Congrats, JESTER, you have been accepted to AL for the role of OC ORPHEUS HITCHENS (FC: Gabriel Marques). Eeep, wow, how exciting to have a truly reformed character join us here at AL, especially one who’s distantly related to the Blacks! Jester, I fell in love with Orpheus and all of his complexities and faults and determinations. You’ve built a beautiful character and placed him here wonderfully in this plot, and I’m excited to see you continue to build him! Please send in your blog (no sideblogs for first characters, please) in the next 24 hours and be sure to take a look at our new player checklist. Welcome home (once again), we’re so excited to have you join the family!
OOC
name — jester age — 21, soon to be 22 pronouns — he/him timezone — est activity level — only reliably active afternoons & weekends
IC Overview
name — orpheus hitchens faceclaim — gabriel marques (model), naleye dolmans, miles mcmillan age — 25 gender — male sexuality — bisexual patronus — great grey shrike boggart — a coiling basilisk (representative of the lurking threat posed by the dark side and voldemort)
IC In Depth
personality traits —
+ courteous // while not raised in the wealthy, respected pureblooded family he liked to portray himself as belong to in his youth, orpheus still tried to emulate what he thought being a pureblood was. while he no longer quite aligns with the ideals of purity he used to admire, he retains the self-taught, overly formal mannerisms of his teen years.
+ quick-witted // with a honed intelligence and a natural skill for thinking on his feet, orpheus is not one to stay and ponder a decision needlessly ; this makes him particularly adept at dueling or high-action situations, but when needed he can sit still and think things through before acting.
+ confident // orpheus is proud of himself, his accomplishments and his talents.
- reactive // orpheus, for all his attempts at appearing level-headed and refined, has a hot temper and is very quick to lose it.
- conceited // hand-in-hand with his pride comes arrogance, an overinflated ego that’s rarely kept in check and is prone to pushing orpheus into a superiority complex when faced with wizards he deems “less accomplished.”
- abrasive // orpheus’ tendency towards both knee-jerk reactions and assuming superiority means he can be snappish and rude without fully thinking the consequences of his actions through.
character biography —
short version
the grandson of the disgraced iola hitchens nee black, orpheus spent his hogwarts years scornful of his family’s past “involvement” with mixing with muggles and secretly sympathized with some of voldemort’s ideals. it wasn’t until later, when death eaters killed his half-blood mother, that it hammered home to orpheus that his black family blood wasn’t enough to protect him from the wrath of dangerous pureblood ideaology. upon graduating, he vowed to leave that part of his history behind him and strive to be a better man, training to become an auror. when whispers started to spread of darkness rising again, he threw himself further into becoming a better auror, hoping to protect the future generation from the follies he himself was once enchanted by.
in depth
EARLY YEARS Iola Black, after eloping with muggle Bob Hitchens, had one daughter, one Cassandra Hitchens. Cassandra Hitchens followed her mother’s set example and had one son out of wedlock: Orpheus Hitchens, descendant of a pureblood family that had fallen very, very far from the tree. Orpheus was raised near-muggle as far as wizards go, but was still taught from a young age about magic. This had the opposite effect as to what was intended, and instead of feeling like he belonged to both the wizarding and muggle worlds, Orpheus felt like a wizard being forced to live like a muggle.
This resentment was further compounded when he began attending Hogwarts, and got sorted into Ravenclaw. While eager to finally be a part of the wizarding world, as he felt he belonged, learning of his full family history made him even more frustrated with what he’d been denied his whole life. He felt alienated from his housemates, feeling himself above muggle-and-halfborns, but not quite on equal footing with the purebloods. He overcompensated for it, throwing himself viciously into studies to the point where his health suffered. Throughout his life, he’d felt denied something he deserved, and now that he had access to Hogwarts’ library he wanted to claim what was his by birthright.
When he heard Voldemort’s message, the older students’ whispers of a message about reclaiming what wizarding society was owed, of blood purity and power granted to those who deserved it … it was the type of thing that resounded with dissatisfied folks like Orpheus, and he attached to the idea like it was a lifeline. He wanted to be told he was special, that he was someone who deserved good things.
He held his quiet support of the Death Eater ideals for years, but wasn’t in the right social circles to ever reach out, ever join properly. He was locked out by his blood and by the color lining his robes, and many times he lamented not being a Slytherin. A proper Black would have been in Slytherin, but he was a damned Hitchens and never had a chance of joining Voldemort no matter what his teenaged mind convinced him. He tried, of course, but the ones already deep enough to bring him in weren’t interested in the bright-eyed mudblood who thought he could fit in with them.
But he tried, oh, he tried. He practiced every bit of manners a proper pureblood would have, sat up late nights studying ancient bloodlines and histories and fashion. He got everything he could that he thought would make him fit in, be accepted among the people he thought it was worth something to be accepted by. What he couldn’t buy he bribed others for and what he couldn’t afford through even bribery he stole. He saw no shortage of detentions for his petty misbehavior, but few ever saw his actions as anything more than juvenile delinquency.
He was only confronted with the ugly truth of the real situation at the end of his fifth year, when his mother was brutally murdered by Death Eaters mere hours before he arrived home. The situation couldn’t have stared him more brutally in the face than it did in that moment, and he was forced to accept that no matter what clothes he wore or how he talked … he was scum to these people. He was worth less than the dirt under their boots for his blood, and there was nothing he could do about it. He buried his mother and lived alone in that house until the muggle family, two women who already had three children to care for of their own, took notice and started visiting, often bringing him meals and new books.
Their care for him, a stranger, made the grief burn even worse. He had been so drawn in by pretty words and ideas of respect and grandeur he had never even regarded his ideals would be the type to get these kind people killed.
He returned back to the books about old bloodlines, and decided to make a change. REALIZING HE WAS AN IDIOT Orpheus returned to Hogwarts quieter, more aware, and more angry. For the first few months he didn’t utter a word, just sat and watched and learned. And when he was done learning, there were no shortage of fights in the halls, angry whispered arguments in classes and more than one instance of rather brutal duels in broad daylight. Most teachers chalked this up to his mothers’ passing, but nearly every instance was incited by another student suggesting they supported the Dark Lord’s actions, or simply using the word ‘mudblood’. He was still a child, but so were the students in whom he saw the face of evil leering back at him. It was a miracle he didn’t get expelled, and saw even more detentions than he had before. But his grades were kept up, and he learned to be sneakier, even if still motivated nearly entirely by hollow revenge.
He was luckier than he knew, to avoid most of the losses of the war entirely, but it wasn’t a fortune he was pleased with. Even after graduating, still angry, still resenting the man he could have been, he wanted to fight. And Alastor Moody gave him a way to fight. He finished his Auror training before the deaths of Augusta Longbottom and Lord Voldemort, but not by much. He finally got his fight at the tail end of the war, making sure justice came to the Death Eaters he felt betrayed by.
Sometimes, he wondered if his anger was because they hadn’t wanted him. But it made no difference when he was seeing the monsters tossed into Azkaban to rot.
He was still a bit too like them, even now. Talked the right way, acted as stuck-up as any, carried himself with an air of dignity that others would call a big head. But he was vicious in battles and eager to prove himself, and no one ever voiced their suspicions to his face.
The war ended, and people talked of peace. Orpheus thought of old books full of bloodlines and dark magic and curses that made his hair stand on end, and thought this wouldn’t be the end of it.
MODERN DAY The peace did, in fact, calm Orpheus’ anger; leaving him with a scorching temper that, at least, sat as cooled coals rather than an inferno most of the time. He still had nowhere as much respect as other Aurors he worked with, but he did his job well enough, and his colleagues grew used to how absolutely insufferable he could be. It was nowhere near the grandeur he’d once longed for, but he no longer wanted vague, unattainable things like “being a fancy and respected member of the most Ancient and Noble house of Black”. It was silly, really. He’d finally grown content with being Orpheus Hitchens, and the years had both steadied and honed his wand hand for the war he was certain was to come.
He was sure of it. While Orpheus’ colleagues would generally describe him as “annoyingly verbose” and “kind of an arse”, he had taught himself more than just stuffy manners late at night in the Ravenclaw common room. He watched, and listened, and devoured every book he could get his hands on, and came to know many undeniable facts about the world. Firstly, that wizards were absolutely bullheaded fools about many things, blood status included. Secondly, that Alastor Moody is a terrifying force of nature and constant vigilance was less about keeping an eye out for dark wizards and more worrying your attention would slip and your boss would throw his peg leg at you for it.
And thirdly, that Voldemort’s followers were somewhere out there, like a spilled jar of oil coating the floor that you don’t notice until someone drops a match. Orpheus wasn’t sure who would drop the match, but Voldemort had struck it. So he remained insufferably verbose, with a war brewing behind his teeth and a desire to prove himself still gripping his arm, and swore to himself that this time would be different.
plot ideas —
moody // moody absolutely, certainly has heard rumors that one of his younger aurors once held voldemort’s ideals - there’s certainly room for doubt as to young hitchens’ loyalties, and there’s no room for those doubts in the coming war.
hogwarts class of ‘78 (lily, james, remus, sirius, etc.) // orpheus would have been a year or two behind them all, and was a ravenclaw, but he would be loosely familiar with them enough to potentially reach out once news reaches his ears.
sirius black // orpheus knows it’s unfair to resent sirius for something done a hundred years ago. does he hold a grudge against the black family anyways? only a little. still, he may eventually get over it and reach out to his distant cousin over their shared banishment from the family tree (even if sirius undoubtedly has little idea he even exists)
general // orpheus is a young auror who has dedicated himself to keeping voldemort from rising again, even if he has no idea how that would even come to be. while he may not be immediately accepted into the order of the phoenix’s inner ranks, he’s got a good wand hand and is eager to prove himself ; even with the smallest of tasks, he’s happy to help anyone who can tolerate his grating personality and wants to strike back against the dark side.