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General Information
Character Name:
Gianni Di Paolo
Age:
15
Date of Birth:
29 November 1905
Blood Status:
Pureblood
Residence:
Di Paolo Townhouse; near Bloomsbury, London. It's tall, narrow, and facing a quiet square near the university quarter. The interior is lined with books, dark wood, and carefully kept furniture, giving the impression of refinement without comfort. Voices are expected to stay measured here.
Family:
Paolo Di Paolo, father. Pureblood. Senior administrator for a long-established private wizarding firm. Paolo is reserved and exacting, preferring structure and routine over emotional engagement. He views family relationships primarily through the lens of obligation, and tends to interpret discomfort or conflict as weakness.
Isabel Di Paolo (nee Rivas), mother. Pureblood. Head seamstress and patternmaker to a successful wizard fashion designer. Isabel, while more caring, is often stressed out and finds extended family get-togethers exacerbate that. No one on her side was thrilled she married Paolo, and Paolo's family is just put out he exists at all.
Personality & House Preference
Personality:
Gianni is complicated, which is a nice way of saying he’s messy, difficult, and evasive. Even a first impression reveals the telling signs of a troubled teenager. Gianni presents himself as articulate, logical and haughty, and adults peg him as a well-behaved, if somewhat pretentious kid. He has a dry, sarcastic sense of humor, and is often lovingly exasperated by his peers. He usually falls into the role of straight man next to his more rambunctious friends. But on the other hand, he always seems to be mildly upset. Gianni’s default state makes him sound like he’s constantly on the verge of cracking. Fortunately, he’s a little too steely to let anyone actually see him fall apart, even if there are a lot of cracks in his facade.
He’s abrasive. He isn’t very friendly despite not being especially shy, and lacks the mindset to put his silver tongue to work making friends. He doesn’t soften his statements or opinions, so he often ends up harsh, sharp and aggressive. It’s not uncommon for him to hurt peoples’ feelings even when he’s not trying to. Sensitive people are frustrating. He doesn’t want to upset them, but their fragility often leaves him irritated with his own inability to talk to them. Dressing up his words and being soft doesn’t come easily to Gianni, much to his chagrin. He wants to be nice, but he usually isn’t.
Gianni may not know how to sound nice, but he knows how to sound reasonable. Maybe when he matures a little he might be considered “harsh but fair”. Gianni usually appeals well to adults because he talks like a very good boy who definitely never breaks the rules or participates in after-curfew antics. It’s not too much of a stretch, since Gianni’s not exactly a troublemaker, but his actual interest in good behavior is negligible at best. With peers, though, Gianni’s diplomatic side is bossy. He likes being in charge. This can lead him to butting heads with other bossy kids, but Gianni generally doesn’t enjoy power struggles. He respects people who are assertive, and can learn to work with them if they show him the same consideration. Just anticipate that he’ll always secretly think he’s the one actually calling the shots.
He has a lot of nervous energy. He’s determined and focused, but in an almost manic way. He’s patient, but persistent, only content if there’s forward movement. It makes him a practical problem solver who doesn’t like to drag his feet, but he’s not fickle and won’t abandon the problem easily. Gianni’s methods for going about this are often indirect. He prefers subtlety and talking his way through things, and can be fairly deft and subtle. On the downside, he’s dishonest and underhanded. Gianni likes solutions that are quiet and tidy, even if they’re not necessarily obtained above the table. He’s manipulative, which may not be pretty, but in his experience it gets results. He’s also not afraid to lie, and doesn’t see that as an issue. There are simply situations where lies are easier, more convenient, and get you what you need. Gianni’s mentality very much hinges on "it’s okay as long as nobody catches me."
This is all assuming, of course, that said problems are not his own. The closer the matter is to Gianni’s heart, the less practical and objective he becomes. Gianni may act like he’s a logical person.. but he’s not. At all. Gianni is exceptionally emotional, and lets those emotions get the better of him regularly. When upset, Gianni behaves irrationally, often making incredibly stupid decisions. He’ll carry on and pretend that nothing’s wrong, hardly showing any emotion at all, and at the same time do things that seem erratic or out of character. Hand in hand with that is Gianni’s hair-trigger temper. He doesn’t know when to back down or keep his mouth shut, and can often escalate things unnecessarily with his considerable mean streak.
It’s tough to shake him out of one of his bad idea ruts, because Gianni has a hard time seeing the truth through his overpowering negativity. Gianni is gloomy, and builds well-supported narratives with selective use of facts to prop up his negative outlook. He’s full of excuses, and some of them are even good ones, but ultimately he uses them to support his inaction. He’s not much of a risk taker, and keeps his cards close to his chest. Gianni would rather tolerate his moderate misery and depression than risk making things worse.
He’s proudly defensive and contrary, too. Gianni will not let anyone step on him, and he’s prideful to the point of arrogance. Once he’s set his mind to something, he’s impossible to dissuade. The more you argue with him, particularly if you’re not respectful enough for his tastes, the more he digs his heels in. Even if he knows you’re right, Gianni will find a way to make his contrariness sound reasonable. Gianni doesn’t want anyone to look down on him, and this extends to how others treat the people he loves. He gets punchy when he thinks a friend is being mistreated or undervalued. This is all fine and good, even admirable, except he sometimes goes overboard or snaps when it isn’t called for.
While he’s very good at telling you what he doesn’t want, Gianni is absolutely awful at expressing what he does want. Early interactions with him are frustrating because it can be a minefield of negative feedback and angry outbursts. One wrong step, he’s mad at you all over again. Getting close to Gianni is an often unrewarding guessing game, because he’s both hard to read and sensitive. Sometimes tough love works, sometimes it makes him shut down. Sometimes being understanding gets you sincerity, sometimes it just lets him manipulate you and evade questions.
The silver lining of all that is once you’ve been put through the gauntlet, Gianni lets his guard down. Under all the whining and bluster is a naive, awkward boy who struggles to relax and feel at ease with people. He’s uncomfortable in his own skin, and tends to err on the side of paranoia, especially when it comes to how he thinks people see him. Discomfort, fear and humiliation are just daily experiences, even when there’s not much going on to justify them.
Luckily, Gianni’s brave under the proper circumstances, and will drolly slog through his day-to-day fears. When there’s a real threat, he can pull himself together and deal with it, which includes soldiering on in the face of his unrelenting discomfort. He’ll get into arguments, put his neck on the line, take the fall for friends, and follow them out on risky adventures. He’s got a lot of white knight tendencies if you’re in need of a sub-par, whiny defender. And yet, many simple things send him into a panic. Examples include: boys he’s attracted to, kissing, letting people touch him, being teased about crushes, being made fun of, ghost stories, things that go bump in the night, social risks, etc. Gianni’s deeply embarrassed by.. well, himself.
Gianni is an adoring friend, though. He has a dry sense of humour and enjoys playful banter, and the people he likes are often on the receiving end of acerbic teasing. Sometimes his attempts to be playful get off course and turn into pigtail pulling and picking on them. However, there’s a clear note of affection as he vies for attention, even if he’s not always gentle. When he cares about a sensitive soul, you can practically feel Gianni straining to be gentle. But if he doesn’t manage gentleness, he’s at least patient. Endlessly, unfailingly patient. This has gotten him in trouble before when the wrong person earned his loyalty, because Gianni’s friends can do no wrong. Sure, he might complain or argue with them, but he’s always on their side when lines are being drawn. They’re always correct. Whoever they’re upset with is at fault. Everything they do is reasonable. Gianni would forgive a friend for anything, and he’d do whatever he thinks they need him to. This could be staying up until 3 AM comforting them, or could be conspiring to stab someone in the back in their name. Gianni doesn’t ask, he just acts. He has no compunctions about any of it.
It’s noteworthy that Gianni is deeply forgiving in general, too. He’s yet to forgive himself for certain past actions, but anyone else who puts out a little effort to apologize can get the slate wiped clean. If he likes you enough, you don’t even have to do that much. Although he’s quick to anger, Gianni doesn’t struggle to let bygones be bygones, and doesn’t hold onto grudges once amends have been made. This often supersedes his pride, which is good because Gianni gets upset at a lot of people for frankly stupid reasons. All will be forgiven, and you’re free to accidentally upset him again later and go through this all over. Unfortunately, there’s no way to escape Gianni’s ire long term.
History:
Gianni didn’t grow up unloved. That’s important. He just grew up in a house where love was quiet in a way, like it was conditional, and easy to miss if you weren’t looking for it.
His mother, Isabel Rivas, came from Spain. She was raised in one of those pureblood families that cared probably too much about appearances and tradition. But, it’s important to note that they were never the type to be unkind for the sake of it. There was pressure, sure. There always is in families like that. Still, it wasn’t suffocating by any means. Isabel had room to figure herself out. What she figured out (pretty early on) was fabric. Not the decorative parts of it, either; more so the structure, construction -- how seams held under strain and where things failed if you rushed. That interest followed her out of Spain when she was young, first into apprenticeship work and eventually into a steady job as a head seamstress and patternmaker for a respected wizarding fashion house. It was good work, honestly. But it was demanding, constant, and never really finished. By the time she settled in the UK, she was already worn down. Talented and capable of continuing, absolutely. Just tired in a way a night’s rest never fixed.
Paolo Di Paolo, her husband, was never the sort of man who mistook himself for romantic. By the time he met Isabel, he was already well established and deeply involved in his job, holding a senior administrative position at a long-established private wizarding firm. Their introduction was arranged, polite, and largely forgettable like most set-up situations like those tend to be. He liked Isabel’s composure. She liked his certainty. Both assumed that was enough. Marriage followed quickly, without much joy attached to it, and managed to disappoint both families almost immediately. It was definitely a rough start to things. Isabel’s relatives thought she’d married someone far too rigid and cold. Paolo’s family saw her as an inconvenience and in awe that she refused to set aside her career for marital duties. Neither side bothered to hide it. If affection existed between Isabel and Paolo at all, it didn’t last long once obligation took over.
Gianni was born soon after. His father chose his name without discussion, a decision Gianni would understand better as he grew up. From the start, he was a tense child. Not loud or destructive or anything -- just tightly wound. He latched onto day to day routines and people-watched as if he were trying to figure them out. His father saw this as a positive thing, fully believing that kind of seriousness could become discipline. Sensitivity, though? Yeah, that was something to fix in his eyes. Isabel tried to make things gentler when she could, but she was usually too tired. Comfort was rare, and praise even rarer. Gianni learned early that being good meant being quiet and capable. Wanting things didn’t help him, but doing well did.
As he got older, the home they lived in settled into a kind of.. uneasy balance, you could say. His father corrected him constantly and expected him to grow into the Di Paolo name through effort alone. Isabel, on the other hand, cared more openly.. but she was stretched way too thin with work to really push back. And that does something to a kid. It teaches them to argue instead of ask. To maneuver instead of trust. Gianni grew sharp and defensive, painfully aware of how easily he could disappoint people. Again, it should be stressed that he wasn’t unloved. Love was there, for sure. It just came wrapped in silence and conditions, and Gianni learned to survive by being difficult, clever, and stubborn enough not to fold to anyone.
Hogwarts didn’t smooth any of this out either. If anything, it amplified it even more so. The castle was crowded, noisy, and far too intimate for his liking. Privacy was a joke in the castle, truthfully. Gianni did well in class, better than most, and adults liked him for it. He spoke carefully, reasoned well and he sounded sensible -- even when he felt anything but. With other students, though, it was harder. Gianni wasn’t shy, but he was abrasive, and honesty came to him faster than tact. His jokes cut. His opinions landed sharp. He noticed how quickly people bristled around him, how irritation seemed to follow him everywhere, and it bothered him more than he’d ever admitted.
Somewhere in those early years, something else quietly slipped into the mix. Gianni started noticing that certain boys stuck in his head longer than they should’ve. A simple smile, or even a laugh. Things that would be considered dramatic to most. It felt less like a revelation and more like an unresolved problem he couldn’t solve.. and at first, he brushed it off. Everyone noticed people, didn’t they? That didn’t have to mean anything. Still, it lingered. Annoyingly so. Teasing started to hit closer to home, jokes about crushes made his stomach fold inside out, and Gianni reacted the way he always did when he felt cornered: he argued. He snapped, even. He hid behind sarcasm and logic, too. Better to sound annoyed than flustered, right? Better to look superior than exposed.
By the end of his fourth year, Gianni had figured out how to hold himself together much like the pieces of fabric his mother sewed together. He leaned hard on routine, on rules that could be bent instead of broken. When problems came up, Gianni preferred to talk his way through them, nudging outcomes into place through persistence rather than the force his father preferred. The issue was when things felt and got too personal, though. Emotions that came from hurt feelings, jealousy, fear. Those still sent him spiraling into bad decisions he’d later pretend were calculated. Arguments followed him, but so did reconciliations. Gianni forgave easily, perhaps too easily, and once someone earned his loyalty, it didn’t go anywhere. Hogwarts didn’t make him happy, but it taught him how to live with discomfort and keep moving along anyway -- which, to Gianni, feels close enough to bravery to count.
House Preference:
Slytherin; maybe Ravenclaw
Year Preference:
5th
Prompt Response:
“Do you ever shut up, or is that something you have to schedule?”
Gianni hadn’t intended to speak so loudly. He realised that a half-second too late though, somewhere between the scrape of cutlery and the moment the fourth-year across from him blinked in open surprise. Breakfast in the Great Hall was hardly quiet, but there were different kinds of noise, and Gianni had been tolerating this one for far longer than he ought to have. The boy -- round-faced and smug in that annoying way only most younger students were -- had been narrating his own morning in excruciating detail, voice carrying as though the table had all gathered around expressly to hear it.
They hadn’t.
Gianni’s spoon hovered over his porridge, steam rising toward his face in wisps of heat. He didn’t look at the boy at first. That would’ve made it a whole scene, and Gianni didn’t really care for scenes before he’d finished his first meal of the day. He stirred once, slow and deliberate, as if nothing at all were amiss.
“Well,” the fourth-year scoffed, building himself up. “Didn’t know you were listening, Di Paolo.”
Unfortunately for both of them, Gianni had been listening. He always listened. It was difficult not to, especially when someone treated the Great Hall like a stage and himself as the main attraction. He lifted his gaze at last, eyes sharp (and a little tired), with an expression caught between irritation and restraint.
“I wasn’t,” Gianni said evenly. “That’s the problem.”
A few heads down the bench lifted. Someone snorted before quickly pretending it hadn’t been them. The sound was gone almost as soon as it appeared, swallowed up by clinking plates and the rustle of parchment, but the damage had been done. It was about to be a bit of a spat, wasn’t it?
The fourth-year colored, jaw tightening. “You think you’re clever, don’t you?”
Gianni exhaled softly through his nose. This was exhausting. “No,” he replied. “I think you’re loud.”
That provoked a stronger reaction. The boy leaned forward, elbows pressing hard into the table, clearly angling for something louder and maybe a little messier. Gianni felt the familiar urge to escalate shape in his chest. It was tempting, but no. It was still far too early in the day. So, he tamped it down with effort. Public arguments attracted attention, and attention had consequences. Gianni preferred his problems quiet.
“If you have something to say,” the boy muttered, “say it properly.”
Gianni tilted his head, dark lashes lowering as he studied him with an expression that was more like an appraisal than emotion. “I did,” he replied without inflection. “You just missed it over the sound of your own voice -- and that damning flush washing over your face.”
A few students along the bench made soft, involuntary sounds -- most being half-coughs that didn’t really disguise the laughter -- before ducking their heads back over their plates. The fourth-year straightened too quickly, bench legs shrieking against the stone as he gathered his things and retreated, muttering under his breath as he jostled out of view.
Gianni didn’t smirk. He simply returned to his breakfast, satisfied in that restrained, deliberate way of someone who had achieved exactly what he wanted without raising his voice. Some problems didn’t require force, after all. They just required someone willing to be unpleasant first.
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