Player information
Alias: Julie
Age: 20
AIM: jyuulii
Timezone: GMT+1

Character information
BASICS

Name: Orion Perseus Black
Date of birth: January 10^th, 1929 (Capricorn)
Played-by: Ioan Gruffudd (#1) or Rufus Sewell (#2). Young!PB will follow once the occasion arises!
Journal: None set up yet, but presumably something like orions.

PERSONALITY TYPE: Reliable Realist.
FIRST IMPRESSION: He is a gentleman and a scholar.

PERSONALITY: The eldest son of an eldest of an eldest, Orion Black has descended from a long line of patriarchs, and the heavy weight of pureblood responsibility has settled on his shoulders. He has the calm and sober demeanour to match. The wealth and finances of being impending-head-of-family has offered him tremendous flexibility and a wide array of options, of course, but Orion has been extremely stilted in other ways; almost every action he takes is first weighed with the consideration of his familial and societal duties. Many of his decisions in life, as any reputation-mindful pureblood, have been motivated by the pressure to conform to the norm, and not defy it like, say, great-uncle Phineas—in fact, until Sirius came along, there had been no blood traitors whatsoever in Orion's immediate branch of the family tree. It was a fact he took great pride in. Today, other branches of the tree are littered with burn marks: Phineas, Marius, Alphard, Cedrella, Andromeda, and Sirius—and unfortunately, Orion's son represents a failure and betrayal of three whole generations of Blacks. Like many members of the family, Orion possesses a deep and intrinstic loyalty towards their Noble and Most Ancient House.

When it comes to his sons, however, Orion has remained infuriatingly distant and dispassionate on the subject. He inadvertently punishes them via distance and inattention rather than direct abuse, and is prone to distraction. He was fondest of them as newborns (simplistic, novel, and representing hope for the future) and as Hogwarts-age students, wherein they could actually accomplish things of note. He has always tried regaling them with pocket money, lessons, and all the material comfort possible to two pureblood sons—everything, in fact, except for the love and respect of a father. Unconsciously viewing children as the sort of thing women are best at, Orion has left the task of childrearing entirely to his wife's discretion, instead keeping them scrabbling to capture his attention at all. After all, why appoint himself to their upbringing when he has a wife so obsessively devoted to the task? Father has so, so many important things to do instead: vital social functions, maintaining the family's public appearance, political negotiations and machinations at the Ministry, and most importantly, trying to maintain their standard of life. Respect amongst their particular society is hard-gained and easily-lost, and Orion measures his affection by how proud he can be of the person involved—in short, how worthy of his attention they are.

Though hard and uncompromising, he is perfectly aware of how to be diplomatic. Arcturus and Melania have drilled manners and etiquette into their son almost from birth, and therefore he possesses a stellar ability to tread the line between groups. House barriers, for example, were never a hindrance to his interactions in Hogwarts—blood and blood alone remained the be-all end-all of friendships and relationships.

Orion is fairly obsessed with safety and security, and though his moments of paternal affection have been extremely rare over the years, he did go though a harrying period of childproofing absolutely everything in the house when Walburga was first pregnant. Above all else, Orion fears his foundations being ripped out from under him, and losing all the crutches and supports which maintain the precarious balance of pureblood existence. He has an intensely pragmatic and realistic approach to life, almost scientific in nature, and was known for proficiency in Arithmancy and Transfiguration. Orion's metaphorical ambition is to build ever sturdier walls of ever stronger bricks, and he approaches his interpersonal relationships in much the same manner.

Additionally, Orion is not your typical smooth pureblood bachelor and charmer. Yes, he is rich; yes, his family name and reputation are both highly desirable; yes, he possesses the good looks for which the Blacks are so reknowned—but no, he is not a sex machine. In fact, he is brusque and distant and extremely hard to lighten up into a smile, which is part of what has his boys tiptoeing on eggshells around the man. Flirting does not come easily to him, whilst business and debate does—and so it seems like no surprise that when he does indulge in flirtation, he treats it like a purely verbal sport. Level-headed conversations and discussions on ideology and mentality intrigue him as much as wit and a good eye for efficiency. When it comes to women he genuinely likes, Orion will pay them interest in his own quiet, attentive way, and if ever properly put off-guard, his trademark taciturn exterior has been known to become ‘endearably flustered’ instead.

But thanks to his familial obligations, Orion has never had the leisure to even consider marrying for love—to him, love has absolutely nothing to do with marriage, for a wedding is very much like a business transaction. He is far more likely to have married the woman who will keep his family's name aloft and run his household well, and then have affairs with the women he feels strongly for and becomes profoundly stupid over. He and his wife are like coworkers in the management of their family, rather than blissfully wedded loved ones; theirs is a marriage of convenience more than anything else, largely to keep Orion's money within the family.

Socially, he is not the life of the party, but certainly an enlivening presence in one-on-one conversations, with intense hushed voices and gesticulations. Once people finally get past his initial layers of gruff silence, Orion is actually quite good for a chat. Perhaps his love of intellectual conversation is what created the divide between him and children in the first place; he loves his boys as a concept and as an asset of which to be proud, but saw very little worth in them until they were close to Hogwarts-age. He has always been too busy to listen to the incessant babbling of toddlers, and as he advanced into adulthood, too impatient to tolerate childish games. There is a strange and stark contrast between his temperament and Walburga's—where hers is an explosive anger, Orion's temper is a menacing quiet. Often, the steel set of his jaw and a tightening muscle in his neck were the only indications to his sons that his mood had fluctuated. One might be hard-pressed to tell which parenting style had the most harmful effect upon those boys.

Magical strengths/weaknesses/peculiarities: Much to Melania's displeasure, as she was a fair hand at both Herbology and Potions, her son would turn out to be terrible in both subjects. He is an amazing, amazing Transfigurist—that ability runs rather strong on his side of the family, and Sirius would inherit a generous portion of that particular skill. Orion is, however, not the best dueller—his spells are top-notch, but his style more defensive than it ought to be, favouring security rather than being like the swift and daring hunter of his namesake.

Wand: Ashwood, dragon heartstring core, just shy of twelve inches. Ash is a strong, straight-grained wood, and considered to be the father of trees; in Greece, powerful families were believed to have come from ash trees.

BACKGROUND

Significant dates:
1925: Lucretia and Walburga born.
JANUARY 10, 1929: Orion born to Arcturus Black and Melania Macmillan. His mother was sickly for long after her second birth, and Healers were constantly on-call at the house before she finally convalesced.
FEBRUARY 21, 1929: Cygnus born.
JUNE 1931: First manifestation of magical ability at age two, when Orion explodes an large pot of boiling hot soup over a kitchenful of house elves. After this, there are no signs for years upon years—his parents revoke more and more of their attention and become stricter in an attempt to beat another magical display out of him, but it is only Lucretia who eventually succeeds with her little brother.
1940-1947: Hogwarts years as Slytherin, yearmates with Cygnus. Lucretia had a tempering influence on him, and growing up with one sister alone put Orion in veritable awe of the older boys at Hogwarts.
1947-1950: For three years after graduation, he focused upon his fledgling career in the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Kept busy with the occasional object of affection over the years, notably a couple stunning Beauxbatons alumni.
1950: Married Walburga Black at age twenty-one, most likely due to the pressuring of Arcturus and Melania for their only son to finally settle down. He could no longer keep gambling relationships hoping he'd meet someone he liked better—make your investments already, man!
1951, 1953, 1955: Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Narcissa born.
SEPTEMBER 16, 1959: Sirius born. Orion is thirty.
OCTOBER 28, 1961: Regulus born. Orion is thirty-two.
1976: Sirius runs away from home at age sixteen, and is struck from family tree.
1979: Cygnus, Orion, and Regulus die.

Alliance and views on purism: He was never blunt enough to utter the word ‘mudblood’ in public, but he has said practically everything else, and almost all of the wizarding world knows where Orion Black's sympathies lie. There were no official demerits on his record for arguing with Muggleborns, no detentions for fisticuffs with loud-mouthed Gryffindors—but that just shows what he wasn't caught doing. Despite his curt but non-violent behaviour throughout his school years, Orion is an adamant purebloodist, a steadfast supporter of blood rights, and heavily biased towards Slytherins. He is not openly cruel to Muggleborns, but rather treats them as if they are, simply enough, not worth listening to. Orion has ridden the wave of the Knights of Walpurgis in the hope that this ideological avenue will bring him what he wants: a perfect world. They're not there yet, by any means, but perhaps Tom Riddle (though his techniques may be a bit, how shall we put it, harsh) will help them make this world into something better. Something cleaner. Something safer. He is unprepared to put his own neck on the line, but respects and reveres those who do.

Potential relationships:
WIFE: Walburga. His Anna of Saxony, the rearer of his children, the lynchpin of his household.
COUSINS AND BROTHERS-IN-LAW: Walburga, Alphard, and Cygnus. Due to some of the kids sharing birthyears, I'm guessing these two branches of the family were particularly close playmates while growing up?
SONS: Sirius and Regulus. Tthe fact remains: the only surefire way to pull on Orion's paternal heartstrings is by academic or professional accomplishment
COWORKERS: Other Ministry of Magic employees, particularly anyone interested in law?
OTHER PUREBLOODS: Token allies and rivals and enemies, since obv. it is much cooler if not everyone gets along! I'd kind of love for Orion to have an irrational nemesisdom with one of his equals.