NOTE: I went out of my way to avoid naming or detailing his brothers too much, just in case people might want to adopt them someday. For the same reason I didn't specify that he has no sisters, and didn't discuss his parents' siblings or other extended family. His parents and grandparents are dead, but there could be any number of aunts, uncles, cousins, and such out there. The father was Muggleborn, but might have had a Wizarding sibling or two, perhaps, while the mother was pureblood, so plenty of room for Wizarding family members on her side. Since his family is so important to him it would be very cool if at least one or two of his relatives -did- get adopted, especially his oldest brother, but I have also done my best to write him so that he'll play just fine whether any of his family is an on-screen PC besides himself or not.

Your Nickname: Lurhstaap
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Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Primary

Full Character Name: Sachairi Euan Coinneach Emburne
Character Birthday & Age: April 3rd, 1973; 37
City & Country of Birth: Bannockburn, Scotland
Blood Purity: Halfblood
Alma Mater: Hogwarts - Gryffindor House
Job/Position: Professor of Ancient Runes

Wand: Thirteen inches, pliable, helical (spiral) shaft, walnut with dragon heartstring.

Physical Description:

Sachairi Euan Coinneach Emburne is a smallish man - about 5'3" - but his presence is that of a much larger person, so that it is not uncommon for people to overlook his smallness, at least at first. Sachairi - which he prefers to go by whenever possible; 'Professor Emburne' is too formal for everyday use in his opinion - is physically fit and in good shape, with a lean but sturdy build. He is stocky and strong, but rather light on the whole, and capable of moving very quickly for short distances.

There is something peculiarly ageless, or rather unaging, about him, as if he stopped changing after roughly his 18th birthday. Indeed, from time to time he is mistaken for a sixth or seventh year student. When under stress or otherwise badly upset, though, the illusion of youthfulness falls away and he may look ten years older than his true age. Much of his youthful appearance is due simply to his height and his bluntly rounded facial features, and his thatch of curly brownish-black hair tends to disguise his high hairline, though by the time he develops a true bald spot this may no longer be the case. His eyes are a muddy brownish green with flecks of gray, but their alert, emotive gleam tends to be more noticeable than their color, whether twinkling with amusement or sparking with temper. The Ancient Runes professor's expression is rarely neutral; whether smiling or scowling, he is usually emoting something.

When on duty at the school, Sachairi wears fairly standard black robes, but off-duty he prefers Muggle dress, saying it's easier to move around in. Specifically, he likes T-shirts and blue jeans. During the colder parts of the year, he is rarely seen without a jacket of some sort, generally leather but not always, of which he owns more than one. His coats are one of his more distinctive dressing habits, and it's a point of comment among his friends and gossipy types whenever he appears with a new one (though this happens less often than it might otherwise, as most of Sachairi's spare money goes into his indefinite researches, experiments, and scholarly whims, such as purchasing random old objects just because they have interesting - or even just potentially interesting - bits or snatches of runic writing on them.) His ill-assorted collection ranges from a rather absurd-looking but very tough duster made from the hide of an Antipodean Opaleye dragon, to a very long and even more absurd-looking woolly overcoat lined with yeti fur used during the worst winter weather, to a Muggle's "hard rock/punk/metal" style black leather jacket acquired in his mid-teens, when that style was still in fashion to some degree in the Muggle world. He most often wears the latter coat, mainly because it irritates the hell out of his oldest brother and others who disdain Muggles and Muggle things, but also simply out of long habit. The others tend to appear whenever Sachairi thinks one is particularly appropriate at a given time for whatever reason - for example, the dragonskin coat is slightly protective, particularly from fire and sudden impacts, so he often wears it when one of his classes that day is expected to cover a rune spell that may potentially detonate if done improperly (or properly, if they're up to the Advanced Warding Runes portion of his syllabus). Some students and colleagues gauge the weather by Sachairi's choice of coat - "Oh, Professor Emburne's wearing that hilarious wooly-furry thing. It must be really frigid out there right now." (Oddly, Sachairi often dresses for the weather regardless of whether he actually intends to go outside or not that day, though he usually rolls up his sleeves or takes it off during classes.)

The professor is sometimes seen wearing a pair of small, round glasses, particularly during class when dealing with difficult handwriting, degraded old texts and tablets, and other hard-to-see things. The glasses are enchanted to provide clarity, and can be asked to translate certain things, although they're no good with overly obscure or ancient languages. They can't perform decryption type functions on their own, but can be used as a tool to help do such things. Most of the time Sachairi just uses the translation function to jog his memory in class. 

Sachairi is an energetic, playful person, very comfortable with horsing around and physical activity in general. There is an unconscious grace and control to his movements. His body language and gestures tend to be exaggerated and flamboyant. Despite this, he is capable of a great degree of focus and intricacy in his magic-working. It's no coincidence that he emphasizes the practical aspect of rune-study over the more typical academic aspect; Sachairi is a very intelligent man, perhaps too clever for his own good in some respects, but he is ultimately more oriented toward a hands-on approach. He is very good at what he does, but regardless, the nature of Sachairi's experiments and fascinations, magic-wise, are such that he is rarely seen without evidence of some sort of magical backfire or failure on his person - most often the singed hair, burnt-off eyebrows, and smoking clothing that indicate an experiment recently went down in fiery explosive failure, but sometimes more exotic maladies.

Personality Description:

Sachairi is of Scots origin and proud of it; he is more likely to express pride and superiority over this aspect of his heritage than to boast about the pureblood ties in his ancestry (which includes connections to roughly half of the so-called "Sacred Twenty-Eight", if distant in many cases, through his mother's line.) He is the youngest brother of a large family. His parents are both wizards, and his mother a pureblood with the usual sort of inter-connected (read: consanguineous) family background most purebloods have, but his father is Muggleborn, making him a halfblood. Both are now dead, having passed of old age. Though his mother was proud of her ancestry and raised her sons to share that feeling, it didn't fully 'take'. Sachairi himself finds the concept of blood purity silly, and although some of his siblings have somewhat more elitist views, particularly his eldest brother, none of them are hardliners. Sachairi just rolls his eyes at that sort of thing, especially when it comes from his siblings, and loves baiting them about it (such as wearing "that ridiculous Muggle jacket" just to irritate his eldest brother.) Regardless of this or any other disagreements among them, and in spite (or perhaps because) of the back-and-forth teasing, pranks, and sometimes outright brawling they trade back and forth amongst themselves, the Emburnes are a very loyal and close-knit clan. Some are closer to others on a day-to-day level, and some have long-standing disagreements with others, but when push comes to shove the family can pull together very quickly, with Sachairi often the emotional nucleus of the group - almost never its leader, but its heart, its drive.

The brothers have all gone their separate ways as adults, they keep in contact to greater and lesser degrees - some of them are content to exchange occasional owls between the big family meet-ups on holidays and suchlike, while others go out of their way to visit a lot. Sachairi is one of the latter type and meets up with various older brothers whenever two or more of them have enough free time on the same day. When Sachairi is the 'host' of these visits, they tend to occur in Hogsmeade. This is because when Sachairi is around even one of his brothers, he tends to unconsciously 'show off' or play up the more manic side of his personality, and he has a similar effect on them, which means that chaos of some sort usually breaks out when they spend time together (particularly if alcohol or similar substances have been imbibed.) When he entertains his brothers in his own quarters in Hogwarts,  the madness sometimes ends up escaping into Hogwarts proper - Sachairi once provoked his eldest brother so badly that the latter chased Sachairi through the school's hallways, shouting very improper language for the ears of students. Another time, Sachairi got into a pranking war with the same brother, again within Hogwarts itself, and a few of their carefully planned stunts struck unintended targets. Some people find these sort of Emburne antics very entertaining, since most of it is only mildly dangerous by Wizarding standards, but most don't. So after the consequences began to hit home (such as a string of reprimands and probations), Sachairi has started meeting his brothers in Hogsmeade to reduce the potential for "collateral damage" if any sort of fighting, pranking, or other nuttiness should break out. He does try not to catch other people in these sibling feuds, but he becomes very singleminded when things escalate and often acts without fully thinking things through.

Sachairi's love of teasing, rough-housing, horsing around, and general mischief grew out of his relationship with his older brothers, and as he grew up, he extended that style of relationship to other people in his life. By this point, very few people are safe from Sachairi's sense of humor. His capricious moods mean that he isn't always running around pulling pranks and causing trouble, but when the impulse strikes, Sachairi can be a lot of fun, and/or completely obnoxious, depending on your perspective. He knows better than to do anything that might cost him his job or otherwise get him in real trouble (hence the relocation of most visits with his brothers to Hogsmeade) but anything short of that is fair game.

Sachairi dislikes humorlessness and cowardice - in fact, he sometimes seems to almost equate the two in his mind, though he couldn't explain that if asked to. He has a hard streak, and can be downright vicious toward people who threaten his family or other people he values or feels responsible for (such as Hogwarts students, particularly those taking his subject), but generally speaking he prefers a positive focus and is very resilient as a rule. He usually isn't bothered by failure in his experiments, for example, and he is very patient with most students most of the time. Pushing his buttons can result in unusually abrupt, strict treatment, but most students just don't have the "weaponry" needed to pull that off, so he has a reputation for being good with difficult students. It's not that so much as that he just takes a very long time to become exasperated and he isn't provoked by disrespect the way many other teachers tend to be. On the other hand, when dealing with adults, Sachairi is much less predictable. Sometimes he is remarkably unflappable, but other times, seemingly minor things will provoke a startling outburst of temper (or, less often, melancholy.) This is also true of his own projects and experiments - as mentioned, he usually experiences failure as a prompt to keep trying, but sometimes, usually for reasons indistinguishable to others, Sachairi will take a failure very badly and become quite upset. Once or twice he has precipitously abandoned once-pet projects, to the bewilderment of friends and family, who couldn't understand why Sachairi had suddenly declared them hopeless.

This impulsive sort of dramatic behavior is part of Sachairi's appeal to some people, and certainly part of why he has such an outsized presence for his physical size, but it can also be very self-defeating, particularly because it often causes him to give up on something that might have worked out given his usual cheerful persistence. His resistance to negativity is rigid, like a wall - most of the time he does fine, but once something gets through his emotional defenses, the very fact that a leak has happened piles onto whatever caused the leak, and any more bad things that happen, however minor, contribute to the rapidly aggravating flood. In this way he can work himself into an extremely bad state of mind very quickly. Fortunately, he recovers fairly quickly from most upsets, but if he sinks too deeply into melancholy, he can get stuck there and become depressed. He is aware of this tendency in himself, but he lives in the moment too much for that awareness to be very helpful at such times.

Sachairi is very intelligent, but not especially intellectual in some ways. He is more attuned to his emotions, and tends to be mercurial, shifting unpredictably between various intensities and shades of mood. Generally speaking, Sachairi tends to be in one of three 'modes' - cheerful/friendly, playful/mischief, or irritable/angry. When really bad things happen, though, Sachairi often deals with them poorly. He enjoys alcohol and minor drugs all the time, but rarely overindulges. When his 'black moods' strike, though, one of the first signs is that he will begin drinking too much. He tends to cover up sadness and worry with anger, depending on how vulnerable he feels. Oddly, people he doesn't know well are more likely to see the more quietly morose side of him, whereas his family members and others he cares deeply about trigger much more defensive behavior.

History:

Quick Notes
-- Born the last of several children to Mr. and Mrs. Emburne at their home in Scotland, which is located alongside the Bannock Burn for which the town is named.
-- Discovers a precocious interest in and talent for reading early on. Develops a habit of paging through his parents' old school textbooks. This is his primary intellectual outlet in a childhood mostly concerned with zooming around out of doors, sibling-related antics, and other typical active-kid stuff, and provided evidence that a scholar's mind lay hidden somewhere beneath all the boyish, chaotic mischief.
-- The interest in Ancient Runes specifically develops out of this habit of reading old school textbooks that belonged to his parents, so that he was already involved in his own personal - if casual and undisciplined - explorations of the topic, as well as others that caught his fancy, when his Hogwarts letter arrived at age 11.
-- At Hogwarts, he puzzled the Sorting Hat, and was almost a true Hatstall between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. In the end, it placed him in Gryffindor, to the displeasure of his parents and some of his siblings (who had mostly been Ravenclaws like their parents, though he was not the first Gryffindor in the family, and one of his middle brothers was actually a Slytherin.) Sachairi wasn't terribly fussed about which house he was put in, and accepted the placement without much thought, more interested in Hogwarts itself and all the new people surrounding him.
--  Although Sachairi did reasonably well in most subjects in his first two years at Hogwarts, with Potions and History of Magic being his best at this point, he struggled a lot with flying lessons. He never did manage a passing grade and to this day dislikes riding broomsticks, preferring other forms of travel. By the same token, he has never been much of a Quidditch player, despite enjoying the sport as much as any typical Wizarding-raised kid. Transfiguration and Charms were fascinating but difficult for Sachairi, while Herbology was familiar but not always terribly interesting.
-- When the time came to choose electives, Sachairi picked Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. He also chose Magical Theory and Ancient Studies as extra-curricular activities. This left him with a fairly packed schedule, but, as always, he thrived on setting overblown challenges for himself. His grades weren't always perfect, but he threw himself into the classes he'd chosen for himself with an intensity of enthusiasm somewhat missing from his participation in the core classes, which could be... erratic, at times, especially in subjects he found a bit boring (such as Astronomy.)
-- O.W.L. scores: Astronomy A, Charms E, DADA A, Herbology A, History of Magic E, Potions E, Transfiguration E, Ancient Runes O, Arithmancy A
Sachairi did well on his O.W.L.s but sees himself as not having done well enough; to him an A is a marginal pass, so he is dissatisfied with those. Also, he was expecting to get an O in Potions, so that was disappointing as well. He is, however, proud of having managed to pull off an E in Charms and Transfiguation, which were his favorite core subjects precisely because he found them among the most challenging. The low-pass grade for Arithmancy was an unhappy surprise as well, as it meant he could not continue in the subject.
-- Due to his O.W.L. performance, Sachairi was able to take the following subjects in his sixth and seventh years: Charms, History of Magic, Potions, Transfiguration, and Ancient Runes. Although he missed some of the ones he'd lost, like Arithmancy, having fewer classes allowed the boy to give the remaining ones more attention and effort. For this reason, his grades generally improved during this period despite the much heavier workload given in N.E.W.T. level classes.
-- N.E.W.T. scores: Charms E, History of Magic E, Potions O, Transfiguration E, Ancient Runes O
This set of scores was somewhat unusual and made finding a job challenging at first - at least, finding one that interested him. So he spent the next couple of years living at his parents' home, doing basically whatever he felt like doing, although he did apply a lot of time and energy to working on his magirunology theories, experiments, and papers, often combining them with other skill areas, such as using runic magic in the process of brewing or aging potions.
-- At age 19 he enrolled in the Euro-Glyph School of Extraordinary Languages, where he greatly broadened his education in the subject, developed the most successful of his theories and spells (including much of the content of his current Hogwarts syllabus), and made professional friendships and rivalries which in many cases have lasted to this day. He graduated with honors from the institution at the age of 23.
-- Worked for the Ministry of Magic from age 23 through age 31, first as the Junior, later Senior, Ancient Runes Research Chair; then as a member of the Experimental Charms Committee.
-- Quit the Ministry out of boredom in 2004, at 31.
-- Wanting a career shift, he took a job teaching at the Euro-Glyph for four years, but quit in 2008 around the same time as his parents' death. His inheritence in terms of Galleons was not as large as it might have been due to being split with his several siblings, but he still had enough, plus his own savings, to take a couple of years off of work to rest, visit other family members, and otherwise deal with his grief. He was the one to inherit the family home, which helped, but eventually he became worried at the size of the dent he was making in his savings.
-- A friend in academia hears that Hogwarts is looking for an Ancient Runes professor starting in the 2010 school year and lets Sachairi know about the opening. Sachairi, ever-more worried about his financial situation and ready for a new challenge in life, applies.
-- Hired as Hogwart's Ancient Runes professor in 2010.

Detailed Notes

Sachairi was born in 1973 to a witch and wizard living in Bannockburn, Scotland. Their family home is built alongside the actual Bannock Burn, although it is enchanted so that Muggles can't see it, as with many wizarding homes. Lord Voldemort's first reign of terror was was just beginning, and his parents did their best to keep their children safe and secure, but the boy could not help being aware of what was going on in the world to some degree, particularly in the late 70s when things were at their worst. Although basically oriented towards physical activity and more naturally in tune with his emotions than his mind, Sachairi did inherit his Ravenclaw parents' intellect, including a sharp analytic ability. So his childhood, while not exactly unhappy per se, was certainly one over which a dark shroud continually hung. It was perhaps for this reason that Sachairi began to take refuge in books very early in his life - while reading, he could be someone else, in some other place or time, and thus, temporarily at least, escape the constant sense of oppression and fear which was the burden of Wizarding Britain during Lord Voldemort's first reign. His Muggleborn father, in particular, spent much of that period in hiding. So while the boy Sachairi spent plenty of time trying to outrun and outplay his emotions, he found reading worked best as an escape mechanism. Plus, once he'd gotten into it, it became interesting for its own sake. The stories and pictures he found in books were often fascinating and mysterious, especially when he was too young to fully understand what he was seeing. In this way he discovered the subject that would define much of the rest of his life: the study of ancient runes.

Historically, runic magic was once very common and important, but it fell out of common use centuries ago, and the modern Wizarding interest in the subject (both in Sachairi's youth and the current day) mostly concerns translating things written in the old runic languages and similar theoretical scholarship. Since the runes were used both practically and magically by ancient wizards and witches (in the same way that numbers can be used for simple arithmetic or for Arithmancy) many of these writings aren't even spells in their own right, simply documents of historical or other scholarly significance. However, as a youth, Sachairi became fascinated with the concept of rune-spells in their own right.

Mr. and Mrs. Emburne were as mentioned both Ravenclaws in their own Hogwarts days, and while neither had excelled in the subject, both had taken Ancient Runes when at Hogwarts. The elder Emburnes encouraged their children to read, so they were pleased when Sachairi's bookworm tendencies began to appear. Moreover they did not discourage their children from investigating their old school textbooks when they began to become curious about being wizards and what it all meant. Not all of their children ever did have any interest, but Sachairi was one of those who did. A precocious reader, Sachairi was always one to devour whatever books he could get his hands on; if he couldn't make out the words he'd look for pictures. Going over the same books repeatedly as he got older, his understanding slowly grew.

Because it had pictures in it, the Ancient Runes textbook caught young Sachairi's attention relatively early (alongside texts in Care of Magical Creatures, Herbology, History of Magic, and the other more-illustrated volumes in a typical Hogwarts curriculum.) At first, Sachairi didn't understand a thing of what he was looking at, but that only increased his desire to; a bright, active boy, but was used to being able to figure out anything if he applied himself fully to the problem, and being challenged thusly vexed him in a strangely happy way. By the same token he was also attracted to Arithmancy as he got a little older, even though he didn't understand much at all, and his comprehension grew very little compared to other texts.

In 1981, when Sachairi was eight year old, Voldemort disappeared in the famous Boy Who Lived incident. The relief and joy experienced by Sachairi and his family were indescribable; they had survived the dark times without losing any immediate family members. During the First Reign of Voldemort, the family had survived on the pure-blooded Mrs. Emburne's inheritance, but to ensure it would last, they had spent it extremely carefully, so that for all intents and purposes the family was poor. (This is part of why the boys were encouraged to read their parents' old books, it being difficult to justify the expense of new ones.) With the disappearance of the Dark Lord, however, the senior Emburne was able to emerge from hiding and take a job, allowing his wife to save her remaining inheritance and their children to enjoy a higher quality of life than had previously been possible. Still, Sachairi continued to peruse his parents' old school texts even though he now had access to other, newer books; the old familiar pages continued to gain meaning as he grew. Also, there was comfort in returning repeatedly to those old familiar pages.

When he was 10, he noticed something about the Ancient Runes text as compared to most of his parent's other old school books. With the exception of obvious ones like the History of Magic text, there seemed to be two basic sides to each subject - the theoretical or academic, and the practical or utilitarian. Even Arithmancy included information on using numerical magic in spells and other life situations (even if it did seem remarkably esoteric.) But the Ancient Runes books all seemed to be basically linguistic in nature, revolving around learning the runic languages and then translating ancient inscriptions and so on. Except for the fact that the inscriptions and writings had been done by wizards and witches, it could have been Muggle runology. Where did actual rune spells come in? There were occasionally tantalizing references to the possible magical significance of certain runes or rune-marked artifacts, but that was all he could remember ever reading about in the books. Reading carefully, the boy found a short section in his mother's seventh-year Ancient Runes text concerning the use of runes by wizards, not as writing, but as a vehicle for magic. At first, Sachairi was excited, but he became puzzled and disappointed as he read the passage. According to the book, actual runic magic was used a long time ago and was popular in some places, but had fallen out of style centuries ago.

This was the beginning of Sachairi's fascination with the idea of runic magic. He began spending his allowance on books and periodicals devoted to Ancient Runes and other subjects he was developing interest in, and although he wasn't able to follow it all clearly at the age of 10, he understood enough to keep his interest going. Of course, his Hogwarts letter arrived the next year, and Sachairi was forced to set aside some of his private researches. He was able to bring only his favorite books with him to school, and between classes and homework he didn't have nearly as much time as he once did to devote to his eclectic passions. But he found time here and there to keep reading and thinking about the problem. And as the young wizard learned more about magic in general, his ability to understand those books improved accordingly, so that in his second year he was already beginning to sketch out (mostly in his mind, but a bit on paper as well) the shaky rudiments of what would later become his life's work - the re-creation of a functioning, useful, efficient form of practical runic magic. None of his ideas made much sense at that age, of course, but the kernels of later successes were there in the midst of a lot of nonsense.

(Incidentally, Sachairi was almost a Hatstall. The Sorting Hat took several minutes to decide where to place the boy, and Sachairi claims that his parents always said that his placement in Gryffindor was the Hat's first mistake. Sachairi himself likes to say that the Hat probably just figured that Ravenclaw's idea of cleverness and wisdom probably did not include being a very sharp trickster, but it also recognized that sort of thing takes guts to pull off. It's one of his many 'jokes' which are sincerely meant as jokes, but which are also most likely true.)

In his years at Hogwarts, Sachairi was very active, making friends with some people and driving others completely nuts. He wasn't precisely a class clown, not in the Fred-and-George type way, at least not all the time. But his capricious personality and general playfulness were enough to spur the young Sachairi to do daring things, not to mention the presence of those of his brothers who were still at school, who often egged him on. He got in trouble for such things as trying to slide down the banisters, running amok through the hallways chasing or being chased by a brother or friend, climbing trees at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, minor brawling or dueling with other students with whom he'd gotten in a fight, and the like.

His favorite class was, naturally, Ancient Runes, although he was extremely frustrated by the, to him, boringly limited approach taken by the then-Ancient Runes professor. Knowing that rune-lore and translation were essential if he wanted to have a chance of tackling more practical applications, though, Sachairi applied himself diligently; it wasn't that he was bored by this aspect of the topic, per se, it was more that he couldn't understand why this was the only aspect of Ancient Runes anyone seemed to care about anymore, or why rune spells went out of fashion. (He still doesn't understand this, probably because he tends to overlook the fact that purely wand-based magic is rather less likely to explode in the user's face, generally speaking. He's -aware- of that but doesn't understand why it should drive everyone away.) Sachairi's seventh year was the 1980-81 term, so he left the year before Harry Potter arrived; thus he was not around for the events of Harry's six years at Hogwarts, although he heard as much about them as the rest of the outside world.

Sachairi spent most of his first two years post-graduation (1991-1992) living in his parents' home in Scotland while he worked on and refined his ideas and experiments, with primary focus on ancient runes. During this period he was not technically employed, but his parents' money was enough to keep him going at a basic level, and he was sometimes able to sell products based on more successful experiments - such as a rune-powered defensive amulet which, because it is rune-powered, will stand up to curses and hexes that would punch right through a basic Protego or similar incantation-type protection spell. It's not really more -powerful- than Protego, it just has different weaknesses that most wizards aren't as prepared to strike at. This brought in enough extra income to keep him from wearing out his welcome (although his parents always did tend to indulge him, so he may have been worrying too much about that.)

After a couple of years of this, Sachairi applied and was accepted to the London campus of the Euro-Glyph School of Extraordinary Languages, where he became fluent in non-Germanic runic systems and greatly expanded his knowledge of world rune-lore, as opposed to the more Futhark-focused education given at Hogwarts. During the last year of his term at Euro-Glyph he began a series of experiments involving developing his own totally original, fully functional magical runic language, which continues (with occasional success and lots of failure) to this day. After four years he graduated with honors from the institution; he is one of their top recent alumni, if also one of the most eccentric. Sachairi remains in contact with colleagues - both friends and ideological "enemies" - through owl post in the present day; reading and answering correspondence is one of the highlights of his day. He joined the School in 1992 at 19 and graduated four years later, in 1996, at 23.

Like most of the Wizarding world, Sachairi did not learn of the truth of Voldemort's return until June of 1996, shortly after his graduation from the Euro-Glyph School. Neither a Death Eater nor with any connections to the Order of the Phoenix, Sachairi did what most of the Wizarding public of Britain did at that time; he went about his business to the best of his ability, followed the news closely, and worried. 

Helping to keep him busy was a new job, his first real job post-education; due to his growing reputation as an exceptional scholar in the field of magirunology, Sachairi had been invited to join the Ministry of Magic's Research Committee to hold the recently-vacated Junior Researcher of Ancient Runes, with the actual hiring occurring immediately following his graduation from the Euro-Glyph. The man was a little young for the post, but not exaggeratedly so, and his accomplishments in the field were becoming well enough known (at least to scholars, academics, and rune geeks) so that he seemed a logical enough choice for the position. Being an official Ancient Runes Researcher allowed Sachairi much more time, space and resources to conduct his studies and experiments, but also required him to toe the line more than he was always fully happy with. His interest in active use of runic systems was only inconsistently supported, and much more often, he was expected to apply his expertise to more typical sorts of translations, artifact identifications, and so on. Also, he was seen as being unprofessional in some ways due to his dress and irrepressible sense of humor (although few could deny the quality of his work, at least most of the time.)

For those reasons, he only stayed with the Research Committee for a couple of years. Then a sympathetic friend suggested him for a position on the Committee for Experimental Charms, and he made the switch. Although the work was less directly related to his personal obsessions, Sachairi found the more hands-on, active-work requirements of the position much more engaging and challenging than the Research Committee position, so he enjoyed the job much more despite being held to similar standards of dress, seriousness, lack of exploding experiments stored in his office, et cetera. For this reason he remained with Experimental Charms until the age of 31 - although the years of Voldemort's second rise to power and especially the period in which he controlled the Ministry were very trying times for Sachairi, the time of his first major depression as an adult. 

During Voldemort's period of control of the Ministry, he did what many other half-bloods did at the time and emphasized the pureblood side of his ancestry, which (fortunately for him) had connections to some very old names, which provided him some degree of cover from the more "shameful" heritage of his Muggle-born father. Sachairi was privately ashamed of this, but felt alone and afraid in the face of what was happening. All he could think to do was to try to protect himself and his family as best he could. His work suffered during this period, for obvious reasons, but his reputation for brilliance in his field and his past achievements helped him keep his job despite this. He drank far too much throughout 1997-1998, and came very close to losing his job at several points, though he managed to cling on. Finally, Voldemort died, and it was like the sun came out again for Sachairi and his family, although it took him a few more years to fully shake the melancholy in which he had become engulfed. After all, he had thought Voldemort gone forever once before; what made him so sure he was gone for good this time? But in time, slowly, he emerged, and got back to his original capricious yet generally upbeat temperament - though he has retained a tendency to regress into depression, sometimes for no apparent reason.

At the age of 31, in 2004, Sachairi decided he was ready for a career change. Doing the same thing for so long had made it lose its sense of challenge, and therefore its appeal. So he quit the Ministry. At first, he wasn't sure what to do with himself, and eventually applied for a professorship at the Euro-Glyph (not without tongue-in-cheek comments about "academia, the last refuge of unemployed researchers") where he taught until 2008. His parents died that same year, which may have had something to do with his decison to take a break. At that point he resigned his post and took some time off working to visit various siblings and other family members, living off his savings. But, of course, his savings weren't infinite, even with the addition of his inheritance (which wasn't large, split between so many siblings, although he did inherit the family house as his older siblings had all got places of their own by then and he was the only one left bouncing from rental to rental at the time of the elder Emburnes' death) and by 2010 money was getting short. In the summer of that year, a friend let him know that the Ancient Runes position at Hogwarts had recently been vacated. Needing a job and beginning to miss teaching, Sachairi applied, and was hired. He is now looking forward to his first year teaching at Hogwarts.

Describe your job duties and how you go about them:

Sachairi is the current professor of Ancient Runes at Hogwarts; this requires him to prepare a yearly syllabus and class plan, select course textbooks and where necessary other materials, teaching the class, grading homework, and the like. He also formally offers his services as a practical magirunologist to the school, in a similar way that other professors contribute their special skills when they may come in handy for some reason.

Since his class is an elective, he doesn't teach first or second year students. His approach to the subject of Ancient Runes is rather unusual. As described above under History, Sachairi has developed an ersatz body of modern rune-spell techniques, built up over many years from a combination of applied ancient runelore, trial-and-error experimentation, and his own creativity, plus influence from other magirunologists after he left school and became a professional magical researcher. He sees teaching as a chance to share his ideas, hypotheses, and findings - and sometimes as a sort of personal laboratory - as much as he does an opportunity to mold young minds or pass down time-hallowed knowledge. As such, what reaches his classes is a mixture of old knowledge, his personal inventions,  and whatever bits and scraps he's gleaned from other sources (ranging from fellow magirunologists to antique objects with runic inscriptions).

Practically speaking, Sachairi divides his syllabus into three large chunks, with each year covering parts from all three categories to some degree, but with the difficulty/advancement level growing higher as students move from year to year, and with practical runespells becoming more emphasized the older students become. In the very beginning of the school year, Sachairi gives a brief overview of the syllabus and what will be covered that year; for third years taking the class for the first time, he gives an introduction to the subject itself and some examples of both academic and practical understanding and use of runes and runelore. Then things get down to business, with the specifics depending on what year he's currently teaching.

The first third of each school year is taken up with the sort of thing most people expect from Ancient Runes classes - the tedious and laborious memorization of runic alphabets, learning the ancient languages represented by the runes, and learning how to translate runes accurately. The second part of the year is dedicated to the study of rune lore and runic spell theory. This is when they learn how runic spells are composed and how they function. Finally, in the third part of the year, students begin learning actual rune spells, although Sachairi has learned from experience that it's best to hold off until fifth year before asking the students to try to execute anything but the simplest and safest of rune spells. (Then again his idea of 'simple and safe' is a little different than the norm anyway... )

This three-part pattern holds throughout the Ancient Runes subject, more or less, from third year entry level through O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s, but in practice, the 'thirds' are not equal in duration. Third and fourth year students spend most of their years in the earlier portions of that curriculum, whereas older students spend more time on the latter.

Specifically, third and fourth years focus first on linguistics, translations, and, midway through the year, basic rune-magic theory; in the third part of the year, rather than having them actually try to learn or cast real rune spells at this level, third and fourth years are shown examples of simple rune spells (both ancient and modern) and required to analyze them. Fourth years are also introduced to and then quizzed on basic concepts important in the practical use of runes in magic. (For example, "Why, in your opinion, is it a bad idea to combine different systems of runic writing when composing a rune spell? Explain your reasoning.") Both third and fourth years also spend time practicing the drawing of runes using quill and parchment, though the emphasis is different - third years are told to draw runes as a way of helping them memorize them as letters, whereas fourth years are being taught correct technique for creating them as mystic symbols and vehicles for magic. Fourth years are also given more complex, challenging assignments than third years, and the content of the lessons is generally more advanced. Still, the focus remains on lore, theory, translation, writing practice, and rudimentary technique.

For the fifth years, the focus shifts to preparing them for the O.W.L. tests and determining which of them has the potential to continue to N.E.W.T. level. As such, they spend a lot of the year reviewing and refining what they learned in third and fourth years. However, the fifth year is the first to begin working with actual runic magic, as well; in the second half of the school year, Sachairi begins to mix in practical lessons on technique along with the conceptual lectures. Fifth years begin learning to draw individual runes with their wands; in addition to demonstrating correct form and technique, they are asked to observe what happens when the rune is drawn in varying ways, . They are also introduced to more advanced aspects of rune-magic theory and practical technique. They also do things like "field trips" to visit rune-inscribed landmarks or libraries holding books or tablets with important runic content (both magical and linguistic).

Sachairi is a forgiving teacher, but aware that practical rune magic is more challenging and potentially dangerous in some ways than average. For this reason, he is selective about which students may continue with the subject into the sixth and seventh year. Sachairi believes (with some justification) that taking tests is a skill or talent in and of itself. In particular, if Sachairi thinks a given pupil has a lot of potential or does especially well in class, he will try to get approval to allow that person to continue in his subject, regardless of their O.W.L. score. For the most part, though, the sixth and seventh years are made up of people who got O or E on their Ancient Runes O.W.L.

As a teacher, Sachairi is fairly casual. He allows students to refer to him as 'Professor', but doesn't like being addressed as 'Professor Emburne' except when the situation seems to demand extra formality or distance. If Sachairi asks a person to call him 'Professor Emburne' it's a sign he dislikes them or has other reasons for wanting to keep them at arm's length. He often asks his classes to call him 'Mr. Emburne' instead, or even just 'Emburne', and when talking one-on-one he prefers to be called Sachairi. He is impatient with and bored by pointless stuffiness and what he sees as excessive clinging to etiquette; for him to be scrupulously polite is usually meant as a veiled insult, although only those who know him very well will be able to discern that. The subject of Ancient Runes is relatively unpopular compared to other electives, so that he often has smaller class sizes than average, but this is something Sachairi appreciates. It gives him a luxury to work one-on-one and to get to know his pupils more thoroughly than is possible with large classes.

Sachairi enjoys teaching very much, but expects those in his classes to be as fascinated by the subject as he is, and as willing to explore all aspects of it. He becomes impatient most easily with those students who signed up expecting a more traditional scholarly approach to the subject and who exhibit resistance, discomfort, or other negative reactions to his approach. His approach to anxious students is dicey - sometimes his cheerful confidence, even in the face of what seem like disastrous failures, can be inspiring, but other times he just comes across as a bit crazy and makes the danger seem greater instead of lesser, which tends to make things worse. Since Sachairi took the Ancient Runes post, the subject has suffered a high rate of student drop-outs. Still, he is passionate about his subject and generally understanding and patient with his students (or at least he tries to be), so that he gets decent results from those who remain most of the time.

Elaborate on your expertise in your field:

Achieved O on his Ancient Runes O.W.L. and on his Ancient Runes N.E.W.T.
Two years of independent research, study, and experimentation post-Hogwarts graduation
Four years of advanced education in magirunology, linguistics, and other related subjects at the London campus of the Euro-Glyph School of Extraordinary Languages, graduating with honors
One year as the Junior Chair and one year as the Senior Chair for Ancient Runes on the Ministry for Magic's Research Committee
Four years teaching specialty classes on Futhark-class runes and rune spell composition theory at his grad-school alma mater, the London campus of the Euro-Glyph

Writing Sample:

"Right," Sachairi stated, glancing at his watch. Time was almost up for this session; he'd better wrap it up. "Now!" He brought his hands together with a clap to get the fifth-year class's attention. "You've been practicing drawing the Elder Futhark with your quills the last few weeks. I believe we also covered basic theory of spell composition for Futhark-class runes, yes?" A few heads nodded; the professor returned the nod. "Yes, well. Now, I am going to draw some runes with my wand. Observe," he said cheerfully, and raised his wand.

He noticed that a few students' eyes went wide, and was pleased - some of them had already spotted the first thing he wanted them to notice. Good kids, he thought silently. Then he proceeded, with quick, precisely controlled motions, to draw a set of runes in the air with his wand - three in all. For a few seconds the glowing runes hovered in the air. Then they began to smoke ominously and detonated with an impressive bang, so that the professor's desk was scorched, his quill burnt to ashes, and his hair set alight. Lazily, Sachairi flicked his wand and extinguished his hair. Then the bell rang, and the class began to gather their things; some of them were used to their professor's eccentricities by now, while others still looked a bit shell-shocked by the unexpected explosion. "Right, homework for next time - what mistakes did I make and why did it blow up? At least twelve inches on parchment, and include a diagram of how I should have done it! Quills only, no wands!" The last sentence was called as a reminder toward the students' retreating backs.

Sum up your character in one paragraph:

An eccentric but well-intended wizard whose enthusiasm for learning and life in general is his most fundamental character trait, the wellspring from which most of the rest of his personality arises. A rare example of an academic who, rather than living in an proverbial ivory tower himself, is more likely to gleefully topple the ivory towers of his colleagues. Upbeat but stubborn, when he gets his mind set on an idea, he is very difficult to dissuade. Although he turned out to be a thinking Gryffindor, he could just as easily have been a daring Ravenclaw; the traits favored by both houses are for the most part strong in him (except perhaps for wisdom, which might explain why he wound up in Gryffindor in the end.)