Personal Particulars

Name: Balfour Levintree

House: Slytherin

Age: 24

Course: Charms

Place of Birth: Ohio, USA

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Family Background

Parents: Scarlett

Parents Background: Scarlett is a single mother who worked two and a half jobs for most of his school years. She was a court reporter at the American Wizengamot, a night-cook at the Leaky Cauldron (in Diagon Alley), and a columnist whenever she had the time.

Her parents raised her Jewish, but my upbringing was not altogether religious in any meaningful way.

Relationship with Parents: He doesn't see her much. Balfour spent most of his time at home building all sorts of wacky creations, likely the inspiration for his later stint as an entrepreneur.

His mother was determined to send him to Hogwarts despite the fact that they were in North America, so she spent as much time as she could in London so that the British Ministry of Magic would let him attend. Of course, she often neglected to take care of his more basic needs since she was so fixated on raising money for school, but they got by.

Sibling(s): 0

Family Wealth: Poor

Family Struggles: Making rent was often tough, though his mother's skill with an Undetectable Extension Charm meant that they wouldn't sleep outside in the cold, at least.

Planned child: Balfour’s mother wasn't expecting to become pregnant, but decided not to terminate the pregnancy.

Interesting Info: His Great-Uncle Gary would visit quite frequently. He always had sweets that his mother didn't want him to eat, so he'd let her catch a few and sneak the rest to him when she wasn't looking.

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Educational Background

Place of Study: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (2001-2008)

Childhood Best Friend: He found a few wizard friends in his town. One girl's parents had hired her a tutor to teach her basic skills (reading, writing, arithmetic, etc.), so she'd sneak him into her house so that he could learn. Her name was Ruth. He was caught a few times, but after a while her parents accepted him as part of their upholstery and generally left him alone.

Worst Prank: He wrapped a magically charged tripwire around the bottom of two statues next to Ruth's front door. When her father walked out, he tripped over the wire and was zapped into paralysis, making him hit his head and chest on the pavement. It took him almost a year to recover.

Behaviour in School: A little geeky, and his hair was always frazzled with all the explosive backfires from charms he tried casting with. He didn't realize at the time that there are strict controls on experimentation with new spells.

Interesting Info: He loved reading! Usually nothing too useful, though.

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Relationships

First Relationship: Relationships were a struggle. Hogwarts is much smaller than any of its American counterparts, which for most is a blessing but for me wasn't good. The number of other guys interested in guys was very small, and of those who were, he wasn't really into any of them.

When he was in my sixth year at Hogwarts, he briefly dated a fourth-year guy, but Hogwarts wasn't as strict about bullying then so magical pranks were a frequent occurrence. Someone once turned his hair into a bunch of needles... needless to say, it wasn't fun. His boyfriend had it worse since he was younger. They broke up about six weeks later.

Marital Status: Single

Children: 0

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Career

Job before becoming a Professor in Hogwarts: Entrepreneur

When graduated from Hogwarts: 2008

How he/she became a Professor: After seven years creating charmed objects, he was sick and tired of startups. He decided he'd pursue research in a more benign setting and pass his knowledge on to Hogwarts students.

Why this course: Charms has always been his strongest subject (It was his only O on the O.W.Ls and his strongest grade on the N.E.W.Ts). He worked in it for several years. It made sense to begin teaching here.

Interesting Info: He loves his work in academia thus far, and intend to teach for many more years.