1868
| Second son to the Wizarding Danaher clan, Sean, and his wife Emer welcome his first (and only) son into the family, their fourth child; babe is named Alastair, though his father will instead choose to teasingly call him “Lass” from then on. |
1689-1870
| Little Alastair, for his sister’s easily outpace him in growth, is a constant shadow of his older sisters. Brianna dotes on him, brushing his growing hair each night and letting him ride her horse with her; the twins, Ena and Eva, prefer to pester and tease him – he is often a star guest of their tea parties and, despite their mother’s exasperated protest, they like to try out their ribbons and make-up on their little brother. Where other boys might see all of that as degrading, secluded deep in the family estate, Alastair is simply happy to be included and paid attention to. |
1871
| Bright-eyed, Alastair watches speechless as his glass of milk freezes mid-spill, the liquid frozen in place before it could spill on him; Bri is so busy scolding Ena for rattling the table and making a mess, that it’s only when Mam snatches her up, giddy and excited at her firstborn’s display of magic, before his big sister notices. (When her concentration snaps, the milk resumes its plummet – thankfully Eva is faster and yanks Al out of the way before it soaks his Sunday clothes). |
1872
| When Lasair is born, Alastair is curious enough to ask to hold her; she’s a tiny thing, swaddled up so tiny she can’t do much more than make faces and cry, and he asks when she’ll be able to play with him and his sisters. No one answers as laughter fills the room, but he figures that means “later”. |
1873
| Alastair’s giggles draw his father into the twins’ bedroom, where he finds the two girls arguing adamantly over the color of the bow in baby Lasair’s hair – in a manner that, when Eva shouts “blue!” the ribbon becomes such a color and then changes abruptly when Ena retorts “yellow!”. In the end, the ribbon returns to its original red, though no one is paying attention at that point. |
1874
| Tara and Kara – twins, like Eva and Ena, which run in the Murphy family – are born late in the evening. Alastair spends many a day watching in wonder as their parents, together, dote on the two squalling bundles alongside his older sisters; Alastair helps his older sisters pick flowers for the babies’ room and tries (with varying degrees of success) to mind Lasair and be helpful. |
1875
| As a late winter baby, Bri does not get her Hogwarts letter in ‘75 – to make her feel better about the whole thing, Alastair makes faces appear in the family hearth. Lasair squeals in delight and, in the midst of his parents’ warm approval, Bri pecks him on the forehead. Eva and Ena pull him roughly between them, scrubbing his head and congratulating him on his magic. To top the end of the year off, Finola is born, adding to the horde of daughters that is the Danaher clan. |
1876-1878
| Brianna goes off to Hogwarts and comes home for winter break a Hufflepuff. Meanwhile, the oldest twins get their letters to Hogwarts and are shipped off in short order – from what Brianna and Mother tell him of the school’s houses, he’s not surprised when the pair are put in Gryffindor. Alastair, as he waits for his letter, goes through one tutor after another – he’s slower on the uptake on subjects, especially compared to bright Lasair, but that doesn’t bother him much (he’s honestly not sure why his tutors get frustrated with him, he’s trying, y’know?). He spends as much time as he can outdoors, leading his younger sisters on adventures and taking them horseback riding; he is, unquestionably, already a natural born athlete. |
1879
| Not only does Al’s letter from Hogwarts arrive, but little Kara shows her magic early – albeit, it’s to trip him up on the rug, it’s still an amazing thing to see; he shouldn’t have come rushing through the foyer, shouting up a storm, where the twins were playing on the ground, so he only has himself to blame for startling one of his little sister. Then, quietly during the celebratory feast that night, Lasair reaches across and heals the purpling bruise on his cheek from the fall. Altogether, it’s a magical year. |
Sept. '79-'80 First Year | Alastair is sorted into Gryffindor, to the delight of Eva and Ena, who take every opportunity to harass and gush over their “little brother Lassie”. In a separate house, Brianna can only do so much, but Al takes it all in stride – at this point, this is just how Eva and Ena show they love him. Classes are, admittedly, a huge struggle but his older sisters help him when they can; it’s during their study sessions one day that he meets Johnny Flanagan, a towering Slytherin that likes to lurk in Brianna’s shadow – the two immediately start butting heads (that’s his sister!). His best class is, surprisingly, Flying. He takes to the broom so naturally, it’s like he’s made for it, and he finds himself captivated by the quidditch teams in short order. |
Summer '80 | All four of the eldest Danaher children come home to a new sibling that summer – a surprise babe, Mam explains weakly (and likely the last, given how abnormally tiny their newest sister is and how haggard their mother looked) – named Kathleen. That summer it’s all hands on deck, as Mam takes a long time to recover from this birth: Alastair, for his part, learns to cook with Tara and Kara and knit with Finola, wanting to care for his family as best he can (and also partially to babysit them). There are many days where his mother is too weak to hold the wiggly Kathleen, so he also learns to carry her about for his Mam and how to soothe overly fussy babies. |
Sept. '80-'81 Second Year | With the return to school, Alastair tries out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team; he’s turned down but encouraged to keep up his flying class grades and join the club for it too to keep his skills sharp. Brianna debuts over the Winter Holiday at the main Danaher manor and Al still does not like moony-eyed Johnny Flanagan, who is in attendance. This year sees Al start to fill out and he starts to make many friends, especially from the female student body (given he was raised with so many sisters, he’s surprised how often the fact he prefers the feminine company surprises people and the wrongful assumptions they tend to make shortly after) – he’s not too bright, but is charming enough to make others ignore his brash Gryffindor nature. Lasair excitedly writes to him about getting her letter while he’s gone and he is happy more of his family will get to experience Hogwarts with him. Eva and Ena start talking about something called Feminism – and he ends up being dragged into their discussions (he agrees with all the twins’ points, seeing as all his sisters have proven to be smarter than him and deserve the best) – in the wake of Grandmother Danaher wanting the pair to go to Penderghast’s in order to “make proper ladies of them”. Brianna graduates at the end of the year, returning to the family home. |
1881-1882 Third Year | This time around, Alastair makes the Quidditch team – he’s a beater, which suits him fine. Evan and Ena stay on as NEWT students (Da’s reply to Grandmother’s passive aggressive remarks during the summer about having “only one proper granddaughter”), with their father’s blessing to keep going. During holiday breaks, Johnny Flanagan comes sniffing around for Brianna and, unsurprisingly, the two boys get into it more than once; that last time, after hair is singed and body’s bruised, old man Danaher comes about and sits them all down. Alastair has his first real glass of whiskey as the two older men talk – his father grilled Johnny boy just as hard as Al had beat him, but in the end (and a few more glasses) Johnny was handed over to the women of the house for scrutiny. When Eva and Ena vouched for him being a good bloke (on pain of bodily mutilation, if Al heard right), he decided to give the guy a chance. Brianna and Johnny were publicly courting by the end of the year. |
1882-1883-XX Fourth Year | Tara writes the whole lot of them about the younger twins finally getting their letters (Tara had been a late bloomer and everyone understood she was scared of being a squib, so it was a relief when her anger literally killed some Aunty’s houseplants one day). Johnny makes a point to try and befriend Alastair – it’s not easy, given Johnny boy is such a bookworm-ish, scholarly type but Al lets it happen for his sister’s happiness. Eva and Ena make sure everyone knows they’re planning on working at the Ministry, specifically in the DMLE for Auror training (Alastair thinks they’d make great Aurors, given how terrifying they can be). Despite barely making As, Al isn’t too worried about his grades – no, he’s got dreams of playing Quidditch professionally. (And, if his father occasionally, within earshot, bemoans his only heir’s lackluster intelligence, well – his sisters’ are plenty smart enough to handle the family’s minor shipping business). Eva and Ena graduate with almost perfect grades and Alastair happily drags them down by the shoulders and shakes them in congratulation (yes, there’s a lot of squawking and he does get whacked a few times, but the twins also give him pecks on his cheeks and squeeze him back twice as hard, so it’s all in good fun). He also goes to the Quidditch World Cup with his father. |
1883-1884 Fifth Year | Lasair, a Hufflepuff like Bri, comes to all Al’s practices (when she can) and all his games. He helps her in flying class, which she adores, and perhaps hovers a bit protectively over her shoulder when they spend time together (he’s now the oldest of his siblings at school and he needs to pass on the care and attention his older sisters gave him to his younger sisters). Little Kathleen continues to grow and get underfoot and he laughs from his belly when he hears about how she used her magic to hack off all her hair while escaping their Grandmother. Brianna and Johnny are officially wed and, surprisingly, Al is asked to be one of the groomsmen; Eva and Ena are undergoing Auror training and cannot be bridesmaids for Bri (Al would have taken the pair’s place, if society at large would not have had a conniption over it). As a beater on the Gryffindor team, Al starts to do what he can to bulk up during holiday breaks; and his efforts draw appreciative attention, though he rarely notices. He barely survives his OWLs to continue on into the next year. When the Laughing Plague and fire, respectively, sweep through Hogsmeade, the Danaher family is safe in its isolated estate in Ireland. |
1884-1885 Sixth Year | Unsurprisingly, Al picks the minimum number of classes required to be a NEWT student and then applies all his free time to the sport he loves. The year is great – COMC was not a class many pictured him taking, but he has a surprising way with the beasts – until Hogwarts has to close early and send everyone home. Thankfully, Alastair finds a practice partner in his BIL Johnny and, as the two practice quidditch over the summer following, the pair finally bury the hatchet between them. Ena turns home in outraged tears, having been dismissed from Auror training – she’s frothing at the bit and more temperamental than ever, but Al lets her take her frustrations out on him with little retort (because, like she spits and hisses: it’s not fair). |
1885-1886 Seventh Year | Alastair starts preparing for professional Quidditch try-outs – instead of studying for NEWTS, much to Lasair’s despair; if it weren’t his younger sister taking time out of her own studies for OWLs, he likely would’ve trolled Charms. Tara and Kara, now in their second years, are… different from his other sisters at Hogwarts: they obsess about their looks, their appearance, and they become… snobs, to put it lightly. He can see the right forming between the pair and the rest of the family, but tries to be around… y’know, in case they need him. As it is, he gets only straight As in his NEWTS and manages not to be a dropout like his grandparents feared. Eva comes home to celebrate surviving Auror training, but there is a tension in the house about her and Ena, enough of one for even Al to notice. Only the arrival of Finola’s Hogwarts letter seems to lighten the mood (albeit not for long) after his graduation. |
1887
| Alastair becomes a 2nd String Beater for the Chudley Cannons – it’s not exactly what he wants, but he’s got his foot in the door – surely, the rest will unfold. His father (but, especially, his Grandfather) is not very excited at the news, but Alastair has never had designs on taking over the family shipping business or managing the estate; in his opinion, the whole lot should go to one of his smarter sisters (he’s “just a pretty face” he reminds his family jokingly, though only Finola and Kara find it funny). After Reconciliation Day, his family makes the announcement that they are, officially, moving to Hogsmeade – his eldest uncle has, also officially, inherited the entirety of the Danaher estate, including the smaller manor Al grew up in on the outskirts, and it’s just easier for everyone if their branch of the clan moves into a new home (Al is not a big fan of “keeping the peace”, but he does take the opportunity to sell all the excess luxuries from his room in the old house and use the money to get a London flat). |
1888-Present
| Over time, Alastair worked his way into the first string lineup for the Cannons. He’s being pressured, as the years pass, by the respectable part of the Danaher clan to find a wife and settle down but he has little interest in such things. Life marches on: Brianna and Johnny announce they are expecting their first baby; Eva is thriving in her job as an Auror and Ena, despite still being a touch bitter, has managed to get an unpaid spot as a columnist; Lasair graduates and moves to Hogsmeade as a junior healer at St. Mungo's in the Creature-Induced Injuries department; Tara and Kara go to Pendergast's after their fifth year and graduate as proper Roses; Finola finishes up her fifth year and, instead of going to finishing school, agrees to debuting after her fifth year in order to become a museum tour guide at the Museum of Magical Miscellany, staying with him as his flat (he "promised" his Grandmother to make sure she does not miss a societal season); and little Kathleen is in her fourth year of Hogwarts, having joined the quidditch team for her house – “just like you” she’d told him and if that didn’t make him proud of her, he doesn’t know what would. Alastair is looking forward to his professional career taking off (and, yes, he is proud of his team captain for nabbing some good lady players for the team). |