Donnan McBoid
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| Donnan McBoid | |
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| Biographical Information | |
| Born | 1 October 1933, 84 |
| City of Birth | Mallaig, Scotland |
| Blood status | Pure-blood |
| Physical Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Height | Short |
| Hair Colour | Gray |
| Relationships | |
| Siblings | |
| Extended Family | |
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| Children | |
| Magical Characteristics | |
| Wand(s) | |
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| Education | |
| School | Hogwarts |
| House | Ravenclaw |
| Class of | 1952 |
| Occupation | |
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| Character Information | |
| Playby | Brian Cox |
| Elle | |
Physical Description
Short for a McBoid. Gray, wiry hair. Dark, bushy brows. Simple, classic attire. Receding jaw, but with a hint of stubborn strength.
Personality Description
Donnan has a gruff and grumpy manner. He’s not fond of change and prefers the consistency of routine. He is overly particular and tends to focus on the details rather than the big picture. For the most part he feels like the world is going to hell and that people don’t behave themselves, work hard enough, or appreciate what they have. He lets everyone know about it.
To the few close friends and family in his life, he’s a steady presence. He’s not the most gracious or generous, but he does what he says he will and commits for the long haul.
He prefers to run his own life and manage things himself. He misses working, and is still too stubborn to ask for help when needed.
History
The McBoids have always been connected to the earthier aspects of magic, taking care of the land and the animals. They live on farms and ranches throughout Scotland, in fishing villages, and nearby moors and crumbling castles. They are comfortable with other wizarding folk, and are less interested in their muggle neighbors. They are most comfortable on their own, and are known as one of the quieter, steadier pureblood families.
Donnan was born in the early 1930s on the outskirts of a small fishing port, Mallaig, located on the west coast of Scotland. His parents looked after the kelpies and other magical creatures in Loch Morar and kept them a secret from the muggles living in the area. The Ministry funded their work in return for regular updates. Donnan’s parents were practical and quiet sorts who didn’t talk much unless they had something to say. Donnan spent his early life helping with chores and finding time to read. He saw many muggles struggling financially during the economic crisis and grew up with the impression that the muggle world was dangerous and unstable and constantly at war, and that the wider wizarding world was not much better, with Grindelwald's focus on blood superiority that his family found far too radical.
When he was seven, his younger brother Daniel was born. The age gap and their difference in personalities left them with little in common. They got along well enough growing up, but had their own separate interests and groups of friends, living like friendly acquaintances at school and at home.
Though most McBoids are sorted into Hufflepuff or Gryffindor, Donnan was sorted into Ravenclaw. His family was not fussed by it. They were just glad that Dumbledore had defeated Grindelwald and brought a time of relative peace for their sons to grow up in. They had hopes that Donnan’s reliable and steady nature would lead him to live a life similar to theirs, connected to the land. But that was not to be. After graduating in 1952 with good marks in History, Arithmancy, and Runes, he chose to apprentice with a local bookstore owner in Diagon Alley, and found a place to live there.
His parents were puzzled by this, but accepted it. At least someday he would marry a respectable witch and produce a few quiet, respectable children, they thought. But that was not to be either.
Marianne Fenby was an outgoing, outspoken muggleborn who’d been sorted into Gryffindor with Donnan’s younger brother Daniel. She was younger than Donnan and had been friends with Daniel until he graduated and started taking his parents’ views more seriously.
She often dropped by Donnan's bookstore, which was close to where she worked at the Prophet, and they spent years flirting with each other in the stacks until Marianne decided enough was enough and asked him out. She found Donnan’s gruff manner amusing, while he was fascinated by her muggle background, her passion for such a wide variety of causes, and her tendency to flit in and out of his life.
They married when he was in his late twenties and she was in her early twenties. She soon surprised him with a child. A daughter, Iona, born in 1962. They’d never talked about having kids, and were not completely suited for it. They were also unprepared for the quiet rejection from Donnan’s more traditional family. Donnan’s parents simply didn’t show as much interest in Iona, while offering attention and gifts to Daniel’s pureblood wife and two sons.
Meanwhile, as Iona grew up in the 60s and 70s of Voldemort’s uprising, the McBoids found their lives once again shifting and tilting off balance. Friends and neighbors choose sides, and business slowed just after Donnan was given ownership of the bookstore. Daniel was supportive of his brother in those early days, concerned for him as the war raged on, and he would often invite Iona over to stay with his kids, Angus and Duncan. Donnan would return the favor when he could. Iona grew close to her younger cousins and enjoyed bossing them. In the summer, she often stayed with her cousin Lori in Keswick, who turned out to be a squib. Donnan paid little attention to her friendship with Lori, and assumed it had tapered off much like her other friendships had as Iona had grown older at Hogwarts.
Unfortunately, the differences that had initially drawn Donnan and Marianne together proved challenging as time went on and the wizarding war took its toll. A current of constant tension ran through the house. Donnan and Marianne finally divorced just before Iona’s graduation from Hogwarts. Marianne moved out and Iona moved back home. Though the wizarding war had ended by this time, Donnan was still miserable and missed his wife, and he and his daughter didn’t get along well as she settled into her new job at the Ministry. After a year or two of dealing with Donnan’s grumpiness, Iona decided to move into a flat with her boyfriend, Leander.
Donnan kept working, kept living his life and growing accustomed to the absence of his family over the years. Marianne had found other relationships and friendships in the muggle world and had chosen to stay there for good. The growing distance between himself and his daughter also troubled him, but he didn’t realize that something was truly wrong until December of 1989, when he couldn’t get a hold of Iona or find her at the flat she shared with her boyfriend.
Weeks passed and he became concerned, then frantic as he discovered that no one seemed to know where she was. She’d quit her job at the Ministry and simply disappeared.
He took time off to search on his own, and filed a missing person report on Level Two. However, due to lack of evidence and no sign of foul play, they had little chance and little motivation to find her.
Years, then decades passed without a word. Donnan grew bitter, then sad, and very much alone. He sold his business, and tried to keep busy. He would like to believe, as Marianne does, that Iona left her family behind completely and found another life far away from them. But he can only imagine terrible things.
His nephew Duncan regularly checks in on him and keeps him updated about the fractured McBoid family. Donnan has lost touch with his other nephew, Angus, who keeps his relatives at a distance. Donnan felt badly for Angus when his wife died, but they haven’t yet bridged the gap to help each other recover from their losses.
That may change come November 2011, upon receiving the news that Iona has been found. Not alive, not quite dead, but existing as a pentral in another person’s body.
