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[Professor Reid]

PROFESSOR REID, HERBOLOGY

basics

Full Character Name: Nathaniel Augustus Reid
Prefers to be addressed by: Professor Reid, Mister Reid, or simply “sir” among his students; his colleagues and friends are welcome to address him as Nathaniel, but not Nathan, never Nathan; he prefers people to address him by his proper name only, and though he is not the angry type, calling him Nathan would annoy him a bit. Only his mother ever makes use of his middle name, and he quite likes it that way.
Birth date: 9 March 1763
Age: 30
Residence: During the summer holidays, Nathaniel resides in a modest apartment above his mother’s place of business in London.
Blood: half-blood
Social Class/Status: Nathaniel comes from an average family of comfortable wealth, though his reputation as a Muggle was somewhat tarnished by his father, who deserted his mother upon discovering her magical heritage. Nathaniel’s mother has since been reputed as abnormal among Muggle correspondents; if there’s one thing they can’t stand, it’s an independent woman.

personality

Emotional Disposition: Because he was raised to always possess a vigilant, calculating disposition, Nathaniel feels awkward and unsure of how to reveal his emotions to anyone. He is very easy to read, however, and overall he is friendly enough. He isn’t shy, but he isn’t quite the rowdy, outgoing type, either. He is very clever and he knows it, but he isn't haughty, though he can be rather smug; but Nathaniel doesn't believe a sour disposition will get him anywhere in life. He much prefers to use his cunning to acquire the knowledge he needs without putting him in ill favor of anyone, so if he possesses some negative feelings about someone, he will most likely hide them, unless he feels it would be in some way beneficial to reveal them. Nathaniel is a very determined man; above all else he desires knowledge, and he will often go to great lengths to get it, sometimes disregarding the welfare of others or even moral or ethical standards. He feels that the acquisition of knowledge is overall for the greater good, and if that means hurting some people along the way, so be it.  
Core Value: Above all else, Nathaniel values the use of the human mind, which he believes to be the most precious of all man’s tools, Muggle and magical alike.  
Favorite Activities: Nathaniel very much enjoys teaching, though he never imagined he would (the thought of regular contact with so many people was a daunting obstacle at first). Between classes, however, he enjoys reading and researching—any subject will do, though he does have a particular interest in the human brain and the practices of Muggle psychology, a field he feels is greatly underappreciated in the wizarding community.
Would do anything to get out of: highly emotional situations. Nathaniel has never been an emotional person—a characteristic he inherited from his mother, no doubt—and therefore feels immensely uncomfortable around people who are overly excited or upset. He just doesn’t know how to deal with them; him and his mother (who views the outward portrayal of emotions as a sign of great weakness) never confide deep-rooted feelings to one another, except in extreme situations.
Positive Characteristics: Nathaniel enjoys the idea that he has influence over the students he teaches. Because he is apt to tackle anything with a calculating, scientific method (his mother never offered him an explanation for anything; instead she instilled in him the value of learning everything for yourself, so as not to be influenced by others’ opinions), he is able to view any situation without bias, which grants him an advantage that might otherwise be lost to him. He is very clever, and he knows it—his mother’s favorite aspect of him is his intelligence, though she often reprimands him for not “using his mental resources to his advantage”—but he is very modest and tends to sell himself short when dishing out credit for completed tasks.
Negative Characteristics: Because Nathaniel is so detached emotionally, he can be unintentionally insensitive. He tries very hard to relate to his students, because he wants them to want to learn, but more often than not he is unable to do so; he remembers being a Hogwarts student himself, and tries to connect to students through that similarity, but he isn’t quite charismatic or “cool” enough to really execute it. The same problem tends to crop up among his friends and colleagues; though he is pleasant to be around, Nathaniel sometimes has difficulty making friends because many people view him as a little odd. He is what most would consider a typical brainy type—highly intelligent, but somewhat socially awkward.
Interaction: Nathaniel is polite and cordial when interacting with others, but he has a tendency to make people feel uncomfortable or awkward, due to his lack of social finesse. He is very detached sort of person, and tends to prattle about various things he has learned through his research as an amateur psychologist or the proper way to tame a Fanged Geranium when he feels put on the spot or uncomfortable or when the situation is tense. Often he does this even when he knows he can prevent it, for he feels that sometimes it is better for people to underestimate his intelligence. He is confident enough that he doesn't care about the opinions of others.
Habits: Nathaniel doesn’t have any particular behavioral quirks that would qualify as habits. He does, however, tend to rattle off information (such as odd, little-known facts) related to the subjects of discussion when he can’t think of anything to say, something that can leave people feeling a bit ostracized.
Conflict and Hardship: Nathaniel has struggled all his life against the reputation he and his mother have earned. It was hardly their fault that his father left the way he did, but his mother has always been too prideful to remarry, which makes her and Nathaniel the subject of many mutterings and rumors around the Muggle community they live in. Nathaniel also struggled as a teenager and young adult in finding his own identity—because he never knew his father, he often felt betrayed and worthless, left wondering what sort of father would leave his son, and afraid he would turn out to be just as rotten (and wondering sadly whether or not he will ever even have children). He has come to terms with this as he has grown older, but he still sometimes struggles with these feelings.
Motivation, Passion and Drive:  Nathaniel is driven, ultimately, by a thirst for knowledge.
Motto or Catchphrase: During his reading, Nathaniel came across a quote he rather liked, said by French novelist and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Knowledge is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” Nathaniel believes that, to be truly intelligent, one must soak up all the knowledge possible, and then put it into practice at every available opportunity.
Anything else...:  Nathaniel privately worries that he will never be married or have children because of his social awkwardness. He has never been particularly skilled at speaking to women—though he is not shy, he gets terribly nervous and can never really find the right things to say. He has never had an outright desire to marry or have children, but he feels it is a worthwhile experience, if he manages to pull it off, though he never makes an outright effort to do so.

appearance

First Impression: At first glance, Nathaniel seems weak and fragile, because of his modest nature and thin, reedy body type. He certainly wouldn’t be considered a threat in any sense of the term.
On second thought..: Although it is true that Nathaniel would be absolutely no threat whatsoever in a physical brawl, and he isn’t terribly agile in a duel, he is not mentally weak and can hold his head on straight in a crisis, which more often than not proves more of an advantage than brute strength.
Facial Features:  Nathaniel has smooth skin, a very prominent jaw line, and a thin, almost gaunt face with big eyes and straight, dark brown hair that falls just below his ears (and is usually tucked behind them).
Body Type: Nathaniel has always been tall and lanky. He rarely engages in physical activity, so what little muscles he has are small and wiry.
Distinguishing Features: Most noticeable of Nathaniel’s features are his eyes: they’re a dark brown, quite ordinary, but they are somewhat larger than average, and the bags beneath them (side effects of his frequent late-night reading) are very noticeable against his pale complexion.  
Overall Appearance:  Nathaniel’s pale skin is highlighted by the dark robes he wears—nearly always black, but he is fond of dark blues and greens as well—but he always looks respectable.

professional skills

Work Ethic:  Nathaniel is a diligent worker. He has never failed to attend a meeting, plan a lesson, or provide any other service required of him.
Work perception: Nathaniel very much enjoys his job. He was glad to take up the post, any teaching post, because he feels there are things he could learn through teaching (things about himself as well as those around him) that he otherwise never would have known. And, of course, there is the satisfaction that comes with knowing that he has personally assisted in the education of young minds, and thus, personally shaped and affected their future.
Professional Relationships:  Nathaniel isn’t particularly close to any of his colleagues—he prefers to let them approach him for friendship, rather than the other way around, and he certainly doesn’t approve of romantic relationships between professors—but he is always friendly to them. He is wary of the headmistress (she is, admittedly, somewhat scary, and he tries not to rant too much about nonsense in her presence) but he does believe she is running Hogwarts with the right idea.
Capabilities:  Although Nathaniel isn’t an outspoken sort of person, he is very firm in his beliefs and is not easily swayed by the persuasions of others. One would not consider him a follower or a leader, but rather a neutral party who leads only when he deems it necessary—that is, when he believes he can contribute positively to a situation by coordinating it.
Resume: After achieving twelve O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s in his years Hogwarts (he studied all subjects because he wasn’t exactly sure where he wanted to go once he left school, and didn’t want to fall short of any future job requirements), Nathaniel Reid acquired a job at a low department within the Ministry of Magic, where he at first was assigned clerical paperwork. He worked his way up and after five years achieved a position working as a field manager for the Department for the Research and Regulation of Dangerous Magical Organisms (a small subdivision of the Beast, Being, and Spirit division within the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures). He rather enjoyed his work, but after a few years it became somewhat monotonous, at which time he applied for a teaching position at Hogwarts.

wizard information

Discovery: Nathaniel grew up with magic. His mother is a Muggle-born witch who completely shunned her life as a Muggle upon discovering magic and was thoroughly delighted by Nathaniel’s expression of magic at the mere age of three, when he somehow enchanted a book to read itself aloud to him after crying that he didn’t understand the story because there were no pictures.
Reaction and Acceptance: Nathaniel knew he was special from the moment he was capable of cognitive thinking. He was puzzled, as a young child, and tried to explain away the way his mother performed magic around the house as one might try and decipher a performing illusionist’s tricks. But he soon accepted magic for what it was: unquantifiable.
Wand: Rosewood, 12 inches, dragon heartstring core.
Magical Outline/Disposition: Nathaniel loves magic—it defies logic, a realization that always manages to enthrall him. He doesn’t like using it for simple tasks (he feels there is a line between simple convenience and outright laziness that should not be crossed) but he believes it to be the most miraculous thing on the planet and finds the theory of magic endlessly entertaining; because magic is so much like a living being of its own, it is unpredictable and therefore a delight to study. All his life Nathaniel has been fascinated particularly by branches of Dark Magic and wandlore, for their obscurity and intensive theories; he is fascinated by that which is complex and stimulating to his brain, and therefore loves reading up on types of wands or particularly gruesome magic—purely for academic purposes, of course. If he practices Dark Magic it is only because he wishes to learn something from it.
Pet: He owns a characteristically proud eagle owl named Leviticus, who he is quite fond of, despite the animal’s sarcastic and sometimes condescending demeanor.

family history

Parentage: Nathaniel knows very little about his father, Augustus Reid—his mother, Patricia Reid, is uncomfortable speaking about him and Nathaniel (who loves his mother very much, despite her harsh way of raising him, for he knows it has always been out of love) never wants to ask about him, lest he upset her. Patricia gave her son his father’s middle name so he would never forget where he came from, and so he would always be motivated to surpass all expectations and prove himself as being better than his father was ever capable of being. She raised him with a strictness borne of her fears—she was always afraid that Nathaniel would be less than extraordinary, due to his lack of a father figure, and thus was always very strict with him. It was always out of affection, however, and Patricia made certain Nathaniel knew that; she never bothered with honeyed words or false pretenses, no, she believed in always telling Nathaniel the cold truth about everything, so as to prepare him for reality.
Siblings: Due to his mother’s prideful refusal to remarry and his father’s early abandonment, Nathaniel is an only child.
Other Important Figures: While they were still alive, Nathaniel’s Muggle grandparents were particularly influential on his childhood—they spoiled him and cooed at him as his mother never would.
Reputation: The Muggles that live in their neighborhood disapprove of Patricia Reid and her son—they both always seemed rather odd, not like normal people; and Patricia’s refusal to remarry (she stoically stated that she didn’t need a man to raise her son, and they were good for nothing but trouble) sparked even more mistrusting mutterings.
Secrets: Nathaniel doesn’t particularly like speaking about the way his father left him and his mother, so most of the magical community around Hogwarts is unaware, but it isn’t exactly a secret.
General:  Nathaniel’s mother owns a boutique she inherited from her parents when they passed away. She designs and sells Muggle clothing (with the aid of magic, of course, though the Muggles, who are never allowed to enter her workshop, are none the wiser). Though her social reputation is less than flattering, she is very popular as a fashion designer, and Muggles continue to grudgingly support her.