{Stop me if you think you've heard this one before}

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:20:55 GMT

ooc
Name: Ana
AIM: ahoneymooninred
Other character(s) played at Lineage: Andromeda Black.

ic
Name: Erroll Lester Crabbe
Age: 25 (born February 3rd,1946)
House: Formerly of Slytherin.
Immediate Family: Hadrian and Melba Crabbe.
Reputation Within Black Family: Under any other circumstances, Erroll would be a nobody to the Blacks, although he is the matriach Walburga Black's first cousin once removed. His family is well-to-do, but related to the Blacks only through marriage and really, none of them are of great importance. As a child he was often subjected to ridicule at Black family functions that his mother forced him to go to. However, now that Erroll is a loyal Death Eater and a fervent pureblood supremacist, the slate of his unfortunate past has seemed to be wiped clean, replaced with a considerably more important status at the Black manor due to his favour with the Dark Lord. He's one of their main links to the cause and the outside world, and often blathers on about the great deeds of the Death Eaters.

History: The Crabbes are cursed, or so they say. When people, namely the males in his line, kick the bucket, there's a whole lot of mystery, superstition, and fuss over it in the family. His great-grandfather and namesake, Lester, drowned in the lake on their estate at the age of twenty-two. It could've been chalked up to a mere accident - a foggy night or perhaps dipping into the wine late one evening? Wrong. The word "accident" doesn't exist in a Crabbe's dictionary. Someone claimed that a grindylow did him in, the rumour stuck, and now most are careful to stay away from the lake.

Lester, however, had fathered two children before meeting his untimely demise: Orson and Irma Crabbe. Irma married into the Black family, and Orson, the older son, married a Prewett. They had four daughters and a single son, Erroll's father, Hadrian. Unfortunately, disaster struck the family again. Orson simply vanished one day, and when his body was found, his death was attributed to the lethal scream of a banshee. Someone undoubtedly did not like the Crabbes at all, to put such misfortune over their heads and their young sons.

With this dark history in mind, when Hadrian himself had taken a lovely but scatterbrained Prewett cousin by the name of Melba for his wife, everyone held their collective breath and hoped their firstborn would be a girl. Instead, they had Erroll. With no idea of how to actually care for a child, she ridiculously spoiled him, feeding his ego and mollycoddlying him to death - simply because she believed his life would ultimately be cut short. It's no wonder that Erroll is excessively vain and arrogant - his mother made him that way. And it was no secret how envious she was of their distant Black relatives, longing to become a part of their family, their wealth, their power. So she tuned her sights on living vicariously through her child instead, digging her claws in and manipulating him in whatever way she could. It was her private wish that Erroll marry into the family, and she began hanging on tailcoats and turning ears at the Black manor in attempt to shine some light on her only son. However, Melba was not a bright girl, and her scheming fell apart at the cleverness and malice of the Black women.

Once at Hogwarts, and naturally falling in with the pureblood crowd, Erroll was safely away from his mother and begun to show some backbone. In fact, maybe a little too much, because somehow there was a ruthless, murderous little devil lurking beneath that pampered shell. He associated with a small group of other Slytherins, also supporters of pureblood supremacy, who would spend long nights studying the dark arts, and later, when the others had grown out of their awful Muggle torturing games, only Erroll found that he had a higher purpose and an important duty to the Wizarding community - he took the Dark Mark, and to this day serves as a spy for the Dark Lord, passing on valuable information from the Ministry.

Personality: At one point in his early life, Erroll had the potential to be a nice boy. Admittedly a stuck-up brat of the highest degree that expected only the best, but a nice boy nonetheless by his family's standards. But, alas, such things were not to become reality. If Erroll comes across as a person that is incredibly arrogant or pretentious, it's because he is. And of course, why wouldn't that sort of behaviour be completely justified when you are born and reared a pampered pureblood? Blood status alone makes him better than half the wizarding population. As a Death Eater, he believes his duty to the cause, and his loyalty to his lord, gives him honour and purity above another sizable chunk of witches and wizards, even other purebloods. If they're not ready to serve the cause, to die for the true future of their dying breed, then a hex on them, the cowards!

Although he doesn't bear the Black surname, he's always been under the impression that being a cousin of the noble clan (through marriage no less) cements him as good as being of the same blood. He has a ridiculous amount of respect and admiration for that part of his family, and has undoubtedly had in a hand in turning his younger relatives over to his master.

From his self-important years as a young and vile Slytherin, he picked up a habit of looking at most people like they're something unpleasant he found stuck to the bottom of his fine leather shoe, and whilst his face bears stubborn traces of youth and a natural pleasantness that could only come from his Prewett side (the Crabbes being notoriously known for their stern and somewhat unattractive features), he's trained a haughtiness into it that any Black would be proud of. If Hogwarts taught a class in aspiring arrogance, Erroll would've been top of his class in sneering, and second only in malevolent glares and dramatic exits.

Erroll has the ability to be downright cruel- an admirable trait in a line of work that calls for torture, blackmail, and murder on a regular basis. He sees no reason why he shouldn't be, and as such speaks a bit freely than most would around the Blacks and other prominent wizarding families, having a rather acerbic tongue. He has a tendency to make what he has to say hurt, and if that fails, it's no secret that he's incredibly skilled with a wand, and the nastier side of spells, of course.

How long are they staying? Erroll comes and goes, paying his respects to the Black family as often as he can. More often than not, duty calls, so lately his appearances have been fewer and shorter in-between.

Details:
- Unmarried, not only because he lacks the capacity to care about other people, but because he is so obsessed with the cause that he finds the idea of marriage entirely ridiculous.
- A master of the Cruciatus Curse.
- Rarely seen not dressed in "all his best," owning an extensive wardrobe with a leaning toward 18th and early 19th century fashion.

First Person Sample:

We killed those nasty cowards last night.

A mercy killing, to be certain, for when it was time for the freshest recruits to be honourably branded with the sacred Mark, the fear flashed in their eyes, and two men - brothers or some relation, of Parkinson blood - reverted to mere children and fled into the woods.

Such offence could not go unpunished, and if one is not completely committed to wiping out the Muggle scourge, then they too must be treated as putrefiers of our blood.

It was Yaxley and I that had been bestowed the honour of freeing the world of two more blood traitors. May the Dark Lord strengthen me.

PB: James McAvoy

{A jumped up pantry-boy}

{Stop me if you think you've heard this one before}