Seamus (ireland) wrote,
@ 2008-01-04 14:15:00

continued

vox_politik

NAME: Seamus Joseph Finnigan
AGE: 17 (DOB: December 12th, 1979)
HOUSE/YEAR: Gryffindor Year 12

SOCIAL STATUS:
Seamus is about as middle class as it is possible to be. The family money is relatively new; his maternal grandfather is a self-made millionaire, and his children grew up on the lower edge of upper class. Joseph Finnigan, on the other hand, didn't have a penny to his name when he married Seamus's mother Orla, and her father tried to disown her, but died suddenly before he could change his will. She inherited her fair share of the family fortune, and the youngest generation of the Finnigans were brought up comfortably to say the least.

APPEARANCE:
Looking at Seamus, it's pretty obvious he's Irish. He has sandy blonde hair which his mother cuts herself whenever he goes home for the holidays. Secretly though, he quite likes the way it looks when it gets a bit overgrown - he thinks it makes him look rugged. His eyes are a muddy brown which he hates - he actually has a pair of green contact lenses hidden away but hasn't yet plucked up the courage to wear them. There is a faint splattering of freckles over his nose which darken over the summer months and he is nearly always grinning, showing off his very white, very straight teeth. He had an orthodontic brace until he was 15 and since it was removed he's become quite vain of his teeth.

Seamus is average height (5'11'') and average build. He's always joked that he's built for speed rather than contact sports, which is unfortunate because he's always preferred rugby to football. He likes to keep fit, so he's quite wiry and has a bit of muscle on him, but not much. When it comes to clothes, Seamus has always said that "fashion is for girls, and guys who care too much." He definitely doesn't care that much, and can normally be found in jeans and a t-shirt, or occasionally a shirt, but only if the occasion calls for it. His t-shirts often have band names, ironic statements or cartoons. Whilst not caring what he wears, he makes sure that it's good quality, and most of his clothes come complete with designer labels.

PERSONALITY:
Seamus is a joker and likes to think of himself as a bit of a comedian. He has a great talent for seeing the funny side of any situation he finds himself in and making a joke out of it, something which can annoy people he's just met, but usually endears him to his friends. Sometimes it can be hard to get him to drop the comedian act and take something seriously, in fact he gets into moods sometimes where he can't take anything or anyone seriously and it's best to leave him alone, but when he is being serious he proves himself to be sensitive, considerate, full of opinions and suggestions, and a great listener. It's only people that he considers close to him that see this side of him however, he uses the jokes as a bit of a defence mechanism because when he's not laughing about something he feels a bit vulnerable.

To get close to Seamus, you have to earn his respect, and trust. Occasionally he'll take an instant dislike to someone, in which case it's hard to make him change his opinion, but he gives most people a fair chance. Once he's decided he likes someone and his respect has been gained, you'll have a friend for life. He is very loyal and will defend and stick by his friends, unless of course you upset him. If that happens, you'll have to work your way back into his affections - a simple "sorry" isn't enough for Seamus. On the other hand, if he's in the wrong, he finds it hard to admit. After a while of stubbornly insisting he hasn't done anything wrong, he'll come to terms with it in his own time, then stick his hands in the air and admit his mistake, albeit rather grudgingly.

Seamus is not just stubborn, but determined, and with both of those qualities together, he can do most things he sets his mind to, simply by working at it. To his parents and teachers dismay, he's not academically minded and never really set his mind on his schoolwork, and his GCSE grades suffered as a result. Seamus's energies are more usually focused on stuff he takes most pride from, whether it be his music, getting the lead in the school play or pushing himself to the limit on the sports field, whether or not he's passionate about the sport he's currently playing. With all these qualities of being hard-working and loyal, he was almot sorted into Hufflepuff. He is, however, a worthy Gryffindor. He's not afraid of standing up for what he believes is right, even in the face of adversity, or following his dreams. He's an extrovert, and if asked whether the glass is half-empty or half-full, his answer would be "depends what's in the glass!"

When it comes to girls and relationships, Seamus can be quite fickle. He changes his mind almost daily about who he fancies, and although he can talk about girls quite confidently with his best mate Dean, he finds it hard to follow it through and actually ask a girl out. He took Lavender Brown to the Winter Ball in their fourth year, but didn't tell her that he actually quite fancied her and they were straight back to friends status the next day. He developed a crush on another girl the next week, though. When it comes to gossip, Seamus can be as bad as some of his female friends. He likes to think that he knows what goes on at Hogwarts and grabs ahold of any juicy gossip he can get his hands on. All it takes though is a quick nudge to remind him that he is, in fact, a heterosexual male, and he starts talking about cars and girls again.

DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS:
What soon becomes evident when talking to Seamus is his inherent love of music. He's always on top of what's currently going on in popular culture and the music charts, and spends a good portion of his allowance on albums on cassette, both new and old. His favourite bands are Queen and Oasis, and he plays the guitar and drums. When he's not practising solos in the music room, he can usually be found either listening to the big old tape-player-radio in his dormitory, or plugged into his walkman in a comfy chair in the Gryffindor common room.

LIKES:
- Music, of course. Specifically, older rock bands with plenty of guitars and epic solos that he can play himself.
- Rugby, although he's not really built to play it himself. He aims to watch all of Ireland's games on TV and would support them over England any day.
- Beer. This is a recent development, and replaced a fondness for cider, which he later decded was a bit wussy. In all honesty, he hasn't completely developed a taste for beer but he feels cool wih a can in his hand. He doesn't get ahold of it as often as he would like, though.
- Old Films. He's a little disappointed with the latest films to hit cinemas, and has rather a passion for the classics. His favourite is The Italian Job, and he never misses a chance to use his favourite quote - "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"
- Tennis. He's not very good, but apart from rugby it's the only kind of sport he really enjoys playing. He watches Wimbledon every year and occasionally gets tickets to go to London to watch the earlier rounds.
- His best mate, Dean Thomas, probably the main reason he enjoys Hogwarts so much.
- Girls! Although he only looks, and lusts after. It's the only area where he's lacking in confidence, really.

DISLIKES:
- Liars. If there's one thing Seamus hates more that anything else, it's a liar. If you lie to him, and he finds out, you'll have your work cut out trying to regain his trust.
- Guinness. He drinks it at home, because he is Irish after all, but really he hates the stuff.
- Football. Gasp! He'll play it happily enough, and supports the Gryffindor and school teams, but thinks it far inferior to rugby in every way. Mainly due to the fact that the Irish team never do very well.
- Maths. Numbers do his head in and he was so glad to drop it after GCSE. In honesty, he only passed because his mum hired a tutor every summer holiday between year 8 and the exams.
- Remakes of old films. He thinks the classics should be left well alone.
- His brother, Paddy. Its not that they hate each other, they've just never seen eye-to-eye. Plus Paddy's a bit - weird. According to Seamus anyway.
- Girls! They're fine as mates but when it comes to more than that... Seamus just doesn't understand them.

INSIDE SCOOP:
- Seamus has always claimed that his hero is John Lennon. But really, it's Brian May. He yearns to have the talent (but maybe not the hair) of the Queen legend and spends hours practising the solos from Bohemian Rhapsody and Don't Stop Me Now.

- He hates visiting his extended family. His father's side of the family resent his father for marrying into money, and are a bunch of "sulky, foul-mouthed, alcoholic bastards." His words. His mother's side of the family are snobs, and they look down on his mother for marrying "beneath her". Really, he's happiest when it's just him and his parents. It doesn't help that his brother's an idiot.

- He's scared of flying. He dreads the start of the holidays because it means flying back to Ireland, and he dreads the end of the holidays because it means flying back to school. He usually spends the entire flight with his eyes closed, listening to his walkman.

- He's told everyone that he wants a career as a session musician or a music producer, but really, he wants to be famous. He reckons he'd be brilliant as lead guitarist in a rock band, and has already written half of his speech for his first Grammy win.

HISTORY:
Peter O'Toole grew up in the middle of Belfast, during the depression. His family was so poor that they often couldn't afford shoes for the children, and he shared a single bedroom with his parents and five brothers. From an early age he decided that he wanted to be the one to get his family out of this situation. He started as simply as following the horse and carts going to market, picking up the fruit and vegetables that fell off the back before they spoiled, and selling them on. It made a very small amount of money, but he got the taste for business. After working his way up through various business ventures, he opened a small shipping company at the age of 22. By the age of 27, it was one of the largest shipping companies in Ireland, and by the time he turned 35, he had made his first million.

When he was 29, he married the daughter of one of his biggest clients. It was his second marriage, the first was to a woman called Linda five years previously, who died in childbirth. His new wife, Niamh, bore him three children in the next six years: Siobhan, Conor, and Orla. The children were brought up very comfortably, as their father became steadily wealthier during their childhood. After attending private primary schools, their father wanted to send them to one of the best schools money could buy, and as a result they were sent off to Hogwarts College. Siobhan became a Gryffindor, while Conor and Orla were both Hufflepuffs. Orla O'Toole, the youngest, graduated with moderate grades in 1970 and immediately moved back to Ireland, as her older siblings had done before her, and got a job in the social services.

Joseph Finnigan was born to a sixteen-year-old mother in a council flat in Belfast. At the time, this was an absolute scandal, and the young mother and her baby were kept locked away from inquisitive eyes by her mother. Joseph grew up never knowing who his father was, and he hated his step-father, who his mother married when he was nine. His step-father hated Joseph too, and knocked him around a bit whenever his mother wasn't looking. Joseph soon acquired half-siblings too, four of them, all a lot younger than him so he never really got close to them.

It wasn't a good life, his mother was unemployed and a little too dependant on drink, and his step-father brought in a minimal wage from working as a road sweep. Joseph wanted to get out as soon as possible, but he didn't have enough money to move out and get his own flat. In 1972, when he was eighteen, a young social worker called Orla O'Toole called around on a routine visit to help the family. As his mother refused to talk to anyone from social services, and his step-father was out at work, Joseph was the one who talked to her, and answered her questions. To his surprise he found her easy to get along with, and attractive too, and found himself looking forward to her next visit. Orla, too, was surprised at how much she enjoyed her visit, and found herself quite liking this scruffy yet seemingly bright young man.

Over the next couple of years, Orla put Joseph's mother into a recovery programme, and helped Joseph go through the lengthy process of applying for and then moving into a council flat of his own. One thing led to another, and they eloped in autumn 1974. Orla knew her upper-class family wouldn't approve of her marriage, and surely enough, on finding out who she had married, Peter O'Toole grew so angry that he threatened to disown Orla. She resigned herself to a life without much money, and hoped that her love for her husband would help her get through. However, a month later, she received a phone call from her mother. Her father had had a heart attack. On arriving at the hospital, she found she was too late and he was already dead. The family went into mourning but for Orla there was a silver-lining: her father hadn't had a chance to write her out of his will, and she inherited a large share of the family fortune.

Although they now had enough money to live comfortably without working, the young Mr and Mrs Finnigan were not the kind of people to sit around. Orla carried on with her social services work, and Joseph went back to school and gained a teaching qualification. Their first son, Patrick "Paddy" Ryan Finnigan was born in September 1975, and a second son, Seamus Joseph Finnigan, was born four years later, in December 1979.

Although both sons were close to their parents growing up, Paddy and Seamus were vastly different, not only in looks but in personality, and clashed. Their primary school teachers remarked that they wouldn't have known that they were related if they didn't have the same surname. Seamus was particularly close to his mother, who he resembled. She had taken time out from work when the boys were young to bring them up, only returning to work part time when they were both in school. Seamus was always boisterous as a child, climbing the trees in the large back garden of the family home in a village just outside Belfast. While Seamus was always running around and kicking balls around outside, Paddy preferred to stay inside, reading and making models from kits that he bought with his pocket money. The only thing the boys ever agreed on was rugby, and would play it with their father at the weekends, or go and support the local team.

Seamus started playing guitar when he was 7, after taking part in a music session at school. He begged his mum for a guitar until she gave in and bought him a set of lessons. He didn't look back, and bought his first electric guitar at the age of 10 from his savings. Paddy had by now been sent to his mother's old school, Hogwarts College, and like his mother, had become a Hufflepuff. Seamus used to read his brother's letters from school, and look forward to the time when he would go, too. From the letters, he formed an image of the school in his head, and started speculating on what house he would be sorted into. He thought he was a dead cert for Hufflepuff like his family, as he didn't think he would make it into Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. Secretly, he feared he might end up in Slytherin due to the fact that he had great ambitions for his future: to be a musician and to outshine his brother.

In September 1991, Seamus started his first year at Hogwarts. To his surprise and delight, he ended up in Gryffindor, and settled himself into school life. Although he got on well with all the other Gryffindors in his year, and many students from other houses too, he quickly bonded with Dean Thomas, who occupied the bed next to his, and they soon became best friends. Seamus struggled with some of his academic subjects, but thrived in the more creative ones. He started learning the drums, and carried on with his guitar playing, and enrolled in a number of extra-curricular activities.

After five years, his GCSE results disappointed his parents slightly, but he seemed to be both enjoying himself and have definite aims in life, so they figured that the money they were paying in fees was well spent. Paddy had by now graduated with 9 GCSEs and 2 A Levels, and was working in a shoe shop in Birmingham. Seamus chose his A Levels with the ambition of being the first member of hs family to go to university - to study music, of course.

CLASSES:
MUSIC - M/W 9am-11.15am
FILM STUDIES - T/TH 7am-9.15am
PHOTOGRAPHY - M/W 12pm-2.15pm
GERMAN - M/T 2.30pm-4.45pm

SPORTS:
Michaelmas - Rugby
Lent - Lacrosse
Summer - Tennis

EXTRA-CURRICS:
Music, Film, Modern Languages, Sports Enthusiasts. And he works in a charity shop every other weekend.