Max Blackwood/Maximilian Blackwood

Maximilian Blackwood (b. 1 August 1981) was a pureblood wizard, and one of the most dangerous wizards of all time. One of two twins born to Sofia Blackwood and Tom Marvolo Riddle, he was conceived as a byproduct of a love-potion induced dalliance. The siblings were abandoned by their mother and left in a Muggle orphanage until they went to Hogwarts and used their ancestral fortune to buy an apartment in Diagon Alley.

The children's powerful heritage showed. They could both walk, talk and read coherently by the time they were one and a half, and Maxine exhibited her first burst of accidental magic at two, terrifying the orphanage workers. When she was bullied for her strangeness, Maximilian would go out of his way to sadistically torture them mentally and physically, giving them horrific nightmares and broken bones, even going so far as to kill a girl at school that had attempted to give Maxine a swirly.

Even though Maxine was the more powerful, outspoken of the two, she was often underestimated due to her beauty, which allowed her to defeat any opponents with brute force. Maximilian, initially a shy, reserved child, grew into a cerebral powerhouse, his lack of power being made up for by his numerous skills and talents. Regardless of the power difference between them, the twins were still monstrously powerful, being outmatched only by truly powerful and capable wizards and witches such as Dumbledore, McGonagall, and their father.

When the twins were five, they merged for the first time, discovering their ability to change their form at will. This ten became their preferred state, leading to great confusion at the orphanage as the inseparable twins were suddenly almost never seen together. On their eleventh birthday, Max received their Hogwarts letter by owl. He did not answer the letter, prompting the school to send a representative, Professor Aurora Sinistra, to see if he would accept. He said that if he were to accept, his sister would also need to be enrolled alongside him.

The next day they went shopping in Diagon Alley, merged into Maxine. There, they withdrew money from their vaults at Gringotts Wizarding Bank, proving their identity through a blood test, and ordered their enchanted robes made. While they were in Diagon Alley, they also got their school supplies (i.e., books from Flourish and Blotts; potion equipment from Slug & Jiggers Apothecary; and Malphas, their pet Kneazle). Wands were a particular oversight, as Maximilian had slept in and thus only Maxine got her wand. This was solved when he went back later and explored Knockturn Alley, getting a wand from there.

Max began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1992 and was sorted into Ravenclaw House. The Sorting Hat told him that he might do well in Slytherin (the eventual house of his sister), but he managed to convince the Hat otherwise. At school, Maximilian became good friends with Luna Lovegood, whom he later dated and eventually married. He was often noted for his incredible intellect, his merciless nature, and his ability to act without scruple. Early in his life, he discovered a proficiency for Legilimency and Occlumency, both of which aided him in his academic pursuits. He also discovered an affinity with Arithmancy and Potions, leading to his later capability for Alchemy.

In his first years, he discovered the Chamber of Secrets, though he did not slay the Basilisk, instead simply renovating the Chamber into a base of operations, and (in his second year) capturing and destroying a dementor, using its cloak to augment his own, allowing him to fly while wearing it, though he only rarely used this ability, having a particular dislike for flight. In the year following, he made friends with several foreign students, learning as much as he could from them. He also found out and blackmailed Rita Skeeter until Hermione captured her. However, this enlightened him as to the usefulness of an Animagus form, so, in that same year, he began and concluded his Animagus transformation, helping his friends do the same. He located his mother, who had gone into hiding, and . This was also the year he began dating Luna.

In fourth year, he took up Ancient Runes and Arithmancy and began his study of Alchemy and wandless and wordless magic. In light of Dolores Umbridge's despotism, he installed spies on every level of the school up to Prefects and Head Students. Nothing went on in the corridors of Hogwarts without him knowing. At the end of the year, he and his friends went on a covert operation to steal from the Ministry, narrowly coinciding with the Battle of the Department of Mysteries and managing to escape in the chaos. They all learned to Apparate in preparation for this heist. In his fifth year, Eric began the search for his father, and was left shell shocked when he found out that his father was Lord Voldemort. During his sixth year, Luna was kidnapped, and he struck out on his own, narrowly missing Harry Potter and his friends, but meeting and duelling Bellatrix Lestrange, gathering the information required whilst heading off his father. He traced Dobby's Apparition to the beach of Shell Cottage where Luna let him through the Fidelius and he met with Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Griphook, and Garrick Ollivander who requested his help in completing their mission. He refused them, returning to Hogwarts with Luna to prepare for the battle he knew would come.

During the Battle of Hogwarts, Eric and Luna fought back to back, almost dancing, taking on Mulciber, Greyback, Dolohov and Rosier at the same time, whilst Godfrey and Amanda took over damage control. At the end of the battle, as Voldemort gloated over Harry Potter’s death, Eric stepped out in full battle robes and started duelling him, hoping to get him angry enough to make a mistake, provoking him by calling him ‘dear old Dad’ and proclaiming that ‘our last hope [Harry Potter] has failed us, so patricide it is’. He was, in reality, waiting for Harry Potter to reawaken so he could kill Voldemort. When Neville decapitated Nagini, both Eric and Voldemort were still going strong, but this pain caused the Dark Lord to falter, letting Harry Potter seize the opportunity and disarm and kill him.

## Biography

### Family Lineage

The Kaiser family were an extremely old and extremely wealthy branch of the muggle Habsburgs, and dating back to their founding patriarch Radbot of Klettgau, a muggleborn noble. The family take their name from familial pride of the Habsburgs ruling over the Holy Roman Empire for many generations. The Kaiser family sealed themselves away, growing richer and richer and extending their tendrils globally as their muggle relatives resorted to inbreeding to keep the line pure, illustrating the dangers of inbreeding and resulting in a family ban on incest.

The Kaiser family were also descended from the Peverell family, via an illegitimate child between Maria Susanne Kaiser and Antioch Peverell before the man was killed. The Gaunt family were also descended from the Peverells through Cadmus Peverell, who passed the Resurrection Stone as an heirloom, set in a signet ring. The Habsburg family were thus indirectly related to the Gaunts as well, and by extension, Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter.

The Kaisers were related to nearly every other notable wizarding family in and around Europe, largely through a combination of the incest ban and the intrinsic drive to keep the line strong, resulting in multiple marriages into and out of powerful families. The Kaisers claimed no seats on the British Wizengamot nor any other government, valuing independent personal power over political influence, which also helped keep the clan remarkably free of national obligations. Max inherited much wealth from his family, kept in hidden vaults all around Europe, with there being at least one in every major European magical settlement.

Max's mother, Sofia, was born late in her parents' lives. By that time, her parents were both elderly (even by wizarding standards), and she grew up in a doting household to the point where she became an arrogant, vain, and selfish girl. In contrast, Max's father, Tom Riddle, grew up an orphan, separated from the wizarding world. He was conceived under the effects of a love potion, leading him to believe himself incapable of love. This assumption, while incorrect, only amplified his psychopathy, a trait he passed down.

Sofia and Tom first met when he was in France looking for the Potters. She ensnared him with love potion and knocked him out, harvesting his semen to impregnate herself before altering his memory and feeding him the antidote. She knew that any more would not be possible, and so she hid herself away in a cottage in the French countryside (Germany).

### Early Life (1981–1992)

Maximilian Kaiser was born on the 1st August 1981 at Number 42 on the Rue Richer in the Place Cachée, Paris. His mother, who was herself a big believer in the philosophy of spartan strength, left him when he was five to fend for himself, which was when the regressed Max woke up. He reflected on how he had lived all his past lives - in a mad scramble for every scrap of knowledge and power he could find - and decided to live his life for himself and his own fun, beginning by incinerating the house and half the street and disappearing from the wizarding world. He aged himself through a magical artifact and set to work, crafting a staff from the Fortingall Yew and setting up a lucrative delivery business all through Europe. This business, however, was in reality a front for a drug trafficking operation which made 'Le Maitre' one of the most well-known names in the muggle underworld. By the time he was eight, he controlled a massive corporation of international European crime, with enough safeguards to never link it back to him. He also began courting Gabrielle Delacour, the previous love of his many lives.

#### Discovery of being a wizard

When Max turned eleven he found himself forced to reenter the wizarding world when Aurora Sinistra, who at the time taught Astronomy at Hogwarts, made a house call to his manor in Britain, where he had been residing for some time, delivering his letter and convincing him to attend. When Sinistra first arrived, Max at first believed her to be a regulatory body of the ICW, come to arrest him for breaking the Statute of Secrecy. He was only convinced of the reality of the Professor’s claim after Sinistra presented him with his letter. He thanked her and asked if his father was an alumnus of Hogwarts, to which Sinistra responded that she did not know offhand. Sinistra provided Max with enough information to find Diagon Alley and Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. She also inquired as to Max's financial arrangements, noticing his lack of a guardian, but he assured her it was taken care of.

On the following day, he travelled to Diagon Alley, gaining access to his Gringotts vaults and withdrawing a not-insgnificant sum of money. He bought a trunk and enough books to fill a library both from Flourish and Blotts and Knockturn Alley. He forewent the schoolbooks entirely, having memorised them all many lives ago. He then went to buy his robes, where he met his future best friend and partner-in-crime, Luna Lovegood. They agreed to write each other, and parted ways as he went to buy his wand and she moved on to potions supplies. Ollivander immediately recognised the staff he used as sufficing, and hurried him out of his shop 'lest the customers get the wrong idea'.

### Hogwarts years (1991–1997)

#### First Year

##### Aboard the Hogwarts Express

On the morning of September 1, 1992, Eric apparated into Platform 9 ¾, bypassing the barrier entirely and being the first to board the train and taking his pick of compartments. He sat and meditated in his mindscape for a while, but was distracted when Luna found him and sat with him in silence. They at and studied each other as students said tearful goodbyes and filed into the train.

Luna suddenly remarked about the loss of her own mother, startling him and starting a conversation between the two as the train left the station. Their conversation was interrupted almost immediately by Hermione Granger, who had come looking for Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. He sent her on her way after having inadvertently insulted her over her heritage. Later, while speculating what house they may be in, they were interrupted by the snack trolley, where Max bought a chocolate frog containing the Agrippa card, calling it 'fitting'.

When they arrived, Hagrid gathered all the first years together and they followed a path down to the edge of a Great Lake. Max and Luna, already fast friends, got in a boat with another boy, Colin Creevey, and sailed across the lake to the Hogwarts boathouse. After the boat ride, they climbed an “ungodly amount of stairs” before eventually arriving at the door to the Great Hall.

##### The Sorting Ceremony

The students were greeted by Professor Minerva McGonagall, who explained to them the four Hogwarts houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, as well as the rules of the House Cup. McGonagall led the first years into a small room off the Entrance Hall and told them to wait until she returned. When she did, they were led into the Great Hall, where they were greeted by the rest of the students and a shabby wizard's hat on a small stool.

The Hat sang its song, and Max predicted — incorrectly — that he would become a Slytherin, but was surprised to see ‘the frizzy girl’ (as he had termed Hermione) sitting at the Gryffindor table, having incorrectly assumed her to be a Ravenclaw after hearing about her from Colin, whose brother was a Gryffindor and in the same year as Hermione. He noted that Colin was almost instantly sorted into Gryffindor, and remembered the breakdown of the houses that Godfrey had given him — which mentioned that Gryffindors were almost all courageous to the point of absurdity and honourable to the point of inflexible dogmatism — finding it strange that such a flimsy little boy could be counted in the ranks of the brave.

When Max put on the hat, holding it up to keep it from slipping down over his eyes, it viewed his lives with interest, telling him that he "wanted power for its own sake and possessed the wisdom to achieve it," and placed him in Ravenclaw. The Sorting Ceremony was followed by the Welcoming Feast, where Max marvelled at the sheer amount of food, wondering at the labour force necessary to supply all this, prompting Luna to inform him about House Elves, which horrified Max.

Turning his thoughts away from this injustice, he answered a question from his housemate Alex Garcia on his wand. Max summoned his staff, causing general awe among his housemates, but ignored Garcia when he attempted to provoke Max by asking if he was "compensating for something." Penelope Clearwater later addressed this juvenile behaviour, saying, “there will be idiots in every house.”

Their conversation was interrupted by a mighty bang from outside, where Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter had just landed in the Whomping Willow. As it was nearing the end of the feast anyway, Dumbledore gave a short speech before everyone was sent off to their dormitories. All the teachers apart from Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall left the Great Hall to see to their students.

## Physical Appearance

Alex was the spitting image of his father, having inherited his dark hair, and his noble, handsome features. However, his distinctly flat, grey eyes were his mother’s, though he often hid them behind a reflective set of nictitators. His physique is described as ‘slim’, with his muscles showing through his skin, yet still attractively muscular. Despite this thinness, he was extremely strong, being able to break bones with ease. He stood tall for his age, often towering above his peers. Eric wore his hair mid length and perpetually wild. Despite his façade of kindness and politeness, during ecstatic moments he was capable of a smile that did not enhance his handsomeness, but instead made him look less human.

## Personality and Traits

Cold, calculating, and a sociopath of the highest order, Max suffered from an extreme narcissistic personality disorder, to the point that he had a dehumanising view of those he considered especially 'other' to his worldview. His sociopathy is further characterised by well-developed sadistic urges along with a complete disregard for the consequences of his actions. However, Max also knew the importance of keeping up a facade, and was capable of deception to the extreme, deceiving even Albus Dumbledore. Despite this, there were a few traits of his true personality that still showed. He did not have a strong reaction to the loss of life, and often muttered to himself about living in a world of flamingos.

Max had an eidetic memory, which he used to build his mind palace, where he stored every piece of data he considered to be of importance, which he would then use to deduce the so-called "pressure points" of individuals to exploit their weaknesses and blackmail them into subservience. He was also quite well-versed in psychological warfare, utilising this experience ad his immense data-processing capability to stay a step ahead of his professors all the time and ultimately managing to outplay even the Ministry. This intellect marks him as possibly the most intelligent human in Great Britain, if not in the magical community as a whole. He is believed by many, purely because of his intellect in combination with his personality, to be worse and more dangerous than Grindelwald himself.

Despite his acute misanthropy, Eric was capable of displaying great care towards a few individuals in his life, his mother Luna Lovegood among them. Notably, he possessed a deep affection for Luna, but was not particularly interested in sex, except as a bargaining tool. He worked out primarily to keep his body healthy and his mind sharp, but he had immense physical strength. This was demonstrated when he effortlessly put four hulking fifth years out of commission. Despite this advantage, he was hyper aware of his own limitations, and was capable of choosing his battles.

## Magical Abilities and Skills

Eric was an extremely powerful and talented wizard, outstripping most of his teachers and fighting on even ground with his father. His power was evident in numerous ways: before Hogwarts he demonstrated Occlumentic and Legilimentic skill, being able to read minds with ease. He could speak to snakes and became an Animagus at the age of thirteen. His Animagus form was a Valravn, a magical creature that represented the fallen in battle.

* **Alchemy**: Eric was learned in the ancient art and science of Alchemy, to the point where he was able to produce a restorative elixir of such potency that a small vial was able to return his body to full strength after an extended duel. He once attempted to create a Philosopher’s Stone, but it is unknown if he succeeded as the procedure was interrupted when he was called away.
* **Apparition**: Seeing the usefulness of apparition, Eric learned the skill at fourteen, having years to hone and perfect this method of transport, being able to apparate with pinpoint accuracy even while in combat, and inventing a unique method of tracing apparitions. He also developed his own theory on silent apparition.
* **Charms**: Eric was extremely skilful with charms, as he was able to cast an Everlasting Ink Charm powerful enough to absorb almost a year’s worth of ink, an extreme display of power. He also easily and repeatedly used the Insanity Curse (a spell of his own invention) to destroy his enemies’ minds after he had interrogated them. He could effortlessly levitate objects out of the way, blast down doors and break locks. He was capable of performing a flawless False Memory Charm, using the spell to simply create scapegoats for his many crimes. He was capable of casting powerful warding and shielding charms, allowing him to deflect spells and magical assaults of great force, showing his Charms work to be exceptional.
* **Dark Arts**: Eric was unbelievably talented and phenomenally accomplished in the Dark Arts at all levels, though he took great pains to make sure that this fact was never revealed. He was in possession of a vast library of knowledge, a large part of which was the Darkest of magic wizard kind had ever conceived of. He studied these texts and practiced many of them, such as the ability to raise the dead and many forms of blood magic. He even practiced a variant of Voodoo, though he never dabbled in soul magic or Horcruxes. He was highly masterful in the use of all three Unforgivable Curses, though he preferred not to, instead making use of several other spells of similar, yet less illegal, effect. Eric was also capable of developing extremely powerful Dark spells: he invented several curses in his time, including the power intensive Insanity Curse, the Life Stealing Spell, and the Magic Stealing Spell. He was also proficient at performing the highly complex Fiendfyre, and was able to fully control the cursed fire it creates, condensing it down into a colossal being of fire. Eric was less knowledgeable in the use of dark potions, but was still able to brew a poison strong enough to kill the very ground it touched.
* **Duelling**: Eric was a duellist of immense skill, outstripping even the likes of Filius Flitwick and Bellatrix Lestrange. His abilities were so great that he was capable of matching Mulciber, Greyback, Dolohov, and Rosier (who were masterful duellists themselves) simultaneously and (with the help of Luna Lovegood) overpower each of them, killing them where they stood. He was also able to easily overpower many other prodigious witches and wizards, such as the extremely skilled Amelia Bones during the raid on the Ministry vaults. Eric’s duelling style was much like Dumbledore's in its unpredictability: he could instinctively switch styles in the blink of an eye, and was defensive until he overwhelmed his foe with sudden aggressive surges of powerful magic. He was clever about picking his fights, never facing an enemy he was certain he would lose to. Eric's duelling skills were even great enough that he was able to stay in combat and hold his own against his father (who was fighting to kill), although he was steadily being forced back and ultimately had to abandon his effort and flee.
* **Magical Mastery**: Even at a young age, Eric proved himself to be a gifted magical prodigy, as he was able to utilise and control magic, both with and without the use of a wand, to an unnaturally high level. As a student of Hogwarts, Eric was acknowledged to be among the most brilliant students in the school's history. He performed feats of magic thought impossible and his magical accomplishments eclipsed and dwarfed those of even Albus Dumbledore himself. Possessing an incredibly deep amount of knowledge and understanding of magic, Eric theorised and researched to push the boundaries of magic scientifically and empirically rather than through raw experimentation. This degree of immense magical power and deadly skill, coupled with his apparent lack of morals, made him an extremely dangerous man to be on the wrong side of. He could overcome almost any magical protection in his way, making extremely few places absolutely safe if he was ever angry. Eric was equally good at warding and protecting places as he was at breaking into them, as he set up many powerful wards on both his family home and 42 Diagon.
* **Metamorphmagus**: Unlike most other wizards and witches, Tonks possessed the ability to change her physical appearance at will, without the need for a potion or a spell to assist. With simply a thought, she was capable of changing her facial features, nose shape, the colour of her hair and eyes, or even her entire form. Tonks used this ability both to entertain people and to stop people from recognising her, as evidenced by her ability to take the form of Professor Binns, a ghost. Tonks's rare skill was invaluable for espionage, as she worked as a covert operative inside the Ministry to feed the Order information and disguised herself as an old woman to escort Harry to the Hogwarts Express. She also passed the Disguise and Concealment portion of her Auror training without any studying.
* **Occlumency** **and Legilimency**: Eric was exceptionally adept and gifted in the use of both Occlumency and Legilimency, being able to effectively shield his own mind and penetrate the minds of others. He was a particularly talented Occlumens, even being able to shield minds other than his own. He was also, however, a frighteningly powerful Legilimens, being able to force his way into the minds of others without needing to say the incantation or use a wand. Even at a young age, his prowess in the mind arts matched that of Severus Snape and even Albus Dumbledore. He could always tell when he was being lied to, even without looking at an individual directly, and he could even use his Legilimency to possess small animals such as spiders and rats.
* **Parseltongue**: Eric was a Parselmouth, a trait he inherited from his ancestors on both sides, Salazar Slytherin on his father’s side and Herpo the Foul on his mother’s. He possessed the magical ability to communicate with snakes and most scaled lizards in the snake family. He could also communicate with magic snakes and lizards, and even dragons, though ‘their accent is horrible’. This ability was one that he used rarely, although he did make use of it occasionally to control snakes around him.
* **Potions**: Eric was exceptional in his study of potions, as he was aware of most, if not all poisons and their signs and many potions and how to brew them. He possessed such incredible talents and skills in potions that he was said to be a talent rivalled only by his long-time teacher Severus Snape.
* **Spell Creation**: Eric was extremely capable of inventing his own magical spells, as evidenced by the Insanity Curse, one of his own dark inventions. He used it to painfully break and fracture the minds of those who opposed him.
* **Transfiguration**: Eric displayed tremendous skills in Transfiguration, shown when he became an Animagus in minimum time or when he transfigured part of a wall into dust, killing two Death Eaters by changing the dust back to brick inside their lungs. He was most skilled in changing objects, and rather bad with conjuring them, shown when he failed to conjure a shield against a great wave of fire during the battle of the Department of Mysteries but succeeded into changing a single rock into a great wall of stone.
* **Wandless** **and Nonverbal Magic**: Eric was immensely accomplished at both wandless and nonverbal magic, enough so to be capable of using both effortlessly. He could move objects magically without the incantations to do so normally, using a sweep of his hand to disarm his foes and a twitch of his fingers to throw them back violently. He was also capable of casting spells ranging from simple charms to complex spells and even the most advanced of magic such as the Unforgivable Curses to their full potency without speaking the incantation.
* **Wand Lore** **and Wand Creation**:

## Possessions

Eric was extremely wealthy, being not only the Heir Apparent of House Habsburg and proprietor of its assets after his mother’s death, but also the head of a business and information empire that was earning him thousands of Galleons a month. He relied on this fortune for his school supplies, clothing, and other necessary expenses.

* **Wand**: Eric had many wands in his time, but his first was made of Ebony, a wood of willpower and self confidence, with a core of Wampus Cat hair, 14 1/2 inches and fairly stiff.
* **Invisibility Robes**: Having had these made special by a tailor in Knockturn Alley who worked for him, these robes was made of Thestral hide and lined with Demiguise fur and lasted him until some of the Charms wore off in 1996.
* **Malphas**: Malphas was Eric's Kneazle and was a loyal friend and constant companion. Malphas obeyed every command to the letter and was vital in stealth missions and as an added intimidation factor. Malphas, being choranaptyxic, could regulate his size to fit any space, but his full size was about the size of a large panther.
* **Communication Mirror**: Eric owned several communication mirrors which he used to communicate with his lieutenants. He also owned one of a three way set which he used to communicate with his best friends, Gregory and Luna.
* **Pocket Watch**: Eric owned a brass pocket watch that wound itself and always kept time correctly. He later used this pocket watch as a focus for his creation of an advanced time-turner. After this ritual it allowed him to rewind time by up to six hours, considered an extremely advanced breakthrough in the field of Ritual Alchemy.
* **Dress Robes**: Eric wore an elegant set of dark red dress robes to the Yule Ball for the 1994 Triwizard Tournament. He also wore a set of dress robes to Slughorn's Christmas Party in 1996.
* **Extended Mokeskin Pouch**: Eric had this throughout his life, though it is unknown where he acquired it. He used it most notably to liberate Raczidian Castle of its entire hidden fortune and library.
* **Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland**: He bought this book in an effort to learn more about the sport, seeing as it was Gregory’s favourite.
* **Notebook**: This notebook was Eric’s ledger for all transactions and business dealings. If needed, he could react exact entries in order from memory.
* **Castle Habsburg**: This was Eric’s ancestral family home, which he inherited when his mother died.
* **Raczidian Castle**: A powerful beacon of Dark magical energies, this castle served both as an occasional residence, and as a strategic retreat out-of-country. It was also the original birthplace of Dementors and contained an immense hidden library.
* **42 Diagon Alley**: A set of apartments on Diagon Alley, heavily warded and protected against prying eyes. These apartments served as Eric's semi-permanent residence and his base of operations closest to school.