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Name: Hrothbert of Bainbridge, aka Professor Bainbridge, aka Bob
Title: Professor of Ancient Runes
Age: at least four centuries
House: Slytherin (in life, though this may no longer be the case)
How's-my-driving post:here


A sixteenth-century wizard and the author of numerous powerful grimoires, Hrothbert of Bainbridge turned to the most horrific of Dark Arts in a grief-stricken effort to resurrect the woman he loved. The Wizengamut decided to make an example of him, and sentenced him to death. That was only the beginning.

Bound to his own skull for all eternity, the ghost of the once-great wizard eventually accepted his immaterial state as just penance for his crimes, but was never resigned to the control of the succession of impudent wizards who tried to own him. Through the centuries, as his name changed with the language from Hrothbert to Robert to Bob, he came to terms with his past and is now philosophically closer to a Ravenclaw than he was in life (he originally attended Hogwarts as a Slytherin). During this time, the skull was bandied about a great deal; with little leverage in bargaining for its safety, he was frequently reduced to the position of a menial familiar. At one point, he was nearly sold across the sea, but managed through sheer dint of panic to win a reprieve. After his latest master's death, he was branded a dangerous magical object and consigned to a shelf in the bowls of the Department of Secrets. Needless to say, when Dumbledore offered him a space of his own in exchange for his services as a teacher, he accepted at once.

Bob (or Professor Bainbridge) is tall, thin, and translucent, with a gimlet stare that is all the more chilling in monochrome, though he is a secret romantic and suffers badly from the detachment forced by his incorporeality. The skull to which his spirit is bound, shiny with handling and of a normal size and weight, is covered with mysterious runes. He cannot cast spells, touch physical objects, or venture more than fifty feet from the skull, depending on live people to carry it when he needs to be moved. Unable to write, he uses a transcription quill to take notes; however, since he can't move papers or open books, he keeps most of his knowledge neatly sorted in his head. One thing he can do is to create illusions -- being especially fond of changing his appearance (though he cannot disguise the fact that he is a ghost) and illustrating his findings with glowing, immaterial runes that hang in the air.

He is a keen scholar, relishing the opportunity to display the vast fruits of his centuries of study. An impatient, peremptory teacher in life, he's now much given to kibbitzing in lieu of being able to actually do things, and his years as a tool have left him with a cynical distrust of people in general. Although certainly proficient in Ancient Runes, he was in life a master of many perilous and arcane branches of magic, including Life Transfiguration, soul magic, and the Dark Arts. Given this, he prefers not to think about why Dumbledore passed him over for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post. Besides, it's a moot point anyway, and he tries not to bother himself with those.

Recent events: Towards the end of the school year, after briefly becoming mortal and burning one of his old grimoires to keep it out of the wrong hands, Bob started to research his curse in more detail. He got nowhere until the castle switched his mind with that of a fellow teacher, placing him in a live body unaffected by the Wizengamut's sentence. Once more able to reason within his academic specialty, he constructed a spell to ease the bindings on one of his fellow ghosts, but was switched back before finding a way to alleviate his own condition.

Associates

[coming soon!]
Staff




Students




Since arriving at Hogwarts, Bob has acquired a tattooed hairless cat. Marco, as he is now called, is affectionate, lively, and very loud for his size, though he has a deep hatred of anything resembling a spider (possibly traceable to an acromantula attack).



[[Hogwarts and all appertaining thereto are the property of J.K. Rowling, and Bob is derived from Terrence Mann's excellent performance on The Dresden Files. As for Marco, I found the picture on the web somewhere -- if this is your cat, let me know!]]