CHILDHOOD | 1858 - 1869Aubrey is born to a working class family in Yorkshire, and a terribly ordinary life; his parents, like their parents before them, have both worked their whole lives in domestic service, although Fanny leaves her position to bring up the children. Aubrey makes three, but Hugo, Poppy, and Henrietta follow soon after. Their parents are a witch and wizard, albeit uneducated: still, they know enough to explain that 'strange things' their children find themselves doing are, as it happens, magic. On account of this, they keep their children away from the local muggle school, and the children spend their days picking up odd jobs and what work they can, or looking after the younger ones. Aubrey is a cheerful child. A little distracted, but there's hope.
HOGWARTS | 1869 - 1870Hogwarts has always been a bit much to hope for. Jacob, the eldest child, and eldest son, is where their parents try the hardest to better the family: he is the only child to achieve OWLs and able to seek a more promising profession. For the rest of them: they all attend for their first year, at least, and anything after that is entirely dependent on the chance of a scholarship. Some of his sisters prove a little quicker to pick up basic literacy and magical skills, but Aubrey is no youthful wonder, and so when his first year is over, his time is already up.
DOMESTIC SERVICE | 1870 - 1878Aubrey begins the rest of his life as a page boy in a fancy wizarding household, doing menial work and not much better off than a house elf. At fifteen (1873), he gains a position as a footman – a lesser footman, not the first! – in the Urquart house, to an upper class, pureblood family who are granted a son and heir only the next year. Aubrey doesn't question his lot, though if he does tend to dream of excitement and adventure while he polishes the silver, well, where's the trouble?
His parents both die in the riots and chaos of 1877, which is the first real shake-up in the Davis family. It's not yet their last. Of course, when Aubrey goes abruptly missing in 1878 at the age of twenty, the Urquarts scarcely seem to notice. They promote the next footman under him. His siblings, on the other hand, are entirely more confused, but never get any answers, no matter how much they press. And their habit is not to press, particularly since they are all bound to their own households. If they stop hearing from him altogether, well... mostly they expect Aubrey has stumbled into new circumstances, somewhere; perhaps accidentally ended up abroad. (After ten years, they've obviously given him up for lost; Aubrey, if he's honest, can't blame them.)
THE HEDGEHOG YEARS | 1878 - 1893
The elder Urquart boy – a spoilt brat, even Aubrey can see that – shows his first sign of magic. By turning Aubrey into a hedgehog. Aubrey is perplexed, then panicked, then angry, then... nope, he's still mad about it. It's been years, and he's still. A. Hedgehog. Elijah co-opts him as a convenient pet. Aubrey bristles. (The only upside to this situation are his bristles, by the way.) Aubrey tries everything he can think of to make a break for it, to turn himself back, to let his family know what has happened to him. But, as it turns out, doing anything is a kind of an ordeal for a hedgehog. So when Elijah Urquart swans off to Hogwarts in 1886, Aubrey finds himself going with him. This is not what he wanted, this is not what he planned, and he's just gotta say: he does not understand.
He gets used to the life, though he won't admit to ever liking it. But there are upsides as well as downsides, and he makes a few allies in his new existence. They don't see what's right under their noses, but then, Aubrey has gotten increasingly hedgehoggy over the years.
THE HUMAN YEARS | 1893 - Present
At May 1893's Hogwarts Coming Out Ball, Aubrey gets accidentally transfigured back to his original form. In the nude, and thus he causes a slight scene, but Professor Foxwood takes care of him and Aubrey is... eventually let loose on the world again. He keeps his mouth shut about how it happened to him; he trusts the Ministry less than the thought that young Master Urquart will do the same to him again in vengeance.
Mrs. Diana Selwyn – or, as Aubrey knows her, Foxwood's fluffy cat – invites him to tea and offers him a proposal to work for her. He accepts, because although he never thought to go back into service, it's a way to find his feet in the world again. And she knows what it's like, as well as he does.