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Archived Applications / Alexander Valentine | Magical Defense
« on: 14/08/2018 at 21:27 »CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character name:
Alexander M. Valentine
Previous and/or Current Character(s) if applicable:
James Knight, Jacob Scarborough, Ryan Ward, Callum Winters, Gilroy Locke
Character age:
36 | 08 October, 1917
Character education:
Hogwarts Class of 1936
Strength and weaknesses (details please):
Alex's strength has always been deeply rooted in Charms, but namely the hexes and jinxes. It was part of what made his work with the AMRS so successful, as he had spent a great deal of time learning their applications, counters and reversals. And with almost twenty years of experience on the job, that particular area of magic is just as sharp as ever.
He has some flair for the arts of Summoning/Conjuring leftover from his time at Castle as well, and his own personal interests had aided him down the path of creation that came with it. However sometimes he fails to realize his own limits and miscalculates the power of his conjurations, but can proudly attest to the fact that he hasn't accidentally leveled a house in some time now.
(The one time he did had been entirely on purpose.)
And while his knack for Transfiguration isn't anywhere near that of his wife's, if there was any one area of magic that Alex never fully grasped - it would have been Divination. He knows the edges of it and the theories, but some part of him never truly got it.
Outside of magic, and if one was to consult his wife about him, the worst part of him would have to be - unequivocally - his stubbornness. But the years had changed that to a degree, even if it could be hard to make out at times.
Physical description:
Tall, dark and tired. At Thirty-Six, Alex still retains some most of his old vigor, but the years and children have taken some of its toll on him. Age has peppered his brown hair with some small dusting of grey - with stresses bringing the rest - but his blue-grey eyes are still sharp with intelligence. And while he is loath to admit it, the drop in physicality has began to give him somewhat of a dad bod. He still favors to dress as sharp as ever, but there are days when you can catch him slipping into something more casual.
Personality (nice, rude, funny etc. Paragraph please.):
Originally, Alexander was generally cold at first, but gradually warmed up depending on how people acted around him. He preferred the company of books more than people, but when he was forced to interact, he had usually took to doing so by trying to talk circles around others until they left him alone. Enter Isabelle and the rest was history.
(Play nice, she had said.)
Now after being married for nearly twenty years and raising two kids - six if you count the animals - Alex has softened considerably from the hard, straight-laced antisocial intellectual he had started off as. But while his edges have softened, he still takes his job seriously and has low tolerance for nonsense when it need not apply. Sure, some nonsense can be afforded when it comes to magic and the learning of it, but not when it comes down the actual grit of it. When you need your magic.
Hopes and dreams. Why are you teaching at Hogwarts?:
After all of these years, all of Alex's hopes and dreams have been mostly fulfilled. While a part of him still wonders what might have been - with Esme and the dark secrets she had whispered to him, a promise of power - he never could have traded his family, as small as it had been at the time, away for it.
Now he just wants to grow old with his wife and their mountain of a dog, and watch as their children grow up. Hopefully into right and proper wizards, though he'd still cherish them all the same if the path was lightly skewed.
He came to Hogwarts to help further some of that nurturing, but also because a small part of him felt it only seemed right to come back to the place that helped shaped him, in the event that some of his experience might help mold the next generations.
Biography (500 words minimum. There is never such a thing as too much.):
Life After Graduation:
Having graduated from Hogwarts with decent (Or better than decent, if he was being honest with himself) grades, Alexander moved on to working at the Ministry during the summer following graduation. Having accepted a job from Spencer Malthus, Department of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Justice, Alex worked as his Junior Assistant for an undisclosed amount of time and oversaw the work of the other interns also working in his department over the summer.
Towards the end of the summer, however, Alexander decided that kind of work had not been for him, and eventually came across something that appealed more to his taste: A entry level position in the Department of Magical Accident and Catastrophes as a Junior Member of the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, or AMRS for short. Alexander continued working for Spencer Malthus until he was hired for the position he applied, spending a fair few months in training as he learned his new position and everything that came with being a member of AMRS.
Meanwhile, between his working as a Junior Assistant to Spencer Malthus and joining AMRS in the Summer of
Soon after that, in the Fall of
It was near the end of Fall
The pair of former Ravenclaw’s eventually married the following summer once Isabelle had finished school, with the small attendance of their friends from school (excluding one Lysander Elwood-Luxe) and family gathered around them. They moved from the small apartment that Alex was living in above the Warbling Rogue, to their more permanent home in Hogsmeade once the honeymoon had concluded, and enjoyed the newlywed life.
Fast forward nearly two decades, a small question in regards to Alex’s actual blood purity, a war ( in the world at large, the wizarding community, and on the homefront of the Valentine Estate), two kids and several animals, and Alexander is still married to his Hogwarts sweetheart. His employ in the Ministry has remained largely unchanged - save for no longer being a junior member of AMRS - and he had little intention of changing that.
However, following his eldest child’s - Eleanor - acceptance into Hogwarts and his wife’s own career shift, Alexander wrestled with the idea of returning for a short tenure of professorship. It was only after some some prompting from his wife, and a slight begrudging approval of his daughter, that he surrendered himself to the idea of returning to his alma mater.
SAMPLE ROLEPLAY
(Please respond to to this in third person past tense. Do not write the other characters' reactions. Only your own.)
It was the largest office in Hogwarts and, perhaps to students and newcomers, the most intimidating. The shelves were filled with various odds and ends, with a place of honor for the Sorting Hat, and the walls held all the portraits of past Headmasters and Headmistresses.
In the middle of the room sat a large desk. Everything was in order, for the current occupant had always despised a messy desk. It was the sign of a messy mind, and she had always favored neatness.
A clock sat on the desk, which currently showed the time to be 2:05. The meeting was supposed to begin at 2:00 precisely.
Along with order, Anneka valued punctuality. She was a very busy woman these days. Even during the summer, she had a number of matters to attend to. Interviewing and hiring staff was only of those matters. The newest potential member of her staff wasn't making a good impression.
She paced the room, black heels clicking against the stone floor. When the door finally opened, Anneka turned, her expression reminiscent of a Russian winter. "You are late."
Explain yourself was what her face said.
Roleplay Response:
"You are late."
"I was bribing a portrait," Alex said with a resigned sigh, waving off the comment as he settled into the seat across from Anneka. He was holding a warm cup of black coffee, and held it up as if it explained his tardiness. An Alexander, his namesake leftover from his time in Ravenclaw.
(Tracking down Eloise after all this years had been another story. But her cart was there, as always.)
Sure, it was no excuse and he usually wasn't one for making them, but after all these years the withering look that he received had all but glanced off of him. He had given worse, he figured. Even if he usually caved after a while, at least with his kids.
"Nice to see you again too, Professor Ivanova. Or Headmistress, rather." Amusement glimmered brightly in his eye as he remembered the last time they had been sat together like this. He had been half tempted to reach into his wand holster and steal away the words of his resume - as he had with his evaluation decades past - but thought better of it.
Instead Alex simply smiled placidly at the woman over the rim of his cup. "Let's get this over with, yeah? Max will be out of daycare soon, and Iz was lost in her thesis writing last I saw her, so it'll be my turn to collect him since I took the day off."