Your Nickname: Gemini
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Are you over thirteen? Yes
How did you find us and decide to write with us? RPG Directory
If you have written other characters here: Yes
If Yes, list them all: Alvis Norling, Eha Farro, Darius Gabor, Taryn Dickenson (tournament), Ted Lupin, Dione Sayer, and Nagendra (secondary)
Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Primary


Full Character Name: Felinus Woodward
Character Birthday & Age: August 17th, 1973 | 36 years old
City & Country of Birth: London, England (St. Mungo's to be precise)
Blood Purity: Halfblood
Alma Mater: Hogwarts, Gryffindor, Class of 1990
Job/Position: Caretaker of Hogwarts Castle

Wand: Beech wood and dragon heartstring, 12 inches, and stiff. Its handle is plain and functional, similar to the handle of a knife, and provides an easy grip. All in all the wand is straight-forward, functional, and focused in its spell-casting.

Unfortunately, due to his current condition, Felinus is no longer able to use his wand. It is in safe keeping in his private Gringotts vault in case the day should come when he is able to resume his full human form. That’s not likely but it’s nice to dream.


Physical Description

In the human body he was born and grew into, Felinus was a tall, broad-shouldered man of African decent. He had very dark skin, eyes, and hair, though the later was rarely seen as he began shaving it at age twelve. His expressions often straddled the line between friendliness and intensity, and those who remember him from his time at Hogwarts say that he could be both comforting and imposing depending on the mood.

However, due to a failed Transfiguration/animagi experiment (detailed in History, below) Felinus is now trapped in the body of a Southeast African lion. He now stands 4 feet (1.22 meters) tall at the shoulder, 7.8 feet (2.38 meters) from nose to tail, and weighs 400 pounds -- the average for an adult male of that species.

As recorded by the Ministry of Magic, Felinus's lion body is a sandy tan color, while his mane and tail-tuffs are dark to the point of blackness. This same color covers a light layer of fur along spine.

Obviously, in this form, Felinus is no longer able to perform magic, not even wandless magic. He is, however, able to talk, mostly because that's what got him into this situation in the first place. When calm, he sounds much as he did when he was still human: warm, somewhat deep, and complete with London accent and his preference for precise language.

Understandably, this can be somewhat disorienting coming from the maul of a lion. Still, those hearing it should be thankful: when Felinus gets angry, the animal takes over, and then the entire castle will hear him roar.


Personality Description

Trapped as he is in the mostly-animagical form of a lion, Felinus's human personality has become inexorably blended with the instincts of the great cat. This results in the odd blend of an educated gentleman, a wild jungle king, and the world's largest domesticated house cat.

Felinus, at his core, is arrogant. Overconfident. Full of himself. However you want to put it, he has always been that way. It's what got him into this feline situation in the first place. Though his pride has taken a beating in the last few years, it's still going strong, bolstered by the power and confidence of the lion. Despite his failures, Felinus still carries himself with confidence and poise, calling attention to the human behind the body of the beast. He commands respect but knows when to defer to others of higher station, particularly his Headmistress, to whom he is endlessly loyal.

If you can stay on his good side, Felinus can be almost sweet, despite his animalistic tendencies. He tends to brush up against people he likes and purr when satisfied, not unlike the smaller cats who roam the Hogwarts halls. He tends to call male students 'cubs' and female ones 'kittens,' with the exception of werewolf students, whom he can recognize by scent and calls 'pups'. Though he regularly stalks the halls, he prefers to eat prepared meat. And, once he's convinced them that he's not dangerous, he gets along famously with house elves.

However, if you get on his bad side, the animal comes unhinged. The fastest way to see this is to break the rules -- he's always been a stickler for rules. Students sneaking around after curfew are met by furious roars and 400 pounds of angry feline chasing them through the halls. Intruders to the castle, whether they be meddling ministry officials or unknown magical beasts, beware his wrath. He's also not above scruffing minor annoyances and dragging them to their Head of House for a good scolding.

Occasionally, on quiet nights alone in the halls, Felinus worries about losing his humanity. But these moments are fleeting and brief. For the most part, though he continues to work on finding a solution to his problem, he's content with his lot in life. Things could be worse, so he deals with each day as it comes.

Besides, scaring trouble-making first-years is kind of fun.



History

From the time he was born, Felinus always knew that he would attend Hogwarts. His parents, both Muggleborn wizards, had met in the castle and fell in love their final year of school. Though they'd long since moved to London, they often spoke fondly of their alma mater.

When he turned eleven, Felinus received his letter and headed off to the school, which did not disappoint. Sorted into Gryffindor (though the hat did waver between it and Ravenclaw for a full three minutes), Felinus spent the next seven years chasing one goal after another and succeeding in...well, about 80% of his attempts. He just doesn't talk about the failures.

In particular, he proved especially good at Transfiguration, and was hailed by the community as a worthy rival to Minerva McGonagall herself. This gave him more than a bit of a big head. He hoped to overcome her by becoming an Animagus a year early than she had, but couldn't master the technique until almost a year after he left the school. Needless to say, it stung his ego.

After leaving school, Felinus worked for the ministry a few years, though he continued his explorations of Transfiguration at night, trying to push the boundaries further than they'd ever gone. When the Second Wizarding War sprung up he tried to hide his parents away in the country, but they were betrayed by someone they'd thought to be a friend. His father was killed in the initial arrest and, while his mother survived to make it to the Ministry, the shock of having her wand and her husband taken in the same day broke her spirit. She never fully recovered and died in Saint Mungo's a few years after the end of the war.

Being the child of two wizards, even muggleborn wizards, Felinus had no reason to hide, but he left the ministry after his parents' arrest. He spent the rest of the war helping muggleborns in the countryside whenever he could and, when the call went out to help at the Battle of Hogwarts, he raced to defend the only home he had left.

Once the war was over, Felinus returned to normal life, but rather than trying to get his job back at the ministry he decided to take some years off to work on his true passion, Transfiguration. It was around this time that he got it into his head to develop a method that would allow an animagi to speak with their human voice while in their animal form. He wasn't the first wizard in history to attempt this, but none of the previous tries were anything but horror stories of being stuck halfway between human and animal, unable to turn back. Older, wiser Transfiguration experts warned against it, but Felinus was as arrogant as ever. He believed he would be the one to finally perfect the technique.

It took him three years and, yes, he did eventually learn to speak while in his full lion form. But that would be his undoing. Felinus found himself trapped in his animal form, able to speak but unable to change back or use magic. Even when he tried handling his wand it was no use. He spent over a month trying to get himself back to normal before finally realizing that it was beyond him. He swallowed his pride and reported to Saint Mungo's for treatment.

Though the Healers worked at it for almost six years, they could not change him back. The lion form resisted all attempts to dispel its enchantments and, the few times they managed to begin a transformation, it proved too painful and difficult to go all the way. Felinus decided early on that he'd rather be stuck a talking lion for the rest of his life than trapped half-lion half-man, and so resisted the transformations when it'd seemed he'd get caught half-way through.

Finally, the Healers gave up and suggested that he find a home at some muggle zoo where they'd take care of him. Felinus balked at the idea and began searching for a different job with the help of a house elf and a large amount of owl post. That was how he discovered that the position of caretaker had opened up at Hogwarts. Remembering Argus Flich of his childhood -- who, like Felinus himself now, didn't quite fit anywhere else in the wizarding world -- Felinus applied for the position, hoping the newly-appointed Headmistress would be sympathetic to his plight.

It's a little unconventional to have a talking lion as a caretaker. But then again, when has Hogwarts ever been conventional?

---

Describe your job duties and how you go about them: As caretaker of Hogwarts castle, Felinus is in charge of enforcing school rules, looking out for the welfare of the students, and maintaining the school facilities. Living the castle, he spends his days and nights patrolling the halls for both trouble-makers and the various kinks that pop up in the school's infrastructure, like broken pipes, troublesome ghosts, and various pest infestations.

Wait, how does that even work?

Felinus is a lion. Are you going to argue with the lion?

All joking aside, Felinus is fiercely protetive of Hogwarts on every level. Its rules, its staff, its students, its grounds, he loves them all. He's got a strange way of showing it, but the passion is there.

As a human he was a skilled wizard and a stickler for the rules even as a child. While attending Hogwarts, he served as prefect and as Head Boy. He has an eye for detail, knows the castle very well, and can easily spot when something's out of place.

In his current state, he is very good at the 'scare 'em straight' method of dicipline. He never hurts anybody, but when you've got a 400 pound lion pinning you to the ground and roaring loud enough to be heard on the next floor, you'll think twice about breaking the rules again.

For the day-to-day tasks of upkeep in the castle, he has ingenuity on his side. For each new problem he devises a new tool, simply designed so that the house elves can put it together, making up for his lack of opposable thumbs. It's not uncommon to see him pushing a large broom through the halls with his front paws or dragging bags of rubbish out for disposal with his teeth. He also manages to get around just fine with an extensive knowledge of the school's secret tunnels, although he does have some trouble with keys.

Finally, once he convinces them that he's not dangerous, Felinus gets on famously with the house elves. With their help, he'll put together a number of tools he can use even as a lion to help with cleaning and his other duties. And as a bonus, he experiences as a human provide a decent well-spring of knowledge, particularly in the fields of Transfiguration, History, Care of Magical Creatures. He's happy to help teachers out as a supplemental instructor, substitute,  or demonstration partner if need be.

Writing Sample: N/A

Sum up your character in one paragraph: Once an arrogant wizard who thought he could surpass the rules of the animgi, Felinus now serves as Hogwarts Caretaker in the form a lion. He's fiercely devoted to his duties and cares deeply for the castle and all its inhabitants. Beneath his fierce exterior he's still the educated gentleman he always was, but beneath that is wild instinct and anger. Stay on his good side and he's a loveable kitty. Get on his bad side and he'll scare you straight in a heartbeat.