Phineas Maele

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He’s been described as controversial and radical with a nerdy edge, and it fits Phineas quite well. His inability to be organized in most conventional ways does not hold him back, nor does his passion and intellect. He has varied thoughts on a lot of things and is probably one of the most brilliant but spacey men one could meet. His emphasis for justice and equality is reaped from his own experience and from those that he has witnessed with others. His quirks, his talents, and his studies are all related, and his role in the wizarding and magic world vacillates between exceptionally brilliant to downright crazy.

Alma Mater

Eton College for secondary school, Oxford for undergraduate work in biology – research focusing on genetics, graduate work in neuroscience at King’s College

Job & Description

A professor of biology at King’s College, specifically relating to neuroscience. His research has, in the muggle world, relied primarily on brain function and cognitive ability, attaining several students as interns and research assistants over the years. After hours, he does significant research on the brain of those with magical ability and its relation the non-magic human brain – attempting to locate the scientific explanation for muggleborns and squibs. He publishes extensively in both communities, but his magical publications are significantly more controversial than his muggle writings. He has one other squib research assistant, Gregory Higgins, who is a budding scientist in his own right and also interested in the field of magical neurology. Recent scholarship has taken a turn toward mainstreaming the audience in attempts to get others discussing the possibility of scientific explanation rather than random chance.

Physical Description

  • Build/Body type: Not particularly thin, nor heavy, Phineas is of an average build for his height. One can imagine, however, his build is not attributed to an extensive work out schedule – more like forgotten meals and hours upon hours of laboratory research.
  • Estimated Height/Weight: 1.67 meters (5 feet, six inches) and 11.43 stone (160 lbs)
  • Hair color: At one point, Phineas’ hair had been a rather handsome shade of dark auburn, but lately it has been graying at the temples and an increasing number of gray hairs scattered through the thick mess, it has seemed to dull a bit. His hairline has also started to recede, giving him even more of an egg-head appearance than it was originally thought possible.
  • Eye color: A startling blue-grey, very active and intelligent. They’re constantly lit up about something or other, never a dull moment.
  • Skin color: Typical Irishman, very pale. It doesn’t help he is in the lab for hours.
  • First Impression: Well… Judging from the way he approaches any given situation, the first impression is generally NERD. If he is making an appearance, he generally tries to appear presentable and is old-fashioned in that regard, but when he is researching or gets caught up in what he is doing, he might leave his flat without even matching his socks – he’s been known to wear different shoes, sometimes on the wrong feet, and the ties and everything – it’s all extraneous, often giving him that mad scientist type appearance when he comes around for that reason.
  • Any odd/outstanding features?: Outside of his propensity for wearing clothing that does not match, he wears glasses for reading, and in his younger, rebellious years – on a dare from a fellow undergraduate student in biology during a night of pub crawling, he got a double helix tattooed right under his belly button, occupying the same space as what one would call the “happy trail.” It was discussed as the perfect way to use the perfect biologist pick-up line, "So... are you a DNA helicase by any chance? Because I think you're unzipping my genes..." He still has it, though the pick-up line has been left far in the past.

Personality Description

Phineas is something of a conundrum. He has a brilliant mind and as a result, tends to be scatterbrained about most things. He focuses on things for bursts of time and then almost immediately abandons it for something else, coming back to the project when he is satisfied with whatever else he was doing. This does not mean he abandons research, merely puts it off to the side for the time being, and goes around to various other intriguing problems that present themselves. He is not organized, at least to an outsider, and his office is often overflowing with papers and the boards are constantly covered in equations and drawings, boxed off depending on subject. His bookshelves are kept in much the same way, all the spines face outward, which is probably an accomplishment, but whether they are on their sides, facing upward, or upside down really depends on how much of a hurry Phineas is in when he puts the book back.

His musings often become complicated and refer to natural, spiritual, and obscure references in relation to whatever the discussion is. His writing is often the same way, at least when he is not writing for the academic audience, and has been branching out into a more mainstream crowd. His research is deeply important to him, particularly in relation to the wizarding world, and has been working on crafting a book to be released soon, discussing the potential of the human mind and which parts of the mind function and which don’t, reducing magic to a function of biology rather than a granted gift by some other power. This does not say that Phineas disbelieves in any sort of creator (he’s deeply intrigued by world religions actually, though ascribes to none in particular – Buddhism has captured his fancy, however), he does not think this is an adequate explanation for why some are born with magic – or without for that matter.

For a long time he was angry about his inability to perform magic, taking his status as a squib as some sort of punishment. The wizarding society he was born into saw it as a gross injustice to his parents and some sort of black mark on the Maele name. He learned to accept it, however, and embrace the fact that it gave him a different perspective on magic than some of those that he was exposed to – particularly those that thought it was some kind of freak accident. Thankfully, he was a brilliant young man, attending school in England (to get away from the family in some respect) and then becoming so involved in science, it would seem to be incompatible with magic, but because of his continued connection to the magical world and exposure to it, despite his status as a squib, he has formed theories that he truly believes to be true – and science and magic are not incompatible, but rather completely interconnected.

He believes in social justice and equality for muggleborns and squibs, particularly because at the basic, cellular level, all beings are the same – unless you’re a plant, then you are not inherently the same with your chloroplasts and cell walls… but anyway! The real essence of the matter is that there are things people cannot control, specifically blood purity and magical ability, which he hopes to be able to prove is the same for anyone, regardless. He hopes his newest book will be an outstanding breakthrough for Muggleborn/squib equality.

History

The Maele family in the magic district of Dublin, Ireland had always been successful. Though they were not pureblooded, several generations of those that were at least endowed with the ability gave them some standing in the community as well as places in important offices in the Ministry of Magic. Liam Maele, Phineas’ father, had a seat in the International Confederation of Wizards. Bridget Maele, his mother, was a housewife and both had attended Hogwarts.

Before the birth of Phineas, the pair had three other children, all daughters: Annora, Cara and Saraid. They were exceptionally excited when, at the fourth pregnancy, they were to have a son. It would complete their family and allow for the Maele name to continue on through the years. Liam had all hopes that his son would grow-up, be a proper wizard, attain a good job at the ministry, and have a family of his own. For his daughters, he hoped they would study well and be young ladies to attain proper husbands, furthering their bloodline as well as others.

It was unfortunate that, by age ten, Phineas had displayed no sign of magical ability. All of his sisters developed at the proper time, showing the signs of their abilities and receiving their invitations to Hogwarts in the proper time. Phineas, no matter how much he tried and wished and hoped he would show some sign, never did. His parents were devastated. The only male in the family, the only one to carry on the genes of the Maele family, was a squib. They felt as though they had done something wrong, that it was punishment that their son was not magic and were ashamed of his inability.

To essentially hide him, Liam and Bridget sent Phineas away to England for schooling. Family friends and others in the community thought it was best to remove him, as he had no place in their world – but Phineas did not quite think that. He thought he had just as much right as the others did and tried desperately to prove it every holiday. His sisters would come home with stories of the fantastic things they saw and experienced, Phineas had rapping marks on his knuckles for his constant daydreaming to show to his family. And though he was exceptionally bright in math and the sciences, his English and history scores were consistently dismal.

The Maeles were disappointed that their son could not even do well in all of his disciplines and routinely left him behind in family outings or occasions with others who could use magic to avoid hurting his feelings or making him feel like an outcast at the party. They felt that it was better to leave him at home than take him along. Thankfully, he had a caring, understanding person in Saraid, the sister closest to his age. She was more than happy to expose him to the things she was learning about magic, and they often taught each other things over holidays.

When it came time for Phineas to decide what he was going to do with his life, he was surprised that he actually had a talent for biology and was accepted to Oxford to continue his interest and education. His parents did not understand how accomplished he really was and for him to study science, something they did not comprehend at all was an even bigger disappointment. Saraid, at this point, came to live with her brother in England, supporting their flat working as a secretary at the ministry. To study for his exams, Phineas would teach her whatever he was learning and as he advanced in his studies, he actually began to formulate his own theories, though could not write about them properly in muggle academic literature.

His sister suggested he try his hand at publishing for a wizarding audience. Using his education and experience, working on his own theories which could advance what he believed in. Of course, he could not do this immediately and wished to do more research, but as he went through graduate school, proving his brilliance in the field of neuroscience, he was offered a professorship at King’s College in the Biology department. Here, he met a series of colleagues and persons of interest who shaped his muggle career and then, later in his career, his magic ideas as well. Saraid, when Phineas was 30 (she was 32), got married and moved back to Ireland – leaving him on his own. Phineas was a little lost at first and his flat took on the appearance it has today (the dismal mess), he learned to take care of himself.

He also began to make friends with people at King’s and he met a mathematics professor, Isaac Katz, who had a lovely wife who was willing to have the poor man over for dinner because more often than not he was eating cereal. He also had a daughter who Phineas grew to become a surrogate uncle to. When she began to display the tell-tale signs of magic ability, it revived Phineas’ interest in his studies on Muggleborn-Squib-Wizard brain function. Thankfully, the little girl was often brought to the college and Phineas could ask her questions, apply his theories, and use her as a primary source of study. Akiva Katz became invaluable in the first stages of his real work.

She grew up quickly though and Phineas, when the time came, offered to help the Katz family adjust to having a magic child. Considering his knowledge of the magical world and his relationship with them, it was an easier transition. When the transition was successfully made, Phineas was glad for it, especially with the preliminary information he had collected. He needed other subjects, however, and expanded his research and assistant base. Though it was difficult, he was able to find those that could help him and he has been collection research for the book he has been working on and is in the process of being published now.

He maintains a relationship with both communities, though more intrinsically tied to the muggle community, and no longer has any connection to the rest of the Maele family. He has never been married, nor does he have any children. Recently, he’s taken on a graduate student who, through the course of careful discussion, has been discovered to be a squib as well, and is very interested in continuing and expanding the project Phineas has started, dealing with brain function and the pieces of the brain that control magic ability. His publications since the time he started his research (in the 90s) have always been considered controversial, but he cares little – and is now moving his research toward a mainstream audience.