Basics
Name: Edgar William Bones
Birthdate: 23 September 1959
House: Hufflepuff
Residence:Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Classes: Ancient Runes, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Muggle Studies, Potions, Transfiguration
Appearance
At first glance, Edgar is far from an imposing figure. He's on the short side and slight of build, and it's easy to interpret his dark-rimmed, heavy-lidded eyes as evidence of a sluggish nature. However, he carries himself with a practiced confidence: he doesn't slouch, he walks along at a quick, firm pace, and he always looks people in the eye. He would rather avoid the question of whether he's attractive, but even if his facial features tend to be pointy, he's happy enough that everything is in its right place. Both his hair and his eyes have changed color since childhood: the blond hair he was born with has darkened to an unassuming shade of brown, and his hazel eyes have settled into dark brown. Edgar's dress style is clean-cut, calm, and conservative. He has fairly good grooming habits--he probably shouldn't publicly admit how much time he devotes to his hair every morning--and he takes excellent care of his clothing.
History
There are two notable facts about Edgar's birth. First, he was born only ten months before his sister, Amelia. Thus, while the two have always been close and have grown up as constant companions, Edgar has, from a young age, focused on the fact that he was older, and that gave him the right to boss around his sister. Sometimes. When she let him.
The second notable fact is that Edgar was born with profound hearing loss in his left ear, though this wasn't discovered until he was nearly three years old. His parents, Richard and Josephine, took to the task of helping him adapt to his condition, and they came up with plenty of strategies to ensure their youngest son wasn't left out of anything: from an early age, Edgar learned to pay attention to body language and picked up on some lip reading in order to help him better contextualize everything he did hear.
His childhood was an overwhelmingly pleasant one. He split his time fairly equally between somewhat quiet indoor activities and running around wild outdoors. He loved stories even before he could read, and once he could read things for himself, he tore through any book with an engaging story. Being the middle child, he did sometimes find himself overlooked in favor of his siblings, but he knew how to demand attention for himself if he wanted it. The words "I can do it MYSELF" came out of his mouth at least once a day: even as a child, Edgar was stubbornly insistent on doing things for himself, and he tried terribly to be helpful and independent, even though the consequences could be disastrous. Example: the time he accidentally flooded the kitchen after trying to fix the stopped sink.
Hogwarts required some adjustments on Edgar's part. He was wary of the idea of having to live away from home, and the possibility of being separated from his sister was an even worse thought. He was terrified enough to literally demand that the Sorting Hat place him in Hufflepuff with Amelia--although he claimed it was so that he could look after her. It took him a while to warm up to his housemates and schoolmates, but once he did, he proved to be a loyal, enthusiastic friend. Academics were a more difficult obstacle: while certainly smart, he preferred hands-on practice to lectures and theory, and he coasted by on his good memory and sheer talent than actual hard work. Textbooks often went unread (there was no coherent plot to History of Magic, Edgar was disappointed to find out), homework was hurriedly finished at last minute, but he paid close attention when he was interested in the subject (Transfiguration, DADA, Muggle Studies).
Shortly before Edgar started his fifth year at Hogwarts, his parents were killed in an attack by bloodline fanatics, believed to be orchestrated by a man called Voldemort. Though pureblooded, Richard and Josephine weren't blood purists, and if anything, they cultivated in their children a sense of respect for and curiosity about Muggles. Edgar was aware of Muggle persecution, as well as the general pureblood elitist attitude, and he remembers well the infamous childhood incident where his sister threw a tantrum in front of some prejudiced acquaintances, but until tragedy hit, he hadn't understood how serious the issue was. So his parents' deaths knocked his world off its axis, in more ways than one. He took their deaths hard, spending the following school year wallowing in his anger, sadness, and frustration. He was especially frustrated by the lack of justice for his family, and his inability to do something, do anything, to make things right.
His sister threw herself into her schoolwork, but Edgar took the opposite approach, letting all academics fall to the wayside as he sulked and grieved. It took some prodding by his Head of House to get Edgar to focus on schoolwork and not fail all his classes, and somehow, he managed to secure decent enough scores on his OWLs, at least in the subjects he enjoyed. As more time went on, his grief and anger no longer consumed him, though the emotions still remained. He's taking his seventh year for what it is: the last year before he has to throw himself into the "real world." He's determined to enjoy it. He doesn't have a definite idea of what he wants to do after leaving school, but he does know he wants to work toward justice for his parents, and justice for Muggles and other non-purebloods.
Personality
The typical first impression of Edgar is that he's polite, but quite reserved and serious. He's just not the most open person, and he takes a while to warm up to others. Being half-deaf, his tendency to hang back allows him to focus on collecting details, soaking in external and environmental clues, and following non-verbal communication very well. He's a lot more perceptive than people might initially give him credit for. Once Edgar feels comfortable enough with someone, he'll have little trouble engaging in enthusiastic conversations, and though he's not particularly playful, he does have a dry, wry, and often self-deprecating sense of humor. As broody as he can be, he's not quite as uptight or self-absorbed as one might first believe he is.
Chief among Edgar's personality traits is practiced confidence. He belongs to the "fake it 'til you make it" school of thought, and he deals with his self-doubt, fears, and insecurities by ignoring their existence. The truth is that underneath his surefootedness is a sheer terror of failure: Edgar's instincts just have him running toward the source of his terror, not away from it. He's action-oriented, and he feels anxious when faced with a problem without a clear solution for him to be working on. He needs to feel like he's being constructive. He's exceptionally stubborn, and he has a terrible time trying to be patient and let things run their own course. He's not very good at leaving things be. Transfiguration is his best subject, likely because of his innate drive to control, shape, and change the very nature of things. He's more than willing to step up and be a leader, and given a little permission (or not), he's perfectly content bossing people around. He can be a know-it-all at times, but he tries to curb any show-off tendencies.
While Edgar might have made a good Gryffindor, he's still an excellent fit for Hufflepuff. He's committed, dedicated, and loyal. As respectful as he is, Edgar cares more about fairness and empathy than any strict adherence to rules. He's not afraid to question authority, particularly when he's concerned about what's fair. He's drawn to and respects people who respect others, who genuinely listen and care. He likes--and thrives on--the sense of belonging and teamwork that's prevalent in his house.
Edgar resents (usually with some embarrassment) any special treatment or attention for his hearing loss. Not knowing what it's like to experience life in stereo sound, and having adapted and compensated in his own way, he doesn't see his condition as the disability that other people might assume it is. In classrooms, he'll position himself so that he can rely on his good ear to hear the teacher, but he's reluctant to sit in the front row, even when he should. Sitting in the front row would just be uncool. He has a hard time in noisy, crowded situations: being monaural, he can't easily exclude background noise. He'll duck out of loud parties; he tries to take his meals as early as possible, before the Great Hall gets too crowded, and he picks his seat to avoid having someone sitting on his deaf side; and he only attends Quidditch games to support his sister. He denies that he's embarrassed or inconvenienced by his hearing loss, but that's one of his stubborn "fake it 'til you make it" convictions. He doesn't exactly hide his condition, but he doesn't draw undue attention to it. His housemates surely are familiar with it, as are any other friends, as at one point or another, he'll probably have had to ask them to not talk to him from his left side, or he's apologized for not answering them if they've called out to him across a noisy corridor.
For fun, Edgar is into Muggle detective novels. He's a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins, and Agatha Christie, but his favorites are Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey novels. He doesn't get all the Muggle references, but he likes the humor and the plots. He follows professional Quidditch, listening to professional matches on the WWN and cheering on the Appleby Arrows, but he's not that interested in Hogwarts Quidditch beyond supporting Amelia. Muggleborn friends have also got him interested in Muggle football, although he hasn't actually ever seen a match. He has a rather nice wizarding chess set, but he tends to lose as many games as he wins; thinking of and following long-term strategy has never been Edgar's strong point. He's actually a far better at, and has more fun playing, Exploding Snaps than chess.
He's interested in girls, and he has a modest and not-so-serious dating history, but he's in the habit of being wary of any girl who actually likes him. He doesn't know why they would choose to like him. At the same time, he's also wary of any guy that might like Amelia: he's convinced they're just trying to take advantage of his far-too-nice sister. Speaking of his sister, Amelia's one of his closest friends, and she knows him better than anyone else ever has. While the two are more than capable of driving each other crazy, he's willing to depend on her more than he depends on anyone else--though, of course, he wouldn't admit that. And after all these years being her (slightly) older brother, watching out for Amelia is second nature for him. He has no qualms pushing and challenging her if she seems to need it, and he's her biggest supporter, full stop.
Out of Character
PB: Aaron Stanford
Player: Megan
Contact: Email & AIM listed here. Comments on this post are automatically screened if you want to ping me here.
Credits: Lyrics used in this journal/userinfo are Vienna Teng's "Hope on Fire" and "The Guilty Ones" from Spring Awakening. Profile cut-tag quote from OotP. Icons by me, found here. Edgar Bones is a fictional character from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, and this roleplay is just for fun and not for profit. Etc., etc. |
