Ryder Hargrave

Ryder Hargrave is the only son of Rachel Hargrave and Patrick Green. Both Rachel and Patrick went to the same High School in northern Montana, in fact that's where they started dating. However, upon graduation, they both found that they wanted different things so they ended their relationship. However, it turned out that Rachel was pregnant with a son. But instead of tracking Patrick down and making him pay for child care... she just decided it would be better if she took care of himself.

On Valentine's Day of 2012, Rachel went into labor and gave birth to her son. Despite the fact that Rachel Hargrave now had a son named Ryder Hargrave, that wasn't going to stop her from fulfilling her dream of becoming a Navy SEAL. While pregnant with Ryder she had gone through the application process to attend to the US Naval Academy. At the time, women weren't allowed to be SEALs, but in 2013, the US Department of Defense opened up all positions in the military to women, including SEAL training. Rachel worked her butt off and in 2017, she graduated top of her class at the US Naval Academy. She was one the few that were selected to be sent for SEAL qualification.

Ryder was around six and a half years old when Rachel was deemed a fully qualified SEAL. During that time period, Ryder lived with Rachel's parents. During the two and a half years of Rachel's training, she had met a local girl named Juliana Durant, and the two hit it off really well. Rachel had known for a long time that she was bisexual, and so she had no qualms with dating a woman. Neither did Juliana, who had known for a while that she was a lesbian. On Ryder's seventh Christmas, Rachel and Juliana were wed, and Ryder finally left the care of his grandparents to go live with Juliana and Rachel.

About three months after the wedding, Rachel was sent out on a deployment, so Ryder was left in the care of Juliana, who happened to be pregnant at the time. Using some advanced medical procedure, science had somehow taken the DNA from Rachel's skin cells and turned them into sperm cells. They then took some of Juliana's eggs and using IVF, impregnanted Juliana with a child that would be biologically *theirs*. Because of how IVF works, twins are much more common, so around a month after Rachel got back, Juliana went into labor and gave birth to a pair of healthy baby girls.

11 months after the girls were born, Rachel got sent out on yet another deployment. She would be gone for six months, come back for a year to six months, and the process continued like that. Meanwhile, the twins and Ryder were growing up under Juliana's care. Despite the fact that Ryder was not her son biologically, Juliana loved him just as much as her own twin daughters. Like really, these three kids hit the jackpot when it came to great mothers. Juliana was like *born* to be a mom.

However, Rachel Hargrave had a dirty little secret that she kept from Juliana until she *had* to tell her. It was when Ryder was about seven years old, and one of the neighborhood kids was picking on him for having two moms. Ryder point-blank asked him if that was a problem. The bully said it was, and he swung at Ryder's head. Ryder didn't even realize what he was doing but the bully flew back fifty some odd feet and cracked his head against the sidewalk. The impact didn't kill him, but he went into a coma... one the doctors said he may never come out of.

Ryder didn't even *touch* the kid, the neighbors could testify to this. So there was no way it was Ryder's fault, and there wasn't any sort of logical explanation for it. But the scandal ruined the Hargrave's reputation, forcing them to move to a different state. Maine, specifically. This is when Rachel revealed to Ryder, Juliana and the twins that she a squib. Both her parents were magical-folk and when they found out they had a squib daughter, they left Rachel at a muggle orphanage. They did however, leave Rachel with a note that explained everything. Apparently, magic can skip a generation. That little incident with the boy *was* Ryder's fault... technically anyways. But Rachel, through a lot of convincing got it through Ryder's head that it was *not* his fault. The guilt still follows Ryder to this day, despite his mothers' reassurance.

Anyways, luckily for Rachel, Juliana took the news very well, and for the most part, things returned to normal. When the time came, Ryder was off to Ilvermorny, and when given the choice between Thunderbird and Wampus, he chose the former. Ryder finished up his magical education with any incident, though he was very, very, *very* good at Quidditch. Ryder was a superb beater, and got picked up by the Washignton Whales, a Quidditch team in the city of Washington DC. However, that summer things changed for the Hargraves...

Rachel got wounded in combat. Not severely, but enough that she was given a medical discharge from the Navy. Rachel and Juliana were both now unemployed, though Rachel was getting money from the Navy still for her wounds. But, either way, the Hargraves decided to move back to Juliana's home country of England. Ryder wasn't about to leave the Whales, so he stayed back while Juliana, Rachel and the twins went to England. Juliana became a primary school teacher, while Rachel took a turn at parenting for a while, that was until 2031, when the twins went off to Hogwarts.

After the 2031-2032 season ended, Ryder's contract was up with the Whales. Missing his family, he decided to move out to England and play Quidditch there. He got his team manager to transfer him to the Banchory Bangers, where he still played as a beater.