artemio avarici || first year || slytherin

Full Name: Artemio Avarici
[ ar-TEH-myoh a-vah-REE-chee ]
– goes by Artem.
Pronouns: He/Him
Age: 11
School Year: First Year
House: Slytherin
Wand: 29,3 cm cherry wood and dragon heartstring
Patronus: Nil
Species: Dhampir (pending approval..)

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Visual: Artem is described as a lanky boy, standing around 4’5 ft. He has shaggy russet coloured hair framing his sunkissed features. Despite his tanned complexion, his skin is noticeably cold and dull like a ceramic doll. He is known for his delicate cherubic face: long, black eyelashes fluttering above curious red hues and soft lips. His lips are always curled into a wide toothed grin, a quarter grin, if you may–with his missing canines, hiding a retractable pair of baby fangs.


· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
HISTORY
PART I: Civil Twilight
Artemio Avarici (Formerly known as Artemio Lavigne) is a young wizard, born to a wizard father, Alphonse Lavigne (né Avarici) and a muggle mother, Artemisia Lavigne. The couple moved from bustling Naples, Italy, to the peaceful town of Dover, England–to live out their dream: Artemisia’s wine-making business, Alphonse’s art and raising their child.
Unfortunately, their dream was shattered when Alphonse died in their underground cellars, bleeding out from his injuries from a duel with an unhappy investor. Artem was barely 12 months old when his father parted. Heartbroken, hyper-independant, and caffeinated, Artemesia raised Artem on her own while handling her vineyard. Due to Artemisia’s influence, the wizarding world played little part in Artem’s life. His mother knew little of the world, and her husband’s grisly fate made her hesitant in indulging information to her precious son. Eventually, Artemisia reached out to her late husband’s old friend, Meissa, a vampire for help, when their weary elderly relative couldn’t keep up with the five-year-old Artem. Energetic and far too exasperating even to his fellow peers at daycare.


PART II: Nautical Twilight
Meissa continued to work with the Lavignes for several years. Throughout the span, she developed feelings for the lady of the estate. Underneath the moonlight and grapevine, she confessed, yet Artemisia rejected her feelings out of loyalty to her late husband. Her heart is always with him–as Artem. Unsatisfied with the outcome, Meissa attempted to turn eight-year-old Artem into a vampire while his mother was away on a business trip. To bind her to Meissa, once Artem became her spawn (son), she would have no choice. However, Artem’s first instance of magic had manifested during the ritual, sabotaging the transformation. Not quite a vampire, not quite human either.

He became a dhampir.



PART III: Astronomical Twilight
Artemisia returned home to the horrific scene and suffered a severe mental breakdown and was institutionalised in a Muggle psychiatric hospital shortly after. Meissa had covered up the truth; a failing vineyard, a troublesome child and years of suppressed stress and mourning had left poor Artemesia bed-bound. Since that unfortunate night, the vineyard has been in Artem’s name; however, due to his young age, Meissa became his legal guardian and took over the operation.

Meissa had restructured the vineyard into an underground operation to benefit her fellow vampires, distributing blood as wine to unregistered vampires under the ministry’s nose. Sourcing her precious bottled blood is a difficult task. As an ethical woman, they obtained it through purchasing it off desperate muggles and squibs. However, Meissa’s main source comes from harvesting blood from muggles, conducted in the underground cellars. Most of her innocent donors are left alive after the sessions. They usually wake up with fuzzy memories the night before, though most blame it on the strong alcohol that they consumed prior. The donors are left none the wiser, much like Artem who is unaware of such activities being conducted in his home. Due to the rule that vampires cannot legally own or operate a wizarding estate, Artem’s surname was changed to his father’s, Avarici, presenting him as a proper half-blood to ward off suspicion.



The night of his turning became a blurred memory for Artem. All he knew was that his mother was shipped off to the sick place, and Meissa was his new mum..No. His ‘Maker’ is what she often referred to herself as. Under her care he became more aware of the wizarding world, learning the truth of his late father and the world he had denied being a part of. Meissa taught him the basics of the secret world. After his mother’s departure, Meissa practically raised Artem as one of her own. She grew fond of him despite the unlucky circumstance of years ago, often guilty of sometimes spoiling the boy. Yet, she is unafraid to reclaim such lavish items when he incites the slightest annoyance from her.

From that incident, Artem had been confined to the Lavigne Estate most of the day. If he wasn’t at his primary school, he was stuck inside the estate. The sunlight had irritated his skin! Ouch! Forcing him to turn into a nocturnal creature of the night. By his lonesome, he practiced archery by himself by the vineyard, digging gold, passing the time or annoying the vampires that often occasionally visited their estate for some unknown business that he was NOT privy to–before Meissa eventually shoo’ed him away.

His boredom was never ending. Even for a little kid, his thirst for adventure was ravenous. It was almost on par with his greed. Fret not, When he turned 11, his cure to boredom arrived in the form of an owl delivering a letter. Hogwarts? Meissa, reluctant to let him attend, eventually changed her decision after weeks of non-stop pestering and promises from the boy himself.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

FIOM:
Artem demonstrated his first instance of magic at the age of eight, as a response to the danger of the vampire turning ritual. It manifested as a temporary blinding light that emanated from his skin, stunning the vampire and flinging her across the room. Severing the connection that allowed him to escape the vampiric curse.