Hogwarts School: A Harry Potter RPG

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Elijah Jakeem Hayes
Gender: Male
Age: 28
Blood Status: Pure

Education: 
Slytherin Alumni

Residence:
Hogsmeade

Occupation
Bookstore Owner

Do you plan to have a connection to a particular existing place (for example: the Ministry, Shrieking Shack) or to take over an existing shop in need of new management?
no

Requested Magic Levels:

• Charms: 7
• Divination: 10
• Transfiguration: 9
• Summoning: 6

Do you wish to be approved as a group with any other characters? If so who and for what IC reason?
No

Please list any other characters you already have at the site:
Glenn Collins, Brennen Collins

Biography: (300 words minimum.)
For some people it seemed like tragedy and bad luck followed them around. Elijah was one of those people, though he often argued that the entire world was full of tragic people and sad sob stories and none of it really mattered anyways. He is cynical to a point where it holds him back immensely in life. Even from a young age, living in something of a broken home with parents who always yelled and a father who often drank a little too much he did not understand ‘happy families’ or think they really existed until late in his school years.

Hogwarts was the place where a lot of his cynicism started to turn around for something… sarcastically positive. It was also where he worked hard on getting help for a lot of his mental stresses. It was where he’d met Nora. They’d met in their first year, right there on the train and it had been … not easy ever since but certainly worth it. They spent almost all of their free time together, two children who greatly pushed the limits of the other and helped them rise up to new standards despite any of their weaknesses. Elijah could never quite get over how someone so fiery and magnetic could even consider being attracted to him but indeed Nora was.

Their love wasn’t stuff of legends or even the sort of romance you look for in fairy tales… it was difficult and extremely tiring. They broke up a multitude of times in their last years of Hogwarts, and some even thought they were done for good once they graduated school and both were on track to doing what they’d always dreamed of; professional quidditch. Nora’s magnetic pull always drew Elijah back in though, and soon enough they were getting married and grasping hard to any little bits of happiness they could find. Elijah thought the world was dark and often felt downtrodden and like he’d been unfairly dealt a crappy hand in life… but Nora was the fire that lit his world up… he found a light hearted happiness in the woman and was able to laugh and smile alongside the boisterous beauty.

A few years into their marriage they were blessed, Nora had become pregnant and their private little world was expanding. Elijah had never wanted children in the first place, and for a long time Nora had been much the same growing up… but once the news changed it was an immediate switch for his wife, and after a few months he too felt excited for the life growing inside of her. This happiness was not to last, of course. Of course, because happiness never lasted and Elijah had been foolish to trust it to. The delivery had been difficult, the final outcome… devastating. Complications had resulted in not only the loss of their child, but also his wife.

This absolutely wrecked Elijah, spiraling him into a dark place rotted with drink and not much else… the missed days of practice and the low level of performance on the days he did manage to drag himself to his quidditch practices had quickly built up to him losing his spot on the roster. The year was a terrible one for the young man, with things slowly starting to point to Elijah Hayes not going to make it to another. Fortunately Nora’s younger brother stepped in, dragging Elijah unapologetically from this dark world he’d sunk into and together they worked to get Elijah help, put him back on track to trying desperately to find something else to live for.

Currently Elijah co-owns and runs a tiny little bookshop in hogsmeade, brimming with interesting and hard to find books both magical and not. Most days Elijah is kept to the out-of-sight sort of work, procuring books… filing receipts… bookkeeping. Nora’s brother has found customers to be less than welcoming to the surly and sarcastic man the days he DOES end up in the front of the shop.

Roleplay: 
You come across one of these posts on the site. Please select one & reply as your character:

Option Two -
The snow had been falling steadily all morning and it didn't look like it was going to stop any time soon. Joshua Campbell scrunched his face up in a frown as he lifted his gaze to look to the sky. Snow. It really was quite a bother.

And it certainly didn't make it better that Diagon Alley seemed to be getting more and more crowded. Joshua sighed and pointed his wand at the large box that was currently placed on the doorstep of his shop. He had to get going. He had an order to deliver.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" The elderly man muttered and watched the box hover in the air for a moment. Honestly, did St. Mungo's really need that much tinsel? And with glitter of all things? He sighed again. If it hadn't been for the rather convincing stamp on the order, he would have been likely to believe it had been a prank by one of those orphaned rascals living up there. 

Oh well, there was no point in waiting. Joshua deftly stirred the box down the doorstep and out onto the street, carefully levitating it above the heads of the crowd.

"Coming through! Coming through!" His voice sounded over the chatter of the crowd. "Keep out! Move ahead! Go on!" This was going way too slow. People were in the way and walking like they had all day! He huffed. Luckily the road was down hill.

"Coming through! Coming th--- arrrgh!" Joshua let out a loud shout as his feet suddenly slipped in the snow and sent him, the box, and several long strands of tinsel tumbling into the person who had been walking in front of him.

"For Merlin's sake!" Joshua muttered angrily as he hurried to his feet again, red and gold tinsel now decorating his black coat. "I am so sorry! This blasted snow!" He looked apologetic at the person he had crashed into.

Roleplay Response:
There was something tantalizing and pleasing about the thick coating of snow and the icy bite of the air, nipping unapologetically at any flash of skin not cloaked in several layers. Elijah was underdressed, a loose coat thrown over thin layers, hands shoved deep into his pockets and a cigarette dangling loosely from his lips. Tucked in the crook of his armpit were two thick tomes he’d gotten a good deal on after two obnoxious hours of back and forth with what Elijah could only describe as a weaselly man in a corner of Diagon alley that seemed almost more suitable if it’d been a part of Knockturn. It had left Elijah feeling slightly proud of his bartering skills though he could no longer feel his fingers or toes and he was letting the idea of frostbite roll over in his mind. He should have charmed some sort of heat bubble… or grabbed gloves… or his actual winter coat. He’d spotted them near the door and then ignored them. Some days it was oddly comforting to let the cold seep deep into his bones, some days he felt like he deserved this.

As he made his way down the hill his shoulders seemed to hunch more and more… why was everyone out shopping today? He’d snuffed the cigarette out at some point, too focused on not bumping into or touching any of these mindless idiots chattering about as though this were the best day they’d ever lived on earth. It was sickening, slightly. He’d been walking as fast as he could, not only cold but also incredibly uncomfortable with the crowd, but it was all for naught. The man’s shouting hadn’t really registered in Elijah’s ears… until of course something was crashing into his back, sending him comically forward with his own yell and a string of curses. He didn’t think he’d ever summersault again as a grown man… he actually didn’t think he’d ever summersaulted as a child. But there you had it, lankly Elijah’s limbs going helter-skelter as he landed on his bum, strands of gold and red and a cloud of glitter clinging to the man. ”Are you- are you-“ The words spluttered angrily but quietly from his lips, eyes wide in shell shock. He was staring at the culprit, the man responsible for the madness that he certainly didn’t need today. And then his eyes landed on his well earned prize… the two large volumes spilled carelessly in the snow. A loud curse exited his mouth as he scrambled, hands and knees and shameless, through the snow. He barked at people passing to watch out, his words harsh enough to elicit wide-eyed stares from strangers.

The books were scooped up with a sense of urgency, his wand pulled from an inner coat pocket frantically as he cleared the snow off. And then when he was fully to his feet he whipped around hand pointing accusingly at the stranger. ”Why don’t you watch where you’re going, pal?” He spat, even grabbing some of the tinsel from his person to throw, in vein, at the man. It didn’t go far, just caught in the air and tumbled prettily down to the ground. Elijah was breathing heavily, but as he took in the man he could rejister that he was embarrassed, apologetic, had to remind himself this wasn’t some planned out attack… ”These cost me a small fortune, practically..” He grumbled out, sighing deeply as he turned his wand toward the spilled over box and flicked, righting it up. He started to levitate tinsel from his person, sending it back to the box. He said nothing else, staring at the box as though it personally offended him. It took a few minutes to help clean the small mess of sparkle before he moved to pluck up the box to, roughly shoving it at the man. ”Okay? Just… just slow it down or something.” He spat, though the anger of his tone was mostly gone now. Elijah still could barely feel his fingers… he wanted to be home. He should have known something would end up going poorly when he was having such a nice day.

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