Benjamin R. Braddock {FINISHED}

[Benjamin Braddock]

In Character

Full Name: Benjamin Ralph Braddock
Nicknames: Ben
Birthdate: 27th August 1870
Current Age: 15
Occupation: Student - 4th year
Reputation: 5
Residence:

September - May; Hogwarts
June - August; London, England

Hogwarts House: Slytherin
Wand: Laurel, 12", Dragon Heartstring, Slightly yielding
Blood Status: Muggleborn
Social Class: Middle
Family:

Alexander Braddock, Father (b. 1835)
Isabelle Braddock (née Lucas), Mother (1843-1875);
Katherine Braddock, Sister (1865-1865); died three hours after birth
Eleanora Braddock, Sister (1867-1867); stillborn
Elizabeth Braddock (née Crawford née Eldridge), Stepmother (b. 1843)
Charlotte Carstairs (née Crawford), Stepsister (b. 1863)
---- Edward Carstairs, Stepbrother-in-law (b. 1850)
Coraline Crawford, Stepsister (b. 1866)
Cassandra Crawford, Stepsister (b. 1869)

Jameson Braddock, Paternal Grandfather (b. 1804)
Catherine Braddock (née Crawley), Paternal Grandmother (b. 1815)
Lucinda Braddock, Aunt (b. 1838); Spinster
Edward Braddock, Uncle (b. 1841)
---- Francine Braddock (née Foster), Aunt (b. 1849)
---- Josephine Braddock, 1st Cousin (b. 1871)
---- Frederick Braddock, 1st Cousin (b. 1872)
---- Caroline Braddock, 1st Cousin (b. 1874)
---- Henrietta Braddock, 1st Cousin (b. 1877); twin to Harrison
---- Harrison Braddock, 1st Cousin (b. 1877); twin to Henrietta
Berenice Howard (née Braddock), Aunt (b. 1844)
---- Harold Howard, Uncle (b. 1832)
---- Randolph Howard, 1st Cousin (b. 1869)
---- Georgina Howard, 1st Cousin (b. 1873)
Victoria Blackwood (née Braddock), Aunt (b. 1846)
---- Nicholas Blackwood, Uncle (b. 1840)
---- Lincoln Blackwood, 1st Cousin (b. 1867)
---- Penelope Blackwood, 1st Cousin (b. 1870)
---- Solomon Blackwood, 1st Cousin (b. 1874)
Ambrose Braddock, Uncle (b. 1850)

Appearance:

*5'5"
*Slim build
*Faintly toned/muscled
*Dark brown hair (almost black) that is styled in a neat-messy sort of way.
*Bright, clear blue eyes with flecks of hazel brown around the irises
*Long & narrow nose
*Thin lips
*Long face with an inverted-triangle jawline
*Fair skin

History:

LATE SUMMER 1870 | After seven years of marriage and two dead children later, Benjamin Ralph is born as the eldest living child to a mildly successful antique shop owner and his uptight but rather artistic wife. His birth had been a blessing to his parents whose strong relationship was beginning to strain under Isabelle's inability to become pregnant, and although it did nothing to repair the breach that had formed between them, their son's presence certainly brought them closer.

YEARS 1871-1874 | While he didn't grow up in the lap of luxury, Ben certainly grew up in a comfortable environment. A solid Middle Class family, the Braddocks are hardly known for their achievements (what little of them there were that attracted any kind of attention), but rather for their diligence and dedication to the causes and ideas that they believed in, hence why Alexander -- who loved all things old, beautiful, and valuable -- had decided to establish an antique shop in London. Unfortunately, the shop wasn't quite as successful as he had hoped, though he still earned enough to keep his family fed, educate his children, and have a comfortable enough roof over their heads.

As an infant and a toddler, Ben had always been a rather calm baby, rarely causing much fuss and endearing himself to his parents who finally had their long-anticipated child, a fact which had caused his already uptight mother to become even more paranoid and more than a little protective. In fact, she had become downright overbearing, and not only were his meals undertaken by her to ensure that nobody would slip anything into his food, but she had also been present at every lecture (where he has proven himself to be a rather bright child with penchant for retaining knowledge) he ever had with his tutor. His father, on the other hand, was much less on edge, and although he loved his mother dearly (despite all of the pent-up agitation she had caused), Ben tended to prefer Alexander's company.

SPRING OF 1875 | Ben was five when his mother became sick. Being as young as he was, he doesn't really recall much of what happened during that time, though he distinctly remembers her lying helpless in bed and her skin turning a deathly pale hue -- it had rather discomfiting for Ben to witness his usually headstrong and graceful mother look so weak and vulnerable. The disease had developed at a very rapid pace, and it was not even a week after she had first started showing symptoms that cholera had taken her life.

YEARS OF 1875-1877 | Due to a lack of a mother figure in his life, Ben's father decided that it would be wise to send his son to a more stable environment, and as a result, Ben became was sent to live with his Aunt Berenice, her husband, and their two children. It was there that Ben spent the better part of two years with his extended family in a modest but spacious house in countryside where he grew up, played, and learned alongside his cousins, a boy and a girl named Randolph and Georgina. It is during this time that he discovers his love of literature and poetry, and could often be found with some book or other in his hands.

SUMMER OF 1878 | Ben was eight when his father remarried. He had been spending a weekend with his parents in Bath where he was introduced to a widowed woman by the name of Mrs. Elizabeth Crawford, and it was not long after a whirlwind of a courtship that he had proposed to her, and she had accepted. Whether it was a love match or not, Ben could never tell, though it did appear as if his father and Elizabeth regarded each other highly. His father remarrying meant that he could finally return to his childhood home in London, though he had been loathe to leave behind the people he had come to view as a second family, especially after he discovered that his new stepmother came along with three other children, all of them girls and, in his opinion, equally horrible.

WINTER OF 1878 | The first time Ben had displayed magic, it had gone undetected by everyone but himself. Ben had been inconspicuously reading a mystery novel in an obscure corner of the drawing room when his stepsisters wandered in, arguing about something or other that he normally couldn't be bothered to know about, but his book had been proving very boring, and despite himself, he couldn't help but listen in. They had been talking about his father, demeaning him as nothing more than the simple-minded shop owner of a failing business who had nothing else going for him in life, and this enraged Ben. After everything his father had done for them to ensure that they were all happy and and comfortable, and they had the audacity to speak about like that? It was just downright ungrateful, and in his anger, Ben didn't even notice how hot his palms had become and how hard he had been gripping the book when it had suddenly burst into flames, jolting him back to reality.

Shocked by the unexpectedness of it, Ben inhaled a sharp intake of breath and immediately threw the charred book onto the floor, the fire distinguishing itself upon impact. For a few moments, Ben just merely stared at the burnt book, his eyes wide with disbelief and wondering what in the world had just happened. Why were palms so warm? How did they get that hot? How was any this even possible? Unless he was some kind of magical creature who drew his power from the elements, but that was just stupid; Magic didn't exist!

While all of this flitted through his head, his stepsisters came over to see what all the commotion was about, looking between Ben who still sat frozen on the couch and the burnt book that was lying on the floor, and it was not even a minute later when the youngest -- the worst of them all and who was the biggest snitch ever -- went running to her mother, and Ben got in trouble for "destroying house property". Even though he had tried to explain that he didn't mean to do it, but he gave up after a while when he realized that his father wouldn't believe him.

YEARS 1879-1880 | After his first act of magic, a series of others seemed to follow, some more noticeable than others, but nothing that suggested that there was anything remotely wrong with him. In fact, Ben tended to keep these inexplicable happenings to himself, and out of curiosity, had even tried to see if he could do it willingly rather than randomly. Unfortunately (and unsurprisingly, for that matter), Ben's endeavors had been unsuccessful, though it wasn't for a lack of trying. Luckily, Ben would learn sooner rather than later about why these strange things seemed to happen around him, and it had marked the biggest shock of his life to date.

SUMMER OF 1881 | Ben's family had just taken breakfast when a knock had sounded from the front door, and the butler had announced that a man by the name of Mr. Marcellus Marx had wanted to speak to his parents about him, of all the things! So while his parents retired to his father's study to speak with this man, Ben and his stepsisters sat around the dining room and brainstormed reasons as to why the man had taken an interest in Ben. Though naturally, they spoke of him as if he wasn't even there.

*insert bitchy comments here that Miri cba to do atm*

Anyways, it wasn't long afterwards that Ben was called into his father's study -- all three of his stepsisters eavesdropping by the door (which the wizard had sound-proofed lolz) -- and was informed that he was a wizard. At first, Ben didn't believe him, skeptical of this strange man in long billowing robes (what man wore a dressing gown in public?), but it wasn't until Mr. Marx began explaining to him that it all began to click. All of those odd occurrences that he could never fully explain, they finally made sense; not to mention that the prospect of learning more magic sounded very exciting. So it was without further ado that Ben had decided to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the cover story being that Ben had been sent to a boarding school in Scotland, which was too far from the truth.

AUTUMN OF 1881| With a trunk full of spell books, personal items, and other necessities (plus an eagle owl that he had named Hermes; so original, I know >.>), Ben was sent off to school via the Hogwarts Express. Much like many students, he had been awed by the majestic castle, especially the Great Hall which was charmed to look like a real-life sky. Ben had waited with the other students in his year and when his name had been called, he had taken tentative steps toward the hat, mildly distrustful of an object that couldmove and talk. But nonetheless, the hat had been placed on his head, the brim of the hat falling low over his eyes, obscuring his vision of the Great Hall.

Ben was something people liked to call a "hat stall", or more specifically, a student who took longer than a few minutes to be sorted. The Sorting Hat, it seemed, was conflicted as to whether or not to place him either Ravenclaw or Slytherin, and Ben -- whose only knowledge about either house were the things he had read in his textbooks -- had been very confused by it all, even going so far as to panic that perhaps this had all been a grave mistake. That he wasn't a wizard at all, and he had been the victim of a rather cruel prank. Though luckily, that hadn't been the case, and a few moments later saw him sorted into Slytherin.

SEPTEMBER OF 1881 - MAY OF 1882 | Ben's first year passed by in a blur of new experiences, knowledge, and friendships. Having never been a socially active person by nature -- he was rather introverted, in that respect -- Ben had had some difficulty forming bonds with the students he went to school with, though he did manage to form a strange/kind of awkward friendship with both Quentin Killick and Rhys Cadwallader, two boys whom he shared a dorm with, as well as Warren Lucky (a ravenclaw), and three girls named Trina Winthrop, Klara Echelon, and Abigail Clearwater (all of whom are fellow Slytherins).

Academics, however, were quite a different matter. Having never known that there was a whole other world that existed just right under his nose, Ben lapped up any and all information he could over it, proving himself to be a rather attentive pupil in classes and quite diligent in his work habits. He found that he excelled in all non-wandbased classes (Astronomy, Magical Theory, History of Magic, Potions), though he did rather well in Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts too.

In fact, his new experiences had encouraged him to write a story, using the Wizarding World as a backdrop and finding inspiration for characters in the personalities of his friends, though some character descriptions were more exaggerated than others though they weren't any less true; Ben, you judgmental prat.

SUMMER OF 1882 | The summer after Ben's first year saw the eldest of his stepsisters, Charlotte, marry a one Edward Carstairs, a lawyer who was ten years her senior and lived in a modest, but comfortable house a block over from the Braddocks. As such, his summer was filled with talk of all things wedding-related -- the invitations, the venue, the bouquet, the dress, etc. -- and by the end, after Charlotte had left for her honeymoon in late July, Ben thought that if he even heard the word "wedding", it would be too soon.

He had also made frequent trips into Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade during the summer, as well.

SEPTEMBER OF 1882 - MAY OF 1883 | Ben returns for his second year. Nothing of much interest occurs during this year except that he had joined three clubs: Book Club, Wizards Chess, and Leisure Sports. With a good majority of his friends being in those particular clubs, he thought he'd give them a chance, even if he had never been much of a joiner. At the end of the year, Ben had chosen Arithmancy, Ancient Studies, and Ghoul Studies as his electives.

SEPTEMBER OF 1883 - MAY OF 1884 | Ben's third year starts off on an interesting note as he attends his new electives. He found them all vastly entertaining, especially Ancient Studies, though he did (and still does, actually) have a spot of trouble with Arithmancy every now and then. Also, when did Trina Winthrop get so pretty?

SEPTEMBER OF 1884 - PRESENT | Now at the end of his fourth year, Ben looks forward to a carefree summer before the start of fifth year, and subsequently, (and he looked forward to this much less) the nightmare that O.W.Ls were going to be.

Personality:

•A keen intellectual (especially when it comes to literature and poetry)
•Big dreamer/imagination
•Detail-oriented
•Polite
•Disciplined work habits
•Realistic
•(secretly) Romantic
•Practical
•Skeptical/Cynical
•Organized
•Curious
•Independent; dislikes anyone making decisions for him and trying to control any aspect of his life.
•Introverted (though he enjoys being in the limelight on occasion)
•Dislikes idleness
•Observant
•Very private in his emotions; tends to act on them rather than talk about it
•Less interested in experiencing things as he is in philosophizing about them
•Motivated
•Hardworking
•Keen sense of right and wrong
•Prone to obsessiveness
•Ambitious
•Weird sense of humor
•Awkward (socially, at least, in an amusing sort of way)
•Cheerful
•Judgmental
•Manipulative when he wants to be
•Honest (sometimes brutally so)
•Gentle (more in a physical sense than anything)
•Kind
•Caring
•Oh, and sarcasm. Don't forget the sarcasm. xD

Sample Roleplay Post:

Out of Character

Name: Miri
Age: 18
Contact: PM Imogen MacFusty, plz! <3
Other Characters:
How did you hear about us?: Google!

  

[Cassius Lestrange]

APPLICATION ACCEPTED!

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