Micah O'Brien (sweet nerd)

Played by Asa Butterfield (link)
DESCRIPTION:Micah hasn’t hit his growth spurt yet, so he’s still small and skinny. His hair tends to always end up looking a little uneven no matter how hard his mother tries to keep it cut. Although he likes it better like that anyway. His preference for indoor activities tends to put him a little on the paler side. (It also keeps his clothes cleaner.) But when he smiles, his whole face lights up like Christmas. He doesn’t usually sit still well, always needing to be bouncing his legs or doing something with his hands. The one exception is when he gets completely focused on something like reading or solving a puzzle. Once he’s in that mode, a person could be talking right next to him and he might not hear them.




POSITIVE TRAITS: extremely smart, intuitively understands the feelings of those around him, kind, creative, helpful, has a big heart
NEGATIVE TRAITS: socially awkward, painfully shy, has trouble connecting with kids his age due to advanced interests, gets overwhelmed when there’s too much going in in his environment, has anxiety (triggered when things don’t go how he expects them to), easily wounded emotionally
LIKES: reading, learning new things, mental puzzle he can work with his hands, chocolate, wizard’s chess, space and the stars (he has posters all over his room), talking about complex subjects with his adoptive father, hugs
DISLIKES: mud, sauces on his food (except ketchup), stiff or scratchy clothes, going to the supermarket, having to go to bed when he’s in the middle of reading, other kids thinking he’s weird, being around conflict (it upsets his stomach), things that remind him of the war, when people around him are sad (he always wants to fix it)
HOBBIES: collecting chocolate frog cards (and memorizing all the trivia), reading science fiction or nonfiction material beyond his age (especially about space or time), playing piano (he’s teaching himself completely by ear), building things with Legos

GENERAL PERSONALITY: Micah soaks up knowledge like a sponge, always wanting to know how and why things work. And his intellect lets him grasp subjects far beyond his age. He has memorized every chocolate frog card he owns, and he likes to spout those facts mixed in with others about space or time or whatever other subject has currently snagged his interests. He’s also remarkably creative, able to solve logic puzzles fairly quickly by thinking outside the box. But Micah isn’t all brains. He also has a fair amount of heart. He’s quite sensitive to the emotions of others and will go out of his way to keep the peace or cheer someone up. His chores may sometimes fall through the cracks thanks to his mind being somewhere else, but when he’s mentally present, it’s not unusual for Micah to perform small acts of kindness like making something for his sister or starting in on the dishes himself when he knows his parents are busy. He’s most at ease when he knows everyone around him is happy and taken care of. As a decent mix of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff traits, people often mistake him for Connor and Claire’s biological son. A fact Micah no longer feels the immediate urge to correct. In fact, he’s starting to rather enjoy it. He doesn’t always connect the best with people, tending to be both painfully shy and unsure of exactly what to say, which often results in him rambling about a topic he knows well. He also has anxiety that can kick in when there’s too many people around or his plans are majorly disrupted. But he knows his family loves him (the whole giant bunch of them) exactly as he is, and that tends to keep him steady.




Parents: birth parents Robert Stevens (deceased) and Elise Stevens (deceased), adoptive parents Connor O’Brien (33, unspeakable) and Claire O’Brien (30, beast liaison)
Siblings: Hayden (15, adopted sister), Megan (7, biological sister)
Partner: n/a
Children: n/a
Other Family: Rebecca O’Brien (aunt, 36, reporter), Isaac O’Brien (uncle, 29, curse breaker), Trace O’Brien (uncle, 27, Appleby Arrows keeper), Hannah O’Brien (aunt, 23, medi-witch)

Character History: Micah was born to average, working class wizarding folk. His father worked a low-level Ministry job, and his mother stayed home. The first few years of his life were relatively happy. His parents doted on him, taking great pride in how fast he learned to walk and read. He was more or less the center of their existence, and that was just fine by Micah. He didn’t even mind having to share the spotlight when his younger sister Megan came along. In fact, he rather liked the idea of having someone else to look after. Life was perfect for their little family. Like something out of a storybook.

But it couldn’t last. War began brewing not long after Megan’s birth. Micah was too young to understand the details, but he picked up on the rising tension in his parents. And then one night when he was six a group of men came to the house. They broke down the door and killed Micah’s father. He was a Muggle born who had made a fuss about Voldemort’s Ministry trying to take away his wand, although Micah didn’t know any of that. His mother managed to grab her two children and apparate away. But she was struck by a nasty curse in the process and died soon after. With no relatives to take them in, Micah and Megan were placed in an orphanage with other magical orphans of war.

The war ended shortly after. Not that Micah cared much. His entire world had been destroyed. He was living in an unfamiliar place with too many people, and the stress of it all led to him having panic attacks. This went on for nearly a year. A few families came to meet them, but none ever stayed. And then one day the O’Briens came to the orphanage. Claire brought Micah and chocolate frog and didn’t try to make him talk about his parents. And Connor worked with time, which was intriguing enough that Micah actually started talking to him of his own accord. A few days later a worker at the orphanage told Micah the O’Briens had started the process of adopting he and Megan.

Life with Connor and Claire took some getting used to. They were certainly nice enough. It was just that everything was so different from Micah’s home. It didn’t help that three-year-old Megan was rapidly forgetting all about their parents. But Connor and Claire had both lost their parents too, and they let him talk about his birth parents whenever he wanted. In fact, they actively encouraged it. They also repeatedly assured him they weren’t trying to replace his other parents. And that they weren’t going to leave, something Micah worried about often. It took time, but eventually Micah came to accept them. Now, after four years, Micah has begun to thrive in his new home. He doesn’t have too many friends at his Muggle school, but he has aunts and uncles that make up for it. Plus he’s learning, which is heaven for him. The recent addition of his new sister Hayden into the family has been a little interesting. She doesn’t seem to quite trust her new parents yet. Micah wasn’t so sure about her at first, but the two of them seem to have a lot in common and they get along well enough now. He’s looking forward to attending Hogwarts with her next year so he can finally learn all about magic. Maybe someday he’ll become an unspeakable like his dad. That would be super cool.




Wand: ?
Former House: ?
Affiliation: N/A
Amortentia: hot chocolate (his adoptive mother makes it when he can’t sleep), peppermint (one of his favorite tastes, his birth father loved it too and always has some of the mints in his pocket), new books (although that might change to old books once he hits the Hogwarts library)
Magical Abilities: n/a