1859 | Nikesh is born to Mr. and Mrs. Blott, of London, who own a bookshop in Diagon Alley with the Flourishes. He is their only child, but the two families are close-knit and Nick looks up to Edward – Ned – Flourish from the first, finding in him an idol, a brother, and an eventual partner in crime.

1860 - 1868 | His parents are loving, if perhaps a little more demanding than Ned’s; either way, growing up around so many books sees Nick a precocious child. He starts reading early, and his mother ingrains in him early language-learning skills that will serve him well later in life. They are fond of discipline, but Nick alternates between bouts of excessive diligence and distraction, and his favourite thing in the world is when he and Ned can go off adventuring instead. His parents have always encouraged his independence and have plenty to do themselves with managing the bookshop, so they can’t complain too much about this.

Nevertheless, he finds it hard when Ned gets preoccupied by his father’s failing health and eventual death, because he can’t quite understand how that loss must feel and, however close the families are, this is the first time Nick experiences any barrier of separation between them. Unable to convince Ned to be his usual enthusiastic self, Nick has to spend more time than usual cooped up in his own company or being schooled under his mother’s eye. And then Ned goes off to Hogwarts without him – because he’s older, not that he can help it – and now Nick has to find other friends around Diagon Alley. (Early attempts at this are not especially successful. He’s impatient and overeager and sometimes a bit of a know-it-all. At least Ned comes home in summers.)

1870 | Finally, Nick gets to go to Hogwarts too, and ends up in Gryffindor. By now Ned’s a third year Ravenclaw, but their friendship remains as easy as it has ever been, even as Nick has a whole new place to explore. And things to learn, of course: his parents will be bitterly disappointed if all their previous educating doesn’t pay off as they hope.

1872 | Scattered as he seems, he is an erratic but interested student, a quick learner with a good memory, and a tendency to get obsessive when he finds a new topic he likes; in third year he takes Muggle Studies, Ancient Studies and Ancient Runes, and isn’t sporty enough to join the quidditch team, though he halfheartedly wishes he was. Popularity would be easier to gain that way, rather than his own merits, which mostly come from helping people with their homework or going on enthusiastic tirades about whichever book he’s had his nose in recently, whether people care or not.

1874 | Occasionally, someone does seem to care. A girl called Annette, for one, which might have been a thrill, if only he doesn’t fall for the girl who confronts him about that instead – muggleborn Marion Flourish, who is a Slytherin, and smart, and more impressive than she makes out she is. Nick obligingly shares his first kiss with Annette.

1875 | But the most value that comes from that brief interlude is a place at the same table as Marion, in the library. Nick cherishes those moments like nothing else, and moons over her persistently for the rest of his school career. If she notices, she doesn’t say – but Nick is not much of a natural actor.

1877 | In summer, he graduates with fairly good NEWT grades in History of Magic, Ancient Studies, Astronomy, Potions, Charms and Muggle Studies. (He keeps taking Potions just for Marion’s sake.) His feelings for her don’t fade post-graduation, so he keeps up a friendly correspondence with her, but is often distracted with settling into life at the shop where Ned can show him the ropes and be best pals again.

1878 | So it feels a lot like serendipity when Nick hears they’ve happened to meet, and he is more than happy to make introductions. They form a fast friendship, which is excellent news to Nick – if his vague dreams of the future play out as he’s imagined, it would be a shame for Ned and Marion not to like each other.

Because Nick is hopelessly in love with her, and makes excuses to see her regularly, calls on her and is (thankfully!) not rebuffed; he is especially distractible for the few months of seeing her, prone to flights of fancy and daydreaming in the shop and late-night fits of despair. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t see the signs any earlier –

1879 | Because Ned and Marion are getting married. For a moment he’s convinced the newspaper notice just got the wrong side of Flourish & Blott, but he hasn’t actually asked her yet. And it’s no trick, it’s no joke, Marion is – really, actually, marrying his best friend. She’s marrying Ned.

So, you know, they’re both just actively ruining his life or whatever. Nick lives in a disbelieving daze for a while, too numb to properly process it – but when Ned comes to talk the hurt and indignation from this abject betrayal all bubbles over and he explodes. Maybe Marion is the one he should be blaming, but – blinded by his feelings for her or his previously unwavering trust in Ned – the resentment goes where it will. Sometimes he can’t bloody stand to look at him.

1881 | The happily-married couple are hard to block out of his life, though, however much he avoids them – Ned and Mrs. Flourish both still interact with Nick’s parents on a daily basis, and Nick has to hear about how horrendously happy and perfect they are whether he likes it or not. Eventually, passive avoidance just doesn’t cut it anymore. So Nick, at 22, upends his life and all his former plans and gets a internship at the Ministry, because life is that fucking unfair.

1882 - 1884 | As Ned and Marion settle down properly, children and fairytale ending and all, Nick immerses himself in his work. After his internship he becomes a Ministry translator, translating documents – international trade agreements and laws and so on – and assisting with foreign visitors from time to time. After hours, when he’s not studying languages, Nick studies the art of drinking, gambling, and having discreet casual affairs with – well, anyone who’ll have him, really.

1885 | He gets caught in the explosion at the Ministry of Magic and, having sustained a few lingering injuries, starts taking laudanum to aid his medical recovery. He does recover; the opium becomes a habit.

1887 | His mother Kiran dies in the chaos at the Wizarding World Market, which means Nick is down another steadying influence in his life, and he takes this as occasion to spiral a little further out of control. His father is exasperated with him; Nick is almost always exasperated with his father.

1888 | Nick eventually finds the solution to this, which is moving out to Hogsmeade to get out from under his father’s nose, and further from the bookshop and frequent unwanted sightings of the Flourishes.

1892 | Mr. Blott is getting on nowadays, and without any help on his side of the family, when he has a brief health scare Nick is forced to ponder about the future of Flourish & Blotts. Oh, Ned’s mother will be bustling about forever, probably, and Ned is more than involved enough – but Nick has absolutely no intention of working alongside him anymore. Besides... if Ned got Marion, why should he get everything? If anyone’s, the shop should be Nick’s. To this end, Nick works harder than before, taking on freelance book translation projects by night to save up some extra funds with the intention of buying out the Flourishes someday. He’ll undoubtedly need more savings for that, though – so maybe it’s time to try and find a wife with a nice big dowry, too.