Nicknames: Don’t.
Birthdate: 24th March, 1837
Current Age: 51 Years
Occupation: Magizoologist
Reputation: 8
Has an uncommonly independent daughter and also generally Does His Own Thing and DGAF.Residence: Guess who’s just shown up in Irvingly?
Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff
Wand: Hornbeam, 13", unicorn hair, unyielding.
Blood Status: Halfblood
Social Class: Working
Family:
Ciarán MacKay | Father | 1804
Iseult MacKay née Murphy | Mother | 1810
Seamus MacKay | Brother | 1835
-- and family
Shona O’Neill née MacKay | Sister | 1839
-- and family
Muirenn Walsh née MacKay | Sister | Healer | 1841
-- Grady Walsh | Brother-in-law | 1838
-- Oran Walsh | Nephew | 1859
-- Tierney Walsh | Nephew | 1862
-- Una Walsh | Niece | 1862
-- Finley Walsh | Niece | 1864
-- Eireen Walsh | Niece | 1866
Nola MacKay née Federline | Wife | 1843 - 1884
Eavan Ainsley MacKay | Daughter | 1863
Fergus Federline | Brother-in-law | 1848 - 1884
Isabel Federline née Rabnott | Sister-in-law | 1852 - 1884
-- Angus Federline | Nephew | 1873 - 1884
-- Dahlia Federline | Niece | 1877
-- Elva Federline | Niece | 1883 - 1884
Appearance: 5’9” and sturdy of build, Conall is an outdoors person and it shows. He is most comfortable at some level of dishevelled, thinks the very concept of fashion is ludicrous, and stubbornly mends tears in his own clothes (very badly). He has blue eyes, his hair - sometimes grown out, sometimes shaved close to his head, he doesn’t care - is auburn and his facial hair an even brighter shade of ginger. His face is heavily lined, and he has felt the onset of age more severely within the last decade than all the others beforehand, grief perhaps having had a hand in wearing him down. Living in hot climates has brought out an obscenity of freckles, not just over his face but across his back and shoulders, too. Whilst he is fairly fit, he does get ruddy-faced quite quickly under exertion, in anger, or just when he’s been drinking. He has a variety of scars, scratches and old wounds still visible from working with creatures in the wild, and he is right-handed.
History:
1837 | Conall is born in Wexford, Ireland, the second child of four. He is a robustly healthy but uncannily quiet baby - all through his childhood, too. He's not shy - in fact, he's fairly stubborn - but he doesn't ever say much, not even when he's throwing a violent tantrum.
1839 | Shona is born.
1841 | Muirenn is born.
1848 | Conall gets his Hogwarts letter, and is sent off to school, though he isn't fussed about attending. He is sorted into Hufflepuff, and it takes a while to adjust to a crowded castle of students. Not that his own family wasn't loud, but - at least there was space, in the countryside.
1850 | A few years in, and he has settled into school life, made some friends, broken out of his shell a little. His attention is never fully invested into his classes, until he chooses Care of Magical Creatures as an option: because animals, animals are something he understands.
1853 | He leaves school in May after his fifth year, because the family has his sisters to support as well and it is not as though Conall's OWL scores will be anything to crow about. With magical creatures his sole interest, he takes up a job as assistant to an Augurey keeper, aiding in caring for them as well as studying them.
1859 | At twenty-two, Conall has picked up positions here and there in Ireland to further his apprenticeship and career in magizoology, and also found a girl he wants to settle down with. Only, when his newest natural research project comes to its end, the girl breaks his heart and leaves him for another man.
1860 | A few months later, desperately in search of a change and some adventure (or an escape), Conall emigrates to North America, having obtained a temporary position with another magizoologist in Nova Scotia. It is on the trip across that he meets another Irish girl, Nola Federline, and he is struck by her immediately, though doesn't expect to see her when they've crossed the Atlantic. Except she is boarding not far from where he is working, and so he can't escape her. He isn't complaining.
1862 | By now, Conall is head-over-heels for Nola, and, once he has mustered the courage to ask her to marry him, they do so in December of the same year, quietly but happily.
1863 | Though her pregnancy caught them both by surprise - and was by no means an easy one - in October Nola gives birth to a girl whom they name Eavan. Conall has not expected to be a father so soon (and does not want to be one if it is at the cost of losing Nola), but to say he isn't overjoyed at Eva's birth would be entirely false. Much as he likes to pretend he prefers creatures to people, his family are welcome exceptions.
1866 | Having a daughter has not stopped Conall pursuing magizoology research and ventures wherever the opportunities may be, so the family uproots to Australia for the next few years.
1872 | Between Australia, travelling, and visiting Ireland again, Eavan has been growing up, and they are forced to consider her schooling. Conall, if it had been up to him, would not have bothered, and just have let her have the best sort of education out of doors that she was already getting, but Nola thinks they should settle down and let her experience Ilvermorny, and Conall thinks whatever his wife thinks is the best idea in the world.
1875 | Eva leaves their young farm in New Hampshire to attend school, and is sorted into Thunderbird house.
1882 | By the time Eavan returns home for good - and with a mind to work with Conall (even his best attempts at pushing it down can't hide the extent of his delight) - the farm is thriving, as they rehabilitate, survey and care for creatures both magical and not; including a unicorn, a pair of hippogriffs, a small herd of diricawls, an augurey, and some nifflers.
1884 | The best years of his life abruptly come to an end when Nola succumbs to a grievous case of pneumonia in March. (Not a few months later, they hear word that Nola's brother and most of his family have passed away in Hogsmeade.) Conall is crushed to be without his wife, and does what he always does when he can't face his feelings: he looks for an out. Too absorbed in his own grief to really stop to glean Eavan's opinion, Conall relocates all the animals on the family farm and takes the first opportunity to leave a place suddenly imbued with so many painful memories behind.
They leave for the Amazon in September, but Eva does not fare well in the tropical temperatures. Conall feels guilty about dragging her along, but does not have the presence of mind or the will to come up with an alternative. Eavan arranges to stay with relatives in Scotland for the rest of his trip, and leaves after Christmas.
1888 | Though only supposed to be a two-year post, Conall and his colleagues get caught up in their Amazonian research and he does not protest a bit when the project gets prolonged again and again. He throws himself into his work as he always has, because it is the best way he knows to forget everything else. The Amazon is different, though, in that Conall finds a new recklessness in himself, a lack of care about danger, some missing self-preservation instinct. He avoids mortal danger for the most part until a Lethifold attacks their camp in the rainforest. Conall has had trouble sleeping, these past years, so he has the upper hand - or ought to. He knows how to repel a Lethifold: a Patronus is the only sure way. He tries. And tries, and can't summon the memories or the hope with which to manage it. In the end, one of the other researchers drives it off, but the incident shakes Conall. He was happy, once, so happy - but he has been pushing everyone away, and maybe it's time to stop doing that.
He decides he needs to get out, well out of the claustrophobic Amazon, and decides to visit his daughter. It's been far too long.
Personality: A man of few words and strong opinions, Conall values hard work, honesty, loyalty and independence, but is also quick to form impressions. These impressions solidify fast, and become hard to budge; nor does he like to admit being wrong. Though he comes across as generally gruff, aloof, and sometimes standoffish, when he warms to you he has a weakness for good humour, can be extraordinarily overprotective, and is gentle towards creatures without exception. He feels betrayal keenly, and does not like to feel closed in; maybe that's partly why he tends to prefer animals to people.Other:
—Despite the years of travel, his accent remains persistently Irish.
—He only succeeded in casting one long after his schooldays, and has not been able to for the past few years, but his patronus was a mountain goat.
Sample Roleplay Post:
![[Image: TrSGeWR.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/TrSGeWR.jpg)