NAME: Casey Nathaniel Summers NICKNAMES: "Papa"(Alex), "Father Casey" (Paddy, after starting the bible study, the name mostly in jest). AGE: 35 DATE OF BIRTH: 4 January 1978
HOUSE | YEARS: Hufflepuff 1996
MARITAL STATUS: Secretly dating Teo Dunsan CHILDREN: Alexander Linus Summers (age 5) SEXUALITY: Bi-sexual
PATRONUS: Yes, a large bear. (changed after Alex's birth, it was a Labrador)
OCCUPATION: • Runs Diagon Alley Animal Rescue
• "Retired" Auror (Retired 2004) REGISTERED BLOOD STATUS: Half-Blood CURRENT RESIDENCE: 301 Red Brick Boulevard Apartments PARENTS: Cathán and Niamh (nee O'Malley) Summers SIBLINGS:Pádraig (twin) and Treasa (younger)
ooc
NAME: Megan AGE: I have one DISCORD: hufflepurls EMAIL: Comment here please! TIME ZONE: est PB: Travis Willingham
{
Casey Summers
I'm lost, deliver me, I crossed the river finally. God as my witness, yeah it's gonna heal my soul tonight.
personality
QUIRKS: He is good at remembering faces and why he knows them but it takes him a while to remember names, loves to be in charge, used to be a huge neat freak. LIKES: Cold pizza, working on his home, a good fight, stout, fishing, waffles, reading the paper first thing in the morning, spending any time he can with Alex, sugar cookies, long runs, weight lifting. DISLIKES: Hitting his head into things, his leg feeling asleep, pilsners, feeling inadequate, people telling him he's wrong in a situation without them even looking at it from his side, his ex-girlfriend.
It's only been within the last five years that Casey has really felt like he's starting to come into his own. While he's defiantly been forced to grow up since having his son, there are some traits that haven't really changed. First, Casey's heart is about as big as he is. This is a man who would give the shirt off his back if it would mean someone else having one. He is a man who realizes that he is very lucky to be in the position that he's in and tries very hard not to take it for granted. He hates what's happening in the slums, however, he also knows that there's not a lot he can do to help them. He is someone who if it wasn't for his son, would try and see if he couldn't join the rebellion. However, it's because of his son that he stays where he's at. Alex is the one thing in this world that Casey will put before everything else, and unfortunately, that means turning a blind eye occasionally to the horrible things that happen in the world. He hates it, but at the end of the day, he needs to know that his son will be taken care of. So, he does what little things he can do when those opportunity presents itself. His emotions run deep, but he doesn't often show things like hurt, fear, or sadness hiding it all under a mask so he can learn deal with it on his own terms. As a younger man, Casey was not able to deal with them at all, instead pushing it deep down until it came out in an explosion of emotion. And not always in a healthy way. It used to come out as pure aggressiveness, drinking, fighting, whatever was handy at the time. It wasn't until his sister pointed out that he needed to learn to deal with these things to teach Alex how to handle things, that Casey started to work on this. It is very much a work in progress, but it he is in a far better position than he was when he was in his twenties. The one thing he knows he should work on, but doesn't, is the fact that he still holds grudges. The bigger the slight the longer it will take for him to get over it, or apologize if he was in the wrong. For example, there is a reason why he has a legal reason not to talk to his ex-girlfriend any more, because Casey very much thinks that he will go to his grave not forgiving that woman. The one hang up he has on that is how to explain to Alex when he's older what happened, but Casey figures he'll cross that bridge when he gets there.
Casey likes to think that he is an honorable person, or at least tries to be one. He tries to do the right thing, but the problem with that is that he has very much learned that the "right thing" is relative. He tries not to treat people like shit, even though right now he firmly believes that animals are better than people, but he also doesn't take shit from people either. Because one thing Casey is not, is a push over. Even to his son...most of the time. Being good doesn't mean being a push over, after all. Casey still very much has the faith that he was raised in, and while he doesn't go to mass proper any more due to travel restrictions, he does have a rosary that he says twice daily, and has been teaching Alex prayers before meals and what it's all about. His one sigh of relief on the matter is that he was able to get Alex baptized before travel restrictions went into play. After breaking it off with his ex-girlfriend he realized that he had a lot to deal with when it came to himself, something that, of course, came at a time where he was a new dad and totally had to the time to deal with those issues. Trying to over come the feeling of not being enough was something that he still struggles with especially when he's tired. Casey knows this started about the time he was sent into more or less forced retirement and just grew worse with how toxic his relationship had become. It's a lot to work through, but he's very lucky in the sense that he has a solid foundation of family and friends with him.
While it appeared that Casey never really had a problem with academics, what people don't realize is how hard he worked for those grades and to get where he is now. Casey is not a natural student, he is by far and away a better hands-on learner than he is by sitting and memorizing things. It was his brother, Paddy, who helped him figure out how to study and make education work for him. He is lucky in a way that they attended Hogwarts where a lot of the learning was hands on. However, that didn't mean he didn't form study groups and seek extra help from Professors, because he did. Frequently. And while he might have sought some shame in that in his first few years, he eventually realized that this was just a tool for him to use to get where he wanted to. This work ethic came handy again once he left Hogwarts and started to train to become an Auror, and then after that when he "retired" and started on a totally new career path. Casey is still very much a happy person for the most part. He finds himself happiest at home with Alex or among his family and friends. Casey is without a doubt the type of person who will blindly defend them, even if they're wrong. This does stem from childhood when Paddy was sick and he almost lost his brother, this fear of losing his family. He enjoys bringing joy into their life and has always enjoyed being his friend's perpetual big brother. There is a lot of love in his heart, but it can sometimes be shielded at times, but if people can get past it, then it's nothing but wide open and caring.
appearance
HEIGHT: 6'4" WEIGHT: 280 lbs HAIR: Dark Brown (sprinkled with gray!) EYES: Brown
Most of his life Casey has always been a big boy. As a kid, he was defiantly that fat kid. Something that he was picked on quite a bit for, considering that his twin brother was more on the lither side of things. Eventually, once puberty hit, Casey started to even out as he started to grow up instead of out. And then he didn't seem to stop growing hitting well over six foot by the time he hit his fifth year. That was about the time that Casey started to learn about how to eat better and started to get more into athletics outside of Hogwarts, and just kept on once he started at his dream job. Making sure that he's still in good physical form is still important to him for a few reasons, the most important to keep up with his son, and secondly because it's a good form of stress relief, and third because he does actually care about what he looks like as much as he doesn't actually admit it. Casey's dark hair is peppered with gray now, despite only being in his thirties something that started to creep up in his late twenties.
Casey's style of dress is pretty simple. Jeans, tee shirts, hoodies, sneakers, honestly whatever makes him comfortable. He doesn't care if his jeans are a little frayed at the bottom or that he had to spell-o-tapped his shoe back together that morning, he just wants to be comfortable. He does own more professional clothing, and ones that fit a little bit more in the wizarding world, that he does wear while at work. But then again, they're not the most expensive type things because he works with animals so things tend to get destroyed. Not to mention, he has a five year old who also tends to anciently destroy things with things like finger paints.
As far as mannerisms go you can always tell when Casey in in deep thought because he can be found either chewing at the end of a writing implement and/or bouncing his leg at table shaking speed. He also has a tenancy to pull on his earlobe when he's uncomfortable with interacting with people, which, doesn't happen often, but it does happen from time to time. He also has a tendency to "do the stare", as Paddy calls it. When he's in a mood and he really needs to focus on what someone is saying, sometimes he does have to stare just beyond their shoulder and not look directly at them. This helps his brain focus on the content that he is supposed to be getting and not get distracted by anything else. So while it looks like he might not be paying attention, the real situation is that he is probably giving everything his 100% focus.
history
The story of Casey Summers started long before he was a glint in his father's eye. Long before his father was a glint in his father's eye and so on. As the family legend goes he is in fact a decedent of Gracy O'Malley the great and terrible Pirate Queen who tormented Queen Elizabeth I, on his mother's side. Something that even his witch mother proudly claims. If the legend is true or not, that's another question entirely, one that Casey and his brother Paddy had every intention of researching, just, never got around to it. But anyway, that's a family legend that he's rather proud of and he sees no reason not to be proud of it. But until then the story actually begins with Casey's paternal grandparents who moved to the small fishing village of Ballycotten from County Cavan to escape the ever growing violence. Not to mention to get away from any suspicions that they might be in fact different from non-magical folks. After the move south, the Summers lead a quiet life, actually running a grocery story down town for a long time, something that his grandparents owned up until their death when they finally sold. By the time that Casey and his twin brother Pádraig were born, their parents had established a nice little home near the water. Cathán worked for the Ministry of Magic Department of Education working with Irish muggle born children and their parents, while his mother worked as an editor for a magical book publisher. It allowed to her to both work and stay home with the kids, especially, once the twins started to walk and talk not to mention the eventual addition of Treasa (along with Casey's cousin and one of his best friends in the whole world, Margaret) as well.
Casey can honestly say that as far as a magical family goes, Casey had a pretty normal childhood. With one notable exception. Paddy would end up getting very sick with Scarlet Fever when they were six and it hit him so hard that in fact, they almost lost him. In truth, Casey doesn't really remember too much of this time, but he does remember telling Paddy stories through their bedroom door so he wouldn't be scared or lonely. He could only barely read at that age, but that didn't stop his imagination from running wild. His mother had to chase him away from the door constantly for fear the other boy would catch it as well. Thankfully, Paddy would regain his health, but from then on, Casey would stick like glue to his brother. In fact, the only real time that they would be separated was when they arrived at Hogwarts. Casey fully expected them to be sorted into the same house, but alas, he was sorted into Hufflepuff and Paddy would go to Ravenclaw. Life without his twin brother was weird and uncomfortable. While Paddy was a bit shy, he still seemed to make friends with his fellow Ravenclaws, while Casey couldn't help but feel a little left behind. It wasn't that he didn't like the fellas in his dorm, it was just that it wasn't what he was used to. But within the first few months Casey settled down and he eventually started to open himself open more to the other boys in his dorm. He found a kinship with them and ended up playing big brother to most of them by the time they would end up leaving school. It wasn't something intentional, but it had happened anyway. It helped build his confidence, which until he started to lose his kid fat, was something he desperately needed. It was this mentality that lead to Casey being in the run to become a Prefect in is Fifth Year, but would ultimately lose to his dormmate Cedric. It wasn't that he wasn't scared, it was just that he was a dumb teenager and it sounded like fun at the time. Such an example was in his Sixth Year when he tried to put his name into the Goblet of Fire, because he felt that he was close enough to being seventeen, which he would turn in January. Yeah. That didn't work out well for him. In fact, having that long grey beard wasn't the best look he'd ever had. Though, he can at least laugh about it now, with the fact that he does have several gray hairs now as an adult.
The death of Cedric had been hard for Casey. He had only been separated from the boy by a year, and he had helped Casey with his homework a few times. He had always been nice and the loss was heavily felt among the Hufflepuffs. Though, in his death, he inspired Casey in a way. It inspired him to shift his focus from possibly going into possibly going into magical zoology and chose to try and be an Auror instead. After talking considerably with Professor Sprout it turned out to not be that big of a deal anyway, since Casey's core classes would have worked for either one, with the exception of Care of Magical Creatures, which Casey just flat out refused to give up because it was the one class he could do with his arm tied behind his back and made him less stressed out about everything. He doesn't quite remember the last two months of school just because of how stressed he was, but somehow (probably thanks to his siblings, dorm mates, and long conversations with the Fat Friar of all people) managed to get through it and get himself into the Auror training program. He loved it. Casey was thriving and by the time the War was in full out mode he had acquired more skills than he possibly could have dreamed of. He'd fallen in love with his job, which was good because it had left him with little time to fall in love with actual people in those years. During the War Casey just tried to focus on doing his job, and what was assigned to him, he knew that he was lucky and had a good mentor in Kingsley Shacklebolt and when the war ended and the bad guys won...Casey's life became really uncertain.
As things went, he was mostly left alone, just due to his half-blood status, but the job was getting harder and harder to do. All of his ideals of fighting the good fight and taking down bad guys...was dying a not-so-slow-but-just-as-painful death. Around this time he had started to date a woman named Meredith to which he had fallen really in love with at the time. She was smart, beautiful, and fun to be around. She seemed to perfect. Which meant that he was doomed from the start. Casey threw everything he had to the relationship, but it always seemed to come up short. She didn't like his friends, and always tended to complain that he worked too much (it was true, but), or something was just not quite right or deemed just "okay" when he would plan something really all out for a special date. It was getting tense and to the point where Casey was ready to break things off...but then she told him she was pregnant. Something that Casey was thrown by, but found himself excited about. His life was falling apart at work and with the rumors of what was going to happen to Half-bloods, Casey took the opportunity of looming new fatherhood to retire from the Aurors. It was killing him from the inside slowly, and he took his out when he had it. His sister had plans to run an animal shelter in Diagon Alley, and Casey immediately started to train to help her do it. He worked along side various people and in various shops and clinics in order to get where he needed to be. It's not always glamours, and he's making about half of what he did before, but it would still be more than enough to get him by comfortably as long as he lived within his means. He honestly tried to make it work with Meredith, but one drunken weekend on his best friend's couch and several screaming matches later, they finally got the lawyers involved. At that point the pregnancy was too late to terminate on Meredith's end so carrying the baby to term was something she had to face. But upon realizing that the trap to get Casey, they decided Casey would get full custody of the child, and they would never have contact with the other after this.
Alexander Linus Summers was born on the 14th of August perfect, screaming, and filling his father with both complete dread and complete joy at the exact same time. The first month and a half was rough for him. It got to the point where his siblings were coming over and taking turns so that Casey could get some sleep because taking care of Alex was the only thing Casey seemed to be doing. It got better after that. A lot better. As the world fell apart, Casey rebuilt his life more and more. He was deeply unhappy about all of the changes, and part of him wished he could have stayed in his former job to maybe create some kind of influence, but he also fully believed in a plan for everything and knowing that in his former job, he wouldn't have either been around, or been able to take care of his son like he could now. Fatherhood suited Casey well once he got the hang of it, and realized that it was okay to have babysitters and go out and have fun once in a while. That was a hard lesson for him to learn, but he eventually got to that point. He has no idea how to build a better world for his son, other than just as he grows older try and teach him right from wrong. How to be strong and have the courage of his convictions behind him. Challenge him to do better than his father. You know...maybe after Alex finally figures out how to read and do maths and stuff. That too.