| Writer and Socialite |
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| Portrayed by Stephen Fry |
| Name: | Janus Heathcote Arkham |
| Aliases: | "Jay" |
| Birthday: | Nov 30, 1905 |
| Position: | Daily Prophet / Freelance |
| Lineage: | Half-blood |
Description
Janus is a grown man with a normally genteel air about him. He has fair and clear skin, garnet green eyes, stands about 6'5" tall, and is approximately 200 pounds. His hair is dark coppery brown and worn about chin length with a slight wave to it.
Tall as he is and solidly built, his frame reasonably trim if not quite thin, Janus commands quite a sizable presence. Despite this, his movements seem generally sure and graceful. The man's features are handsome, if not exceptionally so, though he is almost always immaculately groomed, which grants him a certain added aesthetic prepossessingness.
Janus is wearing a suit of formal if slightly old-fashioned cut. It consists of a frock coat, double-breasted but generally unbuttoned at the front, with silk-faced lapels and lining. A pure white orchid is affixed to the left lapel. The trousers are also pale blue, matching the coat, and fairly fitted in shape.
The outfit also sports a black waistcoat with gold detailing and watch chain over a starched white shirt with a straight collar and black bow necktie. The cufflinks are onyx, and the shoes are polished black wingtips with white spats.
George Herbert Arkham
Abigail Winifred Arkham
Background
George Herbert Arkham was born and raised a muggle, though of course he did not know that for most of his life. He loved books and reading from a young age, and he grew up to become a scholar of the classics. He earned his degrees from Oxford, and in time became a professor at London College. His subject is classical literature, and he is generally well-respected in his field.
Abigail Winifred Blessington was born a witch. Perhaps because her father was a muggle, she always held an interest in the non-magical world, even after a generally impressive career at Hogwarts as a Gryffindor. Her subject was herbology, and she grew up to run a successful business raising plants and selling their more useful parts to various apothecaries.
Wand
Janus's wand is 12 1/2", beech, pliable, with unicorn hair core.
Pet
Janus has an Australian masked owl named Cora.
Animagus
Janus is able to take the animagus form of a phoenix.
Patronus
Janus's Patronus takes the form of a phoenix, identical to that of his own animagus shape.
George met Abigail when seeking an obscure manuscript led him by chance into a wizarding book shop, where he knocked into her and made her spill a bag of bouncing bulbs all over the place. He helped her recollect them, then they had a coffee, and before terribly long the two had begun a courtship. George was fascinated to discover the wizarding world, which Abigail revealed to him upon the birth of their son, Janus Heathcote, in the year of the turn of the century.
Janus proved a precocious and bright boy, interested in anything and everything that came along. He was a reasonably active but not terribly athletic child, and he lived a happy but fairly mundane childhood except for frequent encounters with his mother's more outlandish plants and being pushed toward academic achievement by his father. Then, some months after Janus turned eleven, he got his letter of acceptance to Hogwarts.
Janus was sorted readily into Gryffindor, and he proved always a very bold student, eager to be the first to try anything. This occasionally led to minor mishaps, and there were a few incidents with disintegrating cauldrons, but all in all he proved an excellent student and was popular with his instructors, no doubt in part because of his good marks and excellent manners. He took little interest in elective courses, performing well in Divination though never really making a Seer of himself, and instead focused on core classes. Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Portions, and Transfiguration were the subjects he took OWLs in, and he also focused on them for his NEWTs. His professors saw many possible bright futures for him, but none of the wizarding careers that Janus learned of ever really held his interest for terribly long. Instead, he was driven by an urge to understand and explore more, to see what more there could be of the world.
Perhaps for this reason he cultivated a diverse group of friends. For a time, he prided himself on having a circle of close school friends that came from each different house. He was the Gryffindor, Silas Turpin was the Slytherin, John Brown was the Hufflepuff, and Jason Dewhurst was the Ravenclaw. They often called themselves "SJ3" as what they felt was a clever nickname, and they mostly engaged in harmless fun together. Though, they did earn a stern reprimand for starting a light show in the middle of the final match of the house cup quidditch tournament in their fifth year.
After graduating school, Janus distinguished himself early on by serving as a correspondent during the closing year of the Great War. This led him on many travels, where he encountered people from all over Europe and Asia, leading him to expand his knowledge of culture and custom greatly. He also honed his composition skills, always writing wherever he went, and frequently found good use of wand and spell to preserve his safety when he ventured into more dangerous places.
Janus spent nearly ten years in this way before returning to London, and when he did come back he published a series of memoirs, collectively entitled Aftershocks of the Great War: A Wizard's Travels Through Europe and Asia. This earned him some renown, and soon enough he found himself doing freelance writing for a great number of publications. His various writings have earned him a healthy income and fairly extensive fame.
In recent years, Janus has become a fixture of the wizarding London social scene. He is less known in muggle circles, where he has published only a few articles here and there, but he is well-known amongst his peers as a man of great will and strength of mind, impeccable social graces and persuasive prowess, and a very competent wizard, especially for someone who has not made much official use of magic in his professional life.
Janus in his seventh year at Hogwarts
What most do not know about Janus is the way things changed during his sixth year. Janus and Silas became uncommonly close, and later they became intimate, realizing their mutual attraction and interest in men. Perhaps because of discomfort with homophilic couplings, or perhaps simply because their two mates had paired off, John and Jason drifted apart from the pair. Despite this, the remaining couple found happiness right up until the start of their seventh year.
The Great War was nearly over, but a relative of Silas's was in trouble due to the fighting, trapped in a tight spot. The family, pure-bloods, ignored the imperiled squib cousin, but Silas chose to leave school to get his kinsman to safety. Janus offered to come with him, but Silas wanted him to remain in school. Tragically, the night Janus bid his lover good luck and godspeed was the last time he ever saw Silas alive.
When, months later, Janus learned that Silas had been killed in an unexpected skirmish, he hardly showed his feelings outwardly. Instead, he turned his mind and heart inward, finishing school and graduating. On the eve of completing his studies at Hogwarts, the last night in the castle, Janus took the first steps in a plan he and Silas had to become animagi together. The complex process took months to finish, and he did get himself properly licensed, but very soon after Janus left England behind to wander.
RP Hooks
- Socialite
- Reporter for the Daily Prophet
Logs
| Logs featuring Janus | Logs that refer to Janus |
Quirks
- Wealth: Well-To-Do
- Mistreated Minority: Homosexual
- Connoisseur
- Occlumens
- Animagus: Phoenix
Relationships
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Ranjali |
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Elijah |
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George Herbert Arkham |
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Abigail Winifred Arkham née Blessington |