InsaneJournal

Name; Damocles Asclepius Belby
Nickname(s); Dam
Age; 32
Birthdate; June 29, 1954
Wand; Oak, dragon heartstring, 11 inches, fairly stiff
Bloodline; Halfblood
Abilities; Talented healer, as well as an phenomenal potions maker.

Height; 5’11”
Weight; 150 lbs
Eyes; Blue
Hair; Blonde
Build; Rather scrawny

School; Hogwarts; Slytherin, 1972
Best Subject(s); Potions, Arithmancy, Astronomy
Worst Subject(s); Damocles didn’t really have bad subjects.
Attitude About School; Damocles was a very diligent, studious boy, and made exceptional grades.
Quidditch; He didn’t have the time.
Occupation; Currently serves on the Ministry’s Council for Experimental Potions, as well as a consultant for particularly difficult cases at St. Mungo’s.
Finance; He has invented a number of potions, and due to the money from that and careful budgeting, he does fairly well.
Political Affiliation; Former Black Cap supporter, now an official Black Cap.

Romantic Status; Widower
Partner; Mariella Jane Wolfe-Belby - deceased
Orientation; Straight
Turn Ons; Optimism, intelligence, kindness, outgoing (but not overly so), acceptance
Turn Offs; Stupidity, closed-mindedness, extremely tall women, bossiness.
Crush; None; Damocles remains completely heart broken by the death of his wife.

Mental Health; Grieving, but sane.
Boggart; It used to be Mariella dead, he doesn’t know what it would be now.
Patronus; It used to be a snake, a symbol embodying the dichotomy of healing and poison within the same creature, destruction and regeneration. It is also a symbol of deception and cunning. However, his patronus has been a dog for some time now, to match Mariella’s patronus.
Fears; Being outsmarted, being bullied.
Habits; Twitching, particularly when nervous.
First Impression; A little awkward, but nice; extremely smart.
Personality; These days, Damocles tends to be serious and determined, and he rarely cracks a smile. Since Mariella’s death, he has thrown himself into his work as a means of distraction. He is perpetually worried about some project or another, and anyone who pesters him is likely only to get him annoyed.

Not that an annoyed Damocles is a particularly scary thing. Though he likes to think of himself as an evil genius, Damocles really has all the violent nature of a kitten. He has spent most of his life as the scrawny, awkward sort of person that is just begging to be bullied and, as such, has learned to more or less try to stay out of the way. This isn’t to say that he can’t be dangerous in his own right. Damocles’s form of danger, however, is not the physical sort. It is the sort that has to do with revenge, left on slow burn at the back of his mind until he gets his chance. His chance often involves a lot of planning and patience, with really unpleasant results. Luckily, he’s rarely ever angry.

Though you wouldn’t think it upon meeting him now, Damocles does in fact have a sense of humor. He tends toward a drier, more sarcastic sense of humor, the sort where you often have to wonder if he is joking or not. He likes these kinds of jokes, and his friends typically include those who “get it” – not very many people do.

One of Damocles’s major failings is that he has little self-confidence in anything, save in his intelligence, which he is overly dependent on and borderline arrogant about. It makes it hard for him to open up to people; those who are less intelligent, he feels won’t be able to understand him, while those closer to being his peers feel too much like competition.

History; Damocles was born to witch Athena Kamala and muggle Marksman (Mark) Belby. He was the second born, his elder brother Heracles being two years older than him. Damocles had a normal, happy childhood, though he fought often with Heracles who was, appropriately, a much larger, braver boy than studious Damocles.

Once in school, Damocles was sorted into Slytherin, though he was very nearly a Ravenclaw. Things were tough on him. He was small for his age and made exceptional marks, not to mention he was a halfblood. This made him a ready-made target for bullying. Heracles, who had easily been sorted into Gryffindor, picked on him as much as anyone else rather than sticking up for his brother. As such, Damocles cultivated the art of blending into the wall paper. He spent most of his time studying and making near perfect marks in everything. He made prefect in his fifth year, but rather than attempt to uphold the rules, Damocles used it as a bargaining chip. Those who gave him trouble got into trouble themselves, while those that left him alone, or had something to offer him, were kept from trouble. Damocles managed to finish out his Hogwarts career rather trouble free.
Straight out of Hogwarts, Damocles entered Healer training at St. Mungo’s. Always one to throw himself completely into his goals, almost to the point of obsession, Damocles was working between fifty and sixty hour weeks, not to mention studying in his spare time, so that he absolutely zipped through his training.

A year into training, Damocles was working on the first floor when American witch Mariella Wolfe came into the ward with severe bite wounds. It was immediately apparent that the bites were werewolf bites, and Damocles was horrified to think that such a lovely young woman’s life would be ruined. He personally oversaw her recovery, which was long and painful.

When Mariella had recovered enough to leave the hospital, Damocles offered to let her live with him. Mariella was initially reluctant, particularly in light of her condition, but Damocles promised her that he would help her as best he could to lead a normal life. Two days after Mariella moved in, they slept together. He knows it sounds cliché and irrational, but he knew from that moment on that she was the only girl he ever wanted to be with again.

Within a year, Damocles had finished his training at Mungo’s, a full year ahead of schedule, and took up permanent placement on the third floor, Potions and Plant Poisoning. In the mean time, Damocles spent his spare time working on his own inventions, intending to create potions of a curative nature. It was around this time that Damocles Proposed to Mariella.

All was not coming up roses, however. Though Damocles parents disapproved of his marriage to a werewolf, they relented that it was his choice. Heracles, however, was disgusted with Damocles’s choice in a mate. He openly condemned the marriage and Mariella herself. Though the brothers had never been extremely close, this was going too far, and the two had a very violent falling out between them that ended in curses and cursing. Heracles was most certainly not present at the wedding the next summer, and the two haven’t spoken a word since then.

At twenty-four, Damocles became a father. Mariella gave birth to Piper, from her mother’s surname, who was born with tufts of hair as red as her face. Her face got less red. Her hair didn’t. Because of this, Damocles often called her Pippi or Pepper.

By 1980, Damocles had invented a number of potions, such as the Wit-Sharpening Potion and Skele-Gro. He also invented the Pepperup Potion, so named for Piper, as he had invented it one winter when the girl had a particularly nasty cold. Damocles was beginning to gain recognition within potion makers’ circles, and by the next year, Damocles was appointed to the Committee for Experimental Potions in addition to being one of the best healers at St. Mungo’s.

As proud as Damocles was of his own accomplishments – as well he should have been – notoriety also comes with a price. Tom Riddle, or his minions rather, began to pressure him for information though subtle threats to Damocles and his family. Unable to think what else to do, and not really privy to extremely sensitive information at either the Ministry or St. Mungo’s, Damocles didn’t see what it could hurt.

By 1984 the power had shifted in Grindelwald’s favor. Personally, Damocles didn’t see much of a difference. Grindelwald simply filled in the hole that Riddle left. He continued to pass the little helpful information he had while becoming more and more renowned. However, Grindelwald had other plans for Damocles. The change was subtle at first. Damocles would be asked to brew complicated potions and send them to unnamed recipients. Then came the requests for new potions, specific potions. Grindelwald’s requests increased in danger and malicious intent until Damocles refused to help Grindelwald any longer. The next thing he knew, Mariella (who had been conveniently “forgotten” until this point) taken away to stay in Bruges along with Piper. As for Damocles, he inexplicably lost both his position on the Committee for Experimental Potions and as a healer at St. Mungo’s.

On Valentine’s Day, 1986, Mariella and Piper were crushed beneath the debris of the exploding Belgian Ministry. Damocles was absolutely devastated and convinced that he had nothing left to live for. Damocles considered suicide, but eventually settled instead on revenge. Using contacts he had (rather involuntarily) made within the Black Caps, Damocles was able to discover that it was the joint efforts of the Order of the Phoenix and the Ashwinder Coalition that resulted in riots and explosions in the three cities. Damocles subsequently became a willing and eager member of the Black Caps. One week later, he was reappointed as a healer and as a member of the Committee for Experimental Potions.

mun; Cheryl
aim; lovehasthorns
msn; pretty_purple_pixies@hotmail.com
e-mail; wings.to.escape@gmail.com
portrayed-by; Neil Patrick Harris
font; Iglook
disclaimer; Not NPH or Damocles Belby. This is all for a role playing game.
credits; Icons credited in keywords. Anything not credited belongs to me.