InsaneJournal

FAMILY MEMBERS:
Father - Silas Belby (deceased)
Mother - Lorelei Wagner (deceased)
OTHER: His dick of anuncle Damocles invented the Wolfsbane Potion and his great-great-great-great-grand-somethingwas Flavius Belby who survived a Lethifold attack. He's unsure about the rest of the family. While he was close to his maternal family, he hasn't heard from them since before the War. His paternal grandparents have passed.
PETS: Three cats that just kind of walked into his home and never left. They’re spoiled with him.

APPEARANCE: Marcus is a mess of a human being standing at 5'9". One of his many nervous ticks is running his hands through his unruly brown hair. Something that only makes him look more and more disheveled throughout the day. Brown eyes lost their light and look at nearly everyone with a level of suspicion.
He tries to dress up by wearing button-down shirts, but half the time the shirt looks like it needs an iron. Hell, most of his outfits look like they need to be ironed.
He does keep his facial hair in a trimmed-up beard, but that's about the closest he gets to looking like he's put together properly. It's hard to tell if Marcus is dressing down to make himself less approachable or if he actually is absolutely terrible at looking put together. He admits that it's probably both.
But there are moments when Marcus smiles and he lights up a room. There's a weird charm that Marcus has when he actually smiles. He seems sincere and the Hell that he's dealt with seems to melt away. He becomes approachable and nearly like he did before he graduated.

PATRONUS: He can’t anymore. His certain there's something disconnected in his brain.
BOGGART/WORST FEAR:Being tossed back into Azkaban. Darkness and a cold floor. The Dementors coming to get him. The Ministry tracking him down. The walls bearing down on him.
SPECIAL ABILITIES: Occulmancy. When you're as paranoid as Marcus, you want to make sure no one can get into your head.
EDUCATION: Ravenclaw/1997. He was invited to the Slug Club and promptly kicked out.

LIKES: Cigarettes, writing, reading every single book he can get his hands on, Muggle paranormal stories, UFO tales, chasing a story, the smell of old books, fountain pens, leather journals, taking notes, investigation, researching whatever he can, any substance he can use to calm his out of control brain.
DISLIKES:The Ministry, the Muggle government, people who don't question what the government is doing, waking up, being out of hangover potions, sources that are complete bullshit, major publications.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS:What the hell happened?
OVERALL PERSONALITY:Marcus used to be considered a shy boy. He liked to watch others and stay quiet so he could blend in and be a better reporter. That's all he wanted to do - research, investigate, and write. He thought that by being able to blend in with the shadows he could always get the important stories. His shyness was never actually shy, he just knew when to talk and when to stay quiet. He also never trusted people's actual words, but their actions.

For those that Marcus was friends with, he was a class clown and wanted to make people laugh. He was friendly and helpful. Anyone who needed help with classwork could go to him, and he would go above and beyond to assist them. Marcus set up tutoring for anyone who needed it, and could always be found in the library working with others or even just doing his own research. His nose was always in a book, or writing down something in one of his patented journals.

Things changed. He changed. He was a fierce reporter right out of Hogwarts and overly outspoken. When working for The Prophet that was actually controlled by Death Eaters, he was beaten, broken, and tossed away into Azkaban. Honestly, he still doesn't know why they didn't just kill him. After his release, Marcus became a shell of a human. While he still researches and writes, he couldn't trust anyone that he could write for. Paranoia and anxiety are Marcus' new friends. He is less likely to help others unless they prove they won't betray him. He's untrusting and cold to those he meets.

Still, there is a fire within Marcus. He doesn't want what happened to him to happen to others. Even though that reign of terror ended, he can feel another on the rise. He calls it journalistic intuition. He wants to learn and research why and what the Ministry is doing and get that information out to others. He's sure that others won't listen to him, after all, it took how long for the Quibbler to become legit? But he's unyielding in his quest for the truth.

HISTORY:
Marcus was sure that his parents loved one another, they just never felt the need to actually stay together. His mother was a journalist, and his father was a photographer. They had met on an assignment, but both put their careers first. When Lore became pregnant with Marcus, they decided to try and give it a go. They tried to stay put, but the need to get the story out there was too much. Instead, they would break up their schedules.

Some months, Marcus would spend with his father and learn the ins and outs of a camera. He spent some time with his grandparents, but it was pretty obvious that they did not approve of Silas’ career and would always talk about his more intelligent and much more successful older brother. A Potion Master who was actually doing something important with his life. It didn’t take long before they lost contact with that side of the family. Instead, they would hike and spend time out in the forests of the UK. Silas would tell him ghost stories of all the locations they were in, and then stories of other monsters around the world that Muggles would come up with. It ignited a passion for the weird in Marcus, and he loved it. Muggles made all the normal creatures of the magical world so much more interesting.

Then he would spend time with his mother and learn the importance of research and writing. Her family was large and happy, and always accepted her and Marcus when they came to visit. His grandparents had left Germany as World War 2 was beginning and would tell him so many stories about corruption and the dangers of unstable societies. She got him into journaling and checking sources.

It was kind of the best of both worlds. His imagination was wild with stories from his father, and the truth of a story from his mother.

His parents would spend most holidays and birthdays with him, and he felt that there was love there. Though they never actually got married, and they never really spent more than a couple of weeks with one another, he will always believe that they loved one another. It was normal for Marcus, and he was a happy kid. That was all he could ever ask for.

When he went to Hogwarts, he was just excited to have more to learn and more to read. He spent every moment that he could in the Library, or with his nose in a book. While his eye for photography was absolutely horrible, he was a writer at heart much to the joy of his mother. Lore sent Marcus a new journal at least every other week so that he could put his words onto paper.

He excelled in his classes and enjoyed every minute of them. His brief stint at the Slug Club was hilarious and such a mess. Did Slughorn truly believe that anyone would like Damocles and spend time with the pompous prick? He was just there for a story if there was one. Of course, there really wasn’t, and to Marcus, Slughorn was just a tired old fool who lived vicariously through fame. Even Silas agreed with that.

Marcus graduated after the death of Dumbledore and the world flipped on its head. With his parent's connections, he was given a job as a reporter at The Prophet. Unfortunately, it did not last long at all. His mother was killed “accidentally” while on assignment and his father went missing not long after her. Marcus was outspoken and loud and put his faith and writing into the hands of the wrong person. Writing hit pieces against the sham government and how everyone should continue to fight against tyranny. So many articles that never made it onto the page…because they were handed off. And he was labeled a traitor and thrown into Hell.

Pieces of his memory are fuzzy, and he’s sure it’s just his brain trying to protect him from what happened, but he does remember being in a cell and being in pain and sadness for so long. When he was finally released, and the Dark Lord defeated, he was told that six months had passed.

Marcus left The Prophet, never able to trust them, and got a job at Obscurus Books. There he was just an editor and would assist with research when needed. Thankfully, they allowed him to work from home while he healed and got the help he so desperately needed. Even though the Wizarding world's idea of help wasn’t much, so Marcus turned to other substances to keep the nightmares at bay.

Glimpses of Marcus are rare as he stays inside quite a bit. He’ll escape his flat at night to grab more cigarettes, alcohol, and whatever he can score. He still didn't trust anyone with his writing. Instead, he decided to do what Xenophilius Lovegood did, and started his own paper. Except he keeps his name out of it, and in his paranoia, makes sure that it can’t be tied back to him.

Mostly it’s been ignored for its absolute insanity, Marcus writes about cryptids all over the world, cults and serial killers (especially when they seem to be using magic to get out of their crimes), and conspiracies about the Ministry. While he’s sure that no one will read it, he’s just glad to get those thoughts out. Journaling was never enough for the reporter at heart.

Once the curse hit, Marcus couldn't believe the pure insanity of it. Was the Ministry truly going to control those it swore to protect? Pairing girls barely out of Hogwarts with men who had already hit their twenties, forcing people together that were sure to cause havoc and gossip, and strangers forced to have children? His distrust for the government has only grown since the announcement and a new investigation began. He wants to find out what the Ministry is planning, why they picked those certain people and tossed them together, and what the future is for those who are bonded. And more importantly, what about those who aren't bonded?

Still, he felt incredibly grateful not to be bonded with another. The poor soul that would end up with him would surely be miserable. It's been pure luck that he's kept himself and his cats alive all this time.

PREFERRED NAME: Alex
PLAYED BY: Andrew-Lee Potts
CONTACT: same as always!
TIMEZONE: mountain


STORYLINES & CONNECTIONS:
The Story Belby is always after the story. He will do whatever he can to print the truth, even if no one reads it. He has the ability that most don’t, he doesn’t have the ego that other reports have, and he prefers to stay in the shadows. As long as the truth is out there, Belby will find it and write it.

Rebel rebel One day, the rebellion might need a mind like Belby’s. He knows how to sneak around, and how to stay out of sight. He also knows how to deliver things without being seen. Belby is sneaky. He’d be a good asset and could be useful. If anyone ever finds out who he is.

Elysium Is his pride and joy. Other than his cats, of course. The paper is everything that Belby needs to get his words out, and his thoughts. Only one or two people know what he does, and he’d like to keep it that way. Both for his own safety and for theirs.

How you doin’, buddy? Belby does have friends, and he has gotten out of his shell a little more as the years have gone by. His jokester personality has started to come out again. And he is trusting some people around him. Being friends with Belby is a secret protection no one knows really exists.