Alex Lyons

Alex casting the fire-making charm, his signature spell.

Alexander Thomas Lyons is a third-year Slytherin at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, part of the Class of 2023.

## Appearance

Alex is a small boy, both shorter and skinnier than most boys his age. He has a round face, with a pointy nose on which he balances his glasses. He has bright blue eyes, that don't work quite as well as they should. His hair is constantly a mess - except during the summer,, when his parents order him to have it cut - and a sandy blond colour.

Alex is usually found in his uniform, which is reasonably clean, but rather scruffily worn, with his tie permenantly askew. On his dominant left hand, he always wears a glove to cover up severe burn damage sustained in his first year at Hogwarts.

## Personality

Alex, being a Slytherin, is cunning and ambitious. However, he must be a late bloomer in this regard, because he has displayed rather little of either of those qualities.

Alex is mischevious and rebellious - owing mainly to his bad experiences with authority - and often cooks up schemes, however he lacks the experience needed to make his schemes actually succeed.

Alex is loyal to his friends, albeit sometimes clueless. He displays a cynical indifference to everyone else; the lower years, particularly, he regards only as potential minions.

Alex has a quick temper, and is incredibly stubborn. As a result of these two traits, he forms and holds grudges alarmingly easily.

Alex considers himself a comedian, and appreciates comedy in all of its forms - his peers may disagree with this self-assessment.

## Background

Alex was born to an upper-middle class muggle family in East Anglia. His father works as a lawyer, with a passionate but unsuccessful side career in politics. His mother works as a saleswoman for a London firm. Both of his parents work long hours, and often go on business trips, meaning Alex never saw very much of them, and was often left at his grandparents' house.

Alex never really enjoyed primary school, in part because of the difficulty he had making friends, following an early incident involving Jamie Lancaster, Evan Brown, and some animal manure found on the school field. He spent most of his time on his own drawing, and he became quite good at it.

When Alex received his Hogwarts letter, he was initially cynical, but very excited. He didn't hesitate at all to accept the invitation, and his parents were willing to allow him to go.

## Hogwarts

### First Year

Alex already had a broken nose and a grudge by the time he was sorted into Slytherin - a rather apt metaphor for his Hogwarts experience as a whole. On the boat ride across the Great Lake, Jesse Wellens attempted to capsize Alex's boat, leading to a scuffle between the two of them, and kickstarting an intense mutual dislike.

As a muggleborn, Alex initially struggled to make friends in Slytherin - with the exception of Caius Marx. He primarily hung out with Ravenclaws, Jem Hapunda and Julian Rhodes, and the Hufflepuff Modestie Deschaine. With this rather international group of friends, he quickly found himself at odds with Cyrus, a spirit who was attempting to drive foreign students from the castle. In an attempt to defend his friends from Cyrus, Alex's hand was badly burnt, beyond the ability of the healers to fully restore.

Alex gradually fell out of touch with that group of friends, especially as Julian and Modestie both left the school following incidents with Cyrus. Shortly before the Halloween Ball, he met Anna Crispe, who would be his date to said event - the date ended poorly, but this was the start of their relationship, which has lasted until the present day.

Following a series of major point losses for Slytherin by Balthazar Maxim and Jesse Wellens, Alex went off the rails, in an attempt to achieve a record point total. Record low. He destroyed the house points counter and made off with the gems. He was caught by Morgan Seward, who he taunted into hexing him. He was taken to Jessyca Nagorski's office, where he was turned into a duck.

If Alex had gone off the rails before the Duck Incident, he blazed straight through the platform and into the nearby lake afterwards. After a series of disruptive actions in class, he snuck off to Hogsmeade with Anna towards the end of the year.

### Second Year

Early in Alex's second year, he befriended Meryl Felix Griffith-Webb, who would go on to be his partner-in-crime in the events of their second year.

Alex's crusade against Seward continued, and after an incident in the Library, when he was magically silenced by his least-favourite teacher, it escalated. Alex, Anna, Meryl, and Ivy Su formed a group called HUGSS (Humans United by Getting Seward Sacked) and snuck off into the Forbidden Forest to build a treehouse as their base of operations.

The HUGSS treehouse was ultimately unsuccessful. An argument between Alex and Ivy lead to the latter leading the group, and the trio remaining were driven out of the treehouse by a group of Erklings. They fled deeper into the forest, where they encountered and defeated a troll - but ultimately they had to be rescued by Sir Cadogan.

When Cyrus, who had mutilated Alex's hand, became Librarian, Alex seriously considered leaving Hogwarts, but was talked out of it.

### Third Year

In Alex's third year, he was involved in a bullying incident, along with Meryl and Anna. After being given a thorough talking-to (and major loss of points) by Ermanno Renzi, the three of them agreed to attempt to change their ways. Since then, Alex has mostly suppressed his habit of misbehaving in class, albeit not entirely.

During the brief Pumpkin Plague, Alex was infected after trying to break up a fight between two underclassmen - this, for him, was final proof that the staff were utterly unable, or perhaps unwilling, to protect the students.

After a conversation with Kairav Deane-Ward, Alex decided to reform HUGSS, as a general anti-Professor group. This was motivated primarily by the faculty's failure to keep Hogwarts students safe - the Cyrus incidents, Brian Badgerworth's death, and the Pumpkin Plague being ample evidence for Alex.