In-Character
Full Name: Cinereous Erasmus SmithNicknames: None (he doesn't tolerate them)
Birthdate: May 17, 1821
Current Age: 70
Occupation: Wizengamot Member & Broker
Reputation: 9 (due to his generally uninviting personality)
Residence: Dimhowe House, Hogsmeade
Hogwarts House: Slytherin
Wand: 17", alder with a basilisk horn core, rather obstinate.
Blood Status: Pure
Social Class: Upper
Family:
Mr. Captious Erasmus Smith, father, (1768-1867)
Mrs. Penelope Anne Smith (nee Wightwater), mother, (b. 1770- d. 1857)
Mrs. Abigail Morgan Smith (nee Buckbridge), first wife, (b. 1831- d. 1850)
- Unnamed son, deceased upon birth.
- Unnamed daughter, deceased.
Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Smith (nee Redfowl), second wife, (b. 1847- d. 1866)
- Unnamed daughter, deceased.
Mrs. Hepzibah Smith (nee Puffington), third wife (b. 1866-)
Appearance:
Mr. Smith is a man of average height, often draped in long black robes and fur collars, wreathed around his face not unlike a vulture. Once strawberry blonde, his hair has turned silver in his old age and has begun to march backward upon his head, revealing a host of creases and wrinkles carved into his face. The pale eyes sunk deep into his impassive face are of the unfeeling kind, like two cold marbles rimmed with vein-checkered eyelids.
Due to an injury to his right leg many years ago, the old wizard wears a prosthetic leg; made of silver and patterned with many runes and a clawed foot, it was crafted by goblins in the year 1550, but modified and fitted for himself. Despite this, Mr. Smith battles a painful limp and uses a cane to walk, within which his wand is hidden (and wielded in his left hand).
History:
May, 1821 | After many attempts for a child, Mr. and Mrs. Captious Smith produce their only child, and name him Cinereous Smith, after his paternal grandfather, Cinere. The Smith Family lives at Dimhowe House, the family's ancestral manor built in 1701, on the outskirts of what would become Hogsmeade in 1877.
June, 1828 | An unfortunate tantrum— Cinereous' first usage of magic leaves one of his mother's sitting rooms in flames, and three of his father's dogs lost to the blaze.
May, 1832 | Cinereous receives his Hogwarts Letter upon his eleventh birthday, and attends in the fall.
September, 1832 | As soon as it was placed upon his head, Cinereous is sorted into Slytherin House by the Sorting Hat, and his father gifts him an antique figurine of Salazar Slytherin himself, beginning a life long obsession with historical artefacts.
1839 | After his seven years of schooling at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Cinereous graduates with high marks, and an interest in both magical history and herbology. Among his peers, he was a bully of the worst nature, but well favoured by his Professors for his academic work.
1840 | As a gift from his parents, Cinereous is allowed a year of travel, and goes to the Continent, visiting the Netherlands, and later Italy.
1841 | The young Master Smith returns to Dimhowe House in January, and begins studying the dark arts, at the behest and instruction of his father. In the meantime, his father— with his many political bonds— organised for Cinereous to begin work at the Department of Mysteries as an Unspeakable.
1844 | While his career at the Ministry flourishes, Cinereous' studies of the dark arts take a sudden turn for the worst— for a family of muggles. Under supervision, the young Master Smith graduates from his father's tutelage (as was Smithian tradition) after using the Unforgiveable Curses upon a family of Muggles in the slums of Cork, Ireland. The three bodies were transfigured later into chess pieces, and kept in an enchanted cabinet at Dimhowe House.
1845 | After years of harassment from his parents, Cinereous (who was content to be a young bachelor, finally marries Ms. Abigail Buckbridge. Their marriage is an unhappy one, filled with fear and toxicity.
1848 | Cinereous' first and only son is born silent.
1850 | Cinereous' first daughter is born, much to his dismay. Later that night, Abigail and her daughter are found dead, and it is reported to the press that both she and the child passed in labour. In reality, she was quietly murdered by the senior Mr. Smith, Captious, in a fit of anger and rage.
1857 | The younger Mr. Smith is promoted to the Assistant Head of the Department of Mysteries, after sixteen years. In the summer, his mother passes peacefully at Dimhowe House.
1860 | Due to a magical accident in the Department of Mysteries, Cinereous loses half of his right leg. The explanation, of course, was never offered to the public, and Cinereous himself has never revealed the cause, due to Department protcols.
1864 | Cinereous struggles to please his father; despite his success as the Ministry, he has yet to sire a male heir. In the spring, his father has him wed to Mary Redfowl, a seventeen year old girl of good stock, though middling fortune.
1865 | Their first child, a daughter, is born a month early, but dies in the night. Mary confronts the senior Mr. Smith, and accuses him of murdering her child. In the morning, it is found that Mary Smith drowned herself in the Dimhowe Well; the press are paid to explain it as a suicide due to hysteria.
1867 | At ninety-nine years old, Captious Smith dies in his sleep peacefully (or did he?), leaving Cinereous his estate and vast collection of antiques. Free of his father, Cinereous decides to focus upon his career at the Ministry, in an effort to gain more political power. After all, to Cinereous, wives were more-so a means to an end.
1869 | Cinereous is promoted to the Head of Department of Mysteries. Political power acquired.
1870 | Mr. Smith, now in possession of his father's collection of magical antiques, begins to fortify it with discoveries of his own. From this point on, Cinereous is seen at nearly every important magical auction, and is even known to dispatch servants to those of lesser importance to bid in his stead.
1876 | After seven years, and using his political relationships, is appointed to the Wizengamot, and retires from the Department of Mysteries.
1879 | Content with his position in the Ministry, Cinereous becomes a broker of sorts, arranging for deals and meetings between his peers, not just for power, but for rare magical artefacts. Amongst his friends, he is seen as a covetous, material person, but also highly knowledgeable and well networked. Or, "highly operative greed."
1886 | Cinereous earns a reputation among his fellow Wizengamot members, for being both sublimely prejudiced and mean spirited, and becomes a harsh critic of the progressive push within the Ministry in recent years.
1890 | Mr. Cinereous Smith and Hepzibah Smith (nee Puffington) are wed, though not for her beauty or wealth. Instead, Cinereous chose to pursue Hepzibah solely for the curious cup she claims once belonged to Helga Hufflepuff herself, a supposed distant ancestor. Soon, he finds his wife just as detestable as the rest, and has little hope for an heir, but craves one nonetheless.
Personality: UNPLEASANT — GREEDY — AMBITIOUS — CRUEL — PREJUDICED — QUICK TEMPERED — GRUMPY
Trivia: While only known to a select few, Mr. Smith is a practitioner of and a self-proclaimed authority on dark magic, taught to him both by his father and the immeasurable amount of antiques and books he's collected over the years. Public opinion of Mr. Smith would be that he is an unpleasant, greedy man with a strong appetite for brandy, and a well known blood purist.
Mr. Smith also inherited two morbid gifts from his father upon his death; the two skulls of his first wives, transfigured into two small teeth. Cinereous, a true son of his father, fixed them upon a ring and wears it on his pinky.
Aside from being a heavy drinker, Cinereous is also a constant smoker, normally shrouded in a cloud of cigar smoke.
Cinereous is both an accomplished legilimens and occlumens.
Sample Roleplay Post:
The rain percussed gently upon the thick-glassed window of the old wizard's study, the fingerprints of droplets smearing down its face. A violin hummed softly somewhere in the manor house, playing a muffled, gentle tune. But the study was silent, aside from the labouring wheeze of Mr. Smith, who sat in a puffy armchair in front of an ornate desk littered with knick-knacks and papers. A fire swelled inside the hearth, flames licking upwards and spitting sparks into the chimney, while a rather thin and mangled looking house-elf poked at the charred log in the grate.
"Ah," the vulturine wizard growled, peering through a peculiar looking instrument with many lenses and coloured bits of glass. In his clawed, wrinkled hand he held out a silver locket, encrusted in green gems and stones in the shape of a serpentine, curling S. For years, his father had searched desperately for the locket of Salazar Slytherin, though it was a fool's errand, or so Cinereous had thought. For weeks he'd bartered with a Scottish wizard, who boasted that he alone owned not just the locket, but Rowena Ravenclaw's lost diadem. And after some rather threatening persuasion and a well performed curse, the moment of truth had arrived. Carefully, Mr. Smith hovered a small dropper filled with amber liquid above the glittering necklace, and with a small pinch loosed free a single bead of gold. It smack with a hiss, sitting only for a moment before spitting out flames and sparks back into his brutal-looking face.
With a roar to rival a chimera, Cinereous slammed his fist upon the desk and smashed the smoking locket, scattering green gems and stones into the air. The house-elf, who'd just heaved a log two-times its size onto the hearth, dropped to the floor instinctively. A second later the locket was hurtling through the air, narrowly missing the elf's head, and into the grate with a breath of sparks rising from the log. Hurriedly, the elf disapparated out of sight, as Cinereous raged.
"I'll have MacFungus' guts for garters," the old man bellowed in a hoarse, wheezy roar. "A fool's errand, damn you!"
Out-of-Character
Name: runeAge: 24
Contact: pm! discord!
Other Characters: there's a graveyard full of my characters.... TINA!!! bring me the axe shovel.
How did you hear about us?: a very talkative horse named gary.
![[Image: cin2.png]](https://i.ibb.co/HHVqY4J/cin2.png)
