Neil Carroll
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| Neil Carroll | ||
| Biographical Information | ||
| Full name | Neil Gabriel Carroll | |
|---|---|---|
| Born | 3rd November 1950 | |
| Birthplace | Cheltenham, UK | |
| Residence | Cheltenham, UK | |
| Nationality | British | |
| Title(s) | Head Boy 1968-69, Gryffindor Prefect 1967-68, Quidditch captain and keeper | |
| Physical Information | ||
| Family Information | ||
| Parents | Marsha and George Carroll | |
| Magical Characteristics | ||
| Affiliation | ||
| House | Gryffindor | |
Biography
Neil Carroll was born the second child of four of a Cheltenham family. The Carrolls are muggle as muggle can be, completely unaware of the existence of the magical world. Neil´s parents are working class, if only because that is the term commonly used for their social class; by any means it does not describe the actual working status of Marsha and George Carroll.
Marsha had her first child very young, and never completed an education. Her longest occupation was as a cleaning woman in the town hall; and George had been a miner, but an accident forced him out of work, and by the time he had recovered - after a fashion - nobody wanted to give him a job anymore. And after a long time of trying to get a job, any job, George gave up on the situation and on himself and started drinking, and after yet another long time his wife Marsha had enough of it and told him he could go to hell, and to her surprise that was just what he did. He left his wife, who was expecting their fourth child, and their other children behind and went - not exactly to hell, but to Edinburgh, at least that was where his last postcard was stamped.
The first owl arrived on Neil´s eleventh birthday. Little Penny got all excited and wanted to keep the bird that had just flown through their living room window as a pet, but the rest of the family was baffled and distraught. All the more when George jr. opened the letter attached to the owl´s claw: it requested Neil attend a place called Hogwarts, a school for witchcraft and wizardry. The whole family looked at each other. After a moment of shock they were convinced this must be some joke, though why anyone would go to such lengths to train an owl to bring them a letter with such silly content, none of them could fathom. In the end they decided to forget about the incident.
But the same evening they had a visitor, a very strange-looking man wearing something that resembled a priest´s robe, only with funny pictures on it. He also wore a pointy hat. And a long grey beard. And he introduced himself as âAugustus Thimblestockâ. All in all, everything about the unbidden visitor cried âWizardâ. Of course they did not believe that he was one indeed. This was just part of the joke some sick mind had invented. He insisted on Neil going to this strange place, leaving his family behind, leaving George to be the sole bread-earner. No way was that going to happen. Neil and George had already rounded up on him to throw him out of the house when the self-proclaimed wizard pointed his funny little stick at them and turned their ears into rabbit ears. That, along with the lollipop he produced out of the air for little Penny, finally convinced them.
Now they were prepared to listen to Thimblestock, an employee of the so-called Ministry of Magic. However, nothing he said could persuade Neil to go to Hogwarts. In fact, the boy didn´t like this Thimblestock person one bit, especially since he seemed so intent on taking Neil away from his family who needed him (not to mention the incident with the rabbit ears). His mother and George would never manage to sustain the family on their own, and he was worried about Laura and her bad health. He did not consider even for a moment to embark on a life full of magic, leaving them behind to deal with the grim reality they were facing day by day. And nothing Augustus Thimblestock said could change that. At last, the ministry official had to give in and depart with his mission unfulfilled. What was he to do? The ministry didn´t just kidnap children. As of his knowledge, no child had ever entirely refused to go to Hogwarts, not even the muggleborns. However, with the current mood in the wizarding community becoming more hostile towards non-purebloods, Thimblestock wasn´t prepared to go to great lengths to send a reluctant muggleborn, a stubborn boy who didn´t appreciate the efforts he was making for him, to a wizarding school. However, as was his duty, he reappeared every year in the beginning of summer to try and bring Neil to terms. Neil always refused, and he also claimed not to know what Thimblestock was talking about when the wizard asked whether strange things had happened around Neil. Strange things had indeed happened, but he always managed to explain them away or forget about them.
Until the day the accident happened to Laura. And it was his fault.
Neil had come home from work angry. They had sacked him at the cafeteria. He had other jobs, but this was the best one. Not that they paid him much; but he could use the times when the cafeteria wasn´t so busy for studying, and sometimes he was allowed to take some leftover pastries home. It had been his favourite job. But they couldn´t afford him anymore, and so he was sacked. He was in a foul mood when he got home. He slammed the door behind him, kicked his shoes off his feet and promptly stepped on one of Penny´s toys, hurting his foot so that he broke out in a surge of curses, a very unusual behaviour for him. Penny just looked at him with big round eyes; her eyes grew even bigger when her toys lifted themselves up into the air and began shooting across the room like small unguided missiles. Just then Laura came into the room to see what was going on, and Penny´s rocking horse crashed into her, knocking her against the doorframe. She passed out. All the toys fell down from the air like a surreal rain shower around Neil, who was rushing to her side. It was only in the hospital that Laura woke up, and then she was alarmingly pale and weak. It took her almost a week to recover. This had not been the first incident of this kind, but the worst; and it was the first time that Laura had been the victim of what Thimblestock had been calling Neil´s âuncontrolled magicâ.
The next time Augustus Thimblestock came to the Carrolls, Neil was packed-up and ready to go. He was sick with worry about what would happen to his family when he stayed, and at the same time he dared not to think how they would manage without him. All in all, he was not good company for Thimblestock, who had expected to leave alone once again and was now slightly unsettled by this hostile young man who seemed ready to explode any minute.
