PIERSON, Bentley

NICKNAMES/ALIAS:  Ben

AGE: 25

ALLEGIANCE: Death Eaters (unwillingly)
Double Agent, technically, as he spies for the Order and gives tiny bits of information that will help but keep him from being found out.

--"Do you know why people like violence, Hugh? It's because it feels good. Sometimes we can't do what feels good. We have to do what is logical. The hardest time to lie is when the other person is expecting to be lied to. If someone's waiting for a lie, you can't just, uh, give them one. What would the Germans think if we destroy their U-boats? So our convoy suddenly veers off course... a squadron of our air bombers miraculously descends on the coordinates of the U-boats... what will the Germans think?"
--"The Germans will know that we have broken Enigma."
--"Two years' work. Everything we've done here will all be for nothing."
-The Imitation Game

HOGWARTS HOUSE: Ex-Slytherin

WAND: Aspen, Dragon Heartstring, 10 ½ inches, Stiff

Aspen Wood, as described by Ollivander: “Wand-quality aspen wood is white and fine-grained, and highly prized by all wand-makers for its stylish resemblance to ivory and its usually outstanding charmwork. The proper owner of the aspen wand is often an accomplished duellist, or destined to be so, for the aspen wand is one of those particularly suited to martial magic. An infamous and secretive eighteenth-century duelling club, which called itself The Silver Spears, was reputed to admit only those who owned aspen wands. In my experience, aspen wand owners are generally strong-minded and determined, more likely than most to be attracted by quests and new orders; this is a wand for revolutionaries.”

PLAY BY: Sam Claflin


GENERAL APPEARANCE: Bentley has brown hair, though in summers it lightens up to nearly blonde in the sun most years. He has green eyes, but they can seem like a sort of hazel in certain lighting. On the whole, he's fairly tall, and taller than most people he knows (except Baldric, Keiran, Peter and Elijah - in that order). Ben's smile is rare, but when it's genuine, he appears brilliantly happy. It seems to light up his whole face, but that may be due to the fact that it's seen only every so often. He also gets these funny dimples and they're rather charming.

He is fairly built from his years of Quidditch, but over time he's started to lose some of the definition there. Now that he has a couple little ones to look after, though, he's definitely becoming more active again. That likely has added to the idea that, at home, he's actually a bit messy. When at work, nothing is able to distract him enough to create any sort of mess or unusual lack of tact. But he feels vastly more casual at home, even if he does feel fairly relaxed at work as well. Work!Ben typically goes for suit jackets and trousers or something equally formal, and Home!Ben goes for whatever is most comfortable and easy to move about in if he has to chase Tim about the house.


TRAITS:
001. Intelligent
002. Tidy
003. Meticulous
004. Optimistic
005. Workaholic
006. Dutiful
007. Insightful
008. Responsible
009. Painfully honest/Blunt
010. Charismatic
011. Good judge of character
012. Driven
013. Witty
014. Impartial
015. Has the courage to make a new business move/do the right thing

001. Mercurial
002. Somber
003. Flirtatious
004. Sarcastic
005. Impatient
006. Un-friendly (around new people, especially if they can't benefit him somehow)
007. Impulsive
008. Competitive
009. Hard to read
010. Quick-Tempered
011. Doesn't often let his sense of humor show
012. Isn't always humble/tactful (depends on mood)
013. Stubborn
014. Quarrelsome
015. Rejects Change

LIKES & DISLIKES:
001. Quiet
002. Cooking
003. Classy peers
004. His kids and Bae
005. Work
006. Reading – fiction in particular
007. Cats (in moderation. His one is pretty alright)
008. Drinking (In moderation, or conversationally)
009. Working out/Running to blow off steam
010. Caffeine
011. Saving money, and thus having lots of it
012. Quidditch
013. Dancing
014. Tea
015. Christmas (though not Winter in general)
016. Warm places

001. Jealousy
002. Drugs
003. Zealots
004. Violence
005. Cryptic people
006. Incompetence
007. Ignorance
008. Classical music
009. Vanity
010. Poetry
011. Large groups
012. Loud music/clubs
013. The idea of settling down
014. Talking about religion
015. Friends who argue incessantly
016. Hypocrisy

GOAL:  Protect his new family from his old one. Essentially, just his father as that's all that's left.

HABITS & QUIRKS:
001. Uses passive-aggression with co-workers or friends.
002. Follows his schedule a bit too much.
003. Gives vague comments/answers when around someone he dislikes.
004. Deep voice, heavily posh accent.

PERSONALITY:

Ben is rather mercurial and hard to figure out, even for those who know him. After growing up on his own, he is still loathe to let in new people or to give his whole self away. He often comes off as aloof or arrogant, but he really just doesn't converse easily with others.

As much as he loves being at work – partly because he's in charge of most of the people there, but partly because he's dang good at what he does – he would just as soon go home to his flat and either get work done early or spend some time reading or catching up on the latest Quidditch matches and news. That, of course, and taking care of his new charges. And the cat, though Ben doesn't quite count that.

Bentley has a rather easily brought-to-the-surface temper, and though he sometimes can think things through, he usually acts without waiting. If it doesn't involve work, family or his money, he rarely waits around to consider if his first idea is the best one. It got him into a fair number of detentions in his early Hogwarts years when he had just found out about his being a Wizard not being a horrible thing. As he grew up, however, his relatively loud and aggressive temper turned into variations of the silent treatment, passive-aggressiveness, or threats. With his money and position, as well as his connections with the Death Eaters, Bentley isn't afraid of making anyone angry if they've offended or done wrong by him.


FATHER: Clarence Montgomery
Death Eater, Lawyer
Pureblood

MOTHER: Dianne Pierson
Muggle, Painter.
Deceased.

SIBLING/S: N/A

OTHER:
Adoptive Parents: Derek and Nancy Ashford
Derek owns the company that Ben works for and will take over upon the man's retirement

Husband: Baldric Pierson
Children: Eva and Tim, aged 1 and 5 respectively.

Step-Mother: Violette Montgomery, housewife and shopaholic (Ben doesn't know about her)
Cousin: Nathaniel Montgomery, Salem Graduate (also unknown to Ben)

SPECIES/BLOODTYPE: Half-blood

SOCIAL STATUS: Wealthy


EARLY YEARS:
Clarence Montgomery ran into Dianne Pierson one afternoon at an art gallery. He was due to steal something but paused to get to know her first, his curiosity getting the better of him. At first, he didn't even think to ask if she was a Muggle - subconsciously, he didn't want to learn the truth he already felt he knew. It wasn't until he found out that she was pregnant with his child that he had to force himself to take it into account. He was a Pureblood, and a Death Eater at that. A fairly high-ranking one. It simply wasn't something he could do.

So he cut all ties and left. Dianne had no money and no family that were willing to help her, so she was forced to give Ben up for adoption when she became quite ill. Not long after, she passed away, and she had never left any records for Ben (or anyone else, for that matter) to find. It wasn't until Ben was twenty-three that he learned all of this, in his father's too-blunt manner, and he was surprised to find that he felt a very strong admiration for his mother despite everything, and wished desperately that he could've done something, but of course that would've been impossible..

--

Bentley's first memory is of waking in an uncomfortable bed in what he would learn was a small, poorly looked after orphanage. Although the orphanage tried, the parents were never found. They couldn't find any trace of his family, and eventually gave up. Because of his tendency to stay away from others he wasn't adopted. Rather, he jumped around from foster home to foster home, and when his magic accidentally became a problem they stopped trying to find somewhere for him to go, instead thinking that he was just rather rowdy and incapable of avoiding mischief. He ended up staying at the orphanage for the majority of his childhood. When his Hogwarts letter arrived, Ben ran away to attend, hoping that the school was not some falsehood or trick from the other children in the orphanage. Hoping he could find somewhere he could fit in. Ben just knew he wanted to be somewhere else, somewhere he could use his time to study how to move himself up in the world.

HOGWARTS YEARS:
Bentley was sorted into Slytherin, due to his extreme ambition – which mainly rested in his need to end up somewhere better than where he had begun. Realizing after a few years that he wanted to be involved in business, Ben took as many extra classes as he could like Arithmancy and Muggle Studies, among others – anything he thought could relate to his future career goals.

His free time was spent playing Quidditch or reading whatever he could from the Library. He was one of the few Slytherins who had no friends in the Slytherin house aside from his teammates, and even then he didn't like some of them. Instead, he managed to befriend several Gryffindors and Ravenclaws. Now and then he found a Hufflepuff he liked, but more often than not they just annoyed him.

During the summers, Bentley returned to the orphanage at first. Eventually he ended up staying with a friend during the summers, leaving the orphanage entirely (and without permission). After that, he never moved in with a new family, instead choosing to either jump between houses, or stay with his closest friend at the time. As bad as he felt about it, Ben always made sure to have a summer job so he could pay whomever he stayed with – or at least to help buy food or whatever needed to be purchased. He refused to listen if they said he didn't need to help out in that area.

He didn't exactly graduate near the top of his class, but he received excellent marks in the areas that he cared about. This would help him get his first job, and although he couldn't tell you the first thing about how to take care of a strange plant or a magical creature, he takes care of his cat well enough and doesn't exactly need to know any of that to succeed in what he does.

ADULTHOOD:
After graduation, Bentley got an internship with a large business man, a Mr. Derek Ashford, who took to Ben right away. Because of Ben's apparent management skills and astounding drive to move up in the ranks at their business, the CEO promoted Bentley to a minor managerial position with the clear intention to help him continue to flourish.

On Bentley's twenty-second birthday, Mr. Ashford and his wife, Nancy, expressed their interest in making Ben part of their family so that Derek could pass the business down to him. As strange as it felt to be “adopted” at twenty-two, Ben could not express his gratitude enough and has taken to his role as the son of Mr. Ashford with enthusiasm, though he asked if could keep his last name. He was rather used to it, and recently he has found all the more reason to like it.

It was a horrible decision, really, but he decided to find out more about his father despite Baldric's request that he drop the subject. Ben had already been involved with the Death Eaters to some extent, thinking it would keep him off of their radar. In the end, he properly joined the Death Eaters' ranks, dark mark and all, and that created quite the divide between Ben and nearly everyone he knew. Once information was given about Keiran's hidden school, which was meant to protect magical creatures banned from Hogwarts, Ben found out that Baldric was there and despite everything that had happened, refused to let Bae get hurt. He went in with the Death Eaters but blocked an attack on Baldric and Avery Ivanov Bishop, but miraculously has not been made a target by the Death Eaters yet.

After the Marriage Law was repealed, Ben was no longer tied to Rose and could do as he wished. Immediately, he tracked Bae down at Hogwarts and told him the news, essentially proposing then and there. Baldric changed his name to Pierson (hence Ben's added affinity for it), likely to irritate his father, Oliver Wood, but perhaps to amuse Ben as well. Bentley's never asked. Ben probably would've changed his name if asked, but after finding out about his father's history, he didn't really want to give up his mother's name.

That Christmas, they'd been married for a short while when Ben decided that he wanted to go back and see what things were like at the orphanage he spent most of his younger years in. As expected, conditions were still rotten, and it pained him to see the children growing up with as little hope as he had once felt. Using a fair bit of his savings - with the knowledge that Derek approved and would support him if anything took a turn for the worst - Ben purchased the land and began to make renovations. It wasn't long before Baldric stumbled across a baby girl, who had no family records (much like Ben) and was due to be sent out to a foster home. Baldric, of course, was having none of it, and insisted that she was meant to be with them.

Ben, admittedly, found the concept of jumping in head first rather frightening, but after thinking it through - really, it took no time at all - he found he couldn't argue. Eva was the first addition to their family, but not the only one. A while after, Ben was at the orphanage again to check in on the changes and see how things were going. And, of course, to drop off gifts and things. He came across a little boy who seemed rather at a loss, but who was very polite and lovely despite being quite shy. His name was Timothy, and - quite frankly - Ben took it as something of a sign. Baldric had once proclaimed that they would be brilliant together and that he wanted to have the whole picket fence and animals and kids thing, and that he would be damned if he couldn't have it with Ben. And there was mention of a little boy, named Tim, who would be absurdly like Ben. As fate would have it, such a one had been found. And Ben was nothing if not determined to find out if Tim liked them well enough. He was four years old, after all, and deserved to choose for himself.

Tim agreed, fashioning himself into a proper big brother for Eva. Since then, little has happened aside from a rather nasty event surrounding Baldric's past coming back to haunt him. No thanks to Millie Hayes, of course. Because of that, the Piersons went on holiday, Bae took time off of Hogwarts, and they waited until things had sort of blown over. Keiran, Peter, Millie, Oliver and Elijah took care of the problem, so to speak, and made it safer for Bae to be around. And, thankfully, safer for his new family.

Oh, and there was the little problem of Baldric being horribly ill before they were married. Ben always seems to linger on that one. He was out of the country when Keiran found out, and had to force the American Ministry to make him a portkey so he could return. Now winters terrify him, and he refuses to travel during the coldest months of the year.

Ben's husband is something of a fourth child for Keiran and Millie Hayes (though they've really got at least five, if they count Liv), so the disappearance of the Hayes patriarch has thoroughly done Baldric in, and Ben has had to be there to do whatever he can to hold the rest of them together. Frankly, he thinks he's been failing at it, and has been impatiently awaiting Theodore and Mai's return from their holiday. Not that he doesn't want Keiran back. The man has been pronounced dead by the wizards who found the end of his trail, though it's hard to believe that it's true. It doesn't feel true. But Alice and Oliver can only do so much, and Jack is obviously having none of it. The good news for everyone, though, is that he won't be gone forever. They just don't know it yet.


ALSO KNOWN AS: Addie

RP EXPERIENCE: Uh.

HOW YOU FOUND US: Uh.

MAIN CHARACTER: Adrienne (let's be real - it's gonna be Keiran again, soon)

he's looking good. i had a feeling he'd be back. lol. nice!

accepted and sorted to grads!