Gaius Peate
gaius_pr.jpg
Portrayed By Kai Owen
House Hufflepuff
Year 1979
Position Hit Wizard, Department of Magical Law Enforcement (on leave)
Sex Male
Race Half-Blood
Age 34
Place of Birth Bangor, Wales
Date of Birth 12 April 1961
Mother Adelpha Popps
Father Aeddan Peate
Siblings Arian (younger sister), Anthony (older brother)
Marital Status Single
Children None
First Appearance
Last Appearance

Gaius Peate was an accomplished Hit Wizard who tracked down organized magical crime on both Muggle and Magical streets. But he's recently been hit with a curse that's blocked out all memories that can't be explained by Muggle means. He's forgotten his magic, about the magical world and, conveniently for his enemies - his network of contacts and knowledge of smuggling operations.

Under the advice of his doctors, and with the cooperation of the Headmaster, Gaius has returned to Hogwarts to re-learn magic. He still remembers Hogwarts, but there are great gaps. So he'd remember the food fight he had in fourth year, but wouldn't remember that they used levitation to facilitate it. He remembers going to class, but not what they studied. Something about plants, maybe? Chemicals? All the magical elements are fuzzy or blocked completely.

He's very aware that he's lost something. His memory is swiss cheese. Still, many things about the wizarding world surprise him. Magical accidents are frequent. He mind may have forgotten he's a wizard, but his body hasn't.

Character History:

Gaius is the second child of Adelpha Popps and Aeddan Peate. They met while living in Swansea and fell in love. Unbenknownst to Aeddan, the woman he was in love with was a witch. It took some adjustment, but eventually the laid-back Aeddan settled in to that new reality. He was a new police recruit at the time and Adelpha had opened a curio shop selling Muggle and magical antiques (though the magical section was only accessible to those of the magical persuasion, naturally.)

Adelpha and Aeddan often joked that their initials matching was serendipitous - except Adelpha actually believed it. Whether it was actually true, well, you never know. Precognition isn't exactly a precise science. Their first child was Anthony, then Gaius was born and so named on the insistence of Adelpha's mother in honour of her own father. It was a proud Popps name, she declared. His younger sister Arian continued with the A-name tradition, leaving Gaius the odd man out in his family.

All three of the Peate children made their way to Hogwarts. The eldest, Anthony, was a Ravenclaw. Both Gaius and Arian were sorted into Hufflepuff. Gaius did well at his studies - not great, but well. He excelled in the defensive arts, floundered in potion-making and was a fair hand at transfiguration. He was also one of the toughest Quidditch beaters Hogwarts had ever seen. Not the best, mind. Not the most successful, not the most tactical. But he was tough as anything. He began to be known as "Take the Beat Peate." He was knocked around and endured quite a few hard falls and often got right back up and kept playing. It gained him a reputation for being thick-headed, though his academic studies were a touch above average.

After graduation, Gaius entered the ministry. He had decided to follow in a version of his father's footsteps and become a Hit Wizard. He gained a reputation for honesty and dependability. For the first few years, he was shuffled around to several different wizarding towns, even spending a year here and there in London, policing the criminal activity in Diagon Alley. That's where he was when the Death Eaters began their original reign of terror. He focused on trying to stop the petty wizarding criminals from adding to Voldemort's army - a task that nearly got the still-inexperienced young wizard killed on several occasions. His natural toughness saved his skin more than once. One of the nurses at St. Mungo's once remarked, half in-jest that he might have some giant in him.

After the vanquishing of Voldemort, things settled down. He became the Ministry's point man for organized wizarding crime. Contraband smuggling, trade in magical artifacts (especially to the Muggle world) and abuse of potions cases all crossed his desk. He developed a thick catalogue of contacts throughout the UK.

Then one day, while investigating a lead in Diagon Alley, Gaius was hit by a curse. The curse seemed designed to remove knowledge of a smuggling operation and his network of contacts from his mind. But the curse did more than that - it blocked all memories of the wizarding world from his mind. It's left him with a patchwork of knowledge. It's as if everything that couldn't be explained by Muggle means got redacted from his brain. The best curse-breakers have tried to restore his memory, but it's only caused him pain and further memory loss. Whatever he was on to, it was something significant. Something the criminals weren't willing to kill him over, but enough to learn and use a very potent curse.

Gaius is aware that he's lost memories, but doesn't understand the wizarding world. He's got to re-learn it all over again. He's got patchy memories of attending school, of working as some kind of policeman. His personal relationships are more intact. He still recognizes people and places. It's proving to be a touch dangerous because he's still a fairly accomplished wizard - he's just forgotten that fact. Magical accidents have been frequent. So the doctors proposed a rather strange solution - send him back to Hogwarts. The familiar surroundings and the basic lessons might trigger his memories. At the very least, he can be re-trained so his magic isn't a danger to anyone else. So he travels to Hogwarts every day from Hogsmeade to learn how to be a wizard all over again.

Personality

In a lot of ways, Gaius is the quintessential Hufflepuff. The house might welcome all, but Gaius embodies the strongest house traits of loyalty, fair play, hard work and dedication. He's been a peacekeeper all his life, from mediating disputes between his siblings, to his housemates and his teammates back when he was one of the toughest beaters ever to take to the Quidditch pitch. He was a big youth, so that certainly helped calm arguments - even in a world where wands are an equalizer.

He has the gift of being able to understand the criminal mind without succumbing to the darkness himself. He can empathize with why this or that criminal might steal from a shopkeep to make his life more comfortable, but that doesn't mean he condones it. He has an uncanny ability to see things from others' perspective while keeping his own moral centre.

What makes him an excellent Hit Wizard is his dedication to the law and an understanding of why those laws exist. He might understand completely why someone did what they did, but he'll still cart them away to face judgment. He's often mistaken for naive or overly understanding. Gaius has surprised more than a few criminals by talking them down, then arresting them. He's gotten used to being underestimated over the years and has turned that to his advantage.

He has a great sense of humour and is apt to be boisterous and friendly. He can also be formidable when the time comes for it, but he's mostly known by those close to him as a deeply good-natured and good-humoured man. He can get angry when people make foolish choices. Most of the time, he doesn't argue, but when he does people tend to listen. Usually it's done when an even head and even viewpoint is required, when the people around him are getting caught up in strong emotions. Foolishness is his greatest pet peeve. He espouses a measured response to problems at all times, which can lead to him not being bold enough in certain situations.

Timeline

Other Information

Memorable Quotes:

Trivia and Notes:

Gallery

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License