Declan Wood

MAY 22ND, 1869 ◈ SLYTHERIN OWL DROP OUT ◈ AMBITIOUS, SARCASTIC, CONFIDENT, PASSIONATE

Declan's parents were childhood sweethearts. She was a muggleborn and he was oblivious. Her parents sent her off to "a lady's proper boarding school" to cover her attendance at Hogwarts. They hadn't even thought about sending her to attend, if it weren't for the accidents that continued to happen whenever she became too excited or upset. (The staircase vanished for nearly four months the previous year.) After she completed her education, she had a coming out in muggle society. It wasn't long before she and Max courted, became engaged and then wed.

Two years later, Declan was born. Following his birth in rather quick succession came five more children - these all girls. It was when Rosaline was pregnant with Tabitha, the youngest, that Declan had shown his first sign of magic. Rather unfortunately, it was in front of his father. He immediately roared about and threatened to send the boy off to a home for devil's children. Rosaline outed herself to defend her son, not realizing the full extent of Max's fear. By the next day, Rosaline and all five children were turned out on the street.

They settled in Hogsmeade. Luckily, Rosaline had done well in herbology at school and was able to find work at an apothecary as a gardener. It was long hours and she was forced to leave the children at home to their own devices.

Rosaline couldn't afford many school supplies for him, even second-hand. She gave him her wand to take with him. Sorted into Slytherin, he was ambitious and cunning, though had difficulty applying himself to topics that were not directly relevant to him. In his second year, he landed a position on the house team as a Chaser.

He attended muggle studies for all of three weeks before being forcibly kicked out of the class for making rather lewd remarks aimed at muggle men specifically. (His resentment toward his father became quite clear at that point, having been repressed for the past several years.)

During his third year in February of 1883, Wesley Cavanaugh — Head of Dept. of Magical Games and Sports at the Ministry — made a controversial decision to change the goal post design for the professional quidditch league. Declan was incredibly angry about it and sent very crude letters to the man. They would have been howlers, if he had known how to make one. Instead of ignoring him or sending insults back, he offered him a place of employment as his personal assistant to deal with the other angry fan letters. Declan accepted, though was only able to work from Hogwarts (the letters were forwarded to him there) until he completed his OWLs. It was also around this time that Rosa took a job as a cook for an upper class household, as it paid better than the apothecary and the mistress of the home was kind enough to allow her daughters into the household staff as kitchen maids, tiny cleaners and the like.

After his fifth year, he left Hogwarts and began to work for Wesley full-time. After bumping elbows and nagging Wesley, he was finally given the opportunity to try out as a reserve chaser for his favorite team, the Chudley Canons. He made it by the skin of his teeth. Two years later, he managed to finagle his way to first string.

A year later, he's now financially comfortable enough to look into purchasing a new broomstick from Elias Grimstone (currently he's borrowing one of his teammate's older models), assists his mother in the household finances and funds what he can of his sisters' school supplies.