01-13-2012, 06:51 AM
Full Name: Mordecai Alonzo Grimaldi
Nicknames: Ferret, Grim, Al, Cai, Uncle Cai (Fanny Blackwood), The Bastard (only his meaner half-siblings and his adoptive mother use this...it is unwise for any others to do so)
Birthdate: December 21st, 1846
Current Age: 36 Years
Occupation:He doesn't often speak of his work other than to say he travels a lot and he finds people. However, people do pay him well to do what he does; mostly because he does it very well. Mordy has decided that along with the purchase of a new house, he is in need of a new life style and has applied to be an Auror-in-Training.
Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff Alumni (better believe it!)
Wand: Cedar, 14 1/2", Inflexible, Griffin tail tuft
Blood Status: Halfblood
Social Class: Middle Class
Family:
Father:+Silas Augustus Grimaldi; b. 1817, Upperclass Pureblood, Gryffindor Alumni, Married
Birth Mother: Adonia Maria Carlotti; b. 1824 - d. 1952, Middleclass (scarlet fever)
Adopted Mother: Zylphia Sophronia Zane-Grimaldi; b. 1822 - d. 1862, Upperclass Pureblood, Gryffindor Alumni, Married
Sister: Silia Adonia Grimaldi; b. 1850 - d. 1852 (scarlet fever)
Half Brothers:
Appearance: The first thing that people tend to notice about Mordecai, aside from his well above average height (6'3") or his athletic build is his hair. It is pale blonde, soft and wavy and it gives him an almost youthful appearance at times. His features are strong; a straight nose coming to a point, strong jaw, defined cheekbones and a blunt chin. In all he's definitely masculine and not too rough on the eyes. He most often keeps a well groomed goatee and mustache that accents the bluntness of his chin and the line of his upper lip. His eyes, as might be expected of a man of Northern Italian descent, are a light, pure blue that only add to his deceiving appearance.
As far as fashion is concerned, Mordecai tends to prefer a neutral color pallet and while he might not be the most up to date on the trends, his clothes are well made and obviously made for him. He tends towards simple waistcoats and black trousers with either a black tailcoat with velvet trim or a morning coat of similar color and trim. And while his clothes may be well made they are also well worn (and well cared for); frivolous spending on clothing is not something Mordecai does. Aside from a gold pocket watch and chain, he also avoids the usual accessories of a man of his station. His only bit of adornment is a gold ring hung around his neck on a gold chain, it bears the crest of his family; a gift from his father shortly before his brothers were born.
In his line of work--essentially Mordecai is a locator for hire and what he does when he locates a target depends on the money and his moral code--he has acquired a few scars, some of them rather alarming though the more gruesome marks often remain covered. There are of course various silvery scars on his arms, the backs of his hands and one just below the left side of his lower lip from various scuffles and altercations with more mundane weapons. The more serious marks, left by weapon and hex alike are concentrated on his chest, back and right thigh. Various cuts, stabs and scorch marks from his early years as a locator, or "ferret" as his kind is sometimes called. He's since learned to be a bit more careful.
He is right hand dominant.
History:
Backed into a corner, Silas had no choice but to relent to his oftentimes overbearing wife's demands and Adonia Carlotti was removed from her position as Governess, with much screaming and crying from the Grimaldi children, and left the Grimaldi household with her infant son and a goodly sum of money given to her by Silas to care for his son. It would be a bit of a stretch to say that the man loved Adonia, but she was the mother of his only son and he did hold a certain amount of affection for her; enough to make sure she didn't suffer too much for his lust. Lord Silas Grimaldi wasn't a thoughtless man and through the years, as he was gifted with daughter after daughter by his wife, he kept an eye on the young woman who now worked as a maid in a neighbor's home; he'd put in a good word without his wife's knowledge.
After a year, Silas started up his affair with Adonia once more, this time donning a disguise and going to her home. The result was another child born; a little girl named Silia who was born in the early spring of 1850. Of course, her life was cut short, as was that of Adonia and one of Silas' daughters, Lorena when an outbreak of illness descended in the summer of 1852 on the small town where the family lived in Italy. Devestated by the loss of his friend--for that was what Adonia had become to him--and two of his children, Lord Silas Grimaldi took Mordecai into his home despite Zylphia's protests and threats and forced her to treat him as her own. The little boy became the wedge between husband and wife and a tool for the jealous, spiteful woman to use against her husband.
It was fair easy for her to turn her older daughters against the little boy and when Silas was away she encouraged the use of the term "bastard" in stead of his name. It wasn't a particularly pleasant way to live, but Mordecai did make friends amongst his half sisters, much to Zylphia's annoyance. Sophronia,, who had been born a few months after he had, became fast friends with the quiet, observant child and the two gained strength from one another. While Sophronia was never able to stand up to her mother or sisters on Mordecai's behalf, she did her best to comfort him. On the other hand, Mordecai would defend her from her sisters bullying ways, often encouraging their blind hatred of him so they would ignore their more mild mannered sibling.
As the years passed and Zylphia failed to produce a living son for her husband, she grew more and more spiteful of the bastard son she was forced to accept as her own. It was never spoken of but it was understood that if the woman failed to produce a male heir for Silas, he would accept Mordecai as his heir.
Things weren't all bad, however, living with the Grimaldi family as Silas truly did love his son, despite the fact that the boy's presence seemed to stir up trouble in his previously relatively quiet household. There are many fond memories that Mordecai carries with him to this day of his childhood with his father, tempered only by the jealous shadow of his wife. Five years passed before Mordecai finally received his Hogwarts letter; Sophronia received it as well. He was certain, at this point, that things would get better between his sisters and himself once he got sorted into Gryffidor like his father. He still remembers his fathers proud face when he took his son and daughter to get their first wands and the ring that was pressed into his hand as he dropped five of his children off at the gates of Hogwarts.
As usual, he tended to ignore the criticism and bullying unless it affected his cherished sister, in which case he would do something to draw the attention away from her, always to his own detriment. While Sophronia made friends, despite his presence, Mordecai found it difficult to navigate the social structure of Hogwarts and for the most part kept to himself and as a result did rather well in his courses, especially those that involved wand work and hands on involvement; as a result his top classes were Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration and Charms. He would spend his spare time in obscure places around the castle, in the library or when the weather allowed it, outside on the grounds.
Despite his good marks in his courses, Mordecai was just as quiet and reserved in class as he was outside of it unless called upon. This often made him an awkward partner in any group projects as he would usually remain quiet during discussions leaving his partners to assume he was going to be a dead weight only to surprise them when he ended up doing more than his fair share. Still, the general consensus was that he wasn't very bright, simply because he was born to an unwed mother. Despite this, were it not for his unshakable sense of loyalty and his protective nature, his work ethics regarding school might have landed him in Ravenclaw though he was nowhere near as brilliant as many of the students in that house. No, after his initial disappointment, Mordecai accepted and even enjoyed his time in Hufflepuff. School was a mostly happy time for him and he did make a couple friends, one of which he met in his third year during Potions class.
She was a Ravenclaw, and due to an uneven amount of boys and girls, she was paired with Mordecai for an extended project. As was the case with most grouped or partnered projects, Mordecai remained mostly quiet, giving monosyllabic or nonverbal answers to her various questions while they worked. The girl--Peggy Bytheway--grew increasingly irritated with him until she realized that at the end of each class period, while she'd been talking over the assignment, he'd done his share of that day's work and some days even some of her share all without saying a word. By the end of the month long project, the two had begun what would grow into a rather close friendship; or as close a friendship as the school would allow. The friendship was only solidified when his meddling sisters attempted to tear it asunder and Peggy told the older girls off. In that moment Margaret Bytheway made a steadfast friend for life. He would even come to spend several holidays with her rather cozy family in order to avoid the dysfunctional mess that was his own home; Silas Grimaldi often had "business to attend to" when the children came home from school for holidays.
As his school life progressed his family grew and while he was away at Hogwarts during his fifth year, Zylphia finally gave Silas the legitimate heir he was looking for, and a spare to boot! After giving birth to ten daughters, she finally had the sons she was hoping for to usurp Mordecai from his tentative position as heir. However an ironic twist of fate would keep her from seeing her sons--Gabriel and Gideon--grow into adulthood. Her final delivery was filled with complications and she fell victim to fever and infection. A year later, in his sixth year, his older sister finally succumbed to consumption at the age of twenty-one, making her husband a widower.
Towards the end of his seventh year at Hogwarts he was surprised and a little annoyed to find the Ministry of Magic sending recruiters his way in an attempt to pull him into the Auror or Hit Wizard program as his scores were more than acceptable and his participation in the dueling club in his later years made him a prime candidate. Instead of make a decision, he put it off and graduated with no set idea of what he wanted to do. He no longer had to worry about becoming the next Grimaldi as Gabriel and Gideon were more than enough for that. So instead he packed what he could carry and set off to wander the world and find himself.
For a year--after seeing how very different things were for someone not of the upperclass--Mordecai shed his decidedly lavish (though he hadn't realized it before then) trappings as well as his father's name, shortening it to Grim. Under the name Alonzo Grim "Al" for short, he slipped into the underbelly of the British Isles for most of the following year. What he found and learned shocked him greatly and made him grateful for what he'd previously thought was a mediocre existence. For that entire year he was out of touch with the Wizarding world that he knew and found that he could apply little of what he'd been taught as a child to the life he now lived. However, when the end of October neared, he dragged himself out of the gutters where he'd been learning knife tricks and the secret of being a pick pocket from a ragtag gang of street kids and cleaned himself up enough to be presentable.
When he reached the Bytheway home he was in for a rather unpleasant shock; his dear friend had vanished from the Wizarding world into the land of Muggles, a land that Mordecai was becoming increasingly more familiar with. After several months of speaking to her siblings and doing a bit of searching, he managed to find her; married to a muggle gentleman. As he'd learned to do, he kept to the shadows and remained inconspicuous as he observed the married couple, looking for telltale signs that Peggy might be unhappy with the arrangement. After nearly a month of spying on the young family, he decided that she was in a good enough relationship and left his belated birthday gift to her on the stoop with a cryptic letter signed with a badger.
By the time he'd reached the age of twenty-five, an age when most men begin to think about casting a net for suitable wives, Mordecai had lived and worked in several countries, learning more about the underbelly of each nation than he'd ever cared to. He'd acquired skills that lined him up for a rather peculiar line of work for a bastard son of a trading magnate. His ease in traversing the shadier parts of town brought him to the attention of middle and upperclass men in need of those particular traits to track down men in debt who were on the lamb or missing children. For the most part the jobs he took involved tracking down inscrutable characters for wealthy employers and either extracting information, money or blood from them. The latter was very rare unless the deed needed to be done, however if one were to draw parallels they might compare him to a rogue hitwizard; he took down threats to society though often his targets were individuals that targeted the lower classes who had no power to defend themselves. An awkward, anti-social and not exactly charming Robin Hood type, minus the stealing.
Despite his often being off-grid, Mordecai never once forgot to send or deliver a present to his school friend for her birthday and for five years he worked for various wealthy muggles and wizards alike in Italy and Europe, saving much of what he made, spending little on himself and doing what he could in the towns he passed through to make lives easier for the lower classes; especially the children. Despite being as careful as a man could be back in the day--Mordecai would never want to bring a bastard into the world to face the ridicule that he had--he can't say with absolute certainty that hasn't left woman with child. It is one of his paranoid fears, in fact and if he happens through a town twice and he remembers to do so, he stops by his usual (a relative term as he's not particularly incorrigible with strangers) just to be sure that none of their bastards look like him.
A few years into living the life of a "Ferret" as his employers often called him, for his tenacity and his ability to track a thing or person down, the muggle world seemed to wise up to the existence of magical people amongst them and rebelled. It was a tense and often awkward year as he began having to limit his jobs to the wizarding world. Not long afterward, during a rare visit to his father that led to tense conversation about marriage and duty, Mordecai received a letter that sparked his anger; his long time friend's husband, upon learning of her heritage, had divorced her and kicked her to the curb while pregnant. He left his father's home in Italy, mid-argument and made his way by floo network to the british isles to collect Peggy and bring her to her family where she sought refuge and came up with an acceptable story as divorce was not something that the Catholic Church smiled upon by any stretch of the imagination.
Since the age of thirty, Mordecai has been slowly approaching the point where he's almost ready to settle. He began to stray less and less from Hogsmeade where Margaret had decided to call home. The often irrepressible urge to pick up and leave came to him less frequently and more often than not he looked forward to returning to his small room above the Hog's Head Tavern in Hogsmeade. Not only was this the new home of Margaret and her lovely little girl Fanny, but Sophronia, Isabella and several of his other sisters had moved to town with their husbands and families and while not all were glad to see him. Curiously his reasons for staying amounted to many women, some of whom were intent on keeping their distance and others whom wished to remain close. In all, he gradually phased out the part of his life that involved far flung travel, doing odd jobs about the town and working for his father as well when it couldn't be avoided. Mostly he helped his sisters Sophronia and Isabella with anything they needed though the former often delighted in attempting to set up her brother with her friends.
As the years passed, Silas became more and more insistent that if Mordecai was to stay in town that he find a home and a wife and settle down and while at first he was repelled by the idea he has come to realize that a family was something he wanted the more time he spent with little Fanny and his sisters' children. Towards the summer of 1882 he finally decided that living at a Tavern was getting a bit old and purchased a home in need of a bit of fixing in Bartonburg with the money he'd been squirreling away since before graduation. Shortly after that, in an effort to fill his time more completely, he applied with the Ministry to become an Auror-in-Training, a respectable enough profession and one that he was oddly suited for given that a majority of his adult life was spent tracking down things people didn't want to be found. Now, with almost a year of training under his belt and a fixed up house that is far too big for him alone, Mordecai has finally relented to his father's bullying and his sister's nagging and has agreed to attend a handful of select functions though his heart isn't in it at all.
Sample Roleplay Post:
OOC:
Name: Cait (the Unicorncorn)
Age: Soon to be 25
Contact: AIM: Spazzazaroni ; MSN: crazykitae@hotmail.com
Other Characters:Malvina MacFusty, Regilla Cockburn, Zephyra Zane
How did you hear about us? Eastern Lands
Nicknames: Ferret, Grim, Al, Cai, Uncle Cai (Fanny Blackwood), The Bastard (only his meaner half-siblings and his adoptive mother use this...it is unwise for any others to do so)
Birthdate: December 21st, 1846
Current Age: 36 Years
Occupation:
Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff Alumni (better believe it!)
Wand: Cedar, 14 1/2", Inflexible, Griffin tail tuft
Blood Status: Halfblood
Social Class: Middle Class
Family:
Father:+Silas Augustus Grimaldi; b. 1817, Upperclass Pureblood, Gryffindor Alumni, Married
Birth Mother: Adonia Maria Carlotti; b. 1824 - d. 1952, Middleclass (scarlet fever)
Adopted Mother: Zylphia Sophronia Zane-Grimaldi; b. 1822 - d. 1862, Upperclass Pureblood, Gryffindor Alumni, Married
Sister: Silia Adonia Grimaldi; b. 1850 - d. 1852 (scarlet fever)
Half Brothers:
- *Gideon Grimaldi; b. 1862, Fraternal twin, Upperclass Pureblood, Gryffindor Alumni
*Gabriel Grimaldi; b. 1862, Fraternal twin, Upperclass Pureblood, Gryffindor Alumni
- Permelia Zana Grimaldi; b. 1842 - d. 1863, Pureblood, Gryffindor Alumni (consumption)
Hortence _____ nee Grimaldi, b. 1843, Pureblood, Gryffindor Alumni
Fidelia Cockburn nee Grimaldi; b. 1845, Pureblood, Gryffindor Alumni
+Sophronia Lennox nee Grimaldi; b. February 1847, Pureblood, Hufflepuff Alumni
Philomena _____ nee Grimaldi; b. 1849, Pureblood, Gryffindor or Ravenclaw Alumni
Genevieve _____ nee Grimaldi; b. 1850, Pureblood, Gryffindor or Slytherin Alumni
Lorena Livia Grimaldi; b. 1851 - d. 1852, Pureblood (scarlet fever)
*Florence _____ nee Grimaldi; b. 1853, Pureblood, Gryffindor or Ravenclaw Alumni
+Isabella _____ nee Grimaldi; b. 1855, Pureblood, Hufflepuff Alumni
*Minerva Moody nee Grimaldi; b. 1857, Pureblood, Gryffindor or Ravenclaw Alumni
Parthena Adelia Grimaldi; b. 1859 - d. 1865, Pureblood
- Margaret Elizabeth Grimaldi nee Goode nee Bytheway
- Robin Goode; b. 15 March 1865, Halfblood
Titus St. Martin; b. 15 May, 1871, Halfblood
+ = On good terms
* = On okay terms
Also, names can be changed if you wish to adopt.
Appearance: The first thing that people tend to notice about Mordecai, aside from his well above average height (6'3") or his athletic build is his hair. It is pale blonde, soft and wavy and it gives him an almost youthful appearance at times. His features are strong; a straight nose coming to a point, strong jaw, defined cheekbones and a blunt chin. In all he's definitely masculine and not too rough on the eyes. He most often keeps a well groomed goatee and mustache that accents the bluntness of his chin and the line of his upper lip. His eyes, as might be expected of a man of Northern Italian descent, are a light, pure blue that only add to his deceiving appearance.
As far as fashion is concerned, Mordecai tends to prefer a neutral color pallet and while he might not be the most up to date on the trends, his clothes are well made and obviously made for him. He tends towards simple waistcoats and black trousers with either a black tailcoat with velvet trim or a morning coat of similar color and trim. And while his clothes may be well made they are also well worn (and well cared for); frivolous spending on clothing is not something Mordecai does. Aside from a gold pocket watch and chain, he also avoids the usual accessories of a man of his station. His only bit of adornment is a gold ring hung around his neck on a gold chain, it bears the crest of his family; a gift from his father shortly before his brothers were born.
In his line of work--essentially Mordecai is a locator for hire and what he does when he locates a target depends on the money and his moral code--he has acquired a few scars, some of them rather alarming though the more gruesome marks often remain covered. There are of course various silvery scars on his arms, the backs of his hands and one just below the left side of his lower lip from various scuffles and altercations with more mundane weapons. The more serious marks, left by weapon and hex alike are concentrated on his chest, back and right thigh. Various cuts, stabs and scorch marks from his early years as a locator, or "ferret" as his kind is sometimes called. He's since learned to be a bit more careful.
He is right hand dominant.
History:
The Early Years
It is no secret, much to Zylphia Grimaldi's chagrin that Mordecai Alonzo Grimaldi was the result of an extra marital affair between Lord Silas Grimaldi and one of the Governesses responsible for teaching his three young daughters; Permelia (5), Hortence (4), and Fidelia (2). The woman's name was Adonia Carlotti and she was a relatively beautiful young woman of Northern Italian descent; fair skinned and blond and very appealing to the young Lord whose wife was quite the opposite. What's more, she was sweet and funny where his wife was stiff and proper. Mordecai was born on the 21st of December in the year 1846, two scant months before his half-sister Sophronia was born to Zylphia Grimaldi. For a few tense months, the women coexisted before Silas' wife threw a monumental fit in which she threatened to abort every pregnancy that followed Sophronia's leaving him without an heir unless Adonia was fired in disgrace; until that point Lord Grimaldi had not allowed it.Backed into a corner, Silas had no choice but to relent to his oftentimes overbearing wife's demands and Adonia Carlotti was removed from her position as Governess, with much screaming and crying from the Grimaldi children, and left the Grimaldi household with her infant son and a goodly sum of money given to her by Silas to care for his son. It would be a bit of a stretch to say that the man loved Adonia, but she was the mother of his only son and he did hold a certain amount of affection for her; enough to make sure she didn't suffer too much for his lust. Lord Silas Grimaldi wasn't a thoughtless man and through the years, as he was gifted with daughter after daughter by his wife, he kept an eye on the young woman who now worked as a maid in a neighbor's home; he'd put in a good word without his wife's knowledge.
After a year, Silas started up his affair with Adonia once more, this time donning a disguise and going to her home. The result was another child born; a little girl named Silia who was born in the early spring of 1850. Of course, her life was cut short, as was that of Adonia and one of Silas' daughters, Lorena when an outbreak of illness descended in the summer of 1852 on the small town where the family lived in Italy. Devestated by the loss of his friend--for that was what Adonia had become to him--and two of his children, Lord Silas Grimaldi took Mordecai into his home despite Zylphia's protests and threats and forced her to treat him as her own. The little boy became the wedge between husband and wife and a tool for the jealous, spiteful woman to use against her husband.
It was fair easy for her to turn her older daughters against the little boy and when Silas was away she encouraged the use of the term "bastard" in stead of his name. It wasn't a particularly pleasant way to live, but Mordecai did make friends amongst his half sisters, much to Zylphia's annoyance. Sophronia,, who had been born a few months after he had, became fast friends with the quiet, observant child and the two gained strength from one another. While Sophronia was never able to stand up to her mother or sisters on Mordecai's behalf, she did her best to comfort him. On the other hand, Mordecai would defend her from her sisters bullying ways, often encouraging their blind hatred of him so they would ignore their more mild mannered sibling.
As the years passed and Zylphia failed to produce a living son for her husband, she grew more and more spiteful of the bastard son she was forced to accept as her own. It was never spoken of but it was understood that if the woman failed to produce a male heir for Silas, he would accept Mordecai as his heir.
Things weren't all bad, however, living with the Grimaldi family as Silas truly did love his son, despite the fact that the boy's presence seemed to stir up trouble in his previously relatively quiet household. There are many fond memories that Mordecai carries with him to this day of his childhood with his father, tempered only by the jealous shadow of his wife. Five years passed before Mordecai finally received his Hogwarts letter; Sophronia received it as well. He was certain, at this point, that things would get better between his sisters and himself once he got sorted into Gryffidor like his father. He still remembers his fathers proud face when he took his son and daughter to get their first wands and the ring that was pressed into his hand as he dropped five of his children off at the gates of Hogwarts.
Hogwarts
Things didn't quite go as Mordecai had hoped once he and Sophronia were ushered up to be sorted. Not only was he not placed in Gryffindor as he'd hoped, but he was placed in Hufflepuff; known for their loyalty. Sophronia, bless her soul, was also sorted into Hufflepuff affording her some sort of respite from her rather waspish older sisters as well as the ever present protection of her bastard half brother. Sophronia Grimaldi fit the stereotypical archetype of a Hufflepuff; friendly, a little dim and more than a bit naive. Mordecai, however, was a bit odd--something that his adoptive mother would be quick to tell a person--in that he was reserved, introverted and didn't seem to make friends nearly as quickly as his sister. It didn't help of course, that his elder sisters--Permelia, Hortence and Fidelia--bandied about the school, telling anyone who would listen that he was a good for nothing bastard.As usual, he tended to ignore the criticism and bullying unless it affected his cherished sister, in which case he would do something to draw the attention away from her, always to his own detriment. While Sophronia made friends, despite his presence, Mordecai found it difficult to navigate the social structure of Hogwarts and for the most part kept to himself and as a result did rather well in his courses, especially those that involved wand work and hands on involvement; as a result his top classes were Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration and Charms. He would spend his spare time in obscure places around the castle, in the library or when the weather allowed it, outside on the grounds.
Despite his good marks in his courses, Mordecai was just as quiet and reserved in class as he was outside of it unless called upon. This often made him an awkward partner in any group projects as he would usually remain quiet during discussions leaving his partners to assume he was going to be a dead weight only to surprise them when he ended up doing more than his fair share. Still, the general consensus was that he wasn't very bright, simply because he was born to an unwed mother. Despite this, were it not for his unshakable sense of loyalty and his protective nature, his work ethics regarding school might have landed him in Ravenclaw though he was nowhere near as brilliant as many of the students in that house. No, after his initial disappointment, Mordecai accepted and even enjoyed his time in Hufflepuff. School was a mostly happy time for him and he did make a couple friends, one of which he met in his third year during Potions class.
She was a Ravenclaw, and due to an uneven amount of boys and girls, she was paired with Mordecai for an extended project. As was the case with most grouped or partnered projects, Mordecai remained mostly quiet, giving monosyllabic or nonverbal answers to her various questions while they worked. The girl--Peggy Bytheway--grew increasingly irritated with him until she realized that at the end of each class period, while she'd been talking over the assignment, he'd done his share of that day's work and some days even some of her share all without saying a word. By the end of the month long project, the two had begun what would grow into a rather close friendship; or as close a friendship as the school would allow. The friendship was only solidified when his meddling sisters attempted to tear it asunder and Peggy told the older girls off. In that moment Margaret Bytheway made a steadfast friend for life. He would even come to spend several holidays with her rather cozy family in order to avoid the dysfunctional mess that was his own home; Silas Grimaldi often had "business to attend to" when the children came home from school for holidays.
As his school life progressed his family grew and while he was away at Hogwarts during his fifth year, Zylphia finally gave Silas the legitimate heir he was looking for, and a spare to boot! After giving birth to ten daughters, she finally had the sons she was hoping for to usurp Mordecai from his tentative position as heir. However an ironic twist of fate would keep her from seeing her sons--Gabriel and Gideon--grow into adulthood. Her final delivery was filled with complications and she fell victim to fever and infection. A year later, in his sixth year, his older sister finally succumbed to consumption at the age of twenty-one, making her husband a widower.
Towards the end of his seventh year at Hogwarts he was surprised and a little annoyed to find the Ministry of Magic sending recruiters his way in an attempt to pull him into the Auror or Hit Wizard program as his scores were more than acceptable and his participation in the dueling club in his later years made him a prime candidate. Instead of make a decision, he put it off and graduated with no set idea of what he wanted to do. He no longer had to worry about becoming the next Grimaldi as Gabriel and Gideon were more than enough for that. So instead he packed what he could carry and set off to wander the world and find himself.
The "Real World"
At first Mordecai kept close to what had essentially been his home for the past seven years (Hogwarts) and ventured south into London where he learned more about the world in the three months he was there, doing odd jobs for a family connection, than he'd learned in Hogwarts for seven years. However, his time in London was short as he had a date to keep. Not once, since they'd become friends, had he forgotten Peggy Bytheway's birthday and he wasn't going to start out their lives as adults on a bad note. He made his way to her family's home where he spent the day with his close friend and her family on her eighteenth birthday. He shared his hopes for the coming year and gave vague travel plans that would include him being gone during his own birthday.For a year--after seeing how very different things were for someone not of the upperclass--Mordecai shed his decidedly lavish (though he hadn't realized it before then) trappings as well as his father's name, shortening it to Grim. Under the name Alonzo Grim "Al" for short, he slipped into the underbelly of the British Isles for most of the following year. What he found and learned shocked him greatly and made him grateful for what he'd previously thought was a mediocre existence. For that entire year he was out of touch with the Wizarding world that he knew and found that he could apply little of what he'd been taught as a child to the life he now lived. However, when the end of October neared, he dragged himself out of the gutters where he'd been learning knife tricks and the secret of being a pick pocket from a ragtag gang of street kids and cleaned himself up enough to be presentable.
When he reached the Bytheway home he was in for a rather unpleasant shock; his dear friend had vanished from the Wizarding world into the land of Muggles, a land that Mordecai was becoming increasingly more familiar with. After several months of speaking to her siblings and doing a bit of searching, he managed to find her; married to a muggle gentleman. As he'd learned to do, he kept to the shadows and remained inconspicuous as he observed the married couple, looking for telltale signs that Peggy might be unhappy with the arrangement. After nearly a month of spying on the young family, he decided that she was in a good enough relationship and left his belated birthday gift to her on the stoop with a cryptic letter signed with a badger.
By the time he'd reached the age of twenty-five, an age when most men begin to think about casting a net for suitable wives, Mordecai had lived and worked in several countries, learning more about the underbelly of each nation than he'd ever cared to. He'd acquired skills that lined him up for a rather peculiar line of work for a bastard son of a trading magnate. His ease in traversing the shadier parts of town brought him to the attention of middle and upperclass men in need of those particular traits to track down men in debt who were on the lamb or missing children. For the most part the jobs he took involved tracking down inscrutable characters for wealthy employers and either extracting information, money or blood from them. The latter was very rare unless the deed needed to be done, however if one were to draw parallels they might compare him to a rogue hitwizard; he took down threats to society though often his targets were individuals that targeted the lower classes who had no power to defend themselves. An awkward, anti-social and not exactly charming Robin Hood type, minus the stealing.
Despite his often being off-grid, Mordecai never once forgot to send or deliver a present to his school friend for her birthday and for five years he worked for various wealthy muggles and wizards alike in Italy and Europe, saving much of what he made, spending little on himself and doing what he could in the towns he passed through to make lives easier for the lower classes; especially the children. Despite being as careful as a man could be back in the day--Mordecai would never want to bring a bastard into the world to face the ridicule that he had--he can't say with absolute certainty that hasn't left woman with child. It is one of his paranoid fears, in fact and if he happens through a town twice and he remembers to do so, he stops by his usual (a relative term as he's not particularly incorrigible with strangers) just to be sure that none of their bastards look like him.
A few years into living the life of a "Ferret" as his employers often called him, for his tenacity and his ability to track a thing or person down, the muggle world seemed to wise up to the existence of magical people amongst them and rebelled. It was a tense and often awkward year as he began having to limit his jobs to the wizarding world. Not long afterward, during a rare visit to his father that led to tense conversation about marriage and duty, Mordecai received a letter that sparked his anger; his long time friend's husband, upon learning of her heritage, had divorced her and kicked her to the curb while pregnant. He left his father's home in Italy, mid-argument and made his way by floo network to the british isles to collect Peggy and bring her to her family where she sought refuge and came up with an acceptable story as divorce was not something that the Catholic Church smiled upon by any stretch of the imagination.
Since the age of thirty, Mordecai has been slowly approaching the point where he's almost ready to settle. He began to stray less and less from Hogsmeade where Margaret had decided to call home. The often irrepressible urge to pick up and leave came to him less frequently and more often than not he looked forward to returning to his small room above the Hog's Head Tavern in Hogsmeade. Not only was this the new home of Margaret and her lovely little girl Fanny, but Sophronia, Isabella and several of his other sisters had moved to town with their husbands and families and while not all were glad to see him. Curiously his reasons for staying amounted to many women, some of whom were intent on keeping their distance and others whom wished to remain close. In all, he gradually phased out the part of his life that involved far flung travel, doing odd jobs about the town and working for his father as well when it couldn't be avoided. Mostly he helped his sisters Sophronia and Isabella with anything they needed though the former often delighted in attempting to set up her brother with her friends.
As the years passed, Silas became more and more insistent that if Mordecai was to stay in town that he find a home and a wife and settle down and while at first he was repelled by the idea he has come to realize that a family was something he wanted the more time he spent with little Fanny and his sisters' children. Towards the summer of 1882 he finally decided that living at a Tavern was getting a bit old and purchased a home in need of a bit of fixing in Bartonburg with the money he'd been squirreling away since before graduation. Shortly after that, in an effort to fill his time more completely, he applied with the Ministry to become an Auror-in-Training, a respectable enough profession and one that he was oddly suited for given that a majority of his adult life was spent tracking down things people didn't want to be found. Now, with almost a year of training under his belt and a fixed up house that is far too big for him alone, Mordecai has finally relented to his father's bullying and his sister's nagging and has agreed to attend a handful of select functions though his heart isn't in it at all.
Sample Roleplay Post:
OOC:
Name: Cait (the Unicorncorn)
Age: Soon to be 25
Contact: AIM: Spazzazaroni ; MSN: crazykitae@hotmail.com
Other Characters:Malvina MacFusty, Regilla Cockburn, Zephyra Zane
How did you hear about us? Eastern Lands
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