Martin O'Doherty
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| Martin Dalaigh O'Doherty | |
|---|---|
| Biographical Information | |
| Born | 10 March 1973, 39 |
| Blood status | Pure-blood |
| Physical Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Height | Tall |
| Hair Colour | Black |
| Relationships | |
| Father | Ainbheartach O'Doherty |
| Mother | Neasa O'Doherty |
| Siblings | |
| Extended Family | |
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| Children | |
| Magical Characteristics | |
| Wand(s) | |
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| Education | |
| School | Hogwarts |
| House | Slytherin |
| Class of | 1991 |
| Occupation | |
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| Character Information | |
| Playby | Crispin Glover |
| Will | |
Martin O'Doherty is an attorney and lobbyist, the mover and shaker the wizarding world needs on both sides of the law. For help with legal mumbo jumbo or representation for your defense, you can call on his services...if it will be to benefit of the O'Doherty family. His life is entirely devoted to business as he has purposefully neglected certain members of his family.
History
From the day he was born, Martin was told that if he became an exceptional wizard one day all of this would be his. 'All of this' being in control of the vast O'Doherty fortune. Martin is the eldest child of Ainbheartach and Neasa and as per family tradition, was set to become the successor of the family enterprises as the firstborn son. Thus he always felt superior to his almost a squib sister Suanach and dim-witted brother Torna.
However, Martin was groomed to be the next scion while his parents were in the last of their prime. As such he faced intensive scrutiny. Before he entered Hogwarts in 1983 Martin was paired with a school wand 'until he was able to use the family wand full time.' The also demanded perfection in grades and that he take certain classes or clubs. Even one year they backed the placement of a DADA Professor (as there was a jinx on the profession) just to monitor his school activities.
In Slytherin house, Martin began to feel a loose freedom being apart from his oppressive parents in spite of their meddling. The seeds of rebellion were planted when he found friends and activities just beyond his parents' control. He found that he had a penchant for winning arguments, building a striking number of wins in verbal jousts with friends, rivals, and even professors on the status of some of his assignments. He was able to feign having higher grades for his parents that what his actual knowledge in the subjects were. Buttering up, blackmailing, arguing or loafing off of the efforts of others made Martin more of a social climber in school than an academic achiever.
Post School
By the time he barely passed NEWTs, Martin was growing sick of all the effort his family expected of him to get what should be his rightful inheritance as the next family leader. Pleasure was becoming more enjoyable than business, so to spite his family he schemed a way to abscond with a large portion of the family wealth. Opportunity came when Flourish and Blotts, the booksellers in Diagon Alley, nearly lost everything after misplacing a shipment of Invisible Books of Invisibility. Martin agreed to help his father attempt to purchase the franchise although Torna, still in school, bungled that effort. It did give Martin the chance to swindle his family out of the gold he wanted.
Turning his heels from the O'Doherty family, Martin began a lifestyle to defy all his parents opposed. With his own mansion bought, he began to navigate the high society circles of muggles. Muggles were beneath him, of course, but he could easily impress with his wealth and subtle use of magical ability. It was how he met his wife, Darla Higgins, a beautiful but frail woman easily impressed by his 'charm.' Promising her the world, they wed and lived in luxury until the birth of their only child.
The good years would not last. Martin spent lavishly and his sizable but limited fortune was depleting rapidly. Although he had no other means of income Martin was against the idea of any labor. Although he had developed an interest in magical law but was reluctant to stoop as low as a internship at the ministry.
When Casey was born Martin was bewildered as to what to do with his intersex offspring. Fearing of what his family would do if they discovered he had a 'first born son' of sorts he agreed with his wife to raise Casey as a daughter. But birth had left Darla severely weakened and the child also had health problems. To care for his family Martin worked through the Office of House Elf Relocation to secure an elf, not realizing that the elf he received, Dingy, was the offspring of the O'Doherty family house elves that had raised him for years. This ploy was the start for the O'Dohertys to break their prodigal son.
Faced with ruin, Martin finally accepted work as a clerk in the Wizengamot, hopeful that he would have his own law practice instead of this grunt work. His parents also put out more feelers, suggestions that as was well, everything was water under the bridge and he should visit with his family.
All a lie. His parents had never forgotten how their son had wronged them.
Desperate for the support, Martin agreed to the terms ignorant of the noose he was tying for himself. His parents seized his funds, his elf, his house and his opportunity to secure a career, forcing him back into the fold.
And thus Martin's generation was skipped. Ainbheartach and Neasa finding their children to be a backstabber, a sterile drunk and a third born, all unsuitable successors, they instead concentrated on the grandchildren to fill the role. Casey showed far more magical potential as a child than Martin had. As for being intersex and a half-blood, as long as Darla was shut away and feminine attributes in Casey were discouraged, the O'Doherty family had a new successor.
Martin abandoned his family, in a sense, to the whims of his parents. He has never been close to Casey since then, jealous and conflicted for how his son received all he ever wanted. Freed from the burden of family he continued his work in wizarding law, now that the his parents allowed it. In recent years he bought a business apartment in London to be close to the Ministry and Diagon, a 'freedom' from living in Doherty Manor all the time.
