Terrence James Boot
Age: 25
Birthdate: November 20, 1979
Family background: Terrence "Terry" James Boot was born to a blue-collar couple in London on November 30, 1979. His father, Haul Boot, was a Welsh electrician, and his mum, Evelyn, was a care worker until a bit after Terry's sister, Elizabeth (five years younger), was born. The couple hadn't a clue that they might have wizarding blood in the family (though Haul since came to the conclusion the his weird Aunt Millie must have been a witch), and thus Terry's letter from Hogwarts came as a complete shock to them. He'd been alone the first time he discovered his powers, and never told his parents about them, despite bragging to every student in his grade at least twice. They toyed with the idea for quite some time before deciding to allow Terry, who begged and kicked and screamed, to go to Hogwarts.
During Terry’s third year Haul, Jr. was born. Though they were never well off – not even close – a new baby in the house put a lot of financial stress on the Boots, and Haul took as much over-time as he could get to take care of his wife and children. Terry did all he could to be less of a financial burden to his parents, and spent most of his summers slinging meat at the local butcher. During his fifth year, however, Terry began spending summers and holidays helping out his pop, and as such is quite a whiz with general gadgetry, though he doesn’t really do anything with this knowledge. Lizzie entered Hogwarts during his sixth year, also a Ravenclaw, though she refuses to do anything with it, and Haul, Junior – affectionately referred “Junior” or “Haulie” by Terry – is currently a second year Hufflepuff. Terry spends all the time he can spare with the lot of them, though he saves most of his time for Junior: Liz can be a right wench when she wants to be, and his mum isn’t much better. Besides, he doubts Haulie even remembers Haul, Sr., and he strives to raise him like pop would’ve wanted him to.
House in School: Ravenclaw, finished 1997
Bloodline (and does it matter?): Muggle-born. Personally, he couldn’t give a boggart’s arse about bloodlines, but everyone else keeps going on about it like it’s something special, so he keeps a mental tally. That’s about it, though.
Political Views: Making a living has left little time for politics.
Appearance
Visual Representation: Christian Bale
Description: Terry is tall and thick with amber hair and dark eyes. He boxes (read: picks fights at the pub) quite often, and as such is rather a muscular gent. Though he’s usually clad in a picture-perfect suit and tie for work, he scruffs up to hit the pub. On his right bicep, Terry has a tattoo of a boot with his pop’s name emblazoned above and below it. He got it as soon as he could afford to, and is proud to have a permanent homage to his father on him at all times.
Psychology and Personality
Strengths and Weaknesses: Terry’s biggest strength is two-fold: one, he has the gift of gab, and is quick to make connections because of it, and two, he’s tenacious and will work endlessly to get what he wants. Both of these make him an excellent peddler of money, among other things. Said tenacity, however, could also be his downfall: the more he gets, the more he wants, and due to his rather fluid definitions of “right” and “wrong”, he’s practically made his career on going further than most might in pursuit of the ever-elusive more.
Habits\Quirks: Unless his left hand is otherwise engaged, Terry tirelessly flips a silver sickle across his knuckles, a habit he’s had ever since he learned to do so as a young boy. He also has a habit of rubbing his nose with his right forefinger when he laughs.
Likes\Dislikes: Terry has two likes in this world: money and providing witty commentary. As for dislikes, they are numerous and, he says, unimportant.
Lifestyle
Occupation: Private Banker, Gringott’s
Financial Status: Hopelessly middle class. He makes a pretty penny, sure, but spends a hefty amount of it supporting his family. What’s left he spends carefully, and he saves a lot, for someone his age. His “bonuses” support his drinking, smoking, and suit-buying, but the rest usually goes right into his vault – he might need it someday.
Residence: Terry’s always been smart with his money, and real estate is no exception. When he got his first promotion he lived on the slim – nearly starved, he did – to pay for a moderate flat in an up-and-coming Muggle neighborhood in London. Now, four years later, the neighborhood is on the verge of becoming posh, and Terry often notes how splendidly correct he was in purchasing his home. When the time is right, he’ll sell the flat and gladly take both himself and his profits elsewhere.
History from student days at Hogwarts to the present time: Due to his natural cleverness and cunning – he had been the best student in his class, after all, if not also one of the worst behaved – Terry was sorted into Ravenclaw, and got on quite well with his new housemates. Well, most of them. At any rate, he made famous friends with a few of ‘em, and that’s all a bloke can ask for, eh? As a student, his marks were superb, though most thought they shouldn’t have been. Terry is a quick fellow in general: he's got a memory to die for, and tends to catch onto things with unnatural speed. Any good Ravenclaw would have wielded this born prowess into academic grandeur. Terry, however, saw it as a gift – a gift that allowed him to get by doing as little as humanly possible, leaving him ample time to clown around with his mates and go out looking for trouble. Which he did. Much more than actually studying, at any rate. He did, much to his dismay, have to work for some of his grades. When Terry doesn't understand something he tends to go into overdrive; he hates not being able to figure something out. He'd never let his housemates see him actually cracking a book in earnest, though, and tended to study alone and at somewhat erratic hours.
Terry’s other natural propensity isn’t quite so marketable – he has a nose for trouble, and got quite a few points nicked from the Ravies in his day, when he got caught. Fortunately, however, the Hogwarts staff seemed to be otherwise occupied much of his tenure (cheers to Potter for that), and he got away with most everything he did. He snuck booze and cigarettes onto campus often – there was always a bottle or two of something in his trunk – and had a habit of wandering the grounds at all hours of the night, despite curfew requiring otherwise. His parents, being Muggles and all, couldn’t quite come to the school every time Terry managed to get himself in a pinch, though they weren’t particularly concerned with Terry’s “bad” behavior to begin with. Haul maintained that boys will be boys, and was glad his was out having some fun while he was young.
At Michael Corner's urging he joined the D.A., and ended up actually enjoying the experience. You know, fighting the good fight and all that blubber. It did give him some practical training, at any rate, which they had been severely lacking in their classes at that point in time. Terry went on to get brilliant O.W.L. marks, and was a pretty successful student by his seventh year, despite the amount of time he seemed to spend trolling the corridors having useless conversations with anyone willing to entertain him.
And then there was the war. Yes, he participated, and yes, he survived, but the biggest pang of that year was yet to come. Three days after Terry received his N.E.W.T. scores and was offered one of the best entry-level positions Gringott's had to offer, his father died of a heart attack at the early age of forty-nine. Terry had been quite close to Haul – closer than anyone in his family – and his death drilled a rather nasty hole in Terry’s heart. Left with a grieving mother who hadn't worked for two decades, a sister who was in the middle of her tenure at Hogwarts, and a four-year-old baby brother, Terry had no choice but to step up and start taking care of his family, who had few relatives to call on. They sold Terry's childhood home and moved into a smaller townhouse in the city, and pickin’s became slim, at best. Terry practically lived in his office for the next four years. He made time for his friends once a week, or tried to, and even then often missed lunches or nights at the pub to crunch numbers for the
It was as a result of said hard work, however, that Terry got his break. About three years ago he was promoted and made personal banker to a few of the larger, private accounts at Gringott's. He was a bit wary of them at first, but when opportunities to make money under the table started coming in, he gladly partook in a host of things he might not have four years prior. Now, three years and another promotion later, Terry has carved a nice little niche for himself at Gringotts. He gets along with his clients, his family is doing all right, he’s made some smart financial moves – things are looking up. Now, his main foci are getting some money in that vault in case things start looking down again and living the youth he spent so much of in that closet of an office.
Terry's Puppet Master is Erin (rockettea)