#we as readers also see Declan at his worst more than anything else

[clotpolesonly]

ya know, we spend so much of the series in the POVs of 1) Ronan, who hates Declan, 2) Ronan's friends, who hate Declan because Ronan does and also routinely see Declan at his absolute worst when fighting with Ronan, and 3) Declan himself, who is a sopping wet miserable little man with self esteem issues and an incurable sense of alienation from others, that i genuinely forget most people like Declan more than Ronan

[crimeronan]

Ok so I’m into the dreamer trilogy and haven’t read the Raven cycle...what is Declan’s characterisation/journey there?

THIS MIGHT BE THE BEST ASK I’VE EVER RECEIVED. IMAGINE I’M STANDING WITH MY ARMS SPREAD USING DIFFERENT VOICES AND HAND GESTURES TO REENACT THIS STORY FOR A RESENTFUL CAPTIVE AUDIENCE

also declan’s TRC storyline is like. equal parts horribly fucking sad and unbelievably fucking hilarious so. i will try to strike a Balance

FIRST OFF.  there is exactly one (1) declan POV chapter in the entire series. it happens toward the end of the last book. up until then, everything we know about him comes from the observations and narration of others.

he is also a very minor character.  his importance grows throughout the series, but almost all of his actions happen offscreen.  it’s not until the last book that we know exactly how much he’s been dealing with the whole time.

when he’s introduced in the first book, he appears as a plot device.  here is a two-dimensional horrible controlling hardass who doesn’t give a shit about anything but his future political career.  look at his fake, smug fucking grin.  how did someone like ronan end up with a brother like him??  doesn’t matter.  it’s a convenient excuse for ronan to live with his best friend in a drafty warehouse, which means more room for YA hijinks!

declan’s introduction scene is Embroiled in Capital-D Douchebaggery. according to the narration (from gansey and adam), he loves to fuck women and then never call them back, cozy up to powerful people, and bitch about how ronan’s ruining his life by being sad about their dead parents.  SOME people can just get over their dead parents, ronan!

this intro scene is also Extremely Funny i 100% recommend reading it even if u don’t read the actual series.  ronan makes a nasty comment, declan goes “why are you the way that you are” and tries to salvage his date, gansey utters the phrase “man whore”

then later that night things go like. actually bad.

declan shows up at the same pizza place where ronan is with his friends.  this scene is gansey pov.  gansey runs out to the parking lot to find the two of them Very Literally Trying To Kill Each Other.  you don’t see that violence in cdth - there’s only the TINIEST shadow of it when declan confronts ronan over matthew - so i Cannot Express Enough that someone is going to end up hospitalized at BEST. ronan’s already slammed declan’s head on the car, declan’s already grabbed ronan and beaten the shit out of his face, like.

you do not get good old-fashioned Declan Lynch At His Actual Worst in cdth. u might be thinking, THAT guy???? doing THIS????

oh yeah. things are real bad between declan and ronan.

after gansey breaks up the fight (and gets punched in the face for his trouble, albeit accidentally), declan tells ronan that their dad would be fucking ashamed to see him now & that he’s washing his hands of it & basically if ronan wants to go off and fucking die, he can.

this is like. just a couple months after the magical suicide attempt referenced in cdth

in the aftermath of that scene it becomes clear that ronan absolutely unequivocally 100% will kill himself if he has to live with declan. hence. why he’s living with gansey instead.  gansey spends that whole night petrified that the declan altercation will lead to another attempt, and for Good Reason

so like, that’s how we first meet declan. he’s an uncaring wannabe corporate asshole who does not give a fuck and who only exists to exacerbate ronan’s mental health issues.

but then the opening of book 2 gets real interesting.

book 2 is where we start learning more about the lynch family.  we learn that ronan’s father was a dreamer who sold his creations on the black market, we learn that that’s why he was murdered. we learn that ronan’s a dreamer too. we learn that there are very powerful people looking for the greywaren, an artifact that takes objects from dreams. those powerful people just don’t realize it’s a person, yet.

so here’s the assassin who killed niall lynch.

he goes to declan’s dorm.

with everything we know about declan, the kid should be completely unprepared.  he can box, but the assassin knows that, so there’s no real advantage.  he’s alone, and he doesn’t have an escape route.

declan pulls out a gun.

this is an unexpected turn of events.

unfortunately he ends up getting beaten half to death with the butt of said gun, because he loses the ensuing physical struggle for the weapon.  the assassin is like, i need the greywaren.  declan is like, i know it exists but i don’t know what it is.  i’ll find it for you.  i’ll get it to you.  then you’ll leave me the fuck alone

now with everything we know of declan at this point - his attitude toward ronan, his general demeanor, and this new knowledge that he knew about the black market - there’s one obvious question.

will declan sell ronan out if he finds out about the dreaming.

and like, okay. their relationship is antagonistic in cdth but it is NOT what it is in trc. believe me when i tell you that at that point, when you’re reading, you can pretty reasonably go, “oh, god.  oh god.  oh god please no one ever tell declan what the greywaren is.  oh god.”

declan has some other interactions with ronan and the gang throughout the book, mostly where he’s just a hardass who tells ronan to stop causing trouble.  adam’s the only one who notices that declan is scared.  like bone-deep shaking to the core petrified.  about Something.

probably getting beaten to within an inch of his life by the man who murdered his father.  that’s the reasonable reader conclusion.

so imagine how everything changes when you find out that declan already knows.  that declan’s known about ronan’s dreaming for longer than ronan has.  that declan knew exactly what and who the greywaren was, and he lied to a man who was ready to torture him for information, and he got away with it.

suddenly a lot of things recontextualize.

“keep your head down and stop making trouble”? people are gonna NOTICE your magic bullshit, ronan, we do not have time for this!

“stop hanging with that loser druggie friend of yours”? you mean the loser druggie friend who sells on the magic black market and doesn’t care about protecting himself or anyone else?

“i got super weird for no reason about ronan sleeping close to adam”? i don’t have fucking TIME to be homophobic i’m busy with your POTENTIAL TO MANIFEST NIGHT TERRORS IN FRONT OF WITNESSES IN BROAD DAYLIGHT

“i’ll find out what the greywaren is and bring it to you”? i’ll die. i’m making a bargain to die. i’m never giving you the greywaren and i know you’re going to kill me about it and that’s fine as long as my brothers are safe

ronan doesn’t know that he dreamed matthew.  declan knows.  he’s known the whole time.  declan tells ronan in book 3.  and then things recontextualize even further, because ronan’s death is also matthew’s, and matthew IS close to declan in trc.

but declan never tells the goddamn truth unless it’s his last option.  he doesn’t tell ronan that he knows about the dreaming and he doesn’t tell ronan what specifically wants to hurt him and the lack of communication fucking destroys both of them.

in the last book, ronan realizes declan loves him.

more than that, he realizes declan’s loved him the whole time.

this is when declan finally tells the truth.  things are getting bad, plot-wise, and declan is scared, so he comes clean.  he tells ronan that niall specifically tasked declan with protecting ronan from the market.  he begs ronan to run from the danger.  “let’s pour gasoline on everything dad left and start over.”

this is also when ronan realizes that declan’s childhood was very different from ronan’s own.  and that niall and aurora lynch were not the same people to declan that they were to ronan.  and that their father’s decisions are what’s driven the wedge between him and declan all this time

(he’s still struggling with the cognitive dissonance of this in cdth. i don’t think he knows how to adjust his perception of declan to fit this new information.)

aaaaand the final scene with declan makes me cry every time i read it so instead of summarizing, here’s the important part:

Ronan delivered a sharp tap to the object, and a small cloud of fiery orbs sprayed up with a sparkling hiss.

“Jesus, Ronan!” Declan jerked his chin away.

“Please. Did you think I’d blow your face off?”

He demonstrated it again, that quick tap, that burst of brilliant orbs. He tipped it into Declan’s hand, and before Declan could say anything, jabbed it to activate it once more.

Orbs gasped up into the air. For a moment, he saw how his brother was caught inside them, watching them soar furiously around his face, each gold sun firing gold and white, and when he saw the spacious longing in Declan’s face, he realized how much Declan had missed by growing up neither dreamer nor dreamt. This had never been his home. The Lynches had never tried to make it Declan’s home.

“Declan?” Ronan asked.

Declan’s face cleared. “This is the most useful thing you’ve ever dreamt. You should name it.”

“I have. ORBMASTER. All caps.”

“Technically you’re the orbmaster though, right? And that’s just an orb.”

“Anyone who holds it becomes an ORBMASTER. You’re an ORBMASTER right now. There, keep it, put it in your pocket. D.C. ORBMASTER.”

Declan reached out and scuffed Ronan’s shaved head. “You’re such a little asshole.”

The last time they’d stood on this roof together, their parents had both been alive, and the cattle in these fields had been slowly grazing, and the world had been a smaller place. That time was gone, but for once, it was all right.

The brothers both looked back over the place that had made them, and then they climbed down from the roof together.

[off-in-the-moors]

Joseph Kavinsky analysis, part 1

aka how did I get here and why is he the reason

Warnings: spoilers for the whole Raven Cycle, mentions of: drug-use, abuse, death, murder, homophobic slurs, xenophobia

Part 1 // Part 2

After finishing The Raven Cycle and analyzing every chapter, character and the overarching plot with my friend, we were left feeling empty. It's been few months, I kept looking-up more TRC related things, other people's opinions, look through fandom content and even read some post from the author's, now deleted, tumblr account, trying to find answers to why I'm feeling like this. Why the books seem to decline for me in quality as I kept reading? Why I can't see Ronan in the same light as the rest of the fandom? Why I couldn't like the author? And the answer was looking me in the eyes the whole time.

"Depending on where you began the story, it was about Joseph Kavinsky."

I loved his character from the moment we met him in The Dream Thieves and still think about him to this day. But why? In a way, Kavinsky is too familiar to me, from his attitude, through appearance to his voice. It’s like I knew him, and this isn’t surprising. I met/saw Kavinskys on the streets, I know Kavinskys, and I was a Kavinsky once in my life. Although I'm the opposed to him, I still sympathies with him and understand how it feels to be in dark places in your life. And I'm not the only one, many people adore him and don't deny his actions to be terrible. But on the other side, the majority of fans hates him and titles him "the worst/most evil antagonist of the series". But why? What about K makes him so polarizing? The simple answer is: the way he was presented and the function he played in the plot. Even then, K's whole arc in TDT was handled horribly and damaged the way readers will view, not only people like K but also themselves. This and also future posts, I’ll be analyzing everything relied to K, including his treatment after book's release by the author and what some deleted scenes and unused ending can shine on.

This is part 1 of a series of posts to come.

This part is about the narrative and characters views of Kavinsky.

Narrative and characters

Narrative is a powerful tool of telling a story, well crafted and coupled with character's internal-voice makes the reader view the story under different light. In a PoV of one character, one thing might bring-up different emotions and ideas, than the others. Exploring relationships and events differ, because everybody experience it differently. But problem begins when the narrative forces a reader to a opinion, without backing it up with reasons or giving a opposing one. In case of Joseph Kavinsky, before we properly meet him, we are told by the characters to hate him and the narrative backs them up in reasons to hate him. All the reasons given to us at that time, boil down to "I heard a rumor."

Gansey hates him, because "There was nothing about Kavinsky that wasn’t despicable" and "he thinks life is a music video". He doesn't want Ronan to associated with him, which is connected with him covering and getting Ronan's ass for the mess he made, having him project his anger and frustration he has with Ronan on to K, who part-takes in the same activities and probably with Ronan, is understandable. But I didn't expect much from a guy who: payed the school officials so they won't kick Ronan out; insulted Adam and throw Adam’s abuse at his face, just to instant of apologizing to him, make a pity party for himself (also having Adam apologies to Gansey for his rightful outburst isn't okay), is fine with having a romantic relationship with Blue while she's still with Adam, hurting him even further but makes it all about himself, etc. Him hating K, just because of his lifestyle, made sense. But were the line was crossed, was when he started to decide on other people's worth. Lines like "we matter" (on which I'll extend later in the post) or "Ronan is fixable and has a soul [Kavinsky doesn't]", were used not only to show what Gansey himself thinks of K (he isn't a human being to him), but also demonize K and make the reader not consider him an equal to the Gangsey (a teenage).

Blue hates him, because he's yet another Raven Boy. Her hatred comes mostly from her distance for them, rich boys with privilege to which Gansey gang is an exception (although two out of four are exactly the kind she hates, and she told Noah directly she wouldn't be friends with him if he was alive) (There can be made a whole post about Blue's hypocrites regarding Raven Boys, but this isn't it). She also talks about how she doesn't feel comfortable around K and "if she couldn’t forgive Kavinsky for always managing to make her feel so insignificant", which makes sense. But while describing him, she calls him "a import from somewhere else", not only lessening him as a person but also making a xenophobic comment, noting his long nose as one of the factors (you could say, she meant him being from New Jersey, but you don't "import" stuff from inside a country, you only "import" from abroad and K is Bulgarian, doesn't matter if he's an immigrant or just has Bulgarian roots). Later, while discussing what to do with K draining the ley lines, Greyman offers to talk to him, to which Blue asks him "can you make him feel worthless while you do?”. Yes, she asked a hit-man, who killed not only Niall Lynch but also multiple people (including three on pages, which was described in the case of the ones breaking into Montmouth) for money. (Yes, fans say it's fine he murdered Niall, because he was a dick and horrible father, but what we forget is that it wasn't a fast death. It was slow and brutal, having him bludgeoned to send a message to Declan. No "he was a weapon in Greenmatle's hand" can excuse it.). Plus, he beat-up and threatened Declan with a gun if he doesn't give him the Greywaren. "Making him feel worthless" can only mean the worst. Kavinsky was a asshole, but he didn't deserved that. Also Blue gives the idea to give Kavisnky to the Greyman instant of Ronan, which was shot down, but not because it's horrible, inhuman and they can't decide on someone else's life, but because they think Greenmantle's people will come back also for Ronan. They were ok, with K being basically a scapegoat so Ronan will live.

Adam just "hates that prick" and "looked at the table with a studied disinterest" when K approached their table at Nino's, those are his only interaction in anything Kavinsky related (In a part regarding the "original" ending, we'll see it wasn't always the case.).

Noah barely exists in the series after The Raven Boys and never comes in contact with K or gives any opinion on him, outside of "ducked his head down into his shoulders, but couldn't take his eyes off the newcomer".

Ronan's relation with K could be its own post all together and there already are some good post about it, but for this one, I'll only mention few things. He gives us a very "I hate him but I'm into this lifestyle" attitude. He races against K but doesn't want to have anything to do with him or he's "dogs". (Yes, Dream Packs canon name is "Kavinsky's pack of dogs" as Ronan calls them. Ironically, Ronan gets angry then Declan and K called him "Gansey's dog" but is fine when Gansey calls him "his dog".) He never thanked or acknowledged K saved his life from the Night Horror. He accepted K's help in dreaming-up the new Pig but afterwords ditches him without even a slit gratefulness (his motivation being remembering Gansey's words), and mocks that K thought there could be anything between them (friendship or relationship, it dependents how you interpret it), turning this into just using K to get what he wanted. And yes, what K did while Ronan slept (tracing Ronan's back tattoo with his finger) was unacceptable, if it really happened and wasn't just phantom-touch while falling asleep (if it was real, it can be interpreted as K acting out of his internalized homophobia, letting himself a moment of “curiosity”, but it still wouldn't make it fine).

Ronan and K insult one-another multiple times through-out the story but the difference is quite showing. K's insults are mostly homophobic, calling Ronan a "fag" or implying Ronan and Gansey are together. This is a typical teenage insults, but are also showing of K's internalized homophobia if viewed through "Don’t say Dick Gansey, man. Do not say it. He is never going to be with you. And don’t me tell you don’t swing that way, man. I’m in your head." and "It's a bomb. Just like you." scenes.

But Ronan, excepting the typical insults like "ball-sack", goes after who K is. "Bulgarian mobster Jersey trash piece of shit" or "Russian" (to the latter, K responded "Hey now, let's not make this ugly") are personal, referring not only to from where K's from, implying he's a mobster like his father and just calling him "a waste". Unfortunately, K's whole character is already one big stereotype of Slavs as viewed not only by Americans. But insulting someone for being "Bulgarian", something they had no control over, is xenophobic. (And for "Russian", as a Slav myself, let me tell you. Calling a non-Russian Slav "Russian" is a quick way to get on their bad side.) And if you're like "Ronan isn't xenophobic, because he's Irish" or "Maggie isn't xenophobic, because Ronan...", you have no idea how things work in Europe. This is the same argument as "He can't be racist, because he's black". TRC fandom is always ready to bring-up all K's sins and even enlarge them, but when in comes to Ronan, all his sins are either forgotten or excused.

One more thing I want to touch on is one of K's parties. After Monmouth got broken into by people looking for Greywaren (which Greyman broke into first), Gansey thinks it must be Kavinsky's doing, because of the fake ID left in front of the door. Him and Ronan go to K's party, he tells them, it's a substance party and asks where are theirs. As an answer, Ronan hits him in the face and throws through a car, just to show him his blooded knuckles with "This is your substance.". The rest is Gansey and Ronan not believing K, that he didn't trash their place, and a "different Gansey" throwing a Molotov cocktail at K's car. After that, they leave. But one thing isn't sitting right with me. The "This is your substance" is a beloved, may I say iconic, scene that is glorified by fans and cited as this "Ronan is so cool and K soo deserved it" thing.

Here's the thing. K is in full right. It's his party, on his rules. Gansey and Ronan just came from nowhere, probably for the first time, so the rule is stated for them. And Ronan's response? Physically assault K. Even if he's angry about the apartment, still he shouldn't just assault him. And Gansey does nothing. And one more thing: K never hits Ronan back. Not in next chapters, not at the end. Never.

Before the chapter ends, we get probably my most hated line from this book:

"Closing his eyes, Gansey leaned his head back on his seat, chin tilted up, throat green in the dash lights. There was still an unsafe sort of smile about his mouth — what a torment the possibility in that smile was — and he said, “There was never a time when that could’ve been you and me. You know the difference between us and Kavinsky? We matter."

We matter. And he doesn't. I could talk about this line and how damaging it is to people who see themselves in Kavinsky, but instant I'll say, why I hate it.

I have anxiety mixed with being introverted and back-in-the-day I felt isolated from my classmates, desperate for friends but only had toxic ones who dropped me so the popular girls would talk with them, just to be friends with me again after some time, bullied to the point of breaking multiple times, and hating myself for not fitting in, unable to connected with my peers in anyway. The line "we matter" echos my worst fear and thoughts from that time. "Everyone matter, you don't". I was too young to even have those thoughts, but they were always there. In the back of my head, like a recurring nightmare.

Just the idea, someone can say with confidence that someone, anyone, doesn't matter, makes me sick. No one has the inside to what's going on in someones life, to what thought are plaguing their head. Everyone's life matter and to say something like this in a book targeted to 12-18 year olds, who are at there most vulnerable stage, is not only irresponsible but enraging. Gansey is saying this about a guy his age, who is drug-addicted and self-destructive, because he doesn't like him and wants Ronan to stay away from. No one calls him out on it. Not Ronan, not the narrative. Nothing.

Until the kidnapping of Matthew and the paradox/question "did the tattoo tracing scene happened?", Kavinsky did nothing to earn hatred from the reader. He was living his life, being a stupid, reckless teenage boy with a power to get everything he wanted. Ask yourself a question: "If you had the power to pulled anything* from your dreams, wouldn't you go crazy with it? Maybe in a very selfish way?"

*  Throughout TRC and CDtH, we see no limit to what a dreamer can pull-out. From a pen or working car, living creatures (animals, copies of real people or purely made-up) to abstract things, like a word with power to animate the dead or an apocalypses.

Yes, K's dreaming drained the ley lines, causing Cabeswater to disappear. But did K knew about it? He knew that he needed to wait for it to recharge before dreaming more things and he did just that. The over-draining was cause by preparations for this Fourth of July party (dreaming many copies of his Mitsubishi) but same did Ronan’s dreaming (but Cabeswater acts as weird gatekeeper, so Ronan seems to be forgiven). But did he knew about Cabeswater? Or furthermore, Glendower? We can't confirm or deny it, but considering K isn't from Henrietta and probably is there only for school, he's there for about 2 years. Would he be interested in some random forest or some Welsh King, which just idea of him being in America is so far fetched to believe in?

No. All he was interested it, was parting and wasting himself away.

We don't get any other or opposing opinions on Kavinsky, only the ones given by Gangsey. They are the outsiders looking in, not having any inside, just rumors and their shallow observations/interactions. But we don't even get any "inside", not from other Raven Boys or even the Dream Pack (who are barely characters). After K's death, the only thing we get is Gangsey's not caring or being glad K's gone. Aglionby is silent and Henrietta, doesn't even acknowledge Fourth of July's Party even happened (but to be honest, the town feels like a theater stage than a living place). The only mentions about K that gives some idea someone noticed anything, was his name alongside Whelk’s and Dittley's in the newspaper at the end of BLLB (but this plot point is never mentioned again).

[charles-alexander-potter]

♛ OUT OF CHARACTER ♛

✘ NAME/ALIAS, AGE, & PRONOUNS

Nutteh is what I go by. There’s a somewhat lame, convoluted story behind it, but I’ve been using it for years - why stop now?

I’m 23 years old.

She/her pronouns.

✘ TIMEZONE & ACTIVITY

CST, and given that I’ve got a full-time job and several needy critters I’d say my activity would be somewhere around a 7 or 8 on average (with 10 being the highest activity level). Obviously it’ll fluctuate a bit, but I have no doubt I’ll be able to swing at least an hour or two a day for replies and such.  

♛ IN CHARACTER ♛

✘ DESIRED ROLE:

Charles Alexander Potter -- A grand name - fierce, strong, promising, and everything Charles’ parents were sure their baby boy would grow to be. How could he not? His bloodlines were full of grit and grandeur; they didn’t know that his name would be just about the only imposing thing about him.

✘ CHARACTER APPEAL: His surname drew me in before anything else, honestly. As readers we know so little about the Potter family beyond James, and it didn’t occur to me that a Potter almost definitely attended Hogwarts alongside Tom Riddle himself. So that was a major draw. I also liked how unexpected Charles’ personality turned out to be; I’m more of a James-esque type of person - extroverted, irritating, etc. - so to see a Potter portrayed as bookish and brooding caught my attention, caught me off-guard. It’s atypical of me to cast a glance at male characters like Charles, if I’m being honest; I’ve played Hermione pretty extensively over the course of my roleplaying “career,” but any male characters I play tend to be more extroverted in nature. So, I think the novelty of a male bookworm combined with my knowledge of how to write left-brained characters would be an exciting sort of challenge.  I see a bit of Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin in him as well, a combination that really intrigues me. Charles might even end up being some kind of example as to what Peter could have been, which is a role that I’m both curious about and anxious to take on. I’m already getting out of my comfort zone exploring the Riddle Era - might as well go all-in, right? Who wants to play a character who doesn’t scare them just a tiny bit?

✘ WHO ARE THEY? Charles Potter is a scholar. He is a thinker. His brain is his best asset, and he is the first to admit that it gets much more exercise than any other part of his body. Quiet and bookish, he seems like a textbook wallflower, but wallflowers don’t typically keep company with people like Declan Prewett and Leo Yaxley. What, then, drew them to him? It’s a question not even he has an answer to, but unlike nearly every other question he’s faced with, he doesn’t mind not knowing. Perhaps, he hopes, it was because they saw something in him - some kind of hidden potential. Charles has plenty of potential - he’s a brilliant student with an old family name - but potential of the unscholarly kind? The potential to be brave, to be daring, to make a real, tangible difference? That’s something he remains uncertain of. 

✘ ANALYSIS:

birthdate — October 17th, 1927 – Charles was born in autumn, coming into the world so quietly that his mother feared the worst. It wasn’t until he was given a good hard slap that he finally cried out, but even then he was reserved. Like the scales of his Libra sign, Charles’ demeanor is balanced and nearly always has been, but that is just about as much stock as he’s comfortable putting into astrology; it’s an interesting subject, to be sure, but he remains guarded. It’s also worth noting that his birthday puts him in a bit of an awkward spot when it comes to his year at Hogwarts. With an October birthday, Charles is automatically at a  different age than most of his peers. They catch up eventually when their own birthdays roll around, but this slight age staggering is a contributing factor in Charles’ overall maturity level; it’s probably another reason why he tends to have more friends in seventh year than sixth. 

 gender identity & pronouns — Cismale, he/him pronouns.

sexuality & romantic preference — Charles is heterosexual, though it isn’t uncommon for others to be doubtful of that. Considering how painfully shy and awkward he is, he doesn’t appear to be interested at all in either sex, but the truth is that he is attracted to women - just quietly so. He was a late bloomer, certainly, but a bloomer nonetheless.

wand — Beech wood, eleven inches, with a phoenix feather core – As a young boy, Charles was the perfect candidate (and eventual match) for a beech wood wand. They’re suited to wise and inquisitive owners, and the more Charles’ skills improved, the more subtly and precisely his beech wand began to perform. Similarly, a phoenix feather core meant that Charles’ wand sat on the shelf for quite some time before finding him. A finicky core and a finicky wood reflected the fine-tuned precision with which Charles approached nearly everything in his life, and now, at the top of his class and with undeniably impressive skills, it’s clear that no other wand would have sufficed.   

boggart — Charles’ boggart morphs into the Aviators - Declan, Leo, and Bellavie - all of whom turn away from him and pretend he doesn’t exist. Above all else, Charles fears being alone. Now that he’s had a taste of true friendship, he doesn’t think he could handle the life of a loner again. 

amortentia —  The musty odor of old books on mahogany shelves, the grass after a rainstorm, baking bread, leather, black tea.

patronus — By age fifteen, Charles was producing a corporeal patronus. His professors didn’t seem surprised to find that he could do it, but they also couldn’t pretend not to be impressed when a sharply defined raven erupted from the end of his wand. A highly intelligent and inquisitive bird, but one that isn’t difficult to overlook, the form of Charles’ patronus makes perfect sense. 

✘ CONNECTIONS:

Declan Prewett – Charles was familiar with the Prewett family well before attending Hogwarts. Pureblood inner circle soirees often brought the two together, but Charles never did more than watch the Prewett boy tussle with the others. The Prewetts were rather like the Potters in their beliefs, though Charles’ family was less outspoken. The boldness with which Declan and his kin expressed themselves enticed Charles, and he found himself smirking behind his books at Declan’s cutting remarks to Abraxas Malfoy and the like during whatever gathering they were forced to attend. Before Hogwarts, he might have spoken to Declan once or twice, but for years he was content to watch, studying the way the golden boy carried himself and the way his smile seemed to draw praise from everyone it touched. As far as Charles was concerned, Declan was the epitome of all things Gryffindor, so when the two eventually crossed paths it was like being initiated into a club he was supposed to have joined ages ago. For Charles, Declan represents inclusion. As intangible as the Gryffindor can seem, he is a warm and welcoming person, and Charles is endlessly thankful for that; after all, were it not for Declan’s ability to see his potential, there’s a good chance he never would have realized it at all.   

 Leo Yaxley – Charles, very attracted to people who say what they mean and what they believe, was just as familiar with Leo’s parents as he was with Declan’s. Simon Yaxley was a hero - Renfred and Lenora quietly commended his work, but Charles would be lying if he said he didn’t revere him. By extension, then, Leo seemed just as untouchable as his father. Charles’ eyes were filled with stars when it came to the Yaxleys, but 1939 stood to show that having a family name within the Sacred Twenty-Eight didn’t protect you from the consequences of your actions - especially not when those actions slighted other pure-blooded families. Simon Yaxley’s death sent a shudder through the wizarding community, but no one was affected quite like Leo. Seeing as he was at Hogwarts at the time of his parents’ deaths and Charles was not, Charles didn’t see firsthand how much he struggled. By the time September came around again and Charles finally boarded the train to Hogwarts, it was almost impossible to tell that Leo had been through Hell and back. He was resilient and fierce, flanked by Declan and fearless in the face of opposition. Circumstances had changed for him, and yet here he was, still just as steadfast in his beliefs as his father before him. Charles was incredibly impressed, and he remains so to this day. He knows now, of course, just how hard the last seven-odd years have been for his friend; ever perceptive, he’s learned how to read between the lines when it comes to Leo Yaxley. He sees the pain behind the valiant facade, and he can’t help but notice the way Leo’s eyes change when Declan - his left and right arm - is around.  

Bellavie Chambers – The warmth emanating from Bellavie always reminded Charles of his mother. She was a bright, golden light in a rough-and-tumble Gryffindor world, but…she was also a Gryffindor, and such a fact could not be forgotten. Charles learned very quickly not to write her off as a hatstall; after all, a girl who ran with wolves like Declan Prewett and Leo Yaxley was bound to have some wild blood in her. Still, Bellavie’s kindness drew Charles in from the beginning. He always felt safe around her, and he was considerably less intimidated by her at the outset than he’d been by Declan and Leo. Perhaps her muggle heritage had something to do with that? Curiosity always made him less timid, and muggles were an unfailing source of wonder. He probably ran her ragged with questions about her family, her community, and when he learned that her father and brothers had fought - and were fighting - in the muggle war, he did it all over again. Her heritage might have had a hand in drawing him to her, but her spirit kept him close. He is continuously inspired by her kindness in the face of prejudice and hatred, things that she endures firsthand and at a steadily increasing rate. Charles is not a very fun person to pick on - he isn’t reactive - but mention Bellavie and he can’t help but take the bait. The first time he heard someone call her a “mudblood,” he ended up in the hospital wing with broken glasses and a black eye. His response came as a shock even to himself; he always kept a level head, always thought through his actions carefully, methodically. He wasn’t a “hit first, ask questions later” type of person - but, it seemed as though the lion inside him was not caught in a perpetual slumber. 

Irma Weasley – She absolutely fascinates him. He doesn’t want to treat her like a specimen in a museum - she wouldn’t let him anyway - but his curiosity often gets the better of him. He finds himself staring at her sometimes, brow knitted, but it isn’t because he’s disgusted - quite the contrary. For years now he’s wanted to ask her about…well, about herself. About everything. The Oinker lies open on his four-poster more often than not, but he finds the content less interesting than the way Irma writes. It captivates him. She speaks with a wisdom that he can only hope to have, and the questions he has for her dance on the tip of his tongue until he’s sure they’ll explode from him. But, something holds him back. What if Irma thinks him rude? What if she finds his questions intruding, scrutinizing? It isn’t just her experiences he’s interested in, though, and after six years of little more than pleasantries exchanged between them, he’s still trying to find the best way to convey this. 

 ♛ WRITING SAMPLES ♛

✘ PARA SAMPLE(S):

Charles squinted down at his parchment, struggling to read his own handwriting in the waning light. The library had nearly emptied; dinner would be served in the Great Hall soon, what with twilight fast approaching outside the castle walls. Aside from the scratching of his quill, the stacks around him were silent. Students were bustling outside in the corridor, no doubt reconvening after a long day of classes. Charles stayed where he was, planted into a chair by the window with the last, feeble rays of sunlight filtering through his dark curls. He shifted, leaning ever closer to his parchment. He really should have known better - he already wore glasses, and it would only take a second to turn up the oil lamp beside him - but, that would mean separating quill from paper, something he wasn’t quite ready for yet. The wheels and cogs in his head were practically visible, turning ever faster in sync with the feverish pace of his writing. His brow knitted, and he used his right index finger to push his spectacles back up the bridge of his nose. With a final flourish - a final, confident jerk of his quill across the parchment - he paused, straightening. Brown eyes darted over his scrawl, and almost as an afterthought he reached over and turned up the flame in his lamp.

 ‘A Potions prep never looked so good,’ he mused, somewhat facetiously. He’d be the first to admit that his handwriting wasn’t easy to read, but he didn’t think someone would need to take two terms of Ancient Runes to decipher it either (as Declan was so fond of putting it). Maybe if he wrote better, he thought, he’d have the pleasure of being accepted into the Slug Club. He almost snickered to himself - almost. Slughorn’s pack of elites wasn’t something Charles was itching to join, especially considering some of the people his Potions professor considered “elite.” Leo and Declan were included in the circle, of course, so Charles couldn’t discount the club entirely; however, the amount of old pureblood surnames that cropped up on Slughorn’s guest list made him quite glad he wasn’t invited. He supposed he was just a bit too boring and predictable for Slughorn’s taste, which sat just fine with him. As much as he liked Leo’s and Declan’s company, he was still very much an introvert at heart. It was nice to have an evening to himself from time to time, to spend a bit of time talking with Bellavie about things less intense than the mounting blood war and Riddle’s Knights. 

Coming suddenly to his senses, Charles glanced down at his wristwatch. He squinted again. If he left now, he’d make it to the entrance hall just in time to catch Bellavie on her way back to Gryffindor Tower. He hadn’t made any concrete plans with her, but she was always accommodating, so he rose from his seat and stretched, his joints exploding into a symphony of cracks and groans. He heard Leo’s voice in his head: “And here’s Charles, our grandfather…or great-grandfather, it’s always hard to be sure…” His lips curled into a smirk, and he dragged a hand through his hair. The Forbidden Forest had turned into a hulking shadow in the hazy purple light of dusk, and Charles considered it for a moment from the window, still clutching his quill; the side of his left hand was dark with ink smear, but it was such a common occurrence that it might as well have been a birth mark. ‘The hazards of writing with your left hand,’ he thought, giving the smear a half-hearted rub before reaching for his things. 

By the time his parchment, ink, and books were tucked safely into his bag, the lights in the library had dimmed even further. He seized the handle of his lamp and emerged from his nook, moving with long, deliberate strides toward the exit. He’d been right in assuming that he was alone - not a soul remained among the bookshelves, the librarian included - so he set the lamp carefully atop the front desk and turned to leave. Just then, though, something caught his eye. The notice board beside the library’s double doors had a new addition. 

“N.E.W.T PREPARATION COURSE” it read, its letters so absurdly large that Charles couldn’t have ignored it if he tried. But, Merlin, he wished he had. Dark eyebrows twitched toward one another, and his jaw set; his grip tightened on the handle of his bag, but despite the desperate itch in his legs, he couldn’t seem to move. He was frozen, standing alone in the library with a wave of emotion crashing over him. Anxiety bubbled about like a hot potion in the pit of his stomach, and he swallowed hard. Brown eyes traveled over the next line: “Seventh Years Only.” 

Ever since befriending Declan and Leo, Charles had dreaded this. Even at the ripe young age of thirteen, he was not naive; there would come a time when the two of them would be finished at Hogwarts, and as much as he wished he was older, he would have to be left behind. He fancied himself one of them, thought of himself as an honorary seventh year…But nothing he did would change the fact that they’d be well on their way to becoming Aurors before he even left Hogwarts. Charles handled this truth the way he handled all other unpleasant emotions - he buried it. He shoved it back into the dark recesses of his subconscious, fighting it valiantly every time it threatened to emerge. Lately, however, it was getting harder and harder to conquer. 

The library doors swung open, snapping Charles none too gently out of his reverie. He flinched, and he found himself staring into the face of a bewildered-looking third year. “Sorry,” she muttered, but he shook his head, stepping aside and sweeping a hand toward the stacks. “No, um…my apologies. After you.” The girl disappeared just as quickly as she’d come, it seemed, and Charles was alone again. He raised an index finger to push his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and with a brief, heavy sigh he pushed through the doors, his thoughts as focused on the present as he could get them.

✘ HEADCANONS:

–> Charles is the only son of Renfred and Lenora Potter, but it’s a title he doesn’t necessarily carry with pride. He remembers, as a young boy, long nights lying in his bed, listening to his parents in the next room. The headboard slammed repeatedly - desperately - against the wall for hours, and more often than not the next several weeks would find his mother withdrawn and his father irritable. Ever curious, it wasn’t long before Charles asked his mother what was happening. Her face remains burned into his memory; the way it fell, the way lines appeared on its surface and added far too many years to an otherwise youthful visage. With pale, trembling hands she cupped Charles’ cheeks and fixed her gaze onto his. “Charles,” she breathed, one corner of her mouth twitching, “my love.” She smoothed a bit of hair away from his forehead. “We’re trying to give you a brother.” Later, Charles would cock his head at his mother’s specificity - surely a sister would have been just as welcome? It would have, of course, but a family within the ranks of the “Sacred Twenty-Eight” needed all the heirs it could get, and Lenora and Renfred were no fools. There was more to it than that, though; anyone with eyes could see that Lenora Potter was bursting with love, and all she wanted was to give more of it.

There was a time, fleeting but poignant, when a flicker of hope ignited in his parents’ eyes. It was like the first days of summer had come to the Potter household, and to it alone. But, it vanished before long, and Lenora locked herself in the master bedroom for what seemed like an entire year of Charles’ life.

Charles didn’t mind being the only child, but the longing and determination his parents showed for the birth of another made him uncomfortable. Perhaps he was not enough for them? Maybe this was his fault? Guilt gnawed at him from the inside out, and at a painfully young age at that. Every passing glance at his mother threatened to incite a wince, but the unconditional love with which she showered him eased those thoughts until they were comfortably numb. That’s where Charles stands now, nearly of age and ready to strike out on his own. He loves his family just as much as any son would, but deep down in the dark recesses for his mind there is a small, nagging voice. 

“You’re all they’ve got,” it says. “And you’re not enough.”    

–> Lenora Potter’s love for her son was so great and so palpable that it could almost be cut with a knife. Renfred, however, was more reserved in his affections. He wasn’t unkind and he never acted cold or distant, but Charles always felt the weight of scrutiny upon him whenever the two were together. Parents expect things of their children - great things - and Renfred was not alone in that. A wonderful flyer in school (and in general), Charles’ father was adamant about mounting his son onto a broom as early as possible. At the ripe young age of five, Charles marched out onto the lawn with his father, carrying an old spare broom and dragging its bristles over the grass. He trembled, but Renfred’s determination was infectious; Charles swung a short, scrawny leg over the handle, but his anxiety coupled with entirely not enough confident control over his own body turned the whole thing into a disaster. He took off like a bullet from a gun, and even though he was, by some miracle, able to stay on the broom, he collided with the corner of the storage shed and  was knocked out cold. 

The next thing Charles can remember is the family hounds licking his face. He woke to find himself in the sitting room, Lenora and Renfred bent over him with faces so white they could’ve been ghosts. He had broken his right arm and sustained a pretty serious injury to his head; he wore a bandage wrapped around it for weeks, and once it was removed only a nasty scar (hidden by the hair above his right ear) remained. His arm healed entirely; one of the perks of being young and pliable. In the late stages of learning how to write at the time of the accident, however, Charles found that he could no longer use a quill with his right hand as he’d grown accustomed. He could have waited for his arm to heal, taking up writing again once he could properly handle a quill; but, ever persistent and fascinated with the written word, he learned how to write with his left hand. When it came time for him to learn wand work, it was the left that held the wand. He wasn’t crippled or broken - not by any means - but Renfred never seemed to forgive himself. He was very clearly disappointed that his son would never be a great flyer like the Potters before him, but he refused to hold that against Charles. He would live up to his name in other ways, he believed, but there was a certain amount of guilt added to the scrutiny Charles felt under his father’s dark-eyed gaze that made him squirm.

 –> Charles was always convinced he’d be sorted into Ravenclaw. His mother, also a Ravenclaw during her time at Hogwarts, had instilled in him a passion for wit and learning at an early age, so it came as quite the surprise when the Sorting Hat declared him a Gryffindor. Unlike some of the other pure-blooded families and their children, the Potters never set out to turn their son against any house in particular; but, Renfred was a very proud Slytherin in his day, and it was safe to say that Charles hadn’t really proven himself to be chivalrous or daring or any of the others things a Gryffindor was supposed to be - at least not yet. Still, his parents didn’t hold his odd placement against him. He wasn’t made to feel like a black sheep, but that didn’t mean he never did. His first year at Hogwarts was rather lonely; he excelled in all of his classes, of course, but he found making friends difficult. He hung back from the rabid Gryffindor Quidditch fan-base, and he often sought solace in the library rather than the noisy common room. The thing about Charles, though, was that he was used to being on his own. His childhood had been spent largely in his parents’ small library, and he’d never had many playmates his own age. Loneliness was commonplace. As far as he was concerned, that was how things were supposed to be. However, everything changed during his second year when the Aviators adopted him as one of their own. They were older and exactly the sort of people Charles never envisioned himself keeping company with, but even when he felt like pinching himself he knew he could never look back; from that point on, he felt included - he felt like he belonged - and he realized that lions are nothing without their prides. 

–> The Potters were not a pure-blooded family reminiscent of the Malfoys or the Blacks. They were proud, yes, and they cherished the bloodlines that had come before them, but the high-headed, “holier-than-thou” attitude of many Sacred Twenty-Eight families did not extend to them. Charles was never raised to think of muggles or muggleborns as “less than.” When the pureblood soirees brought him within earshot of school-age Lestranges and their ilk, he listened to them scoff at their muggleborn classmates, calling them “mudbloods” and turning up their noses at the very idea of them. This never failed to make Charles uncomfortable, and it was something that, whenever he brought it to his parents’ attention, was met with somber headshakes and quiet assurances. “Don’t use that word, Charles,” they’d say, “and don’t ever assume you’re better than someone because of where you come from.” What he always found confusing, though, was that Renfred and Lenora uttered this in hushed voices. Conversations of that nature only happened behind the doors of their modest countryside home, far away from any pureblood ears. He never doubted that his parents were good people, but, if what they were telling him was what they truly believed, then why wouldn’t they tell anyone else? The Prewetts, the Yaxleys, the Weasleys…they were all vehemently outspoken pure-blooded families. Why couldn’t the Potters be the same?

Cue Mr. and Mrs. Simon Yaxley’s murder, 1939. Fragile connections within the pure-blooded community began to falter, and Charles was suddenly jolted into a place of clarity. So that was why his parents played it safe. Unlike many boys his age, however, he kept himself from adhering blindly to their example. For weeks - months, even - eleven-year-old Charles lay awake in the dark, night after night, staring up into the blackness and tossing thoughts back and forth in his head. As somewhat of a scholar, it had always behooved him to remain neutral, to consider both sides of an argument without bias. He hovered in what he would later describe as a “moral gray area” for far too much time, and it wasn’t until he connected and fell in with the Aviators that he truly “chose a side” in the wizarding blood war - the one he’d barely known about beforehand because he didn’t have to. Now, the Resistance is as much a part of him as it is of Declan, Leo, and Bellavie. Any kind of prejudice disgusts him, and the injustice of it all weighs so heavily upon him that he finds it difficult to sleep at night. Unlike a lot of his peers, he is fascinated by the muggle news. He finds out what he can about their conflicts, their wars, and their current situation is dangerously similar to the one brewing in the corners of the wizarding world. The parallels baffle him, but not quite as much as  his fellow wizards’ efforts to ignore them.

–> The bookshelves of Charles’ childhood bedroom are stuffed with journals. Notepads upon notepads lay jammed between muggle histories and wizarding literature alike, filled from cover to cover with the ramblings of a lonely, inquisitive boy. A quiet child, the cacophony of thoughts in his head couldn’t always be easily expressed; he never had many friends, and the ones he did have didn’t share his interests. He needed an outlet, and that’s where his notebooks came in. He’d scribble away after a day of broadening his mind in the library, or after wandering in the orchard near his home. It was a daily ritual, and it was one he found essential to keep his thoughts in order. Even now, well into his schooling, he keeps a stack of journals in the trunk at the foot of his four-poster. His reflections and musings fill page after page, and he truly believes that cataloging things in such a way keeps him sane.