Post by William Archer on Jan 28, 2014 9:35:08 GMT -5
[presto]
19
MALE
WAITER/BARMAN
MUGGLE BORN
HETEROSEXUAL
NICO MIRALLEGRO
WILLIAM ANTHONY ARCHER
 THE HISTORY William Anthony Archer is perhaps the classic example of your typical bad-boy; equipped with both daddy and mummy issues, a fierce temper, a brash nature, and often a cigarette dangling from his lips, he's been a trouble-maker, a teenage runaway, and a bit of a rebel and he still hasn't really figured himself out yet. Judging by his demeanour and accent, you'd be surprised by the glamorous life-style his mother leads, and, judging by how lonely and independent he seems, you'd also be surprised by the fact that he's the middle child, squashed between two siblings he barely knows at all. William was born nineteen years ago, on a terribly cold November's afternoon, to Ruth Angelica Reddington and Robert 'Bobby' Archer. They weren't married - they had been together perhaps a year or two, but Bobby came and went as he pleased, polluted his body with alcohol and illegal substances and had problems with being faithful and maintaining respect towards his partner. Ruth, although she loved him deeply, was not blind to these things, and had always radiated a cold sort of power, although it often went ignored, or undermined, by Bobby. She was flawlessly, classically beautiful, and she was hard to grasp, and there was something almost icy about her. She herself had grown up with a single mother in a horrible neighborhood, and so she was rather used to looking after herself, although she'd always desperately wanted to be looked after by someone else. Her mother was a muggle, and they never suspected that Ruth had any sort of magic running through her veins - it was true that she had always been an odd child, but they had weathered through quite a stormy life and her mother merely assumed that she just had extra-maturity for a girl her age. Going to Hogwarts had been, for Ruth, as it was for so many other children, a dream. It was much like paradise to her, a chance of a fresh start, an entire new world unfolding in front of her. Although her mother worked exceptionally hard, they had never had a great deal of nice things, and they were frequently struggling. Her mother would also go through patches of time where she would become sad, strained, almost unresponsive, and it often frightened Ruth, living alone with this shadow of a woman. Being sent to live in a large, beautiful, gothic castle was heavenly to Ruth, although she did miss her mother terribly. When she went to Hogwarts, she was promptly sorted into Slytherin, and moved through her school-years quietly and efficiently and mostly confidently. She had few friends, for she was very much used to being alone, but she was beautiful, and therefore attracted extra attention she wished to deflect. She rarely accepted offers of dates, and was regarded by many of her school-mates as uppity - or, in a less gentle term, a 'bitch'. Her mother had died the year after Ruth had graduated, and Ruth was an only child - and so, when the time came for her to give birth to William, she only had two people in the entire world. The elusive, reckless Bobby Archer, prone to infidelity - and her first-born son, Joshua, eight years old at the time. Josh, of course, was not Bobby's son. His father had up and left when Josh was two, and, although he had never once hurt Ruth physically, she still felt the burn of the emotional pain he'd caused her - Josh's father had been controlling to the point of causing Ruth to almost go mad, frequently accusing her of cheating on him when, in reality, she had been as faithful as anyone could be. If another man so much as looked at her, Josh's father's eyes would be flashing with rage, his fists clenching in fury. Ruth supposed it was irony when he left her for a girl far younger than the both of them, a girl he'd been sleeping with since before Ruth had fallen pregnant with Josh. And yet Ruth had refused to let this mar her love for Josh; she was fiercely protective of him, and loved her beautiful son passionately. Josh had prospered under this love, and although he had quite the temper, by the time Will was born, Josh was a healthy, happy eight-year-old boy, popular in school, clever in his lessons, good at football and delightfully competent. On occasion, he could be terribly mischievous, but he and Ruth were impossibly close. He, like Ruth, seemed far older than he actually was - other mothers and fathers at the muggle primary school Josh attended would often mutter about Ruth, surveying her with smirks, wondering what age she had been when she had had her son, remarking upon her icy demeanor, snorting at the fact she seemed to think she was a cut above the rest of them, too good to mingle. Words such as bitch and slut had followed Ruth so closely, stalked her obsessively, since her early days that she was not surprised that that was still most peoples' opinions of her. Ruth had gone out with a few men since Josh's father had left, but Bobby was the one that Josh took to, too - Bobby was never mean or aggressive or sharp towards him, he would swing him around by the feet and laugh raucously, he would give him piggy-backs without a fuss. Ruth was greatly appeased by Josh taking to Bobby, and did not attempt to disillusion her son, and show him Bobby's rougher, nastier side. She knew that Bobby possessed it - the two had their first date in the local pub, with Bobby obviously immensely proud of his success with the most gorgeous woman for miles, sitting on his chair rather like he owned the entire place, a king surveying his subjects. Bobby Archer was many things - a lazy man, a drunken man, a selfish man - and Ruth knew that perfectly well from the very first date, but he was also charismatic and roguish and spoke exactly what was on his mind, wore his heart on his sleeve. He spoke to her unlike other men did - spoke as if he didn't even particularly care if she was listening, spoke as if, if she was to storm out of the pub at any moment, he would be able to replace her with the click of his fingers. He was an uncontrollable force of nature, that Bobby Archer, and she loved him for a long time, and was certain that he felt something for her - even though she knew it wasn't love. She mystified him. She intrigued him. He was caught in her spider's web, in a manner, but she was caught in his, too - one of the many terrible factors of the relationship. Ruth constantly wished she could call it off, but every time Bobby was able to twist her arm. The two would fight, would make up passionately, would bicker and roll their eyes at each other. It was never supposed to be serious, however. She was never supposed to have his child. Although she loved Bobby, she didn't have much trust set in him - she knew far too many men like him, and knew his nature instinctively. She was furious with herself for falling in love with him - she could deal with his lack of money, with his generally scruffy demeanour, but she felt she had betrayed her second son by having him with such an uncaring father. In the first few months after Will was born - Ruth insisted on naming him William Anthony, for the names sounded strong and brave and true and almost regal - Ruth began suffering from post-natal depression, although she didn't quite realise it at the time. She felt exhausted, empty; her sleeping and eating patterns became scattered, she felt overwhelmed and hopeless and inept in looking after a baby. Quite luckily, Bobby stuck around those first few months - the vast majority of the time - in a fit of pride over being a father. She was sceptical as to whether this would last, but she could not bear to send him away. She retreated into herself, even retreated from Josh, who became increasingly worried and upset and frustrated every day he came home from school. As Bobby's true nature began showing itself to Ruth's oldest child, he became more and more revolted by it. He would return home from school, dump his bag in the hallway, and rush out to play football with some lads on the estate, and by the time he got back, Bobby would be slumped on the couch, a can of beer cracked open in one hand, a cigarette dangling from his lips, staring blindly at the television. Ruth would often be huddled under the duvet, or staring vacantly out of the window with her own cigarette held aloft. Will would generally be in his cot - he was clean, certainly, and fed, but Josh still felt a nagging, a tugging in his heart - he felt as though it wasn't enough, but, as an eight year old, he didn't have the slightest clue about babies. Bobby became steadily worse as the weeks and months trawled past; his jokes grew vulgar and dark and sharp, stuck to Josh's skin and refused to scrub off. His eyes were cold, dark, his mouth often twisted in a nasty smirk. His breath smelled of alcohol constantly; his clothes of stale smoke. Josh began returning home earlier when Bobby started making digs at Ruth, sounding increasingly irritated and vindictive each time. If Ruth wandered into the room, dark circles almost like bruises under her eyes, Bobby would sneer, brandish his can towards Will and make a remark about Ruth needing to look after her kids better. Josh began to get used to hearing Bobby and Ruth argue in the other room - or rather, he became used to hearing Bobby rage at his mother, throwing dig after dig at her, flinging cruel, sharp words that inflicted terrible pain on Josh. Josh simply couldn't understand his mother - he was used to her being so strong and independent, quiet and yet utterly refusing to accept anyone else's crap, and yet she seemed to have lost all sense of hope, all sense of fight. Once, Josh, in a fit of anger, tore into the bedroom and roared at Bobby to leave Ruth alone, and Josh knew that if Ruth hadn't been there, Bobby would have struck him with a force that could've knocked him clear across the room. Something seemed to snap in Ruth, however, with that instance, and she warned Bobby not to dare touch her son, scooping Josh into her arms protectively and peppering kisses on Josh's head. Bobby made a deeply sarcastic remark about Ruth being unable to scare him anymore. What Bobby was referring to was the fact that Ruth rarely used her magic anymore. Ruth, who had always been suspicious of how trustworthy Bobby was, had refused to let him in on the secret - that she, in fact, was a witch - until she fell pregnant with William. Then, she concluded, it was inevitable. When she first revealed her secret, Bobby nearly laughed himself silly, demanding to know what she'd taken. When she performed a series of magic tricks, however, Bobby began demanding what he had taken. Once he had wrapped his head around it, however, he thought it excellent, sensational - Ruth began worrying desperately after that, because Bobby was so apt to bragging about her that surely he would try to convince someone that his wife was an honest-to-god witch. With the depression, however, Ruth's magical powers seemed to wean - in reality, it was probably entirely in her head, a mental block, but she had hurled her wand into a drawer and locked the door firmly and had not taken it out in rather a while. The comment of Bobby's shocked Ruth - she knew perfectly well as to what he was alluding to, but she could not quite believe that he had ever been scared of her. With Ruth's distance from Will, it is unsurprising that the young boy grew up gravitating mainly towards the two men in his family, two men he treated with utter reverence, only to be disappointed in the end; he would waddle towards Bobby and stretch his chubby hands towards him and shriek with laughter when Bobby would toss him in the air or spin him around, and he would follow Josh around obsessively and parrot everything he said eagerly. In Will's head, Josh was the coolest brother in the world - more than a brother. He was a warrior, a hero. It wasn't that Will didn't love his mother, but they had never experienced the same closeness that she and Josh had. Ruth struggled through her depression, but Will seemed only to understand how much Bobby loved him - for Bobby was so open in his affection, while Ruth was quieter, colder. When Bobby and Ruth would fight in their room at night in those early years, Will would always be irritated at his mother - he saw it as his mother provoking Bobby, his mother being nasty to his father. He was always fiercely on Bobby's side, while Josh always took his mother's. When Will was three, Ruth fell pregnant again, and she wept when she found out, hugging Will and Josh close to her. Ruth felt that she was surely to lose Bobby this time - he wanted her for her beauty, but she was certain that she was beginning to look weary and lined, the persona she had always had, but it was beginning to crack and would soon shatter, and he stuck around because of his love of Will - but she could almost feel his boredom, his restlessness. He was proud of his son, proud that his son was loud and had a wicked sense of humour and got in trouble and was brash and kept breaking things accidentally, but Bobby simply didn't want to hug Will tight when he cried or wipe his nose or wash him. Bobby wanted a glamorous life-style. He didn't want to be a father. And Ruth was almost certain that, when she told Bobby she was pregnant again, he would leave for good, and they would have no income whatsoever, and she would have to deal with three children, and the fact that she couldn't even provide for them. She thought vaguely about putting Bobby under the imperius curse, but she knew it was a wicked thought, a desperate thought, and she didn't have the conviction - anyways, she loved Bobby, and it would kill her to have to force someone she loved to stay even more than it would hurt her to watch someone she loved go. She wondered about finding someone else, another man, but she wasn't ready - and anyways, she felt certain that no one would want a sad, lonely woman, with two kids and another on the way. But Bobby did stay - the vast majority of the time - and when Ruth gave birth to a girl she cried again, this time with delight. A girl. Her little girl, Lara Rose Archer. She promised fervently that she would protect and cherish this little girl, teach her how to be strong, not to let her fall away from her as Will already seemed to have done. Ruth was worried about how Will would react to a new baby - Lara was so tiny, so delicate, and so she kept Will at bay the most of the time, only allowing him to go near Lara if she was sure he was calm. For the first few days, he did sometimes snuggle up beside his mum and hold Lara's hand and insisted on talking to her, but after a while the excitement wore off. Ruth barely even let Bobby near Lara - Ruth grew stronger again, much like how she was when she was younger. Tough, sharp, witty, independent, capable. She felt that her daughter had given her the strength to do so. William grew up as a boisterous, determined, cheerful boy with a wicked temper. He wasn't cruel, nor was he nasty, but he tended to get in trouble an awful lot, and, because he was a born leader, he tended to get other people in trouble, too. Will would often snigger by his mother's side as she rolled her eyes when another mother came up to complain to her about Will's behaviour. Will was still as reverent of Josh as he ever was - the words "my brother" came out of his mouth more than anything else, and he was always pestering Josh and Bobby to play football with him, even though Will wasn't a very good football player. Will didn't have the same sort of popularity in school, or in the estate they lived in - he had a massive temper, and people found it hilarious to wind him up, particularly the older lads, although they wouldn't dare do it with Josh around, because Josh was seen as cool, and treated with respect. Josh had fallen into rather the bad crowd, hanging around with older kids and smoking and yelling at people on the streets and making petty thefts and a general nuisance of himself. Will was mostly oblivious to this, but Ruth wasn't. She kept quiet, though, instead focusing on Lara, knowing that soon Josh would be heading to Hogwarts and breaking away from that life-style. Ruth and Josh went through a terrible patch before he went to Hogwarts, never speaking, both disappointed and angry with the other. Bobby spent less and less time at home, going out every night and spending all of their money on drinks and at the betting shop and staggering home hammered. Ruth began refusing to let him sleep in the same bed as her, and so he would crash on the sofa, and be woken up by Will jumping on him eagerly the next day. Will was terribly upset when Josh went away to Hogwarts when he was four, but soon became used to it. Ruth would read Will the letters that Josh sent her, mostly because he begged her to, telling Will of Josh being sorted into Gryffindor, that his brother must be so brave to do so, that his brother was doing well, he wasn't getting into too much trouble, he was making loads of friends. Josh never once came home for the Christmas holidays, but he did repair his relationship with his mum over the summers, and they came out of it stronger than ever. Lara was a quiet and delicate child - much like their mother, there was something tougher underneath the surface, but Will didn't consider her a good enough playmate, and so most times he would play with the other kids on the estate, although that often ended in disaster. One of Will's best memories is stemmed from what could have been one of his worst - during the summer, Will had gone out to play football with a bunch of the older lads, who found his temper tantrums and his tears hilarious. Will was about seven or eight at the time, and he was painfully naive about the fact that they laughed at him. Will was so loud-mouthed and chatty and said whatever was on his mind that they considered him deeply annoying, as well. And so the lads suggested Will be in goal, but instead of aiming for the goal, they aimed for Will instead, and when he caught on to the fact that they were doing it on purpose, he began roaring at them, but this only made the joke ten times better - he was swarmed around, and someone promised that if he caught the ball he'd be able to play with them properly, but instead they threw it over his head, each older boy deftly catching it. Will had been reduced to tears by this point, although he was still effing and blinding (he had a great collection of his swear words, learned from Josh and Bobby) and promising that his dad would kill them, Josh would kill them, his amazing older brother would set them straight. And, amazingly, Josh did turn up at this point. At fifteen or so, Josh was a big guy - he was still very into his sports and worked hard at toning up - and he was known as easy to get along with unless you really pissed him off. Almost immediately, the older lads began backing away, but not before Josh promised them all that they'd be sorry if they messed with Will again. Money was always a touchy subject for the Archers, what with Bobby spending so much in the pub almost every night and disappearing for weeks on end, but once Lara started at school as well Ruth flung herself into finding a job. She had no accomplishments, nothing to show for herself, she felt, but she managed to get one in a small cafe. She'd had no experience in working as a waitress before, but she decided it wasn't that hard - she worked during the day, was polite to the customers, engaged in mild flirtation with anyone who came in and thought she was attractive enough to spend time with, and then picked up Will and Lara from school, Will often with enough bruises and scrapes for about three young boys, bursting with energy, be it happiness or anger. When Will was ten - the year Josh left Hogwarts and moved back - Bobby brought home a dog one day, a large, wild thing, full of excitement, so much like Will. Will roared with appreciation, and adored the dog. Ruth wasn't so thrilled - another mouth to feed, after all, but she couldn't bring herself to take it away from Ruth. When Bobby demanded if she was going to let the 'poor kid' keep it, she merely rolled her eyes and shrugged, a slight smile gracing her lips as she lit her cigarette, and Will flung himself at her, hugging her tightly. Will hadn't hugged her in so long - he seemed so affectionate with everybody except for her and Lara - that it shocked her. The dog was christened Leggit, and Will told it everything. Josh moved back in with the family, although he seemed distant from the disappointed Will. Will knew that a lot of the money Josh was getting from his job in one of the shops in Diagon was going towards the family, and Will sorted of resented his mum for it. Will resented his mum for a lot, really. Will wanted desperately to be placed in Gryffindor, like his brother, but was filled with disappointment when he was put in Slytherin - like his mother. He wasn't like his mother, he told himself furiously. He was like his brother, and his dad. His mother was so cold. His mother didn't even like him that much, he was sure. And yet there he was, a Slytherin. He changed his opinion of it pretty soon, as he met his best mate in Slytherin - Neil Pereira, as up for shenanigans as Will was. The two caused trouble wherever they went, and as the years went on Will began to see Neil as more of a brother than a friend. Will only needed Neil, but he got on with quite a lot of the boys in his year, and some of the girls - although they all knew of Will's fierce temper and brash nature, there was a certain charisma to Will, and he was never really cruel or nasty unless he was in a rage. His work was alright - he was lazy, but he wasn't failing anything, at least. He was a trouble-maker, a bit of a rebel, but likable, and so he was accepted into Hogwarts far better than he was ever accepted before, and Hogwarts became his true home. In the summer of second year, disaster struck. Bobby had been coming home less and less; with Will gone, and only a contemptuous Josh and a weary Ruth and a daughter who did not interest him much, he felt no need to. Occasionally he would come back and he and Ruth would sleep together, which would send her into a spiral of self-hatred. Her love for Bobby was beginning to fade however - it was twisted, she knew, and she wanted to rid herself of her love for him, she wanted to step away from it, to move back. When Will and Lara came home in June, Bobby wasn't there, and Will began demanding of his mother a mobile number. Ruth insisted that she didn't know, which infuriated Will. He was certain that his icy mother had sent Bobby away, too blinded by his love of his father to see his mother's adoration of him and the fact that she was scared and sad and vulnerable. He and Josh were at odds often, because Josh frequently took Ruth's side, taking care of her and Lara both while Will began causing more trouble than ever, rowing with his mother every time they came in contact. One day in late August, Bobby came home, and Will was beside himself with joy, flinging himself at his dad, telling him everything, making Leggit go bonkers. Bobby was very obviously hungover, but Will insisted on hearing all about where he'd been, certain that his dad had been partying and going on adventures, not slouched in a pub every night, or with his head stuck in a toilet every morning, or jumping into bed with anyone who would take him. Bobby shook Will off eventually, but Will was undeterred, instead going across to get his dad a cup of coffee. Josh stopped him in his tracks, however, and insisted that he and Lara go into the sitting room, that he, Ruth and Bobby needed to talk in the kitchen. Will was furious, and raged and stormed, but Josh was far bigger than he was, and once the kitchen door was locked Will didn't have a choice. Furious, he kicked at the ground and pressed his ear to the door. When they were allowed back in, Will found that Josh was sending Bobby away. For good. And, inexplicably, Will's anger fell on his mum, sitting with an impassive expression, a cigarette balanced on her bottom lip, not saying anything. Will was certain Josh was only saying it on his mum's orders, and he begged his father to stay. Will didn't realise his mother loved Bobby almost as much as he did - didn't realise that his mother was hurting terribly, and trying so very, very hard. He saw it as her discarding Bobby with ease, and clung to his father. But Bobby left. He promised that he would write to Will - hastily, and through insults thrown at Josh and Ruth - but he never did. And so William Archer found himself without a father, with a mother who he felt would never love him as she did his brother and sister, with a brother and sister he wasn't particularly close to. Really, he only had his dog - and so he took Leggit for more frequent walks, and longer ones, too, whiling away hours and hours with the mad animal who loved him so fiercely. Ruth was never the strictest of mothers, and so she would barely say anything when Will would reappear after hours and hours of nothingness, chucking his coat on the sofa and storming into his room without the slightest comment for any of them. And then he would while away hours in his room, sometimes nigging one of Ruth's fags and drawing smoke into his lungs and trying desperately not to cough. Every now and then, he'd sneak out of the flat, staying out until the sun began rising again, making his first encounters with alcohol and adoring it, adoring the feeling of being one step apart from the world. As time went on, he cared less and less about if Ruth found out where he was, and sometimes when he returned she would still be awake, sitting up at the kitchen table, smoking and and obviously awaiting him. Whatever she said - however much she implored - he would ignore entirely. Josh, firmer and bossier, tried to sort Will out, too, but he went ignored as well. And, just before Will returned to Hogwarts for his third year, a bomb was dropped - Josh was moving to the USA. A whole different continent. Will's life seemed to crash and burn at that moment - first Bobby, his father, his best mate in the world other than Neil, his partner in crime, the preferred parent, left without a trace, and now Josh. Ruth was unsurprising; Will was furious. So she knew - and she was letting Josh go. Typical. He swore at both his mother and brother, and refused to give Josh a proper goodbye, but once Josh was gone Will missed him with every fiber in his being. He wanted Josh home, he needed that extra support. He felt lonely and unsafe and bored and restless, stranded with his mother and his sister, these two quiet, delicate, impassive women that he had never had much to do with. While Will was gone to Hogwarts in third year - causing more trouble than ever and starting to party with the older kids and getting his first girlfriends - Ruth met Samuel Hawes, an older, very wealthy man who encountered her in the coffee shop she worked in when he stopped there on his way to his home, as he had been visiting his mother. He was instantly taken with her, and Ruth found herself charmed by the fact that he was a gentleman, and so soft-spoken and cheery, and he didn't seem to think she would be at all interested in him. And so, when he tentatively asked if she'd ever want to see him again, she scribbled her number down on a piece of paper and told him to call. Both were shocked when they found out that they were both from the wizarding world, although Ruth had all but given up on the idea of magic. Their first date was in a terribly posh restaurant, and although Ruth was reserved and did not offer much about herself, they interacted surprisingly easily - oh, he was nothing like what she could ever fall in love with; he was older than her by about twenty years, not handsome in the slightest, there was nothing dangerous or charming about him. But he was so aware of that fact - and he reminded her of something akin to an uncle. She felt that he could be her friend, even though she knew he was besotted with her. The two began seeing each other frequently, and he was introduced to Lara, who was polite to him, although Ruth was suspicious of Lara's true feelings towards him. Samuel lived in a huge house, he had a top job in the Ministry, he was kind to her, he was her friend, he tried hard with Lara - Ruth wondered if she had been a fool, looking for love all that time. Shouldn't she have looked for stability, instead? She would never love Samuel the way he loved her - the way she loved Bobby - but she loved him as one would a friend. Was that not enough? Will, of course, detested Samuel when he found out about him. His and Lara's shared hatred of the man brought them closer, and the summer after his third year in particular Will tried hard to be more present in Lara's life, realising that she had been more abandoned than he had, that she had had to deal with Samuel and Ruth all on her own, and that couldn't have been easy. Will never quite knew what to say to Lara - on the surface they were almost polar opposites. Lara was quiet, reserved, rarely ever showed her true feelings, whereas Will was loud and brash and couldn't do anything but wear his heart on his sleeve. Will demanded of his mother whether she was marrying Samuel for love or for money, and when she did not answer immediately Will was enraged. He was as rude to Samuel as could be and whenever the man turned up at their flat Will would instantly disappear, off to find himself some cheap booze and cigarettes and good times, although they generally spiraled into terrible times. Whenever they were invited to Samuel's to eat, Will point blank refused, and his mother knew better than to press matters. Will's fourth year was Lara's first year, and although he promised to look out for her, and told her to come to him if she had any trouble - he wanted to be what Josh had been to him, without the abandoning part - he knew instinctively she wouldn't. First off, Lara was tough as hell, and he was just beginning to realise - she was capable and mature and clever, and she could probably deal better than him. Second off, the two found it harder than ever to communicate, could barely show their affection for each other, and he couldn't imagine Lara approaching him and asking him for help. Like her mother, she handled things on her own, usually. And so the two did not interact much at Hogwarts, Will hurling himself into his social life immediately, laughing raucously and hooking up with girls and bounding around the corridors with Neil. As Will expected, Ruth moved in with Samuel Hawes, and he and Lara were expected to, as well. For the next two summers, when Will was fourteen and fifteen, he caused as much trouble as possible, sneaking out practically every night, playing football inside and knocking things over, cheeking Samuel and outright ignoring his mother. He was furious with her for marrying for money, for sending Bobby away, for letting Josh go. Samuel was the worst - so jolly, so eager to please. It drove Will mad. He wanted to shake the man, to remind him who his mother was. Ruth Reddington was beautiful and mysterious and whenever Will's friends caught sight of her they'd stare and stare, and he saw the looks she attracted on the street. Will wanted to knock it into Samuel that Ruth didn't love him, she couldn't love him, that he was an imbecile for letting her take advantage. That was the summer that Leggit died - Will and Lara had been walking him together, with Will jabbering on and on, trying desperately to repair their relationship, when Leggit and suddenly started sprinting, and by the time they reached the dog it had been struck by a lorry. Will, unable to hold himself together, felt tears prickling in his eyes, and watched as Lara descended into misery. He had practically given Leggit to Lara, and Leggit almost liked Lara more than she did Will - but Leggit had still been Will's, Will's first best mate, and it was painful to watch Leggit die. Ruth and Will managed not to fight that night - a night Will actually stayed at home - and she hugged Will as he cried and raged about his dog. By the next morning, they both acted as though this tender moment had never happened. Will's life went on in Hogwarts - he drank and smoked and caused trouble and hung out with Neil, he had girlfriends and friends, and yet he felt as though a chunk of himself was missing. His dad was gone, and he hadn't heard from him in years. His brother was gone, and he hadn't heard from him, either. He felt horrendously jealous when he saw other families, other normal families, families that had each other and cared about each other. He knew he wasn't the only one who didn't get on with his mum, but he felt as though they weren't even related, as though his mum didn't even really care about him. And he did love his mum - fiercely so. But he couldn't help himself - he was angry at her the vast majority of the time, and that anger was almost uncontrollable. The summer after sixth year went the usual way - he stayed out more than he stayed in, he cheeked Samuel and outright despised him, he attempted to repair his relationship with Lara, and he argued bitterly with his mum. One day, he found a torn-up piece of paper, on it, in his mum's beautiful hand-writing, the word Bobby, an address about an hour away, and a phone number. Furious, he confronted his mum about it immediately, raging at her about how she had known where Bobby was that entire time. Words poured out of his mouth before he could even think about them; he hated this huge manor they were living in, hated the parties Samuel threw, hated Samuel, hated his mum, hated how Josh had gone and Will felt as though he was never coming back. Everything escalated, and Will caused quite a scene, until finally Samuel insisted that Will leave the house. Will was shocked, but Samuel would not back down; Will was upsetting Ruth, and Will was making everything tougher, and Samuel even suggested that Will was hurting Lara terribly. Furious - mostly because he thought Samuel was right - Will rushed out of the house with all the money he had in the world, Bobby's address in his pocket, and got onto a bus. He reached Bobby's flat an hour and a half later, tired and worn and jumpy, but feeling relieved. His father would take him in. And maybe he could be convinced to take Lara in, too - they could live with him, and laugh, and joke, and be loved and happy without a huge manor and pots of money and fake love thrown in their faces. But when Bobby opened the door to his son, he looked less than pleased, drunk, and exhausted. He seemed edgy, and although he let Will come in, he seemed eager for him to go. Will was met with an unpleasant sight; the flat was atrocious, smelt strongly of booze and fags and other substances, and a woman far younger than Bobby - closer to Will's age, really - was sat on the sofa, eyeing Will warily but not with any great interest. Will, although his stomach was lurching, began imploring his dad to let him stay, but Bobby was not enthusiastic about this prospect. He ordered Will out, making it perfectly clear that he didn't want Will, had never really wanted Will. He reminded Will that he was his mum's business, that he couldn't be bothered with them anymore, that he wasn't a father and wasn't going to be one ever again. This was the straw that broke the camel's back - Will lunged at his father and punched him, hard, and sprinted from the flat with the sound of the woman in Bobby's apartment shrieking still ringing in his ears. Will walked for a long time, dazed, going from one off-licence to the other until he managed to get someone to sell him booze. Will's dad had always been a source of inspiration for him. Will had always felt that even though he wasn't his mother's favourite, he was his father's. He'd thought he had someone, but he hadn't, not really - and people had always said Will was like his dad. Will had always thought that this meant that his dad was good, decent, because Will knew that he himself was decent - but perhaps it meant that neither of them were decent. He flagged down the Knight Bus and sneaked back into the Hawes Manor, gathering up his stuff. Before he left, he dropped into Lara's room to bid her goodbye, telling her that he had had enough. It was only when he had left that he realised he had gone back on the promise he'd made to her and to himself - that he wouldn't abandon her. But he knew he couldn't stay; there was no chance of that, not with Samuel in the picture, and he couldn't face his mum again and tell her what Bobby had said to him. He was deeply ashamed of the fact that even his father couldn't stand him. And so he went to the one person he could always count on - Neil. He apologized for turning up so suddenly, but Neil and his sister, Jade, welcomed him warmly and was happy for him to live with them in their flat, and he'd never been more grateful. He loves Neil and Jade more than anyone else in the world, with the possible exception of Lara and his mum, and he considers them more so family than he does his real family. Will's last year at school had its ups and downs. He tried to push away the drama of the summer, and he grew cold whenever he saw Lara, but he was certain she didn't want to see him ever again. He was known throughout the school as loud, adventurous, slightly wild - bad-boy William Archer, rebellious William Archer, funny and surprisingly kind when he wanted to be. He could be crude and he often couldn't empathize with other people but he was a good guy. A decent guy. He hadn't worked very hard in his fifth and sixth years, and he struggled to keep up with the rest of his year, but he graduated with somewhat alright grades - he failed a couple of subjects, but scraped passes in some others with help from his friends. He began working in the Tamarisk Tree, a cafe owned and run by Libby Jordan in Diagon Alley, and soon after got a job in a Muggle Nightclub a couple of nights a week. He began to clean his act up, to sort himself out - he still went out and partied with the lads and chatted up girls and bounded around, but he realised he had to show some maturity at his age. He's still trying to curb his temper - he needs to control himself, not let his emotions control him. Once, he ran into Lara, and, realising she needed an explanation, painfully relived his encounter with Bobby, and apologized for his abandoning her, as so many others had. Their relationship is still hopelessly strained, but Will is determined for the two of them to become closer - he wants to be the cool older brother, the older brother she can look to and love and trust. Not some bad, mad, angry asshole who breaks every promise he makes. To Will's shock, his older brother Josh has moved back to England, moved back in with Ruth and Samuel, and contacted Will via owl. Will, of course, refused to accept Josh back into his life, and refused to reconcile with his mother, and is staying as far away from the family as possible. He wants nothing to do with Samuel, or Ruth, or Josh - only Lara. He just doesn't know how he can earn her trust, he doesn't know how he can become the bigger brother he should have had, the big brother he should have been. THE EXTRAS NAME: William Anthony Archer AGE: Nineteen HOUSE: Former Slytherin OCCUPATION: Waiter at the Tamarisk Tree, worker at a Muggle Nightclub STRENGTHS: brave, honest, energetic, humorous, a strong leader, determined WEAKNESSES: a slave to his emotions, rebellious, set in his ways, sometimes does not stick to his promises, can be ruthless and cold when enraged, easily frustrated FAMILY: Ruth Reddington, Mother, Muggle-Born (estranged) Bobby Archer, Father, Muggle (estranged) Samuel Hawes, Step-Father, Half-Blood Joshua Steven Reddington, Half-Brother, Muggle-Born Lara Rose Archer, Sister, Muggle-Born BOGGART: him turning into Bobby when he's older, because his greatest fear now is that he is exactly like Bobby. He'd see himself as a drunkard, a pathetic man, a cruel man, a man who abandons children and wife and doesn't give a toss about anyone else. MIRROR OF ERISED: him, Lara and Josh, reunited and their issues sorted out - he wants them to be a team, he wants to feel that they are his brother and sister, as much as he loves feeling that Jade and Neil are. WORST MEMORY: the day he went to Bobby's flat and found out that he'd been wrong all along; he felt betrayed, and utterly alone, and fell into a spiral of self-hate. GOOD HABITS: he's the life and soul of the party and it's his habit to make sure everyone's enjoying themselves; he's always punctual for work; he knows how to make people laugh; he has a habit of taking the lead when no one else wants to BAD HABITS: smoking and drinking in excess, self-hating, self-destructing, losing his temper, recklessness ELLA 18 TMZ |
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