try to hide nothin', 'cos I'll know, right? Do it now!"

The first thing that came into Alexander's head as he heard the man's voice was, 'How dare this imputent worm make demands of me, my father was an Auror and I nearly was myself,' with a seemingly defeated sigh, reached beneath his cloak as if to pull out his coin-purse, but discreetly grasped his wand instead and cast a silent, 'Flagrante' aimed at Mr. Grunch's shoe.

He pulled his wand out further, hoping that the searing heat on his would be enough to distract the thief from casting any counters, giving him time to pull off his own deliberate "Apparate!", determined to reach his original intended destination.

[Alexander Birch]

Also note a revision of the biography here to reflect:


When it came time to begin his formal wizardly education, he attended Hogwarts and was unsurprisingly sorted into Slytherin like the rest of his family.  His wand is inflexible hornbeam with a basilisk skin core like his father and grandfather’s before him.  He was a Summoning & Conjuration prodigy at a young age, as speciality with that school of magic was always most common in his family, and proved no different.  However, he always felt he deserved better than the marks he earned in the rest of his classes.  What he resented most was not being accepted to train an Auror, following his father’s footsteps.  This would leave him bitter towards Hogwarts for many years.  However, the truth was this was due to his near-blindness to the Otherworld and the other things of Divination, his mind being firmly planted in things of a physical nature.  In fact, he barely even scored an “A” on his divination levels, and was denied Auror training based on lack of a well-developed danger sense.

[Professor Tibble]

Accepted.