Lysander Blackwell

Lysander is a very conflicted young man, both on the inside and the outside. He is grumpy, rude and has a short fuse, but actually on the inside, he is just deeply hurt, insecure and just wants to cuddle (but don't do it, really, you'll get a broken nose). He is also a pâtissier (Pastry Chef) that happens to hate sweets.

He is surrounded by obnoxiously loud and happy-happy-joy-joy people at his place of work, Alohomocha, that generally make him want to fling a noose around his neck. The obnoxious people are constant in his life, as they are also everywhere in his family: his two younger brothers and three sisters, triplets. Triplets, man, enough said.

Also, obnoxious are his "friends" (people-I-tolerate-the-presence-of-because-they're-persistent-little-fu—) and past housemates, Gryffindors. He genuinely hates everything on principle, then gradually starts to tolerate them, for whatever many reasons. He likes comics, baking, creating his own recipes, folk rock and his triplet sisters. Also, seeing other people's suffering and misery, because he wants to fill the world with the blues and he is an awful person.

History

Born in 1986 to Glenda and Evan Blackwell, Sander came as a surprise when he didn't seem to inherit the family joyfulness. He was a very quiet child—shy, well-behaved, seemed to sort of hate his parents... at two years old. Glenda kept waking up in full panic-mode in the middle of the night to check if he was still alive, because he didn't cry at all. And Evan, was generally at a loss about the boy, having grown up with three crazy older siblings and knowing Blackwell babies were supposed to make their parents' lives a living hell.

With the birth of his younger brother, however, he started showing signs of sociability. Sander still kept to himself, but doted on his baby brother, Lester. And if baby Lester had been one of Dante's circles of Hell, Bran was Hell itself. And, unlike Lester or Sander he was a very, very early magical bloomer. And magic and babies, especially this baby was a terrifying affair. Bran was a sneaky little devil, in front of his parents (apart from the cry, feed, cry, change, cry, hug scenario) he was a complete angel, giggling and goo-goo-ga-ga-ing and smiling with his entire face and those big blue eyes at them, but with Sander and Lester? Pfft. It was a disaster. Clothes flew away, vases broke on their heads, toys attacked them (literally)—all in all, baby Bran was evil and repeatedly got his elder brothers in need of medical care.

A few years later he had received his Hogwarts letter and, in all honesty, he was rather unimpressed. He was a bright kid, but he couldn't really be bothered to spend too much time studying. There were adventures to be read and comics to hunt for! He had shown an interest in Transfiguration however and sometimes Charms, but that was rather hit-or-miss. In his third year he discovered the castle kitchens and his life sort of took a turn—for worse or for better? Meh. It depends who you ask. His mother had been more of the frozen foods sort of woman, or stuff that came from a package, so he never really had the chance to watch real food being made. So when he discovered the house-elves at work, something clicked and he was instantly hooked. And after many, many whining and begging the elves had finally decided to show him a bit of this and a bit of that. He kept his "hobby" relatively well-hidden, because he was a boy and boys didn't cook. That is until Bran's seventh birthday.

He passed his OWLs uneventfully, only scoring an O in Transfiguration while the rest of his grades ranged in the As and Es with only a P in DADA. But his sixth year brought about... the triplets. Glenda and Evan had decided for a short while to stop at Bran, but then Glenda started whining that she needs another female touch in the house and "just a girl, Evan, imagine how beautiful she'll be and how loved by her elder brothers" and Evan was instantly won and— Well, imagine Evan's surprise-shock-horror when not one, but three daughters were placed in his arms by a rather rude nurse with just a "You're going to wish you stuck at three. I have twins and they make me feel like a zombie half of the time, but three? Oh man, I feel sorry for you."

With his already rather anti-social behavior, heartbreak hit in his sixth year, and after that he turned into the grumpiest, most tense and distrustful teenager ever. And when he returned home for the summer, that year, apparently all Hell had broken loose. The triplets were a typhoon, magically destroying everything around them, Lester had taken to rebelling a every second, running away from home weekly, and being completely frustrated when he realized that he was probably going to be the only non-magical child in the family and Bran was downright evil and malicious making other kids cry left and right, and playing the innocent in front of all authority figures. To make it all worse, their father had lost his job, and finances were at an all-time low. During the summer he had taken to working the kitchens in various shady restaurants and doing all sorts of odd jobs to help his family.

At the end of the summer, however he grudgingly had to return to school for his last year. Which was disastrous from an academical standpoint. What? His heart was broken, it wasn't like his mind was on actual studying... He got over his five NEWTs with unimpressive scores and returned home, where he spent the next year splitting his time between taking care of the triplets and juggling four jobs. Eventually, however he realized he'd have to get to a bigger city, because the jobs were awful and they paid poorly, and he couldn't afford to live with his folks anymore. So he took off for London, leaving his family behind and hoping he'd be able to make enough money to send home and also raise enough that he could return home one day.

Sometime, during his many job-hunting sessions he had met Leon and since then they have "sort of hung out together"—by which Sander actually means, that Leon is basically his best friend and he loves him and he can't possibly imagine life without him. Isn't that adorable? They sort of ended up doing the same jobs, because really, there's not that many jobs, for completely inexperienced young adults, getting fired from the same jobs (courtesy of Sander's temper of course). Life continued uneventfully, with a road back home very couple of months to get his much needed dose of his youngest sisters, and by 21 he was finally in possession of a Pastry & Baking Arts diploma and ready to jump into the kitchen of a true restaurant.

For about a year now, thanks to Leon's more profitable job searches, he has been working at a lovely little café as a pâtissier. Alohomocha is as much part of his life as Leon himself, and working alongside his best friend (secretly, best friend, please) has probably made this job the best he's ever had. Even if he'd never admit it. He's settled into his life, to the best he can, but he still hates London with a passion and dreams to return back to Cardiff. He's fearfully waiting for next year, when Bran will be finishing his education and will probably come storming into his and Lester's quiet London life.