In-Character
Full Name: Christopher Granville DarlingNicknames: Kit
Birthdate: April 12, 1877
Current Age: 15 Years
Gender: Male
Occupation: Fourth Year
Reputation: 7
— THE PUBLIC —
- His father is an eccentric scientist who blew his leg in one of his experiments, causing him to mostly use a bath chair or cane.
- His mother is a former nurse that spends more time helping her husband in his laboratory than keeping house.
- His Uncle & late Grandfather are well respected and knowledgeable physicians who own their own practice.
— AT HOGWARTS —
- Christopher has a tendency to experiment with magic and science, especially with potions and this has gotten him in trouble.
- In his fourth year he nearly burned and scarred a girl in his year due to an accident with his experiment.
- He appears to have a bit of a crush on Elisabeth Rose and it was his nervousness that made him spill his potion on her.
- He is socially awkward and incredibly logic focused, but otherwise is quite kind to everyone he meets.
- He's done well enough in school to earn him scholarships to pay for tuition to continue attending Hogwarts.
— PRIVATE —
- His mother regularly receives money from his Uncle Benjamin in order to help fund their way of life because he doesn't believe that his twin brother is capable of truly providing for his family because of his eccentricities. Christopher doesn't know about this.
Residence: London, England
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
Wand: Walnut, 10", Supple, Unicorn Hair
Blood Status: Muggleborn
Social Class: Middle Class
Family:
Granville Darling | 1829-1890 | Paternal Grandfather
Josephine Darling née Hughes | 1832-1890 | Paternal Grandmother
Archibald Darling | 1852 | Father
Beatrice Darling née Wells | 1857 | Mother
Benjamin Darling | 1852 | Paternal Uncle
wife & children
Alice — née Darling | 1863 | Paternal Aunt
husband & children
Appearance:
Taller than both of his parents as he takes after his maternal grandparents, Christopher stands at about 5’8”, though this is a fairly recent growth spurt - at the start of his fourth year he was four inches shorter and had to take some tonic created by the school nurse to deal with the growing pains. He has a fairly thin, but not malnourished build, as he is not athletic at all, but also doesn’t live a sedentary lifestyle either. Christopher doesn’t have defined muscles, but he doesn’t seem to care about it either as he would clearly rather spend his time with his nose in a book than with his feet on the Quidditch field. He has wavy, brown hair that often gets into his eyes if he doesn’t remember to ask his mother to cut it, and brown eyes as well. He has peachy, rosy skin that flushes easily when he’s embarrassed or overheating. He wears round, metal glasses that he often has to spellotape or otherwise fix due to breaking them by accident during experiments in his father’s lab or with potions at school. His wand hand is his right hand but is known to sometimes use his left when his right is busy with doing something else like holding a book, which usually doesn’t have good results. He dresses neatly and properly as he knows his mother in particular takes pride in how her son presents himself, however, she’s often scolding him because while at home, he’s been known to burn holes in his clothes, singe the sleeves, spill chemicals all over himself, and so on when he’s in his father’s laboratory. Or when he’s outside studying plants or insects, he gets dirt and mud on himself or dirty water from creeks or ponds. Beatrice typically mends all of his things so some of his clothes have patches where she’s done so, but these are not clothes that she would ever let him leave their property in if she can help it as she doesn't want him looking like a street urchin. If he’s going out in public, he must wear his neater clothes and other such clothing for special occasions. His school clothes often get like this too, but at least when he’s at school he can use magic to mend them, which he's quite proficient at by now.
History:
On a rainy, Autumn morning in 1852, two baby boys were born, a set of twins, Archibald and Benjamin Darling. Their parents were Granville Darling, a physician, and his wife and most trusted nurse, Josephine Darling née Hughes. The two boys had a relatively normal middle-class upbringing, living fairly well thanks to their father’s successful medical practice in London. Both were quite fascinated by their father’s work, though it was clear that it wasn’t the only thing that interested Archie. Young Archie was fascinated by anything and everything - the flowers that grew, the wild animals that his mother chased from her garden, the people that his father treated, the stars, the earth, the universe. He was a budding scientist from a very young age and would talk a mile a minute regarding just about any subject should you give him the chance. His parents would encourage this, getting him books, letting him run around and explore the world, even conducting little experiments in the attic of their house where he wouldn't break anything, though they wished that he would make more friends like his brother, Benjamin, who, was still a curious and smart little boy, but had excellent social skills and was well-liked by most of his peers, unlike Archie whom most thought was socially awkward and annoying.
Despite this difference, neither boy seemed to dislike each other that much or even think badly or less of the other. In fact, in the Summer of 1863, when their little sister, Margaret “Maggie” Darling was born, they seemed to grow closer as they were only about ten years old and the process of having a boring girl in the house made them both turn up their nose. The rest of their upbringing was fairly uneventful, both of them went to university to study medicine, some of it was paid for by money saved up by their parents, but some of it was also paid for by scholarships the two got for their high marks in their youth. Of course, yet again, it was quite clear that Benjamin was able to easily make connections with peers, charm professors, and otherwise be more than just a brain, whereas Archie spent most of his time cooped up in his dormitories, reading, researching, and testing various theories he had using the university’s open lab hours. He was most interested in biology and chemistry, but he did not shy away from botany or even entomology. Archie wanted to know it all and this caused a bit of an issue as more than once he caused some sort of chemical explosion or set something on fire or accidentally dropped a cage of several live rats that tore through the halls. Benjamin, being as charming as he was, would help brush it over, make things up to the professors, and otherwise cover for his brother until their graduation. Though, it was not without a lot of heated arguments as he felt his twin brother needed to get it under control, especially if he didn’t want to find himself expelled from the medical program and therefore would be unable to follow in their father's footsteps and take over his practice.
Archie managed to graduate from the university, though with his parent’s blessing, he continued to study at the university in chemistry, more so helping as an aid for one professor who seemed to like him. It was then, in the Summer of 1875 when his experimentation went a little too far and managed to cause an explosion in the apartment he was living in, as he’d foolishly brought some of his work home with him. Thankfully, nobody but himself was hurt, but upon being taken to the hospital they found they had to remove his right leg as it had been pretty badly damaged by the chemicals that had gotten all over his bare skin. His father, though proud of his son for his curiosity, was furious at him for his incompetence and his brother seemed equally as ashamed of his behavior as he was, though his father did commission a prosthetic leg for his son. For the next several months, Archie was stuck in a bath chair but slowly learned to also walk on his new prosthetic limb. It was then, that he, like his father, fell in love with a nurse. Miss Beatrice Wells was the nurse who cared the most for him in the hospital, and by the Spring of 1876, he was proposing marriage to her. She thought he was odd, like everyone else, and honestly crazy, but she loved him and so she agreed and they were soon married.
On April 12th, 1877, Beatrice Darling née Wells gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby boy whom they named Christopher Granville Darling, after Archie’s father. Shortly after his grandson was born, Granville retired officially and left his practice to Benjamin to manage. Of course, he was particularly smug about this, though Archie wasn’t the least bit offended, as he was more interested in continuing as a scholar and a scientist. Most of his experiments are funded by grants he gets from the university as he continues to work for them, but something that isn’t talked a lot about by the family is that his brother, Benjamin, does send the family something extra as he thinks his brother is too unstable to provide as a father. Archie doesn’t seem to ever notice, as the money tends to be managed by Beatrice on an unofficial level, and she isn’t inclined to tell him as it does help to get payments every so often. Between raising Christopher, who, much like his father, grew to be an inquisitive young boy, Beatrice often finds herself helping her husband in the laboratory that was built into their new home as a gift from her father for their wedding day. She learns a lot from him and Archie believes that despite being a woman, Beatrice has much to contribute to the scientific community if she’d be given the chance.
In 1883, when Christopher was about six years old, Archie and his wife began to notice something peculiar about their son. By this point, his personality was shining through, and it seemed he was just like his father - he was curious, wanting to learn everything and anything, and prone to doing his own little experiments, or at least, as much as a child his age could. They noticed, however, that he was making things happen that simply could not be explained by simple science. It was also then they realized that there had been other strange happenings when he was younger too - small frogs being duplicated, flowers growing faster than they ought to, insects changing colors, etc. that they simply brushed over as just an anomaly of the world. Beatrice wouldn’t allow Archie to properly experiment on their son, of course, but so long as it wasn’t unsafe, he could poke and prod the boy to see if he could make it happen again. Mostly it just caused the little boy to laugh and tell his father he was being silly. However, something that could have been tragic occurred when the boy was about eight years old - Archie had been trying to see if he could get his son to show him the trick of changing flower petals to alternate colors like he had done the other day by accident, and left him in the laboratory in order to go upstairs for a moment. It was then the boy accidentally knocked over some chemicals and hurt himself - though, by the time Archie had come back to dump water on him, to clean his burns, muttering to himself about how dead he’d be when Beatrice found out, the wounds were completely gone and Christopher didn’t seem bothered at all. It was then that Archie vowed not to leave him alone in the lab, even for a second until he was old enough to be careful. But, it made him that much more curious about his son's abilities.
Finally, when Christopher was eleven years old, all the answers that Archibald and Beatrice were looking for came to pass. A wizard came to the doorstep of the Darling family and explained to them that their son was in fact, also a wizard, and the reason they had no idea about it was because they were what the wizarding world called Muggles, or non-magic folk. Both parents were absolutely blown away by this, as they were a man and a woman of science and simply did not believe such things could exist, but, the more they thought about it, the more magic just made sense when it came to their son’s odd abilities. They were informed that come September of 1888, their son would be offered a spot at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Christopher was beyond excited, but incredibly nervous that he wouldn’t fit in there, especially as he had no magic background and he was afraid that he wouldn't do well. His father reassured him that it was just another way to explore the world, discover new things, just like what he’d grown up doing - it was not much different than science. The family converted a good portion of their money to Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts, bought him a snowy owl called Galileo so that he could send them letters, and told their other family members he was going to a special boarding school, which is why he’d no longer attend the school with his cousins or be around during the regular school year and sent him off.
When he arrived at the school, Christopher was mesmerized by how fascinating it all was, especially as he had never even considered such things he was seeing could be real. It was a fairly quick sort into Ravenclaw and he felt at home with those in his house, even if he seemed to have inherited his father’s social awkwardness, which made it difficult for him to make friends. It was even harder for him as he was now in a school with those not only of different magical backgrounds but also class boundaries making him feel like he was crossing a line when he tried to make friends with those who were above him. Despite this bump in the road, he enjoyed Hogwarts and found himself pretty adept at magic. He was always studying in the library, wanting to learn everything there was to know about his newfound abilities. His favorite classes were Potions, Herbology, and Astronomy, but he wouldn’t say he hated any class either, except for maybe Defense Against the Dark Arts, which he found he wasn’t necessarily the greatest in combat situations or Flying as he liked to stay firmly on the ground. Still, he did his best to practice what he failed at and get help from instructors if needed. This helped him as he would continue to get scholarships to help pay for school tuition as long as he kept his grades as high as they were.
During the summer between Christopher’s second and third year, his paternal grandparents passed away, one right after the other, which caused some heartbreak in the family. It especially shocked Christopher as he had learned that wizards tended to live so much longer than Muggles did, and he wondered if he would lose all of his family before he got too old. It was a weird time, but he did his best to keep distracted by studying his textbooks to keep refreshed on what he’d learned, and also he was now old enough to properly help his father in his lab. He began to wonder if he could combine Muggle science with magic, though he couldn’t test it at all when he was at home, as he knew the laws forbidding him from doing magic outside of school. Still, he was curious. Upon entering his third year, Christopher elected to take Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, and Earth Magic on top of his usual core classes. It was difficult for him to choose, as he wanted to learn everything. He sometimes would ask his classmates who took the other classes what sort of things they would learn in their classes, just so he had an idea, which sometimes would be met with answers instead of eye rolls. Perhaps, he thought, he would simply check out a book on the subject from the library and do some personal reading on it, at the very least. Maybe when he was an adult, he could study the other subjects more thoroughly as he would have the proper training.
In 1891, he began to attend his fourth year at Hogwarts, where he had become a bit more confident with his skills in magic and balancing it with his interests in Muggle sciences. At fourteen, he had reached the age where he was a bit more rebellious than he ought to be, though he was always a good, well-mannered student. He began to experiment with his magic, trying to combine it with science to create something - largely, he did this with potions. He would experiment with creating his own potions, throwing in what he knew about chemistry on top of what he knew about magic, and this result was often disastrous as he was only four years into his magical training. Perhaps, it wasn’t as bad as someone who had less knowledge, and it wasn’t like he hurt anyone (except maybe himself when his cauldron exploded and burned him or otherwise singed his clothes), but it wasn’t good. This caused him to get into trouble with his Head of House and likely the Headmaster as well when he nearly burned through a girl’s dress and her skin by spilling some of his awful concoction. Thankfully, he was allowed to stay at Hogwarts, but he had to stop his experiments or there would be more serious consequences. This incident cost him a ton of house points, which, of course, upset his housemates. It’s now April, exams are coming up before the summer holidays, and Christopher has so far kept his head down and not caused any more trouble. In more pleasant news, his mother was pregnant again, due to give birth in July, which Christopher is unsure how he feels about that, as he'd been an only child most of his life, but he's interested in helping his mother through her pregnancy when he returns home.
Personality:
Christopher takes heavily after his father in the way he’s always been inquisitive to the point where he may disregard his own safety if he believes he may be able to figure out the answer. He also doesn’t seem to have a specific subject that he likes to stick to either and seems to always be hungry for more knowledge, whether it be Muggle related or Magic related. Like his father, as well, he’s always been rather socially awkward, and sometimes overly blunt because he sticks more to facts than emotions, but that’s not to say he’s at all cold or unfeeling. In fact, if he finds he accidentally hurt someone's feelings, he’s the first person to apologize and do what it takes to make it up to them. He just has difficulty understanding social cues and it leads to blunders when socializing with his peers. Although, like his mother, he’s actually far more sensitive than he lets on. He’s a protective, caretaker type who, while he is fascinated by science enough to experiment on things, he would never do anything to otherwise harm another person or any living thing for that matter - this includes insects that he finds to study. He’s also likely to stand up for any student who is being bullied, even if makes a mess of himself because he knows what it’s like to be the weird one. Being as studious as he is, he can be a bit of a know-it-all and this may frustrate his peers, especially as this makes him overconfident during lessons. Should he get the question wrong though, he’s not offended by it and wishes to further educate himself, but he does get embarrassed as this relates to how impulsive he gets. He is a student who sticks to the rules, and otherwise doesn’t like breaking the rules for anything, though, unless it is actually hurting someone or will lose Ravenclaw a lot of points, he probably won’t say anything if he sees others doing something wrong. However, as he’s gotten older, he’s beginning to put his own curiosities above the rules, loosen up a bit about them, and in his fourth year, it got him into a lot of trouble.
Other:
— EXAMS —
Class OWL NEWT Arithmancy — — Astronomy — — Care of Magical Creatures — — Charms — — Defense Against the Dark Arts — — Earth Magic — — Herbology — — History of Magic — — Potions — — Transfiguration — —
— SKILLS —
- Has a firm understanding of multiple fields of sciences thanks to his upbringing
- Has memorized the Periodic Table of Elements
- Knows quite a bit of Latin & Greek roots that are related to medicine and science
- Proficient at cleaning & repairing charms due to his own mistakes
— TRIVIA —
amortentia | Leather-bound books, the dizzing smell of chemicals, and edelweiss
boggart | His father in a straight jacket, clearly an asylum patient
patronus | Non-Corporeal
pets | Galileo (Snowy Owl)
Sample Roleplay Post:
The young witch considered herself fairly perceptive, but she didn't think she needed to be to tell that one of the boys didn't seem to mind that she had joined them in their compartment and the other seemed to be having some reservations about it. But, she wasn't going to let that get her down - she knew that boys were always apprehensive about hanging out with girls. It was something that she had learned from growing up with her older brothers and her male cousins. Lily brushed it off and instead allowed them to explain why they had so much candy. "That's a great idea," she complimented, "I hadn't thought about that. Though, I imagine you could also owl your family and ask them to send you some treats. My mum said she'd send me something every few months and I'm sure perhaps I'll get some candy from my Aunts and Uncles too." She might have considered doing the same, getting a stash for her dorm, but she needed to save the coins that her parents gave her to use for the first semester of classes as she was sure they'd be incredibly unhappy with her if she blew it all.
"Pleasure to meet you both! And yeah, it'll be my first year."
Lily pulled her legs up so that she was sitting with her knees to the side of her on the train bench. She could feel the seat continuing to vibrate due to the train moving, her green eyes peering outside the window for a moment, already seeing the passing trees, indicating where they were on their journey. She redirected her attention to the boys just as she found a chocolate frog box being tossed at her; she caught it with one hand and then got to work opening it, being very careful to stop the frog from jumping out so that she could eat it. "Thanks, I appreciate it," she said cheerfully, biting the head off the frog before unwrapping the card that the chocolate frog came with. It looked to be a 2015 Gold Edition Harry Potter, one that she already had as her father gave her the one that he got as a gift after its release. She smiled at it before looking up again, now finding herself being asked about her house, then subsequently being questioned if she was a muggleborn witch. It surprised her; she figured they'd know who she was and was just being polite about not mentioning it. Not that Lily was that arrogant, but she'd been in the papers before and at Ministry events where her family would give speeches at.
"I'm not a muggleborn, I'm a halfblood, I know what houses are, though it's nice to hear you guys aren't prejudiced against those who are," she laughed, twirling the wizard card around in her fingers, "I mean, you don't see the resemblance?" The young witch turned her card over and put it next to her face with a playful pout, the Harry Potter portrait in the card giving his usual awkward wave. She only held the post for a moment before shrugging and going back to idly fiddling with the card, looking down at her lap for just a moment, thinking about what house she was hoping for. "I suppose I'm expected to be in Gryffindor like my elder brothers," she said to the two boys; Lily wouldn't be surprised if that's where the sorting hat decided to place her and she wouldn't mind if it did.
She sucked in her cheek to the side as she thought about her answer, hoping she explained it correctly. "But if I'm honest, I don't...particularly have an ideal house? I think it's a little less about what house I'm in and more about how I utilize my time in the house. You know? Like, I want to be an incredibly talented witch, regardless if I'm representing Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. If that makes any sense." She paused for a moment, hoping that she didn't sound dumb or weird. She just had this thirst to prove herself to be someone who could be important or special on her own and she was sure that she could do that wherever she was. All she needed was the opportunity to do so and Hogwarts would give her that. Lily then smiled sweetly at them and then nodded over to the two young wizards.
"What about you boys? Which house do you want?"
Out-of-Character
Name: TaliaAge: 24
Contact: PM
Other Characters: None
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