Nicknames: Bran
Birthdate: November 20th, 1825
Current Age: 63 Years
Occupation: Member of the Committee on Experimental Charms
Reputation: 9 — due almost exclusively to the shenanigans of his youngest child.
Residence: North Bartonburg, Hogsmeade
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
Wand: 10” maple and unicorn hair, supple.
Blood Status: Halfblood
Social Class: Middle
Family:
FATHER | HENRY JAMES FISK. [1790 – 1873]Appearance: In his youth, Bran's hair was an even blend of his mother's red and his father's dark brown, but in his latter years—primarily since the death of his wife in 1884—he has gone almost entirely grey. He keeps his hair and beard well trimmed and neat. He dresses well, though not opulently—he is a middle class man who raised ten children, after all! He sometimes carries a cane, but he doesn't actually need one on most days, so he also tends to forget it places quite frequently. He is on the taller side at just over six foot, right-handed, and has a slim but sturdy frame. In his prime he could have passed for intimidating—if he weren't always so soft-spoken—but these days his two default expressions are 'grandfatherly' and 'grumpy.'
MOTHER | VIVIAN NEALA FISK NEE MACBRANAIN. [1801 - 1830]
BROTHER | SULLIVAN OSCAR FISK. [1827 – ?]
-----SISTER IN LAW | WILLA CATHERINE FISK NEE TREHLO. [1828 – ?]
-----NEPHEW | HENRY JAMES ALLEN [1845 - ?]
-----NIECE | VIVIAN CAITRIN ALLEN [1847 - ?]
-----SISTER IN LAW | SARALYNN ANNE FISK NEE DUNN. [1832 – ?]
-----NEPHEW | OSCAR THOMAS FISK [1851 - ?]
-----NIECE | WINNIFRED DIANNE FUDGE NEE FISK [1852 - ?]
SISTER | BRIANDA CAITRIN ALLEN NEE FISK. [1830 – ?]
-----BROTHER IN LAW | STEPHEN JOHN ALLEN. [1820 – 1880]
-----NEPHEW | STEPHEN JOHN ALLEN II [1848 - 1848]
WIFE | DELIA MYRTLE FISK NEE DAVIS. [1832 – 1884] Delia was his life.
SON | ARI AJAX FISK. [1851 – ?] Potion and Plant Poisoning Healer at St Mungo's. Ari is everything Brannon could wish a son to be! Outstanding lad! If a bit... well, flat.
SON | JULIAN ARAMIS FISK. [1853 – ?] Novelist. Jules is secretly Bran's favorite, which is why it grieves him so badly to see his son making foolish decisions, like choosing careers that get his legs blown off. If he could just grow up a little more and stop being so impulsive, he'd probably be an ideal son.
DAUGHTER | KATIA ROSALINE MEADOWES NEE FISK. [1854 – ?] Incredibly Prolific Spawning Machine. Although his daughter can be a bit silly, he loves her very much—and he adores the fact that she keeps giving him grandbabies!
-----SON IN LAW | WILLIAM -- MEADOWES. [1835 – ?]
-----GRANDSON | EDGAR SHAKESPEARE MEADOWES [1875 – ?]
-----GRANDSON | RICHARD KEATS MEADOWES [1876 – ?]
-----GRANDDAUGHTER | LYDIA ROSSETTI MEADOWES [1879 – ?]
-----GRANDSON | SAMUEL BURNS MEADOWES [1881 – ?]
-----GRANDDAUGHTER | PENELOPE BARRET BROWNING MEADOWES [1883 – ?]
-----GRANDDAUGHTER | DELIA WHEATLEY MEADOWES [1884 – ?]
-----GRANDDAUGHTER | ZELDA LANDON MEADOWES [1886 – ?]
-----GRANDDAUGHTER | KATHERINE BARBAULD MEADOWES [1886 – ?]
SON | ELLIS KONSTANTIN FISK. [1857 – ?] Junior Assistant to the Minister of Magic. A sensible young man with an excellent head on his shoulders.
DAUGHTER | ROSLYN MARIAN ROSS NEE FISK. [1859 – ?] Roslyn was born about thirty-years-old and has stayed that way all through her life. Bran loves his daughter and is glad that she's happy—and he does think she is happy, even if she remains outwardly cynical.
-----SON IN LAW | JUSTIN LACHLAN ROSS. [1846 – ?] Minister of Magic. Brannon likes his son-in-law despite the fact that he is Scottish and insists on living in Scotland. He proudly supported him throughout his campaign for Minister.
-----GRANDSON | IDRYS -- ROSS. [1878 – ?]
-----GRANDDAUGHTER | RHIANNON -- ROSS [1886 - ?]
SON | LEONID JEAN FISK. [1861 – ?] Hit Wizard. As long as he remains a hit wizard, his father will be disappointed in him, because what the hell kind of a career is that?
DAUGHTER | XENA COSETTE FISK. [1861 – ?] Debutante. Brannon thinks his daughter can do no wrong, and would do anything to see her well married and happy. Unfortunately, that’s starting to seem less and less likely.
SON | DORIAN GARETH FISK. [1864 – ?]
SON | NEMO CHESHIRE FISK. [1866 – ?] Muggle Liaison Office Employee. Nemo is a good kid. He has potential, but based on some of his older sons, Brannon is just waiting to hear that he's wasted it.
DAUGHTER | ZELDA OPHELIA FISK. [1868 – ?] A constant source of turmoil.
History:
Brannon is born to a middle-class family in Ottery St. Catchpole, the first product of a union between the very British Mr. Henry James Fisk and the very Irish Vivian Neala Fisk. The two married for love after a whirlwind romance and settled where Henry's ancestral home was, but Vivian missed Ireland very much; for this reason, she gave her children Gaelic names. Brannon, his firstborn, was merely an anglicization of her former surname. He was joined over the span of five years by a younger brother, Sully, and a sister, Bria. Their mother died after complications in labor during Bria's birth.
All three children were rather reserved, but very close. They played with Muggles as often as with other magical children, and perhaps consequently were all rather late in showing signs of magic—and, in fact, Bria, though able to produce tiny demonstrations occasionally, did not have enough magical ability to merit an invitation to Hogwarts.
Bran went off to Hogwarts and was sorted into Ravenclaw. He made a few good friends that remained with him throughout the years, but was never particularly popular as he was rather more subdued than the average child. He excelled in all of his classes. After two years, his younger brother Sully joined him at Hogwarts and became a Gryffindor. During his fifth year, Brannon earned all of his owls (mostly O's with one or two E's) and was appointed prefect. The following year—his sixth, Sully's fourth—his brother was caught in a precarious situation with a girl, and was summarily expelled from Hogwarts. Their father was disappointed, but arranged for a Muggle education to supplement Sully's shortened magical one. Bria was off at a boarding school for girls, and the double financial stress of expensive schools (and supplemental magic tutors) was keenly felt by Mr. Henry Fisk.
Aware that his father was struggling financially to support both of his younger siblings, Brannon lost no time in finding himself a career. His grades were good enough to do almost anything, but he wanted to work at the Ministry, and so he found a position on the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad. He held the position for five years, and became one of the more reliable and trusted members of the Squad—especially since most of the people who joined seemed to be doing it for the thrills, not because they were really fascinated by magic and its unintended consequences, like he was. (He also did like the thrills, but he'd never admit it—his father was vigilantly on watch for any sign that he would turn out to be a screw-up, like Sully, and Bran didn't want to give him any reason to worry).
In 1845, when Sully was eighteen, he knocked up some lower class woman and married her. Their father was furious. As if to appease him, Sully named the child after Henry. The appeasement was unsuccessful and their father refused to speak to his second son.
In 1847, Bria debuted in Muggle society and quickly made a match to a well-off gentleman whom she met in London. The two had incredible difficulty trying to conceive, and when they did finally get pregnant in early 1848, they miscarried. A discreet doctor's appointment confirmed that Bria would be unable to carry a baby to term. Her husband stood by her through this discovery (earning Bran's eternal respect and gratitude), but the two still desperately wanted children. The solution was presented when Sully's wife, the tramp, decided that motherhood was too much for her and ran off. Their prodigal brother came to Bran and Bria for help, and Brianda immediately insisted that she and her husband take in his two children, Henry II and Vivian (another misguided attempt to make amends with his father), as their own. After a few months, they go through the process of officially adopting the pair, changing their last names to Allen.
Also of note in 1848 (albeit much less dramatic), Brannon is promoted to Head of the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad. As 1849 begins, Sully is resolved to start a new life; he has a semi-decent job now and a decent place to live, and begins looking for a new, respectable wife. Both of his siblings try and get their father to reconcile with him, but Henry stubbornly holds out.
With his new position earning him considerably more money, and without the financial considerations of Bria and Sully's education to be considered, Bran finds himself in a position to begin looking for a wife. He doesn't have to look long—that very year at her Coming Out, he meets Miss Delia Davis, and is immediately smitten. After a short and informal courting period, he proposes in August and they marry later that year.
Quite out of the blue, Sully also finds a girl to propose to and marry. A nice, respectable girl. Their father actually attends the wedding, and things are looking up for everyone! In 1851, both brothers are blessed with sons; Sully, uninventively, names his Oscar, while Brannon's new boy is called Ari Ajax Fisk. The children are quite healthy, and Sully's family is joined by a girl, Persephone, the following year. Unfortunately, a misplaced comment from Henry about how alike the little girl is to her sister—meaning Vivian Allen—alerts Sully's new wife to the entire terrible ordeal of his first. Although she loves him very much, she cannot handle the knowledge that their marriage is technically bigamous—since his last tramp ran away without enacting a divorce—and sharing this with her father results in her being immediately swept away to America, where he hopes that she will still be young and pretty enough to find a nonbigamous husband. Sully is incredibly grieved and attempts to go and find her, leaving his children in the care of their grandfather, who guiltily thinks it was entirely his fault that his son's respectable life has been destroyed.
Sully pursues his missing wife for years; meanwhile, his children are raised by Bria and Henry, respectively. In the meantime, Brannon and Delia's family continues to grow, with Julian Aramis joining them in 1853 and Katia Rosaline in 1854. Bran thinks of himself as quite a family man, as he is very fond of all of his children—but he can also be very strict with rules, because he doesn't want any of his precious offspring to end up falling down the poor decision trap that his brother has.
Sully finally returns in 1857, just in time to see his third nephew born, Ellis Konstantin. Roslyn Marion arrives two years later. While his brother is getting reestablished, Bran tries to limit his exposure to the children, just in case. It has been years, after all, where he only communicated with his brother via letter, so he isn't sure whether he's fallen back into bad decisions and he only wants good role models around the kids.
His children begin to show signs of magic, one by one, starting in 1859, when Ari saves himself and a kitten from falling off of a roof. While the boy did earn a scolding for being in such a dangerous position in the first place, his parents decide to allow him to keep the kitten. As Julian and Katia follow in their brother's magical footsteps, Bran is relieved—not that they have magic (he really wouldn't have minded a child who ended up like his sister), but that they seem to be displaying it in at least semi-productive ways. Twins Xena Cosette and Leonid Jean join the family in 1861, before Ari goes off to Hogwarts the next year and becomes a Hufflepuff. Bran is secretly a little disappointed that his eldest son wasn't a Ravenclaw, like both of his parents, but doesn't show it.
Ari seems to be doing well in school, and the rest of his children are a delight as always. In 1864, Dorian Gareth is born, and Julian departs for Hogwarts, giving Bran the Ravenclaw son he had always wanted but never admitted to wanting. More children have magic, yay, but it doesn't prevent little childhood mishaps; Leonid breaks his arm in 1865, which makes Bran temporarily a little more strict about when and where the children are allowed to play, though these new rules only really last as long as the boy's cast.
In 1865, when Brannon was approaching forty, he and his wife mutually decided that perhaps the Squad was more of a young man's game, and he ought to find another job within the Ministry. In the past it had been hinted that he would be in line for Assistant Head, but had always rejected the notion because it was 'far too much paperwork.' The position was regrettably occupied at the time, and so Bran transferred to simply an Employee for the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, and hated every minute of it. He took the first opportunity to transfer out, the very next year, to becoming a member of the Committee on Experimental Charms, which was much more interesting—but not as physically demanding as the Squad for Accidental Magic Reversal.
His children continue to be wonderful; Katia and Konstantin become Ravenclaws, and Ari makes up for his lack of Ravenclaw-ness by becoming a prefect. In 1866, Delia gives him another son (his ninth child!), Nemo Cheshire. Two years later, Delia becomes pregnant once again, and the pair decided mutually that this will be their last child, because ten is quite enough and any more might become too much to support at once. Zelda Ophelia is born in 1868.
His oldest son, Ari, graduates Hogwarts and pursues a hospital career, which Bran cannot fault him for, even if it does seem a bit clinical (no pun intended) as career choices go. The hospital is infinitely preferable over cursebreaking, however, which is what Julian decides he's going to do with his life. Bran instantly recognizes this as a Bad Decision, and has no problem saying so. He has always been immensely proud of both Ari and Julian, and if the latter ends up going the way of his brother Sullivan, it will not be without a fight from his old man.
His next three children to go off to Hogwarts aren't Ravenclaws, to his secret disappointment; all Hufflepuffs. It's like Hufflepuffs are contagious because they seem to be taking over his family.
During 1872, Bran realizes that one of his coworkers from the Ministry doesn't have anyone to spend the holidays with, and, since he happens to like the man a good deal, invites him to celebrate with the Fisks. From there on out, the man, William Meadowes, makes frequent appearances at the Fisk household.
Brannon's father dies early in the year, which saddens him and makes him a little more irritable than perhaps he would have otherwise been when Dory, Nemo, and Zelda steal a neighbor's canoe and nearly drown themselves trying to run off and have a pirate adventure, or something. Watercraft are summarily banned from the Fisk household.
Katia graduates in 1873, which provides Brannon with the challenge of having a daughter out for the first time. They do their best to present her well, and she begins a tentative courtship, but cuts it off for reasons that Brannon would never entirely understand. He irritably thinks that if she is too picky she will never be married, but soon thereafter begins to notice that one Mr. William Meadowes in paying particular attention to Katia. He does all he can to encourage the man—because he is a rather good fellow and would make an ideal son-in-law—but is perpetually worried that Katia would catch on and reject him out of hand. Mercifully, she seems to come around, and in December the two actually start courting! Bran continued to fret that she might be fickle and change her mind—as she did with the last gentleman—and his worry persists through their engagement and even the earliest days of their marriage, until Katia announces that she is pregnant and he finally considers her well and truly settled.
Konstantin goes into the Ministry, much to his father's delight. He's sort of a dork of a dad for a while, popping by his son's workplace whenever he fancies just to check in and see how things are going and insisting they get lunch with Bran's coworkers and probably just embarrassing the snot out of his son (as if naming him Ellis was not enough). Because he apparently can't have too many children making him proud all at once, Zelda decides she wants to be a knight. Unsure what to do with his rebellious daughter, Bran decides that what she really needs is some suitable female influences, and since Xena hasn't been able to fix her he sends her down the road to play with some twin Muggle girls. When she decides to hide in the attic for five hours, Brannon again racks his brain for what to do with her. His first instinct is to send her to Bria, but as Bria's children are by this point both grown and gone, it isn't likely to help. So instead, he corrals his coworkers and sends Zelda off to anyone who will take her, to try and instill some propriety in the girl.
His second grandchild joins Katia's family in 1876, however, which is enough to distract him from what a problem child Zelda is turning out to be. He loves grandkids!
Roslyn graduates and is almost immediately engaged, which is quite alarming for Bran, as he can't help but think of Sully's two short-lead-time marriages. Also, he is Scottish. Despite these apparent faults, Bran does actually like his new son-in-law quite a bit, on a personal level. He settles for being mildly grumpy about their new location—in the newly-established Hogsmeade, which is in Scotland—but not about the man himself. He disapproves equally when Ari transfers from the London hospital to the Hogsmeade one. Having been born, raised, and then married and raised children in the same town for his entire life, Brannon cannot fathom why his children seem to have this urgent desire to leave England and go to Scotland. Every time he goes to visit one of them, he ensures that they know how displeased he is with their residential choices. His wife quiets him slightly by suggesting that as Ari has his own residence now, he might be inclined to start looking for a family of his own — he is, after all, twenty-six and financially independent through his work at the hospital — and the prospect of more grandchildren pacifies him considerably.
1878 brings more changes to be grumpy about; Nemo goes to Hogwarts (Hufflepuff, damnit) which leaves Zelda the only child living at home (Konstantin and Julian don’t count as children anymore). Zelda doesn't seem any more pleased about this than her father does, as all she does for the first month is sulk. Bran loves his daughter, he does, but he has no idea how to interact with her. Ever. And it seems like literally everything she does is done to aggravate him. It is not infrequent for him to assign her to others during conversations—“your daughter,” when speaking to his wife, and “your sister” if talking to his children.
To counterbalance this, however, he does get another grandchild, this time from Roslyn and her Scot. Ross.
Zelda leaves for Hogwarts and, unsurprisingly, becomes yet another Hufflepuff. Leonid and Xena graduate, which is good, because even with his wife's company, Brannon finds their home—which once housed ten children—to be very lonely without them. Leonid becomes a hit wizard because he apparently wasn't smart enough to be an Auror, and Brannon makes his disappointment known. It's an unnecessarily dangerous profession and he ought to just do something sensible like Ari or Konstantin, the latter of whom, consequently, just got a promotion and whom Bran is very proud of.
After her first season, Xena begins courting and then eventually becomes engaged to a nice enough boy. Or, at least, everyone assumed that he was a nice enough boy; in February of 1881 Xena returns from his home in the middle of the night in tears, saying that the engagement has been broken. Brannon assumes, of course, that Mr. Jameshill is at fault (because how could Xena possibly have been to blame?) and makes the decision to return his letters when he writes for the next few days. He wonders if this is the right decision and makes magical copies of them as he does, so that he can discuss the matter with Delia. Before they've come to a conclusion, the receive word that the boy is dead, and Brannon reluctantly hands over the letters he'd sent to Xena over the past few days.
It takes a few days for the rest of the household to learn why the engagement was broken. Brannon is rather conflicted; he had always liked Mr. Jameshill and he wasn't the sort of person who could take pleasure in the untimely death of a young man, no matter what he'd done, but... well, he's rather glad that Xena won't be marrying a werewolf. He doesn't want to see her hurt! Hurt she is, though, at least emotionally. Unfortunately, he cannot really comfort his daughter in the way that she wants to be comforted. It pains him to see her in pain, and he is disappointed in all three of his daughters for not making her feel better (although two are no longer living at home and the other is at Hogwarts). He tries, awkwardly, to help, but he knows that what she really needs is a sister. And Katia is busy moving to Scotland, like all his other children. But she does give him another grandbaby, so he's not too mad.
So many things happen during these years that make Brannon into more and more of a permanently grumpy old man. First, Julian loses his leg in a Cursebreaking incident because of course he did because Cursebreaking is an idiot's profession. William and Katia decide they want to move into someplace with more room, but they end up moving from Hogsmeade, Scotland, to—some place he's hardly heard of which is also in Scotland and not at all closer to home. Zelda wants to play Quidditch, goddamnit. Obviously, he tells her there's no chance in hell (his phrasing is slightly more appropriate but no less blunt). In 1884, Leonid is nearly killed. Figures. He's a goddamn hit wizard. You can definitely see how grumpy Brannon is getting. And then Delia decides she wants to move to bloody Hogsmeade, to be closer to her children. Bran argues that they shouldn't be penalized because their children are idiots who decided to live in Scotland, but he has always been a bit soft towards Delia (not that it has mattered much in the past, as she rarely disagreed with him), and so they pack up and move. And he is THE MOST BITTER about it.
He is mildly pleased with Konstantin's promotion, but before they can properly celebrate, all hell breaks loose. The Minister dies—and he liked that Minister!—and then the plague strikes. His lovely wife, Delia, succumbs to the illness and dies. Brannon is plunged into grief and despair at her loss—when Hogsmeade catches fire later that summer, he bitterly hopes that the whole town burns to the ground and that he and all his children end up back home in Otterly St. Catchpole where they belong. And if they had just stayed in Otterly, Delia would still be alive, because Hogsmeade is a terrible place and they had a damn plague within a year of moving there.
Living in a house without Delia is incredibly lonely, and now that everyone has grown up—except, of course, Zelda, who may, he reflects, never grow up—he feels it was a mistake to stop having children. While he cannot fathom the idea of being with anyone except Delia, he desperately misses the feeling of being a father to small children. He just needs more grandbabies. Also, he needs his kids to stop making poor life decisions, each one of which threatens to leave him with an aneurysm. Particularly worrying is Xena’s brief stint as a kidnappee in 1886, and while she is returned safe and sound, the whole incident makes Brannon even more protective of her than he already was.
Julian actually seems to be making a fairly good life for himself as a writer now, which Brannon is pleased about. Zelda graduates and gets a position in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes which, although he would never admit it, he's also slightly pleased about--he'd much rather Zelda go be a proper girl, but if she really must work, it's at least a boon that she's chosen to do it in the same department he was in for so long.
The following year sees Leonid transfer from being a hit wizard to working for the Werewolf Capture Unit. Brannon had never had much respect for hit wizards, as an occupation, but it's certainly better than running around potentially being attacked by werewolves every month. The transfer also seems rather insensitive, given poor Xena's history, but Bran lets that go unsaid and just glowers a lot at his son's new title. Zelda is causing strife by starting rumors about her going about drinking with some man — rumors which are only compounded when it turns out the man in question is none other than Xena’s not-dead-after-all fiance. Any remaining goodwill Brannon might have had towards Mr. Jameshill evaporates immediately when he realized the boy didn’t tragically die several years ago, and he forbids either of his daughters from having anything to do with him — not that either seemed particularly inclined to, given everything that has happened.
Werewolves are also in the news that fall, which is awful because Brannon would much rather not have to have any sort of public opinion about them. Following Minister Urquart’s resignation, however, his son-in-law Ross decides to run for Minister, which makes Brannon into more of a political figure than he had ever cared to be in the past. Despite the recent family drama he is very supportive of Ross’ campaign and does what he can to help, and is very proud to see his son elected in December of that year.
Personality:
There are two modes of Brannon’s personality when dealing with his family. The first is ‘doting grandfather,’ which is most commonly seen when dealing with his less irresponsible offspring (Ari, Katia, Konstantin, Roslyn, Xena) and his extended family. Apart from gentle encouragement for the boys to find nice girls to marry and for his two married daughters to bring his grandchildren by the house more often, he largely allows them to be their own people and make their own decisions and is unspeakably proud of the adults they’ve become. The second persona is that of the perpetually grumpy and strict father, which comes out when dealing with the rest of his children, who seem to be incapable of making good life choices on their own, and to whom Brannon offers unsolicited stern advice at every opportunity.
Outside of his family, Brannon is mild-mannered and soft-spoken, and incredibly polite. He tends to have positive interactions with his coworkers at the Ministry regardless of personal differences, and produces reliably good work in his department. He doesn’t mind social events, but they usually leave him missing his deceased wife, and so of his own accord he avoids them. That being said, he is easily persuaded to attend any event if it offers the possibility of supervising one of his more wayward children, or if it benefits one of his more successful ones — if, for instance, he thinks he might be able to point some suitable future-daughters-in-law in Ari’s direction, or keep one of his younger sons from making a fool of himself.
Other:- Scots, with the exception of Ross.
- Scotland.
- Hogsmeade; specifically, the fact that all his children seem to want to live there and it's terribly far away from Ottery St. Catchpole.
- Cursebreakers, and the fact that Julian was one.
- Hit Wizards, and the fact that Leonid was one.
- Zelda's antics.
- Women who are married having occupations.
- Tomboys.
- Men who value physical pursuits (like Quidditch) over mental ones.
- Purists.
- Unintelligent people.
- People who speak foreign languages while living in England.
- Heavy accents.
- The fact that so many of his children ended up Hufflepuff and not Ravenclaw.
- Spontaneous decisions.
- Runny eggs and burnt toast.
- Americans and Australians.
- Werewolves and people who advocate for them.
- This list is still a work in progress. He disapproves of a lot.
![[Image: TrSGeWR.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/TrSGeWR.jpg)