Nicknames: In younger years, he tried to go by Theo but it never stuck. His siblings often call him Matty.
Birthdate: July 23, 1859
Current Age: 33
Gender: Male, perceived male
Occupation: Head of Administration at the Flint Institute
Reputation: 9: The Flint family’s - notably his father’s and brother’s - excellent reputation offers Mattheo many privileges but he never tried particularly hard to be a well-respected wizard himself. For most of his life, Mattheo has made himself comfortable in the shadows of the Flint patriarch and his heir. And while Mattheo is perfectly welcome in society, his enthusiasm for blood purity and upholding tradition pales in comparison to his older brother’s tenacity.
Residence: London
Hogwarts House: Slytherin
Wand: Black Walnut, 11 ½ inches, rigid, Phoenix Feather
Blood Status: Pure
Social Class: Upper
Family:
♪ Father: Malcorvus Flint
♪ Mother: Jocasta Flint, née Goyle
♪ Older Brother: Thaddeus Flint
♪ Younger siblings
Appearance:
Mattheo has the typical brown hair of the Flint family. He wears it a little longer than is, perhaps, considered proper, but he enjoys how strands of it seem to fall effortlessly into place.
Heavy-lidded eyes are Mattheo’s most prominent facial feature. The colour of his ires resembles a stormy sea - a dark blue with flakes of grey but back in his emerald Slytherin robes, his eyes had often appeared more green than blue.
When among people, Mattheo usually wears a look of disinterest which could also be regarded as arrogance, and it wouldn’t even be incorrect. Mattheo carries himself with a certain aloofness, his slender frame letting him glide through crowds and past crooning mothers at balls, then settle himself against a wall until the ordeals come to a close.
At 5′9″, Mattheo isn’t exactly short but still the shortest among the Flint men. His slim frame doesn’t help the appearance of him looking particularly fragile next to his father and his older brother but beneath his usually loose shirts and vests (a preference picked up in the Mediterranean climate), taut muscles draw lines across his arms and chest.
Mattheo considers himself an accomplished musician and consequently likes to tell people he is ambidextrous, while he shows off his long, elegant fingers. In truth, he is right-handed.
Mattheo has a clear, fresh voice; good for singing, he’s always been told. He takes pride in being well-spoken, and rarely curses. His accent and choice of vocabulary combined with his high-angled cheekbones are a quick giveaway that he belongs to a wealthy family.
History:
1859 ♪ Beginnings ♪
Mattheo was born as the second child (and second son) to Malcorvus and Jocasta Flint. Although he wouldn’t understand this for years to come, being born as the spare came with all the benefits of an Upper Class pureblood family and very few obligations.
1863 ♪ Childish ways ♪
With multiple children running and crawling about, it could get very noisy at the Flint estate. And Mattheo was one of the loudest. He had just turned four when he first placed his hands on the keys of a neglected piano in the music room. Excitedly, he let it ring out dissonant chords and cacophonies. The servants try to dissuade him, to lure him away with other toys. But sooner or later, Mattheo would always return to the elegant ivory keys.
He was still very young when he showed his first sign of magical aptitude in that exact spot. It was unmissable when the usual jangling of random notes was replaced with a simple, enchanted melody. To Mattheo, the music piece that had been propped up against the piano had only looked like dots and lines with no rhyme or reason to them. But the instrument, usually so pliable under his own fingers, rebelled against his touch and played this new melody instead.
For a few years after magic had first found him, Mattheo was suddenly, what he can only think back on as, ‘the favourite’ to his father. The more time passed, the more important he became to Malcorvus. Mattheo enjoyed the attention - the special treatment and pats on the back for small achievements that a young boy like him was still phenomenally proud of. Only when the favouritism disappeared practically overnight, and Malcorvus’ attention returned to Thaddeus, did he understand that for a while his father might have prepared for a world in which Mattheo would become the heir to the Flint family. But as soon as Thaddeus had exhibited magical powers, Mattheo as the second son, had been cast aside again. He was bitter for a while, jealous of his brother who was presented with opportunities simply for being older. Mattheo wouldn’t be able to shake this innate sense of rivalry way into his late teens, and it prevented the two men from ever forming an honest, brotherly bond.
1870 ♪ Departure ♪
Mattheo had just turned eleven when he first set eyes on Hogwarts and donned the Sorting Hat. He was a small, skinny boy for his age and although he was already used to grand estates and ballrooms, even his eyes grew wide at the breathtaking view of the Great Hall. The Sorting Hat grumbled only for a second or two before it announced him to be part of Slytherin. Mattheo had all along been sure that’s where he belonged - after all, this was his father’s house, his brother’s house and he wanted nothing more than to belong.
1870 - 1877 ♪ House of snakes ♪
Mattheo realised quickly that, although he had seen his father open many doors in the real world with money, at Hogwarts (which was decidedly not the real world), it seemed to matter very little. For example, no matter his insistence, Hogwarts would not let him keep a piano in his common room or dormitory. ‘Too unwieldy! Too noisy!’, they tried to reason with him. ‘What if everyone wants to bring their piano, their harp, their personal greenhouse?’ Mattheo only huffed. Couldn’t they see that he wasn’t everyone?!
In the absence of his favourite pastime, Mattheo tried to refocus his ceaseless mind: He read, he stared at chess pieces, then, eventually, he bought a flute, a poor substitute for a piano but it kept him busy for a while. Rarely, Mattheo dedicated his attention to the Hogwarts syllabus. He enjoyed Charms for its artful flair but disliked Herbology for how dirty and strenuous the work was. Earth would be stuck under his nails for days. His carefully crafted words and polite smile that were required for any Flint outings came in handy, too, letting teachers often overlook his mediocre spells and hastily copied essays.
It was in his sixth year that his grades truly began to slip when another student revealed to him what must be one of Hogwarts’ best-kept secrets - the Room of Requirement. The first time Mattheo had entered it (and anytime after that), he had found the most beautiful piano in the middle of a large open space. After this fateful discovery, he was rarely seen in the Slytherin common room and caught more than once post-curfew when he would try to make his way back down to the dungeons.
His NEWTs were unsurprisingly underwhelming. Then again, Mattheo had never cared much about a scribble on a piece of paper. He was sure the reputation and wealth of the Flint family would open plenty of doors to him. And a real ‘job’ - a post at the Ministry or Auror training like his brother - were not paths that Mattheo had ever envisioned for himself.
1878 ♪ Departure…again ♪
After much reluctance to do anything else, Mattheo was finally granted permission to leave England behind for European travels in the late spring. France, Italy, Greece. Though he liked Italy best. He stayed for months, then returned again after hopping from one Greek Island to another. Studying music, art and bodies, too. Female, male - they both hold a certain intrigue to Mattheo. What he mostly craves is beauty and there seems to be an abundance of it in the Mediterranean.
Given his brother’s and father’s regular travels, no one seemed to usher him home quickly, although they must have surely thought Mattheo was doing something more useful with his time.
1879 - 1888 ♪ The In-Between ♪
Mattheo returned to England now and then, he furnished a flat in London that mostly stood empty, he attended some balls and shook hands with people he had cared too little about to recall their names. And then he left again. To learn about the world and the music within it. He picked up a little bit of French, and a fair amount of Italian, though he never made an effort to consciously learn it, and really, whenever he returned to the Flints from his travels, he had very little to show for it. Aside from the instruments, of course. Pianos, harpsichords, violins, drums - most of them built by Muggles which Mattheo wisely omitted when he put them on display in his flat. He had developed an interest in the Muggle craft, sure that the sound of a piece that was constructed by hand was more honest and (ironically) pure than the shortcuts of magic.
1890 - current ♪ Welcome home ♪
Mattheo only returned to England for a longer period of time when he learned that his mother had been unwell. He had been merely granted a few weeks with her before she - still too suddenly, still unexpectedly - passed away. And Mattheo rued himself for all the years spent away from her and the family. Though he had always cared for his mother most, the family he had left, his father and his siblings, kept him closer to home. A more permanent residence in England meant Mattheo could no longer pretend to be oblivious to his father’s organisations.
He kept his grumblings and hesitations to himself when he was assigned the post of Head of Administration at the Flint Institute. His involvement in the Knights of Walpurgis was not a request but rather an obligation, and while Mattheo generally didn’t disagree with its vision, he never contributed more than was absolutely necessary. But over the last few years, he found that his work at the Flint Institute was quite manageable and granted him all the freedoms he desired. Mostly, it consisted of him showing his face a couple of times a month and staying out of trouble (as much as possible, anyway).
Personality:
SELF-SERVING ♪ QUICK-WITTED ♪ PASSIONATE BUT SELECTIVE ♪ A SNOB ♪ LAZY ♪ OPINIONATED ♪ QUICK TO LIE ♪ SPONTANEOUS ♪ KNOW-IT-ALL ♪ SUPERFICIAL CONFIDENCE ♪ IMPATIENT
Despite Mattheo’s forays into music and Muggle culture, he has never been able to fully shake the Flint family’s values of purity and superiority. He’s prejudicial towards wizards of less pure blood. He knows that Purebloods are of a different - a better - breed. After all, that was why they were so highly regarded. He regards the lower classes with the sort of indifference one might offer to pigeons in the square.
He has attended enough balls and galas to know about their etiquette though he never quite commits to it. He is bored easily, quick to look for distraction. His fingers, happiest when they are playing a melody, are always fidgeting or tapping out a silent beat.
There is a stark difference between learning and studying, and Mattheo is only ever interested in the former. He is selective with the topics that intrigue him. But when something catches his interest, he dives in head first and immerses himself fully. He loves talking about himself and his passions. There is a twinkle in his eye whenever he can share it with someone else. But he is also prone to be a know-it-all, and if others challenge him on his expertise, a calm conversation can quickly turn into a heated debate.
Other:
♪ Mattheo owns a 2-year old, dark-brown Kneazle named Verdi.
♪ His correspondence is handled by an ancient-looking,Eagle owl that listens to Clef.
♪ Mattheo is a (passive) member of the Knights of Walpurgis (Valiant of the Watchtower).
♪ He was a member of the Chess club at Hogwarts.
♪ He speaks basic French and adequate Italian.
♪ Mattheo’s London flat is stuffed with trinkets from his travels (most of them having a Muggle origin). Many of the paintings don’t even move!
♪ Notorious for always showing up late.
♪ Mattheo is not a skilled Magician, but he knows his way around a few simple charms that he relies upon when he has to perform magic in public.
♪ He can enchant instruments to play beautiful symphonies for hours but prefers to make music by hand.
Age: 30
Contact: Discord, PM
Other Characters: Jean-Baptiste Labouchère
![[Image: TrSGeWR.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/TrSGeWR.jpg)