Michael Hopkins

OOC

Game	Journal	Portrayed By
Hogwars	loyal_guardian	Thomas LaLonde

Basic Stats

Full Name: Michael Wayne Hopkins
Nickname(s): None
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Date of Birth: November 30, 2008
Zodiac: Sagittarius
Sexuality: Straight
Relationship Status: Dating Isobel Finnigan
Bloodline: Halfblood
House & Year: Hufflepuff 7th
Extracurriculars: Quidditch keeper; quidditch captain
Pet: None

Family

Father: Wayne Hopkins (wizard; Hufflepuff 1998; retired chaser: Montrose Magpies)
Mother: Gladys Hopkins (née Prescott; witch; Ilvermorny 1998; reporter: Daily Prophet [sports])
Sister: Darcy Hopkins (witch; Hufflepuff 6th)

History

• Wayne Hopkins had one love while at Hogwarts: quidditch. If Wayne could have married quidditch, he would have. He had one goal while at Hogwarts: survive the war and go on to play quidditch professionally. He survived the war easily enough: he just kept his head down and stayed out of the line of fire while at Hogwarts. Cowardly? Maybe. But he had no desire to put his life on the line and die for his troubles.
• After Hogwarts, he won a position as chaser for the Magpies, which he held for about four and a half years (August 2000 - Feb 2005), until an accident during the Magpies / Falcons took him out of the game: both bludgers hit him at the same time, one shattering his lower left leg, the other slamming into the right side of his face, breaking his cheekbone and browbone and causing severe damage to his right eye.
• Gladys Prescott had a considerably less angsty background: having grown up in America, she was spared the war (which was good, since she was a muggleborn). After graduating in 1998, she decided to go to England and help with the rebuilding efforts. After a few years of helping out in the rebuilding in England, she decided that she loved it too much to go back to America (part of that was because of post-9/11 America being slightly less okay with witches and wizards). She applied for and got British citizenship, got a job at the Daily Prophet, and enjoyed being an adoptive Brit.
• In February of 2006, Gladys (temporarily filling in at the sports desk) was sent to interview Wayne for a "what's he doing now?" piece, a year after his career-ending accident. After the interview, they continued talking, and one thing led to another. Gladys spent the night in Wayne's bed, and a whirlwind romance led to a quick marriage that April.
• Their marriage was not a happy one. Gladys had been put permanently on the sports desk, and Wayne was constantly full of jealousy as she went out and interviewed the "successes who didn't have a bum leg and could see out of both eyes." More than once, he accused her of cheating on him with other players. By the end of 2006, he had already begun beating her. The bruises were easily covered up by clothes or beauty charms. Broken bones were quietly healed, Gladys was written off as a klutz.
• Their first child would have been born in October of 2007. It was late March, and Gladys had only just found out that she was pregnant. She came home from work, and Wayne had been drinking. They got into a fight, as usual, and Gladys ended up falling down the stairs. She lost the child, but Wayne seemed honestly shaken up by it all. He swore that he would never lay a hand on Gladys again.
• When Gladys got pregnant again, Wayne coddled her and treated her like a precious glass vase. Son Michael Wayne Hopkins was born on November 30, 2008. Daughter Darcy followed shortly.
• It was Gladys' first interview after coming off maternity leave, after Darcy was born. The interview was with one of the men who had been a Falcons beater in the 2004-05 season, one of the ones responsible for Wayne's injuries. Wayne was angry when he found out about the interview, and angrier still when the article came out and the beater was hailed as one of the best players in recent quidditch history. The "changed man" in Wayne disappeared, and Wayne began drinking heavily.
• Michael originally had no real interest in quidditch. However, Wayne was insistent that his son learn. Michael could fly before he could walk. While Gladys was at work, Wayne stayed home with Michael and Darcy, and as soon as Michael was old enough, they would spend the whole time throwing a quaffle back and forth, or Wayne would try to get a quaffle past Michael, or vice versa. Wayne made it no secret that he expected his son to succeed as a quidditch player.
• The first time that Wayne hit Michael, he was six years old and had just lost a Pee Wee Quidditch League match. Of course, Wayne waited until they were home. It wasn't long before Michael was seen as someone who was as much of a klutz on two feet as his mother was: always walking into doors and tripping and hurting himself. At least he could keep his seat on a broom better than nearly anyone else, right?
• Michael took the beatings, because as long as his father was beating him, he couldn't be beating his mother or his little sister. But at the same time, he lost all respect for his mother, who should be protecting her children.
• In the summer of 2020, as other eleven-year-olds were excitedly preparing to start Hogwarts, Michael was simultaneously looking forward to it and dreading it. He was looking forward to being away from his father, but he dreaded leaving Darcy alone at home with their parents. Unfortunately, he had to board the train and Darcy couldn't come with him. His entire first year, he sent frequent letters home to Darcy, but none to his parents. When Christmas holidays rolled around, the only reason that he went home was to make sure that his sister was okay.
• When Darcy joined Michael at Hogwarts in 2021, he was relieved that she was sorted into Hufflepuff with him (despite the fact that he disliked being in the same house their father had been in). He was still concerned about her, worried that she might have met with the wrong side of their father's anger and fist and was keeping it from him. Both Michael and Darcy stayed at school for all school holidays, grudgingly returning home only for the summer, but even then they made as many summer plans away from home as possible.
• In his second year, also, Michael made the Quidditch team as Keeper. Despite originally not having much interest in quidditch, and despite the fact that joining the Hufflepuff team put him too uncomfortably close to being like his father, he had developed a love-hate relationship with the sport, and he was actually really good at it.
• Nobody at school knew about Michael's home life. If anybody asked, he was vague (or outright made up stories to mask the truth). He was ashamed of himself, for not being big enough to stop his father from beating on him. And he didn't want people to see him as The Kid Whose Father Beats Him. So he kept quiet about the whole thing, and schooled Darcy in keeping quiet, as well.
• Academically, Michael strove to do well, simply so that he would have options available to him after school. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do, he just knew that professional quidditch was completely out: he would play it in school, but he would not follow his father's life path. Herbology has always been his favourite class, while he has never quite been a fan of either Defense Against the Dark Arts or History of Magic.
• Throughout the years, Michael has had a few girlfriends, but he has been dumped by all of them. It generally didn't take too long for them to realise that he was holding something back, keeping secrets, and despite the fact that he treated them like a perfect gentleman, never so much as raising his voice or a finger toward them, the weight of his secrets just wore on them. He harbours no ill feelings towards any of his exes.
• In his sixth year, Michael was named Hufflepuff quidditch captain, which really only made things more unbearable for the few weeks at home between when the letter arrived and when he returned to school. The only conversations that Wayne and Michael had during those weeks were when Wayne was telling Michael what plays to try and what not to try, and informing him in no uncertain terms that he was expected to succeed and the Hufflepuff team had better win, or else.
• Unfortunately, Hufflepuff lost the Cup that year to Ravenclaw. Upon arriving home from school that summer, his father beat him and yelled that he was a disgrace to the Hopkins name, that a blind and deaf old cripple would be a better captain than Michael is. The only thing keeping him home that summer at all was Darcy: there was no way he was leaving her alone with their parents.
• Now in his seventh year, Michael is counting down the days until he's done. Still captain, he wants to lead his team to victory, but more for his teammates than himself. As of next summer, he is done with his father: he is moving out of the house and taking Darcy with him.

Personality

First and foremost, Michael is determined to not be his father's son. He treats all women with the utmost respect and would never dream of so much as raising a finger to a woman. He also absolutely refuses to drink, not even butterbeer because the name is too similar. The beatings are always worse when his father drinks, after all, so Michael has nothing but bad memories of anything related to alcohol. He has no particular problem with other people drinking, but Michael himself has vowed to never touch a drop of the stuff.

He also will not get into fistfights, no matter what. If another student gets it into his mind to hit Michael, he won't fight back. He will, however, break up any fights he sees and report them to a professor or the Headmistress. If there is one thing that he cannot stand, it is people who stand by and allow other people to get beat on without doing anything to help. He also hates people who choose to use their fists to solve problems and settle disputes.

Overall, Michael comes across as a mature, cordial young man. He is generally soft-spoken, not raising his voice except when on the pitch doing captainly things. But even then, that's just projecting, not yelling or shouting. He is a positive captain, preferring to look at his teammates' strong points and simply providing pointers on areas to improve, instead of harping on "what they're doing wrong."

To his friends, housemates, and teammates, Michael is unwaveringly loyal. He is there for his friends, through thick and thin. His friends are of the utmost importance to him (but, of course, that doesn't mean he'll stand idly by if his friends decide it might be fun to hit other people; that is, actually, the quickest way to lose him as a friend). When it comes to solving problems with violence, Michael has a painfully photographic memory: even if it's "an occasional thing" or "it happened a long time ago," he won't forget, and even if he'll remain your friend afterwards, it's a strained friendship at best. And yet he will provide no deeper explanation for why he's so turned off to the solving-problems-with-fists thing, beyond that it's barbaric. To this day, nobody knows that his father beats him, and he has every intention of keeping it that way.

Michael is most at-home outside. He's often found studying outside except in the worst weather, in which case he tends to relocate to an unused greenhouse to do his studying, or perhaps a windowsill that overlooks the grounds. Even in cold weather, he'll be found outside, only bundled up. Really, he's only guaranteed to be inside if he's in class, or if it's raining or snowing outside (or if it's really windy, simply because it's hard to study if your notes are flying off every which way and your book's pages are turning on their own).