FULL NAME Charles Langdon Alden.
AGE/BIRTHDATE 16 / June 11th, 1981.
HOUSE/YEAR Slytherin / Sixth.
LOCATION Owlthorpe, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION Heterosexual.
BLOOD STATUS Both the Aldens and Wilkes’ fall in the ‘respectable pureblood’ category, but neither are without a few unfortunate smudges in their family trees. The Aldens more so than the Wilkes, but the Aldens are far wealthier. It’s because of the Aldens’ income that Thaddeus Wilkes married off his daughter to Bradford Alden.
AFFILIATION The Aldens claim the neutral status, although they definitely lean towards the darker side of things. Bradford Alden certainly respects the Dark Lord’s opinion on things, but he is never going to join and he expects his sons to follow in his footsteps. He worked too hard to achieve his position in the Ministry to throw it away by joining the Death Eaters and Charles agrees with his father. Still, he can get quite envious of Draco Malfoy from time to time.

APPEARANCE If Charles wasn’t as high on the attractive scale as he is, he’d probably come off as a complete creep. Fortunately for him, he falls pretty high on said scale. Standing at 5’9”, there’s no arguing that Charles Alden is a good-looking young man. Dark-brown-almost-black hair with pale skin, complimented with blue eyes. These features in combination with well-defined cheekbones and rather attractive lips (or so he’s been told), all add up to make him someone that warrants a second and sometimes third glance. His clothing is a little on the pretentious side (he prefers to wear the latest fashions) and he used to wear a cravat in his earlier years. He has since lost the cravat, but his wardrobe could still be described as ‘slightly poncey’. His father always told him that an Alden walks tall, but Charles took it a little too far. He’s not above sticking his nose up at something that’s …well, unattractive. And if there was one turn off about Charles, his arrogance would be it. He spends a little too much time making sure his hair is in place and gazing in a mirror.
PLAYED BY Tom Sturridge.

PERSONALITY Charles likes to consider himself the ideal Slytherin. He’s ambitious, driven, manipulative, power hungry, and there’s very few things he won’t stoop to to get his way. As the Aldens are only mediocre in blood status, they’ve always made up for it by having very well-paying jobs. In fact, the Aldens only recently got into money a few generations back. This makes him more nouve riche than most of his housemates, and his father has always drilled it into his head that he’s going to have to work twice as hard as them to get anywhere in the Ministry. He takes his academics and his duty as a Prefect very seriously. While he makes decent grades, they’re only slightly above average. However, he isn’t the genius he likes to pretend he is. He wastes no time in raising his hand to answer a question in class (in the smarmiest tone possible) only to find out that he’s wrong. And if there is one thing that he hates more than anything, it’s being wrong. It’s only then, when someone has proven him wrong, that he’ll lose the cool and collected persona he works so hard to keep up.

Most of the time, though, the calm, cool, and collected Charles is the one that almost everyone knows. He’s polite, charming, and almost always knows the right way to word things. He’s very transparent, however, and it’s obvious that he isn’t really concerned about your sick dog or wants to help you with your Transfiguration homework. Charles is a self-centered slimeball, who is almost always only concerned with himself. He’s also a liar—he lies so much that sometimes he has a hard time keeping up with what he’s told people. Still, he somehow manages to get away with. Whether it’s where he vacationed during the holidays or why he can’t turn in his Herbology essay on time. It’s his lies and charms, in addition with his good looks, that have earned him a reputation as a ladies’ man. Still, his attitude towards girls is hardly respectable. He has chauvinistic tendencies and has a ‘hit it and quit it’ mentality when it comes to most females. It wouldn’t be so bad if he made his intentions clear from the get go, but Charles likes to pretend that he’s genuinely interested in them, only to end up breaking their hearts. It’s not that Charles isn’t capable of maintaining a relationship—he just hasn’t met anyone who holds his interest long enough. Whenever he does, it’s probable that karma is going to give him the biggest heartbreak ever.

While he likes to give people the impression that he’s the voice of reason among his rather eccentric dorm mates, his dorm mates are probably the few people have gotten a glimpse of the Charles behind the fake charm. He’s lewd, vulgar, and doesn’t leave out any details when talking about his sexcapades. All of the things he keeps bottled up from the public eye—his chauvinistic views, his homophobia (because if being wrong is the #1 thing on His List, the gays have to be #2), his colourful language, and his general sleaziness—are more evident when he’s hanging around his own room. He’s not as bad as some of his friends, but not too many people have seen just how sleazy Charles really is and he’d like to keep it that way. Still, out of all of them, he’s most likely to be the one that has some huge scandal surrounding himself and a prostitute when he gets older. After all, he wants to be a politician—and what’s a politician without some creepy, sleazy skeletons in the closet?

THREE THINGS AN ACQUAINTANCE WOULD KNOW

» Charles is terribly afraid of heights. This little tidbit of information was revealed during flying lessons during his first year. He started hyperventilating and had a panic attack as soon as the broom was a foot in the air. It’s because of this that Charles can’t play Quidditch, although he does admire the sport. Still, his fear of heights doesn’t end there. He couldn’t take Divination simply because he was afraid to climb the ladder to get to the classroom.

» Charles is the biggest procrastinator, even though he knows it’s a horrible habit. He just works better under pressure and he always manages to finish, even if he turns into a crabby psychopath when he’s rushing himself.

» Charles cannot stand his cousin, Anna Alden, and everyone knows about it. It's some deep rooted cousin rivalry that he really doesn't have an explanation for, but he can't even take her. When they were younger, he used to pull all sorts of pranks on her. These days, he's settled with loathing her.

TWO THINGS CLOSE FRIENDS WOULD KNOW

» There’s a chance that Charles might be OCD. He is incredibly neat, clean, and organized. He can’t stand for things to be out of place or dirty, and while he is quite fond of their one house-elf, he isn’t fond of the job she does cleaning his room. Everything has to be in order and in it’s proper place. So most of the time, he does it himself—he’s also very picky about people touching his belongings. He’ll snap on someone if they touch something without asking. It’s a pretty big pet peeve of his.

» Only the people who room with him are aware of this, but Charles talks in his sleep. It’s not very loud, but it can get pretty uncomfortable for his room mates from time to time. Especially if the dream is one of the sexual variety—then it gets really uncomfortable.

ONE DEEP, DARK SECRET

» Charles has a problem with envy—a really big one. Although he doesn’t talk about it, he’s an incredibly jealous person. He’s jealous of his older brother’s talent at just about everything, the attention his younger brother gets, his friends’ ability to play Quidditch, when some kid gets a better grade than him, just about anything. He never acts on this, though, because he’s ashamed he isn’t more comfortable with himself. He’s trying to improve, but the thoughts are still there.

FAMILY Bradford Alden (father: 59, head of the International Office of Magical Law), Helena Wilkes Alden (mother: 56, housewife), Bradford Alden II (brother: 25, employed at the Improper Use of Magic office), Kendrick Alden (brother: 9, annoying brat), Anna Alden (cousin: 16, fellow Slytherin).
HISTORY The Alden family, while mostly pureblooded, was almost always a family of mediocrity. They didn’t have the wealth of the upper crust families due to a great-great-grandfather who had squandered away most of their money. It wasn’t until Charles’ great-grandfather, Carlton, hit it big with the Ministry that the Alden name was worth anything. Carlton Alden was an intelligent man and he had a way with words, easily becoming successful in the Department of International Magical Cooperation. By the time Charles’ father, Bradford, was born, Carlton had been appointed head of the department. They were on the nouve riche side of things, but they had the political status, blood line, and now the money to get into the fabulous dinner parties and socials that they’d never received an invite to before. It was because of Carlton Alden that Thaddeus Wilkes overlooked their spottier bloodline and allowed Bradford to marry his daughter, Helena.

However, it wasn’t an arranged marriage. Bradford and Helena had dated during his last two years of Hogwarts and continued to date even after he had graduated. They had been part of the same circle of friends, although Bradford and Helena’s brother, Nelson, didn’t get along at all. Nelson was a Death Eater who kept trying to convince Bradford to join their ranks. Bradford wanted nothing to do with the Death Eaters. He could admire what they were doing and he certainly agreed with many of their views, but it was a little too risky and a little too dangerous for Bradford. He wanted to stick with the Ministry—where he knew he could get everything he wanted with little trouble. Bradford and his younger brother, Roderick, were both assistants to their grandfather until he died, and Bradford decided to work in the International Magical Office of Law. The Aldens welcomed their first child, Bradford Jr., shortly after that. A few years later, Helena’s brother was killed by Aurors—something Bradford had seen coming for a while.

A year after the death of Nelson, Charles was born. Thaddeus Wilkes had tried to convince Helena and Bradford to name their newest son after Nelson, but Bradford refused. That is something Charles is grateful for to this day—the idea of being named after an incompetent and deceased Death Eater is disgusting, and that’s exactly how Bradford felt. Charles was a very moody child. He wanted constant attention, which was something that neither of his parents gave him. Instead it was Bradford Jr., who showed promising talent at an early age. It didn’t help that Bradford Jr. wasn’t the nicest oldest brother ever, so Charles spent most of his childhood throwing temper tantrums and throwing fits. He could go from being very polite to a complete brat in 60 seconds, and it’s because of this that people always told him that he should act more like his brother. It was only after Bradford Jr went off to Hogwarts (and was promptly sorted into Slytherin!) that Charles calmed down. He learned that he had a much easier time getting what he wanted if he said the right thing to his parents and stayed calm.

The week that Charles’ magic showed up was supposed to be a happy time. Instead, his parents were more concerned with the arrival of his newest brother, Kendrick. Once again, Charles had been knocked out of the spotlight by a sibling. It was like that for the rest time Charles was at home. It was either something about Kendrick walking, talking, or eating or something about how Bradford Jr. was a great Prefect, a superb Quidditch player, or how he was destined to be Head Boy. When he finally received his letter for Hogwarts, he couldn’t wait to go. Bradford had just graduated and Kendrick was still at home. It’d be the perfect opportunity to outshine them. It didn’t surprise anyone that he was sorted into Slytherin—after all, all he talked about on the train to Hogwarts was how he couldn’t wait to get older and join the Ministry. His brother had set the bar pretty high—he made excellent grades, had been a Prefect and then Head Boy, and was a great Quidditch player. Unfortunately, Quidditch was out for Charles due to his fear of heights. But he intended to make up for it by being a better Prefect/Head Boy and making better grades.

Charles had no trouble making friends and even less difficulty attracting girls. He was charming, polite, and good looking. It wasn’t soon before Charles went from being flirtatious to earning a reputation of being a ladies’ man. It was the same in his classes too—he appeared to be the perfect student. Of course, he eventually started laying it on too thick with is professors and crossed the line from ‘good student’ to ‘complete suck up’. The fact that he just didn’t have his brother’s brains didn’t help his case either. Still, when his fifth year rolled around, Charles was delighted to find that he was a Prefect. And for once, he felt that his parents gave him the recognition he deserved—attention from his mother and his father telling him that he was on the right track. Since then, Charles took on an even more serious attitude towards his schoolwork and his position as a Prefect (he shines his badge nightly, you know). Although he one expressed interest in the Death Eaters to his father, Bradford stepped on the dream before it even began, making Charles even more intent on a career in the Ministry. This year, he’s not allowing himself to be distracted. Except with the ladies—they're a good distraction.