Full Name: Maximiliaan Johannes De Vries
Nicknames: Max in most instances.
Birthdate: 22nd June, 1850
Current Age: 38 Years
Occupation: Diamond Magnate
Reputation: 8

Not a great deal is known about the De Vries family in Britain, but: new money, and always looking to social climb. (Also: his wife is not nearly as dead as he claims.)

Residence: South Africa permanently, but staying in London for the time being.
Hogwarts House: n/a, attended Verlichten
Wand: Elm, 12 1/4”, dragon heartstring, unyielding.
Blood Status: Pureblood
Social Class: Middle | The De Vries were originally of lowly merchant stock, but are now at the upper end of the middle class for their wealth, aka are the nouveau riche. Yay diamonds.
Family:
Johan De Vries | Father | 18xx - 1883

A Dutchman who lost most of his father’s merchant savings after a bad turn, and went to seek his fortunes as a young man in South Africa.

Marijse van Beek | Mother | 18xx

The formidable daughter of a Dutch Afrikaner involved in the local magical government. Has always enjoyed assuring Max how much he takes after her and not her fool of a husband.

Ingrid Peeters née De Vries | Sister | 1848

Clever and perfectly accomplished, she married a Dutchman and now lives in Amsterdam.

Lotte Carlyle née De Vries | Sister | 1855

Pretty and sweet - on the outside, at least - but always fond of luxury; she married an Englishman.

Nicolina De Vries née Dippet | “Dead” wife | 1862 - “1882”

It seemed like a good decision at the time, marrying her. He liked her, and all! Then, only a year later, she had the cheek to run off who-knows-where with who-the-fuck-knows, the ungrateful slut. (Hence the “deadness”. It’s for the best.)

Appearance: Max has the typical genes for his family: he is well-built and tall at a round 6’, with a square jaw and a fair complexion that has remained largely unchanged under the South African sun. His eyes are blue and piercing against sandy hair, and as he has grown older he has more often begun to sport some neatly-kept facial hair. Though he is not afraid of the out-of-doors or of being practical, he also understands the importance of dressing well in order to make impressions, and makes sure money is well-spent in regards there; he has always kept to European styles, lest anyone think he possesses any fondness for the local cultures. He is right-handed, because he’s not a heathen.

History:

1850 | Maximiliaan is born, the second child and first son to Johan and Marijse De Vries in a Dutch-populated area in South Africa. Johan’s family were largely from Leeuwarden in the Netherlands, but after some bad luck (and a few bad decisions on his part), he sought a new life in the colonial sphere of Southern Africa and did better for himself there, most of all in seducing the daughter of a far more affluent settler family there into marrying him.

1855 | Another daughter, Lotte, is born, joining Ingrid and Max. The children’s early education and upbringing is centred in a small community pocket of magical Afrikaners who are snide about most muggles and the native African population in equal measure. They’re largely indifferent to the British in control, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be casually snide about them too.

1858 | If his first act of magic arises out of anger, knocking another boy - whom he accuses as a thief - off his feet without touching him, you can hardly blame him. (Counterpoint: if Max was punched in the face first, it’s probably his own fault.)

1859 | Ingrid goes off to school at the nearby Verlichten.

1861 | Max now leaves for Verlichten, although his parents are against any class that deals in tribal magic, popular or not.

1866 | Lotte comes to Verlichten.

1867 | Ingrid graduates.

1868 | By the time Max has finished his schooling, the first diamonds have been discovered in the Kimberley area, and the De Vries are keen to capitalise on this opportunity before the rest of the world can converge and snatch it from their grasp. Max and his father turn their life upside down for the mere possibility of riches like that, and are eventually rewarded for it with a diamond find of their own.

1870 | His father runs their mining operations while Max is tasked with going back to the Netherlands and making some money off the diamonds, and getting some new investments to expand their ventures - or, indeed, Max volunteers for this, sure that his charm excels his father’s and plainly aware that his head for business definitely does. He is keen to prove himself, enjoys worming his way into business circles away from South Africa, and takes his elder sister Ingrid along to introduce her about. She meets plenty of men, and soon enough one of them will take her and invest the De Vries; she is married in the next year.

1871 | While Ingrid settles in Amsterdam and starts a family of her own, Max returns to South Africa and, at twenty-one, throws himself into the prospect of finding more diamonds. Their venture is rapidly expanding with the news of each diamond find rippling out internationally, and soon they are employing plenty of (unethically cheap, black) labour and cheating their rivals out of opportunities where they can, especially with magic their hidden advantage against the poor muggle miners.

1873 | Little sister Lotte graduates.

1874 | The days are long, and not all rewarding - for the workers operating the De Vries mines, at least. There are bumps along the way to test him, but, being smarter, more practical and more competitive - and a great deal more ruthless - Max proves a better businessman than his father could ever hope to be, and is soon at the helm of their diamond mining operations, leaving his father to revel in his family’s sudden good fortune by getting eternally drunker on the porch.

1878 | With a trusted manager of operations at hand at the mines, and his mother at home in an emergency (his father is more of a hindrance than a help, at this point), Max tours around Europe and so on showing off their diamonds to sell them off and such; Lotte, having been dissatisfied with all the men in their society, insists on coming along with him, and so half their time is spent on the social scene. Max doesn’t begrudge his sister this - in fact, he quite enjoys it. In Britain, she finally sets eyes on a man she likes, and he’s at least their father’s age, but very, very rich, and Lotte is pleased to outdo her sister (and to do exceedingly well for the daughter of a mediocre merchant, after all).

1880 | Two years later, Max is back in Britain for the wedding, and lingers after it to find some new investments, the business of diamond mining becoming ever more fraught with continued instability in the country over who owns what land. Best to throw one’s lot in with the British. Whilst there, Max meets a young debutante by the name of Nicolina Dippet. Well, he meets a lot of debutantes (and a fair amount of other young women) but Miss Dippet is more interesting than most. Although her family seems comfortable (and better off than his once was) it is not the most prestigious - they seem a little eccentric, if anything - so it’s not quite the social-climbing move he has assumed he will make, but. She proves exactly the sort of girl he likes - he likes her instantly, and too much - so she captures his attention with ease. Once he has realised how badly he wants her, it is not hard to reel her in.

1881 | In the whirlwind of it all, they are married, and he sets their new life together up in Johannesburg without wasting any time at all. His mother side-eyes his new wife somewhat in the background, but he’s still pretty taken with Nicky.

1882 | Apparently Nicky is less taken with him and her life here, because she abruptly ups and leaves him, stealing away like a thief in the night. Max is stunned, and furious, and a little bit hurt, because assholes can have feelings too. It doesn’t help that his mother keeps saying she told him so. Well, fine. Nicky can go ruin her own life if she wants, but she sure as hell isn’t wrecking his in the process. He writes to her father in Britain, feigning to the Dippets, and society at large, thereafter, that she has died an untimely death. Fortunately, her family never seem to refute this.

1883 | When Nicky doesn’t come crawling back to him, Max tries to move on with his life, more embittered than ever. His father actually dies an untimely death this year, a victim of some struggle that breaks out with some native tribesmen (presumably he deserved it). No one is especially surprised.

1885 | Maybe this is the universe’s way of telling him he should’ve had more sympathy for his father, because Max is dealt his own hand of bad luck with a collapse in one of the De Vries mines, which sets them back in business (and, you know, engenders some ire for the deaths of some of his workers).

1888 | The diamond rush is followed by a gold rush, and Max is keen to branch out and buy up land from those who don’t have the resources to compete: but he could use more capital and more public sway for that, so is on the hunt for new investors and a pretty new wife from a prominent family, preferably a British family name with some clout. (Underneath all that, he’d also actually like to start a family of his own, one he doesn’t have to be ashamed of.) His sister Lotte writes to him from London in March, passing on the news that Nicolina’s little sister Ophelia has married surprisingly well, which is interesting... and a connection it could not hurt to exploit, given how much bloody use his links to the Dippets proved otherwise. Max arrives in England this time in mid-June, but his aims are impeded by the fog shutting up the most of magical society until August - so, for the time being, he has had to be patient.

Personality: Max is driven and strong-willed, and has always felt he has something to prove. He wants success, and wealth, influence and glory (and has always wanted to exceed his father - easily achieved, given the disdain he feels for him). He is clever and practical, outgoing and persuasive and patient, for the most part, but he can also be sarcastic, callous, judgemental, and vindictive. He likes to feel in control, and panics when he is not. He also likes to pretend he doesn’t have feelings - probably because he’s not great at controlling them, either.  

Other: —Fluent in Dutch, Afrikaans and English, with some French and German.

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