She Completely Misses the Point

Post by Watson Stroud on Aug 5, 2017 18:05:24 GMT -5

Watson Richard Stroud
45 - Male - Half-blood - 1/28/1972

Smuggler, Recently Appointed Head of the Unspeakable Training Program @ Ministry of Magic, CEO Stroud Magical Holdings

Appearance and Personality
General Appearance: Watson is slightly taller than average, just a tad under 5'9''. He's quite tanned from his long travels around the world and the frequent visits he payed to the archeological sites where his wife worked (and he checked how he could get his hands on the most valuable artefacts). He's got a lot of dark curls and the firm conviction to be a very good looking man.
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual (because there were no hits when I googled chryseosexual)
Skills: Money making, acting (solely for his personal use), estimating the worth of ancient magical artefacts, understanding ancient magical artefacts (he takes his smuggling very seriously), rare and ancient magic (mostly from listening to his wife), listening (when he's interested and he happened to be very interested in archeology, or rather, in what archeologists were able to find)
Weaknesses: Honesty, Reliability (on a personal basis, he's very reliable as a businessman), deep feelings (what's that? what's it good for?), himself (how could anyone not believe him when he assures them that he is utterly selfless and wretched?)
Positive Personality Traits: That's gonna be hard... He's economical? He does love his children to a certain degree. (He once missed a semi-important deal because the twins were sick. He still can't believe it himself.) Weirdly enough, he has been a model husband as long as it was profitable and is actually moderately fond of his wife. (Yes, I know, no one's going to believe this. And it should be stressed that "moderately" really doesn't mean a lot in Watson's case. But he never even dreamt of a separation, something that might very well be connected with the fact that he never met someone who would have promised more financial success. And he spent so many years of his life pretending to be passionately in love with her, he doesn't want that effort to be wasted.) Oh, and he doesn’t have any blood-based prejudices. Huh, there is something positive, I can't believe it! Well, it actually only shows his indifference to anything that's not connected with his finances...
Negative Personality Traits: Where should I start? Calculating, egoistic, mercenary, cold-hearted, egomaniacal, vain, conceited, self-important, unfeeling...
Hobbies and Interests: Money, making money with his company, making money with valuable artefacts, convincing others and himself that he is the nicest, most charming, noblest, most righteous (okay, I'm going to be sick) man in the world
Character History:

Watson was born as the eldest son of a solid and respectable half-blood family. He grew up in a carefree environment, and his only truly horrible memory of his youth is the time when his mother caught him stealing his younger brother's pocket money. As if that toddler could have any use for it! It's so unfair. In Hogwarts, he was sorted into Slytherin like most of his family (his younger brother was a Hufflepuff though and grew up to be a horrible businessman, says Watson. Stephen is the sort of weirdo who would bring a hundred Galleons he finds in the street to the lost-property office). Watson, on the other hand, always wanted to take over his father’s multimillion galleon business, Stroud Magical Holdings, a real-estate company invested in finding magical folks their perfect homes and locations for businesses. Because he was certain that even more profit could be gained if the laws were less conscientiously followed. And there were numerous other opportunities to make money that really had to be grasped.

He graduated from Hogwarts in summer 1991, and an aunt’s uncle immediately recruited him as an apprentice at the Department of Mysteries, an opportunity his parents were very proud of. Watson, on the other hand, was soon bored and only stayed because a former classmate had helped at Borgin and Burkes for a while and assured him that the Department of Mysteries was full of priceless treasures. But once Watson’s apprenticeship was over, he had given up on the possibility of changing the ownership of any of the objects. Therefore he quit his job after less than four years to his family’s great disappointment and started looking for more profitable business opportunities.

He travelled around the world and met many interesting people (or, in normal terms, criminals). He gathered expertise on the black market, in this context also embezzling from his father's company. He used the funds to buy, sell, and trade dark magical artifacts from city to city and person to person. He was an accessory in many of the Death Eaters’ plans, helping them move dangerous artefacts across the country or even into buildings. On a stay in Egypt he met Rosalind Montego, an Oxford graduate. He didn't remember her from school. Honestly, who remembers little Ravenclaws. Yet, he was fascinated with her choice of career (sadly though not for the reason she thought) and decided to devote much more of his time to her than to an average acquaintance. And he would listen to her explanations about the excavations with rapt attention, showing so much interest that even far more shrewd women than Rosalind Montego could not have helped falling in love with him. In his honour, it should be mentioned that he had not intended to make her fall in love with him, his interest had been genuine whenever she talked about how valuable the ancient artefacts were. And though his initial interest had been entirely mercenary, he liked her well enough with time (and was also quite flattered by her love for him) to decide that marrying her would be an excellent deal. It was the perfect set-up, to which she was the perfect addition. As a magical archeologist, Roz was often the first to come across rare artefacts and dangerous tomes.

Upon wooing her in Egypt, Roz and Watson returned to England to marry in 2000. Shortly thereafter, Roz gave birth to their twin children, Violet and Arthur. While his wife rose to be one of the most well-known magical archeologists, Watson stayed at home and brought up the twins (and in all fairness, he didn't do a bad job). Simultaneously, he helped out in his parents' company (he stopped a long and disquieting series of thievery though he preferred not to tell his parents that he had also been the thief) and became one of the most influential smugglers in Britain. With time, he grew slightly disappointed with Roz. When he had married her, he had been convinced that she would be his associate and would help him smuggling. But whatever arts he used to bend her towards this goal, he never had any success. Nevertheless, he would often manage to get his hands on shipments of some of the priceless treasures Roz had excavated. Then he thought fondly of her and passed the artefacts on to known Death Eaters, who would later use them in the takeover of the magical government.

When the Death Eaters took over the Ministry, Watson was not surprised, he knew of what they were in possession. What he didn't expect (yes, even a man like him can sometimes be naive) was that they would want to take away his wife what would problematize his access to ancient artefacts. He did mention that she was well known and that locking her away could lead to problems, he also said that she was of importance as an archeologist and could be of use. It didn't make sense to not let her work in a profession where she had proved her usefulness. (These arguments he would translate to his wife as "I'll do anything to keep you safe.") But he was clearly told that he would either hand in his wife and would be further employed by them, even get an impressive official job in addition to the smuggling, or he would be replaced. Before these two options, Watson didn't hesitate for a second and immediately agreed to the first.

In the dead of night, June 30, 2017, (when their children were still stuck in Hogwarts) Watson woke Roz up, as if they were about to flee the country. But, instead of taking her to Australia like they had planned, he brought her to the Ministry where she was turned in and registered as a Muggle-born. Watson immediately travelled to his parents-in-law and told them under tears how he and his wife had been attacked in the middle of the night. They had fought, he recounted under a lot of tears, but then he had lost consciousness (he almost said conscience) and when he woke, Roz was gone. He had no idea where she was, probably dead. He mourned her so convincingly, he ended up almost believing himself. The same story he told to his parents and children when they finally returned from Hogwarts about a week later. To Roz' fellow archeologists, he wrote a letter stating that he had come home one day and found no Roz. Whether they had heard anything from her. He had no idea where she could be and was deeply anxious.

On the very next day after his betrayal, the Death Eaters appointed him Head of the Unspeakable Training Program though he had not worked there for over twenty years. But the predecessor had been murdered during the take-over, and the Death Eaters needed a substitute, none of their more reliable allies being interested. As an award for his help, they therefore offered him the job because of his extensive knowledge on arcane branches of magic, assuring him at the same time that he would be able to delegate most of the work to a subordinate. While this may sound generous, it was of course also a medium to make him more dependent and controllable. Watson is well aware of this, but he couldn’t resist an offer that would make him more important in the eyes of the wizarding community.

Watson knows very well what Roz has to do, and he is not very happy about the relatively high mortality rate. He doesn't believe in the longevity of governments, and while he hopes that the Death Eaters' regime will last for at least five years and allow him to assemble his riches, he is convinced that the tide will turn again. And then, he wants to be able to plead innocent by assuring everyone that he had been blackmailed. He counts upon having a Muggle-born wife to keep him out of prison then. He even has very high hopes that he will be able to get a recompense for his wife’s suffering once the government changes. The only problem is, she should stay alive until then. It would be far better if she were there to vouch for his sincerity.

While Watson does know that Roz can be stubborn, he is very convinced that he will easily succeed in making her see that he did the right thing. They couldn't just leave, the twins needed their education at Hogwarts. She can't expect him to give up on such excellent business opportunities as the Death Eaters offered. (No, he doesn't intend to put it this clearly.) His money also belongs to her, so he also supported her interests. And by the way, it is mostly her fault anyway. Had she not been so stubbornly deaf to his hints that she should use her talents for more profitable purposes, she might have been more important to his finances, and he would have had a real reason to take care of her.

Plots and Politics
What is your character’s stance on the recent takeover of the Ministry by Death Eaters? Changes, changes… well, some is for better, some for worse. It's got one or two drawbacks, but certainly also many advantages, so he’s okay with it. Apart from the separation from his wife (and she had been away a lot anyway), he really can't complain.

Where did your character stand in the treatment of Death Eaters and their families under the late Minister Durant's rule? He didn't care much about it. The Death Eaters who had money had managed to stay free anyway. And only people with money are interesting business partners.

How was your character and their family affected by the reign and death of Voldemort? As a whole, the Stroud family, mostly consisting of ambitious and industrious half-bloods, stayed safe and showed no interest in being involved on any side. Watson himself was travelling around the world and busy getting into smuggling. Back then, he learnt to appreciate the Death Eaters as excellent business partners.

Family

Parents: Caspar Stroud (76), Irene Stroud née Bobbin (71)
Siblings: Stephen Norman Stroud (41)
Children: Arthur (16), Violet Gertrude Stroud (16)
Partner: @rosalind (42)
Other Relevant Family:
Family History:
The Strouds are a family known mostly for their financial success. They've been around for about 200 years (therefore not among the oldest families), and they made themselves a name as very astute businessmen. (In the context of this app, it should be stressed that the majority of the Stroud ancestors preferred to stay on legal grounds though some were known to balance very artfully on the line between legal and criminal.) The origins of the family are shrouded in uncertainty, it can only be guessed that the first known Stroud who married the only daughter of a wealthy owl-farm owner in 1809 was Muggle-born or even a Muggle. From this point on, the Stroud family owned a decent amount of money that was constantly growing from generation to generation, mostly due to their talents in business related matters, but sometimes also through clever marriage tactics (whereby no Stroud has ever been heard of to have cared about anything like bloodstatus).

Watson's great-grandfather then founded a real-estate company, the Stroud Magical Holding. This proved not only a very profitable business, but also an opportunity to get in contact with the most important wizarding families all over Great Britain (and sometimes even beyond). When Watson's father took over the company, it was already the most important and respectable of its kind in Britain, and the venerable man did all he could to keep it that way. He married the daughter of a wealthy apothecary (whose son was also very successful, establishing a whole chain of apothecaries). The only big crisis the Strouds had was in the nineties when money kept disappearing from their company and they couldn't find the source of the leak. Only when they ordered their eldest son upon his return from Egypt to find out who takes the money, did it slowly stop. They were glad that their son showed so much talent for leading the company, glad that he had founded a family. On the whole, the era of Watson's parents was successful, as they worked hand in hand, and only entrusted their eldest son with taking over the company in 2013, concentrating themselves on spoiling their grandchildren. Their younger son has also a job in the company, but he hardly gets anything to say.