In-Character
Full Name: Thomas Robert VainartNicknames: He goes exclusively by Christobal and has convinced most people that's his actual name. Why does he go by Christobal? Because it sounds cool, unlike his birth name, which is ordinary and only befitting to boring, ordinary people who will never merit to anything important in this lifetime or any lifetime.
Birthdate: July 28, 1852
Current Age: 37
Occupation: Artist & Photographer
Reputation: 5. He had drama back in the late 1870s but it's not that well known now.
Residence: London
Hogwarts House: Slytherin
Wand: Unyielding, 14 inches, rosewood and unicorn tail hair. Christobal thinks that it actually contains a veela hair. It is his second wand and because the wand seller saw how ridiculous and vain Christobal is, he lied to him about it having veela hair to sell it for a higher price, convincing him that it would be more effective in art related magic.
Blood Status: Halfblood
Social Class: Working class
Family: A father, a mother and a married sister. Also a muggle wife and an almost Hogwarts aged son.
Appearance: Christobal is a very average looking man, if not a bit effeminate in his features. That is actually a side effect of him taking beauty potions, because he despises the idea of aging and having his artistic breakthrough when he looks old and not as attractive. He does look younger than his almost 38 years, but he also doesn't look as masculine and Christobal isn't super into that either, because he wants to be the best at whatever is the socially acceptable beauty trend. He has brown hair, brown eyes and slightly pointed ears. He has an average height and is slightly thinner than your average man. He's right handed.
When it comes to clothing, Christobal always makes sure to dress in a masculine and fashionable manner. He buys the bestest and newest clothes he can afford. To an outsider, it might seem a bit foolish and impractical for a working class man to put such effort in his appearance, but Christobal doesn't want to be the same like the ordinary working class folk.
History: Christobal was born as Thomas Vainart to some ordinary working class family, somewhere in northern England. His parents' main source of income was from a local factory that produced machine parts. They also had more magical side hustles. His mother was actually pretty good at potion making, so she sold homemade potions with ingredients mostly found in their area of England every second weekend in Knockturn Alley. She would also sell very watered down potions to her muggle colleagues, that were promised to give them more energy. For all those muggles knew, it was just ordinary herb medicine. His father would sometimes do more magical odd jobs.
Because the Vainarts were wizards, they could use magic and potions to be more productive at their jobs, so they held pretty good positions at the factory. That's why they preferred to live a more muggle life, than live in wizarding society. For one, wizards weren't as organized back then as they are in the 1890s. Secondly, with their magic, they could lead decent working class lives, whereas among wizards they would be nobodies, because only Christobal's mother got her OWLs and his father only got to finish 3 years at Hogwarts, since his family couldn't afford their oldest child going to Hogwarts and he wasn't quite that talented enough to get a scholarship.
1863 - 1870
For working class standards, the Vainarts could afford to send both their son and their daughter to Hogwarts. They had high aspirations for their son. He was a clever boy, so they were sure that he would make them proud, get excellent NEWT scores and find a prestigious job, like that of an auror or a healer. In the end, it was their forgotten daughter that became a healer, who got to finish Hogwarts with NEWTs thanks to a scholarship, because her parents weren't planning to fund a full Hogwarts career.
Christobal started off well. He was a good student and he seemed to have a talent for transfiguration. It all went downhill when he discovered his passion and talent for art. At first, his parents didn't mind it, because it didn't get in the way of his studies. So what if he had an artistic hobby? Rich folks had all sorts of artistic hobbies and they were sure that he would become a wealthy and succesful auror or healer and reach the upper echelons of society one he finished Hogwarts.
At first he was also into this idea of becoming a famous and rich auror, but the problem was that he wasn't hard working enough to become one. He also just wasn't that talented at the auror-y stuff.
In his fourth year, some classmates played a prank at him after a Divination class. They gave him a Tarot reading and convinced him that he is meant to become a famous artist who would overshadow the likes of Michelangelo and David. Christobal (then Tom), didn't realize that they were making fun of him because he was sure that he was born to do something important. His mother always reminded him of that. (Then again, his mother believed he'd accomplish that by becoming a rich and famous auror.)
Christobal became really passionate about his art. He did average in his OWLs, excellent for someone who wanted to become a magical artist, but not so well for an aspiring auror. His parents were disappointed, but they struggled to keep him at Hogwarts for two more years, convinced that he'd turn things around in his seventh year, get straight Os in his NEWTs and pursue a more prestigious career than that of an artist.
1871
He didn't fail his NEWTs, but they weren't good enough to get him a career as an auror. Not that Christobal cared. He was convinced that art would bring him prestige, fame and money, not some mundane Ministry or hospital job where he'd have to put himself through danger.
Meanwhile, his sister got a full scholarship upon completing her OWLs, because she did really well and some professor saw potential in her as a healer, so they convinced some rich friend to fund her career if she joined their researching team upon her graduation. But her parents didn't care that much about that, because they didn't have any plans of her becoming rich and famous.
Christobal's mother had hopes that he would at least work for some other Ministry position. He wasn't earning much as an artist, so they were hoping that at some point he'd "wake up" and realize how stupid his pursue in art was and give it up. In the end, all she could convince him to do was find work as an art tutor, so he would at least have a more stable income. The poor woman started to hope that one day he'd go work in Hogwarts as the art professor, which was kinda a prestigious job?
Christobal didn't like his art tutor job, because it was boring and mundane and his students weren't prodigies. He would actually lose many clients because he'd insult their daughter and accuse her of being talentless and the rich folks who hired him didn't like that.
1877
Then, a slight scandal happened. In 1877, Christobal worked as a tutor for an upper middle class muggle girl. She was actually the daughter of some guy who had shares at the factory where his parents used to work.
Christobal became infatuated with her, because even though she was a muggle, she was very, very beautiful. She had a beautiful body befitting of a Rebrandt muse, blonde hair, rosy cheeks and angelic blue eyes. She was the ideal Victorian woman and Christobal was convinced that she would become the muse that would pose in his breakthrough painting.
He had just mastered the art of painting moving picures, like the ones that hung in the Hogwarts corridors. Although he was usually careful not to do anything magical with his muggle clients, he couldn't resist using Grace as a model for his first moving painting. Her parents were okay with that, because they thought he would paint an ordinary portrait which she would then do some finishing touches on, as part of her learning how to paint.
He did work on that painting because he'd have to show something to the family, but his idea for the moving painting was much more scandalous. He wanted to paint Grace as an Aphrodite of sorts and for that he needed her to be naked. That's why he began to give her small doses of love potion, to make her more submissive to his will and more willing to get naked with him. They would plan nightime visits, when he would paint her nude. Then, he would whipe off her memory when he left. All Grace knew, was that he had promised her to visit her that night, like the prince in a Rapunzel-like fairy tale.
That was the year when the muggle vs wizards shenanigans broke through. Grace's family were devout Christians and they were afraid that these wizards would come in the middle of the night and steal their money. That's why they got a dog to guard the house, that was supposedly a breed that could detect Satanic people.
Christobal was caught painting the girl one night. Because he had some magical art supplies with him, like colour changing paint, they were convinced that he was one of those wizards and that he was doing some Satanic ritual on their daughter. Christobal was able to escape, but didn't have time to whipe their memories off. The next day, everyone knew that the Vainarts were satanic wizards.
Poor Grace suffered for it too. Her parents were convinced that her soul belonged to Satan now, so they did some good old fashioned slut shaming/witch parading in the middle of their village. Christobal's mother took pity on the girl and rescued her and took her along with the family. She then forced her son to marry the poor girl, because it was his fault she was branded as a satanic whore and that they were forced out of their comfortable home.
Christobal's career as an art tutor was ruined, because along with Grace's family, he lost all his other muggle clients. His wizard clients, on the other hand, were too busy losing their homes and not being murdered by muggles to care about their childrens' art lessons.
Out of his family, only his sister moved to Hogsmeade. The rest of the Vainarts couldn't move there, since they had their muggle bride and she couldn't cross the borders of the newly founded town. As such, they moved to London, where they could easily get lost. Christobal's father started working at a new factory, his mother found a place in a shady potions store in Knockturn Alley and Grace easily found work as a governess for a muggle family, given that she had good education for a muggle woman and was an ideal Victorian woman before being branded as satan's wife.
At this period, Christobal toned down a bit and found his first semi-serious job in the Ministry. There was a need for men to aid in covering up the wizarding community, so he found a job as a memory whiper. He was good at memory magic, which I like to attribute to him being a master gasslighter, giving that he's a narcissist and all.
However, when the muggle scandal was covered up, the Ministry didn't need him no more and also Christobal didn't want to work at the Ministry.
He continued his artistic jobs. Meanwhile, he discovered a crew of bohemian, artistic people like him and he started hanging out with them. His mother hated it, but at least he had left his wife pregnant and she now nurtured hopes that the grandchild born would at least become an auror, or maybe even the future Minister!
His son was born in 1879. At first, Christobal was meant to be used as his name, but then still-Thomas decided that he liked it too much to use it on another human and decided to use it on himself. He was beginning to attribute him not making an artistic breakthrough to having a mundane name like Thomas. How was anyone supposed to do anything important with a name like that?
After the birth of his child, Christobal became more and more estranged from his family. He couldn't stand married life. He couldn't stand his boring, mundane wife. She wasn't that beautiful now that she didn't lead a comfortable lifestyle, unlike when he first met her. He didn't like how everyone in the house gushed over the baby. In spite of him ruining everything for everyone, he still remained his mother's favourite, until the birth of his stupid son.
1880
He decided to move in with his new muse, a "model"/courtesan. She used her magic to be an escort for unassuming new money old men and that's why she could afford to have her own apartment. She was his muse at the time.
She modeled for a large animated painting, which he was sure that would be greatly succesful. However, it didn't have the success he expected. He didn't have hoards of art loving rich people begging him to buy it. Christobal blamed his then muse, because of course it was someone else's fault that he failed, not that the painting was just not that impressive.
His then muse, let's call her Lucia, didn't appreciate him blaming her for his failure, so she promptly kicked him off her apartment. He was forced to return back to his parents, wife and son. It was only thanks to his wife and son that his parents took him back in, because they pitied poor Grace raising a child on her own, as if it wasn't enough that she was forced to an entirely new lifestyle.
1882
The town of Irvingly is founded. His parents decide to move the family there, so they can be closer to other wizards while still having their daughter-in-law with them. Christobal hates this decision. He doesn't want to move to some stupid village! He had gotten used to the city life. He and his bohemian friends would crash the parties of wealthy muggles and use magic to disguise as muggles themselves and he got a taste of what it was like to be "rich".
He liked the exciting city life of alcohol, drugs and sex. He wouldn't be able to make art in some village. What was he supposed to paint; cows?
Luckily for him, he managed to sell some art piece of his for a decent price to some eccentric New Zealand wizard who was visiting for the Quidditch world cup in 1883 and with that money he managed to buy an apartment/studio/atelier in London and thus not to be forced to move with his parents in Irvingly.
1883
After the above time point, Christobal became more immersed in his bohemian, artistic lifestyle, whereas the rest of his family moved to Irvingly.
Meanwhile, his sister was thriving as a potions researcher. She moved to Irvingly as well, where he and her husband and colleague were hoping to create a potion that gave magic to muggles.
1884 - 1889
During this years nothing super major happens in his life. At some point Christobal began to work as a photographer to make ends meet. He didn't mind, because he got to do pornography and he had an appreciation for the naked body. He had a bunch of flings with muggle prostitutes to whom he promised to marry them and turn them into witches if they posed for his photographs.
In 1888, he convinced a freshly graduated muggleborn student to "elope" with him in order for her to become his muse. She did really well at Hogwarts, but it wasn't enough for her to live on her own, since her muggle parents didn't want to support her. In the charming Christobal, she saw the promise of a happy, married life with a wizard. She didn't mind doing the iffy job of a model, if that meant securing his love.
He postponed the wedding, because he couldn't actually marry her, since he was already married. The girl would nag him to marry her. The nagging became unbearable after he slept with her and she was reasonably wanting to secure the bag more than ever. (Soph's note: Should have thought about that sooner, but whatever.)
She began to insult his paintings and Christobal couldn't stand it. His inspiration plumeted, he destroyed the half finished painting of her in a fit of rage and threw her out of his apartment. He did some memory magic on her, so she wouldn't remember enough about him and nag him again.
In 1889, he meets Ester Montgomery. She's a different one. Usually, his muses are typical Victorian beauties. You wouldn't call her a typical Victorian beauty, but she's striking and he has grand ideas of painting her as Circe, or something.
Personality: He's a narcissist. He thinks that he's special, that he has extraordinary talent that only a select few people are born with. He is at his best when he is surrounded by people who appreciate him and when he's doing a succesful job. He can only take good criticism. Negative criticism is met with anger, he shoots it down and claims that he doesn't care anyway, because he's a genius, but in reality it deeply wounds him. He can lose inspiration for weeks if he receives some bad criticism. He also doesn't like being corrected or being told he is wrong. When that happens, he will gaslight you until he comes out as being right.
He picks the people in his life based on two variables: If they agree with him and like him. If they make him look good and feel good about having them as acquiantances. He likes the company of other artistic, eccentric and pretentious people. He can't stand normal, boring and ordinary people. He tends to get really excited when he meets a new interesting person. However, he gets easily disappointed if a person doesn't prove to be as special and exciting as him.
The truth is that Christobal has a really fragile sense of self. His father was strict and only recognized him based on his accomplishments. His mother cared a lot about appearances and wanted the family to behave and appear as more middle class than it actually was. Because they grew up among muggles, they could use their magic to have a slightly better quality of life compared to the normal working class people. Christobal also grew up feeling special compared to the muggles for his abilities, which further nurtured his narcissistic personality. Christobal has carried on this desire to live above his means and thus he's not very good with money. He's the sort of guy to spend a large amount of money to buy a fancy suit and then borrow money to buy the mundane everyday things, like food.
At least one side effect of his narcissism he's tempered is his desire to only create "important" pieces of art. He used to despise making boring and ordinary comission pieces, like the portrait of some random, plain upper class debutante, but he's now realized that it is important for him to do such jobs in order to get money to fund his masterpieces. He sees this as a sacrifice for his art, because he is sure that one day he will be recognized for the genius that he is.
He appears as very charming and confident but in reality he's fragile. He could be thinking for days for some simple comment, like, "Your shirt isn't ironed enough".
Out-of-Character
Name: SophAge: 23
Contact: PM
Other Characters: Lots and also none
How did you hear about us?: Kayte came to Greece and harassed me
