OOC
GAME: Era Zero
DESCRIPTION: 1940s Riddle-era RPG, with Grindelwald and the Knights of Walpurgis.
DATE: November 2006
PB: Patrick Wolf
JOURNAL: serpentriste
CONCEPT: A pathological liar.
IC
FULL NAME: Tristan Castor Nott
HOUSE/YEAR: Slytherin/Sixth year.
DORMMATES: Cygnus Black, Abraxas Malfoy, Leonius Rosier, Erasmus Borgin
DOB: 30th of September, 1925.
AGE: Seventeen.
BLOODLINE: Pure as the driven snow.
Zodiac: Libra. Positive traits include a rational, logical mind, a fine sense of aesthetics, diplomatic aplomb, good taste, charm, skill with words, intelligence, an innate sense of fairness and justice, and exceptional beauty. Negative characteristics include indecisiveness, excessive dependence on other people, conformist tendencies, manic depression, extravagance, and manipulation.
Slytherin
This combination of sun sign and House ought to be nicknamed "The Magical Corps of Diplomats." Slytherins born under this sign are poised, polished, suave, well read, well bred, and excruciatingly polite and correct in everything they do - the perfect gentry of the magical world. Never a bully or a bravo here! No, these Slytherins would say "I despise you and think your are worthless scum" and make it sound like "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…" They are discreet, sympathetic, easy to talk to, and know how to put people at ease. This can, of course, be a wonderful asset in espionage (the flip side of diplomacy!) and these Slytherins are more than capable of hiding their true feelings in order to get information or befriend a rival. Because they need to act in partnership with others and hate to be alone, they are rarely decision makers, and must be careful who they seek to befriend, lest they be led astray into the wrong crowd. Slytherin Libras also ought to marry into money if they don't have much of their own, for their love of luxury and culture can make for extremely high maintenance expenses.
FAMILY: Thomas Nott (father) and Adélaïde Meliflua-Nott (mother). No siblings. Uncle Mathis (deceased), and uncle Thaddeus (married Matilda Parkinson).
BRIEF HISTORY: Those pureblood families — yeah, you know them. Tristan grew up the only son of mismatched parents; they were rich and could provide him with anything he wanted, and not to mention, the marriage finally linked two names that hadn't crossed family trees for quite a while. But it was a marriage of convenience, as most pureblood matches are. The French-born witch Adélaïde Meliflua had genuinely been in love with Thomas' older brother, Mathis, who accidentally perished in the cold depths of World War I while on holiday in Switzerland. Perhaps the haughty pureblood man could have benefited from paying attention to the Muggle news every so often.
Regardless, Adélaïde pursed her lips and moved on, graciously accepting a proposal from Mathis' younger sibling a year later. She was getting older, after all, and it simply wouldn't do for her to remain unmarried forever and ever. Grief is unseemly on a woman. And so the petite, fragile French woman married the one Nott available — it took them four years to finally have their first and only child, and after Tristan was born, the two silently agreed that it wasn't worth trying for more. They'd had one child, and thank Merlin, it was a boy. The line would continue. That's all that was important, wasn't it?
After that, a rotating cast of nannies and lecturers flitted in and out of Tristan's life like butterflies. It wasn't that he was a problem child — no, the very opposite, he took to learning with wide eyes and silent, pursed lips. But he took to it too enthusiastically. He'd end up trailing his caretakers around, absorbing absolutely everything they did, throwing himself into their lessons and pouring his soul into the subject matter until he almost burned himself out completely. Tristan was often sickly, and whenever his mother saw signs of him getting worn down, she'd yank him out of lessons, into his oversized bed, and that was that for his current teacher. As a result, he went through several phases and periods, picking up and dropping hobbies and aristocratic pasttimes as quickly as they came. In their quest to groom him into a skilled young scion, Thomas and Adélaïde completely forgot about consistency. Tristan played the piano, toyed with the harp, dabbled with paints, doodled sketches, performed violin pieces in front of his adoring mother and aunts. And at his joyous discovery of horseriding, accidentally rode his new stallion to death by exhaustion. The boy earned more than his fair share of disapproving looks for killing the horse; but it was such a delightful sport, how could he resist?
After that incident, they never trusted Tristan to let him try polo, but he did play tennis. He practiced cricket. He had the biggest yearning to try rugby, but his mother firmly forbade the skinny, delicate boy from doing so. By the time he was nearing Hogwarts-age, Thomas assigned some tutors to teach the boy the basics of history of magic, herbology, and rudimentary aspects of the dark arts. Tristan's easily-distractable mind never latched on fully to the lessons, however, so by the time he arrived at school, he was still on a relatively even footing with the others.
Several years later, he's in his sixth year at Hogwarts. And that's where we begin.
PERSONALITY: Tristan is flighty. He's never learnt the positive sides of settling down with something, and his attention wavers constantly. He's likely to pick up new acquaintances, pour his heart and soul into befriending them, and then just as suddenly drop them by the wayside as he tires of their existence. He is an utterly selfish little boy, having grown up with very few playmates compared to most other pureblood children. The Notts were not a fixture at the very largest family parties, and instead lurked in smaller, though no less estimable, social circles. Though Tristan is friendly and cordial enough, keenly intelligent in his own quiet way, and certainly fond of speaking to people from other houses — particularly the Ravenclaws, he feels they deserve some sort of honourary mention in his book — he is also completely untrustworthy. Never expect him to be on time. Never expect him to honour engagements. But if he's developed an attachment, he can be your most ferociously steadfast ally… temporarily, at least.
If the Notts had ever gotten a professional psychologist to look at their boy, they might have realized that Tristan is a pathological liar. He lies compulsively; not all the time, but casual enough and unconsciously enough that he's hardly ever found out. He doesn't particularly enjoy doing it — it simply happens, and inevitably results in him swindling others occasionally. You learn not to trust him with your money. Though a bi-product of his pathological lying means that he will often take on the blame for other's pranks and crimes, spontaneously deciding to confess to what he hasn't done. Understandably, Tristan tries to keep this aspect of his lying out of the public view; he worries about other students taking advantage of this flaw.
Despite his unreliable nature, Tristan did take an immense and loyal liking to the violin. He still plays the instrument daily, and if upset, will often find an abandoned classroom to practice it in.
APPEARANCE: Tall. Skinny. Lanky. His physique might have otherwise suited him for being a Chaser on the House Quidditch team, but Tristan is also constantly ill and sick. His mother would have thrown a fit if he joined the team — and being the mummy's boy he is, he never did. Tristan often magically dyes his hair bright red, simply for the attention it illicits. He isn't traditionally handsome; at times, the boy's nose and ears seem too big, his skin too pallid. But he has a scruffy type of attraction to him, when seen in the right light.
VIEWS on politics and Grindelwald: Suffice it to say, Tristan is a quiet and staunch supporter of Grindelwald. He'll never admit it openly — and if by chance he does so accidentally, he'll chuckle and wave it off as a miserable joke. But having heard of his beloved uncle murdered by Muggles, having grown up through the Depression, having heard the Muggle planes rumbling low over the city of London — Tristan is tired of it. Muggles and wizarding kind are not meant to mix. Tristan hasn't developed any utterly demented ideals yet, but he's a full supporter of separatism. The Muggles tried to burn them at the stake hundreds of years ago, and times have not changed.
VIEWS on blood purity and his/her social status: Strangely enough, the boy doesn't feel particularly superior to Muggleborns or half-bloods. For the sake of seamlessl fitting in with his social group and keeping his head low, he'll blithely call them "mudbloods" behind their back. But truth to tell, he's met his own share of impressive Muggleborn wizards and witches. Now that they're already here in his face, he acknowledges them. He just doesn't think they should have existed in the first place.
SOUNDTRACK
HALF THE LIES YOU TELL AIN'T TRUE the stereophonics
TRISTAN patrick wolf
LOGS
December 3, 1942: The Charis disaster
December 13, 1942: Shacklebolt kicks Nott's arse
January 29, 1943: Talking to Cedrella
