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2018 3 31
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Animagus Legilimens Metamorphmagus Occlumens Parseltongue Seer Veela Charm
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Reid is a large and intimidating presence, though his charismatic and sociable nature offsets this. He is by all accounts charming, friendly and flirtatious when you get past his initial facade on no-nonsense seriousness. Would you like to be his friend? Of course you would. He exudes a magnetic charm that draws people towards him, even if he doesn't aways look to be the friendliest of chaps. Generally, his demeanor is still approachable making him easy to get along with. He has a knack for making people feel comfortable in his presence, even when he is at one of his lows. He was a chaotic child and a degenerate teenager, though he no longer allows his temper or inner turmoil to rule his life; he still carries a wide range of emotions which can often be interpreted based off his facial expressions even when he does not vocalize them. ==Appearance== Reid is a tall and muscular man, standing at 6 feet 1 inch with a broad and well-defined frame. He is a large man, there's just no other way to phrase it and he definitely commands attention when he enters a room. He works out, a lot. One might think out of vanity, but the more exhausted he is at night often leads to dreamless sleep, which is how he prefers it. A side effect of this is obviously a more toned body than most, though the attention he gains from this is embarrassing to him most of the time. Overall, he is what most would describe as conventionally handsome. He has a somewhat distinctive jawline and depending on where he's at in his fitness journey, his cheekbones will be either smooth and non-existent or sharper and more defined. He has the type of green eyes that appear to change from one day to the next but it truly just depends on the lighting in the room or the time of day. His hair is a dirty blonde, usually styled in a sophisticated manner early on, but as the day progresses it never seems to last. Despite his large size, Reid has a gentle aura thanks to his warm smile and friendly demeanor. His smooth and deep voice adds to his charm and charisma, making him approachable for the most part. On the flip side, his face often reflects his inner thoughts so there's that... ==Personality== Reid can be a little here and there in a conversation. He may seem completely normal for most or all of a conversation and then go off on a tangent without even realizing it. For the most part, he is a pretty serious guy, though he has his moments where he can be friendly and flirtatious but always leaves it at the door, oftentimes leading people on without even realizing it. He is somewhat of a 'cool' teacher, turning a blind eye to most mischief but there's only so much someone can ignore. Despite this, to his students he never appears to have any kind of fun outside of work. His constant way of appearing to be slightly distracted at all times quickly earned him a reputation, appearing dark and dangerous without even meaning to. Something is clearly on his mind at all times and no one knows what, which makes him appear unpredictable. Reid has phases where he is seemingly one step away from becoming a highly functional alcoholic. He will drink heavily and often. Then for the next several months he may not drink a drop. It usually coincides with periods where he feels drawn to his more.. instinctive talents and his want to suppress it. Despite this, he still has little to no control when or if he will have a vision, though it does help him to forget them or more easily convince himself it was 'just a dream.' ==History== Reid's background is very need to know, and he doesn't feel as though very many people need to. Those in the old-school [[Potion]] or [[Herbology]] world might recognize his family name but it's few and far between given the distance and the fact that the Hightowers have been out of business for over twenty years. He was born into a family of skilled potion-makers who owned a renowned apothecary in a small village, hidden in the [[United States|Appalachian Mountains]]. From a young age, he was fascinated by the art of potion-making and spent hours in his family's workshop, carefully studying the intricate processes and properties of various herbs and ingredients. And also, because... you know... they were out in the middle of nowhere. What in the world else was there to do? Not. A. Damn. Thing. At around age 6, his parents divorced after a hellish few months of fighting and his mother took a small pile of gold (and Reid) to [[United Kingdom|England]]. Her grandmother had been an English witch and she was convinced she wanted to see the world, though after moving she never found it in her to travel any further. She settled in the small village of Dedham, growing her own ingredients and selling beauty products to get by. As much as Reid wanted to ignore the reality of it, he missed the sounds and smells of the shop, as well as the constant stream of people coming and going to purchase their ingredients or potions. His mother excelled in her small specialty, but she was not on the same level as his father or his father or his father before him. Reid, mostly out of boredom, began to act out. He would walk to the park and smoke with the delinquent muggle boys, get into fights and generally be an arse. As he got a bit older, alcohol was soon added to the mix. ===Hogwarts, First to Fourth Year=== His mother was more than a little relieved when it was finally time to ship him off to [[Hogwarts]]. Being as large as he was, she didn’t know how to handle him. He was never outright violent towards her specifically, though they did get into raging screaming matches where he would throw a chair or whatever else he could get his hands on at the time. Reid didn’t act the same at Hogwarts since there was much to occupy his mind, but once word got to him that his father had lost everything due to significant gambling debts, he once again started to fall into the role of party boy. He participated in classes and went through the motions with homework but during his downtime he cared about little else aside from drinking, sex and where to get his next high. ===Hogwarts, Fifth to Seventh Year - Seeing Ability=== His mother made enough gold to fuel his bad habits, all the while turning a blind eye to his activities until the night he was bloodied up by the viscous tree on the grounds after stumbling into it in a drunken stupor. Out of humiliation and being at her very wits end with her son, cut him off completely and left him to pick up the pieces of his own life. He was sixteen at the time and she was very much done with his antics. At the school however, the [[Herbology]] Professor who'd rescued him had found his behavior strange and alarming. Sure he wasn't the best of students, but this felt far beyond a kid acting out. Their suspicions were soon confirmed by the Matron in the hospital wing. Injuries aside, Reid was not only showing signs of being hungover, he also began to show signs of withdraw over the next several days as Reid was essentially forced to stop his habits somewhat cold turkey but it brought about an alarming revelation not only to the Staff of Hogwarts, but also to Reid himself. Some of the visions he thought had been drug or alcohol induced were not at all. At first, he thought he was crazy but then he started to realize the horrifying truth. His Head of House, the Matron as well as several other professors, including the Herbology Professor sought out a counselor from [[St. Mungo's]] to come and speak with Reid. It took awhile for the woman to get him to open up, given he was now battling his own mental demons, but with her expertise, she was quickly able to ascertain that he'd been unknowingly self-medicating. The woman, now long dead was ancient and had a wealth of experience with similar situations. Yes, Reid had a problem but it went so much deeper than simply being an alcoholic. She didn't really even think he was truly an alcoholic at all, which was the first thing Reid agreed with her on. The other professors weren't so sure. She'd wanted Reid to explore his gift, though he flatly refused and avoided the [[Divination]] Professor like the plague. Reid honestly had no idea what to do about his 'new problem', but with the guidance of the St. Mungo's counselor as well as the staff, Reid slowly began to turn his life around. Though he was expressly banned from magically fermenting any more juice into alcohol, even if his Head of House smirked while telling him as such. With nothing else to lose, he began to do a complete one-eighty in school, needing something else to pour all of his frustrations into. He paid attention in classes, studied harder and made an effort. He also didn’t want anyone to think he was mentally unstable and he had to prove (mostly to himself) that he could become a productive member of wizarding society. He’d always wanted to move back to [[United States|America]] and take over his family's business, but that dream was dashed with his father’s losses and his untimely death soon after. He always assumed it was from further gambling depts that he had no means of repaying, though Reid only knew he had died during a ‘duel.’.. whatever that meant. His OWL scores were quite horrendous aside from potions and herbology, but with vastly improved NEWT scores, along with the help of the Herbology and Potion's Professor's letters of recommendations and what little remained of his family's reputation, he was able to get an apprentice position at an apothecary. ===Travel to America=== At age twenty, he traveled to America to gain closure on his family's legacy and to see if anything was salvageable, the house, the shop.. anything. Sadly, it had all been demolished. He'd found out first hand after asking around with the locals that his late father joked often about selling everything off save from his crystal cauldron. Claimed the things was magical all on its own, blessed by the gods, or the fae of old. He claimed the thing practically did all the work of the brewing process for him. The claims were of course bullshit, but it didn’t help that their potions had been legendary for generations. There had always been rumors of why their stock was of such a high quality and as the drunk ramblings of the former potioneer began to spread, the break-ins started. Of course, this famous crystal cauldron didn’t actually exist; Reid knew that, but no one else had. There was nothing left of value to steal though, to be fair. His father had to sell off all of his equipment and stock to repay his debts and when that wasn’t enough, he’d sold the store, their homestead and the surrounding land. One thing he hadn't sold had disappeared though. Something that looked inconspicuous enough but was spelled to hide their most secret family recipes. His father, claiming to know them all by heart didn’t want it back, or at least claimed not to in his letters to his son before he died when Reid was just fourteen. Reid though.. he wanted that book back. It was his entire family’s legacy hidden behind the facade of a children’s book of fables. Not knowing where to even begin to search and realizing that the book was probably discarded or even destroyed once they realized it was just kid's stories, Reid essentially gave up before he even began. The large patch of wilderness where their home had once been was enough to send him back to England. ===Career=== After the completion of his apprenticeship, he worked in various apothecaries as well as a small stint in a greenhouse trying to find the right fit, but found the work to be tedious and he felt it had no real meaning. He slowly began to take up his old drinking habit again as well, though now he was more in control of his temper and his limits. He also began to workout to blow off steam when he wasn’t drinking and found that it surprisingly helped him a lot. When the potion professorship opened up at Hogwarts, he applied on a whim. His history was well known by the Headmaster, but so was his recovery and the vast improvement he'd made of his schooling and of his life. Reid had thought the interview had gone as well as it could, given his honestly and though there was no tension there, he had not expected to hear back from the school. As fate would have it, his gift seemed ever elusive the one time he needed it, and when he received the owl back, he was pleasantly surprised. While Reid has no formal teaching experience to speak of, he does have a passion for all things Potions and has always excelled in group projects and settings, often taking the lead on such things. He is not shy and has no problems speaking to large groups of people. He applied for the position at Hogwarts on a whim hoping that helping teach others would bring some meaning back into his life. He does enjoy brewing and experimenting but found the general shop duties associated with working in an apothecary were simply not for him. ==Wand== 10 1/3 inches, White Oak, Dragon Heartstring originally but was snapped at age twenty by accident after it fell out of his pocket while traveling. The wand was unfortunately stepped on by one of his traveling companions before he was able to stop the injustice to said wand. He happened to be on Holiday in America at the time, specifically to see for himself what remained of his father’s shop, but the land had been completely cleared and was lost back to nature. After a brief reflection period, he took a muggle plane to Louisiana to get a wand from Violetta Beauvais. It was meant to be a novelty really, more to satisfy his curiosity but he ended up making a fascinating bond to one of her Swamp Mayhaw Wood wands. All her cores are apparently Rougarou hair, which was one of the reasons he hadn't expected much from the trip. Felt like lazy craftmanship to use just the one core, but it wasn't as if he was in the business of making wands so what did he know? The wand is slightly crooked, which actually seems to suit his natural hand movements. Curiously, it is also 10 1/3 inches. ==Seeing Ability== Low ability, he does his best to suppress it by any means necessary. He has visions or possibly even premonitions (He does not care to know which) frequently but they are short and spotty at best as he does nothing to develop the ability. When he does have a vision, he drinks and hides from the world if he can in that moment. He was born with the ability, though it did not start to really materialize (that he was aware of) until he began to go through puberty. He may have had lots of deja-vu moments as a child but thought nothing of them. He figured out as a teen he was having visions, but he has done nothing to help hone his ability. He refused to take Divination as a subject in school and has largely tried to ignore the ability. His ability, or rather.. curse, causes him to have quite the drinking problem. During the months when he is feeling more normal and laying off the alcohol, he throws all of his free time into exercise. He doesn’t believe in the ‘runners high’ but he does love to be exhausted at the end of the day if there are enough spare hours to allow for it. Is this all quite dramatic and a vast overreaction to what might simply be short, meaningless premonitions rather than serious ones or full visions? Maybe. Will he ever take the time to explore his ability and find out? Absolutely not. From a young age, it was beat into his head that seers were vile, mentally unstable wizards. Unbeknownst to Reid or his mother, these were simply the ramblings of a man scorned by a former lover who had her own vision of his family’s misfortune. She did not want to end up penniless and then become a widow upon his early death. His father was deeply, hopelessly in love with the woman and did not take her rejection well. Beyond all evidence to the contrary, that trauma is still stuck with him to this day. When Reid is experiencing a vision, his vision will either slowly (though it merely feels this way if drunk) or sometimes rapidly seem to transition from reality to whatever scene he is ‘seeing’. Sometimes the vision takes over completely and sometimes it looks somewhat superimposed over the real world, somewhat like a projection with no white screen to project it onto. He has never noticed any smells or tastes, and thankfully there has been no pain as they occur, they just.. happen. He never knows when or if a dream was just a dream or not, which is why he prefers not to dream at all. Sometimes he uses potions for this but he’s found that being exhausted also comes along with the perk of dreamless sleep nine times out of ten. Oftentimes he will wake up with a splitting headache, but he’s never been sure that isn’t merely a symptom of being hungover or dehydration or some other excuse he makes up.
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