Espen Kvalheim Durmstrang

Name: Espen Kvalheim
School: Durmstrang
Year: Second Year
Age: 12 years old (January 30, 2008)
Race: Human
Blood Status: Pureblood

Appearance: Espen has dark brown hair that starts to curl as it increases in length. While young, he is a bit taller than other boys his age as a result of his genetics and familial history. With dark brown eyes and tanned skin, Espen looks out of place compared to others from his home country, having inherited these traits from his father. At 12, he would not be considered muscular, but the boy does have an athletic build, having spent his time active in the outdoors and training with various fighting styles.

Personality: Strong of mind but kind at heart, Espen has quickly gained affection of many other children in the community he was raised. While others from different regions of the world may find him to be hard to approach, once they gain his trust, he is a loyal and protective friend. Although he does not believe in personally sabotaging and destroying someone else's life, he will not go out of his way to help someone who has made themselves an enemy. Although dedicated to a task once he has deemed something worthy, school is not something he is particularly fond of, and struggles to stay motivated in his studies. This has caused grief at home from his parents, which has influenced Espen to take on two different personalities in life, one of servitude at home to avoid his parents anger, and a more open personality at school with his friends.

History: Espen is the son of Karalee Kvalheim and Pablo Esperanza. His parents met while his mother was on a trip to Mexico to both teach the methods of her ancestors from Scandinavia, and learn the ways of the native Mexican witch healers. During this time, Karalee met Pablo who was on a business trip and was entranced by her inherent beauty. Long distance, they began a courtship and after a few years of dating were married in Germany, where Karalee was working. Espen was born the 3rd and final child of the couple, his older siblings twin girls who are 4th year students at Durmstrang. He began to show signs of magic much earlier in life than his sisters, which he believed was a result of the anger that he had kept contained from the constant need to prove himself superior to his sisters. One evening after their meal when he was 7 years old, his mother was berating him for not performing well during his lessons with Master Ulrich Weber. Frustrated with what he already knew was poor swordsmanship during training, he was angry with his mother. As she continued to compare his abilities to those of his sisters, who "had more skills at his age than he did," his anger began to overflow. One may have expected him to scream in frustration, but he was eerily calm as he stood up from the table and trust his hand across the table mimicking the movement of throwing something towards his sister. His hand was devoid of any object however. From across the kitchen, a knife flew threw the air, striking one of his sisters in the shoulder on her dominant arm. Shock crossed his face, and he knew he had done wrong. His sister let out a blood-curdling scream. Life at home had never been the same for Espen after his first experience with magic.

Although Espen does not know Tyranni Whitethorn personally, he has heard much of her mother from his own mother who is a member of a rival tribe. Near the final years of school, tensions had finally broken and Avela and Karalee dueled. It was during this duel that they both experienced a joint vision of their future children encountering each other. Growing up Espen had heard many tales from his mother that Tyranni was to bring the end of the world, Ragnarok as their ancestors had spoken of in legend. He has long awaited the day when they would meet, having been informed by his mother (though likely wrongly due to personal animosity towards Avela), where he would be able to defeat her and prevent any doom that the other young girl may cause. As a result, and despite his distaste for school studies, he has found excitement in his opportunity to learn the Dark Arts believing his mother in his fate. As a result, he can often be found in the library late at night reading on as much as he can about all topics he can get ahold of at the time. This alone has prevented him from failing all his classes, as he does not exhibit much effort on studying the actual class texts.

Is your character a Quidditch Player? No

Follow-up June 11, 2020: APPROVED. But just to clarify, Espen cannot inherit any of his mother's seer abilities.

Espen Kvalheim

Stats:
Stamina: 10
Evasion: 10
Strength: 9
Wisdom: 1
Arcane Power: 1
Accuracy: 10

+5 due to graduation from first year; +1 from quidditch win
Total: 41

Abilities:
First Year:
Charmer

Reducio

At home under the critical eye of his mother, Espen would use his charm to gain the favor of his father. Was it his cute looks that pushed his father to side with him? Maybe it was the fact that he was the only other male in the house. Yet despite that there was always something about the boy that his family could not place. When visiting the elders of his mothers community, the matron mother had told his parents that something obscured him, affecting her ability to clearly read his aura. This was the first indication that there was something different about Espen.

Espen had never had a particularly difficult time making friends in his life. There was something about him that many found hard to resist. He never fully understood why this happened to him, as growing up he spent most of his life in the shadow of his older twin sisters. Despite this, he never failed to garner the affection of his fellow classmates, his first time understanding a bit what the old lady had spoken of to his parents.

Upon arriving at Durmstrang Institute, Espen quickly drew many to him. When he spoke, others listened. This charm helped him in school, as Espen frequently procrastinated on his schoolwork until the last minute. Although he was not dim minded, he would have failed all classes had he not been able to convince the other students around him to provide him with their answers for homework. The only classes he was prepared to put hard, dedicated work towards was ones that taught about the Dark Arts.

Despite this, Espen remained sharp witted, never fearing that he would be asked to leave Durmstrang Institute. He was confident that after experiencing how other students came to his aid, fumbled with their words around him, or managed to collide into others when passing him in the hallway, he would be able to convince any professors to let him remain at school.

Despite his charm, Espen only managed to keep a few loyal friends around him. This was not a flaw in his character, indicating an underlying personality flaw such as arrogance, toxicity, or betrayal of acquaintances, but rather was an indication that Espen was one who found little importance in the quantity of friends one had around themselves, and focused more on the quality of friends. Of those who he chose to remain as his close confidants, the charm of the young boy made them fiercely loyal and protective of the boy. Should any confrontation happen with another student, his friends were not far behind to support him. Was this due to his ability to instill devotion amongst those students based on some other factor, or due to his charming nature? While Espen was never quite sure himself after realizing that many people fell for his charm, he did not question the dedication his friends showed towards him.
WC: 487

Second Year:
Fearless

Reducio

Espen had always been a bit of an adrenaline junkie. A constant worry for his parents, he often ran fearlessly into danger. Whether it was the time he jumped into a pool as a small child before he knew how to swim, managed to climb onto the roof with his mothers broom, hoping to fly (only to be caught at the last minute by his mother when she grabbed his shirt at the nape of his neck), or the time he was "lost" in the woods for two days. In fact, it was the time in the woods that he realized just how fearless he could be.

At the age of 9, the boy had grown bored and weary of being at home. He packed up a bag with some snacks, a bottle of water, a small lighter, his trusted sling and a handful of round stone rocks to serve as "ammo" and set off into the woods. He was familiar with the woods. Many times had he wandered through them with his father, but never had he gone alone. His mother would have never allowed it. The woods were alive with sound. Small critters scampered across the forest floor and through the trees, birds chirped, and there was a light breeze. The light that had once shone through the treetops was beginning to dim, and he decided it was time to turn back for home.

Lost in his thoughts, the boy did not realize at first that the woods had gone silent. He paused listening, only to hear...nothing. Not a sound could be heard. No crickets chirping, no birds singing, no more critters running through the trees and on the floor. Even the wind appeared to fear blowing. Eerie and haunted, a shiver went down his body. He proceeded cautiously, wary. A sound to his left startled him, and he looked over to see an oval shaped, green, spiked object. About to approach the object, a sudden shriek sounded behind him. Turning around he witnessed a beast unfurl its wings. Swooping Evil. He had heard of them before, but didn't know they lived so close to where he resided. Within a split second, the boy knew what he had to do. Weaving through narrow trees, hoping to throw off the creature, only to realize that a second one had joined him. Of course, they reside in a cocoon when not flying, he thought to himself. Scolding his idiocy, he quickly turned to the left where he knew a small stream with caves just large enough to fit a young boy were located. Step, step, step, JUMP! He leaped at the edge of the stream after emerging from the trees, just barely missing the other shore, stumbling into the river, his shirt torn on a rock. Scrambling his way back to his feet, he crawled into one of the caves right as the two Swooping Evils emerged from the forest.

Adrenaline rushed through him, yet his mind was clear. No fear prevented him from thinking straight. He gathered his sling and rocks from his pack, aiming true. The first stone struck the closest beast in the face. It roared with fury. He continued to sling rocks at the beasts, striking their wings, which he hoped were the most vulnerable areas. "You are going to have to try harder than that if you want my brain for supper!" Eventually the creatures, bruised but not severely injured, left the area.

The boy waited for another 30 minutes until he was sure the area was clear. Emerging from the cave, it was now well past sunset and darkness had set in. He managed to find a branch in the moonlight that he wrapped a piece of his torn shirt around and light on fire as a makeshift torch. Gathering a few stones, he headed back towards home. It was not long before he could feel that "aura" again. Cautiously, he took small steps, aware of how much sound he was making. Peaking from behind a tree, he could see them. Both resting in their green cocoon shape. As silently as possible, he took out two stones, wrapped them in some of his torn shirt, and lit them on fire. In rapid succession, he cast the stones towards the two beasts, setting the grass on fire. As the flames quickly surrounded the monsters, their opened their wings, rage-filled screams filling the air. Flames caught onto the delicate features of the exposed animals. He stepped out from behind the tree, whistling so they might spot him, and without glancing back he walked away.

Espen emerged from the woods around mid-day the next day. His parents frantic, they embraced him filled with relief, and then quickly scolded him. He was grounded for two months, but that mattered little to the boy. He realized that he faced down two beasts only told to him to be a creature of nightmares and survived. He would no longer fear anything.

Desired quidditch position: Chaser