(no subject)

[tomfools]

Dean Thomas

Gender: Male
Date of birth: May 15, 1980
House/Year: Gryffindor, year of 1997/1998
Blood status: Halfblood
Sexuality: Bisexual. Dean still hasn’t entirely come to terms with this whole sexuality thing, what with the war and all, and now that there’s finally peace in the wizarding world, has kind of just avoided the issue entirely. He wouldn’t lie about it if he were asked pointblank if he’d ever been attracted to another man, but it’s not something he’d just volunteer, either.
PB/Avatar: Lupe Fiasco
http://wrigley.insanejournal.com/4944.html#cutid1
Physical characteristics:
The first thing anyone notices about Dean is his height. Taller than anyone else in his year at Hogwarts, he still towers over most everyone else he meets. One of the few photos he has of his Dad proves that it’s genetics; the picture shows Roger standing significantly higher than Lisa, who isn’t a midget herself. Dean looks even taller than he is, though, thanks to a propensity for long jogs rather than weight training; he’s not the most muscular of characters by any means, although he’s in fairly good shape. He has to have something to do when his flat starts malfunctioning, after all, and going running is as good a solution as anything!

When it comes to actual appearances, Dean isn’t exactly the heartthrob of London, but he’s no slouch, either, and he’s been told a few times he has a great smile. He’s at his best when he’s sketching; he doesn’t notice, but he gets a little smile and a look of true contentment about him, and that’s something it’s hard not to appreciate. It might just be the glasses, though, which he pulls out whenever he needs to be able to see details; that is, reading, of course, as well as any sort of artwork. Sometimes he forgets he has them on and wanders around the whole day with glasses. They’re the sort of things he misplaces easily, so he has a few identical pairs set aside just in case; they’re nothing special, just square, wire-frame reading glasses, the same as the ones sold in any muggle pharmacy.

In his first few years at Hogwarts, Dean maintained a head of dreadlocks to his earlobes. However, when he acted as a substitute Chaser in sixth-year after Katie Bell’s hospitalization in sixth year, he decided the hair was too much of a pain, and, with the help of Seamus and a charm from Hermione, Dean went bald. He loved the lack of anything weighing his head down, and quite liked the feel of a nice breeze on his scalp, and so since then, his hair has never been longer than a quarter of an inch.

Distant History:
Parents: Lisa Thomas, née Harrison, née Gardner, and Roger Harrison
Stepfather: Warren Thomas
Half Siblings: Jenna, Ryan, Evan, Addison, Megan
Dean’s parents were a couple that should never have happened. Roger Harrison was a pureblood wizard, albeit one with a rather mishmashed pedigree. His mother was the youngest daughter in a line of powerful Caribbean witches who came to London after a violent disagreement with the rest of her family, and his father, an only child whose mother was an American witch and father was from Liverpool. Lisa Gardner, on the other hand, was a muggle whose family had lived in Cardiff and London since the beginning of the 1800s.

When they met, Lisa was waitressing in a small dive in the East End. Roger had stopped in for a quick bite on the advice of a muggleborn friend, and was duly impressed with the curry, but more impressed with his waitress. It was all over after that, and, to both of their surprise, they found themselves caught up in a whirlwind romance.
Lisa never knew much about Roger’s background. As a junior member of the Goblin Liaison Office, Roger’d had a careful ear to the ground, and was concerned about the changing political climate; not wanting to put his new girlfriend in any danger, Roger kept his magical heritage a secret from Lisa, and kept Lisa a secret from his magical heritage. They had a quiet wedding a short time after they were married, and it was soon after Lisa found out she was pregnant that Voldemort’s rising forces started recruiting Roger. Afraid for his wife and unborn son, Roger left without saying anything to anyone, with the assumption that he could make his apologies after he was sure he’d gotten Voldemort off his tail. Of course, he never got that chance; when he refused to join with the rising Dark Lord, he became one of the early casualties of the war.

This left his wife rather in the lurch, though. For lack of any other information, Lisa assumed Roger had taken off and abandoned her, and she never really forgave him for that. She returned to her family in the East End, and they welcomed her back and never spoke about ‘that horrid boy’ ever again, at least not where Lisa could hear.
It was a few years before Lisa met her next husband. Warren Thomas was a tall, well-spoken man, and while Lisa never felt the same passion for Warren she had once had for Roger, he was good to her and kind to Dean, and, equally importantly, he didn’t have any strange secrets. When Dean was five, the two were married.

Dean had initially had some misgivings about leaving their home with his grandparents, Auntie Lynne, and his three cousins, but Warren and Lisa did their best to make up for his loss. They never moved far from Lisa’s family, and immediately started popping out more children. First came Jenna, born a month after Dean’s sixth birthday, and she was immediately followed by Ryan, Evan, and Addison, all of whom were no more than fifteen months apart. Five was enough, they agreed, and stopped, at least until the surprise baby that was Megan, three years after Addison.

Recent History:
Throughout his childhood, Dean experienced strange occurrences. People tended to fall down when he was angry, for example, and occasionally his mum would swear his drawings had started moving, but people always just chalked any stories he had up to a strong imagination. Still, Lisa had always wondered if there was something a little… fey about her eldest son. She wasn’t as surprised as she should have been, then, when Dean received his Hogwarts letter.

The train ride to Hogwarts was rather terrifying. The witch who had come to explain what the letter meant had told him what to expect, but that didn’t stop the eleven-year old from being so nervous he could die. Right away, though, he met Seamus Finnigan, and the two were fast friends at once; Seamus, whose mum was a witch, had heard stories about Hogwarts since he was little, and his excitement rubbed off on Dean quickly; by the time they’d met Hagrid to be boated across the late, he was hardly nervous at all, anymore.

The Sorting was nothing special; the hat sat on his head for a moment, mumbling to himself about intelligence and loyalty and courage and other sorts of things that Dean couldn’t quite follow, but finally settled on a resounding ‘GRYFFINDOR!’ He fit in right away, too, although that might have been just as much because Seamus had Sorted into Gryffindor as anything else.

For his first five years at Hogwarts, we don’t hear a whole lot about Dean from the books; just that he made a fantastic banner first-year, offered to forge Vernon’s signature in third, and joined the DA in fifth. We can assume, then, that he was a fairly good kid, who spent his free time drawing, occasionally for other people, but wasn’t above breaking the rules, especially for his mates, or when he thought it was the right thing to do. Apparently, the quiet, artistic type appealed to Ginny Weasley, too, or else it was just his good looks, because in sixth year, they started going out; it wasn’t really something he’d persued, but when she expressed interest, he was all for it; Ginny was a fun, pretty girl, after all. The relationship didn’t last very long, though; Dean always thought she was more interested in Harry than in him, and wasn’t hugely surprised when she broke up with him over something silly and then immediately started going out with Harry. Admittedly, he did harbor some resentment for a while-- Harry was supposed to be his mate, after all-- but got over it quickly; it wasn’t entirely unexpected.

In seventh year, though, all the little horrors Dean had watched in his time in the DA suddenly exploded. He wasn’t allowed to go back to school. He was supposed to report to the Ministry. Never a stupid kid, Dean did exactly the opposite of that, and ran. He stayed with the Finnigans for a short time, but, unwilling to put them in any danger on his behalf, soon left the home. Under the advice of Lee Jordan, Dean was able to join up with Ted Tonks, and, a few weeks later, Dirk Cresswell and the two goblins Gornuk and Griphook were added to the small company. While never the most comfortable of living situations, all five agreed unanimously that it was infinitely better than being in the hands of the Snatchers.

Dirk Cresswell, as Head of the Goblin Liaison office, had known Dean’s father, of course, and throughout the duration of their short time together, kept making remarks on Dean’s similarity to ‘someone he’d known.’ The day before they were discovered, Cresswell finally managed to place Dean’s face; he resembled Roger Harrison, of course! He’d ‘never known a better man,’ Cresswell confided, much to Dean’s disbelief, because, of course, that was his Da’s name. After much close questioning, Dean was forced to admit they must have been one and the same, much to Cresswell’s delight; he kept muttering things about never having known Roger’d had a son, and how thrilled he was to know why his favorite coworker had just disappeared like that. Both goblins were significantly less cold towards Dean as well after the conclusion had been made.
Dean had little time to let this new discovery settle in his head-- his Da hadn’t abandoned him and his mum for no reason, and on top of that, he’d been a wizard!-- before Cresswell realized his fatal mistake; in his excitement the night before, he’d forgotten to cover the remains of the fire before they moved on, and the Snatchers had found it. Dean and Griphook were the only two who survived the encounter, albeit in captivity, and they agreed; they’d been better off before.

Of course, the next part of Dean’s saga is clear in Deathly Hallows; he is imprisoned with Luna and Ollivander, and Hermione, Ron, and Harry soon join the captives, and Dobby Apparates Dean out, along with Luna and Ollivander. Dean’s stay in Bill and Fleur’s cottage on the beach afterwards was interesting, if nervewracking. It gave him time and opportunity to have his arm, broken when he was captured, reset and Healed properly, and the time was restful, even when he knew everyone outside the cottage was fighting, perhaps for their lives. Dean only stayed as long as he had to, unable to justify staying safe when others were fighting, but in the days he did stay at the cottage, Luna became a close confidant, and Dean, worried about his family and shocked by the news about his birth father, poured his troubles into Luna’s ear, and she did the same.

Dean emerged from the Battle of Hogwarts mostly unscathed, excepting a few minor injuries caused by flying rubble and averted curses. He considered himself lucky, and took his new opportunity to finish his year at Hogwarts. Originally, he’d thought he would just end with his sixth year, but under encouragement from his parents, and the understanding that he might not be able to be successful with his art, he joined the thin ranks of students returning to finish a seventh year. All the time off had definitely hurt his academics, but through hard work and bonding with Hermione, also at Hogwarts to finish her seventh year, Dean was able to emerge with four hard-won NEWTs; three Es in Ancient Runes, Transfiguration, and Defense Against the Dark Arts, as well as a surprise O in Charms. If his art really doesn’t pan out, he thinks he might enjoy following his Da into the Goblin Liaison office, and even though his grades were borderline, being on good terms with several goblins would probably be enough to get him in.

Current employment status: Currently, Dean makes his living doing wizarding portraits. He doesn’t love his work; while his art is his passion and his hobby, he finds portraitures to be stuffy and lacking in life. This is maybe a little ironic, since wizarding portraits are as close to alive as most art gets, but actually doing the painting itself is rather boring. Sometimes Dean is tempted to put something into the painting to make it a little more vivid (one incident in particular comes to mind- when painting a rather senile old woman’s pet kneazle, he couldn’t help adding a turtle shell to the tortoise-shell feline), but on the rare occasion that he gives into the temptation, he tends to lose a lot of business for a few weeks. Dean much prefers using colored pencils and charcoals to do expanded sketches, and dreams of one day having a large enough nest egg set aside to embark on a quest to expand the wizarding idea of art. He’s found that for the most part, wizards take very little artistic license in their work, and he thinks this is really, truly tragic, since in all other ways the magical world is creative and quirky. Dean wants to someday see that eccentricity reflected in magical art, but for now, he does portraits by commission.

Personality: If one were looking for a single word to describe a person, Dean’s would be ‘calm.’ There’s very little that ruffles Dean’s feathers, and it’s hard to get under his skin. As one could guess, he’s a pretty steady guy, and is usually the practical voice of any argument. This makes sense, of course, given the number of siblings he has; even with Megan having been born after he’d gone off to Hogwarts, Dean got a lot of practice in patience as a child.

We only saw Dean a few times in the first books, and in one of his biggest roles, he was acting as a mediator between Seamus and Harry. This is where his pragmatism would get annoying, especially to his friends; Dean knew that they were both overreacting and refused to get involved, and it’s probably a good bet that Seamus was hacked off at Dean for not sticking up for him. Having always been the oldest sibling probably caused, or at least, didn’t help this, either; being nearly six years older than Jenna, Dean spent a lot of childhood refusing to take part in his siblings’ arguments.

Speaking of his siblings, Dean’s family is probably his greatest weakness. While he was never able to really click with his stepfather, especially after he received his Hogwarts letter, he loves his whole family fiercely, in a show of emotion he doesn’t usually experience. He’d do anything for his family, if it meant taking on Voldemort, risen a third time, all by himself. He’s probably closest with his mother, from whom Dean learned this fierce way of loving people, and now that he’s older, Dean has a sneaking suspicion that he’s always been her favorite child. Not that she doesn’t love Jenna, Ryan, Megan, Addison, and Evan, but it was them against the world for so long. Besides his mum, though, Dean probably gets along best with Jenna, upon whom he dotes; she’s his beautiful baby sister, and a sweeter, kinder person you’ll never meet. He would never admit it, but sometimes, it feels like he doesn’t know Megan very well; after all, he was already solidly into his third year at Hogwarts when she was born, and thirteen years difference isn’t insignificant. It’s because of his family that Dean went into hiding in what should have been his seventh year, rather than pursuing a more active role in the fight against Voldemort; he couldn’t excuse doing anything that would put them into danger like that.

Of course, Dean is also the resident artist. Rowling mentions over and over that he’s a ‘fair hand with a quill,’ and other sorts of things along those lines. When he was in school, his notes were probably covered with sketches of nearly everything. Like the banner he did in “the Philosopher’s Stone,” he probably would have done a lot of banners and such for sporting events, especially if he were asked to do so. Dean will try his hand at nearly any sort of creative endeavor, and has experimented with everything from pottery to photography. No matter how he strays, though, his heart has always been true to his colored pencils and charcoals, even when his pocketbook calls out for the portraitures and oil paints.

Dean doesn’t exactly fulfill the stereotypical wasting artist portrait (pardon the pun!), it’s not unusual for him to be a little airy. For one, his organization skills are crap, and he freely admits it. This is probably why he very nearly failed out of potions; no matter what he does, things just don’t stay where he puts them. One can assume that this little trait will cause his flatmates to get a bit tetchy at times, especially should they find, say, Dean’s dirty laundry has grown legs and made its way to roost amongst their bedclothes. When it comes to important things, though, Dean’s practical side shows through, and he has a small notebook he carries everywhere to write down dates and such.

Samples

First person entry:
I got an owl from a rather eccentric old woman a few days ago; she wanted a portrait done of her favorite crup. It’s a somewhat odd request, but not unusual; you’d be surprised how much of my rent each month comes from portraits of animals. Apparently there are just as many old ladies whose only friends are their cats in the wizarding world as in the muggle one. The really strange things started once I arrived to discuss details and sitting times. Why? Because the crup was dead. Stone cold dead, and she wants me to paint its portrait! She hadn’t even bothered to cast some kind of preservative charm, and the whole house smelled to high heaven! Sometimes I really wonder if magic starts making people go all twisty in the head after they reach a certain age; I just don’t understand how anyone could find this an acceptable commission! I told her I couldn’t possibly accept the job and left right away, of course.

I, err, did say that I’d do a painting based off a picture she had taken a few years ago, though. I’m short on rent for this month.

Played by Alex
rubber_ducky_songs@yahoo.com and duckysongs

I don't own Dean Thomas, Rowling does, and I also don't own Lupe Fiasco; presumably, he owns himself. This is all for fun and games; check out ec-mods for more info!