Gawain Robards

OOC

Game	Journal	Portrayed By
Blurred Lines	vs_the_knights	Dustin Hoffman

Basic Stats

Full Name: Gawain Cadwalader Robards
Nickname(s): None
Gender: Male
Age: 32
Date of Birth: October 8, 1946
Zodiac: Libra
Sexuality: Straight
Relationship Status: Single
Bloodline: Muggleborn
Hometown: Crickhowell, Powys, Wales
House & Year: Gryffindor 1965
Occupation: Deputy Head Auror
Pet: None

Family

Father: Madoc Robards (muggle; farmer; b. 1915)
Mother: Enid Robards (née Argall; muggle; b. 1917)
Brother: Gareth Robards (muggle; b. 1943)
Sister: Glenys Robards (muggle; b. 1950)

History

Born October 8, 1946, Gawain was the second child (of three) born to Madoc and Enid Robards. Elder brother Gareth was born three years before Gawain in 1943, and younger sister Glenys joined the family four years later in 1950. The Robards family lived in the Crickhowell area of Powys, Wales, where the family owns a farm. The early years in Gawain's life were fairly calm and hardly noteworthy: Enid taught the children at home, and everyone was expected to help with the chores (feeding the animals, milking the cows, etc) as soon as they were old enough. In their free time, Gawain and Gareth would often take up sticks and pretend to swordfight through the fields (when Gawain was five, their mother made the mistake of telling the boys that they had been named after two of King Arthur's knights). It was always assumed that Gareth, as the eldest, would inherit the farm, while Gawain and Glenys would either stay on and help Gareth (and his eventual family) run it, or go off and find jobs of their own in the community. Though Madoc hoped that all three of his children would pitch in with running the family farm.

The quiet, idyllic life of the Robards family was interrupted in the summer of 1958. An owl swooped up to the house in the middle of the day (while owls were hardly uncommon around the farm, an owl in the middle of the day was certainly noteworthy) and delivered a letter, addressed to Gawain. The letter itself held even more questions than answers, as it was an inviation to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. After some discussion between Madoc and Enid (and a visit from a Professor from the school, who explained things to the family), they came to the decision that it was probably for the best that Gawain attend Hogwarts. Once at Hogwarts, he was sorted into Gryffindor (though the Sorting Hat — and how fascinating, a hat that talked and told you where you belonged — considered both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw for him) and he settled into the house happily.

During his first year, one of his roommates introduced him to Wizard's Chess. Gawain had never even played regular muggle chess before, and his roommate felt certain that he would win the match easily. Either beginner's luck or pure talent shone through, however, and Gawain won his first ever match of Wizard's Chess, even though he had no idea what he was doing. Over the next few years, he actually learned about the game and did well, even eventually joining the team in his fifth year.

Right from the start, Gawain was fascinated with Defense Against the Dark Arts, which he showed a natural aptitude for, as well. In his second year, he joined the club and often tried to pick at the older years' brains to learn some of what they already knew that his own class hadn't been taught yet. Some of the older years seemed a bit irritated by this, but most indulged his curiosity, within reasonable limits. Gawain also joined the Dueling Club in his third year. With all of these extra-curricular activities, one might wonder where he actually fit in the time to study, but he had the studying skills of a stereotypical Ravenclaw, and when you combined that with his rising with the sun (a habit from growing up on a farm that he's never managed to quite kick) and the fact that he didn't mind staying up in the common room to finish his assignments long after most of his housemates had gone to bed, he managed remarkably high marks.

It was in his fourth year that Gawain came upon his future career path: on a Hogsmeade weekend, he and his friends were in the Three Broomsticks when a few Aurors who were off-duty happened into the pub. Gawain overheard them talking (he was not eavesdropping, merely not not listening to them) and knew immediately that this was what he wanted to do. Upon returning to the castle, he immediately went to bother talk to Professor McGonagall and ask her about becoming an Auror. She told him that he did seem to have the aptitude for the Auror program and told him about the requirements for getting into it. Although he had always struggled with Potions, he attacked it with a new vigor, once he realized he would need to do well on the O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. for that class in order to enter the program.

In his fifth year, when he sat for the O.W.L.s, he passed all of them with flying colours, earning Os and Es in every class except Astronomy and Herbology, in which he earned As. As for his final two years at Hogwarts, he opted to remain only in Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Transfiguration (the four required N.E.W.T.s for the Auror program), Care of Magical Creatures, and History of Magic (a class he'd always liked). In his seventh year, he applied to the Auror program and gained admittance, on the condition that he did well on his N.E.W.T.s, which he certainly did, earning Os in all six through hard work and sheer determination.

Thus, much to his father's disappointment, in the summer of 1965, he started the Auror training program at the Ministry of Magic. After three years of training, he became an Auror, and was partnered with one Rufus Scrimgeour. The two became friends (because, really, in a line of work such as theirs, in which you and your partner are constantly watching each other's backs, it's near impossible to not befriend your partner, as you come to trust him with your own life, as he trusts you with his.

After having risen in the Auror ranks to Deputy Head of the department, Gawain is now Rufus' right hand man … and he gets to do all the work that Rufus doesn't want to deal with. And what he doesn't want, he tries to pawn off on Amelia. Fortunately, even with the work that Rufus gives him to do around the office, Gawain still has time and opportunities to go out and do some Auror-ing on the streets. Behind a desk is tantamount to torture to him, and he's prone to getting a bit whingy whenever Rufus gives him something to do that shackles him to the desk. He doesn't particularly ever want Rufus' job, even though he's the most logical next-in-line to the job.