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Benjamin "Benji" Fox

"School is a place to learn and to work hard. Everything else is just filler."

0 · 573 views · located in Gaol Academy

a character in “Gaol Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry”, as played by usernamesareadrag

Description

Benjamin "Benji" Fox
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[left]Name: Benjamin Carroll Fox

Nickname: Benjamin prefers to go by Benji, a pet name used by all of family and friends.

Age: 15

Year: 5th year

House: Strix, although, for the most part, people mistake him for an Ursus

Wand: Red Oak, Phoenix Feather Core, 11 1/2 inches, supple

Patronus: An African lion

Familiar: A barred or "hoot" owl named Rincewind, a loving insult given Rincewind's tendency to frighten easily combined with his namesake



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Personality
It is often said that Benji would fit better in one of the other houses, like Ursus, than Strix. That is, however, inherently incorrect. He might not fit the Strix mold to the letter, might have aspects of his personality that bit in with other houses, but he is a Strix at heart. It shows when people accuse him of ambition as he strives for perfection and to rise above his peers, when he's actually just seeking to improve himself and gather more information as opposed to any grand designs for grabbing for political power (he'd much rather be a consultant, thanks). It shows when his sheer nerve and bravery shines through as he duels, except for the fact that he uses his knowledge of spells and strategies along with his razor-sharp wits to surprise his opponent. To put it simply, he is a Strix, through and through.

Temperament wise, Benji, while normally affable enough, can be quick to anger if laughed at or if he feels personally attacked. He's defensive to a fault, a carryover from his traumatic first year at Gaol and is constantly attempted to combat that horrible impression he gave as an incompetent dunce. That's not to say he's mean by any means, but he can be quick to snap with a sharp and witty tongue. This can come in handy, however, when against the occasional bully that does rear their angry head within the walls of Gaol. He's a responsible person and always has been, getting his work done and not ignoring his duties as a student. That being said, he is an adventurous spirit and has been known to wander outside of his comfort zone with the promise of new things to see. Despite his efforts, Benji also lacks much self-confidence, still seeing himself as the ignorant, clumsy young boy he started out as.





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History
Benji's story begins not with him but with his grandfather, Randall Fox, a name infamous within the walls of Gaol. To say that he was popular would be an understatement, one of the best Chasers that any house's quodpot team had ever seen, charming, and skilled with the wand if not with the books. To put it simply, great things were expected from Randall, and for a time he lived up to those expectations. He became an auror, married Miriam, a young witch from the Salem Academy, and even, during the first rise of Voldemort, lived up to his home state's, Tennessee's, title of Volunteer and made his way to England to fight in a war that wasn't his. However, after his adventure across the pond, Randall dropped off of the map, vanishing into obscurity. A letter was sent by owl to his superiors effectively stating that he'd quit his job, and all ties to the magical community, with the exception of his and Miriam's family who were keeping mum on the whole thing, were severed. Most assumed something happened while he was helping the British wizarding community in their fight against Voldemort; they would be partially right. Something did happen, but not in the war, but rather at home.

While he was gone, something happened to devastate the little family, or, rather, something didn't. Randall and Miriam's son, Calvin, was found to be a squib, a nonmagical person born to a magical family. Both parents were devastated, but not because their son wasn't a wizard, but because they knew how difficult the life of a squib within such an intensive magical family could be. So, for the sake of their son, they slipped into the Muggle world, eager to raise him in a world that only knew him as normal, not deficient in any way. It was hard to adjust, but they refrained from using their wands for the simple things that they always had, and got Muggle jobs.

Years went by; Calvin grew up and married a sweet girl named Emma, and everything was nice and normal, even if Calvin's parents were quirky and odd, they were charming enough so that no one was the wiser. That is, until Calvin and Emma had Benjamin. Benji was a curious boy, a little quiet and a lot intelligent, devouring stories and knowledge with a voracious appetite. He had a knack for adventure and was a clever little thing, and he fit in at school just fine. He wasn't particularly popular, but he was never picked on. Everything was so pleasant until the day Benji decided that climbing a dead tree was a good idea. The family heard the crack first of the branch snapping in half and turned in horror, waiting to see the littlest Fox tumble into a broken heap on the ground. Imagine their surprise when instead they were greeted with the sight of Benji slowly floating down, like a feather moving along the breeze.

After a period of freaking out, Randall and Miriam finally did tell their son and daughter-in-law about the magical world, and, despite initial hesitation, nothing really changed. Calvin and Emma were fascinated by the magical world they now found themselves in, much to the relief of their parents who were doubly relieved to be able to use magic once more without any consequences. So, really, Benji's life was normal, pleasant even- that is, until he began to attend Gaol.

There is a certain stigma in the magic community, whether you be half-blooded, full-blooded, or even from a Muggle family, when it came to squibs. Some saw them as creatures to be pitied, poor souls deprived of the wonders of magic. Others saw them as things of derision, useless people even worse than Muggles. So, that one of Gaol's favorite sons ended up siring one and now that Squib's son was attending school was something of a sideshow attraction. It made Benji nervous, but he took the jibes and prods and pokes with a certain dignity, but became more introverted and quiet. School work was hard, harder than he'd expected, and he visibly struggled, not to mention the fact that his wand refused to cooperate him a good majority of the time, perhaps sensing his hesitation. He was the class joke with his fumbling attempts at magic and slight Southern twang, and many students were even eager to see how he'd mess up next. That is, until the flying incident in his first year. It hadn't been his fault, not really, but during a flying lesson, he'd lost complete control of his broom and gone crashing to the ground, splintering the school-issued broom and breaking his ankle. It was like the last straw and, as he hobbled away, he heard a classmate sight, "Well, what can you expect from a squib's kid?" No one replied, no one made any contest to the claim. Benji felt like a failure, an idiot, but, unlike most eleven-year-old boys, he didn't write home and demand to go back.

He came back with determination, redoubling his efforts in his studies, spending long nights practicing magic or studying theory with a disturbing amount of vigor. Slowly but surely he began to improve, and then overtake others in his class through pure will power and effort. He found dueling to be a great stress outlet as well, and threw himself fully into that, quickly proving himself to be a strong contender, quick on his feet and with his wits. This year, his fifth year, Benji felt satisfied to learn over the summer that he had become an Exemplar, feeling almost vindicated after his constant hard work.





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Likes

  • Dueling
  • Fried chicken, but without the bones
  • Learning new information
  • Mystery and satire novels
  • The flute
  • Travel
  • Ghoul Studies


Dislikes

  • Flying- he's not good at it and refuses to embarrass himself
  • Slackers
  • Pork
  • Being laughed at
  • Astronomy


Password: Specialis Revelio
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So begins...

Benjamin "Benji" Fox's Story

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Claudia Gardner Character Portrait: Jim Malloy Character Portrait: Flavia Gardner Character Portrait: Eden Madsen Character Portrait: Aurora Nickson Character Portrait: Eric Lee Greene
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For the first time in his entire magical schooling career at Gaol Academy, Benjamin "Benji" Fox did not board the ship to school at the Georgia port, the closest stop to his home state of Tennessee. That was bizarre in of itself given that for the past four years, Benji's presence in the eleventh compartment from the end of the ship had been an undeniable truth like how two plus two always equals four or that owls were wonderful for package deliveries if you remembered to tip them with their rodent of choice. However, the oddest thing about it was where Benji actually was; Baltimore, Maryland, standing in the middle of the Alvar family rare book shop next to a port key in the shape of a bookmark, and listening to the Alvar children squabble tirelessly as he had for the past four days.

When Sophie Alvar had let it slip to her parents about the nice boy a few years ahead of her that had helped her with class, she had clearly underestimated how enthusiastic her parents would be to meet said nice boy. In a whirl of excitement(for her parents) and dread(for Sophie), an invitation had promptly been sent via owl to the Fox household with an invitation to have them stay in Baltimore for the last few days of Summer vacation. To say that those days had been difficult would be an understatement; the parents, once the Alvars had realized that they didn't need to tiptoe around the issue of squibs and muggles, and grandparents(because there was no way Randall or Miriam were missing a chance to be around other members of the magical community) had gotten along famously, and the children, well, less so. At first, the amount of sibling discourse had been a little disorienting for Benji given that he was an only child, but, unfortunately, he'd gotten used to it, letting the brothers' endless teases and their sister's cutting retorts become the soundtrack for his little visit. At least, he decided, she was talking to him again- Sophie had refused to even make eye contact for the first two days of his visit when Allan, the only Alvar boy still living at home, had jokingly insisted that Benji was his sister's boyfriend.

"You both have everything?" Gregory Alvar asked one last time, eying the two as they shifted on their feet, luggage topped with owl cages, the birds blessedly silent, gripped tightly. They'd already said their goodbyes and, honestly, they'd made sure that they'd had everything at least five times now, but parents do have a tendency to worry about these things.

"Yes, daddy," Sophie huffed, looking more than anxious to go.

"Alright then. It's about time, go ahead and put your hands on the port key-" The instruction was cut off in a short manner by Allan who apparently couldn't risk a parting shot at his baby sister.

"Remember to hold hands, Fi-Fi!" He cooed, despite his mother's prompt glare. Sophie, as she always did, colored a violent scarlet color and was about to round on her brother with a verbal assault to violent that it might have left a bruise or two. However Benji, who'd had more than enough of this by now, was too quick, grabbing her hand and tugging it down with his just as the hour struck and, quite suddenly, the middle of the rare book shop in Baltimore, Maryland, was missing two people leaving behind a guffawing older brother, a scolding mother, and several proud relatives.




They were unceremoniously dropped off in an out of the way part of Rhiamon Way, closer to the docks than to the shops. Sophie landed uneasily before smoothing down her uniform skirt, grumbling something about the perfect use of a bat-bogey hex, while Benji simply straightened back up- he would never get used to port keys- and started off towards the ship. Hopefully his usual compartment wouldn't be occupied- well, at least by someone he didn't know. If it was someone like Thomas then he'd-

"Benji." He stopped in his tracks and turned around to see Sophie looking just as red-faced as before.

"What is it?"

"I forgot my charms book." Before he could even reply, she charged on quickly, "But it's not my fault- Allan was talking when I was packing and he distracted me, so…" She huffed. "I need to get a new one."

"It's fine, Sophie," Benji said, cutting off any further rants. "We'll just drop our stuff off and I'll go with you, okay? We still have a little bit of time." When handling Sophie, especially when she was upset, it was best to use kid gloves, a lesson Benji had quickly learned last year after his first disastrous tutoring attempt.

Sophie nodded and quick as could be they dropped off their luggage and still sleeping owls before heading towards the shops.




It was lucky that Benji knew his way around Rhiamon Way because Sophie was completely out of her element. She was used to her parents buying everything for her and just staying put in the ship every time it stopped. The crowds buffeting her on all sides, most of them children around her own age, were frustrating and she couldn't help but press in a little closer to Benji just to make sure she didn't get lost- not that she'd ever admit it because she was just fine on her own, thanks very much.

They managed to fight their way through the crowds and into the Madsen family bookstore where Sophie vanished, presumably to find her charms book, and Benji was left to idly look around, fidgeting slightly with the shiny new Exemplar badge adorning his shirt. It would be a lie to say that he wasn't disproportionately proud of it and it would be a complete fib to say that he'd maybe cheered quite loudly the moment the badge and letter had arrived at his home.

It was only after Sophie had returned, dragging him resolutely to the counter so that she could pay for what was most certainly not a charms book(not that he could tell since she was hiding the cover resolutely from him) that Benji recognized the fact that, oh, hey, his classmates were here. And were also leaving. The bad thing, he supposed, about having friends was that, inevitably with him, they had other friends they were closer to, usually being people you didn't know all that well. That was the case with Aurora and her menagerie of friends that had swept out the door, excited about some broom or another, or Claudia, his own housemate who still lingered inside with Liam and some first years he was sure he'd never met before. He liked them sure enough, but he couldn't possibly just push himself into their group.

Sophie, whose self-esteem issues revealed themselves in a much different way than the doubt that constantly washed over Benji's mind, had no such issue. As exasperated as she may have gotten with Claudia, a familiar face was still a familiar face, and she was one of the closest things Sophie had to a friend, which was a bit sad, really.

"Hey, Claudia," She said, waving towards the girl and, given the general social obligation, Benji was about to call out a similar greeting when instead an explosion resounded within the shop. Well, not so much an explosion as an entirely too powerful light show. Sophie let out a shriek of surprise, stumbling backwards, and Benji had to shield his eyes before something more concerning than a firework gone wrong caught his sight. A boy- he didn't know him, so possibly a first year- has been propelled backwards in the explosion.

With all of the responsibility granted to him by the Exemplar badge and the general morality that he quite hoped most people had but knew from experience that they didn't, Benji hurried over to the toppled over boy, even as Zeke called out a not so sheepish apology.

"Are you okay?" He asked, almost immediately kneeling down next to him. If he was a first year, well, his life at Gaol had just gotten off to a rocky start.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Eden Madsen Character Portrait: Benjamin "Benji" Fox Character Portrait: Liam Madsen Character Portrait: Max Avarus
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(so, to help move things forward, I am stepping in and posting for Rais. Mostly cause I don't want this to die, but also Rais knows I know where this goes to. Rais, when you read this, let me know if you want any changes made. Sorry if I forgot to tag or respond to anyone. Wasn't sure who to put in)

Eden reached out and shook Max's hand. "Nice to meet you..."

Max shot a slight glare towards his brother, before he looked back towards Eden. "Max, Max Avarus".

"So Max is joining right as your leaving? Well, this is interesting".

"Hey, don't go too hard on him. Or else I might start telling stories..." Max's brother, Daniel, mentioned with a grin. "Speaking of stories, you will never guess what his patro..."

"Shut up Daniel! That is private!" Max noted, before the firecracker bursted and knocked him into a wall. This other kid came over to see if he was alright.

"Are you okay?" He asked as Daniel came over. Max stood up, but was wobbly.

"What was that?!" He exclaimed, before looking towards Benji. "I think so. Maybe. Thanks for asking. I can stand, and nothing is broken. My names Max Avarus, by the way. Nice to meet you". Avarus might ring of familiarity for Benji. There was Max's brother, Daniel, who graduated last year with high grades, was captain of the Quadpot team, and was very popular. But there was also the fame of the Avarus family. It's a very old Wizarding family, who's members played great and key roles in various Wizarding Wars. Max's father was also a major politician and player in the Wizarding world, and his mother is one of the most powerful wizards known, and helps keep watch over the magical world of America. So yeah, the name might ring a bell.

Though personally, Max hoped it didn't. Being a member of a highly successful and famous Wizarding family meant high expectations. He wasn't even at the school yet, and he could feel the pressure on him. His brother alone out pressure on him, not on purposefully mind you, but he is following his brother's legacy.

Liam pointed out they needed to get going soon. Max made sure he had everything he needed, and said goodby to Daniel, before joining Liam and Eden to board the ship.

(Sorry again for everyone I missed or any errors made)

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Benjamin "Benji" Fox Character Portrait: Sophie Alvar Character Portrait: Thomas Erener Character Portrait: Max Avarus
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"Yeah, not a problem," Benji said slowly, standing up from his crouch as soon as the younger boy revealed himself to be fine. Well, relatively fine; he had just been hit by fireworks, after all. It was definitely a relief if only because Benji didn't want this year at Gaol to start off with broken bones or any real bodily injuries for himself or others.

"My names Max Avarus, by the way. Nice to meet you." The name, at least the last one, tugged forcefully at Benji's memory. Where had he heard Avarus before…? Oh, right, Daniel Avarus. Benji hadn't known Daniel Avarus, hadn't even ever shared a word with the older boy, but you had to be insanely out of the loop to not know of him. The teachers had loved him, the students had adored him, opposing Quadpot teams had quaked with fear, or at least that's how the general rumor went. Seeing as Benji avoided Quadpot or, really, most things involving flying as a rule, he'd never seen the older boy in action on the playing field or in academics.

"Nice to meet you too, even if the circumstances could be better. Benji Fox, Strix House," the introduction came out a bit stiffly, but not unkindly given that it was more from the awkwardness. "If you need anything at Gaol, ah, don't hesitate to ask." With a smile that came out luckily more pleasant than his first greeting smiles tended to, Benji waved goodbye, making his way back over to Sophie who had long since lost interest in the situation as soon as she'd realized that everyone was alright.

"Ready to go back?"

"Of course," She sniffed, tucking her secret purchase in her bag and starting off towards the ship leaving Benji to follow in her wake. Well, this year was certainly going to be an interesting one.




When they made it back to the ship, the two split apart easily into different compartments. After all, it wasn't like they'd never see each other again given that they were not only in the same house but also Benji was Sophie unofficial official tutor for all things magical(and just a few things mundane because, honestly, for many purebloods Muggle Studies was insanely hard). Anyways, they had their own sort of friends to stick with. There was Benji with Thomas and whoever happened to be hovering around either boy at the time, and then Sophie with whoever she deemed the least annoying at the moment.

Finding Thomas was an easy enough task because, while it did take a moment of two, most Gaol students were creatures of habit and had their own preferred compartments by their third year at the Academy.

"Hello, Thomas," Benji greeted the other boy, dragging his assorted pieces of luggage plus one cage filled with sleeping owl into his friend's compartment, closing the door behind him in one smooth move. "Sorry I didn't find you earlier. Today's been… Kind of hectic."