ARMSTRONG, Rafael

by Theodore Rookwood Sun Jul 25, 2010 11:10 pm

O U T O F C H A R A C T E R
Name: Amy/Eli
Gender: Female!
Age: I don’t have to answer these questions!
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Have your read the Plot?: Yep!
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B A S I C I N F O R M A T I O N

Name: Rafael Armstrong.
Gender: Male.
Race: Human.
Blood Status: Muggle-Born.
Year AND Age: Seventeen, Seventh Year.
Preferred houses: Gryffindor or Ravenclaw.
Canon or Original: Original.
Play-by: Jon Kortajarena

A P P E A R A N C E
Height: 6’2½ (1.89m)
Hair: Unruly, dark brown locks.
Eye colour: Muddy Brown.
Skin: Light Tan.
General Appearance:
Rafael is quite pretty. He couldn’t be called handsome because he’s more pretty than handsome. He has a masculine appearance but he’s also got a feminine look about him. He’s got narrow shoulders but not incredibly narrow. He’s thin and gangly but he is packing a lot of lean muscles, mostly in his legs and stomach. His cheekbones are ‘out of control’. They’re incredibly high and well defined beneath the skin. Rafael is lightly tanned and often has a sprinkling of hair on his face. He has got a fair few scars from when he got into some physical arguments with his mother – one of the most prominent ones is the long thin scar on his back where she threw a broken ashtray at him. Rafael has long, pianist fingers and he keeps his nails clipped down because he always seems to catch his skin with them if they get too long. His hair is always messy and is probably never, ever tidy but this is just because it cannot be tamed and also because he constantly runs his fingers through it. Rafael’s state of dress is simple, consisting of jeans, shirts and trainers which he’ll couple with a jacket or a hoodie on top to keep him warm. He’s simplicity but there are many layers to him – like an onion.

P E R S O N A L I T Y
Skills:

Running,

Multi-Tasking,

Ambidextrous,

Reading,

fast

Ear for Languages,

Narrative/ Creative Writing,

Fast-Thinking,

Weaknesses:

Hogwarts,

His Family,

Socially Inept,

Geography,

Loud Noises,

Panic Attacks,

Likes:

Dislikes:

Amortentia: Jasmine, Brownies, Treacle Tart, Freshly Mown Grass.
Boggart: Social Services finding out but the family’s “situation”.
Erised: Him successfully creating a stable life for his siblings without fail; a life where they don’t have to watch their every step so social services don’t find out about their family situation.
General Personality:
Rafael is an introvert. We’ve been over the fact that he can’t handle a conversation without freaking out and we’ve also been over the fact that he is prone to panic attacks and he hates loud noise. The reader will also discover more about his past below. Let’s all pity Rafael shall we? No, we shouldn’t at all because he’s not just damaged goods. If you are a person that can wriggle past his defences and make him actually talk to you then you’ll realise that Rafael has a lot of good qualities. He’s a family man first and foremost. His loyalties lie with his family – they come first. He’s kind, loving and tender even if he does have a short temper when it comes to his pubescent brother. He looks over every detail of life and decides what move to make. It is as if he is playing a game of chess with God and has every intention of winning. Rafael takes everything seriously no matter what it is but he is capable of kicking back and relaxing. He takes a joke like any other person but he is highly sensitive and is an over-thinker as well as an overachiever. He just wants to get on with his life like every other person in the world but unfortunately there has been some problems along the way – his mother being one of them.

P O S S E S S I O N S
Wand: Rosewood, 11 inches, Dragon heart-string core.
Broom: Comet 180.
Familiar: Susie, Gray Tabby Cat.
Mobile Phone: Nokia 6700 Slide.
Mode of Transport: Raleigh Oakland 2009 Hybrid Bike.
Accessories: Cheap Digital Watch and a Woven Bracelet.

H I S T O R Y
Family Information:

Vanessa Armstrong, thirty-nine, call-centre worker.
The relationship that Rafael and his mother have is explosive and violent. Ever since he was ten, Vanessa has called him the man of the house. His father’s absence and his inheritance of the position has given Vanessa an excuse to fly off the handle and go completely out of control. She leaves Rafael with his siblings and expects him to be a father to them. He does that to the best of his ability but he has her personality and can’t just sit back and let someone walk all over him. The arguments they have not only wake the children up when they are sleeping but they also end up breaking furniture and other things when Vanessa begins to get violent with him. Only once has Rafael ever done the same and it ended up with him chucking her outside in the back garden for the night during the winter. They don’t get on, never did and never will.
Franco Armstrong, forty, barber.
For a while after he left, Franco had a good relationship with his son. When he left with his new wife to live in New Zealand he phone fairly often and father and son would speak amicably. After a while though, those calls ceased from once a week to once every fortnight and then once every month to every year. After a while, the calls stopped all together and now father and son don’t talk. Rafael has a certain resentment towards his father – a stronger one than he has towards his mother because she can’t help her problems. She is stubborn to the point of refusing to get help but Franco was the cause of it all. The man was insufferable even when he was around and Rafael barely tolerated him then. He was a good father to them but only when Christmas and Birthdays came around. Otherwise the man was trying to find reasons not to be in the house. It is this absence of a male influence that has really had an effect on Rafael but also because even though when Franco was around his mother wanted to look after them – the twat didn’t want to know.
Mynah Armstrong, sixteen, student.
His younger sister is the second in command. When Rafael is away at Hogwarts it is Mynah’s job to keep everything under control. She is the only one in the world he actually trusts and being born only thirteen months apart really re-enforces that bond. She isn’t magically inclined much to Rafael’s chagrin because he could have used her company at Hogwarts and really misses her during the school year. Mynah has stuck by him and during the arguments he has with their younger brother she will stick by him. It as if they are the parents and their siblings, along with Vanessa who pops in and out every so often, are the children. Mynah has definitely been his rock through thick and thin and he has no intention of letting his little sister go. But he has to soon. She was a late bloomer and is exploring the life beyond studies and school. He knows he can’t always be there to protect her and a part of him wants her to learn but she is his sister and first and foremost his best friend. He’s done the “You hurt her and I’ll hurt you” speech a million times but it has morphed and changed every time. The last one he gave was a death threat if anything went wrong and it did. Rafael had every intention of making good on his promise and made it as far as the front porch of the man in question. It ended with an ugly fight to say the least and Mynah’s ex bore the brunt of it. He loves his sister to pieces and nothing will stop him if he decides to defend her honour. The only thing that stopped him from killing her ex-beau was her begging him not to.
Jaret Armstrong, fourteen, student.
The typical ‘I don’t give a f*ck’ attitude that teenagers have definitely rubs Rafael the wrong way and unfortunately he has to deal with a rebellious teenager every time he goes home. Jaret hates his family with a passion and resents Rafael because he believes that Rafael is trying to take their father’s place. They have had plenty of verbal and physical fights over the years and it has got more dangerous and violent as time wore on. Jaret has a scar above his left eyebrow where Rafael threw a pot of paperclips at him – all of which had been conveniently unfolded by their younger brother. Jaret had plenty of cuts but the glass had been chipped where the pot had been dropped a few times and clipped the skin above his eyebrow as it hit him. Rafael doesn’t understand why Jaret is so disagreeable but understands that it is probably his way of crying out for help yet he refuses to acknowledge it or seek help. He expects people to dive in after him but when they get there he doesn’t want to be dragged up to the surface. Jaret purposely does things that will provoke Rafael. He stays out late with friends that supply him with alcohol and goodness knows what else. When he comes home he argues and antagonises Rafael even more. Rafael can only just manage not to strangle the teen.
Nicolai Armstrong, ten, student.
Being the more agreeable brother, Rafael tends to prefer Nicolai although he does wish the boy would be tamer. Nicolai loves to push Rafael to his limits but it is all in good fun despite the fact that his brother can get incredibly stressed by some of the things he gets up to. They have a very close and loving relationship. Nicolai is always up for a bit of fun and can pull Rafael out of his funk. Usually it’s by throwing a football at his head and then the boys will play but Nicolai keeps his brother on his toes with his antics. Over the years since his father has been gone, Nicolai’s antics have gotten worse and worse. They started off small like giving the dog his dinner and hiding when it was time to go to bed but then he started walking faster when Rafael told him to slow down so he could see him and running away from the child-minder after school. Now he skips school and gets Rafael to come and look for him – even while he’s at Hogwarts! Nicolai, like his other two elder siblings, isn’t magical but this doesn’t bother the boy in the slightest. This hasn’t caused animosity between the two brothers like it has with Jaret. (Nicolai assumes that Jaret is jealous) In fact, they’re closer than ever and Nicolai is always begging Rafael to show him some magic.
Raina Armstrong, seven, student.
The youngest child and the one that needs the most help. Raina relies on Rafael for the simplest of things like finding her socks on in the morning. Raina doesn’t quite understand that her big brother is a little bit special and different from herself. Raina, herself, has difficulty when it comes to learning. She isn’t the most academic person, preferring sports like her elder brothers, but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t try to grasp what the teachers are trying to tell her. It first became apparent that she had a difficult time learning from an early age and so Rafael sought to combat that by helping her constantly with her reading and arithmetic. Granted he can’t do it as much now but he’ll send her home bits of work that he’s edited himself to help her out. He also does that with his other siblings but Jaret doesn’t accept his help as readily as Nicolai and Raina do. Mynah doesn’t as much anymore but she still asks on occasion. To say that Raina is Rafael’s favourite is a bit of an understatement. He loves her to pieces and, like with Mynah, he will do anything for his sister. His girls are what make getting on the train every September really difficult for him.

Childhood:
This section could have and should have been more aptly named Early Years but it would have been frightfully short and most of the content would have been sketchy and brief. This is really the years before Hogwarts and his time as a child living the life an adult should have. If you were to ask him about his childhood then he would begin in great detail to tell you about how his parents met on holiday and it was a summer romance. When they returned to Britain they got married and had him as well as his other siblings. They were a happy family for a long time but work has put a bit of a strain on them – the end. After telling a lie over and over you begin to believe what you’re saying. Rafael can’t convince himself that his story is real because he lives in his reality 24/7 and there is no escaping from it; not even from a second. The pressures of school and family have born down on him since he was ten years old. Seven years later, the burden is much more difficult to bear.

There was no romantic holiday at all for Vanessa and Franco. They met in a club in East London on a chilly January night and for them it was one-night-stand time. There may or may not have been a connection between them but there was no hint of emotionally attachment there. There was no love as Rafael would be quick to tell someone. It was a quick release for the both of them and after one night of passionate sex they walked out of each other’s lives as quickly as they walked in. There may have not been an emotional attachment but there definitely was a physical one and there was also something a lot deeper and more meaningful connecting the two of them and that was Rafael: the parting gift that Vanessa received.

The nine months that Rafael was growing, many murder attempts were tried and tested against him but he wouldn’t budge. Abortion attempts had been useless when Vanessa had first found out about her pregnancy and those were soon, for lack of a better word, aborted. She then turned to alcohol consumption and she began to smoke in an effort to kill the child growing quite steadily in her womb. But this was all in vain as Rafael had no intention, even back then, of dying. Vanessa had even contemplated self-removal of the foetus but that didn’t go down well when her mother caught her with one of the kitchen knives in the living room at one o’clock in the morning on a Sunday. She was more upset that Vanessa was going to make a mess than about the fact that she would have knowingly killed her own son. She was a teenager and she was hell-bent on living the lifestyle she was used to. She had no interest in becoming a mother -- in any stage of her life.

When Rafael was finally born, Vanessa tried to give him to her parents to look after and although the boy was an absolute angel, Rafael’s grandparents didn’t want him with them. They believed in marriage before sex and childbirth and were eager to set Vanessa back up with the man who had impregnated her in the first place. So, they tracked Franco down. Franco, when found, accepted the news about his son immediately and, although apprehensive, he took the boy into his life. With Franco back on the scene, Vanessa wanted to marry him as her parents had wished for her to and as a result she became increasingly interested in her son’s wellbeing but even Rafael, an baby ignorant of the word outside cuddles, love and food, seemed to notice the odd behaviour his mother was showing.

For Vanessa and Franco it was a wedding that would tie up all loose ends and quite quickly, Vanessa fell pregnant with what was to become Mynah. This time though, there were no abortion attempts or anything of the like. It was a pregnancy that Vanessa took advantage of and had Franco running around and getting her whatever she demanded, forgetting that he had to balance her and Rafael equally. That equality was definitely way off balance and by the time Mynah was born, thirteen months younger than the brother who would come to protect her in every time of need she had.

The two were inseparable from the beginning and that worked for Vanessa who had gained the undivided attention of Franco post-pregnancy. It is clear that even when he was a child, Rafael was already much more than a sibling to his sister. At no more than a year old he was already acting as a father to her out of complete necessity. Without him around she would have surely died from the neglect and although small, Rafael had already vowed that he would not let that happen. He was there to pick her up when she fell down and he was there when everything seemed to fall to pieces.

Over the course of the next nine years, Vanessa popped out two more children and things became tenser between the couple. Things to a turn for the real worse when Franco became absent at home and only returned for a change of clothes. After a while, he didn’t even come home for that. This is when Vanessa began to drink and would drunkenly mumble to Rafael that he was the new man of the house and he had to look after his siblings. That was what he was doing anyway so her blessing hadn’t made much difference. By the time Raina’s conception became family knowledge, Franco was out of their lives and their mother had fallen into a pit of depression which it didn’t appear she’d come back from.

When Rafael turned ten and Raina was born he took on the full time role of father and Vanessa would encourage his siblings to think him more of a parental figure and in the end, they did – more so than she had intended. Rafael didn’t know how to solve algebraic sums and yet he was a full time parent at ten years old. Vanessa stayed blissfully intoxicated for most of the time and it was a miracle that Raina hadn’t been poisoned during the pregnancy. It was a role that seemed to fit Rafael but it was during this time when social anxiety began to rear its ugly head. He became so used to being a parent to his siblings that he forgot what it was like to be a child. Although it is unknown what really sparked his anxiety, he knew even then that he had trouble speaking to adults without tripping over his words. It was as if even as a child he knew he had to hide his mother from the world lest social services find out about her and separate them all.

Rafael was always a loner and when Vanessa actually registered what was wrong with her son she laughed. Rafael would often be asked to read out something he wrote in English but he would say no and eventually the teachers learned to leave him be. He was fine by himself. If he wanted to talk to someone he had his siblings. He was a father to them and he depended on them just as much as they depended on him. Rafael would be scribbling a shopping list onto a piece of squared paper he’d ripped out of his maths book while doing the sums he’d been assign at the same time – occasionally writing the answer on the shopping list and an ingredient in his math book.

The stress left no time for friends and Rafael retreated further into himself. He was still as fiery as ever and it was during this time that his anger and resentment towards his mother and father began to bubble at the back of his mind. His father had disappeared with his new family that he’d obviously been creating during his absence and any time he turned up on the doorstep, usually leaving months between each time; Rafael would slam the door in his face without even letting the man get a word n edgeways. His mother was the one he had the most frustration with, though. They’d argue and argue for hours on end until she collapsed and he found the whole ordeal incredibly tiring.

The problem was that where friends were concerned, they were all too juvenile for Rafael who had grown up a long time ago. The teachers would only give him yes and no answers in class and even then he’d only nod and shake his head. Anyone that tried to talk to him got silence and soon children his age learned to leave him alone; choosing instead to tease him from a distance. He was given counselling but even that didn’t go down to well and the counsellor gave up within the first twenty minutes. The boy was a rock and he was bracing himself for the moment he finally lost his mind. He didn’t expect release from the pressure.

The odd thing was that he had shown no accidental magic what so ever. Yet during the August before his sixth year of Muggle schooling, a strange man wearing robes arrived on their doorstep and explained to Rafael that he was a wizard. It didn’t make sense to Rafael at all and after he explained he’d shown no signs of magic the man was beginning to doubt that he and his assistant had found the right boy but nethertheless he was whisked off to Diagon Alley and it was there that he had his first panic attack; the first of many.

Hogwarts:
The school that Rafael was readily accepted into was meant to be his escape but he ended up feeling more boxed in than ever. His panic attacks, especially within the days leading up to the train ride, got progressively worse and on the day of the train ride he fell down the stairs as a result of a panic attack. He was unscathed for the most part but he twisted his ankle and broke his wrist. It was nothing he couldn’t endure though and continued to put pre-cooked dinners in the freezer and pick up behind his siblings that morning. Mynah had decided to help out while he was away but he already felt as if she was doing too much for him. He’d instructed her for the most part in what she had to do but he still felt apprehensive about leading. Eventually, though, he left, lugging his trunk onto a bus that would take him to King’s Cross Station.

The train journey was relatively quiet and that was just the way Rafael liked it. He was at the end of the train in one of the older compartments. It was dressed in Slytherin colours. The curtains were worn and moth eaten, the wallpaper was peeling off of the wall and the seats looked like they’d seen better days. Part of the window was cracked and a draught was blowing through the crack but Rafael curled up in one of the corners with his book in his lap and read for the duration of the trip and he wasn’t bothered until the trolley lady knocked on his compartment door. She offered him sweets for a few sickles but he found that he could barely speak to her. All he got out was a strangled “No thank you” and a weak smile. He managed to keep his footing until she disappeared down the corridor which was when his knees buckled and his legs collapsed beneath him. This was the second panic attack of the day.

When Rafael arrived at Hogwarts he felt claustrophobic. He’d shared a boat with a group of boys that had been taking turns pushing each other into the lake and by the time they arrived, Rafael was the only one completely dry. The crowd of first years was fairly large and he’d been tossed about within that group, causing him to hyperventilate – not that anyone noticed. By the time his breathing had regulated he found himself in the Great Hall with one of the teachers calling out names. When his name was called it was if the whole world had fallen silent. He could hear his heart thrumming loudly in his ears and his head felt heavy as he made his way up to the stool. He nigh on collapsed onto it and barely heard the hat speak as it searched his mind. His house was called out and he only just managed to identify it – as the house with the most people cheering. He made his way over and literally collapsed onto the bench this time and gripped the table for the life of him. He was relieved from the stares of his housemates when another name was called much to his infinite pleasure.

Hogwarts wasn’t the easiest place for Rafael to be. He was constantly worrying and he was forever sending letters home to Mynah who would assure him that everything was fine. In reality, he wanted something to be wrong so he could ask the Headmaster to send him home. But nothing was ever wrong. Nothing got bad enough for him to go home and continue what he had been doing for such a long time. Everything seemed to be fine when he was away though. The letters he got from Mynah were full of lies he could see straight through. He didn’t understand how they coped without him – how they got Vanessa to cough up the extra money they needed just to eat. All of this worry evoked panic attacks that he could neither understand nor control and they happened at the worst of times.

One of the worst one’s was during his first year in a flying lesson. The teacher was going over the basics and they were doing laps of the Quidditch pitch. None of the students were particularly high off of the ground but high enough to hurt themselves if one of them were to fall. Rafael’s mind wasn’t on the task and somehow his traitorous thoughts turned to Mynah and Jaret. He was progressively working himself up as he continued to fly and soon found himself out of control of his broom. It soared higher than he intended it to and when he regained some sort of control on his mind, he panicked when he saw how high he was in the air and an attack ensued. As a result, Rafael fell from his broom. The teacher managed to slow his fall but he succeeded in breaking his arm and nearly all of his ribs which rendered him useless for a while as it was his wand arm and much to the chagrin of the other students – the teachers made them take down double to notes so Rafael had a set of his own until his arm healed.

After the broom fiasco, students left him alone and Rafael found himself relying on Mynah’s letters that would come every week or so. As he progressed through the school, tensions at home became strained. Vanessa had gotten herself a boyfriend by his fourth year and would forget to pay the heating and electric bills, leaving the house bathed in darkness. The woman was driving Rafael over the edge and the extra stress made his mind unstable. But for some reason his schoolwork never suffered. He always attended class on time and although he would never speak, he’d create pieces of homework would wow the teacher reading it. He was silent and would rarely speak – if he did it was a one syllable word. The most any teacher got out of him was please, thank-you and words that would tell them that he didn’t want to take part in a discussion or something akin to that.

Home wasn’t a place Rafael wanted to be anymore. During the summer and the holidays when he was allowed home, he and his mother argued. They argued about petty things like the washing up to things like money and why she was never at home. After a few years yelling expletives at each other, Vanessa got violent. She returned home after a bust up with the allusive ‘Simon’ her new boyfriend and expected Rafael to take her back in. Mynah opened the door to her and she barged into the house. Immediately she and her eldest son began to argue and Mynah ushered the children upstairs. When the yelling got louder, Vanessa resorted to another approach and picked up one of the ashtrays on the coffee table. She threw it at Rafael and it hit him in the shoulder. The week prior that same ash tray had been dropped on the floor by Raina, who was playing with it, using it as a swimming pool for her Barbie dolls and it had chipped. It was that that clipped Rafael’s shoulder and dug deep into the skin, creating a large gash that Mynah tended to later.

Ever since that point in time, Rafael refuses to let Vanessa into what he considers his home. He works three jobs to make sure that Mynah and the children can stay in the house. He lets Raina and Nicolai think that their mother has gone on a business trip but they barely remember her now. Rafael is finding Hogwarts harder and harder to cope with now. He has no roots there – no friends or connections. He’s a wonderful student to say the least but he is no good at the Wizarding world. His place has always been with his family even if he feels out of place in the Muggle world. His N.E.W.T year will prove to be the hardest yet with all of the work that needs to be done. He doesn’t to have to deal with the added stress. He wants to be there for his family but he knows he can’t which is why he tries his hardest to get the money to Mynah every month for whatever they need – food, electric, water etc. For Rafael, Hogwarts is no home – it’s a place that makes him feel more alone than he already feels.

by **Khaat Lupin** Sun Jul 25, 2010 11:43 pm

i did accept this, btw. i don't know where my acceptance post went.

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ARMSTRONG, Rafael

ARMSTRONG, Rafael

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