Adrian Pucey

A brilliant but eccentric maverick, Adrian tries to maintain his independence and neutrality in a world that seems determined to force him to choose sides.

Adrian George Pucey
Nicknames/Aliases: Ade only to his nearest and dearest. This is almost certainly not you, so don't use it.

Occupation: Mindhealer, working on the fourth floor of St. Mungo's. He's attached to several wards, most importantly Janus Thickey. Adrian has a love-hate relationship with his job. He loves working with patients and succeeding, and hates the hospital administration with a cordial, smiling hatred.

Home: Family townhome in a good wizarding neighborhood in London. Also owns the family home in Bath, although he is not in residence there.

Finances: Questionable. As the head of the Pucey family, Adrian theoretically has access to the Pucey wealth, which is considerable, but mostly in real estate rather than liquid assets. However, his stepmother's influence with the Wizengamot is such that she effectively controls the family wealth for now.

Household: Lives by himself with his house-elf, Flitchy. He owns an owl, which he uses to carry messages, but doesn't consider it a pet.

External
Appearance: Adrian is of medium height and slender build, with beautiful blue eyes and dark hair that goes to black in the winter and lightens to reddish-brown in the summers. He occasionally lets it get a bit shaggy. On duty he's a snappy dresser, but in his private life prefers casual clothes, particularly blue jeans.

First Impression: In the surgery, How the hell did a Slytherin end up a Mindhealer?. In private life, quite possibly rich asshole.

Internal
Political Views: Adrian is by no means a blood purist for all that his own line is pure back to the Norman Conquest. He sees a strong value in old-fashioned wizarding culture, but for ethical and religious reasons, despised the Death Eater movement. Tolerant of Muggles for all that because he grew up going to church with them; he just doesn't think Muggles should be admitted to the wizarding world. Adrian is very quiet about his tolerance under the current regime, and emphasises his more 'proper' interest in wizarding culture when the subject of politics comes up.

Quirks/Habits: Theatrical tendency to eyeroll a lot. Talks with his hands, although he maintains a very neutral body language as part of his practice. Tends to talk about psychology in Quidditch metaphors. Treats sarcasm as an art form. Old-fashioned, sometimes to the point of affectation.

Strengths: Trained Legilimens, Occlumens, and Healer, with emphasis on Mindhealing. Extremely intelligent and creative. Can be charming, even empathetic, when he wants to put out the effort. Strong ethics informed by his Roman Catholic faith. Loyal to his people.

Weaknesses: Arrogant and smug. Manipulative, except with close friends, with whom he's often horrifically blunt to avoid manipulation. Rarely content with winning; enjoys running up the score. Despises authority figures. Generally misogynist. Not particularly useful in a spell-oriented combat despite being plenty useful afterwards. Loves God but has issues with the Church. Ignorant of a lot of popular culture and likes it that way. Is well-optimised for the life he leads, but not always useful or competent outside it.

Fears and Philias: Adrian's biggest fear is losing his sister as he's lost his brother and father. He loves his home, his family, and a few of his closest friends. He's a serious, serious lover of high places. Hobbies/Interests:
 * Quidditch, mostly as a spectator these days
 * Theology, particularly in terms of Catholicism as a ritual magic system.
 * Astronomy, although some of his friends think this has more to do with his teenaged crush on Aurora Sinistra than an actual fondness for the stars.
 * Climbing, which is how he keeps in shape. He free-climbs his home on a regular basis.

Favourite Belongings:
 * A standing mirror that he took from his mother's townhouse in Dublin. It's in his bedroom now.
 * The family's Book of Hours, which dates back to the Middle Ages. As the first practicing head of the family since the Reformation, Adrian treasures it both as a historical tie to his family and for its religious value.
 * Several items left to him by his grandfather: a silver-headed walking stick, a silver cigarette case, a silver pocket watch, and an engraved silver flask.

Favourite Places:
 * The roof of Pucey House.
 * The roof of the Astronomy Tower at Hogwarts.
 * The roof of his townhome.
 * No, seriously, he's an acrophile.

Secrets: Adrian has no secrets. Just ask him. He'll tell you that.

History
Adrian is the eldest of three children of an old pureblood family, the Puceys. He's distantly related to the Blacks/Malfoys/Prewetts, etc., by blood and more closely by marrieag, although his family isn't nearly as wealthy as either the Blacks or the Malfoys.

Adrian's father George was a retiring intellectual (unsurprisingly, he was a Ravenclaw) who occasionally published scholarly papers on unique charms. Adrian's mother Maeve died when he was about four, from a second pregnancy gone wrong. It was his mother's death that initially drove Adrian's interest in becoming a Healer.

Adrian's father remarried when he was eight. His stepmother Drusilla (formerly Rosier, sister to Evan and cousin to the Black sisters) is the bane of his existence. After several miscarriages, Drusilla presented George with a second son, Charles, when Adrian was sixteen, and a daughter, Eleanor, when Adrian was seventeen. Ellie is now at Hogwarts (Ravenclaw, class of 2011). As far as Drusilla was concerned, Adrian was in the way of Charles' inheritance and Drusilla had no use for him. Because she was a danger to him, Adrian decided Drusilla was a danger to his younger siblings and became their protector.

At Hogwarts, Adrian overcame the deficits of being very smart, small, and good-looking by earning his way onto the Quidditch team in his second year. He played Chaser every year until he took his NEWTs. Adrian's marks were good to excellent, although he spent a lot of time in disciplinary trouble until his OWLs year for pulling pranks, hexing people, failure to stay on campus, and other minor matters. At the end of his OWLs year, in his career interview, it was made clear to Adrian that he needed to clean up his act if he wanted to be accepted as a Trainee Healer.

Adrian stayed low and under the radar his last two years at Hogwarts. Without Quidditch to distract him for the year of the Triwizard Tournament, Adrian was a model student. His last year was harder: he faced the dilemma of whether to join the Inquisitorial Squad. He decided against because of Drusilla's ties to Umbridge. At the end of the year, when Umbridge was humbled and the IS disbanded, Adrian was relieved he'd stayed clean.

Adrian left Hogwarts in 1996 with a full slate of six NEWTs (the five required for Healing plus Astronomy), all Es and Os. He spent three years as a Healer Trainee at St. Mungo's, finishing officially about the time the war ended with more experience with trauma cases than many of his colleagues had had in the ten years preceding his arrival at St. Mungo's. He'd also suffered a terrible personal tragedy at the First Battle of Diagon Alley, where his father was maimed by cursed Inferi-caused injuries and his brother Charles was killed.

After the war, Adrian could see which way the tide was turning; the political warfare boiling under the surface at St. Mungo's, which he felt was going to work to the detriment of the patients. He chose to take an extra year to take a specialty in Mindhealing and learn to work with the most difficult, long-term cases, such as those in the Janus Thickey ward. He found he was challenged by the work of getting patients to respond and developed a reputation as a maverick for his work, which was often opposed by Healer Strout, one of his nominal supervisors.

Adrian's father was not a young man, and the war years, his injuries the death of his younger son, and the constant low-level fighting between his wife and his surviving son wore him down. He died in late 2005, leaving the entailed Pucey estate to Adrian. Adrian is currently biding his time until his sister leaves Hogwarts before consdering how to pry Drusilla out of Pucey House and possibly leave St. Mungo's for private practice, which he suspects will be more amenable to his interests than his current position.

Meta
Journal: mindhealer

PB: Cillian Murphy

Player: Ginger