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Your Nickname: Alex
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Are you over thirteen? Yes
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If you have written other characters here: No
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Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Primary

Full Character Name: Asael Nathaniel Miller
Character Birthday & Age: June 16th, 1995
City & Country of Birth: Ely, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
Pureblood, Halfblood or Muggleborn: Muggleborn
House & Year: Gryffindor 4th Year

Wand: 8 inches, Black Walnut, Unicorn Hair.

Physical Description:
The immediate impression Asael gives is one of gentility - a calm that's quite peculiar for a boy of his age. He doesn't move frantically or squirm in his seat or even fidget very much; he carries himself with sureness and stillness. He has slate-coloured, solid eyes and unremarkable, mousy brown hair, both of which fail to distinguish him from the ranks of students around him. His eyes rest gently and do not often flicker - if his gaze arrives at something, it stays there for a while.

He dresses in a conservative manner for a teenager - he wears thick jumpers over buttoned shirts right through the summer months, carefully repaired jeans, a couple of unusually formal coats. If he goes out in the cold, he wears gloves, the right boots, the kind of things a mother nags you to wear. He is careful with his appearance - clean, neat, seldom a victim of too much deodorant. It reflects an ordered lifestyle and a level of self-discipline imported from home. He had his growth spurt early, in tandem with most girls, and has spent the last few years as the tallest boy in his year, now at 5ft 8". He's now being caught up to, and exceeded.

Perhaps the most distinguishing feature of his appearance is his kippah, worn at almost all times. Though it sparked a level of curiosity at first, particularly amongst pure-blood students, it has become as ordinary a part of his appearance as the analogue watch he keeps strapped to one wrist. One is, of course, markedly more significant than the other.

Personality Description:
It's a common wisdom in the Miller family that Asael is an 'old soul' - it is the sort of thing that gets amiably agreed upon by aging relatives around a dining table heaving with some kind of feast. They mean he is obedient, deferential, basically polite, and quiet around his elders. He is not aggressive, not eager for attention, and he has a level of self-reflection that is rare of such a young man. It is the legacy of his position within the family.

Asael is easy to dismiss - within the school he is not a big personality, not given to outbursts or boisterous declarations. He does not speak up, is not somebody who naturally leads, who naturally takes charge. He is the sort of person with whom you would partner in class quite happily, expecting neither disturbance nor a slacker - but you could work with him half a year without him telling you much of anything about himself. Amongst the tumultuous and exuberant members of Gryffindor House, he's something of an oddity - whether that is a virtue or not rather depends on your judgement of ordinary Gryffindors.

Asael is careful, and it often irks the more adventurous teenagers around him - he is the one who urges caution, who points out why affixing a giant Red Nose to every Suit of Armour on the Fourth Floor will not be amusing to wizards who have never heard of Red Nose Day. He is a proud wet blanket, quite willing to grit his teeth and stand his ground in favour of reason. On the other hand, he is unlikely to take risks where they need to be taken - he is halting, does not like having to lead or direct. He would rather provide a check for leadership than have to take the reins.

For all his reservation, there is a steel at the bottom of Asael's heart. He is profoundly moral, informed by a strong religious conviction and a stubborn sense of What Is Right and What Is Not. A British Reform Jew, Asael is unusually devout, and considers his magical gift a divine vocation, something that has the potential to do real good. It is this which fuels his intense commitment to schoolwork; Asael does not like slacking, and considers his job at Hogwarts to be primarily learning magic, not making friends.

His moral uprightness, his reservation and his caution make him difficult and often prickly to befriend - for all his lack of desire to lead, he is quite willing to scold or argue with his friends, and it does not always make him popular. Asael's loyalty, however, is not in doubt, and he has a strong maternal streak, a strong instinct to care for others - he is a middle child at home, constantly either allied in support of an older sibling or helping parent a younger one. He takes this with him to school, and there are plenty of Gryffindors who rely on him for minor healing charms, for a late night cram session ahead of a quiz they haven't revised for. Asael might scold you, but he knows when not to report you. These things take judgement.

Lately, Asael has been more and more terse - though with him this usually just means that he abruptly leaves a space. He's troubled on a regular basis, distant, and occasionally without focus. It remains to be seen whether this is just a symptom of aging or a deeper issue.

History:
Born in Salazar Slytherin's homeland, the fenland, Asael was the second child of four born to Jonathan and Suzanne Miller. Asael's childhood was spent raised almost communally, between the houses of aunts, uncles, grandparents. Holidays meant a long car ride across to Wales to visit Suzanne's family - being naturally predisposed to calm, Asael loved these long car trips - he always took a window seat and sat staring out at the British countryside while it whizzed past, rain bulleting the glass and setting the patchwork fields under a sheen of water. 

Grandparents worried if he would ever learn to talk, actually. He was an unusually quiet toddler, but as Suzanne protested good-naturedly, it was hard to get a word in edgeways with his brothers about. Asael was the second, and it was easy to get lost in the shuffle - it was simply that he didn't mind much. David, the eldest, was an explorer, the consummate Gryffindor (at least to Asael, who silently assigned his brothers Houses as soon as he found out they weren't coming too). The younger two, Patrick and Simon, whizzed about like fireworks. Asael found a bit of silence in his books.

From an early age, he revered quiet spaces. There was no synagogue in Ely, so they drove half an hour to Cambridge on Fridays - these car rides were different, punctuated by the sullen resentment of whichever of his brothers had been reluctant to go this week. Here, Asael found a sense of unusual calm, and took the lead in scolding his brothers quietly whenever they made noise. Asael arrived at faith quickly and firmly, and by the age of ten was wearing a kippah to school - not something insisted upon by his parents.

A very strange letter arrived during the summer of his eleventh birthday; it was scoffed at by his parents, who nevertheless had a good laugh and kept it to show the family; the most elaborate junk mail they'd ever received. It quickly got rather more urgent than that. Angry phone calls to Royal Mail found only bewildered ears, and by the near-end of August (when enough paper had been shoved through various parts of the Miller home to fell an entire forest) a Ministry official arrived to explain that, no, in fact, this was not a hoax.

Asael had blinked, and in a second become strange. None of his brothers showed magical ability - it was a blip in a family of through-and-through Muggles. He nevertheless found Diagon Alley, and spent a couple of days with his eyes as wide as saucers. Four years later, and it's almost like this stuff is normal and not completely insane. It's an insane with an incredible level of potential, however, and Asael does not intend to let it go to waste.

Classes:

Core Classes Astronomy Charms Defense Against the Dark Arts Herbology History of Magic Potions Transfiguration No

Electives Study of Ancient Runes Arithmancy Care of Magical Creatures No No

How Do You Fit Into Your House?:
Asael is what one might call a sitter - the Hat took its time with him, deliberating for well over a minute while he sat, terrified, as a tiny voice and hundreds of teenagers laid their attention on him. He was a four way split - Slytherin for his determination to make good, his unspoken desires to break free of comparisons to brothers, Ravenclaw for a sense of intelligence, of wonder, for the part of him that still found a mental peace at synagogue, Hufflepuff for his work ethic and his instinct for care. Eventually, however, the hat settled on Gryffindor - for the profound morality that underpinned it all, the shedding of fear it forsaw in a child willing to argue with his elders and friends on behalf of a strong moral conviction. Gryffindor represents bravery, willingness to stand up even in the face of one's own reserve. Asael will stand up quite willingly.

Writing Sample:
It was a freezing morning by anyone's standards, a Saturday stripped of mirth. Early February in Scotland. The only thing driving kids out of the Castle was something worse within - in Asael's case, the high level of noise coming out of the Gryffindor common room. He often enjoyed strolling around the lake - occasionally you caught a glimpse of the Giant Squid or of merfolk, and they were more willing to rise close to the surface during the colder months of the year, when there were fewer humans about and the shallow depths were a warmer alternative.

He took a long loop, his feet trudging rhythmically in the snow. The only noise was the slight ripple of wind, a distant and vague humming of forest noise from the fringes of what Asael knew from books to be Centaur territory. When he tired of walking, he found a bench, cleared the snow off it with a quick charm, and sat, huddling up for warmth.

"Asael? Christ, what are you doing out here?" It was Geoff, ruddy and red-cheeked. He had broad shoulders and maybe the messiest hair Asael had ever seen. It matched his personality.

"Sitting. What are you doing out here?" Asael said it pointedly.
Geoff's face opened into a grin. "Yeah, alright, fair enough. You busy?" He indicated the other half of the bench.
"Uh, no -" Asael said it quickly - "Be my guest."

Geoff took a seat, then started talking. "It's bloody madness inside. Everyone's chosen this Saturday to go mental at once, apparently on the fourth floor there are suits of armour talking to each other about how to overthrow the headmaster." He recounted it with an eager enthusiasm - he'd obviously been waiting to report it to someone.
Asael gave a tiny smirk, shrugging. "I suppose it makes sense. They don't seem to be unionised, I can't imagine it's all that well-paid a job, being a scarecrow for magical teenagers."
"They probably have to pay for their own armour polish and everything," Geoff said, shaking his head at the injustice.
"And loitering fees, for standing about all day-" Asael pointed out, waving a hand. "And they don't even get holidays from what I see."
Geoff nodded emphatically, then shook his head."Christ, I'm surprised they haven't gone on strike before, to be honest."
"Pfft, as if the capitalist pigdogs in charge of this place would listen to a strike." Asael had a glint in his eye. "They should go straight to revolution."
"Vive la resistance!" Geoff yelled at the lake in a thick Yorkshire accent. The lake was unimpressed.


There was a pause, while they both grinned.

"They're doing pancakes inside," Geoff said, rubbing his hands together.
"It'll be our first step to full Communism," Asael replied, as they trudged back to the dining hall.


Sum up your character in one paragraph:
A profound sense of piety and conviction underpins Asael, who is cautious, moderate, but quite willing to challenge his friends if they deviate from a code of broadly moral behaviour (though that need not be his own). A dedicated student and responsible young man, Asael's loyalty and care are matched only by his ability to scold your ear off (quietly) if you do something you know is wrong.