Loren Price-Fortescue

**Loren Price-Fortescue** is a non-canonical half-blood young wizard mentioned in The Family Clock; he is the son of the muggle-born Ms Price-Fortescue (Mum) and her wife Ms Fortescue-Price (Mama), and thus either the grandnephew or the great-grandson of Florean Fortescue (after whom he is named). The anonymous bio-dad (referred to as *Uncle*) was eventually revealed to be Ian Tickes.

## Biography

Loren was born on or around the 27th October (his birthday was said to be "in a week" on the 20th, but that may be rounded), but there are different claims as regards the year: in chapters 11 and 29, his 1996 birthday is said to be his eighth, meaning he was born in 1988, while in chapters 32, 33 and 34 – all taking place about a week after the birthday – both he and several others refer to him as still being seven (and thus born in 1989), and finally chapter 29 also shows that he cannot have been conceived before Ian's graduation in the summer of 1989, so if the birth date is correct he must have been born in 1990. In any case, when he was but a baby the house the family lived in burned down and the smoke from the fire affected his eyesight. He isn't completely blind, but he doesn't see much detail and less if there are colours other than black and white involved. Nonetheless, he had learned to write by 1995, and had near perfect spelling by 1996. He uses a Braille watch, which is his favourite possession, and wears dark glasses.

At the time of his 1996 birthday his mum was treated for cancer at St Mungo's, which had him and his mama live with Florean and his wife in Diagon Alley; this let him meet Jessie Tickes, the maker of his watch, and she began teaching him the basics of clockmaking. However, within the next week first his mum died and then death eaters came to abduct the Fortescues; Loren's mama shot one of them with a muggle rifle, but was killed and only Loren was left in the house. Florean, now the legal guardian but missing and possibly dead, had left instructions in his will for such a situation, naming Jessie as guardian, and she accepted. The next morning her brother Ian came by with breakfast and was eventually revealed to be the anonymous Uncle; this was presumably part of why Florean chose Jessie in the first place.

## Physical description

Loren has brown eyes, similar to Ian and Jessie. In October 1996 he was 116 cm tall, which supports the 1990 birth year – it is about the 25th percentile for six-year-old boys, third percentile for seven-year-old and very rare for eight-year-old. He may be left-handed; at least, he uses his left hand to spread jelly on his toast.

## Trivia

* Already when they first met, Loren was very similar to Ian in mannerisms and preferences, and was a big fan of English National.
* Loren likes visiting the muggle amusement park Alton Towers, and especially enjoys riding the teacups.
* He likes grape jelly on white toast.
* Loren was initially introduced as the son of Florean's sister, but later backstory development pushed Florean back a generation (Jessie's mother worked for him while in Hogwarts) and Loren instead became his grandnephew, presumably on his brother's side. There is also a single reference to his mama being Florean's granddaughter rather than niece, which would actually fit even better with Florean claiming to have been "matchmaking the young people of Diagon for nearly ninety years".

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The Family Clock, Chapter 32
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 The Family Clock, Chapter 34
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 The Family Clock, Chapter 26
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 The Family Clock, Chapter 29
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Family Clock, Chapter 35
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 The Family Clock, Chapter 11
7. ↑ The Family Clock, Chapter 33
8. ↑ Graph: Male Stature vs Age at Wikipedia
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 The Family Clock, Chapter 24
10. ↑ The Family Clock, Chapter 36