Age: 31


Appearance: He takes after the Graham side of the family completely in his looks, save for his eye color. His hair is brown, eyes blue, and his skin is light. He has the muscular build of a Graham paired with the height of his father, and consequently he is very proportionally pleasing indeed. Years of quidditch and country life gave him a firm, trim body.

Because of the Revolution he gained many scars (none of which detract from his attractiveness ;) ) and he is somewhat thinner than he was before. His hairline in the front seems to be receding a bit too...but don't tell him that.


Graduation: Dissendium, Misneach, 2004


OWLs/NEWTs: All O's! Because he's a Stu!


Graham
It was April of the year 1942 when it happened; three years shy of the infamous battle between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, and four months shy of Kennedy Graham's eight birthday. A witch quite taken with the idea "for the greater good" was on the run from Irish authorities, for crimes related to muggle torture, thievery of food and potions ingredients, and puppy kicking. She was in desperate need of rest and shelter, and came across a lovely, isolated farm in the heart of Limerick. It was home to the Graham family, sixth-generation Scotch-Irish purebloods who had immigrated from Scotland so they could escape some of the discrimination and animosity they faced in that country for their views on blood (it didn't matter to them; blood purity was achieved in their family by luck). Kenny and his two brothers were a ways away, playing, when aforementioned puppy-kicking witch kicked the door open and demanded to be hidden. Kenny's mother had her wand laying on the table a few feet away, hidden by the baby basket; the witch had hers in her hand. She made quick work of it. She thought these were muggles, after all, and stubborn ones who wouldn't let her stay. Like any little girls would, Kenny's sisters started to scream, and they had to be silenced. It was only when Kenny's father came running that she realized these were witches and wizards; that meant he had to go too, or risk getting caught. She took what she wanted from the house and kept running while Kennedy, Devlin, and Patrick crouched hidden behind the barn.


Her actions set the course for everything that came after.

Kennedy and his two brothers grew up haunted by the memory. The elder two couldn't stand Ireland anymore and left, one eventually returning to Scotland and the family they had there, and the other to America to make a new home. But Kenny stayed and forced himself to be better. Never would he let something like that happen to someone else. He needed to be stronger, quicker, smarter, kinder, in order to get the voices of his lost family out of his head. He never quite accomplished it, even after all his lifetime of achievement. He and his brothers moved to Dublin in 1943, where Devlin and Patrick worked so that they would be able to pay rent. A wizard living in the city, Horace Casey, had heard about their situation and offered to tutor the youngest while the two eldest worked. He had also suffered loss, in the form of a wife dead just a few years into their marriage from a then-unknown condition. He and his five year old daughter Honora acted as surrogate family to the boys for the three years they lived and worked in Dublin. Then, Kenny was sent off to a proper school and the older brothers moved.

Fall 1946 to summer 1953: Kennedy was the proverbial golden boy. There wasn't a speck on his record, his grades were perfect, his tall dark and handsome looks were quite perfect, and he displayed a talent in offensive/defensive magic which was magnified by his obsessive practice. That didn't mean his schooling went without a hitch. He was extremely outspoken against blood purists and muggle haters, and he would get into fights with these people...fights which he made sure to win. He also had girl troubles. Between grades, aingingein, quidditch, picking fights with bigots, and Offense Against the Dark Arts practice, he didn't have much time to commit to the ladies, and they came and went quickly. Until Honora Casey arrived at school, that is. She was smitten with him from day one and set her very determined mind to getting him. She didn't achieve her goal until 1957. While she was still in school he was busy making a name for himself as one of the best, if not the best, hit wizards Ireland had produced in the last fifty years. He collected medals and galleons. On the evening of her graduation (and to both their surprise) he appeared with a ring. "A spur of the moment thing," he called it. "I was sitting alone in my Dublin apartment, thinking about my mother and Uncle Horace and my employer, three of the kindest wizards to grace the earth, when all of a sudden Honora's face came to mind. It was like she said, 'I belong in that list.' So I stood up and got my cloak, and out I went to get the ring."

Together they made up for their lost families. The first of their thirteen children was born in 1958. In the spring of 1971, Viveca Graham was born, the middle child of thirteen in a wealthy, bustling household in Dublin. She was a very pretty, sociable child, with dark hair and eyes and pale porcelain skin. She took a bit more after her father than her mother. While intelligent and talented in charms, school wasn't her top priority. She adored spending time in the limelight. She was such a sociable girl that by the age of sixteen she was called the toast of magical Dublin; beloved by many, hated by few. Two people in particular loved her. Her best friend, Dervila Leery, the only daughter of Ireland's Minister of Magic, and Conn Ballantine.


Ballantine
It was the winter of 1970 that Conn Ballantine was born, the only heir to the family name and a brutal lifestyle as a poor pureblood fisherman on the Aran Isles. His parents, as with any other magical family on the isles, were more concerned with their personal freedom and traditions than with comfort. They didn't bother with the rest of the magical world and the rest of the magical world didn't bother with them. Traditionally the Aran children were schooled by other witches and wizards on the island, but a swiftly declining population and a recent infestation of muggles forced the Ballantines to send their son to the Irish school of magic. He had a very hard time adjusting. Pureblood discrimination still ran strong in that day, and he was a disgrace to Irish purebloods for his poverty and rough personality.

Viveca, on the other hand, was a model of everything a pureblood lady was supposed to be. Not on purpose, of course, it simply happened that people fell in love with her good nature. Conn thought she was a goddess. He developed a crush on her during their first year of schooling which never really went away. He managed to restrain this feeling well enough that he became pretty good friends with her...until he slipped up and kissed her out of the blue one evening in third year. She shouted his ears off, cast a hex which shriveled his lips, and wouldn't so much as look at him for the next four years. That didn't stop him though. During those four years he practiced being a gentleman, something he had never been good at, and tried to get back in her good graces with the help of Dervila. Miss Leery appreciated his rough and free country ways because her own family was obsessively pureblood and restricted her in every way possible...she fell in love with the poor and wild Galway fisherman. Her feelings for Conn caused connflict with Viv, but ultimately, it's Dervila who brought the two together because of how much she loved them both. This is something Viveca didn't forget, when she lost her friend suddenly in the summer of 2003, while she was in the midst of an extremely unhappy and childless marriage to an inbred pureblood man with crossed eyes. Ivy is named after her.

Dervila makes a bid to steal Conn's heart with a kiss while Viv is watching. Instead Conn gets mad, Viv realizes that she's jealous, and the two are reconciled while Dervila is left out in the cold. The two are a serious couple by the end of their seventh year. He proposes with a pitifully small ring and she accepts anyways. Kennedy doesn't quite know how to handle the news. The last thing he wants is for his most beloved daughter to end up a fisherman's wife, struggling every day to survive, poor as a church mouse, and cut off from the high society she thrives (and really relies) on. She declares that she can handle the lifestyle after one short vacation to the isles. Kenny remains skeptical. The first time Conn meets Viveca's father, he foolishly challenges the man to a duel, thinking he can impress him with a win. Instead he gets his eyebrows burnt off.

Shortly after this visit, Conn's parents announce that they are going to travel the world by magic carpet until they or the carpet die, and they want him to take over the farm on Inis Meain. He tells Kennedy he has land and a place for his daughter to live now, and that he has plans to expand the family business so that life isn't such a struggle. It's just enough security for Kenny, but turns out to be a half lie. They get the land and boat, but business gets worse. Conn is not a businessman in any sense and soon abandons all plans for anything besides the regular trips to the fish market in Galway. Viv becomes pregnant right away and is forced to learn in a few months what the other witches on the isle took all their lives to learn; fishing, farming, cooking, mending, knitting, cleaning, child-bearing and rearing, the whole works. Partying in Dublin hadn't exactly prepared her. Added on top of all that are the anxieties about Voldemort and the major target her family makes for deatheater types. She loses several of her siblings in DE attacks. It's a period in their lives which they rarely talk about.

Instead, they describe to their children an extremely idealized version of life on the isles. They were little kings and queens in their own free, untamed land in the sea...well disciplined and unspoiled royalty, but royalty nonetheless. Viv pushes her children to be friendly, honest, and live with unbending integrity. Conn pushes his children to be disciplined, hard working, and unafraid to speak their minds. After the defeat of Voldie, their lives fell into a pretty regular routine. Every Christmas Gran and Pop would come home to let them know they were still alive and see how many more grandchildren they had. A steady stream of aunts, uncles, cousins from the Graham side of the family would come and go over the months. One uncle in particular took pity on the Ballantine's and their scrappy existence, and started sending money to them so the children could afford proper schooling. Every day was a series of tasks to complete; work hard, then play hard. As young as five years they were sent to do simple chores, before moving on to more complex chores such as cooking and gardening. They had time in the afternoon to play before da came home from Galway. The first four children were generally well behaved; Felicity was an excellent eldest child, responsible and mothering; Jessica (or Joselee, as Ivy calls her) was very bright and a little quirky, but obedient; Dermot was a nearly flawless golden boy; and Bernice was the sweet natured one that everyone loved no matter how much they wanted to be annoyed at her.

Dermot Aaron Ballantine was born on August 7, 1987, on his father's ancestral home in Inis Meain, Ireland. He grew up the eldest son in a family of eight, so there was a lot of pressure on him to do three things, even though his parents never came right out and said it. Firstly; to set the example for his siblings. He did this admirably during his childhood and education. Not only were his grades excellent, but he was also prefect for several years, later giving up the post to concentrate on being quidditch captain for the Misneach team. His leadership skills were displayed even while he was a child. He grew up sandwiched between four very different, outgoing sisters, and as a consequence he rarely gets flustered when confronted with arguments or emotionality. In fact, he laughs at most drama, and can usually cool people down.

His second duty; take up the family trade. This he failed at miserably. Instead of adopting the freedom of self-sustainable life on the isolated Aran Isles, Derry decided he liked politics more than fish. It was a highly contested decision, but politics eventually won out when his grandfather offered him an excellent position as assistant to the Head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement (the position his grandfather held at the time) right out of school. He worked in the Irish Council for seen years and made a very comfortable living for himself until the Irish Revolution took full swing in 2011. He has faithfully sent a portion of his savings to his mother ever since he started working. The rest he would put in savings or everyday expenses, so that even after over five years of not working, he's still comfortable.

His third duty; marry a nice Irish girl and carry on the Ballantine name. So far, he's been a miserable failure at this as well. He dated several girls during his schooling, but they came and went pretty quickly and didn't mean much. He was flighty with his emotions, like his sister Ivy, and as a result didn't think he'd ever meet a future Mrs. Dermot Ballantine. But that was until he met Lucy Simington. He grew utterly devoted to her in the way that his father became devoted to his mother, Harry to Caroline, and even Ivy to...someone. He was utterly and completely in love with her, and nothing would change that. Although their romance had a rather shaky start the two persevered, and they were a serious couple in a matter of weeks.

His life would have been rather cut and dry--marry Lucy after a year, build a house, settle down and have a few dozen children--but the Irish Revolution interrupted all of that. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement was the place where most of the troubles grew, and in a matter of months he found himself defending muggle-borns like Lucy from attackers and fighting against legislation that would treat anyone but purebloods as second-rate citizens, or worse. But Cormac MacFealltoir wove his web well; it was impossible to stop the tides from changing in favor of the blood purists. Derry simply wasn't powerful enough in the ministry to stop it from happening. He and his grandfather and uncles made a decision in the fall of 2010, along with several other magical families...if they couldn't change things through the Council, they would take their message to the streets. The Free Blood Organization was born.

Only a few months after the organization was formed, every member was placed under warrant for arrest, for attempting to "usurp the government" and other imaginary crimes, and they were forced to go into hiding. The fight didn't stop there. As soon as the Fearghus turned to violence (namely, Derry's little brothers were tortured to death), they retorted with a violent bout of guerrilla warfare that would last for the next two years.

With Kennedy Graham at the helm, and so many passionate and talented supporters of Free Blood, they eventually won the fight against the Fearghus. But not without a cost. The fabric of Wizarding Ireland was shredded by death and destruction. The number of witches and wizards lost was astronomical for such a short amount of time; it's estimated that nearly half the magical population immigrated due to blood purity discrimination and persecution, and the remaining half was cut in half yet again by deaths.

Derry and his sister Ivy were supposed to be among the dead. They, along with countless others, were presumed dead in the Council Blood Bath of August 12, 2013. The quick thinking of their father saved them from the fiendfyre and collapse of the Council building, though it cost him his own life. Derry and Ivy apparated into the heart of Irish countryside, where they wandered for many weeks. Both of them were so disheartened by the utter destruction of the Revolution that they almost lost the will to live. Derry paid no attention to the multiple wounds he received in that last battle...neither he nor his sister are any good at healing spells. They became infected and he became extremely ill. Ivy panicked; she had no idea if it was the Fearghus or the Revolutionaries who were in control, but she had good reason to believe the Fearghus were still in power, and she knew she couldn't help him herself, so she was forced to bring him to a muggle hospital.

What would have taken a few weeks to heal in a magical hospital took months to heal in a muggle. Most of the time Derry drifted in and out of fever-induced hallucinations. When he finally came to, his sister had disappeared, and he found himself alone in a muggle hospital in Limerick. Ivy managed to hide his wand for him, but besides that he had nothing. The muggles, in their imcompetence, wouldn't let Derry leave even when he thought he was well enough to. His long illness left him extremely weak, so he convalesced for several more long months. Finally, after nearly two years completely cut off from the wizarding world, he could return.

He returned to a wizarding Ireland which was no longer in control of the Fearghus...good. What utterly broke his heart, however, was to hear of the devastation of the war. His remaining siblings were scattered across the globe; his mother was falling to pieces in America; and his beloved Lucy had disappeared as if she never existed. Derry made it his goal, when he found all of this out, to reunite the family he had lost. He traveled to America and spent a few months there helping his mother, who was ecstatic that her eldest son, and her youngest daughter, had come back to her. He was ecstatic to hear that Lucy was indeed alive, but Viveca didn't know where she was or what she was doing besides "tutoring somewhere in England. And that was well over a year ago."

Derry spent the next three years reconnecting with people. He eventually visited all of his surviving relatives, in particular his siblings, even though he couldn't track down Ivy and the most he heard from her was an ocassional scrawled note saying I'm alive. Don't worry.

But he couldn't find Lucy. Soon he spent all his time searching for her. It was as if she had disappeared off the face of the earth. No matter where he looked, how thorough he was, or what lengths he went to for a simple scrap of information, she was untraceable.

He had almost lost hope when he received an owl from Ivy with an address on it...



Derry is a Stu gentleman of the best sort. While he has his flaws, such as wanting to be in control of a situation at all possible times, he is very amiable, social, and naturally charming. He enjoys being around people, right in the thick of things, and can't stand being alone for extended periods of time. Sometimes he is emotionally flighty (it's not a commitment problem, he swears, it's just a lack of real interest). At other times he is obstinate and aggressive. But at all times he strives to be fair and friendly to people, no matter what their station in life. He's a bit of a romantic and when he's in the middle of courting a girl, it shows.

• Inherited his mother's social nature.
• Inherited his father's temper; he gets mad rarely, but when he does, he's liable to throw furniture and hex strangers and that sort of thing.
• Extremely protective of those he loves.
• Totally devoted.
• Tends to take issues to extremes; a black and white sort of person.
• Very determined/stubborn.

OOC Info--
Name & Contact Information: Carmenivyderrydarienashlynn! AKA Carvy Lynn. C-Box or PM.
Previous Roleplay Experience: Enough. Too much, you might say.