Leibryn Hallestrom

Backstory

A bilingual half-blood with a Muggle father, a Magical mother, and ten siblings and half-siblings. Currently working on a Potions Mastery, an Ancient Runes Mastery, and learning another three languages.

I was born in London and lived in a Muggle townhome with my parents until I was seven. We then moved to an old family home in Devonshire after the passing of my great aunt Marian.

Mother, Thalia Camilla Hallestrom neé Greengrass was a Curse Breaker for Gringotts specializing in obscure Norse, Hismaic, and Mishnaic Hebrew enchantments. She was a Pureblood of the Greengrass line and was (as expected) sorted into Slytherin upon arriving at Hogwarts.
According to my Aunt Ophelia, Mother never cared for house divisions despite being raised a "proper pureblood girl". To the family's dismay, Mother's best friend in school was a Hufflepuff. Also to their dismay, said Hufflepuff became the head of the DMLE after they had ostracized Mother for their close relationship, ruining any chances of calling in favours with her.

Mother was killed when I was 9 in an accident in her work. I was nearby at the time and was left blind but shortly after I found that I was able to see magic, despite my physical blindness. Mother left behind an entire study full of books pertaining to warding and curse breaking, obscure languages, and of course, her own notes. Most of these notes are, unfortunately not written in languages anyone else in the family speaks and are enchanted so that translation charms don't work. At the moment they are simply gathering dust, but one day I will decode them and continue the work my mother started.

My father, Benjamin Sindri Hallestrom, is a Muggle chemistry professor. He was born in Sweden and is trilingual, speaking English, Swedish, and Spanish. He and Mother spoke Spanish around the home when I was younger because they decided that they wanted at least one child to grow up fully bilingual. Three of my older brothers speak Spanish as well, though they learned most of it later in life. Father also conducts research at the University where he teaches: right now it's on the synthesis of organometallic compounds. His background in chemistry is most likely the reason he's so fascinated by the idea of potions. It's just like chemistry, except magic.

Several years after Mother's death, Father remarried. My stepmother, Victoria Hallestrom neé Baker, is a Muggle as well, and she is a forensic pathologist. For those of you who don't know, that means she studies the bodies of people who died suddenly to figure out their cause of death. Victoria has a sister, Eileen, who is a muggleborn and now works in the DMLE with Aunt Amelia.

I have ten siblings, step-siblings and half-siblings. I know, that's a lot, but we're pretty evenly spaced in age so things are less chaotic than they could have been. Three of my older brothers and one of my younger sisters are from Father's first marriage to my mother. I have two older step-sisters from Victoria's first marriage, and four younger half-siblings (an older set of twin girls, and a younger set of twin boys) from Father and Victoria's relationship.

After being around when family members died violently on two separate occasions, I now have some pretty serious issues with anxiety and other things like that. Losing people is one of my greatest fears, so I do my best to not get too attached to them. This usually doesn't work very well.

Here in the wizarding world I am pursuing a Mastery in Potions and Ancient Runes, however I am also taking courses in the Muggle world for a chemistry degree. My hope is to one day find a way to adapt many everyday potions for use on Muggles, with the same potency it has for wizards but without any adverse effects.

I am also teaching myself three languages, since linguistics and languages have always been a fascination of mine. Currently I am learning Hebrew and Arabic in order to better understand my mother's works, and Swedish to reconnect with my heritage.