Post by Caitlin Collins on Oct 15, 2008 11:14:11 GMT -5
Okay, so I made this bio a while ago and obviously can't use him 'cause I already have 3 characters, and another character idea I'll be using if something does happen to any of them. So thought I might as well post this bio here to see if anyone wanted to use it. Celeb I based his appearance on is David Tennant.
I suffered more than you can know
In that dark leafed place
Where death walked side by side with me
And often showed his face
Some days I did not know if I
Was ever coming home
And then I’m faced with acid rain
From you when I come home
Name: Matthieu “Matt” Gabriel Leroy
Age: 22
Sex: Male
Nationality: Half-English, half-French
Speech: Fluent in French and English, is competent but not perfect in Spanish and Egyptian, and knows the basics of Arabic. He knows how to say certain pleasantries (hello, goodbye, please, thank you, basic verb conjunctions etc.) in many other European languages, including German, Italian, Greek, Polish, Portuguese and Czech.
Blood: Mixed blood
Father: David Matthew Anders
Mother: Amélie Patricia Bruneau (née Leroy)
Siblings: Océane Maryse Bruneau – half-sister – aged 17 – attending Beauxbatons
Other Family: Alphonse Jacques Bruneau – step-father
Marie Johnston – fiancé – 22 – old school-friend
Halim Leroy – adopted son – {12-14} – telekinetic
Family Interactions: Matthieu gets on very well with his family, currently. Although he used to argue quite a lot, especially with his mother, and would frequently bicker with his sister – as siblings will do – now he has matured and spent a while away from them, he will happily pay them a visit and even finds himself missing them on occasion. As the saying goes, “distance makes the heart grow fonder”. He has a good relationship with his step-father and doesn’t view him as an imposer like he used to as a teenager, although the two aren’t particularly close. They can converse well enough, but certain words shouted in high tempers aren’t ever quite forgotten.
Previously there had been a lot of tension between Matt and Amélie concerning his true father. Matt felt it was his right to know, whereas his mother simply didn’t wish to talk or discuss the matter. He ended up digging out the information for himself, which culminated in a short meeting between Matthieu and David. Short mostly because of the shouting involved. After that incident, he has been much more understanding of why his mother didn’t wish to think about the man she’d been engaged to. He hasn’t tried to contact him again and is overall more content now the matter is settled, however unpleasant.
Before his experiences during the last bout of his travelling, Matthieu had gotten on extremely well with Marie, his good friend and fiancé. They didn’t argue much, trusted each other absolutely, and were well on their way to a wonderful wedding day. However, since he returned to her their relationship has been strained – she says that he’s changed, and doesn’t see why he is reluctant to talk about his time abroad. He knows he has changed, and the arguments between them have grown in both number and ferocity. The perfect wedding being planned in her head while he was away has been put on hold, at least for now, until they can sort out their differences. Halim, on the other hand, gets on very well with Matt. He has complete faith in the older man, and views him as a mixture of a father, big brother and hero.
Height: 5’8
Weight: 65kg
Hair: Brown, quite scruffy
Eyes: Brown
Skin Color: White
Clothing style: Varying – comfortable suits for when teaching, otherwise less formal and even more comfortable
Accessories: Glasses for when he’s reading
Other: None
Paragraph Format: Matt is a half-English, half-French graduate of Beauxbatons who has just arrived at Hogwarts to apply for the teaching position of History of Magic professor. He was living with his family before coming to England – his mother, Amélie, half-sister Océane and step-father, Alphonse. Although he is engaged to Marie Johnston, there is uncertainty as to whether the wedding will go ahead. He is of mixed magical blood, with his father a muggle and a fair few of the Leroys being muggle born, but it is difficult to specify an exact proportion of muggle and wizarding blood in him. He taught himself the languages of English and Latin while at school, and picked up what he knows of Egyptian and Arabic while abroad.
Matt has a particularly angular face, with a thin nose and small chin. He’s quite thin and not too tall, but is physically fit from being so exerted while abroad, with fairly pale skin. His hair is almost always brown, unless he decides to be a little different and dyes it the muggle way – previous colours have been red, blonde and blue, among a few others. His fringe is a little straggly and he has sideburns, and is usually clean-shaven. He has to wear glasses when he is reading, and although he was offered the chance of a magical fix, he actually doesn’t mind his glasses so keeps them. He will buy and wear whichever clothes are the most comfortable, whatever it looks like, but does have the discretion and common sense to make sure there are a few suits included in his wardrobe for more formal occasions, such as teaching at Hogwarts.
Personality: Matthieu has various talents to speak of – including one particular skill involving the ability to pick up new languages easily. He will simply work out the essentials and improvise from there on until he has a good understanding. He is also a studious worker, focussing on something until it is done. He has high standards and won’t settle for anything less than 100% effort. However, he can recognise when people have given that and still not achieved what was expected, and will usually make a special effort to get them up to the standard expected.
He isn’t unreasonable, and so long as you are telling the truth about why you are late to class or haven’t handed in your homework. He will demand an explanation whether one is offered voluntarily or not. But if you lie, or have no real or worthwhile reason, he will make sure that you know of his unhappiness. He isn’t afraid to set detention or extra work for those that are lagging behind because of a lack of effort, and will make an obvious divider between those who are trying and those who aren’t when setting punishments. Sometimes he will be a tad impatient.
However, he has a tendency to ignore things if he doesn’t think they apply to him, such as muggle current affairs. So absorbed in his history, he doesn’t pay attention to what is going on around him, sometimes until it is right up in his face. He has an adventurous streak, and will spontaneously jump into a situation without thinking it through properly. He is kind-hearted by nature and intelligent, although sometimes lacks common sense in making decisions. He loves travelling and learning, and generally just going with the flow until something catches his interest, then he will divert from the trodden path for as long as he deems necessary. Since returning from his travels, Matt is somewhat disillusioned and much more serious. He doesn’t like to talk about his experiences abroad after Egypt.
History: Amélie Leroy, a French witch aged twenty four, met David Anders, an English muggle aged twenty six, while he was on a business trip to Paris. Without much warning at all, the pair found themselves swept away in a whirlwind romance over several months, until finally David had to return to London for ten weeks. It was during this time that Amélie realised she was pregnant. Surprised at first but then excited to tell him the news, it never occurred to her that this might not be what was best for either of them. She wanted to tell him face to face and so didn’t mention it in her letters to him – all delivered via muggle post, since she still had yet to reveal her magical heritage to him as well. Upon returning, she made the perhaps unwise move of telling him both things at once. Put simply, he made his excuses and scarpered.
For at least a year after, Amélie continued to try contacting David, to make him come back to her. She sent him long letters, photos of the son she had just given birth to in a desperate attempt. At one point she even visited England to talk face to face and left Matthieu with her own parents, but a few days later was back and refused to talk about the incident. After that, she stopped trying to contact him and instead concentrated on bringing up her son while earning enough to support them both.
Despite not having a lot of money during his first years of life, Matt led a relatively happy childhood. He had cousins abound to keep him company, but that didn’t prevent him asking of his mother why he couldn’t have any brothers or sisters of his own, instead of having to share everyone else’s. Just after his fourth birthday, his mother began to date a local French wizard, Alphonse Bruneau. They married when he was six, and granted Matt’s wish for a younger sibling a year later, when Océane, a red-haired, blue-eyed little girl joined the family.
As with most wizarding children, Matthieu and Océane were taught how to read and write at their own home. They got on well, arguing occasionally as most siblings will, and Océane was sad to see her brother go when he reached the age to join Beauxbatons.
Matt did well at his new home in Southern France, finding he had particular talent in the subjects of Charms and History of Magic. In all honesty, he had a pretty average time at school – made friends, had a few girlfriends, studied hard with the occasional interruption of a party here or there. He was very curious about his father, but frustrated at the lack of information his mother had given him. He taught himself English in his spare time so he could know more about his father’s side of the family. Marie Johnston, a fellow half-French, half-English student at the school, helped him learn, as she frequently visited England to see her English relatives. Having accomplished that, he went on to study Spanish, even taking a trip to Spain with some friends in the summer following his 6th year and translating for those who did not know the language.
This small experience of travel inspired Matt and some of those friends to take a gap year rather than heading straight into a job after their 7th year. Sebastien, Frederic, Marie - whom he had started dating at the end of their 6th year - and Ana were the students accompanying him as they journeyed across Southern Europe, visiting places such as Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal while finding short-term employment to support themselves. All did some type of muggle work at one point or other, whether it was working in a shop or serving in a restaurant, since it was much easier to find this kind of work than seek out the magical community in that area.
They had several “adventures” while travelling, such as a whole suitcase containing apparition passes being stolen, Marie being accused by muggle customs officials of carrying illegal substances (which were in fact potion ingredients), and meeting a clan of vampires in Lake Garda, Italy. All situations were resolved with some degree of diplomacy, which mostly meant apparating away at the first opportunity. At the end of that year, Sebastien, Frederic and Ana went home, but Matt and Marie continued, going further afield into Africa.
The pair explored Northern Africa for a few months before settling in Egypt, in a very small town about a half hour walk from Cairo. Both became involved in educating the children of the area, many of whom had never had a proper teacher before. They also discovered the beaten down magical community, who were all taught by their parents with no proper training or magical knowledge. Matthieu got into a routine – work at a local shop during the morning and early afternoon, teaching the children to read and write in late afternoon and spending the evening with Marie, who had a similar routine. On Saturdays they would gather up the teenagers and some adults with magical skill and teach them spells that could be used to help their community.
Before they knew it a whole year had passed, and the couple had never been happier. But that contentment was abruptly ended when Marie received an owl from her family – her younger brother had been very badly injured in a quidditch match at Beauxbatons, and she was needed at home. Matt was determined to go with her, but she told him not to; to continue travelling until he was sure he was done with that, and that she’d come find him if took too long about it. Finally giving in, he went and found a beautiful silver ring in Cairo, and the night before she left, proposed.
Now engaged, Matthieu didn’t stay for more than a couple of months longer in the village and, confident that the people there could look after themselves, packed his things and moved out to begin travelling east, towards Asia. Although at first he was lonely being on his own, he soon got used to the solitude, making friends easily in the places he visited and picking up enough of the main dialects to communicate with the people there. Six months after, he settled down again and began to work with an English archaeology team, serving as a translator between them and the locals due to his talent of picking up the essentials of new languages easily. It also helped him work on his English speech, which had inevitably become a little rusty since he had first learnt it aged sixteen.
After three years of working with the archaeology team and enjoying himself immensely, they returned home with their findings and Matt continued eastwards, crossing so many borders he was never entirely certain which country he was in. Keeping in contact with Marie, who had chosen to stay in England after her brother’s recovery in St. Mungo’s (where he had been transferred to see a specialist), he finally – although not knowing this himself at the time – entered the last country in his travels. The land around the border was deathly quiet, and Matthieu continued uneasily.
Coming across signs of life in the distance, he hurried on to find a small village... decimated. Hunting for anyone who could tell him what had happened, he came across an older man and a young boy, both badly injured and who between them explained what had gone on in their home. So out of touch with news, Matt had stumbled into a district ridden with war. The boy’s injuries began to bleed badly, and in desperation he used magic to heal the pair. But that was quite possibly the worst mistake he could have made. The fighting was not just muggles, as he had automatically assumed from their gestures; wizards were involved as well, and that unauthorised use of magic had attracted attention. Within five minutes, hostile wizards were in the destroyed village. Within ten, the old man was dead, the boy enslaved and Matt taken for questioning.
Unable to speak the language to any degree of accuracy, his capturers soon became irritated by the lack of answers they were receiving. All they had managed to surmise was that he was a French wizard, who may or may not be a spy for the opposition. He was thrown into one of their prison camps for muggles and wizards alike, and his wand snapped.
In the camp, life was hard for everyone. Food was rationed so much that a proportion of the prisoners were in latter stages of starvation, with dehydration an inevitability for everyone. Fights were common, and there was a huge rivalry between magical and non-magical folk. Everyone was an enemy – someone who would steal your only meal of the day for themselves if you weren’t careful.
Matt didn’t know how long he was kept in hell – in fact, it was six long months – but one afternoon, without warning, more soldiers arrived at the gates, and these were not natives. An international body of wizards had seen what was going on, seen the potential disaster of magic being revealed as was happening there, and decided it was time to intervene.
It turned out the war had been ended for two months already, but it had taken that long for them to reach the camp Matt was contained in. Accompanying them were a group of children who had been enslaved and recently rescued, including the boy who had been saved by Matt originally. He viewed the wizard as his hero and with the little French and English he had picked up from the international soldiers, along with Matt’s developing Arabic, he managed to communicate that he was desperate not to have his memory erased as was happening to the other muggle children. He succeeded in explaining that he too could do “strange things”. He went on to prove this to an astounded Matthieu by making some rocks float for several seconds. He couldn’t hold them up for long, and was exhausted after only a few seconds, but it was evident that the boy, named Halim, was a telekinetic. Without pausing to ask for permission, he left the country with Halim in tow.
Matt returned to France at first, to visit his worried family who hadn’t received any correspondence in half a year. He didn’t stay long – no more than a month – before going to England to seek out his fiancée. Likewise, she had been concerned by the sudden halt in letters and packages, and was delighted to see him again. But she was somewhat less thrilled to find that Matt had somehow acquired a young boy to look after, and one who didn’t speak particularly good French or English at that. There was also the matter that both of them had changed from the people they were before. They had been through hell to separate degrees – Marie with her brother injured so badly, and Matt in the camp – and reacted differently to these situations. The engagement was still there, but the wedding postponed indefinitely.
Since he was in England, Matt decided to do some exploration on a matter that had always made him curious; his father. After a fair amount of digging, he came across the man’s current address and travelled up to Manchester to give him a surprise visit. He arrived back the next day and wouldn’t talk about what had occurred to Marie, which frustrated her even more. But the key result of that visit was that he officially adopted Halim and embarked on teaching him how to use and control his magic.
Trying to make the relationship work while helping Halim adjust to his new life both in England and as a young wizard, Matt and Marie made the decision to move away from her family in London. They eventually settled in Hogsmeade, and between working and teaching Halim, the cracks began to mend.
It didn’t take long for Matt to become bored with simple shop work and he started to look elsewhere for a job he might actually enjoy. It was around that time that Halim reached an adequate level to be accepted into Hogwarts, but he was far too frightened to start there without knowing anyone. Marie noted the numerous professorial positions open and, remembering how much Matthieu had seemed to enjoy teaching before, she made the suggestion that he apply. Liking the idea immediately, he did so. Despite his age, he had little trouble getting the position of History of Magic professor, with his high Beauxbatons qualifications and experiences teaching and in the archaeology team, showing how suited he was to that particular career path. He is due to start immediately, at the same time as Halim begins as a student. [/size]
I suffered more than you can know
In that dark leafed place
Where death walked side by side with me
And often showed his face
Some days I did not know if I
Was ever coming home
And then I’m faced with acid rain
From you when I come home
Name: Matthieu “Matt” Gabriel Leroy
Age: 22
Sex: Male
Nationality: Half-English, half-French
Speech: Fluent in French and English, is competent but not perfect in Spanish and Egyptian, and knows the basics of Arabic. He knows how to say certain pleasantries (hello, goodbye, please, thank you, basic verb conjunctions etc.) in many other European languages, including German, Italian, Greek, Polish, Portuguese and Czech.
Blood: Mixed blood
Father: David Matthew Anders
Mother: Amélie Patricia Bruneau (née Leroy)
Siblings: Océane Maryse Bruneau – half-sister – aged 17 – attending Beauxbatons
Other Family: Alphonse Jacques Bruneau – step-father
Marie Johnston – fiancé – 22 – old school-friend
Halim Leroy – adopted son – {12-14} – telekinetic
Family Interactions: Matthieu gets on very well with his family, currently. Although he used to argue quite a lot, especially with his mother, and would frequently bicker with his sister – as siblings will do – now he has matured and spent a while away from them, he will happily pay them a visit and even finds himself missing them on occasion. As the saying goes, “distance makes the heart grow fonder”. He has a good relationship with his step-father and doesn’t view him as an imposer like he used to as a teenager, although the two aren’t particularly close. They can converse well enough, but certain words shouted in high tempers aren’t ever quite forgotten.
Previously there had been a lot of tension between Matt and Amélie concerning his true father. Matt felt it was his right to know, whereas his mother simply didn’t wish to talk or discuss the matter. He ended up digging out the information for himself, which culminated in a short meeting between Matthieu and David. Short mostly because of the shouting involved. After that incident, he has been much more understanding of why his mother didn’t wish to think about the man she’d been engaged to. He hasn’t tried to contact him again and is overall more content now the matter is settled, however unpleasant.
Before his experiences during the last bout of his travelling, Matthieu had gotten on extremely well with Marie, his good friend and fiancé. They didn’t argue much, trusted each other absolutely, and were well on their way to a wonderful wedding day. However, since he returned to her their relationship has been strained – she says that he’s changed, and doesn’t see why he is reluctant to talk about his time abroad. He knows he has changed, and the arguments between them have grown in both number and ferocity. The perfect wedding being planned in her head while he was away has been put on hold, at least for now, until they can sort out their differences. Halim, on the other hand, gets on very well with Matt. He has complete faith in the older man, and views him as a mixture of a father, big brother and hero.
Height: 5’8
Weight: 65kg
Hair: Brown, quite scruffy
Eyes: Brown
Skin Color: White
Clothing style: Varying – comfortable suits for when teaching, otherwise less formal and even more comfortable
Accessories: Glasses for when he’s reading
Other: None
Paragraph Format: Matt is a half-English, half-French graduate of Beauxbatons who has just arrived at Hogwarts to apply for the teaching position of History of Magic professor. He was living with his family before coming to England – his mother, Amélie, half-sister Océane and step-father, Alphonse. Although he is engaged to Marie Johnston, there is uncertainty as to whether the wedding will go ahead. He is of mixed magical blood, with his father a muggle and a fair few of the Leroys being muggle born, but it is difficult to specify an exact proportion of muggle and wizarding blood in him. He taught himself the languages of English and Latin while at school, and picked up what he knows of Egyptian and Arabic while abroad.
Matt has a particularly angular face, with a thin nose and small chin. He’s quite thin and not too tall, but is physically fit from being so exerted while abroad, with fairly pale skin. His hair is almost always brown, unless he decides to be a little different and dyes it the muggle way – previous colours have been red, blonde and blue, among a few others. His fringe is a little straggly and he has sideburns, and is usually clean-shaven. He has to wear glasses when he is reading, and although he was offered the chance of a magical fix, he actually doesn’t mind his glasses so keeps them. He will buy and wear whichever clothes are the most comfortable, whatever it looks like, but does have the discretion and common sense to make sure there are a few suits included in his wardrobe for more formal occasions, such as teaching at Hogwarts.
Personality: Matthieu has various talents to speak of – including one particular skill involving the ability to pick up new languages easily. He will simply work out the essentials and improvise from there on until he has a good understanding. He is also a studious worker, focussing on something until it is done. He has high standards and won’t settle for anything less than 100% effort. However, he can recognise when people have given that and still not achieved what was expected, and will usually make a special effort to get them up to the standard expected.
He isn’t unreasonable, and so long as you are telling the truth about why you are late to class or haven’t handed in your homework. He will demand an explanation whether one is offered voluntarily or not. But if you lie, or have no real or worthwhile reason, he will make sure that you know of his unhappiness. He isn’t afraid to set detention or extra work for those that are lagging behind because of a lack of effort, and will make an obvious divider between those who are trying and those who aren’t when setting punishments. Sometimes he will be a tad impatient.
However, he has a tendency to ignore things if he doesn’t think they apply to him, such as muggle current affairs. So absorbed in his history, he doesn’t pay attention to what is going on around him, sometimes until it is right up in his face. He has an adventurous streak, and will spontaneously jump into a situation without thinking it through properly. He is kind-hearted by nature and intelligent, although sometimes lacks common sense in making decisions. He loves travelling and learning, and generally just going with the flow until something catches his interest, then he will divert from the trodden path for as long as he deems necessary. Since returning from his travels, Matt is somewhat disillusioned and much more serious. He doesn’t like to talk about his experiences abroad after Egypt.
History: Amélie Leroy, a French witch aged twenty four, met David Anders, an English muggle aged twenty six, while he was on a business trip to Paris. Without much warning at all, the pair found themselves swept away in a whirlwind romance over several months, until finally David had to return to London for ten weeks. It was during this time that Amélie realised she was pregnant. Surprised at first but then excited to tell him the news, it never occurred to her that this might not be what was best for either of them. She wanted to tell him face to face and so didn’t mention it in her letters to him – all delivered via muggle post, since she still had yet to reveal her magical heritage to him as well. Upon returning, she made the perhaps unwise move of telling him both things at once. Put simply, he made his excuses and scarpered.
For at least a year after, Amélie continued to try contacting David, to make him come back to her. She sent him long letters, photos of the son she had just given birth to in a desperate attempt. At one point she even visited England to talk face to face and left Matthieu with her own parents, but a few days later was back and refused to talk about the incident. After that, she stopped trying to contact him and instead concentrated on bringing up her son while earning enough to support them both.
Despite not having a lot of money during his first years of life, Matt led a relatively happy childhood. He had cousins abound to keep him company, but that didn’t prevent him asking of his mother why he couldn’t have any brothers or sisters of his own, instead of having to share everyone else’s. Just after his fourth birthday, his mother began to date a local French wizard, Alphonse Bruneau. They married when he was six, and granted Matt’s wish for a younger sibling a year later, when Océane, a red-haired, blue-eyed little girl joined the family.
As with most wizarding children, Matthieu and Océane were taught how to read and write at their own home. They got on well, arguing occasionally as most siblings will, and Océane was sad to see her brother go when he reached the age to join Beauxbatons.
Matt did well at his new home in Southern France, finding he had particular talent in the subjects of Charms and History of Magic. In all honesty, he had a pretty average time at school – made friends, had a few girlfriends, studied hard with the occasional interruption of a party here or there. He was very curious about his father, but frustrated at the lack of information his mother had given him. He taught himself English in his spare time so he could know more about his father’s side of the family. Marie Johnston, a fellow half-French, half-English student at the school, helped him learn, as she frequently visited England to see her English relatives. Having accomplished that, he went on to study Spanish, even taking a trip to Spain with some friends in the summer following his 6th year and translating for those who did not know the language.
This small experience of travel inspired Matt and some of those friends to take a gap year rather than heading straight into a job after their 7th year. Sebastien, Frederic, Marie - whom he had started dating at the end of their 6th year - and Ana were the students accompanying him as they journeyed across Southern Europe, visiting places such as Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal while finding short-term employment to support themselves. All did some type of muggle work at one point or other, whether it was working in a shop or serving in a restaurant, since it was much easier to find this kind of work than seek out the magical community in that area.
They had several “adventures” while travelling, such as a whole suitcase containing apparition passes being stolen, Marie being accused by muggle customs officials of carrying illegal substances (which were in fact potion ingredients), and meeting a clan of vampires in Lake Garda, Italy. All situations were resolved with some degree of diplomacy, which mostly meant apparating away at the first opportunity. At the end of that year, Sebastien, Frederic and Ana went home, but Matt and Marie continued, going further afield into Africa.
The pair explored Northern Africa for a few months before settling in Egypt, in a very small town about a half hour walk from Cairo. Both became involved in educating the children of the area, many of whom had never had a proper teacher before. They also discovered the beaten down magical community, who were all taught by their parents with no proper training or magical knowledge. Matthieu got into a routine – work at a local shop during the morning and early afternoon, teaching the children to read and write in late afternoon and spending the evening with Marie, who had a similar routine. On Saturdays they would gather up the teenagers and some adults with magical skill and teach them spells that could be used to help their community.
Before they knew it a whole year had passed, and the couple had never been happier. But that contentment was abruptly ended when Marie received an owl from her family – her younger brother had been very badly injured in a quidditch match at Beauxbatons, and she was needed at home. Matt was determined to go with her, but she told him not to; to continue travelling until he was sure he was done with that, and that she’d come find him if took too long about it. Finally giving in, he went and found a beautiful silver ring in Cairo, and the night before she left, proposed.
Now engaged, Matthieu didn’t stay for more than a couple of months longer in the village and, confident that the people there could look after themselves, packed his things and moved out to begin travelling east, towards Asia. Although at first he was lonely being on his own, he soon got used to the solitude, making friends easily in the places he visited and picking up enough of the main dialects to communicate with the people there. Six months after, he settled down again and began to work with an English archaeology team, serving as a translator between them and the locals due to his talent of picking up the essentials of new languages easily. It also helped him work on his English speech, which had inevitably become a little rusty since he had first learnt it aged sixteen.
After three years of working with the archaeology team and enjoying himself immensely, they returned home with their findings and Matt continued eastwards, crossing so many borders he was never entirely certain which country he was in. Keeping in contact with Marie, who had chosen to stay in England after her brother’s recovery in St. Mungo’s (where he had been transferred to see a specialist), he finally – although not knowing this himself at the time – entered the last country in his travels. The land around the border was deathly quiet, and Matthieu continued uneasily.
Coming across signs of life in the distance, he hurried on to find a small village... decimated. Hunting for anyone who could tell him what had happened, he came across an older man and a young boy, both badly injured and who between them explained what had gone on in their home. So out of touch with news, Matt had stumbled into a district ridden with war. The boy’s injuries began to bleed badly, and in desperation he used magic to heal the pair. But that was quite possibly the worst mistake he could have made. The fighting was not just muggles, as he had automatically assumed from their gestures; wizards were involved as well, and that unauthorised use of magic had attracted attention. Within five minutes, hostile wizards were in the destroyed village. Within ten, the old man was dead, the boy enslaved and Matt taken for questioning.
Unable to speak the language to any degree of accuracy, his capturers soon became irritated by the lack of answers they were receiving. All they had managed to surmise was that he was a French wizard, who may or may not be a spy for the opposition. He was thrown into one of their prison camps for muggles and wizards alike, and his wand snapped.
In the camp, life was hard for everyone. Food was rationed so much that a proportion of the prisoners were in latter stages of starvation, with dehydration an inevitability for everyone. Fights were common, and there was a huge rivalry between magical and non-magical folk. Everyone was an enemy – someone who would steal your only meal of the day for themselves if you weren’t careful.
Matt didn’t know how long he was kept in hell – in fact, it was six long months – but one afternoon, without warning, more soldiers arrived at the gates, and these were not natives. An international body of wizards had seen what was going on, seen the potential disaster of magic being revealed as was happening there, and decided it was time to intervene.
It turned out the war had been ended for two months already, but it had taken that long for them to reach the camp Matt was contained in. Accompanying them were a group of children who had been enslaved and recently rescued, including the boy who had been saved by Matt originally. He viewed the wizard as his hero and with the little French and English he had picked up from the international soldiers, along with Matt’s developing Arabic, he managed to communicate that he was desperate not to have his memory erased as was happening to the other muggle children. He succeeded in explaining that he too could do “strange things”. He went on to prove this to an astounded Matthieu by making some rocks float for several seconds. He couldn’t hold them up for long, and was exhausted after only a few seconds, but it was evident that the boy, named Halim, was a telekinetic. Without pausing to ask for permission, he left the country with Halim in tow.
Matt returned to France at first, to visit his worried family who hadn’t received any correspondence in half a year. He didn’t stay long – no more than a month – before going to England to seek out his fiancée. Likewise, she had been concerned by the sudden halt in letters and packages, and was delighted to see him again. But she was somewhat less thrilled to find that Matt had somehow acquired a young boy to look after, and one who didn’t speak particularly good French or English at that. There was also the matter that both of them had changed from the people they were before. They had been through hell to separate degrees – Marie with her brother injured so badly, and Matt in the camp – and reacted differently to these situations. The engagement was still there, but the wedding postponed indefinitely.
Since he was in England, Matt decided to do some exploration on a matter that had always made him curious; his father. After a fair amount of digging, he came across the man’s current address and travelled up to Manchester to give him a surprise visit. He arrived back the next day and wouldn’t talk about what had occurred to Marie, which frustrated her even more. But the key result of that visit was that he officially adopted Halim and embarked on teaching him how to use and control his magic.
Trying to make the relationship work while helping Halim adjust to his new life both in England and as a young wizard, Matt and Marie made the decision to move away from her family in London. They eventually settled in Hogsmeade, and between working and teaching Halim, the cracks began to mend.
It didn’t take long for Matt to become bored with simple shop work and he started to look elsewhere for a job he might actually enjoy. It was around that time that Halim reached an adequate level to be accepted into Hogwarts, but he was far too frightened to start there without knowing anyone. Marie noted the numerous professorial positions open and, remembering how much Matthieu had seemed to enjoy teaching before, she made the suggestion that he apply. Liking the idea immediately, he did so. Despite his age, he had little trouble getting the position of History of Magic professor, with his high Beauxbatons qualifications and experiences teaching and in the archaeology team, showing how suited he was to that particular career path. He is due to start immediately, at the same time as Halim begins as a student. [/size]
[center][img]http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/5757/docmartha1akt0.jpg[/img] [img]http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/5845/ds3adl5.jpg[/img] [img]http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/5817/4aor1.jpg[/img]
[size=1][i]I suffered more than you can know
In that dark leafed place
Where death walked side by side with me
And often showed his face
Some days I did not know if I
Was ever coming home
And then I’m faced with acid rain
From you when I come home[/i][/center]
[b]Name:[/b] Matthieu “Matt” Gabriel Leroy
[b]Age:[/b] 22
[b]Sex:[/b] Male
[b]Nationality:[/b] Half-English, half-French
[b]Speech:[/b] Fluent in French and English, is competent but not perfect in Spanish and Egyptian, and knows the basics of Arabic. He knows how to say certain pleasantries (hello, goodbye, please, thank you, basic verb conjunctions etc.) in many other European languages, including German, Italian, Greek, Polish, Portuguese and Czech.
[b]Blood:[/b] Mixed blood
[b]Father:[/b] David Matthew Anders
[b]Mother:[/b] Amélie Patricia Bruneau (née Leroy)
[b]Siblings:[/b] Océane Maryse Bruneau – half-sister – aged 17 – attending Beauxbatons
[b]Other Family:[/b] Alphonse Jacques Bruneau – step-father
Marie Johnston – fiancé – 22 – old school-friend
Halim Leroy – adopted son – {12-14} – telekinetic
[b]Family Interactions:[/b] Matthieu gets on very well with his family, currently. Although he used to argue quite a lot, especially with his mother, and would frequently bicker with his sister – as siblings will do – now he has matured and spent a while away from them, he will happily pay them a visit and even finds himself missing them on occasion. As the saying goes, “distance makes the heart grow fonder”. He has a good relationship with his step-father and doesn’t view him as an imposer like he used to as a teenager, although the two aren’t particularly close. They can converse well enough, but certain words shouted in high tempers aren’t ever quite forgotten.
Previously there had been a lot of tension between Matt and Amélie concerning his true father. Matt felt it was his right to know, whereas his mother simply didn’t wish to talk or discuss the matter. He ended up digging out the information for himself, which culminated in a short meeting between Matthieu and David. Short mostly because of the shouting involved. After that incident, he has been much more understanding of why his mother didn’t wish to think about the man she’d been engaged to. He hasn’t tried to contact him again and is overall more content now the matter is settled, however unpleasant.
Before his experiences during the last bout of his travelling, Matthieu had gotten on extremely well with Marie, his good friend and fiancé. They didn’t argue much, trusted each other absolutely, and were well on their way to a wonderful wedding day. However, since he returned to her their relationship has been strained – she says that he’s changed, and doesn’t see why he is reluctant to talk about his time abroad. He knows he has changed, and the arguments between them have grown in both number and ferocity. The perfect wedding being planned in her head while he was away has been put on hold, at least for now, until they can sort out their differences. Halim, on the other hand, gets on very well with Matt. He has complete faith in the older man, and views him as a mixture of a father, big brother and hero.
[b]Height:[/b] 5’8
[b]Weight:[/b] 65kg
[b]Hair:[/b] Brown, quite scruffy
[b]Eyes:[/b] Brown
[b]Skin Color:[/b] White
[b]Clothing style:[/b] Varying – comfortable suits for when teaching, otherwise less formal and even more comfortable
[b]Accessories:[/b] Glasses for when he’s reading
[b]Other:[/b] None
[b]Paragraph Format:[/b] Matt is a half-English, half-French graduate of Beauxbatons who has just arrived at Hogwarts to apply for the teaching position of History of Magic professor. He was living with his family before coming to England – his mother, Amélie, half-sister Océane and step-father, Alphonse. Although he is engaged to Marie Johnston, there is uncertainty as to whether the wedding will go ahead. He is of mixed magical blood, with his father a muggle and a fair few of the Leroys being muggle born, but it is difficult to specify an exact proportion of muggle and wizarding blood in him. He taught himself the languages of English and Latin while at school, and picked up what he knows of Egyptian and Arabic while abroad.
Matt has a particularly angular face, with a thin nose and small chin. He’s quite thin and not too tall, but is physically fit from being so exerted while abroad, with fairly pale skin. His hair is almost always brown, unless he decides to be a little different and dyes it the muggle way – previous colours have been red, blonde and blue, among a few others. His fringe is a little straggly and he has sideburns, and is usually clean-shaven. He has to wear glasses when he is reading, and although he was offered the chance of a magical fix, he actually doesn’t mind his glasses so keeps them. He will buy and wear whichever clothes are the most comfortable, whatever it looks like, but does have the discretion and common sense to make sure there are a few suits included in his wardrobe for more formal occasions, such as teaching at Hogwarts.
[b]Personality:[/b] Matthieu has various talents to speak of – including one particular skill involving the ability to pick up new languages easily. He will simply work out the essentials and improvise from there on until he has a good understanding. He is also a studious worker, focussing on something until it is done. He has high standards and won’t settle for anything less than 100% effort. However, he can recognise when people have given that and still not achieved what was expected, and will usually make a special effort to get them up to the standard expected.
He isn’t unreasonable, and so long as you are telling the truth about why you are late to class or haven’t handed in your homework. He will demand an explanation whether one is offered voluntarily or not. But if you lie, or have no real or worthwhile reason, he will make sure that you know of his unhappiness. He isn’t afraid to set detention or extra work for those that are lagging behind because of a lack of effort, and will make an obvious divider between those who are trying and those who aren’t when setting punishments. Sometimes he will be a tad impatient.
However, he has a tendency to ignore things if he doesn’t think they apply to him, such as muggle current affairs. So absorbed in his history, he doesn’t pay attention to what is going on around him, sometimes until it is right up in his face. He has an adventurous streak, and will spontaneously jump into a situation without thinking it through properly. He is kind-hearted by nature and intelligent, although sometimes lacks common sense in making decisions. He loves travelling and learning, and generally just going with the flow until something catches his interest, then he will divert from the trodden path for as long as he deems necessary. Since returning from his travels, Matt is somewhat disillusioned and much more serious. He doesn’t like to talk about his experiences abroad after Egypt.
[b]History:[/b] Amélie Leroy, a French witch aged twenty four, met David Anders, an English muggle aged twenty six, while he was on a business trip to Paris. Without much warning at all, the pair found themselves swept away in a whirlwind romance over several months, until finally David had to return to London for ten weeks. It was during this time that Amélie realised she was pregnant. Surprised at first but then excited to tell him the news, it never occurred to her that this might not be what was best for either of them. She wanted to tell him face to face and so didn’t mention it in her letters to him – all delivered via muggle post, since she still had yet to reveal her magical heritage to him as well. Upon returning, she made the perhaps unwise move of telling him both things at once. Put simply, he made his excuses and scarpered.
For at least a year after, Amélie continued to try contacting David, to make him come back to her. She sent him long letters, photos of the son she had just given birth to in a desperate attempt. At one point she even visited England to talk face to face and left Matthieu with her own parents, but a few days later was back and refused to talk about the incident. After that, she stopped trying to contact him and instead concentrated on bringing up her son while earning enough to support them both.
Despite not having a lot of money during his first years of life, Matt led a relatively happy childhood. He had cousins abound to keep him company, but that didn’t prevent him asking of his mother why [i]he[/i] couldn’t have any brothers or sisters of his own, instead of having to share everyone else’s. Just after his fourth birthday, his mother began to date a local French wizard, Alphonse Bruneau. They married when he was six, and granted Matt’s wish for a younger sibling a year later, when Océane, a red-haired, blue-eyed little girl joined the family.
As with most wizarding children, Matthieu and Océane were taught how to read and write at their own home. They got on well, arguing occasionally as most siblings will, and Océane was sad to see her brother go when he reached the age to join Beauxbatons.
Matt did well at his new home in Southern France, finding he had particular talent in the subjects of Charms and History of Magic. In all honesty, he had a pretty average time at school – made friends, had a few girlfriends, studied hard with the occasional interruption of a party here or there. He was very curious about his father, but frustrated at the lack of information his mother had given him. He taught himself English in his spare time so he could know more about his father’s side of the family. Marie Johnston, a fellow half-French, half-English student at the school, helped him learn, as she frequently visited England to see her English relatives. Having accomplished that, he went on to study Spanish, even taking a trip to Spain with some friends in the summer following his 6th year and translating for those who did not know the language.
This small experience of travel inspired Matt and some of those friends to take a gap year rather than heading straight into a job after their 7th year. Sebastien, Frederic, Marie - whom he had started dating at the end of their 6th year - and Ana were the students accompanying him as they journeyed across Southern Europe, visiting places such as Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal while finding short-term employment to support themselves. All did some type of muggle work at one point or other, whether it was working in a shop or serving in a restaurant, since it was much easier to find this kind of work than seek out the magical community in that area.
They had several “adventures” while travelling, such as a whole suitcase containing apparition passes being stolen, Marie being accused by muggle customs officials of carrying illegal substances (which were in fact potion ingredients), and meeting a clan of vampires in Lake Garda, Italy. All situations were resolved with some degree of diplomacy, which mostly meant apparating away at the first opportunity. At the end of that year, Sebastien, Frederic and Ana went home, but Matt and Marie continued, going further afield into Africa.
The pair explored Northern Africa for a few months before settling in Egypt, in a very small town about a half hour walk from Cairo. Both became involved in educating the children of the area, many of whom had never had a proper teacher before. They also discovered the beaten down magical community, who were all taught by their parents with no proper training or magical knowledge. Matthieu got into a routine – work at a local shop during the morning and early afternoon, teaching the children to read and write in late afternoon and spending the evening with Marie, who had a similar routine. On Saturdays they would gather up the teenagers and some adults with magical skill and teach them spells that could be used to help their community.
Before they knew it a whole year had passed, and the couple had never been happier. But that contentment was abruptly ended when Marie received an owl from her family – her younger brother had been very badly injured in a quidditch match at Beauxbatons, and she was needed at home. Matt was determined to go with her, but she told him not to; to continue travelling until he was sure he was done with that, and that she’d come find him if took too long about it. Finally giving in, he went and found a beautiful silver ring in Cairo, and the night before she left, proposed.
Now engaged, Matthieu didn’t stay for more than a couple of months longer in the village and, confident that the people there could look after themselves, packed his things and moved out to begin travelling east, towards Asia. Although at first he was lonely being on his own, he soon got used to the solitude, making friends easily in the places he visited and picking up enough of the main dialects to communicate with the people there. Six months after, he settled down again and began to work with an English archaeology team, serving as a translator between them and the locals due to his talent of picking up the essentials of new languages easily. It also helped him work on his English speech, which had inevitably become a little rusty since he had first learnt it aged sixteen.
After three years of working with the archaeology team and enjoying himself immensely, they returned home with their findings and Matt continued eastwards, crossing so many borders he was never entirely certain which country he was in. Keeping in contact with Marie, who had chosen to stay in England after her brother’s recovery in St. Mungo’s (where he had been transferred to see a specialist), he finally – although not knowing this himself at the time – entered the last country in his travels. The land around the border was deathly quiet, and Matthieu continued uneasily.
Coming across signs of life in the distance, he hurried on to find a small village... decimated. Hunting for anyone who could tell him what had happened, he came across an older man and a young boy, both badly injured and who between them explained what had gone on in their home. So out of touch with news, Matt had stumbled into a district ridden with war. The boy’s injuries began to bleed badly, and in desperation he used magic to heal the pair. But that was quite possibly the worst mistake he could have made. The fighting was not just muggles, as he had automatically assumed from their gestures; wizards were involved as well, and that unauthorised use of magic had attracted attention. Within five minutes, hostile wizards were in the destroyed village. Within ten, the old man was dead, the boy enslaved and Matt taken for questioning.
Unable to speak the language to any degree of accuracy, his capturers soon became irritated by the lack of answers they were receiving. All they had managed to surmise was that he was a French wizard, who may or may not be a spy for the opposition. He was thrown into one of their prison camps for muggles and wizards alike, and his wand snapped.
In the camp, life was hard for everyone. Food was rationed so much that a proportion of the prisoners were in latter stages of starvation, with dehydration an inevitability for everyone. Fights were common, and there was a huge rivalry between magical and non-magical folk. Everyone was an enemy – someone who would steal your only meal of the day for themselves if you weren’t careful.
Matt didn’t know how long he was kept in hell – in fact, it was six long months – but one afternoon, without warning, more soldiers arrived at the gates, and these were not natives. An international body of wizards had seen what was going on, seen the potential disaster of magic being revealed as was happening there, and decided it was time to intervene.
It turned out the war had been ended for two months already, but it had taken that long for them to reach the camp Matt was contained in. Accompanying them were a group of children who had been enslaved and recently rescued, including the boy who had been saved by Matt originally. He viewed the wizard as his hero and with the little French and English he had picked up from the international soldiers, along with Matt’s developing Arabic, he managed to communicate that he was desperate not to have his memory erased as was happening to the other muggle children. He succeeded in explaining that he too could do “strange things”. He went on to prove this to an astounded Matthieu by making some rocks float for several seconds. He couldn’t hold them up for long, and was exhausted after only a few seconds, but it was evident that the boy, named Halim, was a telekinetic. Without pausing to ask for permission, he left the country with Halim in tow.
Matt returned to France at first, to visit his worried family who hadn’t received any correspondence in half a year. He didn’t stay long – no more than a month – before going to England to seek out his fiancée. Likewise, she had been concerned by the sudden halt in letters and packages, and was delighted to see him again. But she was somewhat less thrilled to find that Matt had somehow acquired a young boy to look after, and one who didn’t speak particularly good French or English at that. There was also the matter that both of them had changed from the people they were before. They had been through hell to separate degrees – Marie with her brother injured so badly, and Matt in the camp – and reacted differently to these situations. The engagement was still there, but the wedding postponed indefinitely.
Since he was in England, Matt decided to do some exploration on a matter that had always made him curious; his father. After a fair amount of digging, he came across the man’s current address and travelled up to Manchester to give him a surprise visit. He arrived back the next day and wouldn’t talk about what had occurred to Marie, which frustrated her even more. But the key result of that visit was that he officially adopted Halim and embarked on teaching him how to use and control his magic.
Trying to make the relationship work while helping Halim adjust to his new life both in England and as a young wizard, Matt and Marie made the decision to move away from her family in London. They eventually settled in Hogsmeade, and between working and teaching Halim, the cracks began to mend.
It didn’t take long for Matt to become bored with simple shop work and he started to look elsewhere for a job he might actually enjoy. It was around that time that Halim reached an adequate level to be accepted into Hogwarts, but he was far too frightened to start there without knowing anyone. Marie noted the numerous professorial positions open and, remembering how much Matthieu had seemed to enjoy teaching before, she made the suggestion that he apply. Liking the idea immediately, he did so. Despite his age, he had little trouble getting the position of History of Magic professor, with his high Beauxbatons qualifications and experiences teaching and in the archaeology team, showing how suited he was to that particular career path. He is due to start immediately, at the same time as Halim begins as a student. [/size]