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Full Character Name: Rémy Felix Sharp, called Rem by friends
Character Birthday & Age: Born February 7, 1988; 21 years old
City & Country of Birth: Manningtree, United Kingdom
Blood Purity: Halfblood
Alma Mater: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Job/Position: Auror Trainee, Third Year

Wand: 10 and 1/2 inches, Red Oak, Phoenix Feather, Quite Flexible

"You will often hear the ignorant say that red oak is an infallible sign of its owner’s hot temper. In fact, the true match for a red oak wand is possessed of unusually fast reactions, making it a perfect duelling wand. Less common than English oak, I have found that its ideal master is light of touch, quick-witted and adaptable, often the creator of distinctive, trademark spells, and a good man or woman to have beside one in a fight. Red oak wands are, in my opinion, among the most handsome.

Phoenix feather is the rarest core type. They are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own accord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike.

Phoenix feather wands are always the pickiest when it comes to potential owners, for the creature from which they are taken is one of the most independent and detached in the world. These wands are the hardest to tame and to personalise, and their allegiance is usually hard won."

- Garrick Ollivander

Physical Description: In a few words, easy to  underestimate. At just 5'6, Rémy Sharp wouldn't stand out much in a crowd, unless, perchance, it was a crowd of small children...or elves. His lean build doesn't do much to make up for his stature, either. As if to match his lack of physical presence, he treads lightly (but not hesitantly), so much so that he has been known to startle those whose backs are turned as he approaches - often accidentally, but occasionally on purpose in moments of mischief. In fact, not only his walk but his every action is distinguished by a marked precision, from a deft flick of a wand to a nimble duck-and-dodge. Even standing still - which he doesn't do often - he holds an upright yet relaxed posture.

Even at twenty-one, Rémy can appear oddly boyish at times, perhaps due to his height, or perhaps due to his wide, brown eyes that constantly dart around as though to take in every detail of a new face or an unfamiliar scene. He seems to make an effort to comb his hair into neatness, and his hair seems to make an effort not to conform, leading to what looks like a half-hearted attempt at a part with locks of wheat-blonde hair sticking out at odd angles.

Maybe more distracting than his hair, though, is his odd penchant for dressing in vintage clothing, including such items in his regular wardrobe as waistcoats, flat caps, and field boots. His more casual wardrobe consists mostly of plaid shirts and several well-loved pairs of corduroy pants. In fact, the only item of "classy" clothing he refuses to wear is a sweater-vest, commenting disdainfully that "the same way kevlar protects you from bullets, sweater-vests protect you from pretty girls." Whenever anyone comments on the way he dresses, he simply offers a broad grin, as though he enjoys the way his appearance throws people off.

On a side note, Rémy is left-handed, a fact he has exploited on numerous occasions to throw wicked surprise shots from unusual angles. He also has several old, faded scars that curl around the base of his neck and his left shoulder, which might explain why he's almost always wearing something with a collar on it.

Personality Description: In passing, co-workers find that Rémy is not unlike most of his fellow trainees, a bright and hard-working young individual aspiring to one day earn the title of Auror. Though he exudes a certain air of cool confidence, he does not boast about his strong qualities or needlessly push his way into the spotlight, and as a result has spent the last two years in the academy as nothing more than a fleeting face, an acquaintance to his classmates and teachers who turns in surprisingly high marks and then leaves without any further comment.

Those who get to know Rémy, however, discover very quickly his eccentricities. If he keeps his head low and his mouth shut about his best qualities, it's because he likes having an ace up his sleeve. "Bright" is perhaps an understatement. When he speaks, he talks with his hands as well as his mouth, as though words are not enough to express the full extent of an idea. Though a Hufflepuff during his time in school, he has always displayed the creativity and clever wit one would think more characteristic of a Ravenclaw. Some students think outside of the box; for Rémy, the box simply does not exist. He is a natural problem-solver, automatically picking out the quickest solution even in situations where many would see no means to an end. Faced with a puzzle he cannot solve quickly, he may pursue it doggedly to the point of obsession, staying up late nights pondering all angles of the problem. He thinks on his feet, adapts quickly, and as a result was quite the duelist during his school days, blazing a trail of upsets and come-from-behind victories through the ranks of the dueling club.

However, though quick on the uptake in dueling and subjects like Charms or Defense Against the Dark Arts, subjects like Ancient Runes and Arithmancy were more challenging for him. He especially struggled with Potions, which required him to memorize and strictly follow detailed, complex instructions out of his book. For Rémy, a person who couldn't be bothered to bog himself down in minutae and would normally take in details only to discard them once he found the "big picture", this was a subject totally beyond his understanding. That, and the class was just too dull for his tastes, involving a whole lot of paying attention to monotonous lectures and staring at thermometers waiting for cauldron temperatures to peak. A momentary distraction, a forgotten detail, or a misidentified ingredient could ruin a brew or set it ablaze; his favorite part of Potions was probably when a cauldron exploded, lending a bit of excitement to the worst part of his afternoons. Unfortunately the cauldron was usually his. He only scored an "Acceptable" on his NEWT in the subject because he had help from Dylan, who was much more capable of absorbing details and instructions and was able to help him study for the exam. His studies in common poisons and antidotes at the academy have suffered due to his trouble with potions.

With Rémy's ability to think outside of conventional structures comes a certain disregard for rules, a bit of a devil-may-care attitude. Though an excellent student with high grades (at least, in most subjects), during his school years Rémy spent almost as much time playing pranks in the corridors as he spent writing essays in the library.  And yet, he was rarely caught; his best friend, Dylan Fleetwood, often commented it was because he was "like the mouse raiding the pantry, passed up in favor of blaming the rat because the mouse simply looks too innocent." Questioned about his activities the night before or where he went after class on a particular day, he would merely offer an innocent shrug and a sly grin, declaring himself "vindicated by the evidence" - or lack thereof.

This has led to a certain tendency to fly under the nose of authorities when he  thinks it necessary, even now as he trains to become an Auror. While he exercises all proper respect for authority, and takes direct orders generally without question, he has trouble confining himself to things like department policies and warrant laws, not out of arrogance but out of frustration at the way fine print and loopholes in the law inhibit what he sees as the obvious solution to a given dilemma. He has been known to get into passive-aggressive arguments with fellow trainees and even a couple of the older Aurors in regards to having to "jump through hoops of laws just to get anything done," growing increasingly agitated with those who insist on strict adherence to hoop-jumping even in situations where, he feels, this would tie their hands and prevent them from doing the right thing.

Still, in spite of his frustration with the semantics of wizard law, it is his highest ambition to be an Auror, and he pursues it with fierce tenacity, adapting to challenges and overcoming obstacles as he strives to complete training. Questioned about it, he explains shortly that it is simply "his interest," and makes no effort to elaborate. If he is afraid of what he must face in the field, he does not show it; if he has second thoughts about the path of an Auror, he keeps it to himself.

However, this tendency to keep his mouth shut probably hasn't helped him in gaining fieldwork assignments. His "field work" the last couple of months has mostly consisted of acting as the community office assistant in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, alphabetizing files, making coffee, and running paperwork all over the Ministry, much to his continual frustration since he's really bad at it. For one thing, he's about as good at brewing coffee as brewing potions. For another, asking him to organize a desk is like asking a Cornish Pixie to do the work of a Gringott's Goblin. At best, he might take three small disorganized piles of papers and turn them into one large disorganized pile of papers. At worst, he might stare at the desk for twenty minutes waiting for inspiration to strike him, then organizing the personal effects on the desk into a pyramid as an expression of his frustration. His poor organizational skills and his refusal to complain about being consigned to office work have created a vicious cycle; he seems incompetent at worst, so no one gives him fieldwork assignments, and thus he has no opportunity to do any work he might be halfway competent at. His concealed frustration with this fact is probably what drove him to start conducting individual investigations on the side, without departmental permission.

Rémy sees big pictures and connections, but retains details poorly as a result. He has big ideas, but has trouble making them happen due to his lack of organizational skills. He adapts quickly, but his long-term planning skills suffer for it. In short, a visionary thinker who has unfortunate troubles with structuring his thinking (and often his actions, too).

History: Perhaps out of fear for their relationship, Tobias Sharp never confessed to his muggle fiancée he was a wizard until a month before they were to be married. It was a testament to Abigail Cleary's stubborn wilfulness that, rather than call off the engagement then and there, she responded without missing a beat that "If he was trying to get rid of her with boorish excuses he would have to do a lot better than that." They were married the next month, in the year 1986, and within two years' time welcomed a baby boy into their humble cottage on the outskirts of tiny Manningtree.

The couple debated heatedly on what to name their son; Tobias wanted to name him after his grandfather, Remigius Sharp, while Abigail insisted vehemently that it was "an absolutely crude-sounding name." They finally came to a compromise by using the French variant of the name, Rémy, and so the matter was decided.

For nine years, Rémy Sharp grew and flourished in their home, a small mill by a sleepy stream, attending school with Muggle children while his mother worked as a clerk in the local post office and his father worked as a reporter at the Daily Prophet. The boy never produced any magic, leaving his father to worry that perhaps he might be a squib, but he displayed an intense curiosity at the world around him and an inventive spirit that sought to manipulate it. He would not only bring home frogs and snakes in his pockets, but proceed to hide them from his parents and build homes for them in his attic room. It was just such an endeavor that brought the Sharps their first dog; for two weeks, Rémy hid the Saint Bernard puppy in his room, until finally a foul odor alerted them to the presence of something other than their son in the attic. Over the years, they gradually built up a menagerie of a dog, three cats, two owls and a mole in their home, all brought in by their son. Little unfinished projects often littered tables and floors, from card towers to broken gadgets pulled from the muddy riverbank. pencils, quills, and books often seemed to disappear when not supervised by a watchful eye, only to turn up later in odd places.

Often, after school, Rémy spent time at his grandfather's across town while waiting for his parents to come home from work. Remigius Sharp had at one time been an Auror, until the loss of a leg (replaced by a wooden prosthetic) during the First Wizarding War forced him to retire to his sturdy cottage on the banks of the River Stour. His wife, also an Auror, had been killed in the same war; two of his three sons had succumbed to magical illnesses before reaching the age of seventeen, and his sole daughter had run away with a man from the village after Tobias moved out of the house. And yet, the old man never appeared to succumb to grief, as loud and brazen in his opinions as ever, spending his days patiently fishing by the river and his nights shamelessly drunk at the local pub. By the time Rémy reached the age of five, his parents suspected that his grandfather had imparted some of this stubborn, unyielding attitude to the boy, as he developed a marked habit of playing tough and refusing to cry even at the most painful of scrapes and broken bones. Even the time he fell out of a tree in the garden and had to be put on crutches for a month, Rémy put on his best game face and hobbled off to school without so much as a single sniffle.

All of this was before 1997, when the Second Wizarding War fell upon Great Britain like a savage beast. By August, Death Eaters took control of the Ministry and the Prophet, with Tobias Sharp and a few others the only staff members who refused to yield and become part of the Dark Lord's new propaganda machine. In response, the Death Eaters lashed out savagely at the families of the holdouts, killing some and kidnapping others to cow them into submission. In a tragic turn of events, Abigail was murdered, while Rémy and several other family members of Tobias' co-workers were kidnapped and held hostage in Azkaban, effectively stomping out whatever resistance had been left at the Prophet. Tobias did not see his son again until the spring of 1998, after Voldemort was defeated and the Muggle-borns, "blood traitors", and political prisoners in Azkaban were released.

Rémy refused to talk about his time spent in the wizarding prison, but in fact, the trauma of the ordeal served to draw out his innate magical abilities that had lain dormant until then. Remarkably, for a ten-year-old, he was savvy enough to keep this a secret from the prison guards, and used it to help him survive the long months spent in prison. He was also lucky enough to befriend an older Muggle-born witch named Wendelin Mcgruder, herself an Auror who had been imprisoned several weeks before him. Or, perhaps, it was Wendelin who befriended him. She was one of the few people he could rely on during his time there; after the war, he never saw her again.

Once the war was over and the prisoners released, life returned to relative peacefulness. Rémy received his invitation to Hogwarts by the summer of 1998, and was sorted into Hufflepuff house, where he made friends with a quiet, studious young boy named Dylan Fleetwood. The following summer of 1999 his father re-married to Geminya Laney, a witch and long-time friend who had provided comfort as best she could for the man following his wife's murder and his son's abduction.

Rémy, however, had determined - partly through the influence of his grandfather, and partly through his time spent as a hostage of Dark Wizards - that there was nothing else for him but to be an Auror once he graduated from Hogwarts in 2006. To this end, he drove himself tenaciously through school, achieving every OWL and mastering every NEWT he could manage by the time he could graduate. It was no simple task - he had trouble with subjects like Arithmancy and Potions - but together with Dylan, who also wanted to be an Auror but had trouble in subjects that Rémy excelled at, and vice versa, they combined their talents to help each other through their schoolwork and make it into the academy.

For the first two years of basic training beginning in 2007, Rémy lived at home with his father and stepmother, in a terse but uneventful standoff of values - neither parent felt comfortable with his taking up such a dangerous occupation, chasing Dark Wizards, but Rémy refused to be swayed from his path. By the time the third year rolled around, in which he would be participating in constant field work, he knew he would no longer be able to live with them; anticipating late nights at work and more than a few cuts and bruises, he decided that rather than cause Tobias and Geminya further distress by exposing them firsthand to the consequences of his new line of work, he would move out. So he did; along with Dylan, who was experiencing his own troubles at home, he began boarding with an elderly squib in London. Mrs. Bella Potts, a widow with a few too many years infused into her creaking bones and no magic to help her get around, now allows them free reign of her upstairs in exchange for their doing chores and repairs around the house (and occasionally, cooking for her).

Even as he is beginning to participate in fieldwork, however, Rémy is embroiled in several secretive pursuits of his own, mainly sticking his nose into various criminal investigations with highly questionable and definitely unauthorized snooping trips around Knockturn Alley. He has taken a special interest in one of the shops in the shady district, and regularly stakes it out as inconspicuously as possible. Even while working for the law, his tendency to sneak behind it and bend rules is liable to drag him into trouble one day.

Describe your job duties and how you go about them: As a trainee in his third year , Rémy is called upon to participate in a great deal of fieldwork, although like any other trainee he is never given anything too challenging - something that actually frustrates him at times, since he has been looking forward to fieldwork since day one. On occasions "field work" actually translates to "office lap dog," a role he fulfills with a stiff smile and gritted teeth. He is also easily able to summon a fully-formed Patronus Charm that takes the form of a red fox.

Elaborate on your expertise in your field: Rémy graduated school with six NEWTs over "E," putting him above the minimum for consideration as an Auror. He scored at the level of "Outstanding" in Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Transfiguration, while his scores were "Exceeds Expectations" in Arithmancy, Astronomy, and Ancient Runes. His only sticking point was Potions, in which he scored only an "Acceptable." However, his interview skills were enough to pull him over that particular hump in the road. Consistent with his skills, the only courses he had any significant trouble with in the academy were Magical Law and Potions and Antidotes; with the rest, he either excelled or adapted. Rémy is at his best in situations that require him to think and react quickly, and works well under pressure - if troubled, he won't show it until after things have settled down and the adrenaline recedes.

Writing Sample: In retrospect, there were probably better ways to spend the day than curled up in a gutter in Knockturn Alley, feigning a debilitating hangover (or possibly worse).

Unfortunately the three cups of coffee jetting through his system wouldn't let Rémy focus on that thought - or any thought, really - for more than fifteen seconds. But the coffee had been necessary, because: one, he'd stayed up all night preparing his disguise, and two, it added a nice, natural yellow stain to the crooked fake teeth he'd purchased from a Muggle joke shop. To further the disguise, he wore a saggy cap that flopped awkwardly atop his head, a tweed coat so oversized that it made him look bigger than he really was, and a pair of frayed trousers baggy enough to need a belt just to stay on. Finally, to complete the impression of a beggar wizard down on his luck, he'd taken a moment to roll around in Mrs. Pott's dirty fireplace, which Dylan had yet to clean, acquiring a nice coat of soot that would make even the sleaziest of vagabonds jealous.

He sat slouched in the dirty gutter, back in a shady spot beneath the eaves of a run-down building, watching the dimly-lit shop across the street and hoping he looked like he'd passed out there. If one of the skulking witches or wizards who frequented the shady district passed too close, he emitted a low, grumbling snore, as though asleep; most of them hmphed quietly and went on their way. Occasional one would come and tap him sharply on the head with a walking stick; he would hold still, resisting the urge to reach out, grab said stick, and strike its owner in the stomach with a quick, sharp shove, instead holding still and enduring the taunting until they walked off with a short bark of a laugh. Periodically, he would scan the area, cap pulled low to conceal his face, but for the most part he held still and just watched the shop.

Hawkes' Wares was a fairly booming business for Knockturn Alley's usual traffic, or at least the well-kept - if forbidding - appearance of the building seemed to indicate as much. He could see a cluttered assortment of items stacking the walls and floors of the shop, and occasionally the owner of the shop, a thin, sallow man with a long, hooked nose that matched the name of his shop bustled past, greeting a customer with suave grace or replacing some odd-looking item on a shelf. If Rémy shifted his attention and looked up, a couple of nasty-looking Griffon Vultures perched on the eaves of the shop, glaring down at passers-by in the streets.

However, at that moment a new customer arrived with tell-tale, sharp pop of apparition coming from somewhere nearby. Rémy homed in on this new customer at once, a tall, well-groomed woman who looked a bit too nicely dressed for this part of town. Given the chance, he would have taken the opportunity to commit her face to memory for later reference, but at that moment the tip of a wand snuck up under the brim of his cap and lifted it up. Alarmed, he jerked back; a broad, angry-looking face decorated with at least two days' worth of stubble filled up his field of view. Footsteps nearby told him Stubbly had brought friends.

"Oy, lil' bloke smells more like coffee than alcohol," Stubbly growled to his friends. Then, getting a little too close for comfort, he asked menacingly, "Wotcher doin' here anyway, 'ey?"

His intuition took that moment to inform him, Hey, Rem, that's enough observation today, don't you think? and his common sense, stunted though it was, agreed wholeheartedly. Wrinkling his nose in disgust at Stubbly's dragonbreath, he dodged the question by replying, "A-ha, well now, I'd rather you bought me dinner before invading my personal space like this. Maybe next time?"

And he promptly disapparated, leaving Stubbly stooped awkwardly over an empty gutter.

Sum up your character in one paragraph: Though he appears quite ordinary at first, Rémy is a clever and tenacious young recruit to the ranks of the Aurors, in his third year of training on his way to becoming a full-fledged member of the Magical Law Enforcement. As bright and adaptable as he is, he also tends to be a bit secretive and unpredictable, sometimes not quite rule-abiding; still, he always means the best at heart, even if he can't always bring himself to quite follow policy. A combination of his grandfather's influence and several traumatic experiences during the Second Wizarding War have honed him into the person he is and the Auror he wants to be.