Ricky Brown: Biography

## Pre-Hogwarts (2011-2023)

> "This is all new to me. My family's all not magical. I didn't even know this all existed till now."
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— Ricky to Sheng-li Feng, during his first ever visit to Diagon Alley
Ricky grew up in a small, close-knit Muggle family. His dad is a software developer and his mum teaches in a local primary school. He has a sister, Alex, who is two years younger than him. Ricky was a gifted student at his Muggle school, but had trouble making friends. When he received his Hogwarts letter in July 2023, it came as an even greater shock than to most Muggleborns, since Ricky had done relatively little 'accidental' magic as a child. An unnamed Hogwarts Professor delivered the letter and escorted Ricky to Diagon Alley.

Shortly after, Ricky attended summer camp prior to his first year of schooling. In the first week, Ricky met and befriended Sanjana Ingram and Marianne Blanchard, who together taught Ricky his first ever spell: the Glasses Mending Charm, *Oculus Reparo*. Ricky met a number of other future classmates while on camp as well.

## Year 1 (2023-2024)

> "Mavericks forever!"
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— The Mavericks' motto, uttered by Ricky, Sanjana Ingram and Shane Mason countless times
On 1 September, 2023, Ricky caught the Hogwarts Express to school for his first year, and was sorted into Hufflepuff. In his first term at school, Ricky struck up a fast friendship with Sanjana and Shane Mason; the trio dubbed themselves the Mavericks and established a secret hideout behind a portrait in the Portrait Hall. Ricky also met Quinn Gallagher and developed a mutual attraction with her, which culminated in them attending the Halloween Ball together and beginning to date thereafter. In December, Ricky and Quinn both befriended another student, Ana-Maria Aureon, who had arrived at school late. They also developed a mutual rivalry with a bigoted and hostile fellow first-year, Klaus Kruger.

Around the winter holidays, several of Ricky's friends suffered serious family disturbances. Sanjana's parents split and her brother Peter was taken to live in America by their father. Ana-Maria's mother died from a long-term illness over the winter break; Ricky found out about this only after the break was over. Meanwhile, Quinn had a serious altercation with her stepmother that led to her being removed from home by her aunt. Quinn confided this to Ricky when she visited him over the break. During this time, the pair shared their first kiss.

In the new term, Ricky met Adalia Audrey and befriended her despite the tension and at times open hostility between Adalia and Quinn. During the term, a group of first-years including Ricky and his friends journeyed into the Forbidden Forest in search of Valeria Chovnik's dragon, after hearing rumours of it. They discovered the dragon and several students were injured, although Ricky was largely unharmed. They were rescued by Valeria herself, who suffered serious injuries as a result. Ricky and Adalia informed the first teacher on the scene, Veronica Calloway, about the incident without mentioning Valeria, and the teachers subsequently drew an Age Line around the Forbidden Forest to prevent further adventures. Trapped in the forest by the Age Line, Valeria was not found and presumed dead from her injuries.

Ricky was seriously affected by the news about Valeria, blaming himself for not informing the teachers of Valeria's role in the incident and indirectly causing her apparent death. He mostly avoided people other than Shane after the incident, spending many hours alone with her in the hideout; she, too, was in emotional turmoil, due to her mother mysteriously disappearing. Ricky was beginning to recover from this when he suffered another blow: Quinn was abruptly withdrawn from Hogwarts by her aunt, so they could move to France away from her estranged parents. Ricky thus finished his first year at Hogwarts in a solitary, depressive haze.

## Year 2 (2024-2025)

> "I know that we can learn from our bad experiences, and grow stronger from them. But... it's not as easy as it sounds."
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— Ricky to Ayano Kasumi
Isolated and lonely for much of the summer, Ricky started to recover from the preceding school year's events after a chance meeting with Kylie Whitehorn in the Leaky Cauldron. He met a number of other people in the latter half of the holidays, including a group of first-years that included his future mentee, Aranya Kashyap\*. In the first term of the school year, Ricky formed informal mentoring relationships with a number of new first-years, including Shane's estranged younger cousin, Zack Mason, who shared Ricky's interest and skill in Potions, and progressed quickly with his supervision. During this time, Ricky also struck up friendships with two more of his yearmates: Ayano Kasumi, an enigmatic fellow Potions prodigy, and Xia-ji Feng, a bubbly Ravenclaw and budding musician. Ricky also began to develop a crush on Shane, his best friend, unknown to her and unrequited by her.

When Valeria Chovnik dramatically returned to Hogwarts on Halloween, Ricky was initially fearful that she would hold him responsible for her near-death, but to his relief, Valeria appeared to pay him no mind at all. Shortly after, though, Ricky was an unwitting victim in Valeria's giant chocolate frog race, sustaining a severe concussion in a collision with Toby, from which he took nearly until the end of term to recover.

In the new year, Ricky started to undergo emotional turmoil due to the subtle impact of his natural Legilimency manifesting. Due to this and a mishap with an infatuation potion, Ricky shared a passionate kiss with Kasumi, although this did not change their relationship and he has not revealed this to anyone. Ricky's antipathy toward Klaus Kruger intensified after twice stumbling upon Klaus attacking a first year. On the second occasion, the victim was Ricky's mentee, Aranya\*, and Ricky attacked Klaus in retaliation. Ricky lost the duel, but succeeded in distracting Klaus from Aranya, and was able to settle her injuries with salves he had brewed before taking her to the hospital wing with Shane's help. Ricky received fifty points for his actions, which proved decisive in Hufflepuff's narrow House Cup victory.

A comment from the Hogwarts Healer, Han Ozaki, led Ricky to begin to consider Healing as a profession. In the final weeks of term, he consulted Healer Ozaki about the requirements to become a Healer, wrote to Xia asking if her father (a Healer and Muggle doctor) could be of help, and started to independently study Healing spells.

## Year 3 (2025-2026)

> "Maybe I'm going mad. I just want it to *stop.*"
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— Ricky to Medraut Prince, regarding his uncontrolled natural Legilimency
Ricky's younger sister, Alex, received her Hogwarts letter shortly before the end of Ricky's second year. Ricky spent much of June and July accompanying Alex on trips to Diagon Alley, frequently meeting other current and future fellow students while there, before Alex went off to summer camp in August. Ricky spent much of that last month alone, with his best friends not returning his letters.

The development of Ricky's natural Legilimency severely curbed his social interactions during his third year. He felt unable to deal with large groups of people due to the unexplained thoughts and random surges of emotion, and hence withdrew from most people. His only consistent companion during the year was Shane, and even their relationship was tumultuous. Shane's mother had finally returned safely over the summer, but Shane herself seemed mysteriously traumatised and changed by the event. This, along with Ricky's sudden reserve and his still-secret crush on Shane, strained their friendship for the entire fall term. They finally reconciled over Christmas when Shane unexpectedly visited Ricky and explained that she had been caught by her mother's kidnappers over the summer, and both were rescued only just in time.

Over the winter break, a poorly timed snowstorm left Ricky stranded in London, and he was rescued by Xia's father, Jiao-long Feng. Ricky stayed overnight with the Fengs and met the entire family. The elder Fengs, both being Healers, encouraged Ricky in his ambition and advised him to study human biology to augment his understanding of Healing magic, advice that Ricky followed in the ensuing months. Additionally, Xia's older sister, Sheng, spent most of spring term teaching Ricky the Healing Charm, *Episkey*. Partly as a result of his encounter with the Fengs, Ricky spent an increasing amount of time with Xia over the course of the year and became enamoured with her, gradually overcoming his crush on Shane in the process. Xia returned his feelings and both confessed to each other one evening in the gardens after the Quidditch final. Ricky recoiled from the prospect of a romance, however, due to lingering hurt over Quinn's sudden departure. Xia, although hurt by this, understood and promised to wait for him.

In the last week of term, Shane discovered that Ricky and Zack were friends, and was devastated, believing Zack had stolen Ricky from her. In the ensuing confrontation, Ricky unintentionally read one of Shane's thoughts, and finally figured out that the thoughts and emotions he had been swamped by over the last year and a half belonged to other people. He panicked and ran to the library, where he was found by Professor Prince and Kat Burton, both also natural Legilimens; the two deduced his ability and explained it to him. Ricky finished the year terrified of his newly discovered power, and intending to distance himself from his friends so as not to invade their privacy.

## Year 4 (2026-2027)

> "Anyone who thinks you're a bad girl doesn't know who you really are. And it's their loss."
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— Ricky to Xia-ji Feng
Over the summer, Ricky frequently made excuses not to see any of his friends, even retreating from his own family and locking himself in his room. He could not avoid Xia, however; they frequently video-called over the internet, which Ricky rationalised away since they weren't speaking in person, and he thus could not read her mind. Shane staged an intervention by again turning up uninvited, and telling Ricky she knew of his power, having partly overheard Professor Prince and Kat's explanation the previous year. Ricky confessed he'd thought she would abandon him if she knew, and finally admitted both to Shane and to himself that he had never fully gotten over Quinn, and was afraid of others leaving him, too. Shane promised never to leave him, and the two became closer than ever from this point on.

Despite his general reserve over the summer, Ricky did have a couple of memorable chance encounters. Firstly, when visiting St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries out of curiosity, Ricky met his old mentor, Lucy Brown, now a trainee Healer. He took the opportunity to pick Lucy's brain about Healing, and Lucy informed him about the apprenticeships available at St. Mungo's, encouraging him to apply for the following summer. On another occasion, Ricky stumbled across Xia in Westminster Cathedral by coincidence. The two of them planned to sneak out of home for a night of camping in the wilderness, shortly before term started. On that night, the pair shared their first kiss and began dating.

After such a chaotic summer, Ricky's fourth year was relatively uneventful. He spent much of his spare time with Xia: the couple attended the Halloween Ball together, and Ricky traveled to the Philippines with the Fengs over the winter break for New Year's Eve. Ricky also spent a great deal of his fourth year helping Shane become an Animagus. He brewed the Animagus potion and assisted Shane in collecting the ingredients, on one occasion very narrowly evading capture by prefect Lisa Edgley while out on the grounds after hours. Ricky and Shane snuck into the Room of Requirement to complete the ritual in March, and Ricky was the first to behold Shane's Animagus form: a lioness.

Following Lucy's advice from the preceding summer, Ricky applied for a Healing apprenticeship at St Mungo's Hospital during spring term. His application was accepted, and Ricky would hence spend parts of all his remaining summer and winter breaks until graduation learning the trade at St Mungo's.

## Year 5 (2027-2028)

> "I can respect someone who fixes problems. Too many people start them."
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— Ricky to Franco Bonventre
Ricky commenced his Healing apprenticeship during the summer prior to his fifth year. He found it extremely draining work, complemented by the discovery that his natural Legilimency extended to feeling others' pain, a common occurrence in a hospital environment. He thus found it difficult to connect with friends over the summer, but continued to write to them and communicate online where possible.

Ricky became a prefect in his fifth year, and took his duty seriously, assisting Headmaster Newman and the other prefects and Head Students in brainstorming ideas for improving the school and gathering feedback from the student populace. He became noted as a kindly figure more given to talking to and befriending lonely and upset students than to punishing rulebreakers. Examples of students he has talked to include Franco Bonventre, Adam Crawford, Al Russo and Kinsey Clarke.

## Notes

\*Aranya Kashyap was retconned by her roleplayer and now exists as an adult character. Her original characterisation is assumed to have been taken by a NPC, but, for convenience's sake, I have kept her original name on this wiki page.