Nicknames: None
Birthdate: February 25th, 1853
Current Age: 40 Years
Gender: Male, perceived male
Occupation: Head Butler, Bythesea House
Reputation: 6: he was disowned by his family and subsequently fell to the working class. The reason he was disowned has not been publicized (though there has been speculation) and he’s kept out of anything even approaching trouble for the past twenty years.
Residence: Magical London
Hogwarts House: Slytherin
Wand: his original wand, dragon heartstring and sycamore, was kept by his parents when he was disowned. His current wand is willow and kelpie hair, thirteen inches, pliant.
Blood Status: Pureblood
Social Class: Working
Family:
None, anymore.Appearance:
General | Myles’ build is a little broader than average, and he has to work harder than he feels is fair to keep his gut from expanding these days. Despite this, he maintains a neat appearance, with great attention to detail in his personal hygiene and clothing (and will take pleasure in eviscerating any of the lower staff if they fail to meet the same standard).History:
Expressions | Myles has worked very hard on perfecting a neutral expression, which he wears most of the time when dealing with the ‘upstairs’ folks; downstairs he alternates between scowling and smirking depending on what’s caught his eye at the moment. In either scenario his eyes are the best tell of what he’s thinking and feeling, though the subtle brow movements and facial adjustments are hard to read unless someone knows him well.
Deportment | Effortlessly rigid posture, by now — if someone tells him to ‘relax’ he has to consciously think about how to do move his body to make that happen. When standing casually he often puts his hands behind his back and keeps his feet at a neat forty-five degree angle, as he did for many years as a footman.
Fashion | When not working, Myles can be seen wearing a well-kept but simple grey suit, fitting his (current) station in life. He has a good eye for accessories (having grown up dressing himself with fine things, and then being responsible for setting Henry’s wardrobe for over a decade), but his own wardrobe is minimal. He can often be seen sporting a pea coat on colder days and is never seen out of doors without his hat.
Scent | Myles doesn’t have the luxury of cologne, but does occasionally spritz his livery with the same treatment given to Bythesea’s suits, giving them a faint aroma of bergamot. He smokes cigarettes habitually, but doesn’t like to be seen to do so — part of this ritual is to often smoke near open windows, with a breeze charm blowing, so while he does often smell of tobacco smoke it’s hard to pinpoint whether it’s due to his own actions or just from often being in rooms where gentlemen are smoking cigars (and he does sometimes take one of Henry’s cigars, when he thinks Henry is unlikely to notice).
Face Claim | Kendrick Sampson
| 1853 — 1864 Childhood | Myles Avery was born to privilege, and his early years were unremarkable among his peers. He was raised primarily by a series of nurses and governesses and saw his parents for the requisite few hours a week, which usually felt more like performances in which he was expected to play his role well than actual visits. While he could sometimes be cheeky with the servants, his father’s stern demeanor ensured he was always a well-behaved child when he was invited to interact with the rest of the family. He was often sent to the house of various cousins for a week at a time during his childhood, and was at least as close to any aunt or uncle as he was to his own parents. He did have good relationships with his closest siblings, at least until the arrival of their school years saw their social circles begin to differentiate more. |
| 1864 — 1871 Hogwarts | Upon arrival at Hogwarts Myles was sorted into Slytherin, along with a handful of compatriots from his extended family and forced childhood play-dates. Despite having plenty of established connections already, Myles finds himself drawn more to the “rougher” sorts of students. Hogwarts allows him to see working class students as children like himself for the first time — under the watchful eye of a governess, he was never allowed anything more than a passing hello exchanged with any of the servants’ children (and certainly not permitted to interact with the children who ran roughshod on the streets of London when they occasional went there to shop). On genuinely interacting with them for the first time Myles is fascinated by how much they seem to get away with — even the etiquette teachers don’t criticize them too harshly, seeming to believe them a lost cause already. Over the course of his first few months at Hogwarts Myles transitions from watching these sorts of children with wonder, to gradually befriending a handful of them, and then eventually to being somewhat corrupted by them. He relishes in learning curse words he’d never heard before, in not buttoning up his shirts properly, and eventually in trying a smuggled cigarette (second year, though it’s not until fourth year that he can stomach them consistently enough to make a habit of it), beer (third year), and liquor (fourth year). All of these exploits remain firmly in the realm of school, with his parents none the wiser. Though a few of his similarly aged siblings at least know the sort of thing he’s getting up to at school, as far as his parents are concerned he is still a perfectly innocent, perfectly boring child. At least, they remain contained at school up until a familiar face joins the household staff at home. Treasure Knox was a friendly acquaintance when they were both at school together, but Myles had largely forgotten about him after he left school due to finances. When Knox joins the Avery staff, Myles immediately sees an opportunity to make his perfectly dull holiday breaks from Hogwarts a little more exciting. (Because sure, he was perfectly capable of getting his hands on liquor and cigarettes by the age of fifteen, but having them wasn’t quite so fun as having someone to enjoy them with). Knox takes next to no convincing to join in, and they establish a habit of spending as much time together as possible any time Myles is home from school. This begins with secret drinking, but very quickly spirals to include other varieties of spontaneous ill-advised teenage antics, like petty theft from neighbors’ gardens and skinny dipping in the lake in near-freezing weather… and then gradually their activities move a little farther from idle thrill-seeking and a little closer to intimacy: spending all night looking at the stars together, talking about their hopes and dreams, exchanging letters when Myles goes back to Hogwarts for the next semester. When they end up entwined in each other’s arms, it doesn’t even occur to Myles that it’s wrong; it feels like the most natural progression in the world. |
| 1871 Disowned | That Christmas break is a magical time — or at least it begins that way. Once their relationship crosses the threshold of romance and physicality it escalates quickly, with Myles taking every available opportunity to sneak away from his family and throw himself back into his lover’s arms. They continue on this way until a few days after Christmas, when Myles’ parents catch them in the act. To this day Myles isn’t sure how they knew where to find him, but suspects that one of his siblings must have caught on to what was happening and tipped them off — because why else would both of his parents choose to drop in the old boathouse at half past eleven at night, in the middle of winter? However it happened, though, there’s no changing the facts. His mother nearly faints. His father explodes. He makes it clear that he wants them both gone, immediately — fearing violence, Myles flees without even taking the time to collect all of his belongings. He manages to make it to a floo and arrives shaken, half-dressed, and wandless at one of his aunt’s houses, hoping she’ll harbor him until his parents calm down and let him come home. Myles doesn’t tell his aunt exactly what happened, but she’s not an unintelligent woman and can put the pieces together well enough — especially given who he shows up with, as he and Knox fled the house together. While she’s sympathetic enough to Myles’ distress and personally inclined to put the matter down to childish folly, she advises him in no uncertain terms to put an end to this behavior at once and never speak of such matters again — and immediately kicks Knox to the curb. Myles has only been at her house alone few hours when a letter arrives from his parents — not for him, but for his aunt. In the letter his father states that from this day forward he has no son, and that if any of his siblings attempt to harbor him or support him, he will not hesitate to cut them out as well. Since Myles’ father had always held a position of power and respect in the family, this is hardly an idle threat. So his aunt will not keep him, and his parents will not take him back. She agrees to let him stay for a day or two, just in case his parents relent — on the condition that he remain stashed away in one of the servants’ rooms in the meantime, and never tells anyone he was here. Not exactly spoiled for choice on his next options, Myles agrees. When the next few days fail to bring a change of heart from his parents, his aunt has a frank conversation with him and says she cannot continue to let him stay. Myles is entirely adrift. His primary concern is that he doesn’t have a wand — how will he participate in classes when he goes back to school? And his aunt, with a pitying look, has to break it to him that it’s highly unlikely he’ll be able to return to school, as his parents obviously won’t be paying his tuition. This is another blow Myles hadn’t yet considered, on top of the fresh pain of losing his entire family. What is he supposed to do with his life? His aunt gives him a fresh set of clothes, enough money for a secondhand wand, and kicks him out. Over the next few weeks, Myles learns exactly how fragile his social support network was. He comes to the door of anyone he considered a friend or family member, asking for help, and in almost all cases the door is shut in his face. The more gracious ones offer him a meal before explaining that they really can’t do more to help. No one knows exactly what happened that Christmas, but by now everyone knows that the Avery boy has been disowned, and no one wants to end up on his father’s bad side without even knowing what Myles has done — and Myles, taking his aunt’s advice to heart, tells no one. Eventually he lands upon someone who is willing to help, though not in the way Myles had been hoping — Henry Bythesea, who was a few years above him in Hogwarts and is now a recent graduate, says he’ll take Myles in — as a footman. It’s charity, or at least framed as charity — and what more could Myles expect, with no recommendations and no NEWTs and such a poorly reputation? So begins his life of household service. |
| 1871 — 1879 Service | The first few years are hard. All of the other boys in the house started years before he did, and have much more in the way of practical skills. Myles’ good marks in Ancient Studies are useless to him here, where the mark of cleverness is being able to get a mirror shine on a pair of shoes. There is rampant speculation, from inside the house and out, about what it was that he did that was so terrible as to get him disowned — one of the maids refuses to do any tasks with him, convinced that he’s only two steps removed from a murderer. He is typically excluded by the rest of the staff, and his friendship — if one can call it that — with ‘Master’ Henry Bythesea only makes everything worse. Myles can’t seem to figure out exactly where things stand with Henry; sometimes he treats him like a friend and confidante, but at other times he seems so superior it makes Myles’ stomach churn. It creates a weird enough situation that Myles considers leaving for another position, but is stopped by his hesitancy to ask for a reference (likely still traumatized by how thoroughly his father burned all his bridges when he disowned Myles, he is unsure whether Henry or the older My Bythesea would grant him one) and the supposition that it wouldn’t be any better elsewhere, either. Treasure Knox hasn’t disappeared from the world, he eventually learns. Myles hears through the grapevine that he has another position — still in domestic service — and that his former employers, the Averys, gave him a positively glowing recommendation. This apparent collusion between Knox and his parents sows a seed of resentment that he would go on to nurture for years. He had (foolishly, he knew, and without allowing himself to admit it even privately) been holding on to some hope that once the dust had settled from the disastrous Christmas the two of them would reunite, and maybe pick up where they’d left off, but more carefully this time… but now he clenches his jaw any time he hears Knox’s name. I hope he drops a pot of scalding tea on his toes becomes a frequent morning affirmation for Myles. Picturing either Knox or his family in various states of unpleasantness helps him whether the more difficult days of his transition into the working class. |
| 1879 — 1888 Onwards | In 1879, Henry Bythesea decides to marry — which means creating a new household for him and his wife. Most of the staff remain behind in the established house, but Myles, who the elder Mr. Bythesea had always seen as something of a pet indulgence of Henry’s, is brought along — and promoted to valet, a position which Henry had never needed as an unmarried man living at home. This represents a clean slate for Myles, now several years removed from the source of any rumors, and feeling much more secure in his skillset, and surrounded by new peers who don’t have so much baggage about him. And he is not going to waste this clean slate. His determination to make the most of his situation is probably at the root of his hesitancy to push back on several questionable points that later arise. Henry and Myles verge on arguments on several occasions, but at the first sign from Henry that Myles’ criticism is not appreciated, Myles dutifully defers. This includes the issue of the new Mrs. Bythesea’s apparent laudanum addiction (“shouldn’t she perhaps see a healer?”), Henry’s frequent frustration with his children (“but surely we were just as bad, at their age?”), his complaints about professional feedback from his career mentor (“but if you consider it from their perspective, isn’t that a valid criticism?”) — actually, it might be easier to list the subjects on which Myles and Henry do see eye to eye. But Myles is a valet, not a peer, and he has no intention of being let go and finding himself on the streets again, so he never pushes when Henry doesn’t want to be pushed. (A highlight of this period: in 1883 the Avery Estate suffers a house fire which takes out half the west wing. Myles hears through the downstairs rumor mill, which he is by this point rather attuned to, that someone saw the fire start when a trunk of his old things, kept locked up tight for over a decade, spontaneously burst into flames. To this day the scent of wood burning in a fireplace brings a smile to his face as he recalls this. If his family holds him at all responsible, they don’t reach out to him to say so). |
| 1888 — 1893 & Upwards | The retirement of the Head Butler in 1888 sees Myles promoted to the position. This is as far as he can expect to climb, so his natural sense of ambition turns towards excelling in the role. It is a few years before he begins to feel truly comfortable in the position… or until he might have, were it not for the arrival of a new neighbor, with one unwelcomed familiar face serving as Head Butler. Myles is not amused. |
Strengths | Proud | Resourceful | Observant | Quick Thinker | Cunning
Weaknesses | Stubborn | Skeptical | Bitter | Distrustful
Likes | Good liquor (served neat), the scent of burning firewood, watching artists/artisans at work, word puzzles from the back pages of the newspaper.
Dislikes | Being late, people who are late, unnecessarily flashy magic, snow, people who remind him of his father, people who remind him of his mother.
