OOC
GAME: Chizpurfles
DESCRIPTION: Random MWPP game.
DATE: July 2006
PB: Russell Crowe
JOURNAL: aurorus (greatestjournal)
IC
Name: Alastor Osric Moody
Birthdate: December 30th, 1947.
Zodiac: Capricorn. Positive traits: Pragmatism, maturity, patience, determination, awareness, a strong work ethic, realism, discipline, money management, the willingness to overcome hard luck, leadership, initiative, opportunism, prudence, and cunning. Negative traits: Pessimism, melancholy, emotional coldness, manipulation, obsession with work and ambitions to the detriment of personal development, remoteness, and materialistic snobbery.
Hufflepuff Capricorns: Extraordinarily hard workers. Their sense of duty is strong, and they have enough discipline to manage not just themselves, but a whole army of people if needs be. They take joy in being useful to other people, so are often quite helpful whether as lab partners or in their chosen careers (often in the Ministry of Magic). However, because they also make good leaders and want to get ahead in the world due to having more ambition than the average Hufflepuff, they tend to get selected for positions of authority, where they soon make themselves indispensable. They're good at organizing things. Hogwarts should always have a Hufflepuff Capricorn somewhere on the administration, to make sure all affairs are actually in order (all those head-in-the-clouds creative types on the faculty; good heavens, where would Hogwarts be if there was no way of balancing them with down to earth perspective?)
House/Year: Hufflepuff alumnus, class of '66.
Bloodline: Fullblood.
Pets: His paranoia.
Wand: Cedar wand. Nine and one-quarter inches long. Griffin tail hair core.
Personality: A temperamental, moody, fiesty- and incredibly loyal man. The last one to ever betray you. Once he has his eye on a goal, he is driven and determined to achieve it. Constant vigilance. In his older years, he is paranoid, "demented" the Auror trainees call him,— but he hates Dementors.
Boggart: Voldemort sitting in the Minister for Magic's office — or even worse, in the Auror Headquarters offices.
Patronus: A rooster. And Moody won't stand for anyone mocking it. The rooster is one of the few things capable of slaying a basilisk, and not to mention, a symbol of vigilance and warning others. It embodies the traits of being quick to fight, single-purposed and persistent.
Political affiliation: Order of the Phoenix.
Sexual orientation: Vigilantexual. Also heterosexual.
Family History: As a young boy, he grew up with a father who was an Unspeakable, and a neurotic mother who was a Healer. She drilled him with lessons on wand safety, on first aid, on healing spells, on counter-jinxes, on the history of magic. She was a bookish woman, with Outstanding in History of Magic, Potions, and DADA.
His father was calm and taciturn, and never spoke of his work. Alastor cherished Osric's words whenever he did speak, taking his advice straight to heart as he did his mother's. From him, he learnt ideals. Equality. The guarding of others. He learnt guarding one's words - silence and keeping one's thoughts to oneself.
If he had been a Legilimens, he would certainly have liked to pass on that knowledge to his son, too.
"Your mother is the only human being I trust, boy. And even she cannot hear of my work. Second-guess everything you hear. Work hard. Think for yourself."
His mother, Abigail, was a brilliant and eccentric Muggleborn Gryffindor. Down-to-earth and brave - she taught him never to feel shame, never to be self-conscious, never to measure himself by others' worth. Yet she also passed on her paranoid delusional tendencies to her young, impressionable son. These traits began innocently at first, but have intensified strongly, thanks to the later years in the war.
If Alastor were in the Muggle world, he would have been diagnosed with paranoid personality disorder, identified by these symptoms:
A pervasive distrust and suspiciousness of others such that their motives are interpreted as malevolent, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by four (or more) of the following:
1. suspects, without sufficient basis, that others are exploiting, harming, or deceiving him or her
2. is preoccupied with unjustified doubts about the loyalty or trustworthiness of friends or associates
3. is reluctant to confide in others because of unwarranted fear that the information will be used maliciously against him or her
4. reads hidden demeaning or threatening meanings into benign remarks or events
5. persistently bears grudges, i.e., is unforgiving of insults, injuries, or slights
6. perceives attacks on his or her character or reputation that are not apparent to others and is quick to react angrily or to counterattack
7. has recurrent suspicions, without justification, regarding fidelity of spouse or sexual partner.
Personal History: He went to Hogwarts an incredibly arrogant, self-contained and reserved boy. He had nothing against speaking to students of any class, any House - yet he was closed-off and difficult to know. His father's words followed him,- as tangible an effect, as clinging and staying, as his name itself.
Alastor. Avenger and nemesis. Always watching.
Yet Hufflepuffs in general are incredibly kind and patient. He eventually formed long-lasting friendships. In school, Alastor learnt the art of associating with people. He let few in, and very few people knew him inside out - yet they did know him.
He was a sharp boy who enjoyed the company of professors, and often spoke to Dumbledore.
He experienced his first kiss, his first girlfriend. Both were clumsy affairs.
His head always buzzed with thoughts. He could not sleep until he had taken a walk from the North Tower downwards, prowling the school. He usually did this alone.
Older Slytherins pranked him, and bullied him - for his off-kilter behaviour, his loner status, his tongue-tied nature around girls. Yet Alastor remembered confidence from his mother, and he learned to watch his own back, to react against attacks - occasionally disregarding the rules as he did so. He was quick and tenacious. Soon, they learnt that he fought like a mad badger when cornered. They eventually left him alone.
Alastor considered trying out for Beater on the House Quidditch team; people often dismissed him as a stout, gruff boy with few brains. 'Not the sharpest quill in the box.' But his was a fierce intelligence, nestled under layers of instinct and silence and hard work.
Quidditch turned out to not be his Thing. But he joined the Duelling Club. He had a terrible temper, and a tendency to end up in brawls and fights, and to initiate arguments with rivals and enemies. He became ferocious when fighting for what he believed in.
He excelled at practical magic - DADA, charms, and especially Transfiguration. Alastor became Prefect every year, but never made Head Boy.
Every year, his father became more tight-lipped. He read the Prophet and watched developing world events, and continued encouraging Alastor to look closely at everything.
Leaving Hogwarts, he was thrown out of the house, and left on his own. "Independence," Osric said. Alastor lived like a rat in London, in a poor apartment, with the meagre company of his old Hogwarts books and NEWTs results. When the opportunity arose a couple months later, he applied for that autumn's Auror qualification tests.
His flat was robbed several times. He grew more wary. Three years later, just as he made full Auror- the first murmurings were beginning of Voldemort's rise.
Alastor excelled at his new job, but grievous accidents made him even more reserved. His Muggleborn, Ministry-employed mother was killed in the mass Death Eater attack on the masquerade of 1976, along with a young witch that he had been extremely fond of, but hadn't had the chance to get to know further. Moody, at age twenty-nine, was one of the lucky ten percent who survived.
He grieved and became even quieter in his melancholy. He did not neglect his friendships - he formed and maintained them just as before. But he did not trust. And he drew his attention away from the female race, forgetting them as the hunt for dark wizards occupied his life.
He grew fanatical in his work.
His father passed away of old age.
It is now 1978. Alastor Moody is what he is - an esteemed Auror, one of few constant survivors of the First War. Solemn, not lighthearted, yet functioning. Capable of a smile, a playful half-step, a drink with friends… an event that is becoming more and more common these days.
He is also mildly obsessive-compulsive. He needs to take a walk before he can sleep, burning away excess energy. He takes his shoes off, and wanders barefoot around his house, feeling the concrete, seeing the sky. Breathing in all the sounds around him, Alastor absorbs it all, subconsciously checks for danger, and then tries to sleep.
Every so often, he suffers from intense insomnia, mind buzzing with thoughts once more. The next morning, he shows up surly at work, downs inordinate amounts of caffeine, spills it on his Daily Prophet, and curses like a sailor.
His work gives him a vague sort of sadistic pleasure. He pours his temper and his persistence into it. The more Dark Wizards he puts into Azkaban, the more successful he feels. And he is reknowned amongst his colleagues for one feature: despite all the depravity of the war, he has not sunken to the Death Eaters' level. He always brings in his enemies alive where possible - he does not torture, he does not manipulate.
He is Alastor Moody.
