Post by Karina Bass on Dec 27, 2012 1:12:56 GMT -5
talked to Bree and Becca about making him, still waiting to hear from Cassie.
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bowman c. wood,
| [atrb=border,0,true][atrb=vAlign,top] NAME BOWMAN CORNELIUS WOOD NICKNAMES BOW AGE NINETEEN BIRTHDATE 16 january 2004 BLOOD STATUS half blood OCCUPATION Ministry Worker in Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures FACE CLAIM Evan Peters |
CHARACTER info,
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Whenever somebody asks Bow Wood what he thinks is the best day ever, he always says the same thing: 16th January 2004 – the day he was born. And when he's asked why (given that he doesn't even remember it) he says it's because the world was given the best possible present – him. Born to a newly wed Katie and Oliver Wood, a couple of hours before noon and after a surprisingly smooth labor, the bouncing baby boy was named Bowman Cornelius Wood – something he will never, not ever, forgive his parents for. He sometimes wished that if he was to be cursed with a pathetic name, it could atleast be a name which would have a decent nickname – but no. Even his nickname, Bow, is a bit eccentric. Anyways, coming back to when he was born. He likes to believe that he was bundled and placed in the nursery of the hospital and everybody in the halls would just come and make amazed faces at his adorable face and curly, angelic blond hair – he wasn't going to be passed around because he was too precious to be carried and touched by everybody.
There are some children born to famous people who are humble about their origins, about how having a famous last name would not be something they used to their advantage because there was more to them than their last name. Bow Wood was never one of those children. Since he could speak, he used to run around everywhere telling everybody that he was the son of Katie and Oliver Wood, best Quidditch Players in the whole wide universe. It didn't faze him that the parents he glorified so much were never actually around much because they were busy training to become better. One thing his grandparents had taught him – and they taught him a lot, since he was usually left with them to babysit – was that hardwork defined you. Dreaming big was something anybody could do, but working towards it defined if you deserved to get what you dreamed of. He understood that his parents were doing just that – where else would the money for toys and food come from? - and looked up to them for it. When he was three years old, him and his baby brother were left at home with his grandmum. She took them out shopping and he dragged her into a Quidditch shop and made her buy every poster there was of his parents. He then proceeded to put them up in his room. When his mum and dad came home, they found every inch of his walls and bathroom covered in different shots of them at training, or playing or just flying. And scrawled over them in paint was “I have the best mummy and daddy.”
The rules to Quidditch were something he learned very young and when his mum used him and Angus as stand ins while coming up with strategy, he always piped up random words like 'FOUL' and 'SNITCH'. His dad used to joke that they'd given birth to the best seeker of the next generation. There wasn't a single thing Bow wouldn't keep his hands off of. From his mum's jewelery to his brother's pacifier, he always managed to find everything they kept away and put it somewhere else. This one time he drew a picture of himself – a stick figure picture with crayons – on a broom and holding a flying golden ball and pinned it up along with the posters on his wall. He didn't think he'd ever impressed his parents more. As he become older, old enough to understand that Angus wasn't a toy to drag around the house with him, his best friend became his brother. He'd never been very good at making friends anyway. The parents of the children his age were usually appalled by the way he talked about others – in his defense, he didn't know that it was considered rude if you went to a party and then ran up to a lady, announcing in front of everybody that you'd seen her nice husband helping some lady get out of her dress in an upstairs room – and generally told their kids that he was bad influence. Given that it was basically in Angus' blood to love him, he latched on to the attention he got from him. He knew his brother looked up to him and when his granddad told him that he had to work hard on being a good example, he did silly things just to see if his brother would copy him.
But that didn't mean he thought of his brother only as somebody to pull practical jokes on. To him, his brother was the closest thing to a playmate and secret keeper he could ever have – so it automatically gave him rights to treat him however. He did confused him, though, because his brother was probably the opposite of everything he was. But it didn't bother him a lot because he figured that someday he'd see sense. When he was four years old, his mother once again became pregnant and this excited him. One more person to add to his lovely fan following. He could just imagine how perfect everything would be with three perfect boys. They would be the Wood Trio who everybody would want to be like. He even made sketches of three boys, two in Quidditch robes (because he knew Angus wasn't the biggest fan of Quidditch), with the name 'Woods' on top. Of course, all his plans went down the drain when his mother gave birth to a girl. This made him furious. He walked right out of the hospital room and his granddad agreed to take him home because the last thing they wanted was for him to do something stupid on his own. He went home and ripped off all the posters of his mum which he had on his wall – because she'd betrayed him by giving him a sister. When his mum came home with the baby, she walked into his room and saw the walls before he could stop her. He'd had time to cool his anger to just disappointment, but he'd forgotten to put back the posters. When his mum quietly left the room, he ran after her, apologizing. She said she forgave him but he could see she was still hurt and he felt so bad that he burst into tears. The entire night, he just hugged her legs and cried. No matter how much she told him she wasn't angry or hurt anymore, he wouldn't stop. Eventually his dad came in and asked him what happened, and he explained.
His dad was very angry at him for hurting his mum like that but he swore he didn't mean for her to see it. They talked for a couple of hours where his dad explained to him that having a sister meant a huge responsibility, and that he was going to have to be a big boy. He explained to him how his sister would need her brothers to take care of her and when they grew up, he'd have to look out for her and make sure everybody treated her right. He was a bit happy to hear this, although he was still disappointed. His father asked him what he'd like to make him happy and asked if he could have a puppy, because somebody had to complete the Three Boy Wood Trio. His father rolled his eyes and agreed and two days later, Bow had his first pet – Quinto. And really, there was no turning back after that.
Bow fell in love with the dog. He would follow it everywhere and give it baths and play with it in the lawn. His parents were confused because they'd never seen Bow act so unselfish and cooperative with anybody. A couple of months later, he asked his parents for a kitten. His parents readily gave him one, assuming that the pets would just make him more even-tempered. But they also noticed that he was getting very much involved with them – so much so, that he was giving up other activities. He stopped going out to play Quidditch when it was sunny and he didn't even bug his brother anymore. While Angus found a new found hobby of sitting by Alex's bed, he would sit with his cat (named Cotton Candy) and dog. When his parents asked him why he was spending so much time with his pets, he explained that they were his only friends who weren't forced to like him.
His parents didn't say anything although they were mildly concerned by his turn in attitude. For a five year old, he was being incredibly caring and not towards humans – which was a lot since he was usually a brat who didn't think twice before opening his mouth. It was at this age as well, that he showed his first sign of magic. He'd been out to buy treats for Cotton Candy with his mum in Diagon Alley and they were just coming out the Muggle end of the Leaky when Cotton jumped from his hands and ran towards the road. Bow had shouted and run after her, but his mum had obviously caught his arm and held him in place because of the speeding traffic. He'd shouted and there had been a sound like a soda can bursting. Before he knew it, the car which was coming for Cotton had swerved and hit another and Cotton was left unharmed. He'd been stunned by this and didn't say a word as Cotton ran back and he quietly took her in his arms again. Luckily, nobody noticed that it was magic and labelled it as a road accident. Only when they went home and he was fully aware that nobody got hurt that he celebrated with his parents that he was showing magic (he got an extra slice of pie for dessert.)
He still wasn't spending a lot of time with his baby sister, and hadn't talked a lot to Angus since she was born. While his siblings grew up a bit more, he just walked around trying to boss them around. Angus never objected much (although he was suspicious that it was less because he was submissive and more because he was just not bothered to). Alex on the other hand walked right up to him when he did and stomped on his foot. He found this rather infuriating. Sisters were supposed to be quiet, docile things – not hitting people like boys. But he quickly got over it and accepted that maybe his Three Boy Wood Trio was real after all. Maybe God put the right baby in the wrong body. The three of them became the best of friends (well, in his head anyway) and it was probably one of the most fun filled relationships he'd ever had, or which anybody had seen.
When he was around nine years old, his sister got lost at one of the Quidditch games they'd gone to. Bow didn't think he'd ever been so scared before. Till she was three years old, he'd wished for a brother and for her to go away and he was so scared that he'd actually made it happen. When they found her, she looked rather ill and he remembered that he didn't care if he was a big boy and started crying. Later, they found out that she'd suffered a panic attack of some sort and when the Healer told them how to avoid it – he'd been overhearing the conversation from near the door – he burst in and declared that he'd never let anything happen to his sister. From then on, he was a rather protective brother – towards both Angus and Alex. Although he treated them no differently, if anybody dared say anything even remotely offensive, he'd jump down their throats. He remembered going to his parents' friends' house once and their kid told Alex that her dress looked a bit long and asked if it was the wrong size. Bow got so angry and shouted that she could wear whatever she wanted and proceeded to throw a plate at the kid. His parents were shocked but he didn't care because nobody was going to question his sister, ever.
When he was eleven years old, he finally got his letter to Hogwarts. He had mixed emotions about this because he didn't know if he wanted to leave. He did want to study magic, but he wouldn't have his siblings and his parents or grandparents. He couldn't go to all the Quidditch games or spend free time playing with Quinto, Cotton, Charcoal (his new rat from his grandparents) and Dinari (the owl his parents bought him). What was worse was that he couldn't take them all with him, so he had to leave behind Quinto, Cotton and Dinari (although his parents promised that when they wrote him, they'd send it with Dinari). On the train station, he wasn't even embarrassed when he hugged his mum and dad, or his brother and sister. Finally, he got on the train and went off to Hogwarts. Once he reached, he was one of the last ones to be sorted, which only increased his worry about which house he'd go in. He knew he was somewhat smart and liked to read so Ravenclaw wouldn't be a surprise, and his grandparents had taught him enough loyalty and values to become a Hufflepuff. He was reckless enough to become a Gryffindor as well, but some of the nastier parents of children he'd offended over the years had told him that he belonged in Slytherin. When the Hat was placed on him, it was equally confused but he begged it to put him in Gryffindor because he wanted to be in his parents house. The Hat must have seen something worthy enough in him for that because it shouted at Godric Gryffindor's house and he was welcomed happily. The first night was perfect (except for a few moments when some stupid girl in his year sat on Charcoal and he had to tell her to bugger off and put on glasses) because there was so much delicious food and his parents wrote to him, and he could tell them he got into their house. Plus, he made a couple of friends.
Over the next few months, everybody had a rather hot and cold response to the eldest Wood child who walked into Hogwarts calling himself the son of the superstars of the previous generation. Although, that toned down a lot when he started to study in detail about the Second Wizarding War and found out what all his parents had been through. He stopped showing off about their Quidditch achievements (although those were brilliant) because he looked up to them for more than just their talent and parenting: for the fact that they were heroes. But without having to show off about Quidditch and have his pets or siblings keep in busy and in line, he started to remember just how much he loved to talk and not necessarily after thinking. It was normal for him to compliment somebody and then proceed to insult them in the same line (once a third year in his house was giggling with her friends and parading a new dress and he proceeded to tell her that it was a lovely dress since it covered up all her horrible fat). He never did it intentionally (unless he didn't like the person, in which case he did), but he always ended up offending somebody in one way or another. Many of his friends just came to accept the fact that he was a jerk, simply because they knew he was a decent person inside. Others fought back with equally sharp words. One such personality who really clashed with him was Rosa Rodriguez, who was another girl in his year. The two didn't banter - they practically fought to kill. It didn't help that she was in his house too, so it was incredibly difficult to separate them for long periods of time.
His teachers weren't too fazed by his inability to be nice to people, though, because he was doing well in classes. Well, not all his classes – he was horrid at Defense and Transfiguration – but he was very good at Potions and Care of Magical Creatures. The last one was his favorite and when somebody had fought with him or he was annoyed, he'd just go and stay with the animals and his Professor, helping her out with feeding and cleaning and basically learning more about them. By the time his second year rolled around, he already knew more about the creatures than most average third years did. When his brother came to Hogwarts, Bow was ecstatic because he'd get to have him back. Even the teachers hoped that the sweet boy would keep his older sibling in line. But Angus went into Hufflepuff, leaving Bow all alone in the noble House. Bow was stunned because even though he'd expected Angus to be a Huffelpuff, he assumed that some sort of power would pull strings for his sake and give his brother to him. Given the slight divide, and the different class timings, Bow and Angus didn't get to spend a lot of time with each other. In fact, Bow spent most of his time doing school work because it calmed him down and kept his mouth shut. But he'd spent so much time working that he'd forgotten the date of the Quidditch tryouts and didn't get on the Quidditch team.
He was so shocked by his own stupidity that he ran to the captain and begged him to let him on the team. But he was denied because all the spots were already filled, including backups. Writing a reply to his parents – they'd already OWLd him, knowing when the try outs were scheduled for – was one of the most nerve wracking things he'd ever done. The only thing worse than knowing he could've made it but didn't because of his own forgetfulness, was knowing that his parents would be disappointed. They didn't say it but he could sense it in their late, shorter reply. His Head of House told him not to be too worried and that he could try again the next year. Keeping that in mind, he went back to his school work.
Bow was in his third year, when he tried for the team again. But this time, his attempt was very half hearted. He'd had a year to get over the fact that he wasn't playing, and his interest in Quidditch was starting to wane. He had more fun hanging around his friends or playing with animals or just relaxing. He didn't have the patience or vigour to actually train to be a Quidditch player – it was supposed to be a fun pastime, not something to treat like a school subject. This fact, coupled with that weird teen hormone which kicks in and makes them want to rebel a bit, made him write to his parents that he loved Quidditch, but not enough to want to be on the team or even pursue it seriously. They wrote back saying it was alright, but he was pretty sure he'd succeeded in disappointing them again. It took him a while to get over it, but he eventually did. It was around this time that he also started realizing that girls were more than just people who giggled and shrieked around him. He found them less annoying and more amusing, less like something to scoff at and more like something to ogle. Some of the girls he blatantly checked out gave him disgusted looks, some gave him interested looks. Either way, he didn't care – he just proceeded to study them. He'd never had a crush on a girl before, but he knew the general idea of what it was supposed to be like. When it seemed like all the guys in his year were crushing on some girl or the other – even if she tried to play it off – he pretended to show interest in Brigid Finnigan. That didn't last for very long because every time she walked into a room and some of the guys made remarks or nudged him, it would take him a second or two to figure out what the hell was going on.
It was in his fourth year that he actually started liking a girl. The only trouble was, was that the girl was starting the gain a reputation for getting around : Rosa Rodriguez. He never dared tell anybody because how weird would it be that he should like a girl who until this point was a reincarnate of the Wicked Witch of the West to him (he'd even once called her the long lost daughter of Bellatrix Lestrange in the halls – and it hadn't gone down well). But he couldn't really just make himself stop finding her hot. He tried to tell himself that that's all it was, him just finding her a nice piece of ass. But that didn't work out so well when one month in the same year they had a huge fight and he asked her to shut up – and then went ahead and shut her up by kissing her. It was probably not the first kiss he expected because it was rougher and sloppier than he supposed first kisses were supposed to be but he was angry and he couldn't really stop himself. When he pulled back, breathing hard, she'd had a weird look on her face which he couldn't recognize. He was pretty sure he was going to get slapped – wouldn't be the first time a girl did it – but instead she struck a conversation. A conversation, which eventually led them to his bed and they slept together for the first time (his first time, anyway).
For a year after that, he avoided her. Instead, he pretended like nothing had happened and went back to being a jerk who commented on things which weren't his business and made lewd comments about girls right in front of them. He also kissed two other girls but it was a big enough school that it wasn't made a huge deal out of. He never told his brother about it and they didn't really have a chance to because his sister was joining school too and the last thing he needed was to bring that up in front of her. She was still the little kid who got lost as far as he was concerned, and the only guys who were going to be in her life were their dad, Angus and him. He hoped that at least Alex would be in his house – she was gutsy enough for it – but she ended up going to Ravenclaw. To make things more horrifying, she had a panic attack at the dinner table. Him and Angus obviously realized what was happening and explained it to the confused and frazzled Professors who took her up to the Infirmary. She was alright after a while but the damage was done. People started teasing his sister and calling her 'Anxiety Alex'. Nobody was stupid enough to do it in front of him but when they did, he usually shoved them or threatened them. This one time somebody mentioned it jokingly – a guy whom she was friends with, in fact – but he took it the wrong way and punched the guy in the mouth. The fight got bad and his parents were written to. When asked for an explanation, he just shrugged and walked it off.
Later that year, he finally confronted Rosa about what had happened and somehow – he still finds the whole thing a blur – they started a relationship based purely on casual sex. The crush he had on her eventually faded but he still kept sleeping with her because, well, she was good in bed and he was horny. His fifth year was turning out to be more stressful than he'd predicted and it seemed like all he was doing was studying or having sex. Too annoyed by this turn in his social life, he started to hang around with people again. It was around this time that he met Diya Zabini and started crushing on her. He knew it was wrong to show interest in one girl while sleeping with another, but he wasn't bothered enough to stop either one or to figure out which girl it was unfair to.
When he went home for the summer, he was feeling incredibly cocky about not only having nailed a girl but also because he got six OWLs. Choosing his NEWT subjects was easier than expected because his first choice was Care of Magical Creatures and the rest were just what he felt like at the minute. He had another talk with his father about Quidditch, where he explained to him that he liked to play it but he was pretty sure he was going to take a career in Care of Magical Creatures when he grew up and left. That summer, he also told Angus what he'd been up to in his fifth year. His brother tried to tell him that it wasn't right, that they wouldn't like it if anybody treated Alex that way but he didn't listen because really, nobody in their right mind would even want to treat Alex that way. He spent most of the summer buying and caring for another puppy – whom he named Clockwork.
When he went back to school in his sixth year, he was still occasionally flirting with other girls. But something went wrong. He wasn't sure what but Rosa left without any explanations at the end of the year and he didn't have anybody to hang around. This was mainly because the whole time he'd been flirting with girls and being a “ladies' man”, he'd also become very impulsive and temperamental. He got angry easily, and picked fights easily as well. Most of them were pointless because he'd taken things the wrong way or blown them out of proportion but he wasn't very concerned. After Rosa left, sexual frustration just fueled his impulsiveness until he found somebody else to sleep with, some drunk, freshly graduated girl he'd found one night at the Hog's Head. He first felt bad because he thought Rosa might say something but then he told himself that it wasn't in her place to feel bad and forgot about it. Luckily for him, the year was proving much harder so he had his studies to take his mind off things. It was a bit alarming when Rosa didn't come back to finish the year but he didn't question it. Maybe she'd left for good.
When she returned in his seventh year, he could tell she was different. When she fought with him, she was more vicious. It wasn't the kind of fighting which fueled desire or angry sex, it was just plain infuriating and offensive. He told her to fuck off and sort her shit, which wasn't taken very well but he didn't care. After a couple of months of back and forth, they ended up going back to sleeping together, even though she seemed different. He figured it was because of the accident he had – she hadn't mentioned it but he wasn't stupid, he saw the scar on her abdomen – and maybe she'd gone through some trauma or something. So he didn't question it. But during one of their Herbology classes they started fighting again and she blurted out that she'd gotten pregnant and that's why she'd left the previous year.
That stunned Bow. And not stun, in the way that he bowled over and didn't know how to react. Stunned in the way that he didn't know how to move or think or even breathe. First, he was very very confused. How the hell could he not have known that he'd gotten her pregnant? How did somebody not know that they'd created life with another person? Then, he got very scared, because the idea of creating a baby freaked the shit out of him. Babies weren't like pets, they were different. Baby animals he could handle, but baby humans were just plain weird. Then, he got very angry. If they'd had a baby, then how the hell did she decide to get rid of it on her own? Not that he wanted a baby, but it angered him that she'd taken the decision all on her own. And she hadn't even bothered to tell him about it, before, during or after. Annoyed as hell, he avoided her, flirting with other girls. This included Diya Zabini, whom he found more and more reasons to talk to than before. Sure, him and Rosa still had sex but he didn't bother to even stick around for a second after it happened. It all seemed very routine, until one night he was having sex with Rosa and ended up saying Diya's name. Needless to say, they fought (for the first time in weeks) about it and decided to just not be around each other ever again.
The weeks after that were maddening for him because not only was he leaving school, but also he'd come to a rather startling realization. He'd been thinking about the non existent baby the night after they fought, and while he counting off the reasons why he was lucky to not become a daddy, he also came to the conclusion that if there was one person whom he could imagine having a baby with, was Rosa. This disgusted him and shocked him. Why on earth would an absurd thought like that even enter his mind? But it did, and it hurt him. It hurt him because that was not who he was, and it hurt him because Rosa wasn't even around for him to vent at. It hurt because Rosa was not around, period. Shaking himself out of that confusing train of thoughts, he'd gone and hung around with Diya. He continued to hang around her, hoping to get over his weird Rosa obsession, and when it didn't work, he asked Diya out. The two of them started dating casually for a while, until the end of his seventh year.
He spent the early summer months wallowing in self annoyance and pissing people off around him. The last day at Hogwarts, he was in such an angry mood, he lewdly suggested in front of the entire common room that Karina Bass (a fourth year in his house) should unlock her legs for him because he could rock her world harder than she'd dreamed of in her wettest dreams. He was only doing it to piss off Rosa but obviously Rosa was his farthest worry when Kieran Bass ended up punching him in the face, hard, for even looking at his little sister. It took him a couple of seconds to realize what had happened but then he had the common sense to leave. He didn't apologize, but he did realize that he'd gone a step too far, and that he probably would have done the same had anybody said that about Alex. However, his angry mood wasn't ending there. He had another brutal fight with Rosa at Minos Montague's party but what angered him really was the fact that the whole time she was screaming at him he felt equal measures of both longing and hatred. And before he could stop himself, he came to the conclusion that he was very much in love with the woman screaming bloody murder at him.
He realized that all the time he'd spent trying to hate her and fighting with her and sleeping with her, he'd failed to realize that she was the only constant in his life, the only constant by choice. She'd seen him at his angriest and his worst, and yet, she was the only one who still came back. She was also the one who brought out his most passionate side – be it loving, or hating. Too agitated by the epiphany, he left the party without much of an end to the argument. But he failed at trying to forget his feelings. As much as he tried, he couldn't stop thinking of Rosa, so he contemplated writing to her. He threw away each letter he wrote before he wrote it, but one night he was too drunk to stop himself and ended up sending it. The next morning, he didn't even remember what he wrote but he was pretty sure it was horrible.
Angus found him incredibly hung over and uncharacteristically, told him to pull himself together. Realizing that he had pretty much nothing to rely on anymore now that he was an adult – a horny, heart broken adult – he decided to write to Professor Marsdon if he could become a teaching assistant. He knew Hogwarts didn't generally have those, but he had to try. Obviously, it didn't work out for him, but he managed to get decent recommendations for the Ministry and got a job in the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. The week after he'd gotten the job, he attended the graduation party for his year. At the party, he saw Rosa again and before he even realized what he was doing, he told her how he felt and they got back together. He knew that messing around with two girls was one thing, but being committed to two was a whole new level of horrid. So he broke things off with Diya, whom he hadn't even bothered to talk to since his feelings for Rosa made themselves known to him.
For the first time, in a long time, Bow finally felt like his life was on track. He had a job he loved, he finally had a girl whom he loved, and he was also in love – something he never thought would happen to him. The only thing holding him back was the fact that it still didn't feel like a new beginning until he left his home. So, he asked Rosa to move into an apartment with him. The two quarreled – because, really, it was them – but decided on one, eventually. The moved in together, which only made him deliriously happy. Even his family noticed how odd he was acting, like a lovesick fool. He himself realized that him and Rosa were suddenly progressing very fast, but he didn't stop it. He didn't find it odd at all. His only idols for romance had been his parents, and when he'd been younger, he'd come to believe that it's what romantic couples were supposed to be like. It never occurred to him that there were initial stages like dating, kissing, then commitment, then moving in and then more, over a long period of time. So, when he had his first real relationship, he wanted to jump right to the parts he knew how to handle. So he did the stupidest thing he could've done and proposed to Rosa. He knew they loved each other so it only made sense since it was going to happen one day, anyway. It was only when he was holding the ring out to her and he saw her stunned face, that he figured out that maybe it had been a bit too soon. She was reluctant, he could see that, but he didn't take it back. How could you take something like that back? What was more confusing was that, after contemplation, she said yes. Putting a ring on her finger was like watching a cheesy movie. He knew he loved her, but he also knew that they were doing it all wrong.
But he let it slide, assuming that things was get better over a while. They didn't. Every time he brought up their decision to get married, she'd put it off. This eventually started to anger him. He started feeling less like a fiance, and more like a jailer. And he hated it. They fought more and more and he even started spending nights in his office. After one particularly hard day at work, he came home to find Rosa packing her bags. He lost it. He started shouting at her. This was all her fault, he said. He'd made him into this weird sap who had zero idea what he was doing. She was the one who made him fall in love and made him act stupid. Then he started spouting bullshit, because he was angry. He told her how it was supposed to be them together and she was ruining it. After a long fight, she finally told him they weren't meant to be and that she wasn't sure she loved him anymore. She wished him luck, and then, she left.
The week after that was a blur. He stayed in, got drunk and slept with the girls who got drunk in the pub downstairs. He even called a couple of them Rosa sometimes, but they were equally shameless to not even care. Everywhere he looked, he felt weird. The apartment was supposed to be theirs, not his, and he got sick of being reminded of her everywhere he looked. Heartbroken and angry, he left after making up for the rent and went back to his parents' house. They asked him what was wrong and he wound up telling them everything, right from the start. The only thing he left out was knocking Rosa up because he knew that wouldn't go well. They agreed that he needed time off and a change. Everything since his fifth year had just turned into a toxic whirlpool which had made him angry, impulsive, confused and loveless. He needed change, and he'd go for just that. The perfect opportunity presented itself when there was a program in the Kenya for study of Magical Creatures and he took it up. He left the month after, in August.
Kenya was a breath of fresh air, both from England as well as his past. He even died his hair a darker color and cut it, just to feel like he was making a change. He put all his pent up frustration and confused emotions in his work and quickly learned more than he'd ever thought he'd learn. He even dated a couple of women, but nothing serious enough to stick. It was only enough to soothe the rawness of what he'd had with Rosa, no matter how hard it had been. He wrote to his family often, but he also had fun. Unfortunately, his year of learning soon came to an end and he finally returned to England, sixteen months later.
Now, he's just come back and although he has no idea what to expect, he's also happy to be with his family again. He's still the same rash, flirtatious and tactless jerk he used to be, but he's also grown up. He's stopped looking too deeply into things (which is what he's convinced himself he did with Rosa) and learned to be patient. He only hopes that it'll be enough for him to be able to stick around this time and not chase him off again.
Whenever somebody asks Bow Wood what he thinks is the best day ever, he always says the same thing: 16th January 2004 – the day he was born. And when he's asked why (given that he doesn't even remember it) he says it's because the world was given the best possible present – him. Born to a newly wed Katie and Oliver Wood, a couple of hours before noon and after a surprisingly smooth labor, the bouncing baby boy was named Bowman Cornelius Wood – something he will never, not ever, forgive his parents for. He sometimes wished that if he was to be cursed with a pathetic name, it could atleast be a name which would have a decent nickname – but no. Even his nickname, Bow, is a bit eccentric. Anyways, coming back to when he was born. He likes to believe that he was bundled and placed in the nursery of the hospital and everybody in the halls would just come and make amazed faces at his adorable face and curly, angelic blond hair – he wasn't going to be passed around because he was too precious to be carried and touched by everybody.
There are some children born to famous people who are humble about their origins, about how having a famous last name would not be something they used to their advantage because there was more to them than their last name. Bow Wood was never one of those children. Since he could speak, he used to run around everywhere telling everybody that he was the son of Katie and Oliver Wood, best Quidditch Players in the whole wide universe. It didn't faze him that the parents he glorified so much were never actually around much because they were busy training to become better. One thing his grandparents had taught him – and they taught him a lot, since he was usually left with them to babysit – was that hardwork defined you. Dreaming big was something anybody could do, but working towards it defined if you deserved to get what you dreamed of. He understood that his parents were doing just that – where else would the money for toys and food come from? - and looked up to them for it. When he was three years old, him and his baby brother were left at home with his grandmum. She took them out shopping and he dragged her into a Quidditch shop and made her buy every poster there was of his parents. He then proceeded to put them up in his room. When his mum and dad came home, they found every inch of his walls and bathroom covered in different shots of them at training, or playing or just flying. And scrawled over them in paint was “I have the best mummy and daddy.”
The rules to Quidditch were something he learned very young and when his mum used him and Angus as stand ins while coming up with strategy, he always piped up random words like 'FOUL' and 'SNITCH'. His dad used to joke that they'd given birth to the best seeker of the next generation. There wasn't a single thing Bow wouldn't keep his hands off of. From his mum's jewelery to his brother's pacifier, he always managed to find everything they kept away and put it somewhere else. This one time he drew a picture of himself – a stick figure picture with crayons – on a broom and holding a flying golden ball and pinned it up along with the posters on his wall. He didn't think he'd ever impressed his parents more. As he become older, old enough to understand that Angus wasn't a toy to drag around the house with him, his best friend became his brother. He'd never been very good at making friends anyway. The parents of the children his age were usually appalled by the way he talked about others – in his defense, he didn't know that it was considered rude if you went to a party and then ran up to a lady, announcing in front of everybody that you'd seen her nice husband helping some lady get out of her dress in an upstairs room – and generally told their kids that he was bad influence. Given that it was basically in Angus' blood to love him, he latched on to the attention he got from him. He knew his brother looked up to him and when his granddad told him that he had to work hard on being a good example, he did silly things just to see if his brother would copy him.
But that didn't mean he thought of his brother only as somebody to pull practical jokes on. To him, his brother was the closest thing to a playmate and secret keeper he could ever have – so it automatically gave him rights to treat him however. He did confused him, though, because his brother was probably the opposite of everything he was. But it didn't bother him a lot because he figured that someday he'd see sense. When he was four years old, his mother once again became pregnant and this excited him. One more person to add to his lovely fan following. He could just imagine how perfect everything would be with three perfect boys. They would be the Wood Trio who everybody would want to be like. He even made sketches of three boys, two in Quidditch robes (because he knew Angus wasn't the biggest fan of Quidditch), with the name 'Woods' on top. Of course, all his plans went down the drain when his mother gave birth to a girl. This made him furious. He walked right out of the hospital room and his granddad agreed to take him home because the last thing they wanted was for him to do something stupid on his own. He went home and ripped off all the posters of his mum which he had on his wall – because she'd betrayed him by giving him a sister. When his mum came home with the baby, she walked into his room and saw the walls before he could stop her. He'd had time to cool his anger to just disappointment, but he'd forgotten to put back the posters. When his mum quietly left the room, he ran after her, apologizing. She said she forgave him but he could see she was still hurt and he felt so bad that he burst into tears. The entire night, he just hugged her legs and cried. No matter how much she told him she wasn't angry or hurt anymore, he wouldn't stop. Eventually his dad came in and asked him what happened, and he explained.
His dad was very angry at him for hurting his mum like that but he swore he didn't mean for her to see it. They talked for a couple of hours where his dad explained to him that having a sister meant a huge responsibility, and that he was going to have to be a big boy. He explained to him how his sister would need her brothers to take care of her and when they grew up, he'd have to look out for her and make sure everybody treated her right. He was a bit happy to hear this, although he was still disappointed. His father asked him what he'd like to make him happy and asked if he could have a puppy, because somebody had to complete the Three Boy Wood Trio. His father rolled his eyes and agreed and two days later, Bow had his first pet – Quinto. And really, there was no turning back after that.
Bow fell in love with the dog. He would follow it everywhere and give it baths and play with it in the lawn. His parents were confused because they'd never seen Bow act so unselfish and cooperative with anybody. A couple of months later, he asked his parents for a kitten. His parents readily gave him one, assuming that the pets would just make him more even-tempered. But they also noticed that he was getting very much involved with them – so much so, that he was giving up other activities. He stopped going out to play Quidditch when it was sunny and he didn't even bug his brother anymore. While Angus found a new found hobby of sitting by Alex's bed, he would sit with his cat (named Cotton Candy) and dog. When his parents asked him why he was spending so much time with his pets, he explained that they were his only friends who weren't forced to like him.
His parents didn't say anything although they were mildly concerned by his turn in attitude. For a five year old, he was being incredibly caring and not towards humans – which was a lot since he was usually a brat who didn't think twice before opening his mouth. It was at this age as well, that he showed his first sign of magic. He'd been out to buy treats for Cotton Candy with his mum in Diagon Alley and they were just coming out the Muggle end of the Leaky when Cotton jumped from his hands and ran towards the road. Bow had shouted and run after her, but his mum had obviously caught his arm and held him in place because of the speeding traffic. He'd shouted and there had been a sound like a soda can bursting. Before he knew it, the car which was coming for Cotton had swerved and hit another and Cotton was left unharmed. He'd been stunned by this and didn't say a word as Cotton ran back and he quietly took her in his arms again. Luckily, nobody noticed that it was magic and labelled it as a road accident. Only when they went home and he was fully aware that nobody got hurt that he celebrated with his parents that he was showing magic (he got an extra slice of pie for dessert.)
He still wasn't spending a lot of time with his baby sister, and hadn't talked a lot to Angus since she was born. While his siblings grew up a bit more, he just walked around trying to boss them around. Angus never objected much (although he was suspicious that it was less because he was submissive and more because he was just not bothered to). Alex on the other hand walked right up to him when he did and stomped on his foot. He found this rather infuriating. Sisters were supposed to be quiet, docile things – not hitting people like boys. But he quickly got over it and accepted that maybe his Three Boy Wood Trio was real after all. Maybe God put the right baby in the wrong body. The three of them became the best of friends (well, in his head anyway) and it was probably one of the most fun filled relationships he'd ever had, or which anybody had seen.
When he was around nine years old, his sister got lost at one of the Quidditch games they'd gone to. Bow didn't think he'd ever been so scared before. Till she was three years old, he'd wished for a brother and for her to go away and he was so scared that he'd actually made it happen. When they found her, she looked rather ill and he remembered that he didn't care if he was a big boy and started crying. Later, they found out that she'd suffered a panic attack of some sort and when the Healer told them how to avoid it – he'd been overhearing the conversation from near the door – he burst in and declared that he'd never let anything happen to his sister. From then on, he was a rather protective brother – towards both Angus and Alex. Although he treated them no differently, if anybody dared say anything even remotely offensive, he'd jump down their throats. He remembered going to his parents' friends' house once and their kid told Alex that her dress looked a bit long and asked if it was the wrong size. Bow got so angry and shouted that she could wear whatever she wanted and proceeded to throw a plate at the kid. His parents were shocked but he didn't care because nobody was going to question his sister, ever.
When he was eleven years old, he finally got his letter to Hogwarts. He had mixed emotions about this because he didn't know if he wanted to leave. He did want to study magic, but he wouldn't have his siblings and his parents or grandparents. He couldn't go to all the Quidditch games or spend free time playing with Quinto, Cotton, Charcoal (his new rat from his grandparents) and Dinari (the owl his parents bought him). What was worse was that he couldn't take them all with him, so he had to leave behind Quinto, Cotton and Dinari (although his parents promised that when they wrote him, they'd send it with Dinari). On the train station, he wasn't even embarrassed when he hugged his mum and dad, or his brother and sister. Finally, he got on the train and went off to Hogwarts. Once he reached, he was one of the last ones to be sorted, which only increased his worry about which house he'd go in. He knew he was somewhat smart and liked to read so Ravenclaw wouldn't be a surprise, and his grandparents had taught him enough loyalty and values to become a Hufflepuff. He was reckless enough to become a Gryffindor as well, but some of the nastier parents of children he'd offended over the years had told him that he belonged in Slytherin. When the Hat was placed on him, it was equally confused but he begged it to put him in Gryffindor because he wanted to be in his parents house. The Hat must have seen something worthy enough in him for that because it shouted at Godric Gryffindor's house and he was welcomed happily. The first night was perfect (except for a few moments when some stupid girl in his year sat on Charcoal and he had to tell her to bugger off and put on glasses) because there was so much delicious food and his parents wrote to him, and he could tell them he got into their house. Plus, he made a couple of friends.
Over the next few months, everybody had a rather hot and cold response to the eldest Wood child who walked into Hogwarts calling himself the son of the superstars of the previous generation. Although, that toned down a lot when he started to study in detail about the Second Wizarding War and found out what all his parents had been through. He stopped showing off about their Quidditch achievements (although those were brilliant) because he looked up to them for more than just their talent and parenting: for the fact that they were heroes. But without having to show off about Quidditch and have his pets or siblings keep in busy and in line, he started to remember just how much he loved to talk and not necessarily after thinking. It was normal for him to compliment somebody and then proceed to insult them in the same line (once a third year in his house was giggling with her friends and parading a new dress and he proceeded to tell her that it was a lovely dress since it covered up all her horrible fat). He never did it intentionally (unless he didn't like the person, in which case he did), but he always ended up offending somebody in one way or another. Many of his friends just came to accept the fact that he was a jerk, simply because they knew he was a decent person inside. Others fought back with equally sharp words. One such personality who really clashed with him was Rosa Rodriguez, who was another girl in his year. The two didn't banter - they practically fought to kill. It didn't help that she was in his house too, so it was incredibly difficult to separate them for long periods of time.
His teachers weren't too fazed by his inability to be nice to people, though, because he was doing well in classes. Well, not all his classes – he was horrid at Defense and Transfiguration – but he was very good at Potions and Care of Magical Creatures. The last one was his favorite and when somebody had fought with him or he was annoyed, he'd just go and stay with the animals and his Professor, helping her out with feeding and cleaning and basically learning more about them. By the time his second year rolled around, he already knew more about the creatures than most average third years did. When his brother came to Hogwarts, Bow was ecstatic because he'd get to have him back. Even the teachers hoped that the sweet boy would keep his older sibling in line. But Angus went into Hufflepuff, leaving Bow all alone in the noble House. Bow was stunned because even though he'd expected Angus to be a Huffelpuff, he assumed that some sort of power would pull strings for his sake and give his brother to him. Given the slight divide, and the different class timings, Bow and Angus didn't get to spend a lot of time with each other. In fact, Bow spent most of his time doing school work because it calmed him down and kept his mouth shut. But he'd spent so much time working that he'd forgotten the date of the Quidditch tryouts and didn't get on the Quidditch team.
He was so shocked by his own stupidity that he ran to the captain and begged him to let him on the team. But he was denied because all the spots were already filled, including backups. Writing a reply to his parents – they'd already OWLd him, knowing when the try outs were scheduled for – was one of the most nerve wracking things he'd ever done. The only thing worse than knowing he could've made it but didn't because of his own forgetfulness, was knowing that his parents would be disappointed. They didn't say it but he could sense it in their late, shorter reply. His Head of House told him not to be too worried and that he could try again the next year. Keeping that in mind, he went back to his school work.
Bow was in his third year, when he tried for the team again. But this time, his attempt was very half hearted. He'd had a year to get over the fact that he wasn't playing, and his interest in Quidditch was starting to wane. He had more fun hanging around his friends or playing with animals or just relaxing. He didn't have the patience or vigour to actually train to be a Quidditch player – it was supposed to be a fun pastime, not something to treat like a school subject. This fact, coupled with that weird teen hormone which kicks in and makes them want to rebel a bit, made him write to his parents that he loved Quidditch, but not enough to want to be on the team or even pursue it seriously. They wrote back saying it was alright, but he was pretty sure he'd succeeded in disappointing them again. It took him a while to get over it, but he eventually did. It was around this time that he also started realizing that girls were more than just people who giggled and shrieked around him. He found them less annoying and more amusing, less like something to scoff at and more like something to ogle. Some of the girls he blatantly checked out gave him disgusted looks, some gave him interested looks. Either way, he didn't care – he just proceeded to study them. He'd never had a crush on a girl before, but he knew the general idea of what it was supposed to be like. When it seemed like all the guys in his year were crushing on some girl or the other – even if she tried to play it off – he pretended to show interest in Brigid Finnigan. That didn't last for very long because every time she walked into a room and some of the guys made remarks or nudged him, it would take him a second or two to figure out what the hell was going on.
It was in his fourth year that he actually started liking a girl. The only trouble was, was that the girl was starting the gain a reputation for getting around : Rosa Rodriguez. He never dared tell anybody because how weird would it be that he should like a girl who until this point was a reincarnate of the Wicked Witch of the West to him (he'd even once called her the long lost daughter of Bellatrix Lestrange in the halls – and it hadn't gone down well). But he couldn't really just make himself stop finding her hot. He tried to tell himself that that's all it was, him just finding her a nice piece of ass. But that didn't work out so well when one month in the same year they had a huge fight and he asked her to shut up – and then went ahead and shut her up by kissing her. It was probably not the first kiss he expected because it was rougher and sloppier than he supposed first kisses were supposed to be but he was angry and he couldn't really stop himself. When he pulled back, breathing hard, she'd had a weird look on her face which he couldn't recognize. He was pretty sure he was going to get slapped – wouldn't be the first time a girl did it – but instead she struck a conversation. A conversation, which eventually led them to his bed and they slept together for the first time (his first time, anyway).
For a year after that, he avoided her. Instead, he pretended like nothing had happened and went back to being a jerk who commented on things which weren't his business and made lewd comments about girls right in front of them. He also kissed two other girls but it was a big enough school that it wasn't made a huge deal out of. He never told his brother about it and they didn't really have a chance to because his sister was joining school too and the last thing he needed was to bring that up in front of her. She was still the little kid who got lost as far as he was concerned, and the only guys who were going to be in her life were their dad, Angus and him. He hoped that at least Alex would be in his house – she was gutsy enough for it – but she ended up going to Ravenclaw. To make things more horrifying, she had a panic attack at the dinner table. Him and Angus obviously realized what was happening and explained it to the confused and frazzled Professors who took her up to the Infirmary. She was alright after a while but the damage was done. People started teasing his sister and calling her 'Anxiety Alex'. Nobody was stupid enough to do it in front of him but when they did, he usually shoved them or threatened them. This one time somebody mentioned it jokingly – a guy whom she was friends with, in fact – but he took it the wrong way and punched the guy in the mouth. The fight got bad and his parents were written to. When asked for an explanation, he just shrugged and walked it off.
Later that year, he finally confronted Rosa about what had happened and somehow – he still finds the whole thing a blur – they started a relationship based purely on casual sex. The crush he had on her eventually faded but he still kept sleeping with her because, well, she was good in bed and he was horny. His fifth year was turning out to be more stressful than he'd predicted and it seemed like all he was doing was studying or having sex. Too annoyed by this turn in his social life, he started to hang around with people again. It was around this time that he met Diya Zabini and started crushing on her. He knew it was wrong to show interest in one girl while sleeping with another, but he wasn't bothered enough to stop either one or to figure out which girl it was unfair to.
When he went home for the summer, he was feeling incredibly cocky about not only having nailed a girl but also because he got six OWLs. Choosing his NEWT subjects was easier than expected because his first choice was Care of Magical Creatures and the rest were just what he felt like at the minute. He had another talk with his father about Quidditch, where he explained to him that he liked to play it but he was pretty sure he was going to take a career in Care of Magical Creatures when he grew up and left. That summer, he also told Angus what he'd been up to in his fifth year. His brother tried to tell him that it wasn't right, that they wouldn't like it if anybody treated Alex that way but he didn't listen because really, nobody in their right mind would even want to treat Alex that way. He spent most of the summer buying and caring for another puppy – whom he named Clockwork.
When he went back to school in his sixth year, he was still occasionally flirting with other girls. But something went wrong. He wasn't sure what but Rosa left without any explanations at the end of the year and he didn't have anybody to hang around. This was mainly because the whole time he'd been flirting with girls and being a “ladies' man”, he'd also become very impulsive and temperamental. He got angry easily, and picked fights easily as well. Most of them were pointless because he'd taken things the wrong way or blown them out of proportion but he wasn't very concerned. After Rosa left, sexual frustration just fueled his impulsiveness until he found somebody else to sleep with, some drunk, freshly graduated girl he'd found one night at the Hog's Head. He first felt bad because he thought Rosa might say something but then he told himself that it wasn't in her place to feel bad and forgot about it. Luckily for him, the year was proving much harder so he had his studies to take his mind off things. It was a bit alarming when Rosa didn't come back to finish the year but he didn't question it. Maybe she'd left for good.
When she returned in his seventh year, he could tell she was different. When she fought with him, she was more vicious. It wasn't the kind of fighting which fueled desire or angry sex, it was just plain infuriating and offensive. He told her to fuck off and sort her shit, which wasn't taken very well but he didn't care. After a couple of months of back and forth, they ended up going back to sleeping together, even though she seemed different. He figured it was because of the accident he had – she hadn't mentioned it but he wasn't stupid, he saw the scar on her abdomen – and maybe she'd gone through some trauma or something. So he didn't question it. But during one of their Herbology classes they started fighting again and she blurted out that she'd gotten pregnant and that's why she'd left the previous year.
That stunned Bow. And not stun, in the way that he bowled over and didn't know how to react. Stunned in the way that he didn't know how to move or think or even breathe. First, he was very very confused. How the hell could he not have known that he'd gotten her pregnant? How did somebody not know that they'd created life with another person? Then, he got very scared, because the idea of creating a baby freaked the shit out of him. Babies weren't like pets, they were different. Baby animals he could handle, but baby humans were just plain weird. Then, he got very angry. If they'd had a baby, then how the hell did she decide to get rid of it on her own? Not that he wanted a baby, but it angered him that she'd taken the decision all on her own. And she hadn't even bothered to tell him about it, before, during or after. Annoyed as hell, he avoided her, flirting with other girls. This included Diya Zabini, whom he found more and more reasons to talk to than before. Sure, him and Rosa still had sex but he didn't bother to even stick around for a second after it happened. It all seemed very routine, until one night he was having sex with Rosa and ended up saying Diya's name. Needless to say, they fought (for the first time in weeks) about it and decided to just not be around each other ever again.
The weeks after that were maddening for him because not only was he leaving school, but also he'd come to a rather startling realization. He'd been thinking about the non existent baby the night after they fought, and while he counting off the reasons why he was lucky to not become a daddy, he also came to the conclusion that if there was one person whom he could imagine having a baby with, was Rosa. This disgusted him and shocked him. Why on earth would an absurd thought like that even enter his mind? But it did, and it hurt him. It hurt him because that was not who he was, and it hurt him because Rosa wasn't even around for him to vent at. It hurt because Rosa was not around, period. Shaking himself out of that confusing train of thoughts, he'd gone and hung around with Diya. He continued to hang around her, hoping to get over his weird Rosa obsession, and when it didn't work, he asked Diya out. The two of them started dating casually for a while, until the end of his seventh year.
He spent the early summer months wallowing in self annoyance and pissing people off around him. The last day at Hogwarts, he was in such an angry mood, he lewdly suggested in front of the entire common room that Karina Bass (a fourth year in his house) should unlock her legs for him because he could rock her world harder than she'd dreamed of in her wettest dreams. He was only doing it to piss off Rosa but obviously Rosa was his farthest worry when Kieran Bass ended up punching him in the face, hard, for even looking at his little sister. It took him a couple of seconds to realize what had happened but then he had the common sense to leave. He didn't apologize, but he did realize that he'd gone a step too far, and that he probably would have done the same had anybody said that about Alex. However, his angry mood wasn't ending there. He had another brutal fight with Rosa at Minos Montague's party but what angered him really was the fact that the whole time she was screaming at him he felt equal measures of both longing and hatred. And before he could stop himself, he came to the conclusion that he was very much in love with the woman screaming bloody murder at him.
He realized that all the time he'd spent trying to hate her and fighting with her and sleeping with her, he'd failed to realize that she was the only constant in his life, the only constant by choice. She'd seen him at his angriest and his worst, and yet, she was the only one who still came back. She was also the one who brought out his most passionate side – be it loving, or hating. Too agitated by the epiphany, he left the party without much of an end to the argument. But he failed at trying to forget his feelings. As much as he tried, he couldn't stop thinking of Rosa, so he contemplated writing to her. He threw away each letter he wrote before he wrote it, but one night he was too drunk to stop himself and ended up sending it. The next morning, he didn't even remember what he wrote but he was pretty sure it was horrible.
Angus found him incredibly hung over and uncharacteristically, told him to pull himself together. Realizing that he had pretty much nothing to rely on anymore now that he was an adult – a horny, heart broken adult – he decided to write to Professor Marsdon if he could become a teaching assistant. He knew Hogwarts didn't generally have those, but he had to try. Obviously, it didn't work out for him, but he managed to get decent recommendations for the Ministry and got a job in the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. The week after he'd gotten the job, he attended the graduation party for his year. At the party, he saw Rosa again and before he even realized what he was doing, he told her how he felt and they got back together. He knew that messing around with two girls was one thing, but being committed to two was a whole new level of horrid. So he broke things off with Diya, whom he hadn't even bothered to talk to since his feelings for Rosa made themselves known to him.
For the first time, in a long time, Bow finally felt like his life was on track. He had a job he loved, he finally had a girl whom he loved, and he was also in love – something he never thought would happen to him. The only thing holding him back was the fact that it still didn't feel like a new beginning until he left his home. So, he asked Rosa to move into an apartment with him. The two quarreled – because, really, it was them – but decided on one, eventually. The moved in together, which only made him deliriously happy. Even his family noticed how odd he was acting, like a lovesick fool. He himself realized that him and Rosa were suddenly progressing very fast, but he didn't stop it. He didn't find it odd at all. His only idols for romance had been his parents, and when he'd been younger, he'd come to believe that it's what romantic couples were supposed to be like. It never occurred to him that there were initial stages like dating, kissing, then commitment, then moving in and then more, over a long period of time. So, when he had his first real relationship, he wanted to jump right to the parts he knew how to handle. So he did the stupidest thing he could've done and proposed to Rosa. He knew they loved each other so it only made sense since it was going to happen one day, anyway. It was only when he was holding the ring out to her and he saw her stunned face, that he figured out that maybe it had been a bit too soon. She was reluctant, he could see that, but he didn't take it back. How could you take something like that back? What was more confusing was that, after contemplation, she said yes. Putting a ring on her finger was like watching a cheesy movie. He knew he loved her, but he also knew that they were doing it all wrong.
But he let it slide, assuming that things was get better over a while. They didn't. Every time he brought up their decision to get married, she'd put it off. This eventually started to anger him. He started feeling less like a fiance, and more like a jailer. And he hated it. They fought more and more and he even started spending nights in his office. After one particularly hard day at work, he came home to find Rosa packing her bags. He lost it. He started shouting at her. This was all her fault, he said. He'd made him into this weird sap who had zero idea what he was doing. She was the one who made him fall in love and made him act stupid. Then he started spouting bullshit, because he was angry. He told her how it was supposed to be them together and she was ruining it. After a long fight, she finally told him they weren't meant to be and that she wasn't sure she loved him anymore. She wished him luck, and then, she left.
The week after that was a blur. He stayed in, got drunk and slept with the girls who got drunk in the pub downstairs. He even called a couple of them Rosa sometimes, but they were equally shameless to not even care. Everywhere he looked, he felt weird. The apartment was supposed to be theirs, not his, and he got sick of being reminded of her everywhere he looked. Heartbroken and angry, he left after making up for the rent and went back to his parents' house. They asked him what was wrong and he wound up telling them everything, right from the start. The only thing he left out was knocking Rosa up because he knew that wouldn't go well. They agreed that he needed time off and a change. Everything since his fifth year had just turned into a toxic whirlpool which had made him angry, impulsive, confused and loveless. He needed change, and he'd go for just that. The perfect opportunity presented itself when there was a program in the Kenya for study of Magical Creatures and he took it up. He left the month after, in August.
Kenya was a breath of fresh air, both from England as well as his past. He even died his hair a darker color and cut it, just to feel like he was making a change. He put all his pent up frustration and confused emotions in his work and quickly learned more than he'd ever thought he'd learn. He even dated a couple of women, but nothing serious enough to stick. It was only enough to soothe the rawness of what he'd had with Rosa, no matter how hard it had been. He wrote to his family often, but he also had fun. Unfortunately, his year of learning soon came to an end and he finally returned to England, sixteen months later.
Now, he's just come back and although he has no idea what to expect, he's also happy to be with his family again. He's still the same rash, flirtatious and tactless jerk he used to be, but he's also grown up. He's stopped looking too deeply into things (which is what he's convinced himself he did with Rosa) and learned to be patient. He only hopes that it'll be enough for him to be able to stick around this time and not chase him off again.
ROLEPLAYER info,
[atrb=vAlign,top]hey there, everyone! you can call me brooke. i'm 18 years young and i've been roleplaying for 2 years. in case you're wondering, my GMT is + 5:30. pretty cool, yeah? oh, i almost forgot! i also play 14 of satan's spawns and, last but not least, i think it's best to make love not horcruxes. thanks for reading my app!
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MADE BY MEGGSIEMOO OF OUT OF THE ASHES & Moolatte of BTN
I'll reply to your PM when I'm home, but yes - I like him, and I like that he's been to Jenya especially! 
