Owen Lochridge | First Year | Hufflepuff

Character Backstory:
Owen was a second son born to Cainnech and Amelia (née Blackwell) Lochridge on a cold December morning in 2014. Widely known for their family business of the production of Lochridge Lager, the Lochridge family sits comfortably in the lower upper-class bracket of Pureblood society. As such, Owen has enjoyed the benefits and privileges of this status; he has never wanted for anything, and has enjoyed many opportunities for private tutelage for early childhood education and hobbies. That said, he has not really demonstrated any particular knack for anything. Anrai, the first-born son and three years Owen's senior, is the jewel of the family. Tall, clever, and dedicated to his studies, he is everything a family could want in an heir. Moreover, he seems keen to learn about the family business with the intent to eventually take over as the patriarch in some distant future, and so their parents are content to pour the great majority of their attention and time upon him. In doing so, Owen is often left to the side.

While not neglected, as a certain standard must be maintained for all the Lochridge children, neither does he experience much oversight. In a way, that has led to a rather easy upbringing. Independence and a thirst for adventure thrived, filling that emotional distance, and Owen found that he could quite easily get away with many an action in a way that his older brother could not. There is no expectation, no pressure. He is free to pursue his interests and recess, to let his mind wander between fiction and reality. On the other hand, there is no expectation. The shadow of his brother's accomplishments looms ever darker, threatening to drown Owen's existence as forgettable. While he may not yet recognize it, the seeds of jealousy and insecurity have been sown by his parent's preferential treatment and attention towards his elder brother.

As a sort of self-protective measure, it has meant that Owen has always preferred the company of his younger sister. Of course, that could also have been due to how close they were in age. Born a year and a half after him, Laoise took quickly to Owen. The two of them spent many years playing and painting and reading together. They kept out of the way of their busy parents and prodigy brother, and kept each other company. Kept. Past tense. A number of years had passed since Laoise's passing, but there were days when Owen awoke half-expecting her to still be there. But Laoise was no longer with them. Yet he could never quite get rid of a strange nagging feeling, and the dreams he continues to have of her seem so real...

First Instance of Magic:
Owen's magic manifested at quite a young age. It was on his third birthday, in fact, that Owen was enjoying a bath in preparation for later festivities. He'd always been rather fond of water. Whether it was racing around in the rain, splashing in puddles, or swimming in the sea, it mattered not; he would enjoy the moment to its fullest. So whenever bath time presented, it came as no surprise that he enjoyed that too.

Under normal circumstances, he was permitted to play until his skin prickled with gooseflesh and the water went cold. On this occasion, however, he was rushed through the process to prepare for the party. Well, that didn't sit well with him at all. The waterworks that started when his mother attempted to pull him from the tub got quickly out of hand. The more she tried, the greater his distress. And oddly, the more difficult it became. As though rising to a call for aid, the bubbles in the tub seemed to multiply and grow in size.

Soon enough, the bubbles spilled over the tub as Owen thrashed and squirmed, rolling across the floor. Yes... rolling. Upon contact with a surface, they did not pop. And soon enough, they piled up, pressing up against his mother and himself, filling the tub and then the bathroom entirely, and ultimately pushing both a very exasperated mother and a now laughing and astonished Owen all the way out into the hall.

Mental Description:
If anything can be said about Owen, it's that he has no shortage of love for life. His fondness for sweets and penchant to speak before thinking has gotten him more than one lecture from his mother. Adventurous and free-spirited, he is always on the move. By his definition, rules are made to be broken (although he still tries not to get caught). Extroverted and social, he loves exploring and trying new things. That's not to say that he doesn't also enjoy his alone time. Unlike his older brother who is the more academic and studious of the two, Owen prefers the fine arts and dedicates rainy days to reading fiction and practicing his drawing.

Physical Description: Standing at an average height for his age with dark brown wavy hair and expressive hazel eyes, Owen Lochridge is a fairly typical boy. By no means overweight, he still possesses features softened by baby fat. A smattering of freckles dust his cheeks and upturned nose. His clothing is well-tailored, harkening to a life of comfort, though they frequently display smudges of grass and dirt.

The gift of prophecy in the Lochridge family harkens back several centuries to the time they first settled in Northern Ireland. It was a witch by the name of Ailsa who foretold of a great shadow that—lest they take heed—would befall the Highlands and blot out the Lochridge name. With her humble roots and questionable bloodline, many in the family thought her opportunistic, that her visions were mere fiction meant to enrapture the Lochridge heir and selfishly secure a place of comfort. Given that, the heir apparent at the time dismissed her and her warnings. His younger brother, however, did not. Taking the warnings to heart and finding himself helplessly captivated by her enigmatic presence, if not by her homely appearance, the second son took her to wed and fled Scotland for the northeastern shores of what came to be known as Ulster, Ireland.

True to her visions, the primary Lochridge branch met downfall as the Witch Trials of the 16th century took hold. Although little was to be feared by muggle accusations and "executions" given the multitudinous means of escaping capture or a truly final fate, there were those pureblood and wizarding families with ambitions of grandeur who cunningly weaponized the trials against their kin. Occasionally masquerading as muggles, such antagonists would quite unexpectedly implement magical fire in place of mundane fire with the addition of anti-apparition charms and other tactics to entrap and eliminate competitors. Such was the fate of the Lochridges of Scotland.

While Ireland experienced some Witch Trials, it was not nearly as prevalent as was the case across the narrow sea. The Ulster Lochridges easily avoided the same grewsome end, instead taking the opportunity to subjugate the locals through subtle use of magic to ease illness, aid construction of settlements, support harvests, and generally improve the means and quality of life of all those who accepted them. There were those who had their suspicions, but as the use of magic was to the benefit of all, it was rarely questioned openly. In the end, it allowed the Lochridges to rise in power, wealth and local influence. And although they did experience their share of trials and tribulations such as with the impact of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, the War of the Three Kingdoms that concluded in the 1650s, and the Williamite War in the late 17th century, they were consistently forewarned and well-prepared to maneuver these hostile circumstances.

Needless-to-say, the Seer's gift wasn't just respected amongst the Ulster Lochridges, it was revered. Within a single generation, it was quietly considered the key to the lineage's past, current, and future success. Marriages and alliances began to center themselves around this ability, each subsequent generation seeking to maintain such intangible knowledge by discriminately selecting matrimonial pairings with others with proven or latent Seer talent. Such efforts generally turned outfavourably, the recessive trait manifesting in at least one child per generation, the generally accepted idea being that the Seeing individual would take on an advisory role for the family. This sometimes functioned as intended; other times, ambition and personal agendas would drive the Seer to undermine the patriarch's efforts, or seize control of the family for themself.

Over time, two disparate philosophies emerged within the Lochridge line: one that held the Seer ability in high regard; the other, reviling it. Depending on the patriarch of a given era, they would either strive to purify the trait, or prune it, fearing contest. Eventually, over the centuries, it seemed as though the latter perspective had won out, the silent intrafamilial war gradually fading from living memory. Complacency settled into place. But the trait lived on, subservient and silent, masked beneath consecutive pairings with more dominant traits. At least until 2014.

Nobody knew that Amelia Blackwell possessed the dormant gene. There had been no known seer in her branch of the Blackwell family for centuries. Upon marriage into the Lochridge family, the age-old conflict would have an opportunity to rise anew. The first-born son to Cainnach and Amelia Lochridge was a stoic sort, proud and diligent with his studies. He does not possess the gift. Their second, however, the young Owen who is soon to embark upon his journey through Hogwarts was fated to receive the ability, though neither they, nor he, are any the wiser. It would still be some years before his first vision manifests, and several more still before his hair begins to pale to a wizened ivory.

But that isn't to say there aren't signs, subtle thought they may be. Shifting to avoid a jinx from his brother just before it's cast... Opening the front door just as the knocker echoes through the manor... Sneaking back into bed just before his parents check in on him at night... Pulling off feats of dexterity and skill that he has no right being able to do... Owen calls it luck. His brother calls it uncanny. But it's not like he can help it. Every now and then, the second son just gets this feeling—a hunch that something is about to happen, or an urge to take action. And for whatever reason, that intuition has seemed to serve him well more often than not, so he has learned to trust his instinct and act on his impulses.

A perfect recipe for the beginning of this new chapter...

THE TRUNK

i. Intuition ^seer: a spark of intuition, they sometimes stop just before disaster would strike or as some would say "they find themselves in the right place at the right time."