Averill Trevelyan

February 27, 2015

AVERILL TREVELYAN

"Control is the basis of all true power. Authority and strength are matters of perception."
– Brandon Sanderson

Full Name:

Averill Ambrose Trevelyan

Nickname(s):

Avery

Etymology:

Averill - from a surname originally derived from feminine given name Eoforhild meaning "boar of battle." (Also means "born in April," but this was a coincidence his mother still can't decide if she loves or hates)

Ambrose - from the Greek Ambrosios meaning "immortal"

Gender:

Male

Age:

Fifteen

Birthday:

April 18th

Year:

5th

House:

Slytherin

Blood Status:

Half-blood

Ethnicity/Nationality:

British

Languages:

English, Russian, a little French and German

Home Location:

Canterbury, England

Family Members:

Father - Lysander Trevelyan Avery loves his father very much, but he'd never admit that to anyone. He actually thinks his father is pretty cool and admires his creativity, but has expressed a wish for his father to behave in a more dignified manner. His father dancing around the house in his pajamas might have been acceptable when he was a kid, but now that he's a teen, it's downright embarrassing. On the rare occasion he's described his father to other people, he always seems to end up using the words "childish" "stupid" "cheerful" and "absent-minded." In truth, though, he has great respect for his father and does not treat him like some kind of friend he can disrespect. Lysander is an emotionally sensitive, but fairly calm man, with slightly dorky features, short black hair, and owlish brown eyes. He sometimes wears red-rimmed glasses that make him look even dorkier. He's fairly social and has plenty of friends from his own time at Hogwarts, and is also smarter than he looks, which is how he makes a living as a spell and potions inventor.

Mother - Desiree Trevelyan nee Wray Desiree is a sharp woman, with a playful, but ruthless personality. She is a muggle spy for MI5, but contrary to popular stereotype, is not an exceptionally beautiful woman, almost uncomfortably wiry, with sharp features, very thin eyebrows, a tan that doesn't look quite good on her, and piercing grey eyes. Her abilities as a spy have inspired Avery in many ways, and shaped the world he's been exposed to. She's never forced him to do or be anything, but he looks up to her a lot and listens to her instruction of his own will, as she trains him to be sharp both physically and mentally. The truly important thing about his relationship with his mother, though, is that she kicks his butt when he really needs it. He sometimes gets lost in his own thoughts and worries, and usually she's the one to tell him that it’s time to just live your life again. It's kept him going on more than one occasion.

Maternal Grandparents - Sweena and Martin Vesper The two of them adopted Desiree when she was eight years old. They are incredibly kind, and even though he is not biologically related to them, Avery is very attached to them, loving their caring attitude and their gentleness. They don't know anything about the Trevelyans being wizards. The pair of them are an upstanding, very British couple, and are significantly older than most grandparents, because the adoption occurred when they were already in their early 50's. Now, they're in their mid-80's. As it stands, they are relatively healthy individuals with strong constitutions and a great deal of wisdom between them.

Paternal Grandparents - Marina and Deacon Trevelyan His grandparents Marina and Deacon are a gruffer pair than the Vespers, but Avery can still tell for certain that they love him, his father, and his mother. They're big softies, even if they're not polite and openly loving and gentle, and they like to spoil him with gifts - their way of expressing love, even though he's never been particularly big on material things, himself. Unlike his father, both are stern-looking people who rarely smile, but are loud and boisterous all the same. Marina has a slender build akin to Lysander, but Deacon is much more heavy set and used to be a beater in quidditch.

Paternal Extended Family - The Other Trevelyans His uncle Frederick is the second child, and has two kids, Melissa and Evan, who are much younger than him. Melissa is four and Evan is six, and Avery thinks of them both as the most adorable brats he's ever come across. He takes care of them and they love to crawl all over them. He's more patient with them than with anyone else. Both are very sweet, and have a calm temperament similar to his own, but Melissa is the more joyous one. Melissa is the only redhead in the family, but both children share Avery's straight nose and thin lips, even as young as they are. His aunt Regina Parker is the youngest and pregnant. Both Frederick and Regina are lively people, though his uncle is more boisterous, and their presence gives him great pleasure, as they are lots of fun to be around. His uncle has more of a mischievous streak than his aunt, but both have a slightly nonsensical sense of humor his father seems to share with them. They are happily married to other wixen, but Avery doesn't actually know his in-law uncle and aunt very well.

Pet - Layla Trevelyan Layla is a Kneazle. Kneazles are sentient magical creatures that resemble cats with tufted lion-like tails and large ears. They are extremely smart, have a perfect sense of direction and are good judges of character, able to recognize animagi from normal animals, but they are independent and sometimes aggressive, so their ownership requires a Ministry-issued license. When they first got Layla, for his ninth birthday, they had to go through a probation period to make sure she wouldn't be a danger to others. Layla has an elegant body style, and is mostly black, though her haunches are grey with black spots. Her eyes are light greyish green with vertical pupils. Avery considers her almost like an older sister, able to tell her things he can't trust with anyone else, even sometimes askin for advice, and in turn she always seems to know exactly what he needs, whether that be silent disapproval or "cat hugs." She has a lazy attitude, but always watches over Avery and would protect him to the death.

Other Relationships:

Odd Relations - The Prince Kids Their mothers became very good friends during a reunion party. Nadya and Avery's father had been in the same grade and year and had gotten along rather well. Nadya having a muggle father herself, she didn't feel at all uncomfortable around Avery's muggle mother and did her best to make her feel comfortable, knowing how hard it could be for muggles in the wixen community. Soon, the two realized that they both had a great love of travel and inconsistent work schedules, and somehow bonded over that. They've been conspir- I mean, collaborating on family vacations ever since, dragging their poor children (and husbands) with them. As a result, he was thrown together with those three rather often since he was six years old. Stella pokes fun at him for his gentlemanly attitude, and though he has started enjoying irritating her with it, it's also a source of mildly frustrated amusement for him. He has some guesses about how Stella seems to be able to breathe and sing under water, but he hasn't pursued them, because he doesn't want to have to keep her secret. For the same reason, he stays away from Sebastian, who he rather suspects has a secret life as a gangster. Darcy, however, he gets along with rather well, especially after the nice boy became a fellow Slytherin. The three of them are rather like unfortunate cousins, who sort of get along, sort of don't. But just as with any member of his family, Avery cares very deeply about what happens to the Princes, and would do anything for them, and he knows that whether or not Stella would admit it, she and Darcy would both do the same in a heartbeat (Sebastian giving a shit about anyone besides aforementioned older Princes is a bit of a tall order).

FC:

Kuroh Yatogami (K project)

Height:

5'10"

Weight:

152lb

General Appearance:

Avery takes a lot after his mother. He has her silky, straight black hair with a tan that doesn’t always look good on him and delicate eyebrows and limbs. The most striking of features he received from her was her piercing grey eyes, which sometimes seem like they can see straight through someone. This overall gives him a slightly feminine aspect to his looks, but a number of his features are much more like his father’s, which include a long, straight nose, a rounded face shape with high cheek bones, and a straight, manly mouth. He is skinny in a strong way, not lanky or awkward in his body. He has a delicate style of movement, and long, elegant, tapering fingers. He keeps his hair long because he likes it that way, who knows why.

Voice:

Low and light and soft, somewhat musical in tone, but always clear and easy to hear. Unless, of course, he doesn't want people to hear him.

Handwriting:

Long, slanting, and curly cursive, but still pretty legible, like these:

Body Mods or Scars:

A white tulip tattooed on the back of his right shoulder.

Clothing Style:

Avery usually dresses in a casual, sort of semi-formal fashion. Though he prefers clothes not too difficult to move in, simple black pants, a white collared shirt, and a long black coat are pretty typical, though he does have a habit of rolling the sleeves up if he feels they're getting in the way. His long hair is almost always put up in a thin, but slightly messy pony tail. He usually carries two magical pocket watches with him, one that issues verbal reminders if he's late to anything, the other which has the names of his extended family members as the hands, and tracks danger levels instead of time.

Extra Pix:

Patronus:

Oriental Horse

Boggart:

Being Confessed to – Avery isn't really scared of the conventional things, but there is one memory that he's never been able to forget or forgive himself for. It started with a small, 10-year old girl with curly brown hair and a pretty smile, telling him that she cared about him in words she herself knew was insufficient. Except the manifestation grows with him, and the girl is now 16 years old, as he imagine she'd look like now, though he doesn't know. He hasn't seen her since he ran away from her six years ago. The first, and last person he's ever run from.

Wand:

Wood - Cedar "Whenever I meet one who carries a cedar wand, I find strength of character and unusual loyalty. My father, Gervaise Ollivander, used always to say, 'you will never fool the cedar carrier,' and I agree: the cedar wand finds its perfect home where there is perspicacity and perception. I would go further than my father, however, in saying that I have never yet met the owner of a cedar wand whom I would care to cross, especially if harm is done to those of whom they are fond. The witch or wizard who is well-matched with cedar carries the potential to be a frightening adversary, which often comes as a shock to those who have thoughtlessly challenged them."
(Directly quoted from Wizardingworld website)
Core - Graphorn Skin Graphorns are large and hump-backed cow-like creatures with skin tougher than a dragon. They have two golden horns, and can repel most spells. Mountain trolls sometimes try to ride them, but Graphorns will often fight them off, as they don't like it. The skin as a core has defensive properties, "notorious for its ability to deflect all but the most powerful of offensive spells. As such, Graphorn wands are skilled in both defensive magic and dueling spells." Wands with this core often favor the patient, stubborn, and fierce, but may take a bit of a firm hand to get under control at first. They also specialize in healing magic, same as the horns, which can be powdered and used in potions.
(Information for Graphorn taken from harry potter fandom wiki, and bits directly quoted from I think Wizarding Realm, the rest of the information for the skin as a wand core is my own invention)
Length - 13 inches
Flexibility - Swishy

Unusual Abilities:

Occlumency - When Avery first heard of Legilimency, when he was 8, he was horrified. His father was a somewhat rusty Legilimens, and after much bugging, consented to help teach him how to block "mind-reading." Though he struggled with it at first, sometime during his second year of school, the basic principle clicked, and he quickly discovered he had a knack for it, as a natural compartmentalizer. He now automatically keeps his mind reflexively clear and free of emotionally, though learning to present only the thoughts he wishes to show are things he knows he needs to work on. He can fool his father alright, but a more advanced Legilimens, and reaching the sort of willpower required to resist the Imperius curse and Veritaserum are still far-off dreams, though ones he intends to conquer… eventually.

Schooling:

Core Classes - Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, History of Magic, DADA, Herbology

Extracurricular - Magical Theory

Club - Dueling

Class Information - Because of his natural cleverness and obsessively careful attitude, he does well in almost all of his classes, if he's a bit slow about things. Despite this, he takes interest in few subjects except for Transfiguration, though he also excels at Potions, often figuring out improvements to the recipes without realizing he'd found them. He does not really enjoy Potions, and most people seem to feel that he looks a bit woolly-headed in the class, which makes it a wonder that he does so well in it. He hopes to become an animagus someday, but hasn't begun trying it. His electives were Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy. He absolutely adores Magical Theory, and wants to take Alchemy next year.

Besides his wizard studies, Avery also keeps up a study of muggle subjects. He has a self-devised curriculum of Computer Science, Physiology, Basic Chemistry, Economics, International Relations, and History of Military Strategy. Because the number subjects are rather vast, he moves at a slower pace with them than most muggle schools allow, limiting the time he spends on these outside subjects particularly starting this year, but makes up for it by not having gaps in the years in which he studies them. On top of which, he knows French, German, Russian, Morse Code, and Sign Language, though he doesn't full-on study them anymore, simply practices in his spare time so he doesn't forget too much. In addition, if he has spare time, he continues his physical training in the Russian martial arts of Systema and Sambo, excluding weapons proficiency, as he can't bring weapons to school. He is also taking some interest in the Asian martial arts, and trying to teach himself a little, though he knows he'll never truly be good at it until he gets a teacher. This combination of wizard and muggle classwork along with dueling and his physical pursuits leads to him cramming as much as possible into each day.

Amortentia Scents:

Leather, rain, cooking fish.

Myers Briggs:

INTJ

Enneagram:

5w6

General Personality:

Just || Clever || Obsessive || Unobtrusive || Efficient || Bold || Good-humored
Kind Avery deeply cares about other people and has a particular soft spot for children. In both word and manner, he always tries to be kind to others, doing things for them without asking while always making sure he's not overstepping any bounds. While not a very sentimental, touchy-feely person, he's not afraid of giving people affection when they need it, and is careful not to overstep others' boundaries, it being a deep concern of his to show respect to others. All without any desire to manipulate or take advantage of the people he's nice to. He is, in general, non-threatening, soft-spoken, and polite.

Impassive people-watcher While friendly in behavior, he's not the sort to get close to people. He finds human beings more interesting to study, a careful people-watcher who often watches a situation carefully to determine the best course of action to protect the most people. He further keeps track of other people's situations and body language, and takes care to be observant, but not too observant. As he has no desire to intrude on other people's secrets, the minute he begans noticing aberrations in others' behavioral or social patterns, he makes note of it, but refuses to pursue it further. He does all of this with largely no particular emotions involved. He is difficult to disturb, is unlikely to judge others, and is extremely good at compartmentalizing his emotions to deal with them later. With his already neutral-sort of face, and the quiet way he processes everything that happens, he is a hard target to read. He's the quiet, helpful kid that sits in the back and rarely causes a fuss, raising a question once in a while, and blending in without really integrating.

Obsessive Careful, clever, and efficient, Avery does things with meticulous attention to detail. His room, which doesn't seem very neat and orderly at first glance, has a very definite structure almost purposely meant to confuse the eye. He also covers his tracks with some surprising skill and determination when doing something he knows he shouldn't be. He's not above ignoring the rules to get what he wants, and even takes advantage of his own temperament, using his naturally non-threatening form and mild, polite manners to form a reputation he has used to get himself off the hook for multiple transgressions. After all, a nice boy like him wouldn’t go around breaking the rules… right? He's never understood why people think that and such assumptions about him make him laugh. He keeps careful mental notes of everything, and when he has a plan or mystery, obsesses about things down to the minute details.

Ruthless Most people think that because Avery tends to yield to other people's opinions, he's a pushover. Most people would be wrong. There's an odd level of apathy with which Avery handles most things, so he'd rather keep the peace than fight about things, but catch him with the right project, and he will dig his heels in and not let go. While he doesn't like stepping on people or ignoring rules to get his way, he will if he feels he has to. It's difficult to tell whether this is from a sense of greater purpose, or what he would do regardless of how important he believed it to be, but he strongly believes that every definitive decision one makes comes with a cost or sacrifice, and you have to be willing to pay it without hesitation if you're going to get what you want.

Thrill-seeking but easily amused Avery's quiet attitude and general control over the emotions he displays makes it difficult for people to believe it, but he's a sucker for the impossible. The more insane something is, the more excited he is to try it. He lives for those moments where he's giddy with fear and flying by the seat of his pants. The rather unfortunate truth is that with every new skill he learns the number of things that can excite him decreases dramatically. People or things that can manage to shock him or set his blood pumping instantly gain his approval, and he is constantly searching for interesting things to do, learn, or think about. While it may be difficult to excite him, Avery also has a broad sense of humor, and many things amuse him, despite the fact that his own jokes are woefully dry.

Hobbies:

Listening to music, camping, playing piano, physical pursuits like rock climbing or sky diving, and strategy games like poker and chess.

Fun Facts:

"The Trevelyan Curse" – The Trevelyan Curse is a little joke (most likely not a real curse) among his family because for generations every first born male of the Trevelyan line has had a horrible sense of taste. This doesn't mean that they can't taste different things, just that their ability to love or hate anything edible is pretty much nonexistent, just like some people like carrots, some people don't, it's simply a matter of preference. He actually really enjoys Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans because he's always curious to find new flavors, but doesn't have the qualms other people have about the gross flavors. Both his father and he are able to make decent food as long as they don't taste it and just go with their instincts. He doesn't enjoy it, however, any more than potions. His mother is a very good cook, but neither of them can tell that. Because of his little "curse," one of the adventurous house elves loves making really gross, but inventive candies, and she loves giving them to Avery. It's gotten to the point where she will make things just so she can test them on him, and he is rather a favorite of hers.
On the occasions where he has free time and is willing to take it, he has a wide range of hobbies, which he usually chooses by whatever happens to be most conveniently possible. His idea of fun tends to be physical pursuits, but he also enjoys strategy games and card games. He loves the great outdoors, and their family goes camping once a year. Also, thanks to his father's influence, he has attempted some spell-making, though he's come to the conclusion that it's not really for him.
Avery has intentionally chosen his classes as if he were an aspiring auror, though he is not.
His mother started teaching him Russian intensively when he was six whenever she was home, and they still practice at home a lot.
Avery's father is an obsessive collector of magical clocks of all sorts, and Avery finds them rather enjoyable, himself.
Avery keeps a few muggle items hidden on him almost all the time, mainly just packet tissues, a ballpoint pen, a mini leatherman, and post-its.
The tattoo on Avery's shoulder stands for forgiveness, and he always reaches over to touch it when he's angry or irritated, as he knows he could seriously hurt someone if he lost control of his emotions. His mom sponsored this illegal tattoo after he won his first fight against one of her colleagues when he was 9.
His mother introduced him to different types of alcohol and how to drink responsibly starting from a young age, but had him drink until they were both drunk when he was 13, an event which resulted in a rather dangerous sparring match and his mother throwing knives at him with him pinned to the wall. He is apparently an angry drunk, and she's apparently a happy drunk. His father did not participate
His family tends to make competitions of the silliest things, and his favorite is the Lie-Exchange Game, where each member of his family tries to spin a detailed lie and see how convincingly they can play it out under a mock interrogation. Perhaps owing to this, Avery is rarely straightforwardly sassy, but he does like being difficult to read by purposefully equivocating, and the better people know him, the more he likes trying to see if he can mislead them.
His spellwork is much like his handwriting. He holds his wand lightly, but firmly, and tends to cast spells with a sort of subtle elegance. His nonverbal spellwork is less than perfect, but whispered spellwork was something of an automatic for him from day one.
His mother has a section of the house farthest from his father's workshop, where magic is prohibited. It's her little muggle electronics haven. It's probably his favorite room in the house.
He is a decent shot with a firearm, but prefers knives if it comes down to a choice of muggle weapon.
His favorite colors are blue, grey, and black, and he actually has a decent sense of style and fashion.
He really likes the rain.
His family watches a James Bond movie every summer when he comes home, and occasionally does marathons, because his mom's a major James Bond fan. He also really enjoys old shows that deal with deception, psychology, and/or spies, his favorite of which is Burn Notice.
Avery was initially planning to get an owl for a pet, but Layla became extremely attached to him at the pet store, for no apparent reason. Causing a ruckus in the store, she managed to nonverbally communicate that she insisted he be her owner and somehow, it worked. She, to this day, does not quite understand how he seems to know what she's trying to convey to him without words, why he came to talk to her in the first place, and why he continues to do so now. He's just a strange one. The two of them have also worked out an interesting way to communicate, using a series of taps that are something of a shorthand of Morse code. They can't use complete sentences, but certain small ideas can be worked out alright.
Avery has a… funny relationship with the idea of violence. Although he doesn't love it, he doesn't exactly not condone it, is the short way of putting it. He is most definitely not a bloodthirsty hound, nor does he think violence is always the most sensible option. (More often than not, it causes more trouble than it's worth.) That said, he thinks it has its merits, and despite his desire for general peace and good will, he is not above using a strong approach when he thinks it's necessary. When he has decided it's a good time to use violence, he is very efficient about it, as it's almost never a matter of passion, and it is something of a specialty of his to combine spellwork with physical action. Although generally not very competitive a person, the second a physical fight starts, Avery becomes deadly serious. Whether you plan to throw the fight, play the victim, or win straightforwardly, you need to take it seriously if you want it to go the way you want.
Avery's favorite meal is a horrible concoction his father made for his mother when she came back after being missing for two years, as a kind of revenge. His mother ate the whole thing as an apology, and his father filmed it for when Avery grew up. It involves cooked salmon coated with candy canes and ginger and fried in burnt oil, adding fish intestines, placing it between layers of thin pastry sheets, then drizzling it in a sauce made of water steeped with squid tentacles and vinegar, before topping it with mayonnaise, cream cheese, and fresh cilantro. His mother can eat most gross things without flinching, but the very smell of this triggers her gag reflex now.

Spies, Lies, and Apple Pies Raven-haired Desiree Wray was 20 when she graduated top of her class from military school. From there, she went into MI5, the British Security Service. Sure, it wasn't common or easy, but someone had to do it, and she was a prodigy when it came to work like this. Trained in the Russian martial arts Systema and Sambo, with keen instincts when it came to people, and a strong understanding of right and wrong, Desiree was good at what she did. Despite being a member of a domestic intelligence agency, as a little girl she had always believed in magic. While adulthood had matured that view, some part of her always hoped for the impossible. She wasn't to know she'd eventually discover the truth. One month after entering MI5, she was relocated to a little known suburb to keep a watch for suspicious activity in the area, which was suspected to house terrorists. To her great surprise, the day after she moved in, she was greeted by her neighbor, a certain Mr. Trevelyan, who happened to be a scrawny guy with hair as black as hers and kind of clueless-looking brown eyes. He came with a pie and said everyone in the area loved them. Unfortunately for Desiree, she believed him, and, taking a break from unpacking, decided to try some. She sat down, took one bite, and promptly spat it out into a napkin.

It was disgusting. Not just gross in a mild sort of way, but in the, want to pull your tongue out kind of way. She drank practically an entire gallon of milk to get the taste out of her mouth. In her irritated, witty fashion, she marched right up to his door, knocked hard on the door, and with a tried smile sharply said, "Hello. Nice to meet you. My next door neighbor just gave me the most disgusting thing I've ever put in my mouth. Would you like to try some?" She quickly discovered that he hadn't been trying to poison her. His sense of taste was a crime against nature, and no one had bothered telling him the simple truth that his cooking sucked. Desiree thought that was hilarious, and the two of them became friends in a weird, always arguing kind of way. She usually won these arguments by getting him in a headlock. Her cover was as a divorced real estate agent at the time.

My Next Door Neighbor is a WHAT? Lysander Trevelyan had just graduated from Hogwarts that year. Yeah, so he was 17 and nothing special, but he found a friendship with the older woman he was not expecting to find in this secluded muggle's community. Coming from a long line of half-bloods, all he'd ever known was the wixen lifestyle. At that point in his life, he had been considering going into muggle relations, and had first decided to see what it was like to live in the muggle world. The horrible cooking was just a by-product of this experimentation, though it might have had to do more with his pathetic taste buds than with his cooking methods. For some odd reason, Desiree seemed to think he should still be in school, and so he made the pretense, while loitering inside his house. This excess of free time helped him find his true calling, but she wasn't to find that out for some time. He wasn't quite sure what being a real estate agent was like, but for sure she seemed to keep odd hours herself. He visited her often and they were close, but not romantic. It was the perfect relationship. Well, if you ignored the fact that his neck was probably getting longer every day.

This comfortable situation lasted with them for two months, when the reason for Desiree's mission became very painfully clear. There was a terrorist cell of an extremist group in the area and they made the mistake of thinking it was Lysander, not Desiree, who was the spy. They kidnapped him to ransom off to MI5, and Desiree had to rescue him, all guns blazing. Not literally. Hopelessly outnumbered, Desiree almost went down, at which point Lysander finally whipped out his wand. With a little wandwork, he managed to clear a path through the men, and the two of them high-tailed it out of there. To his extreme admiration, she called in the waiting backup promptly and without fussing about her injuries and what had really happened in the room. For a week, she was swamped with clean-up and paperwork. Lysander lied to the Ministry of Magic. He'd reported the names of all of the other people who'd seen him use his magic, but he couldn't bring himself to tell them Desiree had seen him. In fact, he wasn't even sure she had seen anything. As the bruises faded, and he sorted things out with the Ministry of Magic, it seemed to him as if it had never happened. The problem was, it had. At first, he was worried Desiree would tell someone, but time passed and no Ministry worker came to arrest him. That time didn't make Desiree forget, though, because after two weeks she came rapping on his door to say goodbye, and demand the truth. She got it, and shared her occupation in turn, proving quite the shock to both of them.

Desiree left two days later, on to her next job, and Lysander thought that would be the last time he'd ever see her. He was proven wrong by a postcard a month later from Mumbai. He laughed. She was in the domestic secret service. He hadn't forgotten that part. Over the next two years, he continued receiving postcards from insane places all over the world. While he was never given any indication of where she actually was, he sent her owls and they always seemed to find their way to her. She often commented on how cool his "way of sending the post" was, but she never spoke at all about his secret, or hers. Anyone intercepting the mail would have found nothing at all interesting… except for a grand seduction. With every letter, a growing relationship between the participants became clearer and clearer.

Two years later, Desiree returned.

Impossible Dreams Desiree's return was a shock to Lysander, though not in the way he had expected. He was definitely glad to see his friend again, but disturbed to find that she'd become more than just a friend in his mind. He was, by this time, a fairly successful potions and spell inventor, though his job was not always very lucrative. They finally had the chance to compare notes. They had long talks about her job and his, and enjoyed a closeness deeper than they'd had two years ago, but she had to leave within the month again.

Lysander spent that month worrying, as he felt his attraction to Desiree growing. He was a wizard, she was a muggle. His family were half-bloods, but it was mostly limited to muggle-borns. The last real muggle in the family had been several generations ago. He didn't know how these things worked. Worse, what he was doing was probably illegal. More importantly, she was a spy. Even if they had been two muggles, it sounded impossible. She was already going many different places without him. She was involved in dangerous work that he could never understand. He'd simply be a liability to her. It was confusing and painful. For the time being, he simply tried spending as much time as he could with her, since he knew it would be short. On the day before she left, he made a choice. He wouldn't pursue it. There was no way a woman like that would ever go for him, anyways. He would let her go, and they would just be secret pen pals. The day she left, he took her to the airport, gave her a hug, and was watching her walk away, bag in tow, when he did something neither of them expected. He shouted just two words at her. "Marry me!" She turned to look at him in shock and disbelief. Her only answer, when their eyes met, was a brief shake of the head.

From that day onward, he slipped those two words into every letter. Sometimes it was in different forms, sometimes different languages, sometimes it was hidden, sometimes it was open, but he always asked it, and she never once replied to the question. Desiree read those two words every time with conflicted feelings. She read them and reread them, memorizing every form, every clumsily written stroke in languages he didn't even know. She believed she loved him, but two years through letters and a few months face-to-face was hardly enough to even think she really knew him. She'd seen so many people betrayed and lied to in her line of work. Could she really believe in him? She didn't know. She remained firm in her intention to continue refusing him… until the day she died. It was a very simple death, and it happened very easily. At age 23, Desiree Wray was stabbed in the heart. She heard them say it before she passed out. She was losing blood, they'd gotten her straight in the heart. She was going to die. How funny, that the only thing she thought as she was going down was, "I wish someone knew to tell my Lysander."

She was… insignificant. That was the first thing she clearly consciously thought when she woke up. Turns out, being stabbed in the heart isn't instantly fatal. She was in pain and out of duty for the time being, but she most certainly wasn't dead and that set her to thinking. She thought about her last thoughts, how she'd thought of him as hers, and his letters, and how he was the only one in her family who wasn't there when she'd woken up. And lastly, she thought that she was insignificant. She'd been dead for a bit, or at least that was what it had felt like, and the only people who had known and been devastated were her adoptive parents (though, granted they thought she'd been stabbed in a random mugging). That was… oddly freeing. The minute they said she was good to go, she left for the suburb. She found him there, waiting for her, as he always had been, and said yes. The two of them married on the anniversary of his first proposal.

Little Traumas Avery was not an expected child. Lysander didn't feel responsible enough to be having children, and Desiree's biological parents had been abusive and she was certain she'd be the same. Neither of them wanted children, but a careless night after she'd been gone on a particularly dangerous mission had given him to them, and both of them were secretly determined to do one thing right by their child: love him no matter what. So that's what they did. Avery was loved from the second they knew he was going to be born. He grew up utterly confident in this fact. He was raised with the balance of his strict mother and his laid-back father. His childhood was relatively normal, with no abuses or divorces, or anything of that nature, but even his family had its problems. His mom's job had a major impact in his life, but two incidents were of particular note.

The very first time her job fully interfered in their home life was when he was four. Desiree disappeared. Without explanation, without warning, and leaving no way to contact her, not even by owl. For two years, she was just gone. Despite being very young, he remembers those two years vividly, mostly things about his father. His father writing letters, his father pretending he wasn't sad, his father pretending he wasn't scared, his father gripping his hand too tightly as other parents asked him where Desiree had gone. He'd never been the wild child type, but in those two years, he learned more quickly than any of the others how to keep his head down and never cause trouble. And every once in a while, if he was especially good, his father would smile again. His mother came back on his sixth birthday, and his parents eventually made up, but he never forgot what he'd learned in that time.

After that, she was never gone that long again, but her presence was sometimes as troublesome as her lack of presence. She never forced him to follow her footsteps, but Avery, as it turns out, shares one important quality with her that unfortunately made her work of particular interest to him: he's an adrenaline junkie. So, he learned the little tips that she taught him about surveillance work, and insisted she teach him more. This was mostly harmless, but it had one serious repercussion. When he was around ten, the year before he was supposed to go to Hogwarts, his mother said that, as they weren't going to be spending as much time together anymore, there was one more thing he should probably know, if he really wanted to become a spy like her. She told him he needed to know how to make someone fall in love with him. She set him an assignment she never expected him to go through with, and he succeeded. He's never really forgiven himself for it.

The Life I'm Going to Live Growing up, Avery's life was split into two: magical and non-magical. His father would sometimes sequester himself in his room in the middle of making a spell or potion, and his mother would sometimes be gone for weeks at a time. He was part of the muggle world, and yet part of the wizard world. He was trained physically and mentally the way his mother was, but displayed signs of magic early on in life. If any one of his parents had pushed him one way or the other, he might have felt compelled one way or the other, but they were radically different and perfectly comfortable sharing their worlds with each other. They never even thought about it, assuming he would go on to become a wix, even enrolling him in Hogwarts when he was still a child, but he thought about it. He wanted to make a conscious decision about his life, especially as he'd gone to a muggle school for the first few years of his life. When the letter of his acceptance came to the house, his parents were both happy for him, but he found himself oddly conflicted, for something that should've been more inevitable.

It took some thought, but he did eventually decide to go to Hogwarts, obviously. He'd already gotten a spot there, after all, and he would continue to have connections to the muggle world. It wouldn't just all disappear. He'd stay himself, and that was all that mattered. He was going to become a wizard. Better yet, he had learned from these musings. He would make a place where muggles and wizards could be open with each other. Muggles and wizards could help each other. He'd seen that with his own family, and he already had training useful for a spy. He was going to change the world.

Since then, Avery has pursued this line of thinking with single-minded determination, adjusting his curriculum to juggle a little of both worlds. He has told no one, including his family, about his ambition, and when asked about his future, maintains that he wants to become an auror. While he does want to try and get into auror finishing school, his real objective in the end is, of course, to start recruiting muggles and wizards to work together to deal with problems when the wizard world starts affecting the muggle one, or conversely when there are potentially magical troubles that muggles are more easily equipped to access.