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General Information
Character Name:
Volpes Ursinus Donahue
Type of Character:
Adult
Age:
52
Date of Birth:
15 November 1868
Blood Status:
Pureblood
Residence:
Donahue Castle, near Ayr, Scotland
Family:
Son: Corbin Volpes Donahue (13, Hogwarts student)
Wife: Lady Ariana Donahue (née Rosemont) - disappeared 1912, presumed deceased
Father: Lord Ursinus Donahue (deceased 1904)
Mother: Lady Laurel Donahue (née Verdania) (deceased 1918)
Brother: Lupinus Ursinus Donahue (49, lives in America - curse-breaker specializing in pre-Columbian magical sites)
Sisters: Delphina Laurel Donahue-Ashworth (55, Spell Damage Healer at St. Mungo's, married to muggleborn Theodore Ashworth), Lynxia Laurel Donahue (47, unmarried eccentric artifact collector, lives in London)
Occupation:
Independent Dark Arts Scholar
Personality & History
Personality:
Volpes hates unanswered questions. His wife disappeared eight years ago without explanation, and he's never stopped looking for answers that don't exist. He throws himself into research because books and theories can be understood in ways that people cannot. Problems have solutions if you work at them long enough.
His scholarly work consumes most of his time and energy. Dark Arts fascinate him for their complexity and the intellectual challenge they represent. He views himself as preserving dangerous knowledge that others would destroy out of ignorance or fear. His research is meticulous, though he shares it with fewer people each year.
He maintains the appearances that his status in society requires. The occasional public gathering, formal correspondence, meetings for business—all conducted with proper aristocratic bearing because anything less would invite unwanted scrutiny. But these are performances, not genuine engagement.
Letters serve him better than conversation. Written communication can be controlled, revised, perfected before sending. Face-to-face meetings require too much real-time calculation of what to reveal, what to conceal, how much interest to show. Even necessary conversations feel exhausting.
He cannot afford to lose anything else. Every detail matters now because missing something important once cost him everything that mattered.
History:
The Donahue's have studied Dark Arts for four centuries, a tradition that the newest Lord Donahue has embraced in full.
Volpes grew up surrounded by his father Ursinus's research. While other children learned nursery rhymes, he absorbed dinner conversations about family traditions and the old magics passed down through generations of Donahues. His mother Laurel brought her own scholarly interests to the household. By the time he reached Hogwarts, Volpes had already read texts that most adult wizards would never encounter.
At school, he found his housemates disappointingly shallow. They played political games or showed off with flashy magic while he genuinely wanted to understand how magic worked—all of it, including the branches that made people uncomfortable. He spent most of his time in the library, furthering his knowledge.
After graduation, he traveled between magical libraries across Europe. His library grew, from a few tomes to thousands, and he became known as a scholar of some repute amongst certain circles. His articles disproving contemporaries or expanding on various magical principles were thorough and well researched. He found that the academic life suited him.
Then he met Ariana Rosemont at a conference in 1897. She came from the Rosemont family and was brilliant, sharing his research interests and of an acceptable background. They married the next year. For the first time, Volpes had found someone who could match his intellectual curiosity and shared his ambitions.
When his father died in 1904, Volpes inherited Donahue castle and all the responsiblity that came with it. Well, except for the more annoying ones, like their families long-held Wizengamot seat. He never had been one for politics, if he could find a way to keep out of them.
Corbin arrived in 1906. Volpes threw himself into fatherhood with characteristic intensity, personally overseeing his son's early education at Donahue Castle.
Then in 1912, Ariana disappeared.
One morning she simply wasn't there. No note, no trace, no explanation. Volpes hired investigators, used every magical detection method he knew, called in favors from colleagues across Europe. Nothing. No evidence of what happened, where she went, or whether she was alive or dead.
If she had died, there would have been a chance to grieve, with the comfort of certainty. Instead, Volpes was left with questions that had no answers.
Control became his obsession. If he could manage every variable in his own and in his son Corbin's life, perhaps he could prevent another loss. His research took on new intensity as he threw himself deeper into his studies. His relationship with Corbin shifted from one of loving guidance to rigid control enforced through magic and stricter lessons.
His relationships with his siblings grew strained but persisted through carefully managed correspondence.
His brother Lupinus fled to America after Ariana's disappearance, unable to tolerate Volpes's increasing paranoia, and worked as a curse-breaker among pre-Columbian ruins.
Delphina, working as a Spell Damage Healer at St. Mungo's and with a muggleborn husband, had become increasingly progressive in her views—a source of tension in their increasingly strained and fractured correspondence.
Only Lynxia, eccentric and obsessed with her magical artifact collection in London, corresponded regularly without political friction.
By 1920, he divided his time between research, avoiding responsibility, and obsessive oversight of Corbin's development. Years of isolation had pushed him toward darker contacts. The castle occasionally hosted visitors who arrived after dark and preferred to conduct their business away from prying eyes. During these meetings, Corbin was confined to his quarters, and even the house elves made themselves scarce.
Prompt Response:
Volpes checked his reflection in the hall mirror one final time before departing Donahue Castle. The formal robes stayed in the wardrobe today—muggle Edinburgh required more subtle attire. Dark wool coat, leather gloves, nothing that would mark him as anything other than a well-dressed gentleman conducting business in the city.
He apparated to a narrow close off the Royal Mile, the familiar squeeze and twist depositing him in shadows where no muggle eyes could witness his arrival. A moment to orient himself, then he stepped onto the busy street as if he'd been walking there all along.
The manuscript he sought had been located after months of correspondence—eighteenth-century Highland folklore compiled by a Presbyterian minister attempting to document local superstitions.
MacLeod & Sons Antiquarian Books occupied a narrow building squeezed between a tobacconist and a shop selling Highland woolens. The proprietor, a thin man with ink-stained fingers, barely looked up when Volpes entered.
"Mr. Donahue? Package arrived yesterday. Quite the collection you're building."
Volpes paid in cash, accepting the leather-wrapped bundle. The manuscript was exactly as described in their correspondence—a collection of local stories and creature sightings that the minister had dismissed as peasant nonsense. Whether any of those superstitions contained useful information remained to be seen.
Outside, the rain had intensified. Volpes ducked into a shop doorway and unwrapped the manuscript partially, just enough to confirm the contents. The parchment was ancient, genuinely fragile. Getting it back to the castle intact would require protection.
Pedestrians hurried past with heads down, focused on escaping the weather. Volpes moved his hand in the precise pattern while murmuring under his breath. The manuscript shimmered briefly, then settled under the protective charm.
A middle-aged man in a soaked coat stepped closer, pointing directly at the manuscript. "What did you just do to that book? I swear I saw... something happened when you waved your hand. What was that?"
Volpes straightened, his expression shifting to one of concerned confusion. "I'm sorry, what do you mean?" he asked carefully. "Are you feeling quite well? Perhaps you should sit down—you look rather pale."
Miscellaneous
Other Characters
Elias Everett, Corbin Donahue
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