Professor Dylan McHafferty
From Levicorpus
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Contents |
Character Name
- Name: Dylan McHafferty
- Bloodine: Muggleborn
- Birthplace: Londonderry (Derry), Northern Ireland
- Class: Working Class
- House: Ravenclaw
- Wand: Elm wood and Hippogriff down/fur
Personality
Dylan is completely LOST in his work. It’s one of the few things he does with his time. Anything he can read on the subject, he will have read, be reading or have piled on his floor. He doesn’t know much about the world around him, nor wants to. Socially, he’s very withdrawn, avoiding reality in history. He couldn’t tell you much about modern culture after 1960ish and gives little attention to any culture after 1100 AD.
He’s very, very introverted and nervous in most social situations, but he doesn’t really consider his class a social situation and actually becomes an entirely different, more confident person when talking about his subject. If there’s one thing he cannot abide, it’s timewasters. He’d much rather have less people in his class and have them all interested, than lots of people who just like how comfortable the desks are on a Monday morning. He has a slightly sarcastic side too, but if he’s a little snarky with you, it’s probably because he thinks you’re alright, not because he’s annoyed with you. His favourite way of dealing with timewasters is his scissors, which he uses liberally. For example, in one of his lectures, a student was absentmindedly playing with a yo-yo and he simply walked up, got out his scissors and cut the string. If he thinks you’re waffling in your essay, he’ll simply cut out the waffle and hand it you back like that. Although it has been thought in the past he’s a drinker, he actually doesn’t drink much at all, he just looks tired and haggard because he spends most of his night reading books and trying to write his own on Slavic Runes. Sleep..who needs it? He often considers the same of looking neat, as long as he’s decent, who cares? He has been known to skip meals, too, just to make notes, but that soon stopped when his sister gave him a good telling off. Instead, he takes his book to the dinner table. Dylan gets on brilliantly well with his sister, and reasonably well with his brothers, but his sister is his favourite sibling and vice versa. Wherever he is in the world, he manages to contact her, and she is really the only person who’s opinion of him he cares about. She’s the only person he ever goes to for advice, and the only person he thinks understands him. He constantly worries that his family will get caught up in the conflict, but this is quickly dispelled by his focus on Ancient History.
He has pretty much blanked the shooting from his memory, but he still has slight nervous gestures, which suggest he still remembers it subconsciously. He has been known to bite his first finger slightly when something reminds him of it, but he doesn’t even notice he’s doing it.
His sense of organisation is meticulous when it comes to his books and notes on his subject, but in anything else, it’s completely haphazard and random. He has no regard for the value of clothes or other such things, and has once cut a tie of his into pieces, just to prove he could do it.
Although hardly mentioning his Irish background, he is proud of it, and although he’d never be able to tell you what was going off in his country, simply for avoiding it, he wouldn’t cease to inform you he would like to see peace and a united Ireland, in Ancient Gaelic, if you liked.
Physical Description
Most people would describe Dylan as completely scruffy. He has a mop of black hair, which he has never seen the need to comb, so it sticks out at various angles and sometimes covers his face from view. Not that he cares. Beneath his mop of hair is a pair of deep, brown eyes, which could appear almost black in the right light. Across most of his jaw line is fine, black stubble, which despite never shaving properly, stays at a decent length. He’s not all that tall at 5’ 10”, and is made to look shorter by constantly shoving his hands in his pockets and walking with a slouch. He’s really skinny for his height as well, and has been known to completely skimp on meals, for the sake of doing more reading. He has a very broad Northern Irish accent, which he has never been able to get rid of, no matter how hard he tried. He does put on clean robes most mornings, although from the way he wore them, you wouldn’t believe it. He is completely unfamiliar with the concept of tucking his shirt in, or tying his tie any higher than the third button. Half the time, he abandons the idea of a shirt and wears jumpers or a black t-shirt. He could have been told at some point there was a dress code, but he kind of forgot it existed somewhere along the way.
History
Dylan was born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland on the 10th of November 1950, into a large, staunchly Catholic, muggle family. He had two brothers and a sister and countless uncles and aunties who always seemed to appear out of nowhere. He spent a lot of the time trying to figure out where they hid under his house. He enjoyed most of his early childhood, playing with his brothers, despite the adversity his family faced as a minority in the Protestant dominated Ulster. His family first noticed his odd, almost magical powers when he managed to make his rugby ball stop in midair in front of him, just because he was sick of it hitting him in the face (he never was one for sports), but he panicked and quickly stuck two hands on it. When his brothers ran into tell their parents, they were convinced they were only playing games and laughed it off. Dylan had always been the most intellectual of his brothers, but showed no real passion for it until his mother took him to Dublin museum and showed him around the exhibit of Ancient Greek art when he was six. His obsession took off from there, and he went to the library on many days, much to the scorn of his brothers, but his elder sister was more than happy to take him, wanting to find something to do with her little brother. He used to love these trips more than playing with his brothers, although he’d never really admit it to anyone but his sister. He was invited to Hogwarts once he was 11 and it took him a long time to get his parents to understand this idea. He, himself had always liked to think the stories his mother told him about faeries and magic were true and was overwhelmed with the idea that they actually WERE. However, in the summer before he went to Hogwarts, he witnessed an event, which would transform his outlook on life and the conflict he lived amongst.
He was walking home from the library, with his new collection of books on Roman Architecture and heard shouting from outside a pub, and not wanting to get caught up in what he thought was a bar fight, hid in an alley, next to a bin and waited for it to blow over. Problem was, it didn’t blow over. The fight became more and more intense, and before Dylan could run away, the men brought their opponent into the alleyway and after much sectarian arguing, Dylan figured out the men were IRA and the other man was a Protestant but nothing more. He began to run away, but wasn’t quick enough to miss seeing the man being shot. He ran home, and refused to tell anyone but his sister what he had seen. Since then, he became increasingly reclusive, avidly studying Ancient Civilisations and at Hogwarts (where he was sorted into Ravenclaw), Ancient Runes and History of Magic, preferring to dive into Ancient History and the Magical World, in order to detach himself from the realities of the Muggle conflict where he lived. As soon as he could leave school, he went all over Europe, studying different Ancient languages, their culture and specifically, their art. He has been university hopping since he was 19 and has continually done so until now, varying between Muggle universities and wizarding institutions, has several doctorates in several dead languages, specialising in Old Cyrillic and it’s origins, having studied in many Eastern European universities, and his opinion is sought by many historians, magical or not. With avoiding the conflict in his nation, he was also disaffected from his religion, having seen the way a long history of a sectarian violence had torn his country and normal, innocent people apart. However, he is very, very out of touch with modern society and is utterly bewildered by most things outside his subject area.
He had never really considered teaching at Hogwarts, and was busy preparing for his next year of Professor in Classical Studies at St Andrews, when he was approached by Albus Dumbledore as a replacement for his former, late Ancient Runes teacher, which he was rather ashamed to admit, he didn’t know about. He soon figured it out and after fumbling his way through an interview, where he proved his vast knowledge of the subject and his enthusiasm for it, was appointed, as Dumbledore was sure he was the quiet sort at least and wouldn’t make a big deal about whom he was replacing. He was happy and enthusiastic to take the job, not because he particularly liked children, but because he’d always liked change and he always was looking for new opportunities to use his knowledge.
School
Classes
Astrology
- Birthday: 10th of November
- Sign: Ravenclaw Scorpio
Curiosity killed the cat; satisfaction brought it back. If ever a wizard exhibited a danger of self destruction from too much knowledge, surely it was a Ravenclaw Scorpio. It doesn't matter whether the pet obsession this week is botany, Muggle pop music, or the history of the Necronomicon, if a Ravenclaw Scorpio wants to know about it, then he will, and damn the consequences: full speed ahead. Indeed, just mention that a subject is "forbidden" and you'll see a peculiar light shine in their eyes. They sneak into locked rooms after dark, and forge passes to the restricted library sections. The lust for arcane knowledge is both the greatest strength of these wizards, and the Achilles heel. It's best to indulge them whenever possible and let the obsession burn itself out; and, when this is not possible, to explain in great detail and absolutely *no* patronizing why the subject must not be explored. These Ravenclaws are quiet and secretive, but don't be fooled by that calm and placid exterior; they have hidden depths.
