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c_smales's Journal

Created on 2006-06-06 16:00:06 (#10394458), last updated 2006-07-17

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Basic Info

Name:	Clive Smales
Birthdate:	04-06

Bio

This journal was created for use in the role playing game

fiery_inception and is a work of fiction. Harry Potter and the world around him belongs to JKR, no copyright infringement is intended. Clive Smales is an original character created by me for the sole purpose of roleplay. :)

The Basics

Character Name: Clive "Kipper" Smales. He gained his nickname from the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, where his wiggly way of zipping around for the Snitch made him resemble a tiny fish flopping out of water. He'll answer to Kipper as well as Clive, even though he hated the nickname in school.
PB: Richard Hammond

Age: 35
Birthday: 6 April 1965
Wand: Elm (a symbol of stability), 11 1/2" with knarl quill core.
House in School: Hufflepuff
Bloodline: Half-blood; Dad's the Muggle and Mum's the witch, though she was Muggleborn

Political View: Not so strongly against Voldemort that he would head to the front lines, but he thoroughly disapproves of the whole "Muggles are inferior" idea. After all, a large number of his relatives are Muggles! Still, he's of the opinion that other, more skilled blokes should do the skirmishing. He was fully behind Dumbledore and everything that great wizard stood for. Pureblood supremacists are stupid and wrong, and he won't go out of his way to (God forbid) befriend one, but as long as a person's polite, he'll do his best to be polite back.

Appearance

Height: 5'8"
Weight: 155 lb.
Eyes: brown
Hair: dark brown and trimmed short and stylish.
Build: trim but not really athletic, not since his schooldays. He's trying to come to terms with the fact that he's getting a little rounder at his middle than he's used to.
Dress Style: Comfort, comfort, comfort. He works at Quality Quidditch Supplies, so his uniform usually consists of robes in the various British team colors. Think of employees at a sporting goods store donning team jerseys. Yep, same thing. Outside of the Wizarding world, he'll wear dress shirts in dark colors (greys, browns, blues), jeans, and trainers. You can't really take the Tube to work in Pride of Portree robes, after all. Not unless you want to make everyone think you're a kook. He figures the only way he could get away with wearing robes on the Tube is when there's a science fiction convention in town, and he can claim being in costume. It's worked in the past. Once, he convinced people he was a Jedi.

Basic Physical Description:

Defining Marks: Nothing much, really. All of the other employees at the shop are taller than he is, so he's usually referred to as "the short bloke." He has suffered all manner of injury from Quidditch: concussions, broken bones, and the like, and a few spectacular maulings have left dents and bruised dry patches in the skin as they healed, particularly on his upper arms. He's not unhandsome, though, and he has a friendly, welcoming smile.

Personality

If someone did a quick character study of Clive, they'd probably think the man a bit of a goof and easily excitable, and they'd be right. There's nothing quite as invigorating to him as opening a new shipment of bludgers, all trembling and raring to find a target. Those same employees who tease him about his height also know he's absolutely fearless when it comes to the Quidditch balls. He'll willingly volunteer to sort and shelve them.

Some might think that he's a simpleton because his attention is caught by whizzing objects so easily, but this fascination has helped him on the Quidditch pitch. He was Hufflepuff's Seeker during his later years at Hogwarts, and though his House never won the Cup while he was there, they came mighty close during his sixth year.

He also fancies himself an expert in brooms and can always be called upon for his expertise if a customer needs help choosing one. Clive will boast that he has written for the latest issue of Which Broomstick?, but if you check the fine print on the masthead, his involvement with the publication is strictly on the field testing side. Basically, his connections at work allow him to fly brooms and then review them on speed, maneuverability, comfort, etc., and his opinion is only one of dozens the publication takes into account when putting together its catalog. Still, Clive doesn't think he'll steer a customer wrong when suggesting a certain brand over another. He likes brooms of all sorts, though his own pride and joy is a vintage Cleansweep 3.

He can be a little defensive and snippy if he's having a bad day or if he's frustrated by an annoying customer. He tries to keep a cheery, "customer-first" attitude, and it takes a lot to break him, but he can be broken. And yes, this defensive attitude also comes about in his relationships. He is very much a sport geek, and he's turned a few girls off by his constant talk of Quidditch. Things settled down a little during the war, when matches were cancelled due to obvious circumstances, but now with the truncated season starting soon, his girlfriends are destined to be Quidditch widows. His favorite team is the Appleby Arrows.

Still, he's quite laid back as a whole, and if you share his passion for the game, then he'll consider you his newest best friend. He's been known to take customers on pubcrawls to the Leaky Cauldron or even Muggle pubs if they're adventurous enough, just so he can keep them happy. And yet, his circle of true friends is very tiny indeed. Oh, he has tons of acquaintances, but friends? He could probably count them all on one hand. Sometimes he worries if all he is is a Quidditch geek, if there's nothing else inside him worth liking or knowing.

Psychology

Extrovert/Introvert: Definite extrovert. If you're lucky enough to be his customer, he's all smiles and "how can I help you?" And he offers the best customer service he can. He's a person who truly loves being with other people. He's not above trying to "take the piss" out of anyone either, but he hopes people know that he never really means it.
Boggart Would Be: A Snitch, forever out of reach. His biggest fear is that he won't be able to achieve his goals in life, and those are personified by a flittering golden ball. He hates being frustrated and will work exceptionally hard to finish whatever he has started. It's the Hufflepuff in him, surely.
Patronus Would Be: Clive has never found any need to learn the Patronus charm. He's never faced a Dementor, and he doesn't plan to.

Sexuality

He is heterosexual. There's no question about what gender made his heart flutter at school, and he has a girlfriend now. Or rather, he had a girlfriend; he thinks they've broken up. He's finding it very difficult to date in the Muggle world when your job's in Diagon Alley. Still, he thinks witches are a little too "high-maintenance." It's all that magic, you know, heats up the blood. That said, he probably won't scoff at a short fling with a witch. Just don't expect him to settle down with one.

Lifestyle

Occupation: Sales Associate, Quality Quidditch Supplies. He's held the job for two years, and only because he caught a very lucky (and dreadful) break. The previous wizard in the position was the victim of a Death Eater attack. Before this, Clive tried his hand at some Muggle office work, but the environment just didn't suit him. He wanted to see the customers' faces as he spoke to them, not just speak to disembodied voices over the phone. And have you actually seen a British office? They eventually drain the life out of you.
Residence: A very tiny flat on the outskirts of Muggle London. It doesn't even have a proper fireplace, so he can't Floo to work. Instead, he usually Apparates, unless he's tired, and then he must take the Tube into the city like most everyone else.
Financial Status: He can afford a flat near London, enough food for three meals a day, and precious little else. For Clive, work isn't about the money; it's about staying happy, and he pretty much is, most of the time. He just wishes he had a bit more money to buy more brooms. Does he want a Firebolt? As much hype as the thing gets, he didn't find it as brilliant a ride as its reputation warrants.

Family

Parents: Neil Smales (father, Muggle); Diana Padgett (mother, Muggleborn witch)
Siblings: An older brother named Gordon who started at Hogwarts two years before Clive and was a Ravenclaw

Clive grew up in as normal a Muggle household as one could imagine. His father held an office job selling insurance in the city of Birmingham, and his mother, as far as Clive knew, was just a housewife. Women in the '60s & '70s were still a rarity in the work force, though their numbers were steadily climbing. Clive knew nothing of magic, apart from those blokes in the tuxedos who did sleight-of-hand on telly and the magic in fantasy books. His brother Gordon was the reader, though, and he kept trying to get Clive interested in Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, to no avail.

Gordon's Hogwarts letter arrived when Clive was nine, and there was much discussion around the dining room table about what their mother truly was. Diana had been honest with Neil and told him the truth while they were dating, and she also told him that their children may or may not be the same. Neil worried about this moment, as he had other plans for the boys. He'd wanted them to go to top-notch boarding schools, but in the end, he relented, though very reluctantly. At least he knew that the boys would always be well protected with their magic. Both boys went into Hogwarts, Gordon in 1974 and Clive in 1976. Right at the edge of the First War.

Gordon and Clive experienced first hand the prejudices some pureblooded wizards held for half-bloods and Muggleborns, and also how Headmaster Dumbledore managed to keep the school together despite all the strife within the castle and out of it. To this day, Clive is in awe of Dumbledore and is still completely loyal to the Light.

As Clive grew up Muggle, there are no pressures for him to "marry pure." He doesn't think any of the girls who are interested in him would want to know his secret however. Plus he doesn't want to be put to work because he knows a good levitating charm or two! He likes people, but he doesn't want to end up entertaining them like some monkey of a television presenter. Besides, he doubts many girls would be quite so understanding. Therefore, he'll try to keep his wand to himself...er, figuratively and literally.

History from student days at Hogwarts to the present time

Clive was Sorted into Hufflepuff in the fall of 1976, and as such, knew the Marauders by reputation only. He found it difficult to adjust to wizarding world, despite the crash course in Hogwarts his mum gave mere days before he had to leave on the train. Clive clung to his housemates as a source of stability. That badger-y sense of family and tenaciousness helped him through the first few weeks of school, and at least he could count on his brother being there as well, albeit in a different House.

The major thing he learned at Hogwarts (apart from how many working lavatories there were on the third floor) was that strength lay in numbers. He was almost always following or being followed by a fellow Hufflepuff, and none of his friends would let an unkind word said about him pass without a confrontation. Hufflepuffs took care of their own, and they were not exactly duffers. After all, there's nothing quite as dangerous as a cornered badger.

Another thing he learned at Hogwarts was the brilliance of Quidditch. When Clive first settled onto a broom during his first flying lesson, he knew he had just discovered his calling. Gryffindor had a strong team the year Clive entered school, thanks to the skills of a certain player named James Potter. Clive couldn't aspire to such greatness, and his skills weren't up to snuff the first couple of years he tried out for the House team. But in his fourth year, he finally got the chance he hoped for. The old Hufflepuff Seeker had left school, and the position was wide open.

Thanks to Clive's compact size and relative ease with his broom (as well as a lucky grab at the Snitch during tryouts) he earned the position and kept it until he left school himself in the summer of 1983. The Hufflepuff team was rather famous for being the last team points-wise for many years, but Clive did his best to close the gap. If it weren't for that loss against Slytherin during his sixth year, Hufflepuff would've easily won the Cup. Clive holds a slight grudge against Slytherins to this day because of that...oh and because of the pureblood supremacy thing too, of course.

Voldemort's power grew during Clive's years at Hogwarts, and as more and more Muggleborns and half-bloods were attacked, the Smales family had to decide where they stood in the conflict. Fighting Death Eaters directly was out of the question, but it was agreed that the boys would stay at Hogwarts, where it was hoped that Dumbledore would be able to protect his students. As a teen, he resented having to be cooped up and protected, but when the casualties hit too close to home (fewer of his dorm mates came back each passing term), he started to understand the hardships of war. And all his resentment poured into hating the man responsible for the fighting: You-Know-Who.

Clive absorbed as much knowledge as he could, and the hard-working aspect of his Sorted house shone. His favourite subjects were Charms, DADA, and Transfiguration, the ones where you got to wave your wands about. He also garnered an interest in Astronomy (where else could you get to go outside in the dead of night for lessons!) and Care of Magical Creatures, though he imagined the knowledge wouldn't really get him anywhere. Not much need for a diricawl breeder at any rate.

The First War ended abruptly during his fifth year. You-Know-Who was seemingly defeated by James Potter's young son Harry, and Clive was caught up in the myriad of celebrations which marked the death of the Dark Lord. He paid little attention to the Death Eater trials afterwards, trusting in his heart that justice and fairness would prevail and the guilty would be punished. It was rather difficult for him to accept that Sirius Black killed the Potters, seeing how close they seemed in school, but Clive knew that sometimes wars changed people for the worse.

After leaving Hogwarts, Clive tried to get into Muggle university like his brother Gordon had done. He saw no real reason to stay in the Wizard world while so much of his past and present was tied up in the Muggle one. Unlike Gordon however, Clive couldn't readjust to the Muggle way of teaching. Hogwarts offered very practical, hands-on education which sometimes challenged the body as well as the mind. He dropped out of the University of Leeds after three years (much to his parents' dismay) and spent much of his 20s meandering in and out of British workplaces, taking office jobs and honing his sales techniques. He still couldn't get his mind off of Quidditch, however, even when his father managed to get him a position at his insurance office. The job paid relatively well, particularly for someone without a university degree, but Clive's father didn't count on something happening in the summer of 1994: The Quidditch World Cup. Ireland vs. Bulgaria!

Clive poured all of his savings into getting premium tickets. He got in touch with his old friends from Hogwarts and made it a reunion of sorts. It would have been the perfect Quidditch match, if the celebrations weren't marred by the arrival of Death Eaters. Clive's re-entered the Wizarding world just as the seeds of the Second War were planted. He has never left it since that fateful day. He took jobs where he could, usually vendors in Diagon Alley were grateful to have a young man unafraid of working hard for a few galleons a day. But as the news of war pressed deeper, Clive, a half-blood, found himself a target. Worse still, professional Quidditch had been cancelled.

He rarely left the safety of Diagon Alley, staying at the inn above the Leaky Cauldron for much of the war. People still needed to buy things, even with danger lurking in their midsts and government-enforced curfews, so there was still need for someone to ring up sales. And when he heard of a job opening at Quality Quidditch Supplies, he leaped at the chance to work at his favorite shop in the Alley. Now that the war is over, he just wants everything to be normal again. He has moved out of the Leaky Cauldron and into his very own flat, and he's looking forward to the upcoming Quidditch season.

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