Name: Albert Aldenberg Age: 37 (born 1962) Gender: Male Nationality: Dutch Blood Purity: Pure-Blood Marked? Not marked Personality: Albert is, in a word, stern. At Hogwarts, it was often remarked about him that he was destined to be a professor, given his studious, contemplative nature - and his complete lack of patience. He is socially conservative and fussy, obsessed with little rules and social graces, owing to his background: living in dictatorship under an immortal magical bigot is in no way an excuse for not being dressed appropriately. Chivalry and honour are important to Albert, as pretentious or patronising as they may be to others. Respect for the fairer sex and a refusal to use the Unforgivable Curses (including Legilimency in Dutch traditions) are the two of the more obvious examples thereof. Despite possessing what could be considered a commanding presence, Albert is a quiet man, who will observe and assess from a distance, offering his thoughts only when they are vital. As a result, he often comes across as cold and aloof, though he would not consider himself either of those things. He is cautious in the extreme, and never takes action unless he knows what he is doing: because of this, he can be considered stuck in his ways, and can be, frankly, frustrating, as he obsesses over minute, often insignificant details. Because Albert has quite obviously had it ingrained in him to be a proper gentleman, many attribute his protective nature to this. However, this is not, strictly speaking, true; he is genuinely a very caring person. Those in the Ashes will know him as a fatherly figure who will be the first to think of the safety of everybody else. He is constantly conflicted by his desire to protect everybody and the inevitable fact that he cannot. Awkwardly for somebody combating Voldemort, Albert is indeed a carrier of several prejudices typical in the wizarding world and is highly politically incorrect. He will defend the term ‘Mudblood’ (though perhaps is wise enough not to use it) and will refer to the muggle-friendly as blood-traitors and any not-entirely human Being as a ‘half-breed’. He believes muggles are stupid (while completely ignorant of their culture), and is even rather iffy on the topic of muggle-borns. He will treat them perhaps too kindly as though they are in some way disabled, and does believe that, although not personally responsible for their own existence, their induction to the wizarding world is damaging to the social order: according to him, the far-right uprisal is at least in part down to the destabilising effects of relations with muggles and muggle-borns. Strengths:

• Wand Technique: Albert furiously studies his skills with a wand, and, as such, his power and finesse are almost peerless (especially among his own age group).[/*]
• Defence: Albert is highly defensive in combat. His shield charms are second to none, and he has taken the time to learn Occlumency[/*]
• Arithmancy: always helps with planning. Never helps with anything else[/*]

Weaknesses:

• Formality: Albert is a highly-trained formal duellist. Unfortunately, most actual duels are not formal: while he’s bowing, the opponent has probably already cursed him. While obviously he has since learned not to bow and to break the rules of a formal duel, he is still used to battling in very sterile environments against particular tactics - which is often more a hindrance than a help.[/*]
• Flexibility: Albert is not flexible. While he may be described as a powerful wizard because of his aptitude for magic, he would never be considered a brilliant wizard, because he doesn’t have the creativity to interact with a given scenario off the cuff.[/*]

Wand: Oak, Dragon Heartstring, 15”, Unyielding Bio: The Aldernberg family is an old Dutch wizarding family comparable to the Blacks or the Malfoys in England. Powerful, rich and conservative, the only great difference was that the Aldenbergs had no great historical desire to affect change in the Netherlands. Despite being Dutch, Aldenberg children were typically Hogwarts-educated, to the point where the family had manors in both countries. Despite being officially Dutch, Albert has spent almost as much time in England as in the Netherlands, and considers himself a national of both countries. Attending Hogwarts, Albert was very much a model student on paper. Though his background and inevitable prejudices occasionally caused friction between himself and his peers (especially in his house, Hufflepuff), it was noted that he was somehow as tolerant as he was prejudiced, and therefore real trouble was rarely caused. Upon leaving Hogwarts, Albert almost immediately turned around and walked straight back in again. After a few years researching Arithmancy in the Netherlands, he accepted the post of Professor of Arithmancy at Hogwarts in 1983, where he remained through thick and thin - both accepted and not quite accepted by both sides. The Order of the Phoenix trusted Dumbledore’s judgement that his prejudice was not a lost cause, while the supporters of Voldemort saw in him and the Aldenberg family a perfectly respectable wizarding tradition. Therefore, while he was not invited to join the Order, his name was known to the Ashes, and when Umbridge began her axing of the school staff, he remained until the school’s closure. During this period, the changing nature of the school began to open Albert’s eyes a little. Although he had sympathies with the political leanings of Voldemort’s followers, the methods were unforgivable. He remained in the school as long as he could to protect his charges, and, eventually, to leak information to the Ashes, and, when the school was finally closed altogether, he joined the Ashes as an active member.

Name: David Howell Age: 27 (born 1972) Gender: Male Nationality: British Blood Purity: Muggle-Born Marked? Beyond being on the Muggle-born register, no. Personality: David comes across as chirpy and cheerful even in the face of adversity. He has a great sense of humour (and a particularly dark one) and is more than happy to take a joke himself: he’s used to it, having been the obvious butt of jokes for most of his wizarding career. Because of this, he is fairly likeable, if not especially impressive. While he projects an image of self-confidence and bravery, this is bravado. Underneath he is a disquiet man with many insecurities, not least about his own shortcomings as a wizard and his status as a second-class citizen. For all his happy-go-lucky projection, he is hugely bitter on the inside, about being constantly passed over or considered unworthy, confused by the fact he knows he considers himself unworthy as well. This bitterness manifests itself in an unexpected cruel streak every so often. Because of his treatment by the Order, he is very untrusting, and, in turn, naturally deceptive. He does not tend to confide in anybody, even in the other members of the Ashes, even though he is often forced to rely on them because of his own magical incompetence. Despite this, he is not gushing with intellect or strength of character, and so he can be quite easily bullied into things, and, because he relies on his not-always-reliable instinct rather than actually thinking critically, tends to be easily manipulated, too. Weaknesses:

• Magic(!): Despite being an indisputable wizard, David grew up in the muggle-world, never had any great aptitude for magic while at Hogwarts, and fled the school before completing even his OWLs. Inevitably, he is really not the world’s best wizard, and tends to avoid actually using magic. He is capable of most basic Charms and has been taught a decent selection of Hexes and defensive spells by the Ashes, but it’s best not to rely on him for anything magical.[/*]
• Apparition: Never even got the chance to take his test, and so has never learned. As a result, he relies on other members of the Ashes to apparate with him or create a portkey for him just to get around.[/*]

Strengths:

• Seer: Despite divination typically being considered a load of hooey, David is a seer. He tends not to make formal prophecies and he cannot force himself to see something. Instead, he will ‘see’ events as they unfold, rather than knowing precisely what will happen, and subconsciously informs his good instincts - which manifests as being quite lucky in day-to-day life.[/*]
• Dark Arts: Because David’s spells typically tend to lack any real oomph, he has been secretly seeking ways to level the playing field. One of these pursuits is the Dark Arts, which feel more holistic and intuitive to him, rather than the intricate nature of ‘normal’ magic. While he’s hardly at Voldemort’s level, he is making some decent progress and is already capable of some rather nasty bits of magic.[/*]
• “Bluff Magic”: On paper, David should never win a duel. His magic is frailer and less consistent than most wizards. Instead, he basically cheats. Instead of really actually thinking about what he’s doing and duelling ‘properly’, David just shoots whatever the hell he can create at a target and hopes for the best. This is normally a healthy mix of harmless sparks, random Charms, and legitimate hexes. Because they’re all half-formed and random, he can launch an absurd amount of individual spells with decent accuracy at a given target. The target is typically forced onto the defensive, because any one of those spells could be the end of the duel if they hit. While David has never actually won a fair duel in this way, he has also managed to force those one-on-ones he has been in into a stalemate.[/*]

Wand: 8¼”, maple, coral core, pliable Bio: David is a complete immigrant into the wizarding world. He and his parents (who owned a small restaurant in Durham) were all completely shocked to receive his letter of admission to Hogwarts, though they later agreed that they had always known that David was in some way ‘special’. He had always been incredibly lucky, almost uncannily so: his mother had even begun to buy lottery tickets on his advice, and, almost every week, they would win a small but respectable sum. The child also had a knack for knowing things he had no real way of knowing. The fact that David was not just a wizard but a seer to boot was only revealed in his third year, when he took Divination as a subject, and his natural gift was given space to breathe. It’s just as well he at least had Divination (as not-proper a subject as it was considered) because he was a walking disaster area wherever a wand and actual spellcasting were concerned. Non-directly magical subjects such as Portions and Herbology were fine: Charms, DatDA and Transfiguration were only just passable. In his fifth year, David made the decision to leave Hogwarts. The increased pressure and danger for muggle borns, even within its walls, had become too much for him, and so he fled. It was not, however, even particularly safe for him to return to the muggle world, as his identity as a muggle-born was known to students and so he was taken into the custody of the Order of the Phoenix (while in no way permitted to participate, being both underage and under-competent), presumably partly to prevent his ‘instinct’ being captured by the enemy. Growing resentful of the Order’s treatment of him, David eventually joined the Ashes when they splintered off from the Order with whom he has remained to this day. Other: Ravenclaw

Name: “Larry Dale” (Laurence Darville) Age: 34 Gender: Male Nationality: English Blood Purity: Pure-Blood Marked? Oh good lord, yes Personality: Larry is fiercely intelligent, about which there is no doubt. He is both an ideas man and a pragmatic thinker, one who is not caught up on little details but still pays due attention to them. He is somewhat manic, who is incapable of sitting still: even if he’s not doing anything productive, he will still be larking about in some manner or another. Everything he does has an sense of tongue-in-cheek playfulness, which, in the wrong mood, can manifest itself as pure spite. He is relentlessly positive, in the worst and most exploitative ways. Every cloud must have a silver lining, even if he must paint it on himself. If a member of the resistance dies, then Larry will present a martyr: if a Death Eater dies, they are the most crucial key to toppling the regime. While, as a journalist, he reports only facts, he is most definitely guilty of the most appalling spin and editorial bias. Fierce ambition drives him: he works out what he wants and then does whatever it takes to get it. As a politician, he happily trod on people to secure his own position. While he is definitely a risk-taker, though perhaps not as naive as he once was, they are calculated risks, and so does not consider himself a gambler in this regard: if push comes to shove, he saves his own skin, first, and thinks about other things last. He is, in that sense, an appalling egotist, and has come to see himself as something of a political celebrity. Externally, his period under the thrall of the Ministry offers him no grievance. Underneath, however, he still feels a certain amount of, if not guilt, remorse over that period, and, though he considers himself above such things, has something of a thirst for vengeance. Strengths: - Stealth and Espionage: Larry has become good at not dying. He has spent the past six years as a lone operative, and has very much learned to take responsibility for his own safety. If anybody is any good at not being noticed, it’s Larry: he also has sources of information to report. - PR: Not hugely helpful to the Ashes, but Larry is something of a PR prodigy. - Will-Power: Larry has developed a very strong resistance to the Imperius Curse due to a four-year period of uninterrupted control, which he has also applied to Occlumency. Weaknesses: - Duelling: While Larry is a competent wizard in many fields, he isn’t a particularly accomplished duellist and historically has tackled combat by simply escaping. - Teamwork: Larry is not a team player. Wand: 12”, Laburnum, Unicorn Tail Hair Bio: Laurence grew up in a very normal, middle-class wizarding family, and got his acceptance letter to Hogwarts as he predicted. While at Hogwarts, he focussed on the humanities rather than magic itself, taking Muggle Studies, the Study of Ancient Runes, History of Magic to NEWT level, along with Potions, Charms, and Transfiguration, doing rather well across the board and being appointed prefect for Ravenclaw House. With an unblemished school record, Laurence’s progression into the Ministry was inevitable and smooth. He was a political beast, who was quickly taken under the wing of a career politician (rather than a civil servant), Amarant Garth, with the two of them rejecting the increasing anti-muggle sentiments publicly. Laurence displayed an innate knack for campaign strategy and proved himself as a PR machine. Despite the best efforts of political opponents and the terror threats from Death Eaters, he was not deterred from writing bitingly critical assessments of the political climate and even managed to bully them into the Prophet (as well as any other respectable publication that would take them). Through his skill and, frankly, underhanded machinations, he cemented his position, despite his youth as Garth’s right-hand man, and, together, they unified whatever anti-Fudge and anti-Voldemort sentiment there was into a decent movement. Unfortunately, the movement wasn’t anywhere near strong enough to block Malfoy’s rise to the throne, and, from there, it was all downhill. The threats against Garth eventually sunk in, and the man bottled it. Lawrence was the only natural successor to Garth’s position as the most overt opponent of the new regime, and took to it with aplomb, if rather less success in the new climate. He remained utterly undiverted from his cause, until, an impressive two years into his tenure, he was diverted in the most thorough way possible. Instead of simply killing him, the Death Eaters had been watching his campaigning for a few years with irritation and interest, and decided to recruit him instead. Lawrence never found out the name of the person that cast the Imperius Curse on him, but, suffice to say, they did an excellent job of it. The narrative for the cursed Laurence was that he was a reasonably well-known political convert: the argument had won him over and he now supported the new direction of the Ministry. The fact he had a NEWT in Muggle Studies was also useful, as he was therefore an ‘expert’ in muggle culture and so the propaganda he was generating was thereby justified. In addition, his information about the anti-Death Eater movement was gradually extracted from him and used to shut down the dregs of the opposition. The curse lasted an extraordinary period of time: for over six years. Inevitably, Laurence began to be able to resist it, and eventually threw it off entirely, and vanished into the night. Despite this ordeal, Laurence’s political fervour was not quelled, though he vowed not to be quite so naive a second time round. With intricate knowledge of the mechanisms by which the regime could catch opponents, he began broadcasting information by radio: where was safe, who had been killed, what the Death Eaters were doing, and how best to fight back - as well as, for the sake of spite, popular muggle music. He’s been doing this for years now, as a lone operative, under a new name. While there are certain trust issues to be had with a former Ministry mouthpiece, he has been rebuilding his reputation and is the most acclaimed and secure broadcasting operative.