User Profile

Name: Terence Benjamin Higgs
Age: 25 (born Feb. 19, 1975)
Height: 5'11"
Hair: dark brown
Eyes: grey-blue

Built: Slim, authletic, a 'swimmer's' physique.
Appearance: Tidy, most often well dressed but often can be seen wearing tight shirts and jeans and similar Muggle attire.

Wand: birch, dragon heart string core, 12 1/2"
School: Attended Hogwarts, 1986 - 1992
House: Slytherin
Played Seeker on Slytherin Quidditch team.

Personality Description of Character: Quiet and thoughtful in general though is more than willing to strike up a conversation if the mood strikes him. He is very interested in the world around him but more from an artist’s point of view than historical. Often he will sit and observe humanity, Muggle and magical alike, observing their expressions, letting it inspire him in his art. Some may find him rather eccentric, even spooky in the way he fixes his gaze on something or someone. He often speaks in a clipped faintly accented style that is similar to that of an Italian. Though he is a native of Britain, he has heard the Italian accent enough he can easily imitate it. Terence generally is polite, will talk freely even with strangers but limits what he says to the minimum, unless talking about a subject he is passionate about, then he may speak at length. However, he will often switch from talkative to quiet and vise versa, even with people he considers friends. At times he can be cruel, cold and heartless, but often in such a manner it is almost like he doesn’t realize he is being so.

Family and Friends: Few friends…may have kept ties with former classmates such as Flint, Warrington or Pucey. He left school one year after Draco started, did not have much opportunity to befriend him or really have any impression of the younger student. He has no living family. His current lack of friends is mostly due to circumstances instead of actual desire not to have many friends.

History: After Terence left school in 1993 he tried to pursue a career in Quidditch (he was Seeker in the Slytherin team for most of his school years…including the first year Harry Potter was at school) but failed to attract the interest of professional teams. Academically Terrance wasn’t terrible, managing to gain NEWTs in Charms, Transfiguration, and Potions so had a choice of careers to take. But, instead, he took the inheritance he received when his last living relative died, and traveled. While abroad he became fascinated with art, he signed up into a prominent art school of Florence (Lorenzo De' Medici), where he became fascinated by surrealism and abstract styles. Though initially he had some difficulty fitting in with the all Muggle class, he managed to adapt. In truth he ignored everybody except the art instructor. Here Terence learned the theory of art, and coupled with his magical background, he was able to create works of art that stunned muggles and allowed him to gain popularity within the Art community as a painter. He owned a stylish flat and lived quite well from sales of his works though most in the art community considered him rather eccentric, even by artist standards.

Then something occurred that changed Terence’s world forever. When Voldemort returned to power, Terence was living with a pretty Italian witch named Savina who he loved deeply. While the Wizarding community was denying the return of the Dark Lord, Terence came home early from his studio to find Savina in bed with another man. For the first time since leaving school Terence felt a cold dark rage, but on the outside, he looked calm, completely unaffected by what he saw. In a cold dispassionate state, Terence murdered both before either victim could reach their wands. Terence left his flat and Italy with only his wand and the clothes on his back. He did not even try to bring any of his unsold works of art. All that he left behind was consumed in a unexplained fire which completely destroyed the flat he shared with his girlfriend.

The local law enforcement could not solve the case they did not know for sure what caused the death of the two bodies in the building. If it was the fire that killed them or they were murdered and the fire set to cover it up. There was no doubt the fire was set, for evidence of accelerent was found and the magical law enforcement wizards did find traces of magic. However since it was known a wizard and a witch lived in the flat, they disregarded the traces of magic, as it wasn’t evidence that magic was used to start the fire, only that magic was used in the home. Any wizard’s home will have traces of magic, from spells cast, magical protections and other common sources. What caught the magical officer’s attention was the trace of dark magic detected. But the bodies could not be identified, so badly were they burned only a few bone fragments and teeth was found. Officials were not even sure if the known inhabitants of the flat were actually the victims. However they could not find either Terence or Salina so it was assumed both were dead.

Terence traveled far from Italy and the memory of what he did and how it hurt to find his love cheating on him. He did not lay brush to canvas since he murdered his love and her lover. Terence did however keep track of the investigation into the fire he set in his flat. The Italian papers indicated officials suspected the two bodies found in the remains of the flat was Terence and his girlfriend. Finding out he was presumed dead did present some problems for Terence.. He didn’t dare draw funds from his vault just in case investigators were watching it. Eventually he learned that he was considered a suspect but presumed dead. This made him breathe easier. But he needed money so eventually found work in a fancy restaurant in Paris. Though he earned Muggle money only, he didn’t have trouble finding the wizard areas of Paris and converting it to wizard money as needed.

A year after leaving Italy, Terence resumed his art. The pain of his loss had lessoned and he could no longer deny his love of art. H retuned to the realm of surrealism and sold a few works, changing his style slightly, and signing them under an alias. He also did magical portraits in a more contemporary style but there was always a touch of surrealism. This always gave his work a uniqueness that anybody who truly admires his work would recognize as his style. His surrealism work, though he did try to change his style, did have certain characteristics those experienced in such things, could identify as his. However, to Terence’s knowledge the alias he used was never identified as being really him. The money from these paintings provided for his needs but he found he did not produce as many works as he could in the past…he found himself consumed with using unconventional methods to create work that was both fascinating and oddly disturbing. His greatest work to date he did using specially prepared paints of his own making, twisting traditional magical paint with dark potions of his own invention. The result was a disturbing painting that seemed to breathe and give off malice unlike anything the wizards who saw it have ever seen before. Very few wizards have seen it, and it was a painting Terence displayed but refused to sell. The process to produce this single painting was difficult and though Terence was pleased with it, he found it was not the sort of art he wanted to produce on a regular basis. However he found its creation rather…purifying. The misery and unhappiness he had felt since catching the witch he truly loved sleeping with another man seemed to have been purged from his system as soon as he finished this particular painting.

Feeling more himself again Terence decided to sell all his paintings, keeping only the special painting which cleansed his mind and body of his misery. With the money from the sales, he finally decided to return him.

Terence didn’t have much money by the time he returned to Britain but was able to find a flat and job at a London Art Gallery where he helped restored old paintings for display. It wasn’t a big paying job and he hated dealing with so many Muggles but it was better than nothing. As several years had passed since he was presumed dead in Italy, Terence decided to resume using his real name, both in his art and in every day use. As the investigation was closed as far as he knew, and he was no longer in the country, Terrence didn’t think there will be any risk returning to using his own name. He also expected his vault at Gringrotts won’t be watched anymore so he was able to access it once again. The goblins didn’t question his right to access the vault as he had his key and proof of his identity.

With such a long absence from Britain Terence had lost touch with most of his friends from school. Terence didn’t know where to start to track them down so decided if they were still in the area he was bound to come across them eventually. While abroad he heard about the death of Voldemort but found his loyalties to him had long since faded away and he treated it with indifference. Though to some extent he did believe in blood purity, he was not fanatical over it. In truth, his only true ambition is his art.

Friends (26):

Mutual Friends (23):