Ellis May/Before School

## Background

### Before School (2005-2016)

Ellis was born into the old pure-blood Selwyn family dwelling primarily in Anglesey, Wales. They were also one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, even Dolores Umbridge once claimed to be related to them. Despite being immensely wealthy before the Second Wizarding War, the family suffered many damages during and after. Its members split into half with the former pledging loyalty to Lord Voldemort, the latter who differed with the first half settled to Scotland to escape persecution from the Death Eaters. After the war, those who joined forces with Lord Voldemort were either thrown into Azkaban or killed, causing the Selwyns to lose most of its members.

This took a tremendous toll on the family. The ones who didn’t join the Death Eaters were accused of joining them, with many moving overseas to temporarily alleviate themselves from the chaos. This group was nicknamed the Modernists, as they encouraged marrying half-bloods, Muggle-borns, and even Muggles to prevent the line from dying out. The other half was called the Traditionalists stayed in England and maintained many customs including blood-purity. To no one’s surprise, the Traditionalists soon died out whilst the Modernists thrived after they moved back to their home country.

Ellis’ mother, Sonorie Selwyn was working in a remote European village as a Herbologist when she met Andreas May, a German-British astronomer and the two married before returning to England, where they lived in the county of Wiltshire, but travelled frequently to Scotland and Wales. Together the couple had three children: Eirlys the oldest, Ellis, and the youngest Llywelyn. Everything seemed to go well for the family—Sonorie and Andreas both made advances in their careers, regaining the riches the Selwyns had lost during the war. Their children were very bright, exhibiting early magic much earlier before average.

When Eirlys reached school age, Andreas received a sudden letter telling him and Sonorie that there were something odd worth investigating throughout Europe. As such, the couple hurriedly shipped her off to Hogwarts and left Llywelyn at Sonorie’s father, Glasnant Selwyn’s estate. The problem was Ellis. The estate was already hectic enough for one more person to stay, let alone two, he had nowhere to go.

When the final day until departure arrived, Sonorie was sent another letter from her older sister Rhea Selwyn, whom she had not heard from for a long time. The letter itself was twenty pages of her lamenting the loss of her cottage in a freak accident (involving fire) and how she and her children had nowhere to stay. But Rhea was of no weak character—she was a squib who was disowned by her family, and managed to survive prosecution during the war whilst caring for her own family.

Naturally there should be some suspicion, as to why a tough person like her wrote such a long letter, which included details like what colour the 159th tile on the roof was. Though Sonorie didn’t want to start bickerings with her own sister, so she kindly replied back, telling Rhea she could stay in the May residence as long she cares for Ellis when they would be gone. Hence, Rhea arrived with her children and her luggage, promising she would take extremely good care of her sister’s child and waited for the couple to leave.

Rhea was at most, a mediocre caretaker who often makes mistakes. Squibs like her, were often looked at with contempt in the wizarding society because of their lack of magic, and it was even worse for them to born in a pure-blood family. She was raised separate from the rest of the family like a Muggle, attending Muggle school with no exposure to magic until the war begin. There she witnessed use of Unforgivables because her connections to the Selwyn family. She saw how people could die instantaneously with just a flick of a wand, how they would writhe in agony when a simple incantation was uttered, and betray their loved ones with a flash of light. After that, she found magic fascinating for a while.

At first, Rhea wasn’t very used to the accidental magic Ellis exhibited—it had already been many years after the war, so she tried to inhibit it by locking away everything magic related into an ersatz shed. After a while, she regained her interest and wanted to see it, so she bribed him with spellbooks she had taken from his bookcase, something she knew he was interested in. Her ploy worked, though the magic was *accidental* and it wasn’t under his conscious control. Ellis managed to create sparks sometimes, but nothing more than that.

Then, Rhea moved on to her second plan: trying to force the magic out of him. She would make up stories like how a dark wizard was going to tear down the house, making him use it. Soon enough, Ellis started to suppress the magic because he despised seeing it being exploited by Rhea. So when he was unable to perform tricks for her, she called him a fraud. Meanwhile, his parents had already been gone for nearly a year, and they were sending letters home less frequently too. He was frustrated at these circumstances and asked Rhea to do something about it, but she brushed it off and commanded him to do more magic.

The cycle continued, from Rhea suppressing magic to her interest towards it and it never seemed to end. Ellis had nearly forgotten about Hogwarts—he was surprised when the fated, green inked letter finally arrived at the doorstep, thinking that it would never come. His parents were also back from their expedition. Finally, Rhea was gone from the house and he was going to school.