Full Character Name: Griffon Winstonian Manley
Character Birthday & Age: May 15 // 42
City & Country of Birth: Pembrokeshire, Wales
Blood Purity: Halfblood
Alma Mater: Gryffindor / Hogwarts
Job/Position: RCMC: Head of the Beast Division
Wand: Griffon's wand is made of cherry wood and is 14 3/4 inches long. It's pliable with a bent shaft and unicorn tail hair core.
Physical Description: Griffon has a very strong presence. He stands at 6'5", and is very broad. He has thick muscles, and is in incredible shape for his age given his previous occupation of yeti-wrangling. He definitely strikes a person as a manly, outdoorsy man- because that is definitely what he is. Griffon has a thick smattering of chest hair, and often shows it off with open neck shirts. Women like it, or so he says.
His eyes are blue, and he has short, messy brown hair. Do to his age, Griffon is starting to go gray- and he is proud of the fact, claiming he has earned each and every gray hair. His smile is charming and easy going, and his face has the crinkle of laughter lines. It's not uncommon for him to sport a beard a five-o-clock shadow. Griffon is more comfortable in muggle clothes than robes. If he has something important going on in the ministry, or if the boss says so, he'll wear his wizarding robes- but typically he wears jeans and button downs. It's easier to chase beasts when you aren't encumbered by robes, after all.
Personality Description: Griffon is very passionate and dedicated to things that he believes in. This is most noticeable in his beliefs about the rights of creatures and beasts. Griffon believes that magical beasts have the right to life- even if they are dangerous. He is also a supporter of werewolf rights- which is a very hot topic right now. Griffon worked to try to change things in Tibet, but wasn't able to do it- so he intends to make some changes at home and prevent things from ending up the way that they did in Tibet. As a persistent and determined person, Griffon fully expects to make great strides and hopes to get the whole of the RCMC to work together to accomplish this.
He has a great since of humor, and enjoys going out with his friends and playing pranks. Since he's come back to the Ministry of Magic, Griffon's new game is torturing people in other departments with harmless pranks. One of his major goals is to instigate a great prank war between the different levels. For the most part he's just as good of a sport when he's the victim of a prank as he is when he's the mastermind.
Griffon is typically easy going and friendly. He enjoys all people of all ages, races, birth rights, and diversities. He's open minded and is mostly concerned with not making a lot of enemies. Even so, he is definitely not a doormat. Griffon doesn't allow people to walk all over them, and speaks his mind when other people insult him or those that he cares about. He thinks that some people are just too big for their britches, and has no problems putting them into their place if need be.
Although he is generally a good guy, and is very passionate about changing the world and supports equality, Griffon does have the tendency to be very selfish with his personal relationships. Griffon often expects others to drop what they are doing to cater to him if he needs it- this is a selfishness that he has likely learned from his father. He tends to get peeved at his friends when they don't cater to his ego and will often blow up and say things he shouldn't. Typically he immediately apologizes, and is always trying to make up for some sort of relationship related screw up.
Though he is in his forties now, Griffon is unattached and does not have a family. He dates, but is not a man concerned with commitment. This is not to say that he enjoys one night stands- he does not, Griffon doesn't think that women should be used in such a way. He enjoys sex as much as the next guy, but only sleeps with women that he is very close to. Typically he ends up with his friends in those kinds of situations, out of the fear of inadvertently breaking hearts. Most of the time he just likes to take pretty women out on the town and enjoy a nice evening together without any expectations. Griffon is somewhat of a flirt, but most of the time her flirts without any real intention. He thinks all women deserve to feel good about themselves, and if a well placed compliment in their day accomplishes that, then there is nothing wrong with it.
History: Griffon Winstonian Manley was born to a muggle mother (Bronwyn Manley) and a wizarding father (Argyle Canterbury). His mother's family had a cattle farm in Wales, and his father was a member of the wizengamot and former auror. When Griffon was born, his father was already forty years old- and shortly after he turned three, his father and mother would eventually divorce. His mother refused to give up her muggle life for her husband, and his father could not have a wife who refused to live in the wizarding world. The two divorced, and Bronwyn gave her son her own last name.
Growing up, Griffon's mother never spoke of his father. He was sent to muggle school, and he spent his free time doing chores on the cattle farm. His father was absent until he was about ten years old- at which point Argyle started to come around, trying to bond with his son. He explained to his son that he was a wizard, and told him all about Hogwarts. It took a lot to convince Griffon of the truth, but he eventually came to accept it, and was just glad that his dad was going to be around. He had always wanted to get to know him.
He would enter Hogwarts at the age of elven and be sorted into Gryffindor- just as his old man had been. Griffon had no problems making friends, being a charming and adventurous young boy. He quickly became known as a trouble maker, often playing pranks on his friends and getting into trouble for cutting up in class. Griffon's father, instead of disciplining him, often encouraged him in his antics. His mother was mostly indifferent to his wizarding education- sad that her only son was not going to grow up with the life that she had.
In his later years of Hogwarts, his mother would re-marry. She married a muggle man that Griffon quickly learned to love. They got along very well, but his father was soon incredibly jealous about this budding relationship. Argyle did not like the idea of some other man intervening in his son's life. Griffon vaguely understood the complications behind it, and when his father offered for him to come and live with him, he had a hard time turning him down. Griffon was worried that it would ruin their relationship, but it did not. Eventually it would be decided that Griffon could spend summers and holidays with his dad.
After graduating Hogwarts, Griffon knew he wanted to work with magical creatures. He loved animals, and magical creatures and beasts were incredibly fascinating to him. He got a job doing some basic grunt work for the RCMC fresh out of school, and at that point decided to move in with his father for the convenience of getting to and from work. Though his mother was sad, she understood, and wished her son the best. She had a new baby to think of at this point, anyway- another little boy that she named Broderick.
Griffon would spend almost five years as a peon in the RCMC before he was promoted to the Committe for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. His task was not to decide what creatures would die- but he basically had the task of hunting down the creatures/beasts deemed dangerous (if they were not in captivity) and to put them down for the good of wizarding society. The years he would spend in this position gained him a lot of respect from others in his department. Griffon's opinion could often sway those who made the decisions, and many times he could have his way with things.
At the age of twenty-seven, after spending five years in this role, Griffon found himself being courted by an international task force based in Tibet. The task force was put into place to prevent muggle sightings of yetis, and he would eventually agree and find himself living there. Griffon's job was now to alter the memories of any muggles who had close encounters, and to help cover up the truth if any yeti attacks ended in untimely deaths. Often he and his partners would capture yetis and relocated them to less populated areas. He got to help protect the beasts and the population at the same time- and he liked that.
However, the longer he spent on this task force, the more things began to chance. In the last few years he was on the force it became less about rehoming and protecting the yeti population, and more about dealing with muggles and having to kill the yetis. Griffon disagreed with this entirely. The yetis were not trolling villages- the muggles were hunting them out and encroaching on their territory. Griffon disagreed with killing creatures that were not at fault. He was often getting into arguments and latercations with his coworkers and superiors over this matter.
Griffon eventually found himself discovering that the head of the beast division was open- and he was very interested. He applied for the position, and due to his own beliefs on creature/beast rights (including werewolf rights), it was not hard to convince Gertrudis that he was right for the job. After gaining his promotion, Griffon moved into one of his father's properties in London. He has been working as the head of the Beast Division for three months at this point, and spends a lot of his time interfering with other departments in the RCMC and poking his nose into Level Four. For whatever reasons, he finds the aurors to be great targets for his various pranks (because he has definitely not grown out of it) and he is very interested in what they are up to. (The truth of the matter is that a lot of this has to do with the fact he misses being out in the field and having some danger in his life.)
Describe your job duties and how you go about them: Griffon is the new head of the beast division for the RCMC department of the Ministry of Magic. The Beast Division specializes in maintaining relationships with goblins and centaurs, as well as maintaining control over other beasts- like dragons. The division is also responsible for the disposal of dangerous creatures. As the head of this department, it is Griffon's job to ensure that the different teams are accomplishing their goals and getting their work done efficiently and properly, as well as overseeing any legal issues that fall under his jurisdiction.
Elaborate on your expertise in your field: Fresh out of Hogwarts, Griffon joined the RCMC doing some basic work with the Beast Division. At the age of 22 he was promoted to the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. His original duties included being a hunter/executioner of creatures that posed a real thread to the wizarding world. Griffon's opinion would eventually become valuable to those who made decisions on which beasts needed to be put down or relocated. He spent five years with this department before being drafted into an international task force established in Tibet.
This task force had the job of preventing yeti sightings by muggles, as well as memory alterations of those who had close encounters (and would live to tell about it). The original job of this task force was to capture and rehome yetis to less populated areas. The older that he got, the less it became about preserving yetis and the more it came to putting them down- which was something he disagreed with.
After working for the RCMC for over twenty years, the head of the beast division came open. Griffon was interested in the position, hoping to prevent any ill advised killings of creatures in his homeland. The promotion was easy to come by, considering his views are so closely matched to that of the head of the RCMC- Miss Gertrudis.
Sum up your character in one paragraph: Griffon is a man who intends to make a difference in the world for magical beasts and creatures- including beings and spirits. He is very dedicated to whatever tasks he undertakes, whether it is work related or otherwise. Griffon enjoys life to the fullest, and doesn't believe in wasting days when they could be so shortly numbered. He's fun loving, easy going, and still has a great sense of adventure. His sense of humor is something that most people enjoy about Griffon. He loves his family and friends, and is working hard to settle back into a normal every day life since he is no longer in Tibet.
Griffon Manley: Head of the RCMC