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Can be your first name or a nickname.) Jen
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Full Character Name: Gwydion Ambrosius Mayberry
Character Birthday & Age: April 1st, 1965; 43 yrs old
City & Country of Birth: York, North England
Pureblood, Halfblood or Muggleborn?: Halfblood
Alma Mater: Hogwarts, Hufflepuff
Job: inventor/magical toy maker; libertine, bohemien

Wand: Rosewood, 9 ½ inches, core: Demiguise hair
A very flexible wand, it is good for big, showy magick as well as accurate, detailed work. Works well with nature magic, but is rather useless for dueling. Its appearance is a rather feminine one, with a delicately carved handle and its light wood sporting a rosy tint.

Physical Description: A full head of hair, grey and curly, is the first impression you´ll get upon seeing Gwydion Mayberry. He is currently trying to get used to the fact that grey has replaced his natural auburn colour, and has once tried to transfigure it back, but it was a halfhearted attempt since he doesn´t really care that much. Gwydion also always forgets to shave and tends to consider himself clean-shaven even if he´s already sporting a beard of several days.
At average height, Gwydion is slim and well-proportioned; this mostly to the fact that he often forgets to eat and is constantly in motion – not doing sports of any kind, but working on all sorts of projects.
The most remarkable thing about him though (apart from the hair) is his smile. He´s almost always wearing one, if not on his lips then in his green-brown eyes, his face changing expression completely when he´s serious, to the extent that people do not recognize him when he´s glum – which he rarely is.

(Optional list)
Build/Body type: slim, leptosome/athletic mix
Estimated Height/Weight: ~180 cm, ~70 kg
Hair color: grey (was once auburn)
Eye color: a greenish brown
Skin color: white
First Impression: see above
Any odd/outstanding features?: see above

Personality Description: Open-minded, liberal, tolerant, optimistic, good-natured, sees the good in people, creative; a libertine and a bohemian, Gwydion doesn´t care much about rules and regulations unless they´re made for the benefit of people (which, he finds, is almost never true of rules and regulations). He gets by due to his charm and the fact that he doesn´t need much; he doesn´t care much for possessions and values the fact that he is able to travel the world as he pleases above all material things. He had several job offers (one with Zonko´s joke shop) (is it okay if I put that in? Is there anyone I´d have to ask for permission?), but declined even the best ones because he loathes being tied to a place. Gwydion does keep a tiny flat in London, but he rarely stays there, preferring to travel around and crash wherever someone offers him a couch, or a bunk, or a spot on the floor really. He had a stroke of luck once with one of his inventions, which he sold to a big company. The money he received back then is still in his bank account in Gringott´s, and if Gwydion ever finds the key to his vault that he misplaced somewhere, he could be considered reasonably well-off, though by no means rich. As of now, he hasn´t had the time for a thorough search, preferring to borrow money from the bank (the goblins of course know it´s in there, and have no problem lending him money since they charge him an interest rate) rather than spend his precious time searching for the silly key.

History:
Gwydion Mayberry was born into a magical family with the occasional halfblood or muggleborn (and even, never confirmed rumours say, a squib) somewhere in the family tree. He was the younger of two children, his sister Angela being 13 years older than him.

Gwydion was always a sunny child, curious in more than one sense. As soon as he started talking (and he learnt it faster than most children) he did not stop asking questions. His parents found him to be intelligent, but very demanding to look after; he was never where he was supposed to be, he drove his mother nuts at a very young age by constantly disappearing from her side whenever he saw something interesting that caught his eye - and practically everything did.

They were quite relieved when he was old enough to be sent to Hogwarts, where he was sorted into Hufflepuff. Being a social person, he made friends easily; he ran the school paper for half a term, until a caricature that showed the loathed Arithmancy teacher in a none-too-favourable light got him removed. They stripped him of his editor post for printing the incriminated caricature - had they known that he was the artist too, they might have expelled him altogether.

As a student, Gwydion was torn between brilliance and failure. If he found something interesting, he would plunge fully into it and devote his whole time to that particular subject; most often that would happen in Charms and Muggle Studies. But if he found that something was beside the point, or boring, he made no effort at all, barely managing to scrape a passing grade in those subjects - most notably, Summoning and Divination.

After graduation, his father arranged an internship with the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. Although Gwydion was not enthusiastic about it, he succumbed to his father´s wishes. It was painfully clear from moment one on that Gwydion and the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office were not compatible in the least. They were a law enforcement unit, and he was a person who did not think much of the legal system in the first place. After a few weeks, following some minor episodes, he was kicked out for possession of an enchanted muggle item, a wristwatch that he had bewitched to tell not only the time, but also the exact age of anyone who came closer than two metres to the bearer. Not only had he enchanted the muggle item, he was also caught red-handed trying to hand it over to a muggle antiques seller. The only thing that saved him from being actually prosecuted was the fact that he hadn´t intended to sell the watch - he had given it to the muggle as a gift, because the man showed genuine interest in it.

That was only the first in a row of unpleasant encounters that Gwydion would have with the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office; after a while, they put him on the list of top suspects who are likely to commit a misdemeanour, and they pay him regular visits to this day. However, rather than regard him as a criminal, they have pegged him for an unguided missile type of person - which is, in their eyes, probably worse, because it makes him less predictable.

After that episode, Gwydion went on to have several internships and apprenticeships - wandlore, potioneering, herbology amongst them; but nothing appealed to him so much that he could imagine doing it professionally for the rest of his life. Until he had an apprenticeship with a maker of magical toys. Gwydion stayed with him until the old man died; the toymaker had not been rich by all means, his shop had to be sold in order to pay off the debts, but he left all his tools to his apprentice, and Gwydion put them to good use, inventing all sorts of new toys and useful (or simply pretty) items. He never opened up a shop of his own though, preferring to offer his goods on the road all over the world. Often, he would take orders for toys and manufacture them on request, but sometimes, if he decided he did not like the customer, he would refuse to hand the item out and keep it to himself.

Gwydion does not make only toys however - he likes to fabricate all sorts of things; among others, he has experience in broom manufacturing, has built astronomy devices and created a special alloy that is used in cauldron-making (specifically for cauldrons used for highly acidic concoctions).

As for his parents, they have accepted his choice of lifestyle, although they still wish he´d finally settle down and find a “real” job, as they put it. His older sister Angela likewise doesn´t approve of Gwydion´s profession, but she liked to have him around for a while because he seemed to be the only one who could, at times, talk sense into her son Leoman (see: Leoman Gild, criminal - relation approved by Leoman´s writer). Being only eight years older than his nephew, Gwydion tended to see him as a younger brother rather than a nephew; and therefore, being protective of him, he sometimes infuriated Angela by taking Leo´s side instead of his sister´s. Gwydion and Leo have lost contact somewhat after Leoman´s stretch in Azkaban, Gwydion having returned from a long trip only shortly after Leo´s release.

What is your occupation? How do you go about it?
Toy maker and inventor (of magical toys/items). Gwydion does not keep a shop, but he has built up a solid reputation over the years that has secured him a basic stock of clients. He supplies them with his goods on demand or visits them regularly to present his new collection. And he works all the time on new projects, regardless of whether anyone sent in an offer for that particular item to be produced or not - most of the time, he just does what he pleases, and if someone wants to buy it, all the better.

How did you get your current occupation?
Following an apprenticeship with Diagon Alley toymaker Emmett Farling, Gwydion inherited his late master´s tools and took over his small stock of clients. Being interested in all sorts of mechanisms, he started to experiment with some ideas he had for inventions; generally, he considers himself an inventor rather than a mere toymaker.

How does your past and abilities justify your current skills?: An open mind, a vivid imagination and the desire to explore the limits of the possible lie at the core of Gwydion´s talent for inventing new things. He was never a very powerful wizard (his dueling record is appalling, he was probably the only member of the Hogwarts dueling club who never won a single duel. There is even an entry in his yearbook referring to this fact. Needless to say, he was never fazed by his defeats and participated in duel club year after year - for the sheer fun of it, as he said); however, he is very meticulous and his wandwork is spot on. With Muggle Studies being one of his favourite subjects at school, he is well acquainted with the mechanical side of his trade.

Writing Sample:
Show your character in a scene that illustrates the best and worst aspects of their personality. Include action, dialog and thought.

“What is this?”

The small metallic object slid over the surface of the table and came to a whirling halt before Gwydion.
He looked up and gave the sullen-looking ministry official an innocent smile.

“Why, that´s a compass. A muggle means to -“

“I know what a compass is, thank you Mr. Mayberry. How did you come into the possession of this particular item?”

“Oh, it´s not mine”, Gwydion stated airily, unimpressed by the man´s glare. He leaned back in the rather uncomfortable chair and crossed one leg over the other. For a moment, he wondered whether he should ask permission to smoke his pipe, but that might not bode too well with the man interrogating him. As a matter of fact, he was positive that such a request would only serve to enrage Hatfield even further.

The investigator´s name was Wesley Hatfield, he worked for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office, and he was an old - though by no means well-loved - acquaintance of Gwydion´s. At this precise moment he looked like he was sorely tempted to draw his wand and levitate Gwydion straight into a prison cell.

Gwydion decided to take out his pipe after all.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?!” snapped Hatfield. Gwydion lowered his pipe and raised his eyebrows questioningly, then nodded as if he´d suddenly remembered something, and muttered apologetically “Oh, smoking ban, right? Terribly sorry. You were saying, Mr. Hetfield?”

“I wasn´t saying anything - you are supposed to answer my questions!” bellowed Hatfield. A drop of sweat was building up on his forehead, then slowly slipping down towards his hollow cheek, where he wiped it off impatiently. The thin man grabbed a chair, clanking loudly, and settled himself on it, glowering at Gwydion across the table. Gwydion, dressed impeccably in a light grey suit with a purple polkadotted scarf around his neck, returned the glare with a look of polite interest.

“Oh, right. Well, where were we? Ah, the compass. It´s not mine, as I said. I was merely asked to repair it, you know. And that I did. And then I gave it back to its owner. Simple as that. Was that all you wanted to know?”

Hatfield snorted. “You gave it a little magical tweak though before giving it back, didn´t you?”

Gwydion shrugged and held up his hands, palms upwards. “I might have, yes. A little added value. Hardly a crime, is it?”

“It is, Mr. Mayberry, if the owner is a muggle! You turned this compass into a magical object, which you then handed over to a muggle!”

His eyebrows creasing, Gwydion seemed to seriously consider Hatfield´s words. Then he said slowly, his head tilted thoughtfully to the side, “Hm, well, I think you have a point there… I might have gotten a little carried away. I always strive to do my best, you know. And a compass is just so much better when in addition to the North, it also points out the direction of the nearest bar.” 

Drawing out a handkerchief, Hatfield wiped his forehead and face, stifling a groan. Mayberry was a hopeless case, and the most frustrating thing about him was that he always seemed to know how far he could go so would get issued a fine instead of sent to prison. Hatfield didn´t buy the man´s innocent act, not a second of it, and if it were for him he´d stuffed Mayberry into a cell long ago. But he was only the interrogator, and he had to abide the law, even if subjects like Mayberry thought they could do without it, and so, again, he had to grit his teeth and let the nutjob get away with a fine.


Sum up your character in one paragraph:
Gwydion radiates energy and good vibes wherever he goes. Generally, he is very open and interested in other people´s views of the world. If someone is depressed he will try to cheer them up, but if he feels they are just being negative, he´ll eventually leave; he thinks life´s too precious to spend it sulking. Although he is well-loved by most people due to his approachable nature, he can be a little tiresome when he´s just started a new project, because he´ll want to talk about it to everyone he meets, then run away in the middle of a conversation due to a flash of inspiration that he has to implement this very moment.