Your Nickname: Angel
Have you read and do you agree to the Code of Conduct?: Yes
Are you over thirteen? Yes
How did you find us and decide to write with us? Web Search
If you have written other characters here: Yes
If Yes, list them all: Trystan McElroy
Imari Nichols
Nikari Avendale
Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Primary
Full Character Name: Shade Elric O'Connor
Character Birthday & Age: January 3rd, 1992; 17
City & Country of Birth: Somewhere in Scotland
Pureblood, Halfblood or Muggleborn: Halfblood
House & Year: Gryffindor Seventh Year
Wand: 8 inches, White Ash, Unicorn Hair
Physical Description: Unlike his twin sister, Shade’s hair color has always been a light blonde color. When he was little, his mother had him wearing it short, above his ears, but now that he’s been in school for six years, he has taken to letting it grow and fall where it may. Paired with a tan from hanging outside all summer and playing Quidditch with his sister and his grey eyes, he’s quite a sight for the ladies.
His clothing in school, since he doesn’t want to be categorized with his twin, is the regulation school uniform, with one change.. he doesn’t wear the oxford type shoes that most of the other kids wear, but a pair of black converse that he insists on his father buying for him. On weekends and the second classes are over, he’s in jeans and usually a white t-shirt. He doesn’t care that his appearance makes him attractive to the opposite sex though. He just likes to be comfortable.
He has a tattoo over his heart, although no one but him and the tattoo artist have seen it. It’s his sister’s name surrounded by barbed wire. The artist thought it was his girlfriend, but Shade quickly told him that it was his sister and the tattoo represented how she would always be protected and safe as long as she stood by him.
Personality Description: In the eyes of his peers, Shade comes across as a stuck-up prick that needs to get his butt kicked, but Shade sees himself as the strong, silent type. Preferring to stay out of the action, instead of in the middle of it like his sister. He’s studious, but not too much that he forgets to have fun, but enough that he still has time to force his sister to do her homework and study.
He likes to hold in his temper. To this day, he’s only lost control four times. He doesn’t hold grudges, he prefers to tell people exactly what he thinks of them right up front and if they don’t like it, he doesn’t care. Shade doesn’t like confrontation, he’s a bit of a people-pleaser. He’s been known to, on occasion, put himself in the middle of a fight with his friends in order to get everyone to calm down and get what they want. This has resulted in many trips to the infirmary as his efforts were not well received.
Although he’s usually quiet and soft-spoken, he has a weakness, Quidditch. The minute you tell him you’re taking him to a Quidditch match he begins to act like his more spontaneous twin sister, obnoxious and loud.
History: Orphaned at 5 months old. What a way to start out life. Shade remembers nothing of her parents or any other family members because no one really remembers anything when they are that young. His earliest memories are those of an orphanage with lots of other children, a not-so-young couple taking them home, and then privileged living from then on.
Nothing much is known about the twins’ birth family, they were found in a destroyed shack in the valley just off the property of Barcaldine Castle near Oban, Scotland. They were rescued, fed, clothed and then taken to the orphanage where they lived for a year and a half before they were adopted by the wealthy O’Connor couple.
Wealthy living meant little to Shade. He had what he needed though more than he thought he could ever use. Books filled the shelves all over his room, notebooks, ink pens, and pencils filled his desk drawers, and posters of every Quidditch team known to the wizarding world lined his walls.
When Shade came into his magic, it happened right after the twins’ fifth birthday. He’d been playing with his sister and she’d completely over-ruled all his decisions about the game they were playing and then promptly told him that she was going to go play on her own and that he was boring. He let it slide at first and went inside to go find something quiet to do. But when Sky came back two hours later and wanted to play again, Shade’s temper got the best of him and he unleashed a wave of accidental magic that unshelved every book in the small 1st floor library.
He’d always had the ability to hold back his temper, but he soon realized that the longer he held it in, the larger the wave of accidental magic would become larger. At age eight he was being constantly picked on by a group of boys that were older than him by a year. He managed to hold his anger for three days before he exploded, as did most of the glass in the greenhouse.
Once he received his letter, he was secretly glad that he wasn’t going to Durmstrang. His mother had told him that at Durmstrang they would try to harness that power he had when he was holding in anger. He didn’t want that, he wanted to be a normal person with normal sized powers. Therefore, he was relieved when he received his wand and was told that it would help him channel his magic better and his outbursts would be significantly less powerful.
In school he was extremely busy, keeping up with all his work, and his sister’s too was tiring, but he knew that their parents would be disappointed if Sky didn’t make it through school. Shade knew that his sister didn’t have the attention span for any type of structured learning, so he helped her through it. He didn’t do her work for her, but he made her study with him and do her homework at the same time he did, so that if she had any questions, he would be right there.
And so he made it to his seventh year this way. His method worked and he was happy. His wand helped him channel his magic, his sister was making acceptable grades, and he was completely uninterested in the female population of Hogwarts. Okay, so that wasn’t true, but he had told himself when he turned 15 that he would wait until he graduated from Hogwarts before even thinking about girls other than study partners.
Then the letter came, two months before the twins were to leave for their 7th year. They were in Diagon Alley getting the last supplies they’d ever need to get for a new school year and had stopped at Gringotts because they’d received a letter about an inheritance neither of the twins knew about.
Three letters, 2 from their biological father’s side, and one from their biological mother’s side. The two from their father’s side weren’t bad, just saying that the money was periodically saved for them over several years. It was the one from their mother’s father that got under Shade’s skin. He knew it was going to make his sister angry the minute he felt her grasp his shirt in her fist. He heard her leave the room they were in and then the distant crack of someone apparating.
He felt it then, something was wrong. He gathered the letters and the keys to their inheritance vaults and rushed outside to the bottom of the stairs of Gringotts and saw his sister’s hand bleeding there. Alerting his parents to the fact that his sister splinched herself they quickly tracked her down and took her straight to St. Mungo’s where Shade didn’t move from his sister’s bedside until she was released three days later.
Once the four of them got home, Shade nodded to his mother who led the other two into the kitchen for some much needed comfort food and Shade headed outside to his ‘special place’. Soon he was at the small orchard in the back of the property that his mother had planted before the twins were adopted.
He stood in the middle of the orchard and replayed every hateful, sadistic word of their maternal grandfather’s letter and all of a sudden he collapsed under the sheer strength of the wave of magic that he unleashed. Shade hadn't even realized he'd had his wand in his hand when it happened, it was all so sudden. Sort of like his magic took on a mind of its own. He caught his breath as he felt two arms wrap themselves around his shoulders and knew without looking that it was his sister. She held him and they both cried for their unknown parents and the horrors that befell them after which she told him that he'd been outside for a good thirty minutes before their parents started to get worried. They'd seen flashes going off in the orchard and were worried that Shade was going to harm himself because of the blind rage he was in. So they'd finally let Sky go and find him and make sure he was okay.
After 30 minutes of ‘soul-cleansing’ (which is what Shade does, he never cries), Shade looked up to see his sister’s face take on a worried expression, and he looked around at the orchard. “Mum’s going to murder you brother.” She whispered. He winced as he realized his magical backlash had brought down their mother’s favorite tree in the orchard… a white cherry tree.
Classes: Core Classes
Astronomy
Charms
Defense Against the Dark Arts
Herbology
No
Potions
Transfiguration
No | Electives
No
No
No
No
No
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How Do You Fit Into Your House?: The opposite of his sister, Shade has a reason behind his strong, silent exterior. He’s always thinking, always coming up with some new scheme to do something completely stupid. But his sister is the one to carry through with all the plans. The sorting hat didn’t hesitate to put Shade into Gryffindor, shouting the house name almost as soon as the hat touched his head. The hat saw what most people overlook, that although Shade was the quiet one, he was always watching, waiting to see when he could help the most.
Writing Sample: see Trystan's bio
Sum up your character in one paragraph: Calm, cool, and collected are three words to describe Shade at any moment except when he’s watching Quidditch. He likes to listen and watch to see what’s going on, and as a result, has dirt on almost everyone at Hogwarts - -professors included. Though he would never tell his sister, as she would use the info to her advantage and he couldn’t handle that.
Approved! - Kit
Shade O'Connor: Wizard