Auguste Sebastian Tawney

Auguste Sebastian Tawney (b. May 17, 1946) was an French-American Wizard, who joined MAPS following his graduation from Ilvermorny.

## Background

Auguste was born on May 17, 1946 in Bolivar, Missouri, the
home town of his father, James Tawney.
James and Sophie Tawney had married in January of that year, following
the end of the second World War.
Sophie had some difficulty in delivering the child and was incredibly
homesick during this period.  James
and Sophie lived together in the home for four months after Auguste’s
birth.  At that time, Sophie
recognized that she was not in love with James and made the decision to return
to France.  Although Sophie told
James that she would keep in touch with her son, she never pursued contact, and
Auguste has no memories of his mother, though he was made aware of her name and
had seen pictures of her.

James Tawney remarried to Harriet Morrison, his secretary at
the local phone company James managed when Auguste was two years old.  Shortly after the marriage, Harriet
gave birth to the couple’s first child, Louis (b. 1949), and any maternal inklings
Harriet may have had towards Auguste were dashed.  Though never outright cruel to Auguste, Harriet as a
stepmother was largely ambivalent towards the young boy.  Two twin girls, Audrey and Violet (b. 1953), followed Louis, and
Auguste was typically left to care for his younger half-siblings while his
father and stepmother worked.
James was rarely home with his son, and Auguste spent most of his early
years reading and became involved in a local fencing club by his ninth
birthday.

Auguste’s magical ability had been largely kept secret from
the rest of his family.  During
their brief marriage, Sophie never told James about her magical heritage, and
had remained mostly silent about her family in general, preferring to say that they
were estranged.  Upon Auguste receiving
his acceptance letter to Ilvermory, James was shocked and afraid of revealing
the information to Harriet, the other children, or Auguste’s grandparents.  Because of this, James hushed Auguste’s
magical abilities and never revealed the truth to Auguste’s stepmother or
half-siblings.  Instead, he
concocted the story that Auguste was going to a boarding school in New
York.  As none of Auguste’s
siblings were magical, his family never found out about his identity.  Upon his return to Missouri following
each school year, James forced Auguste to lock up his books and other magical
items.  While James did not
discourage his son from pursuing his magical identity, the Tawney family
subscribed heavily to Catholic beliefs, and James was afraid of the reaction
from the rest of the family.

Throughout his tenure at Ilvermory, Auguste developed an
appreciation for and dedication to the art of dueling, born out of his initial
fencing proclivities.  He formed
his own dueling club at the school and trained extensively under the tutelage
of Professor Rebecca Fortin, the Charms professor who had a lengthy history
working alongside the American magical government.  Through Professor Fortin, Auguste was introduced to MAPS,
with her having served briefly as a member of the organization shortly after
her graduation from Ilvermory and then serving as a member of the
organization’s Board from that point onward.

Auguste’s time as a student was mostly quiet apart from his
work with the dueling club.  He was
known as a steadfast worker by his professors but rarely interacted with them,
aside from Professor Fortin.

### Family

Auguste’s mother, Sophie Millot, was the oldest child of Julien
Millot, an auror with the Ministre de la magie, operating primarily in
the south of France.  Monsieur
Millot was well-known for his affinity for disguises and a marked expertise for
potion making.  Sophie’s mother,
Emma Miracle, was an English born witch who was schooled at Beauxbatons.  Julien and Emma met during Emma’s final
year at Beauxbatons, when he came to the academy to offer assistance to his old
classmate and the current Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Jacques
Oiseaux.  Following Emma's graduation,
the two began courting and married within a year.

Emma began working with the French Department for
International Magical Cooperation around this time, with the help of Julien and
his contacts in that department.
In March 1927, Emma discovered that she was pregnant, and the couple had
their first child Sophie in August of that year. Following Sophie, three more children were born of the marriage. The Millots lived in a quaint home in Barjols, a village in southeastern France.

Sophie displayed no magical ability in her early years of life, and the Millots became suspicious of Sophie’s potential identity as a
Squib starting when she was six years old.  By this age, the children in both sides of the family
typically had shown an aptitude for the magical arts, which was sorely lacking
in young Sophie.  The Millots
pursued multiple experts in attempting to provide additional attention to the
child, who found herself becoming more withdrawn and self conscious over her
inability to perform magic.  By
Sophie’s eleventh birthday, the Millots made peace with her Squib identity and
ushered her off to a Muggle school in Strasbourg. During this period, Sophie suffered from nearly debilitating
anxiety and self esteem issues.
She was withdrawn and rarely made contact with any of the other
students.  However, neither she nor
the school advised the Millots about Sophie’s troubles, leading to them being
unaware of her struggles.

Sophie returned to Barjols shortly before the German occupation of France. It was following the Allied occupation of Barjols as part of Operation Dragoon that Sophie first met James Tawney, a young American soldier stationed in the village. In running errands for her family, Sophie would frequently stop to chat with the young American and hear stories about his life back in America. The two quickly became enamored with one another, and upon the conclusion of the war and James' return to America that Sophie agreed to accompany him. She did not make her family aware of her plans, and Emma and Julien were both shocked to hear of their eldest daughter's decision.

After Sophie returned to France, she lived with her parents for a year and refused to speak about what had occurred in America, causing the Millots to believe that their daughter had been hoodwinked. They were not immediately made aware of Auguste. After a year in her parents' home, Sophie moved to Paris and met Guillaume Gaspard, a car mechanic. After an unexpected pregnancy, Sophie and Guillaume married, and the couple eventually had four children: Jean-Baptiste (b. 1951), Celina (b. 1957), Charles (b. 1960), and Louis-Philippe (b. 1963). After they had been married for five years, Sophie informed Guillaume about her past with James, including her oldest son, and eventually her magical family.

## Class

Wizard

**Background**: Duelist

## Ability Scores

**Strength**:

**Dexterity**:

**Constitution**:

**Intelligence**:

**Wisdom**:

**Charisma:**

## Equipment

### Other

A rose (given as a token of favor from an admirer), a deck of cards, a maroon sweater, a pair of corduroys, and a belt pouch containing 12 galleons

## Skills and Proficiencies

**Alignment**: Lawful Good.

**Personality Trait**: I keep my wand meticulously maintained.

**Ideals**: Danger. It is the threat of death that lets us know we’re alive.

**Bonds**: I’ll prove my family wrong and accomplish great things.

**Flaw**: I will not strike an unwary or unarmed foe.

**Skills**: Insight, Arcana, Perception, Stealth

**Feature**: Challenger

Your reputation and bearing as a duelist compels others to accept your challenges. So long as you offer them a duel while outside of combat, most NPCs who are not utterly outclassed by your Level are willing to have a go with you one-on-one, without the help of their companions or bodyguards. Foes are usually willing to duel until first blood, but some are even up for a fight to unconsciousness or death, particularly if you’ve really angered them.
**Languages**: English