Post by Prof. Fillius Flitwick on Aug 9, 2011 0:57:15 GMT
||C H A R A C T E R||
Character's Name: Filius Flitwick
Age: 81 | October 17 1896
Gender: Male
House: Ravenclaw
Sexual Orientation: Straight but open-minded
Likes: teaching, charms, spending time with his colleagues, mischief, cherry syrup and soda with ice and an umbrella, flying, books
Dislikes: cats, bullying and teasing, being talked down to, threats to his students or his friends, hot sunny days, closed spaces
Weaknesses: too trusting, overly sensitive, Potions, sensitive about his height, physically unthreatening, easily underestimated and overlooked
Fears: the fall of Hogwarts to Voldemort and his Death Eaters, the death of one of his students, his losing control and fighting once more
General Personality: Filius Flitwick is a kindly man, as any of his students will tell you. Endlessly patient and always willing to explain one more time, he is respected by most of Hogwarts and loved by many. In all the years he has worked there, Filius has never been heard to raise his voice in anger, and has always had a good word to say about everyone. He is generous with his time, and always willing to share his knowledge; the scholar and teacher in him cannot do otherwise.
He has a wicked sense of humour, one that has often seen him look the other way when he stumbles upon a prank, provided that it is not mean-spirited or cruel. He has also been heard to tell the most outrageous and inappropriate jokes in the Staffroom, but would deny it to the end if asked by a student.
Though Filius is normally gentle and even-tempered, if there is one thing that he will not tolerate, it is bullying. He has his own memories of experiencing such abuse, and so when he comes across it he delivers justice swiftly and without hesitation, though not without compassion or mercy. And the mockery he went through has left scars; one of Filius' sore spots is those who look down on him for his size and attempt to patronize him for it. Though he may have the build of one, there is no surer way to offend him than to treat him like a child.
Though most wouldn't believe it, Filius Flitwick also has a darker side that none of his students and few of his peers have ever seen. Even those who watched him on the Duelling Circuit only glimpsed the surface, because they never saw inside his head. It was during the darkest moment of his life, when he nearly killed his opponent by accident (or that is what Flitwick prays in his weakest moments; that it was an accident). Mixed in with the horror and self-loathing that he felt, there was a tiny spark of what could have been pleasure. And so Filius walked away from the Duelling Circuit and swore never to raise his wand in anger against another again.-----------------------------------------------------||A P P E A R A N C E||
Celebrity Claim: Warwick Davis
Hair: Dark brown, streaked with grey
Eyes: Green
Build: Stocky
Height: 95 cm| 3ft, 1.4 inches
Clothing Style: Dress robes and three-piece suits
General Appearance: Filius Flitwick is a small man, at least in a physical sense. He stands not even a meter tall, and weighs less than some of his younger students. He is fairly stocky for his size, and has a compact if not especially muscled build. However, he has the hands of an artist; his fingers long and elegant in comparison to the rest of him.
He has quite a homely face; round and somewhat wrinkled, with a small nose and rather undefined cheekbones. His chin is quite rounded, and his ears are small and protrude somewhat from the sides of his face. His hair is a typical Welsh dark brown, though it is now streaked with grey, and his eyes are small and dark, proving upon a close inspection to be an almost blackish green.
He wears spectacles at almost all times, and keeps a cane in his rooms for walking long distances. He wears an inobtrusive wand holster strapped to his right arm, which he always conceals within either robes or a suit jacket, enabling him to use sleight of hand to produce his wand (a feat which delights his First Years). He laso keeps a second wand tucked away in an inside pocket 'just in case', a remnant of his years on the Duelling Circuit.
His dress sense tends towards the formal, wearing either traditional dress robes or the new three-piece suits that the Muggles have recently begun to wear. Most of his wardrobe comes in various shades of very dark green, all sorts of blues and dark greys, and occasional highlights of crimson, pale grey or more often, bronze.-----------------------------------------------------||H I S T O R Y||
Parents:
Mother; Tegwen Flitwick - moved to London and worked there after Filius graduated and was killed in 1942 during the Blitz.
Father; Bryn Trahaern - killed by Grindelwald during the very earliest years of his reign of terror. Filius never met him, and only learnt his name because Gringotts were unusually thorough in checking for unknown relatives.
Siblings: None
Children: None
History: Filius Flitwick was born in Myrddfai, Carmarthenshire in 1896 to a woman still somewhat considered an outsider (having only lived there for 3 years) and an unknown father. Though the birth was an easy one, raising a child alone in a small country village was hard on his mother, particularly as Filius began to grow up smaller and squater than the othre boys his age, and his eyes remained a deep, almost black green. Given his lack of a father, the towsfolk whispered that she had been visited by one of the Tylwyth Teg, and the boy wasn't all human. Given that his father was a wizard with a goblin great-uncle, the rumours weren't all that far off.
When Filius recieved his Hogwarts it answered some deep doubts inside him, and offered him a chance that though he might not be normal, that might be okay. The excitable young Flitwick was also an avid reader of mythology and folklore, so the promise of learning magic didn't hurt. Unfortunately, things didn't altogether change when Filius arrived at Hogwarts, save that the children (particularly in Slytherin) called him 'half-breed' and 'goblin' instead of 'moontouched' and 'touched by the fair folk'.
But his Hogwarts year were far from all bad; he made friends in Ravenclaw with a combination of generosity of spirit and a willingness to share knowledge, and he soaked up magic like a sponge. By the time that the OWLs were coming up, at the beginnning of 5th year, his Charms teacher and mentor Agnes Ainsley was speaking of his prodigal skills at Charms as equal to where a now-famous Albus Dumbledore's had been at Transfiguration. Even without his success at Charms, he would still have been counted an excellent student, solidly competent at Transfiguration, near the top of the class in DaDA and first in Arithmancy and Ancient Runes.
Filius made his way out of Hogwarts with 11 OWLs and NEWTs in DaDA, Transfiguration, Charms, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. Armed with letters of introduction from Agnes, he toured the other Wizarding schools of the world, expanding and deepening his knowledge of magic in general, and Charms. Five years later, he returned to England to earn his Mastery in Charms before heading off to the next stop on his travels; Durmstrang.
It was at Durmstrang, after being confronted by contempt and sneers if not outright prejudice on the basis of his nationality, his size and his blood status, that Flitwick seriously lost his temper for the first time. He challenged the schools top student, who had been the ringleader, to a duel and proceeded to wipe the floor with the arrogant young wizard with a string of humiliating and painful charms. Having earned the respect of the schools teachers and most of the students, Flitwick enjoyed a hassle-free year before moving on to a new goal.
In the spring of 1920, aged 24, Filius joined the English Professional Duelling circuit. For the next twenty years he clawed his way up the Regional ladder and through into the European league. For five years, from 1941 to 1946, he was the European Duelling Champion. Then at the World Duelling Championship in the late autumn of '46, he badly injured his opponent in the final round after their Shielding Charm unexpectedly gave way.
Though he was crowned the victor, the kindly Flitwick walked away from the Duelling circuit and instead returned to Hogwarts to apprentice under Albus Dumbledore for four years before tryign for his Mastery in Transfiguration. Where his Charms Mastery had come easily through native talent and his flair for the subject, his Transfiguration Mastery had been hard won through rigorous discipline and practice over four years of study, but he valued it no less for the work required.
For the next few years, Filius took jobs as a tutor both for young purebloods about to go to Hogwarts and also for Hogwarts students struggling in either Charms of Trasnsfiguration. Occasionally he would do a favour for Albus and come talk to a student who was set on becoming a professional Duellist, and give them some advice and training if they could not be swayed.
Then, in 1954, when his old Charms teacher passed away in her Hogwarts chambers over the summer, Albus offered him the job of Charms professor. Filius accepted, and then in 1963 was made Head of Ravenclaw House, both positions that he holds to this day (along with his role as Faculty Advisor for, among others, the Gobstones Club and the Hogwarts Choir).-----------------------------------------------------