Dedalus Diggle

Character Name: Dedalus Diggle
Date of Birth: August 12, 1950.
Age: 47.
Occupation: Improper Use of Magic Office
Hair: Graying
Eyes: Green.
Height: 5' 3".
Overall Appearence: Dedalus Diggle is a tiny, personable-looking man who stands no more than 5' 3" tall, he has thick, graying hair which sticks out further than the brim of his purple top hat and a slightly lined, good-natured face which more often than not will be characterized by a wide smile, and his eyes, which is of a grayish green, will often 'twinkle with sheer goodwill'. He will often dress in flamboyant and elegant clothing, identifying his social status as a upper middle class citizen.

Likes: Food, drink, a full pipe, watching Quidditch, his friends and good cheer.
Dislikes: Death Eaters, Gurdyroot Infusion, Rita Skeeter, the music of the Wired Sisters.
Strengths: Good-natured, brave, helpful, gentle, chivalrous, selfless, resourceful.
Weaknesses: Easily excitable, prim and proper to a fault, somewhat bumbling, acting rashly when angered or excited, he tends to dawdle and has therefore had to bewitch his pocket watch to verbally remind him whenever he is late for an appointment or a meeting. His lack in height tend to be problematic in many situations, he is also in constant conflict between his pacifistic nature and suppressed desire to protect the innocent and he will always, without exception, eventually stop with whatever he is doing fetch his purple top hat when it falls off his head, no matter under what circumstances he finds himself in.

Overall Personality: Dedalus Diggle is very much a sociable chap and as known for his friendly and happy-go-lucky demeanor as he is for his trusty top hat. Optimistic and positive to such an extent that it sometimes can be too much of a good thing, he is a natural people-person and has almost made an art out of seemingly always managing to see the silver lining of the dark clouds. His primary interests in life includes food, drink, his friends and good cheer.

Dedalus Diggle is a very prim and easily excitable man who greatly values a series of strict cultural, culinary and hygienic principles and possess a certain aversion towards even the slightest display of lacking in proper manner and and is often less than thrilled to leave his personal comfort zone, although he in no way is a stranger to the rough conditions of travel and open warfare. While he often tries to carry himself with sophistication, he ultimately always fails to seem as dignified as he would like to because of his overly cheerfulness, his short stature and the fact that he is so tardy at times that he have had to enchant his pocket watch to remind him whenever he is late for something. He have strict cultural, culinary and hygienic principles and possess a certain aversion towards even the slightest display of lacking in proper manner. He is easily excitable and reacts strongly when caught by surprise, be it positively or negatively. All in all he is a most likable fellow, if a bit naive.

A self-proclaimed pacifist who prefers to settle arguments with words rather than wands and therefore usually shun magical conflict, Dedalus is nevertheless a very capable wizard who carries a potential to be a frightening adversary if harm is done to those of whom he are fond. He is a firm believer in equality and fairness for all wizards and Muggles and have many times proven himself to be a staunchly loyal supporter of Albus Dumbledore and has shown great bravery, dependability and selflessness and have repeatedly put his own life on the line in the fight against the Dark Forces.

Parents: Father: Antioch Diggle. Mother: Diadema Diggle.
Siblings: Damocles Diggle.
Other Family Members:
Hesphaestus Diggle:

When Minister for Magic Hector Fawley were chased from office in 1939 after he had failed to take Gellert Grindelwald's threat to the world wizarding community sufficiently seriously, his more proactive successor Leonard Spencer-Moon immediately sent a small unit from the British Auror Office to join the international task force to fight back against this new threat, with the famous 'Dare-Diggle' and his wife in the lead. They left Great Britain late in 1939, and Hesphaestus did not return before six years of war and bloodshed had past, after witnessing the legendary duel between Albus Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Welcomed home as a war hero, he buried his wife who had fallen in battle, (a loss which supposedly caused his son Antioch's hatred for violence and Aurors).

In his elderly years, he would often tell tall tales of his adventures as an young and powerful Auror, to the joy of his three grandchildren, until Antioch put a stopper to the 'nonsensical rubbish' and Hephaestus went from seeing the kids quite frequently to sending them letters every now and then and pop in at birthdays and Christmas with presents. He died of a case of dragon pox, a relatively common malady of the elderly, some time before November in 1972, but not before trying to share his well known fondness for eccentric hats with his grandson Dedalus, giving him a purple top hat as a wedding gift, which Dedalus kept using ever since to 'honor' him.


History:

(Know that the following text is bewitched with a fairly specific Memory Charm. The moment any non-member of the Order of moves their eyes away from the letters, they will forget every word they just read.)

Dear Alastor

I am not quite sure whether you remember me or not, but I was the man in the purple top hat who stood on the receiving end of your Toe Biter Hex when you encountered me in Nottingham after the murder on that goblin family last week. Not to worry, luckily the Healers at St. Mungo's got my shoes off after some trying, and those three toes I lost has been flawlessly regrown. No hard feelings, of course, I am certain you did it out of caution.

I have been advised by Dumbledore to send you this letter in order to avoid any further unpleasantnesses regarding my membership in the Order of the Phoenix. I shall therefore give you a short but very much straightforward retelling of my life story so you know a little more about me and hopefully enough to let me step over the threshold of the headquarters without bombarding me with jinxes.

I guess I should start from the very beginning then. I was born on August 12 in 1950 in Tinworth in Cornwall. Surely you have heard about my father Antioch, the renowned magical historian who had become highly regarded after he had been awarded the Order of Merlin, Second Class in 'recognition of his services to the study of Medieval Sorcery', (the man's proudest moment). My mother worked as a celebrated Healer at St. Mungo's Hospital, but naturally, she was not famous like my father was, so I hardly expect you to know of her.

Descendants of an old yet not quite independently wealthy wizarding family that by many has been considered to be very respectable, my younger brother Damocles and I both were raised as 'prim and proper' as possible. We were introduced to a quite luxurious lifestyle early on, but one our parents could hardly afford in the first place. I will not waste my ink on discrediting those who raised me, but I must admit that intensely preoccupied with presenting the appearance of respectability as they were, they were also in certain circles seen as a bit hypocritical, and favored the company of people born with high status and were well-seen dinner guests at the estates of many of the most prominent wizarding families, although Dumbledore suspect that at least some of those old pure-blood families allowed us into their social circles in order to benefit from our connections with many eminent witches and wizards around the world. Personally, I take offense to that claim. No Diggle can have been that gullible. While they never quite shared the belief that Muggle were scum like the wealthier and influential Malfoys, we Diggles was never the cause of any political quarrels. My parents, and perhaps in particular my father, believed in the superiority of wizardkind, and I once even heard them discuss the benefit of a wizarding empire the Dark Wizard Grindelwald planned to establish while within the company of pure-blood supremacists, insisting that Dumbledore was a 'misguided old man' as a way to gain favor with the'better' families. However, they were not very much fond of the approach in which Grindelwald rose to power, and they both condemned anything having to do with violence, and would often make loud statements on the subject if it were ever brought up. Again was my father an extremist in pacifism, who made sure that any sort of family gatherings were fraught with tension after openly insulting the work of his parents had done as Aurors in their time. He also gained some notoriety, as you might recall, by unsuccessfully attempting to have the British Wizard Dueling Association closed down no less than forty eight times before he gave up.

My attendance at Hogwarts began on September 1, 1961. I must admit that I was a rather proper lad, really, and I believe it is for this reason that I were such a model student. I were sorted into Hufflepuff House, and I daresay it suited me perfectly. I had a strict daily schedule which was prepared and given to me by our Potion Master, Professor Horace Slughorn - which I naturally followed to the letter for the most part, both regarding the usual academic pursuits and extra-circular activities such as my weekly participation in the Charms, Gobstone- and Wizard Card Collectors' Clubs. After I had finished such things, I usually spent my spare time in the comfort of our common room with my friends and a glass of juice in hand rather than getting into trouble and exploring the secret rooms of the castle after curfew like the adventures Gryffindor, strive for top marks like Ravenclaws, and firmly kept to my unyielding sense of fair play, unlike the sneakiness of those in Slytherin House. While I knew of several girls who talked behind my back of how unexciting and boring they found me, it is actually the case that I met a charming and clever witch from Ravenclaw by the name of Amanda Denbright, who did not mind my short stature.

Our most notable date were the first one, which took place during my fifth year on Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop in the village of Hogsmeade, which started smoothly with us talking about our favorite reading material and ended with me clumsily stumbling on my way to the chair seat and landed on top of the table and broke it. Amanda, however, did not think any less of me, finding my nervous clumsiness 'adorable'.

We went out on number of dates, which as you surely can imagine, ended with me proposing to her, very correctly on one knee in the sitting room during a dinner at her parents house, which she gladly accepted. During the ceremony, just as I were about to say my wovs, I received a wedding gift from grandfather, who had been admitted to St. Mungo's due to a case of dragon pox. Initially finding it a shade too eccentric for my taste, I nevertheless sent him a thank you card later that evening out of principle, only to receive word that he had passed away half an hour before the card arrived. The hat never left my side since.

I had little interest in partaking in the ongoing conflict at the time, as you might imagine. I had a wife to worry about, so I convinced her to move with me to a small cottage on the outskirts of Dunkirk in Kent to distance ourselves from the open warfare going on around London and other, larger areas and justified my choice by expressing a desire for us to have a normal and settled life until this thing were sorted out by the Ministry. Our marriage was rather rushed, for obvious reasons. We never did sit down and talk about it all, it just happened, so to speak. I am sure you can imagine, why, with all this uncertainty with You-Know-Who, people think they might be dead tomorrow, so they're rushing all sorts of decisions they'd normally take time over. It is the same everywhere, of course. People eloping left, right, and center - Well, we were together about three years. After the two first, Orabella was born. Orabella Dolores Diadema Diggle. And what a beautiful child she was...

Neither my wife, nor myself, ever broke the vow of staying together until death did us apart, of course. But death has a funny way of doing you apart from your family a little earlier than expected, at least in grim times such as these. Unlike me, my dear Amanda was an outspoken opposer of pure-blood ideals, and would make loud comment on them. I tried to hush her down, but she simply would not budge! And I really think that was what caused it, she must really have angered someone. Upset the wrong people. In any case, one night, she simply disappeared. I sent for the Aurors to search for her, but after forty eight hours, they had still no clue as to what may have happened to her. After some time passed, the Ministry finally sent me an owl declaring that she was assumed deceased. I was devastated of course, and poor Orabella, she was not old enough to comprehend the injustice done to us, but I swear, she did notice her mother's absence. Cried for weeks.

This is the point where I will allow you to properly question why on earth I, of all people, would be invited into the Order. The sad truth is that I have a hard time following Dumbledore's train of thought myself, for I am a coward, my good sir, a bloody coward! I began to doubt myself, I began to doubt if I could raise my daughter, let alone keep her safe, when I had shown myself incapable of protecting my wife. So I did what I, at the time at least, thought to be best. I packed some of my most important belongings and sent a letter to my parents and informed them that I were going to leave the country and go into hiding until such time it were safe to return, and naturally, advised them to do the same. The owl from my mother reached me well after we had boarded the train from Platform Seven and a Half in King's Cross Station. It was my mother who wrote it. She wrote that Damocles had been accepted into the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol and that even my father had come to his senses and now wished I would have done the same, and fight back against the unprincipled crooks who called themselves for the Death Eaters. I never replied.

We headed for my cousin Aveline's home in Massachusetts. I happened to know that she recently had been made the first ever female to hold the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Salem-Dirgus Free Militia in service of the Magical Congress of the United States of America, and as such, her home would undoubtedly have been placed under the highest security the wizarding government could provide.

It was after this, however, that everything went wrong. When she heard that I came to her in search for a hiding place rather than a place of temporary residence, she became quite curt. She felt that while it were understandable I wanted to make sure my daughter were safe, I had no right to be anything less than thrilled by the thought of avenging my wife and make sure that the person responsible saw justice, just like Damocles did every day. I half-heartedly agreed with her, but I was scared. Scared of dying, scared of failing, scared the Death Eaters could track down Orabella if I declared myself an enemy of their cause. Therefore, when I got a chance to prove what an able-bodied wand-wielder I am... I did not take it.

I traveled to New York and with an American official of Magical Transportation who had arranged a Port-Key back to England for me. I never took it. Not because I chose not to, but because I bumped into a small Muggle. A little boy who were about five years of age, who had lost his parents some time before I met him. I am an emotional fellow, and naturally, I refused to go anywhere before I had made sure the boy had found his way home safely. It could have been so simple - I could have just helped the little lad and went back. I did not.

This is where I would expected to go back to England at last, but alas, I made a choice far less honorable and moral than I should have. I proved myself incapable of being able to make him stop crying, so I used magic. For the sake of entertainment only, of course. I happened to be familiar with some of the tricks of Muggle Magicians, so I simply imitated them. Naturally, I was foolish enough to do so in a public area, and people gathered around to see me perform. I admit it, I do have a knack for making actual magic appear consistent with the common belief among Muggles that in the profession of Magician. Whenever someone asked me how I pulled off certain tricks, my answer would be the same; 'Nine-tenths of magic happens in the mind. Sometimes, the greatest trick of all is to know what your audience expects to see, and making sure they do.'

Most of my so-called tricks would seem common to most Muggles visiting the circus where I managed to secure employment. I would do such things as levitating heavy objects, use an Undetectable Extension Charm to room various birds and a rabbit on the inside of my hat hat which I would release on stage, and have myself trapped in a tank of water and then Apparate out after using a smoke-screen spell to hide my miraculous escape. This is surely only a few of my techniques, I would also make thing vanish and reappear before their eyes, little things like that. I half expected to hold the job for a long time. I greatly enjoyed the awe in the faces of children as I could take a valued possession from them, make it disappear and then have it end up in the person's pocket shortly afterwards. Alas, I had no such luck. One day, Aveline was one of the people who arrived to my show, and naturally, she recognized me immediately. After the show had run its course, she arrested me and sent me to the Wizarding Congressional Headquarters, a large, magnificent building not far from the official residence and principal workplace of the Muggle President which, as opposed to the British Ministry, had its premises hidden in plain sight by numerous Concealment Charms, so that all that Muggles ever saw of it are a three-story parking garage that is always full.

In any case, after yelling at me for my irresponsibility, scorning me about lying about my intention of fighting in the war and calling me a coward more than twenty three times in twelve minutes, I were deported to England, and already before I arrived, the Improper Use of Magic Office of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement had been notified. Naturally, I was put on trail before the Wizengamot for 'multiple violations of the International Confederation Wizards's Statue of Secrecy' where then Head of Magical Law Enforcement, Bartemius Crouch, drew parallels to Carlotta Pinkstone, a witch who had been deliberately and unlawfully using magic indiscriminately in public places, in full sight of Muggles, which resulted in a series of convictions and imprisonments in Azkaban. When it all seemed lost, however, none other than Dumbledore himself came to my defence. He pointed out that while it could not be denied that I had, in fact, been breaking the law, this was the first case he had ever heard of where a wizard repeatedly had been using magic in plain sight of Muggles without coming remotely close to revealing the actual existence of magic and no harm had actually been done. It all ended with Mr. Crouch agreeing, somewhat half-heartedly I think, that the public would not only share Dumbledore's point of view, but also feel that the Wizengamot would have wasted resources and time on a trifle if it came out that they were convicting a man who had caused no trouble at all when they should be focusing on the pursuit and conviction of Death Eaters. In the end, I were cleared of all charges.

It were first after the trail that Dumbledore took contact with me in person, where he commended my creativity, expressing his belief that I may have opened a new door for any witch or wizard interested in working with Muggle Relations. He also told me certain facts that I had been kept from me pending my trail, such as the untimely demise of my parents half a year earlier. They had apparently strayed beyond the boundaries of their skill after a group of Death Eaters attacked their village and began to torture Muggles and died protecting them. Damocles had later tracked down the culprits, only to discover there were an ambush, and he too fell by the wand of the Dark Lord's supporters, like my wife and parents before him.

This became a turning point, and led to my sworn allegiance. I am sure you are curious as to why I never participated in any meetings this far if Dumbledore has already entrusted me membership. Well, the reason is quite simple, really. I have been of little use this far, because I am not a fighter by nature, and I am no expert in Dark Magic either. However, I have found that idle chatter and rumors more often than not contain not only hints of truth, but also information of vital importance. By simply sitting in various pubs and bars and listen to conversations of random people about trivial matters such as articles of the more recent copies of The Daily Prophet and the content on Flourish and Blotts' best-seller list to hide my intention, I have proved successful in attaining bits of information about everything from the reports of the next weeks' weather and magical discoveries from Transfiguration Today to the secret ongoings in Gringotts Wizarding Bank and some of the shady ongoings in Knockturn Alley.

I will now apologize for lack of modesty, but I have recently discovered a useful talent of mine. Getting information. I am a notorious pacifist in the eyes of the public, and as far as the pure-blood Death Eater fanatics know, I have never opposed them in any way, so all I needed to do were to get in touch with suspected Death Eaters such as Lucius Malfoy and pretend to believe he had nothing to do with the You-Know-Who and his followers and that I visited them in an attempt to expand my social network. This far, I have successfully managed ask just the right questions to discover certain facts about certain matters without anyone even suspecting me of being too curious.

I will end this testimony of my worth with assuring you that I no longer will stand by and allow innocent people get hurt or killed. I joined the Order of the Phoenix to end their reign of terror, and I will do everything within my power to see a brighter future come to pass. I might be a pacifist, but I am certainly not an active one, should any of you require my assistance. You have my word on it.

Sincerely; Dedalus Diggle.

Extras: Well, English is my second language, and I find it easier to speak it than writing it, so I think that's all there is to it, really, I actually went over the application and corrected some of the more embarrassingly obvious ones, and if you see any more, please, do tell me, and I'll do what I can to take care of it. So I tend to mix where to use were and was sometimes. Trifles, really, althoug Ih don't mind a helping hand. :-)

Now, the description is written somewhat similar to the personality section on the HP wikia. Also, I have invented some facts about him to suite my image of him, so if something sounds odd, it is not you who has failed to grasp details from the books, it's just I who has come up with them myself, especially regarding his work for the Order and his family.

Your Name: Ninclow
Other Characters: None.