Basic
Full Name: Malachi “Mal” Jinhwan Lee
Age: 27-28 (as of 2005)
Birthdate: 7th March 1977
Hometown: None; born in the United States but led a nomadic lifestyle as a child
Residence: London, England
Blood: Half-blood
Wand: Fir with unicorn hair core, 11¼″, reasonably supple
Patronus: Black and white cat
Boggart: Deep water
Certifications: Apparition
Skills: Legilimency and Occlumency, non-verbal magic, espionage and information gathering, bartending and coffee/tea making
Occupation: Proprietor of the Curious Chimaera and information broker (2002–present)
Bartender, barista and information broker (1999–2002)
Bartender and information broker (1995–1998)
Appearance
Height/Build: 1.77m (5′ 10″) / Muscular
Hair/Eye Colour: Black / Dark Brown; Mal occasionally transfigures his hair into a different colour when he feels like it
Family
Father: Lee Minguk, 51, Curse-Breaker
Mother: Kang Eunja, 51, Wizarding Naturalist
Sister: Aged 30, other details TBD
Hogwarts
House: Ravenclaw
Years: 1989–1995
Best Class: Charms
Worst Class: Divination
O.W.L.s
Astronomy – O
Care of Magical Creatures – O
Charms – O
Defence Against the Dark Arts – E
Divination – A
Herbology – E
History of Magic – E
Potions – E
Transfiguration – O
N.EW.T.s
Astronomy – E
Care of Magical Creatures – O
Charms – O
Defence Against the Dark Arts – O
Herbology – E
Potions – E
Transfiguration – O
Special Magical Ability: Natural Legilimency
Mal is blessed (or cursed, depending on how one chooses to view it) with a natural but limited form of Legilimency. Rather than being able to detect discrete thoughts or access specific memories, Mal can only perceive vague impressions of the thoughts and feelings of people around him. These impressions take the form of flashes of colours or blurry images, emotions or physical sensations, snatches of indistinct sounds, and so on.
The drawbacks are aplenty, unfortunately. First and foremost, Mal is unable to focus his natural Legilimency on a single person and tune out everyone else. In a crowded environment, he will invariably be assaulted by a barrage of impressions from all the people around him, and he has to close off his mind partially or completely before he becomes overwhelmed by whatever he senses. Being physically closer to the target helps, because the impressions will be felt more strongly the nearer Mal is to the source. And as with the regular form of Legilimency, Mal is better able to sense the impressions derived from a person’s thoughts and feelings when he has eye contact with them.
Furthermore, while the impressions he perceives do not stem from thoughts or feelings belonging to him, Mal can be affected by these impressions to a certain degree as though they were his own. For instance, perceiving the hunger of another person will make Mal feel hungry, even if he had just eaten. In a sense, his natural Legilimency can be a double-edged sword, as a sufficiently strong-willed person can force certain sensations upon Mal, should they be aware of this weakness of his.
Lastly, Mal cannot suppress his natural Legilimency for extended periods of time without adverse effects on his mental state. As he was not aware of his ability for much of his childhood, he is extremely used to experiencing these additional sensations, so much so that not experiencing them feels abnormal and unnatural to him. If he were to shut off his natural Legilimency for a long time, he would suffer from something akin to forced sensory deprivation, such as extreme anxiety, paranoia, and hallucinations.
Mal has since learnt to mitigate the drawbacks of his natural Legilimency through training in Occulumency, which allows him to resist the effects that the thoughts of others have on him. He has also picked up the standard form of Legilimency, though he requires both his wand and an incantation to use it. However, he is quite averse towards using this art on others and only resorts to it when faced with no other option, as he finds the sensation of delving into the minds of others rather disgusting and uncomfortable.
History
Family and Early Life
Following the end of World War II, Malachi’s parents and their families left South Korea for the United States to seek a better life. As first-generation immigrants, life was not easy for them, but it was much better than enduring the turmoil in their home country. Malachi’s parents – Minguk and Eunja – subsequently attended Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where they came to know each other. Eventually they fell in love, and right after their graduation they eloped, for both of them were free spirits and yearned to get away from their strict and controlling families. They bought a beat-up old van and took to the road, going wherever their hearts desired and enjoying each other’s company. To support themselves, Minguk freelanced as a Curse-Breaker, while Eunja worked as a wizarding naturalist. Often they would park their van in the wilderness where Eunja would conduct her fieldwork, while Minguk would travel to any archaeological sites nearby to look for artefacts of interest. Before long, the couple had a baby girl and, two years later, a boy – Mal. Even though they now had two children, they stuck to their nomadic lifestyle in their little van, which by now had accrued quite a number of enchantments that made it comfortable enough to house the whole family.
Given the unusual lifestyle that his family had, Mal’s childhood was rather fun and exciting. The two kids learnt a great deal about the wonders of the natural world, and all the fantastic flora and fauna around them. They woke up in the morning to glorious sunrises that stained the skies with bold splashes of fiery orange and warm gold, and had rolling expanses of flower-filled meadows as their backyards. Every now and then they would stay for a bit in a town or a settlement, and Mal would enjoy watching other people going about their daily lives from a distance. As time passed, Mal became increasingly intrigued by the positive, negative, and sometimes downright perplexing nature of the people he saw. He wondered about what they were like, what made their hearts sing, what weighed heavily on their minds, who their family and friends were, and so on. Often he would be able to conjure images, sounds or sensations in his head, and he would use these to piece together his version of the life stories of these people.
Little did Mal – or anyone around him, for that matter – realise that his so-called rich imagination was in reality his natural ability to use a limited form of Legilimency. Still, despite his lack of proper training, his talent allowed him to get a vague inkling of the motivations and preoccupations of others, which served to confirm what he was able to observe with his more mundane senses. He became invested in their struggles and troubles, and frequently asked himself what he could do to fix what he felt was wrong with the world.
Magical Education, and Coming to Hogwarts
Minguk and Eunja started homeschooling their children when their magical abilities manifested. However, Mal was hoping to enrol at a wizarding school like all the other normal kids after he turned eleven, and he conveyed his wishes to his parents. At that point in time, the family was about to travel to the British Isles, so Mal’s parents decided to help him apply to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, rather than their alma mater.
The application was accepted, and later that year Mal found himself within the hallowed halls of Hogwarts Castle. He quickly attracted a lot of attention due to his looks that contrasted strongly with his surprisingly good English and American accent, as well as his family’s unconventional lifestyle. The sudden bombardment of questions and deluge of thoughts from the other kids caused Mal quite a bit of distress. While he did handle himself pretty well, this did not go unnoticed by one of the professors, who was beginning to suspect that there was something unusual about Mal.
During the Sorting Ceremony, the Sorting Hat noted that the boy had a good heart and a sense of fairness, but ultimately declared him a Ravenclaw on account of his quick wits and uncanny insight. He proved to be a fast learner, able to intuitively pick up new knowledge and extrapolate from what he knew.
Mal’s natural Legilimency was eventually discovered during a Defence Against the Dark Arts class, where the students were introduced to the boggart. The collective anxiousness and fear of the students grew with each passing second and eventually proved too much for him to handle, and he promptly suffered from a meltdown in the middle of the lesson and had to be sent to the Hospital Wing to recover. The professors later realised that Mal needed to learn how to control his gift, and he began taking classes in Legilimency and Occulumency.
A Budding Romance
For a while Mal dated a fellow Ravenclaw from the same year, but after the sparks faded they drifted apart and broke up. He got together with someone else soon after, but that romance was not destined to last either. It was at this point in time when a male friend came to Mal and requested something of him that took him by surprise, even though he had already sensed that something was afoot.
“Kiss me.”
“Why?”
“I’m curious,” his friend said. “I want to know how it feels like.”
The sense of curiosity was mutual, and so Mal obliged, and it felt… pretty good. Initially they went about their lives as though nothing had happened, but over the next few days their thoughts kept going back to the kiss they shared, and they decided to follow their hearts. They met under a stairwell and confessed their love for each other, before sharing yet another kiss right there and then.
Before the summer break, Mal wrote to his family that he’d like to stay at a friend’s place instead. His family was cool with his decision; they were also about to conclude their work at the British Isles and were thinking of moving on to Eastern Europe. As such, Mal started to spend the holidays at his partner’s place, a little apartment just above a shady pub in Knockurn Alley that was owned by his partner’s family. The two boys helped out wherever an extra pair of hands were needed. The less-than-reputable clientele and often illicit business conducted within the premises didn’t bother Mal at all. If anything, he was intrigued by these people. While there were genuinely unsavoury folks amongst them, a good number of them were actually pretty decent people who had fallen on hard times, and had no choice but to turn to illegal means to make a living.
To Mal’s surprise, there were also a few of Aurors and hit wizards and witches who dropped by at the pub occasionally. He later learnt from his partner’s father that it was in the Ministry’s interests to allow such establishments to exist, so as to better keep an eye on the criminal underworld. Clamping down too hard on the illegal activities would only force the criminals to hide further underground, making it much more difficult to police the situation.
Through these law enforcement officials, he came to know of the existence of information brokers who treaded the fine line between both sides of the law, buying and selling information to anyone who could afford to pay the price. They could aid whichever side they chose, assisting the authorities in apprehending a criminal, or protecting an innocent from the law when it was wielded by the corrupt as a means of oppression. This appealed greatly to Mal, and he decided that he wanted to become an information broker one day.
Graduation, Career, and the Second Wizarding War
Upon his graduation in 1995, Mal moved in with his partner, and started working officially at the pub as a bartender. At the same time, he began to cut his teeth as an information broker. As he wasn’t able to read the thoughts and memories of others, his natural Legilimency proved to be much less useful than he had anticipated. Ultimately, he still had to do things the good old-fashioned way: offer potential informants or clients a drink on the house, initiate a conversation with them and lend a listening ear, and slowly get them to warm up to him. Gradually he was able to build up a network of contacts from both sides of the law, making himself useful enough for his newfound friends for them to require his services, but not big enough of a threat to attract unwanted attention.
As the Second Wizarding War escalated into open war, Mal maintained his neutral stance because of his professional obligations… or at least, that was his cover story. Secretly he supported those who chose to resist the Dark Lord, and fed them whatever information he had that would prove useful to them. At the same time, he continued his dealings with known supporters of the Dark Lord, if only to keep them close by to fish even more information out of them. Towards the end of the war he was forced to go into hiding after some Death Eaters and Aurors viewed his neutrality as a implicit support for the other side, though he still kept in touch with some of his contacts and aided them to the best of his abilities until the Dark Lord’s defeat.
Postwar Years
Throughout the Second Wizarding War, Mal and his partner had started to drift apart, and after the war ended they both agreed to take a break from their relationship. Mal visited his family and stayed with them briefly, before travelling alone for a while to sort out his thoughts. When he returned to London, his mind was made up, and so was his partner’s. Amicably they ended their relationship, and Mal moved out to a tiny rental apartment by himself. He continued plying his trade as an information broker, while supplementing his income by working as a barista by day and a bartender by night. A few years later, he managed to save up enough to open his own establishment and hire a few staff.
Presently, Mal is the proud owner of the Curious Chimaera, a quaint little café that transforms into a cozy bar after sundown. Located at the intersection of Horizont Alley and Knockturn Alley, the establishment also serves as a base of operations for his information brokering services, with private rooms that offer more than enough privacy for him to conduct his business with his informants and clients.
Personality
On the surface, Mal appears to be a rather carefree and confident guy, and this image is perhaps reinforced by his imposing physical presence. In reality, he’s an empathetic and introspective person who simply wishes to be able to make a positive difference in the world and right any wrongs he comes across. He genuinely wants to help those around him, and rarely judges or dismisses anyone prematurely without first hearing their side of the story. In his capacity as a barista and bartender, he usually serves as a confidante to his customers, offering a listening ear and moral support, and giving advice only when he felt it was wanted or needed. Despite how open-minded he normally is, he is ironically intolerant of those who are bigoted and uncompromising, or wilfully antagonistic and hostile towards others. It is one of his pet peeves, and one of the few ways to provoke the usually relaxed and amicable Mal.
The brighter the light, the deeper the shadows: while he is a self-professed idealistic fool, he has a cynical side born out of his frustration towards the state of affairs in the world, as well as his helplessness to set things right. As much as he believes that there is good in everyone, he cannot deny that it is the darker aspects of humanity that birthed all the deep-rooted issues that plague society. After all, the recent Second Wizarding War had shown that mankind is its worst enemy, and that both the Dark Lord’s greed and the Ministry of Magic’s complacency and hubris had contributed to the scale of the conflict. As such, he has chosen to operate beyond the confines of the law, a position that grants him the flexibility and freedom to do what he feels is necessary to change the world for the better.
Face Claim: Lee Ho-seok (Wonho)