Name: Alexander Arcturus Lestrange a.k.a. Lex or Zander

House: Slytherin

Wand: Thirteen and a quarter inches, Poplar. Core of Basilisk Skin and Dragon Heartstring. Inflexible.

Physical Appearance: Zander is tall, topping out at 6'3", and lean. He has honed himself through endless hours of duelling. He has medium-brown hair, which he usually keeps short and the top spiked up. He has sideburns that descend just past the bottom of his earlobes, he also has a faint, but existent, moustache. His features follow that of his mother, Bellatrix, and the rest of the Black family line, though he inherited his father's brown hair. His eyes are the striking grey that is also hereditary of the Black family. He has high, aristocratic cheekbones, and a long, thin nose, giving him the standard pureblood appearance, but that is countered by a firm, stubborn jaw.

Personality: Zander is a quiet person in public, speaking only when he truly feels the need. Though, privately, with people he knows well, he is outspoken and the ringleader of many. Due to his upbringing, he shares the views of many of the traditionalist purebloods, looking down upon those he deems lowly. Studying hard over any break he has, he has learned much of the Dark Arts, but has yet to actively perform any of what he has learned. He hopes, one day, to follow in his parents' footsteps and become one of a Dark Lord's Inner Circle.

Character Background: Zander was born shortly before his parents, Bellatrix and Rudolphus Lestrange, were imprisoned in the wizarding prison, Azkaban. He was then taken in and raised by the Bulgarian branch of the Black Family, via his parent's wishes. As he grew, he had the best tutors available to him to teach him etiquitte, family trees, penmanship, estate management, dancing, and figuring, amongst other necessary things. As he grew, he produced a certain dislike toward the British Ministry of Magic, and the Order of the Phoenix. When the Dark Lord rose again, he began working that much harder to make himself useful, but when Potter killed him, he vowed to make himself useful to any other dark faction. He has been in almost constant contact with his parents, through a medium.

Other: 16 year old Pureblood

Special Request: None

Picture:

I’ll give you a review. :) From the get-go, however, I’ll say that you can either take my advice or leave it – it certainly won’t bother me. It’s also not meant for you to take on a personal level or to be offensive in any sort of way. =]

Now that the ‘disclaimer’ is out in the open, let’s get crackin’. ^^

Physical Appearance

I’ll say now that there’s absolutely no way that you can cover the many details that you’ll need to cover in one paragraph in his appearance, especially if you want to advance in the Ranks. You may touch on everything or most of the important stuff, but you don’t linger there and explain. That’s very important to do.

In your first two sentences, you have a common topic. Same in the next two. My first suggestion would be to divide bits of the paragraph that pertain to the same topic up and then read over them. That will give you some idea what you have and what you’ll need to add to your profile to expand it and give people a better idea of your character’s appearance; the fact that you have an avatar and may have a signature in the future definitely doesn’t hurt, either.

I can’t go into detail on everything that you have because I’ve basically given my suggestion on what to do with this first section. Some other things that you may want to consider are adding in those smaller details that are just as important as the bigger ones once the picture is pieced all together.

• explain just a little more on his hair – it looks obviously styled in the picture you have below at the end of your profile; does he always style it? does he mind styling it? does he ever just not do it?
• what else might he do to keep the figure he has besides dueling?
• describe his eyes in much more detail, they deserve a paragraph of their own. every character’s does; they are the most expressive part of anyone’s face – does he ever betray emotion there? does he almost always keep them blank and flat? do they crinkle at the edges when he smiles? those sorts of things
• along with his ‘firm, stubborn jaw’, you could go into more detail about his complexion and whether it varies from winter to summer. this would be affected by whether he likes to be outdoors when he can or not, and this would give you something more to add to his personality, such as if he’s outdoorsy at all
• you have absolutely nothing about what sort of clothes he prefers to wear! I’m fairly certain he doesn’t stroll about naked – not that there would be girls who actually minded that – but does he mind the Hogwarts uniform? or does he prefer something else altogether?

Adding these few things in will give you more length, more substance, and may even prompt you to think of more things to add. :)

Personality

This section, too, requires far too much to have a paragraph be sufficient. It’s great that you have his habits with people he knows and people he doesn’t, it’s great that you bring his upbringing into his personality – most people actually forget to do that – and it’s great that you have his goals in there. But what of his fears? His habits? His favorite things to do? What happens when he’s angry? Does he have a quick temper? Or does he manage to stay calm? What about when he’s happy...? What makes him happy...? Is he a good student? What’s his favorite class? Why?

Those sorts of questions along with tons of others are exactly what you should be asking yourself when you’re writing his profile. If you intend to apply for the ranks, then you definitely need to ask yourself these questions when you’re writing the profile again. Bear in mind that those are only a few of the things that you’ll want to include in your profile – there are dozens more and, like with your appearance, you’ll more than likely be prompted to write more as you think it.

My advice for when you think of something and you’re doing something else – jot down whatever you think first, before you continue on, otherwise you’ll lose it. I do it all the time and it frustrates the crap out of me. =]

One thing – asking yourself why to a question is a really good way to write down an explanation. And when you have a question and an explanation, they combine together and there you have it – more information on one topic. So ask yourself why to any questions you may pose to yourself and the paragraphs will form.

Background

These are the hardest things to go over someone with because they’re always different and always have different stuff in them.

You touch the basics of his life briefly, very briefly, and don’t linger on much. It’s important that you expand what you can – I don’t know how to help you expand except by asking you to give more detail on everything. It’s hard to get a clear picture of your character’s past when there’s so much all together in a small space, it’s very hard. And you don’t even mention his first five years at Hogwarts at all; wouldn’t you think that’s a little important to have? It indicates how he does with friends, how he does with classes...and it does that a little moreso than it does in his personality.

Make sure you ask yourself questions here, too; they are more important here than anyone else. If you have a well-written history, it’s almost okay to have a less than appearance or personality. People can infer a lot from a character’s background.

This profile does need a bit of work, but there is definitely potential. :) It won’t take too much, either, so long as you let the thoughts flow and ask questions to yourself. Consider your own appearance, your own personality, and think about what makes it your own, what makes you an individual. It definitely helps when it comes to writing both of those sections. ^_^

Name: Alexander Arcturus Lestrange a.k.a. Lex or Zander

House: Slytherin

Wand: Thirteen and a quarter inches, Poplar. Core of Basilisk Skin and Dragon Heartstring. Inflexible.

Physical Appearance: Zander is tall, topping out at 6'3", and lean. He has honed himself through endless hours of duelling. While at Hogwarts, he runs on an almost daily basis. His run usually consists of several laps around the Black Lake. When he feels particularly ambitious, he does a hard work-out consisting of a long run followed by sit-ups, push-ups, and chin-ups. During the summer, he also runs, but the runs are nowhere near the length of his runs during the school year. He actively duels with his family over break, learning new spells and techniques.

He has medium-brown hair, which he usually keeps short and spiked up at the top. He has sideburns that descend just below the bottoms of his earlobes. He also has a faint, but existent moustache. Depending upon the function, his hair style may vary. If it is a highly formal event, it is usually styled in a slicked back fashion. But at his home, and at Hogwarts, he keeps it styled in a more modernesque fashion, spiked up at the top. He takes great pride in his appearance, not even noticing the effort it takes to fix his appearance on a daily basis.

His features closely folow those of his mother , Bellatrix, and the rest of the Black family, though, he inherited his father's brown hair and grey eyes. He has high-ish aristocratic cheekbones, and a long, thin nose. But, like many of the Blacks before him, he gained a firm, stubborn jaw an a not-so-strong sense of morals. Since he spends time outside, his skin varies in shade, but he never truly becomes more than 'slightly-pale.'

His eyes are a stunning grey and tend to vary in shade according to the emotion he may be feeling. He can control this though, having learned to keep his features emotionless and indifferent. Many people say that when he is being particularly indifferent, his eyes appear just as his father's did when he was arrested. His family has taught him that emotions could be used against someone.

Alexander, like any good pureblood, enjoys the best of the best. When he has to dress formally, he wears custom tailored suits beneath his dress-robes. During the rest of the time, when it is not formal, he enjoys wearing tailored Armani clothing, disliking the feel of robes. During work-outs, he wears muggle shorts and t-shirts. He also prefers boots over any other footwear, knowing that they can put up with a heavy beating.

Personality: Zander is a quiet person publicly, speaking only when he truly feels the need. Privately, with those he knows, he is outspoken and could be a ringleader of many. He chooses not to be front-and-center, choosing to keep back and allow another the spotlight, that way, he isn't the one in the cross-hairs when things go pear-shaped.

Due to his upbringing, Alexander sharest the views of many of the traditionalist purebloods, looking down upon those he deems lowly (mostly muggles). His views are slightly tempered though, by growing up in the less biased Belgium. A sole exception to this belief, though, is toward anyone who would harm a child, be they pureblooded, or muggle.

He has learned the theory of many of the Dark Arts, but has been prohibited by his family in their performance until he reaches Magical Majority. Like any other rebellious teenager, he has experimented in their uses, and his choice was what he looked at as being a family specialty. The Cruciatus Curse. The most frightening thing about his experimentation, besides the fact that he could have killed himself, was that he performed the spell flawlessly after only a few tries.

Having grown up learning to suppress his emotion, he still enjoys taking part in his revenge. Even if he has to wait months. When he does lose control over his emotion, it is his temper that shows first. It is also extremely easy to trigger. He just manages to suppress it before he causes an irreparable rent in his reputation.

He enjoys duelling , and its much subtler counter-part, politics. His favorite part is the prediction and countering of an opponents movements and plots.

He also enjoys potions, but only due to its precise timing and the extreme level of patience needed to perform correctly. The challenge it poses challenges his intelligence, and has been known to push him toward experimentation.

On the rare occasions that he needs to cool his temper, he can often be found in his room, playing on the grand piano there. He has played practically anything he could get his hands on: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven. It doesn't matter. He is also able to play the violin, though his skills are not quite as great in that area, causing him to stick with what he is good at.

Character Background: Alexander was born just before his parents, Bellatrix and Rudolphus Lestrange, were imprisoned in Azkaban for the torture of Frank and Alice Longbottom, conspiracy to overthrow the government, and taking part in an illegal terrorist group.

Before his parents were thrown into prison, they were given the chose as to the placement of their child. Since Narcissa and Lucius had just had a son of their own (and were trying to escape the shadow of the Death Eaters), they chose to send him to the Bulgarian branch of the Black family.

As he grew, the Blacks molded him into the ideal pureblood. Teaching him many things that he would need to manage his estate when he reached his Magical Majority; things such as penmanship, etiquette, figuring, duelling, dancing, duelling (magic and swordsmanship), and knowledge of pureblood families. He was always taught to appear his best, that way, many would only hold some form of respect for him, be it through his name, or by his bearing.

As he neared his eleventh birthday, he was given the choice of attending Durmstrang, or Hogwarts. Choosing the latter, he make a deal with his family. As long as he excelled in his courses, they would teach him the Dark Arts. So, he threw himself into his studies.

At Hogwarts, he was quickly sorted into Slytherin, the hat barely touching his head. He kept to himself mostly, opting to study rather than enjoy the company of his peers. But on the odd occasion, he could be found on the Quidditch Pitch, practicing his flying abilities. He chose to try to slide through school with as little attention as possible on him, as little as could he could with the surname of Lestrange.

Other: 16 year old Pureblood

Special Request: None

Picture:

-Bump;;January 10, 2010-