Dante Au-Yong

Dante Tian-Ning Au-Yong (b. September 27, 2005) is a seventh year Ravenclaw at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Family Lineage
On his father's side of the family, the Au-Yong's are a prominent, powerful and pureblooded family in China. A large portion of the family resides in Beijing, China. Due to the traditional viewpoint of the family, they are highly purist and believe that all Muggleborns do not know their place. In their view, Muggles are better because they at least know their place in the social order even if they are not aware of wizards. This side of the family was the one that decided that Dante and Charmian were in need of an arranged marriage.

In contrast, on his mother's side of the family, the Huang's, do not hold this antiquated and narrow view of blood status despite being a large pureblood family themself. They believe that one paves one's own path through their own hard work and perseverence no matter their original roots. However, the Huang's were also relatively traditional. They believed in having proper mannerisms and having a proper education, particularly of one's ancestry and roots. In some ways, these two branches are more similar than they could possibly conceive.

Birth and Childhood
Many people would be surprised to find out that Dante Au-Yong was actually born on English soil. On September 27, Dante Au-Yong was born and officially named thus in the United Kingdom. However, his family made frequent visits back to China and Hong Kong simply because it was his parents’ homeland and many of their childhood friends and relatives still resided there. It wasn’t until he was about 18 months old when his family made their first trip back to China that his parents realized that they had failed to give their first son a Chinese name, something that their parents definitely wouldn’t overlook. So a week before their trip back, Dante was given his Chinese name: Tian-ning.

There’s the question of exactly how his parents ended up in England to begin with. Dante’s mother had been an international student for University of Oxford where she made plenty of English friends who taught her the British ways. Despite there being such a huge difference in culture, his mother enjoyed the whole experience immensely. In fact, she loved it so much that she went back to Oxford for her Masters degree in Linguistics. It was there where she met Dante’s father who had been in the city for business reasons. It was a typical case of ‘OH MY GOD YOU’RE REPULSIVE, GET AWAY FROM ME’, or at least from his mother’s side while his father instantly fell in love with her. After plenty of persuasion, his father managed to get his mother to agree to let her buy a cuppa. That alone took months. It took another couple of months for her to agree to go out on an actual date with him. It was a few years after that that he proposed to her for the first time… and it took another few years before she finally accepted.

In the end, it was a good match. Unfortunately, like everything else in this relationship, only one set of parents were content with the match. His father’s family was well-known for being one of the snobbiest families in the Wizarding World. While his mother’s family was pureblooded, they were hardly the snobs the Au-Yongs were. As such, her family disapproved greatly of the match. It was largely because of the fact that Oxford’s Masters for Arts required several years to complete that the couple ended up residing in England. It was, by far, the smartest decision. This situation allowed the couple to live in peace without one side constantly chattering about having a cuppa with Dante’s mother, and the other side nagging his mother to annul the marriage because it wasn’t too late yet--until it did become too late. At that point, his mother’s family nagged about getting a divorce. They’re still looking for any reason for the divorce to occur even now.

Despite knowing that the English culture was far more easygoing than that of Chinese culture, especially in terms of academics, his mother was a firm believer that she would never have gotten where she was if she didn’t do as much work as she did in her youth. As such, Dante was forced through a similar upbringing where large portions of his time were taken up by studying various subjects. There was very little time for play, and Dante became used to the idea of having absolutely for anything but studying. Even as a child, he was a boy of little words, perhaps cultivated by his childhood that consisted almost entirely of constant studying. Most of his days consisted of going to school and then studying until dark, eating proceeded by sleep. It was a bit on the harsh side, but it was the norm for many hardcore Chinese families back in China.

Like many others of Chinese descent, his parents also believed that music enriches your brain—not to mention is might impressive when family and friends are over and you have a musically-talented child to play for them. As a result, Dante started on the violin when he was only a little tyke. To be exact, he was three years old when he picked up his first—very small—violin. In fact, he still has that tiny violin in his room somewhere. Now twelve years later, Dante has become quite accomplished at it. In fact, he’s so accomplished at it that he has won multiple competitions with his playing. Realizing that Dante had a talent in music, his parents had wanted to enhance that talent but signing him up for piano lessons as well when he was about seven years old.

Many arguments ensued over the schooling of their children in terms of their pureblood. His father was in favour of at least teaching their children some history of their respective families while his mother was not so keen on the idea. As it was wont to do in their relationship, his mother was slowly worn down to reluctantly agreeing to the proposition so their children were educated fairly extensively on the history of both sides of the family and the pureblood that was preserved in their blood. After having been so thoroughly educated on his family’s history and past, Dante did absorb it; at least a bit more than his mother would have liked. To a very small degree, he is a pureblood elitist. How could he not after hearing all the accomplishments of his family. He never outwardly shows his belief of Muggle and Muggleborn inferiority, but it’s subtly in his actions and words.

When he was about two years old, his mother had another child. Only this time, it was a girl by the name Charmian. To his parents’ dismay, she didn’t display the unbending obedience as Dante. She essentially refused to study constantly. His parents did do their very best to tame her, but it just was not possible. So, they found ways around that. One of the most notable traits of Charmian is her utter inability to stay still. In hopes that physical activity would wear her out at the end of the day, she was signed up for various sports. Naturally, they tried the more feminine sports first; only for Charmian to ruthlessly shoot them down, proclaiming that she hated it just after a day. It wasn’t until they finally resigned to Quidditch that she was finally happy. However, her parents used that as a device to get her to study at least a bit every day. While she might never be a Dante, Charmian would indeed continue the Au-Yong family’s tradition of excellence, just to a lesser extent, and his parents just learned to deal with that.

As a child, he always found his younger sister to be annoying. She was a bright young child, vivacious and full of life, quite unlike Dante. To say that she has interrupted more than one of his study sessions would be an understatement. Charmian would disrupt at least one of his study sessions a week. For a while, Dante had a plan how to avoid it all. That is until she figured out his plans and started to interrupt him more at random so that he couldn’t avoid them even if he wanted to. The peak of his dislike for his sister was in that brief time period. It was around then that Dante had the first big explosion of anger in his entire life. Never before has such a display of temper emitted from Dante. It also happened to be the first time that his magic had spun out of control. It was so shocking and terrifying that Charmian never pushed her brother that far again. She learned from then all the signs of Dante’s ensuing anger and backed off before that could happen again.

When Dante was about ten years old, he began to develop an irrepressible urge to steal. The things he stole were never particularly valuable. But the fact that he only stole non-valuable things didn’t make the matter any less concerning. Understandably worried, Dante’s parents took him to a therapist to fix matters. It took a couple of therapists before there was one that would actually do something about his condition, which was exactly what his parents wanted. So Dante was given medication and that was the end of that for his parents. Unfortunately, Dante didn’t like the effect that the medication. It made him feel weird. So he discontinued use of the medication without his parents’ knowledge. To this day, Dante doesn’t take the medication his parents send to him.

Education at Hogwarts
It was not at all surprising when Dante got his letter of acceptance from Hogwarts when he turned eleven years old. With both sides of the family locked in a love affair with its pureblooded status along with his spectacular display of temper with magic, it was unsurprising that Dante would have magic running through his veins. Nothing could explain just how happy his dad was to find out that Dante had been sorted into Ravenclaw.

For Dante, the transition from home to school was ridiculously difficult. Never having had the opportunity, he didn’t understand the concept of free time. For about a week, Dante asked all his teachers about the extra homework that was customary for him back home. Most of the professors just looked at him strangely and told him just to do the assigned work. If it hadn’t been the few friends who he had made, Dante wasn’t sure how else he would have made it through his first week at Hogwarts.

The environment was so vastly different from what he was used to, which was exactly why Dante continued on his familiar study time to the bewilderment of others. His friends who were frustrated with this attitude tried their best to get Dante to do other stuff than study (because for one, it’s boring to hang out with someone who’s always studying). To pacify them, Dante has slowly acclimated to their requests and saves studying for other times like when his friends can’t see. His friends are aware that Dante does more studying than he admits to, but they simply don’t know when he devotes this time to pure studying. It is not unknown for him to stay up all night just for the sake of studying despite what his friends may think.

In his first year, this great change was a huge stressor on him. Thus, it triggered many episodes of his kleptomania surfacing. For a while, there was a rash of thefts where the objects in question were returned soon after, no more than a few hours after. It was obvious that not knowing how to deal with this dramatic change in his life, Dante had briefly allowed his kleptomania to take over. However, progressively throughout the year, his friends had managed to help him find a balance despite knowing about his condition.

It wasn't until his second year that Dante truly managed to get a really good footing on finding balance at school. This was the year when Dante and Chun established a regular "jam session". Every week, they would meet up in the Room of Requirement where Dante would be able to hone and practice his skills as a violinst and Chun would be able to let loose and play on the piano provided by the Room of Requirement. The regular music sessions were exactly what he needed since he was so focused on only studying in his first year that he had forgotten about his true passion for music.



Physical Description
First thought in anybody’s mind upon first seeing Dante is the fact that he’s Asian. Due to the rather low Asian population in the United Kingdom, Dante sticks out just like a sore thumb. From his jet black hair and narrow eyes to his rather small build, everything about him just screams his Chinese heritage. Although he is not particularly short, Dante is not particularly tall either standing at 5’7”, especially in comparison to other guys his age. With his parents’ insistence that Dante be supergenius-boy, he becomes an even bigger target to his dismay.

His jet black hair is almost always in dire need of cutting as it often hangs straight and loose in front of his eyes and ears. But Dante always finds that he forgets to get it cut, no matter how much it is in need with other things taking precedence over his appearance. It is only he starts swatting at his hair that he starts to get worried. His eyes bear the same brown-black shade as many others of his race, having a wide variety of lights to them. They glitter and dance brightly in his happiness with silent laughter, and they can be dull and downcast, full of disappointment in other situations.

His vague reputation of being a bit of a flirt can be mostly blamed on his smile. A huge transformation takes place once Dante smiles. With his bright smile, it gives him a whole different air in comparison to the times when he doesn’t. For one, it lights up his whole face including his eyes, making them dance with laughter. They show the hints of dimples at the edge of his mouth, making him that much more attractive and adorable. Having a bit of a baby-face, Dante is more cute than handsome. In fact, the chances of him growing out of the baby-face anytime soon are slim to none.

In terms of apparel, Dante is often found in Ravenclaw robes. Even when the opportunity for other clothing is available, except for weekends, it is often that he will still be in his robes from earlier in the day. Often, Dante is distracted by other more interesting things. He has no particular grudge against the robes. They’re perfectly respectable, and as such, Dante finds little reason for the rush to change to his normal clothing. However, on the few times that Dante is seen in clothing that borders along the margin of casual and semi-formal. In terms of clothing, Dante likes his stuff to be fairly neat and nice, at the very least.

Personality and Traits
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When people see Dante, they automatically think typical Asian kid. He’s got high achievements, great grades, and he’s generally well-liked. A large portion of his time is devoted to purely studying, to the dismay of many of his friends. His parents are so proud of him, mostly because their daughter has thus far been a disappointment. In spite of that, they continue to push him towards more academic excellence despite having already attained the desired level. Although it is not entirely evident, Dante is harder on himself than his parents ever were due to his greed of approval from certain important people such as his parents. As such, he always strove above and beyond his parents’ expectations (which were high enough already). Thus, even a single mistake, Dante is likely to be heartbroken over. His childhood upbringing has ensured that his habits maintain a similar level of excellence and has made him self-indulgent to his needs to study. After growing up on constant studying, the concept of free time is more than a bit bewildering to him. To he who grew up in an environment where no time was wasted, free time actually grated on his nerves. He absolutely needs to be useful and productive in at least some way. More often than not, Dante resorts to going around and finding extra material that he could study, just for fun... and to satisfy his absolute need to fill up his time with something productive.

However there’s a bit more to him than meets the eye. Dante is afflicted with a condition where he is unable to resist the pull to steal things that are generally of little or no value. It is a secret that Dante wishes to be well-kept, and has remained so since the beginning of Hogwarts. It is, in fact, a matter of embarrassment for Dante. More often than not, after having stolen items of little value, Dante will try and return said items due to overwhelming guilt. However, he’s not going to just waltz up to you and kindly return it just like that. No, that would just raise far too many suspicions. As such, the only items he keeps are the ones where he can’t find a surreptitious way of returning the objects to its original owner. In fact, from when he went back to China, Dante has managed to accumulate a fairly large collection of fobby pens, pencils and erasers hidden in his trunk. Lord knows he doesn’t need that many. If he were entirely honest, there hasn’t been a single person who he was even remotely close to that he hasn’t stolen from; it’s not a proud fact of his but there’s that.

Dante is also an accomplished violinist, having picked up his very first violin at the tender age of three. As he grew older, it became more and more apparent that Dante was obviously gifted with music, more so than he was with intellectual studies to his parents’ dismay. However, instead of suppressing his musical talent, they enhanced it with various other lessons. His parents decided to get him lessons with other instruments (the piano and acoustic guitar) since Dante showed an obvious gift and love for music. If he were entirely honest to his parents, Dante enjoys his music far more than the straight studying that his parents often like to push on him. As his first instrument ever, violin is naturally his favoured one and the instrument with which he is most skilled; as such, he refused to stop playing even after he started going to Hogwarts. To prevent bothering others roommates and others in the house, Dante has taken to practicing in empty, out-of-the-way classrooms.

While one would think that a person like Dante would be competitive, they would be far from right. In fact, Dante is one of the least competitive people around, if not the least competitive. He’s one of those guys who will shake your hand, and sincerely and genuinely wish his competitors good luck even when the tension is high. The reasoning behind this is simple. Dante dislikes discord; frankly, the whole thing just makes him feel insecure and uncomfortable. In general, he is more interested in making friends than enemies.

Everything about Dante seems to be very mild and mellow. In general, he keeps his emotions under check. However turbulent his emotions may be under the surface, he stays cool-headed for the most part. Dante is seldom angry even when circumstances demand a show of annoyance at the very least, which is often a cause of dissension among his acquaintances. But that makes it particularly shocking in the rare case that he suddenly storms off in a rage. Actually, Dante has an entirely justifiable reason for this: he simply isn’t comfortable with letting go when it comes to his emotions. Frankly, he’s a bit afraid of what would happen if he were to allow it to happen. The first time that he had allowed his emotions to break the dam that it was held within was more than he could handle. While it may sound like Dante is a cold person, he is not. The guy’s a warm and kind enough of a person. He’s just one of those people who wouldn’t just start talking to you for no particular reason. But if you talk to him first, he’ll be happy to talk to you… assuming that he isn’t studying something particularly important at that moment. Dante has a sort of air of elegance and sophistication, which can be a bit intimidating if one is particularly easy to scare.

Part of the reason Dante succeeds as he does in academics reside in his good critical faculty. He is able to stand back and look impartially at matters. While he won’t ever admit it, Dante is not particularly fond of arguments that challenge his own opinions. He’s not overtly obvious about it either, which makes it just that much more irritating. He seems to think that people just haven’t put enough thought into it to come to the same conclusion as he, and so he tries to get the other person to look at the matter from another light (that just happens to coincide with his own) so that he or she may arrive at the same conclusion as he has. The only exception to this stubbornness on his part only occurs when it concerns his friendships since he doesn’t want to antagonize his friends too much knowing all too well aware that he is not the easiest person to befriend.

Unsurprisingly, Dante is a peaceable fellow. More than anything else, he loathes cruelty, viciousness, vulgarity, and conflict between people. He does his best to cooperate and compromise with everyone around him, trying to seek a middle ground between everybody around him. Unfortunately for Dante, finding such a middle ground is quite impossible. As such, he has developed a vague reputation of untruthfulness from it. However, his white lies arise from a true desire for peace and fairness. Dante is just plain not comfortable with direct and malicious trickery; however, he feels entirely justified in lying to avoid conflict.

Ingrained from his youth, Dante has a great deal of respect for authority and tradition. So he’s one of those guys who will keep his nose clean and out of trouble. One minute to curfew? For him, that means race back to the house at top speed, which isn’t very fast, unfortunately. Dante is also genuinely sorry, not to mention disappointed in himself when berated for just about anything. If he were to be entirely honest, it panics him just a bit too much if a professor calls on him. If it was entirely up to him, Dante wishes with all his heart that those professors (or anything figure of authority for that matter) would stop calling on him, lord knows that it would be easier on him.

Abilities and Skills
As a result of years of intense study, Dante has grown an appreciation and an aptitude for evaluating highly intricate details, and a strong desire to understand the mechanics of everything in the world. He is highly interested in the theoretical aspects of magic. As a result, he happens to be quite talented in that area. For him, the more difficult and challenging the subject, the more Dante tends to enjoy it.

Dante is an accomplished violinist having started his violin music education from the ripe young age of three. Since then, he has been studiously playing the violin and has won several competitions for his talent and proficiency in the instrument. Dante continues to play violin even at Hogwarts, where he plays in old, abandonned and empty classrooms, if he can manage to find one.

Due to his kleptomania, he also has this wonderful (but less than desirable) ability to abscond with any mundane (although sometimes, it's precious) and material goods one possesses. Not because he wants to, but rather because he can't help himself. It fills him with much shame to be so helpless and unable to resist his condition.

Charmian Au-Yong


Chun Au-Yong
