Despite his roots tracing back to the west coats of Scotland, Kieran comes to hogwarts from his Edwardian-style home in Leigh Woods, Bristol, where he was homeschooled and raised by his strict and authoritarian grandmother Ellidh Murray.

Stern and overly critical, Ellidh retired from her work as a law enforcement worker for the ministry of magic to raise her daughter, Kieran’s mother, Isla. Curious about the Wizarding World and suffocated by Ellidh’s conservative nature that limited her magical expression, Isla Murray ran away from home and her eloped with her boyfriend, Ewan Kith, at the age of 18 after finishing her 7th year at Hogwarts with overall outstanding grades on her N.E.W.T.s Exams.

Isla’s free spirit refused to be institutionalised like her Mother’s was, instead running off to join a circus group called ‘Lumos’ with a few other friends she’d made in Hogwarts as an adept fortune teller. Months after she and Evan had parted ways, she gave birth to Keiran, the young boy spending his formative years nestled between cushions where he was hidden behind the curtains of Isla’s fortune telling tent.

Despite her best efforts to keep him, Isla realised that the circus wasn’t the best place to keep her son, instead returning with her tail between her legs to Ellidh’s doorstep, leaving two year old Keiran in her care, much to her mother’s dissatisfaction.

What might’ve been worse for Ellidh was how Keiran looked almost exactly like his mother, his baby blues shifting a honey brown as they grew older, thick dark hair pouring over his shoulders in waves, freckles speckling his skin.

With the exception of his poliosis, which he must’ve inherited from his father, causing the birthmarks that stretched along his skin and the white streaks in his hair, they were Isla’s spitting image. These are a result of genetic inheritance, not magic.

Though the child grew up with the dire need to conceal these features - with his hair kept in a beanie and adjusting his collar constantly- their grandmother never saw these traits to be necessary to remove and so they remain unchanged by any magical means.

With naturally broad shoulders and a stance that somewhat resembles a lamppost, Keiran stands at 4’8 at the age of 11 - another trait he clearly obtained from his father, Isla and Ellidh barely reaching 4’5.

Homeschooled by his overly critical grandmother, who picked and prodded at anything within reach, Keiran grew to be fast on his feet, witty. There’s always a sharp, spry response at the tip of their tongue, and like their mother, is never the type to go down without a fight.

At least, he wouldn’t be, if it weren’t for the fact that he always seemed to lack the momentum necessary to bite back, his words never seeming to move past the back of their teeth.

This reluctance may often be interpreted as pacifism, with Keiran coming across as the timid type - a person of few words. To him, it’s more of a quiet strength that he possesses, the ability to keep his plans and ideas close to his chest.

Practically living most of their life in their head, they look at the world through a lease of skepticism, cynical by nature. However their inner critique has and will always be hardest on himself.

Growing up isolated, with no one close to share his inner world with, Keiran developed a penchant for putting his thoughts on paper, and has a terrible habit of keeping his shoulder’s hunched and his jaw wound, sometimes finding himself forgetting to breathe when he’s really engrossed in what he’s working on.

Short stories, poetry, oodles and oodles of doodles- they knew how to keep themself busy as a child. Give Kei unlimited paper and inks, and he’ll be content for life.

Ellidh Murray’s style of parenting was Authoritarian, to say the least. To her, it was a way of building character, of instilling discipline in young Kieran that she felt she’d failed to in Isla. The child never spoke back, anyway, it- was easy. To tell him what he was doing wrong, to set him straight, on the right path.

But there had been one day. One day- where. He’d lashed out. Which was never like him- she couldn’t even quite remember what it was she’d said- what he’d said.

Just a vague mention from here of Keiran’s mother and then- all the books in the drawing room tumbling down upon them, a shout so loud it’d made both of their ears ring for minutes after.

He was only 8 years old- sometimes she forgot. The child was so terrified when it happened he ran upstairs and slept without dinner. An outburst like that never happened again, and Ellidh was sure to keep Isla’s name out of her mouth in the future.