Harvey Branden

Basic Information
Full Name: Harvey Branden

Nicknames: Harbybug

Date of Birth: 1st September

Age: 12

Place of Birth: Chelsea, London, England

Current Home: New York

Blood Purity: Pure-blood




Physical Appearance
Hair Colour: lightish almost honey blonde

Hair Style: pre-teen puppy dog look that his mother said made him look like an urchin but his siblings say looks cute.

Eye Colour: Forest green and hidden behind glasses

Height: 5ft

Body Type: He is small, short for his age, and yet fit.

Dress Style: Harvey tends to wear whatever he thinks looks 'cool'.

Other:



Personal
Likes:

Dislikes:

Strengths: Harvey is a sweet and push over who loves to please people. But he constantly tries to suppress that side and his gentle side is struggling to cope under the pressure of wanting to impress his friends and finally please his parents. He stands up for himself when he can and is slowly teaching himself to do it more and more. He is proud of his intelligent side, he is very smart, but still spends his time trying to look cool. Harvey is curious by nature and loves to talk: whether to himself or others he will chat away for hours especially when he is sad or upset.

Harvey wants to be a great wizard one day. He wants to get their by obeying the rules but if that does not start working for him he is quite happy to not play exactly fair as well. If he wants you to like him then he can appear likable and his happy attitude does come in handy when making friends. He is ambitious and driven even if it is not always obvious behind his demeanor of being a good person. He is good with words and apologies come easily to him as do compliments. Which comes in handy a lot more than it should.

Harvey would be good at potions because it was the first subject he learned about as a child and ever since he has spent many good day dreams imagining brewing vastly complicated potions which would make amazing results and achieve him fame. Plus memorizing instructions and exact measurements is easy for him. Harvey would also be good at theoretical subjects. He works very hard at improving his memory and it is very good, especially since he gets very cross with himself on the rare times it lets him down, and therefore astronomy, history of magic … subjects like that would come easily to him as memorizing facts and instructions is simple in his mind.

Harvey is very individualistic and does not mind letting that be known in the clothes he wears and the way he acts. Especially with glitter and bubbles. You know he has had a bad day easily - because he bedazzles when he is sad. Therefore if every surface is covered in fake diamonds he is in a bad mood.

Weaknesses: Transfiguration, charms … any of the practical subjects which involve hands on learning Harvey hates because it confuses him why he cannot do them. He feels lost and begins to flounder which results in him yelling at himself and declaring it a stupid subject anyhow. He can tell you the wand movement exactly and what the result will be. Ask him to demonstrate and everything is guaranteed to go horribly wrong. Harvey does not like subjects he cannot do. So he will more often than not be a distraction to other students without even meaning too be. He does get tutoring from his best friend and he is determined to conquer what he cannot do one day – as he wants to be the best – but he often won’t listen to advice and thinks he knows best.

While he works hard on improving his memory his attention span is no so proficient and he makes no effort to change that. Harvey has no problem with being rude towards muggleborns and half-bloods. If he decides he does not like you he will quite happily walk away without so much as a backwards glance. He can become possessive of his friends and almost obsessive which can drive them away. While he is always affectionate and sweet towards them he is not above using bribery to keep them sweet and if he wants to he will stand up for himself and walk away no matter how horrible he feels afterwoulds.

A lot of his weaknesses stem from his feelings of abandonment. He forms crushes and then will hold onto them and spend most of his time thinking about that girl - or guy actually recently. It will affect his school work and it will make him moody and secretive. But he will never say anything to anyone. In fact only his best friend knows his secrets because he has deep rooted trust issues which mean he will hang onto the smallest things without wanting to tell even if they are completely trivial. Finally he can hold a grudge, if he feels he has been slighted or insulted, for record amounts of time. He can be insulted by a friend breaking plans, not seeing the obvious, if he feels they have chosen another friend over him … the smallest things can make him grumpy.

Biography: Harvey officially has seven older siblings though his parent’s only acknowledge six. He is at least seven years younger than the next siblings above him leading him to often thing he grew up pretty much like an only child. He was brought up in the bustling and wealthy area of Chelsea. It is the kind of place where you would never walk around outside after dark and you have no idea who your neighbours are you just know they have a lot of money. Having so many siblings did mean Harvey used to think that would mean there was always someone around to play with or seek advice from. That is how it was for the first few years. But Harvey soon began to feel he was a burden that his siblings felt obliged to visit. Due to this he encouraged them not to come as often as they thought they ought too.

“We do not like muggleborns, we will put up with half-bloods, but you’re not allowed to marry one.”

That was a sentence, or words like it, that Harvey heard a lot from his parents growing up. His mother actually used muggle tasks as a punishment if he had been particularly bad. For this reason Harvey could never imagine not living in the magically orientated world. In fact he considers the muggle world to be like the magical one but several years behind. Even though Chelsea was in muggle London Harvey never spent time in the actual area. He was either inside his house or escorted to places like his friends houses or Diagon Alley.

Harvey often told his friends as a youngster that he did not have a Father. It was true that he rarely saw him. He did not know very much about his Father except the little his mother told him. James Branden came from a poor background – though Harvey never met those grandparents – but a pure blood one. He married for money and for a good pure-blood marriage which would make his parents happy. James, from the birth of his first child, made the choice to use money to give his children everything they could ever want except for his time and attention. He used the fact he was generous to excuse the fact he pretty much lived at his office. He came home only for pure-blood events that his wife insisted upon.

Maria Branden-Jones was different at the beginning. She was aware her husband loved her money and not her but she did not want her children to feel so unloved. She did not want them to feel they had to make sacrifices for the sake of a good pure-blood marriage. She wanted a pure-blood marriage for them – but one for love as well. Maria tried at the beginning to give her children attention and time. She told them they could tell her anything and depend on her. But when push came to shove deep down she knew her job came first and time and time again her children were abandoned in favour of it.


Somehow this was worse for her children. At least with their father they knew where they stood. With their mother they constantly got their hopes up only to have them dashed. The final straw come however when Harvey was ten, he was the only one left at home, and Maria decided to quit her job to spend more time with her son. She told Harvey she was going to do it and he was thrilled. He was sure she would.

Harvey never forgave his mother when he found out she was not going to quit after all. He stopped wanting anything to do with her and she stopped trying. While she gushes over him when she see’s him she makes no extra effort to even try and see him. Both like it better that way even if some nights Harvey wishes it could have been different. He turned his affection instead to his older siblings. But even they were difficult to rely on. His eldest brother, James Branden Jr, had been dis-owned by the family for marrying a muggle born witch. Therefore he was never in the picture for Harvey. The other siblings took it in turns to visit when they could. Harvey finally found an outlet for his affection in his childhood friends. He grew up with Aaliyah and Kamila (permission granted) and they were his best friends. He had several other friends and he spent most of his time at their houses. Giving them all the pent up affection he had.

Harvey spent time practicing his guitar so he could keep up with his friends and play songs for them on their birthdays. He also put a lot of effort into learning to fly his broomstick. He wanted to be as good as everyone else and one day get on the team. It resulted in a lot of nasty falls at first which actually forced his mother to hurry home and show him affection. But as he got nearer to his eleventh birthday he slowly and surely began to get to a level that was semi-decent. He broke his glasses far less anyway. When it was raining out he played hide and seek in the vast house with his puppy Taffy or his friends. He also spent his time drawing pictures to decorate his room as he wanted a personal touch up there.

He loved using his imagination to create whole worlds in the wardrobe or under the bed. Most of all he loved hearing stories about magic. Both were connected as his imaginary worlds were always magical. He thought at first Hogwarts was another magical imaginary world which still embarrasses him to this day when one of his friends bring it up. He soon learned what was real and what was not. But he never stopped dreaming.

When Harvey reached age eleven his parents got a divorce finally. Harvey’s guardianship was given over to James Branden Jr - the disowned son - and his family. Following this Harvey’s siblings noticeable visited even less than usual and Harvey was not up for the change. Recently his mother died, and his Father took over his guardianship along with his assistant Robert Taylor. Harvey does not know what has happened to his other siblings. He gets letters from them sometimes, short ones. But does not really learn much and never sees them.



Family
Mother: Marie Branden (RIP)
Father: James Branden
Siblings: Listed above.


Other
Wand: 11" Rosewood with dragon heart string core

Pet: An owl named Aaliyah - Aali for short. She is a snowy owl.


Relationships
(Fill this in later when you've built relationships with your character.)
Friends:
Enemies:
Acquaintances:


Preferred House

Nula- Smart and power-hungry.