Greg Lestrade (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
di_intraining) wrote2013-02-12 10:15 pm
di_intraining) wrote2013-02-12 10:15 pm
Entry tags:
Distant Skies Application
ABOUT YOU
Name: San
Are you 18 or over?: Yes.
Other characters played: N/A
CHARACTER
Name: Greg Lestrade
Canon: BBC Sherlock, but AU'd into Harry Potter-verse
Age: 16
History: Greg Lestrade was born in a rough part of London where crime was an accepted part of daily life and you either move out or wise up and toughen up. The combined salary of his father and mother (the former a truck driver, the later a waitress) was not enough for better accommodations in a nicer part of town, so it was up to Lestrade Senior to make sure his son grew up with a good head on his shoulders and a proper sense of right from wrong. A messy divorce when Greg was 5 left him in the custody of his father but otherwise he had a relatively normal childhood: he went to school, played football with the other kids in the neighbourhood and had his fair share of scraps and fights. His grades were average but he was good enough at sports. He could dribble a ball, swing his bat, and kick well enough to score a goal every now and then. However his true strength lay in leading and directing his team mates and by utilizing each of their own strengths and weaknesses he ensured that they brought back more wins than losses at the inter-school football matches.
His relationship with his father was a great one. Greg loved and respected his father more than anyone else in the world. His father was not the most affectionate of parents but despite his gruff exterior he always knew what his son needed and made sure to supply as much love and guidance as a single working parent could give. This meant giving praise, punishment and encouragement when due.
However, while ordinary seemed to be the one word that best defined his school life, there were always those one-off incidents that seemed to happen around him especially when bullies were involved. They ranged from the very mild (a boy's pants suddenly disappearing while he was teasing another student) to the very strange (he couldn't exactly explain to the teachers how the school bully ended up being chased up a tree by a random pack of dogs that seemed to appear out of nowhere). And though Greg could never be proved to be the culprit, he always seemed to be there at the scene of the crime. It wasn't every time but bullies soon found out that every now and then taking on Greg Lestrade meant that something freaky was going to happen. The other children were slightly reluctant to befriend him; they liked him well enough to include him in games and conversations at school but many stopped short of inviting him to join them in their outings or parties for fear of more weirdness happening. The initial willingness to help out someone in need soon grew to be replaced by anxiety. It didn't mean that he stopped sticking up for someone who needed it, but he came to approach these moments with more and more reluctance out of fear that something out of his control was going to happen again.
Eventually though, the fateful letter arrived on his 11th birthday. It was promptly disregarded as a prank letter, crumpled up and disposed off. Only when a man stepped out of the fireplace a day later brushing green ash off his fanciful robe did Greg and his father start paying proper attention to this magical school for wizards and witches. His father was reluctant to send him so far away to a school that was teaching something as crazy as magic. Greg himself didn't want to leave his father either and tried to hide the tiny bursts of magic that he couldn't control. But his attempts were futile and it was obvious to his father that it was for his son's well-being that he attend this Hogwarts and learn to master the strange talents he had been gifted with. At his young age though, Greg couldn't understand why his father had seemingly betrayed him and boarded the Hogswarts Express with a hurt and angry heart. His relationship with his father has not completely repaired itself either. Greg was too stubborn to admit that his father did what was right, and his father wasn't the type to discuss things like feelings and emotions.
He was sorted into Hufflepuff house, known for loyal and hard-working folk. Life as a Muggle-born wasn't a bed of roses though. The first few weeks were completely miserable. Greg felt inept and foolish, having to ask his peers about daily wizarding items and cultural facts that seemed so easy for them to understand, but were such a foreign concept to him. Magic did not come very easily to him either, displaying only average natural talent at best. School had never been his strong point, but spells, incantations and potions completely blew his mind. It took much hard work and pure dedication for him to eventually catch up to his peers and as a result he had to sacrifice much free time. Instead of socializing with fellow dorm and class mates, Greg could be found practising his spells in empty class rooms or scribbling over pieces of parchment in the library, trying to remember the difference between a Knarl and a Kneazle. The wizarding world itself was undergoing a period of much uncertainty and danger, with Lord Voldemort a looming threat over the head of every Muggle born wizard. While Hogwarts was definitely safe under the care of Albus Dumbledore, even the great Headmaster couldn't prevent every case of bullying and prejudice that Greg had to face as a filthy Mugblood. It was only the support of some of his seniors and peers that helped him to get through the vicious first few years and eventually Greg came to adjust to his new life as a wizard. He found his love for team sports rekindled in Quidditch where he played the role of Beater and in his fifth year he was not only made Team Captain but also a Prefect due to his good, responsible character and desire to always do what was right and just.
As a Prefect his job included ensuring that any illegal student activities were promptly reported to the Head of Houses. One such student that he somehow managed to catch was Ravenclaw Sherlock Holmes, whom he found smoking Muggle weed. He reported the skinny and angular boy to a teacher, despite the reputation of the Holmes family as being one of those old Pure-blood families where the lineage went back a few hundred years. His decision garnered him quite negative attention from the pure-blood supremists, not because the Holmes boys were popular in the school (on the contrary, the elder was feared as the Head Boy when he was in school, while the younger was hated for his lack of tact and skills in deducing the most embarrassing escapades of his peers) but rather due to the fact that a Mugblood had dared to report a Pureblood. However, big brother Mycroft was far from insulted. Rather he approached Greg with an interesting proposal: to keep an eye on his younger brother and to ask Sherlock for help when Greg was confronted with a situation that he couldn't solve. Greg couldn't deny that he could use the help; with the Wizarding War reaching its zenith outside the school, ambitious students with darker leanings were engaging not only in bullying, but actually planning attacks on Muggle-born students and pro-Muggle supporters. While most of the perpetrators could be caught, there were always cases that left both teachers and prefects in the dark and they happened to be the more vicious ones. It was Mycroft's opinion that perhaps Sherlock could not only occupy his time in non-law-breaking activities but also assist the general school body. And so started the strange working arrangement between Greg and Sherlock, with Sherlock occasionally pitching in to help Greg catch the students behind the threats and attacks.
There's much to be said about working with a person as difficult as Sherlock Holmes. The Ravenclaw 5th year had a penchant for pissing off the other prefects and a flippant disregard of the law. Greg really found his patience and his leadership qualities stretched to his limits at times; Sherlock did not respect authority and often derided Greg's and his fellow prefects' efforts. Sherlock skirted the rules, sometimes engaged in illegal practices for the sake of knowledge and curiosity, but he was never wrong in his deductions and Greg acknowledged that Sherlock, as amoral as he could be, was possibly the most brilliant man he would ever have the chance to work with. He tried to influence Sherlock to having some sort of moral stance on things; part of him knew that if Sherlock entered magical law enforcement then they'd have a shot at actually defeating Lord Voldemort and his followers, but the other part feared that Sherlock might be enticed by the Dark Arts and its allure of power and knowledge. Greg both feared, respected, dreaded and looked forward to Sherlock's inclusion in his cases, and realised that it was crucial that Sherlock be won over to the right side before it was too late. As such, Greg realised he was going to have to tolerate some of Sherlock's antics and occasional minor infringements of the law that were made in the name of research if he wasn't going to completely alienate the eccentric Ravenclaw. Greg had to take big lessons in humility, patience, understanding and keeping a calm mind when dealing with frustrating people, and he'd have to be careful with his temper less he snap and ruined any chances of cooperation with Sherlock. Even after a year of working together, he still can't claim to completely know what's on Sherlock's mind, and all he can do is swallow his pride, curb his irritation, and accept that Sherlock knew what he was doing. This was not to say that Greg became Sherlock's doormat; when Sherlock crossed a line Greg had no qualms with stepping up and giving Sherlock a sharp reprimand. In fact, their first few weeks working together often involved Greg giving Sherlock something of a lecture on proper ethics. It's taken a year, but Greg's glad to notice that Sherlock's been clean on weed and has stopped some of his illegal Dark Arts experimentation (though exactly how much he hasn't is something Greg's not ready to know or take on just yet). Greg himself has managed to tame his temper, and his fellow Quidditch team mates and prefects do note his improvement in team management and leadership.
To date, Greg and Sherlock have a strange reliance on each other; Sherlock needs Greg to find "healthy" outlets for his mental activity, and Greg needs Sherlock to help him prevent anymore student bullyings. Both men have come to grow (albeit the amount of growth on Sherlock's behalf is minimal) due to each other's influence and Greg's trust in Sherlock has just started to take firm root. He caught news of Sherlock befriending a fellow 6th year Gryffindor who'd be involved in a Death Eater attack during the last summer break. Greg's noticed that Sherlock's behaviour has been improving since his acquaintance with John and he's hopeful that perhaps John might be the man to bring Sherlock onto the side of the angels.
One of the cases that Sherlock and him have managed to solve is "The Analysis in Fuschia", where a house-elf had been poisoning students with tampered Bertie Bott's every Flavoured Beans. There was also the case of "The Vandalized Veela", one which Greg wasn't involved in because he had other responsibilities to attend to. Still, he advised the other prefect, Dimmock from Gryffindor, to give Sherlock a chance and was greatly pleased to hear that the student's black market trade of rare and illegal potion ingredients in Hogwarts had been stopped. But although Greg was glad that these crimes were being solved, there was trouble brewing on the horizon as the Lord Voldemort's reign of terror reached it's zenith. He was pretty sure Sherlock had an idea on what was going on, perhaps he even had a name on who was the real master-mind behind all these crimes, but until the great genius deigned to give him an answer, he knew he wasn't going to get one.
Point in canon: The year 2013. The whole timeline of the Wizarding War has been pushed to modern times and as such Lord Voldemort has yet to be defeated by this year. Moriarty is about to start "The Great Game" with Sherlock, so Greg's and Sherlock's relationship will be around the same as this point in the original canon. The canon point, Harry Potter canon-wise, is during Voldemort's first reign of terror, one year and a half before the first book. Voldemort has not been defeated by baby Harry yet; that will happen a year and a half later, when Greg is facing the end of his 7th year at Hogwarts. As such there is a general air of uneasiness even among the students, of hostility between pure bloods and non-pure bloods, and a lot of open anti-Muggle feelings as well. Greg is thus much older than Harry and has not heard about the Boy who Lived nor does he know that Voldemort will eventually be defeated by Harry. Greg knows of Harry's parents and the other wizards of their year by name only, as they would've been in Hogwarts around his earlier years (James and co were at age 20 at the time of Harry's birth, make them Greg's seniors by 4 years) and because James and Lily had been Headboy and Headgirl respectively during Greg's 3rd year at Hogwarts.
Window Location: A lonely, abandoned classroom on the 7th floor at the West Wing, accessed only when a staircase moves to the nearby platform. This happens very rarely and as such very few students and teachers actually stumble upon this classroom, much less use it.
Universe: This AU is based on the Harry Potter series but in more recent times. As such, the Muggle World is up to par with the technology of today's real world and political, economical, cultural and societal situations are the same. The Wizarding World is known for being backwards (eg. refusal to use electricity, poor knowledge of Muggle electronics and use of old-fashioned wizard clothing) and as such will not be changed much, save for the fact that Voldemort's War started later and has yet to end in the year 2013. BBC!Sherlock characters have also been altered to fit into this AU, and the differences are noted here:
Greg Lestrade: 6th year Hufflepuff, Hufflepuff Beater and Prefect, Muggleborn. As he is much younger than his canon counterpart, Greg is more hot-headed and less mature (explained more in the personality section).
Sherlock Holmes: 5th year Ravenclaw, Pureblood, as pure and old as they come. Still a genius, but Sherlock has already garnered a bit of a bad reputation among teachers as a trouble-maker and among students as a know-it-all git. Sherlock is curious about Muggles, a result of his pure-blood upbringing that kept him away from any Muggle contact, as well as the general ignorance that pervades wizarding society when it comes to their non-magical neighbours. As a teen, he has yet to develop the cold heart that he comes to be famous for as a working adult, but he still displays a rather detached approach to the sufferings and pains of other students.
John Watson: 6th year Gryffindor, Muggleborn. John is pretty much the same as his canon self personality-wise. His trauma came from a Death-Eater attack that left him with a limp and a deep distrust of others. John and Greg actually share a slight friendship in this AU. Muggleborns had to stick together during the anti-Muggle times of Lord Voldemort's War and being in the same year it'd be difficult for John and Greg not to have contact with each other. John as a younger person is less controlled with his emotions and actually developed a slight bias against Purebloods after his attack.
Molly Cooper: 4th year Hufflepuff, Halfblood. Molly is still as awkward in her interactions with others as ever. She has dated Moriarty before, but currently has a crush on Sherlock that, given her current age, is one she won't let go quite as easily as her adult self did. Molly is more gullible but optimistic of her future and that she will eventually make more friends than she currently has at the moment.
Irene Adler: 5th year Slytherin, Pureblood. Irene hasn't shown up much yet as the current canon point in this AU is equivalent to "The Great Game", but she is still her sneaky, ambitious self. She is perhaps a little nicer and kinder than her canon self, but there's still a lot of her ruthless and manipulative nature in play. She hasn't completely discarded all her innocence just yet, although like Sherlock she is getting dangerously close.
James Moriarty: 5th year Slytherin, Pureblood. Jim is at the stage where he's losing interest in humanity and is rather bored with life in general. He gets involved with the Dark Arts and the Death Eaters simply because he got bored with being a good and model pupil. Rather than developing an interest in Sherlock because Mycroft told him about Sherlock, Moriarty hears about Sherlock's abilities through the school grapevine. Moriarty is the brains behind the more devious bullying happening in the school and uses his family's butler to commit his murders for him outside of school.
Mycroft Holmes: Already working in the Ministry, Mycroft keeps in correspondence with Dumbledore and also keeps a sharp eye out on his younger brother. It's rumoured that he has spies even in Hogwarts who report to him.
Mrs Hudson: The motherly assistant Healer at the Nursing Ward. Because Sherlock's experiments have often landed him there, she's set up a bed specifically for him and tries to make sure he's as comfortable as possible while he's recuperating. It's gotten to the point where she's actually prepared a place for him to work; she can keep an eye on him, and he can get immediate medical help if necessary.
As mentioned in the Character History section, cases that occurred in canon have been altered into the Harry Potter-verse and are made more kid-friendly to reflect the school setting. The cases so far are:
1. "An Analysis in Fuchsia" is this universe's "A Study in Pink". It involves a house elf poisoning students of all blood status with tampered Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans. Sherlock and John are introduced by Mike Stamford: John is struggling to keep up with studies and his paranoia works against him having good study buddies, leading to him and Sherlock starting a group together. Greg is more familiar with John, but not any less surprised that John is accompanying Sherlock around during these cases. The culprit is revealed to be a house-elf that was placed in Hogwarts by a Death Eater family. Wanting to please his family, the house-elf takes advantage of his position to place the poisoned candy near the student's beds. While Sherlock does solve the case with John's help, the supplier of the poisoned beans remains a mystery save for a letter: "M".
2. "The Vandalized Veela" is this universe's "The Blind Baker". Following the vandalism of an statue of a veela which had red paint splattered all over it's face, Sherlock uncovers a web of student blackmail and threats that eventually culminates in a showdown between him and the head of the student black market for potion ingredients. Greg is not involved as he is given a different task by teachers, but the student, who is suspended from school but not expelled, is killed with an Avada Kedavra while she is stuck at home on "M"'s orders.
3. "The Great Game" has yet to start, but due to the upcoming Quidditch match there has been a lack of interest in anything else including the usual Muggle student bullying, leaving Sherlock quite bored.
Abilities: Greg's a wizard; he comes with the usual repertoire of spells that most students in Hogwarts would learn in their 1st to 6th year. However, Greg isn't exactly a model student and as such struggles with his 6th year spells. A list of subjects taught in Hogwarts is here. The branches of magic that Greg has knowledge of include the compulsory 1st year to 5th year subjects, 3rd to 5th year knowledge of his elective subjects ("Care of Magical Creatures" and "Muggle Studies"), and in his 6th year the subjects he takes are Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Charms, Defence against the Dark Arts.
His best subject is Defence Against the Dark Arts, but Greg is a better flyer. He's the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team Captain, playing as a Beater.
His personality strength includes his determination to see things straight through to the end, to always work his best no matter the circumstances, his loyalty to others and he knows how to use members of his team well.
Greg does has his weaknesses. His skills may be better than average, but that's only because a lot of hard work went into becoming a better wizard. He is naturally not a very good wizard and it's only through a lot of hard work that he managed to be as good as he is at present. Socially he is a bit closed to others; he gets along best with people he works with, but outside the prefects and the Quidditch team he doesn't have much communication with others. In this AU he is also more hot-headed and rash compared to his canon self, having not had the time to develop the patience and experience that he shows in his original canon. He is also still green around the ears, and as such will not be as calm as the older Greg Lestrade is when confronted with grim and disturbing scenes like murder and torture. His worse subjects are Transfigurations and Potions.
Possessions: One wand and the robes on his back.
Personality: Greg doesn't get as much screen time as Sherlock or Watson, but enough can be deduced to know that Greg is, at his core, a policeman dedicated to his job of fighting crime and protecting innocents. His sense of right and wrong is what motivates him throughout the whole series. Recognizing that some crimes are just too much for him and his team to handle, he's willing to swallow his pride and tolerate Sherlock's jibes and antics because he knows and understands that it's more important to catch the culprits than to protect his ego. Even when Sherlock's reputation is dragged through the mud by Moriarty, he risks his job and his freedom to warn Sherlock before the police arrive with his warrant for arrest. Greg believes that Sherlock is innocent and while he may be a man of the law he's willing to bend it if it obstructs justice and endangers the wrong man.
With his dedication to his job, Greg is no stranger to hard work in two senses of the word. One, he's not shy to burn the midnight oil or work over-time. I've headcanoned that this might be the reason behind the split between him and his wife: he simply works too hard. Being a Detective Inspector, he's had to get his hands dirty when he's involved in a case; he's often seen pursuing leads actively on the site of the crime with his team or with Holmes and Watson. And this relates to the second sense of the word: his work is hard. Lestrade is a Detective Inspector, an inspector who works in the Criminal Investigation Department. He's seen a lot of bad things in his time as a DI, dealt with a lot of crooks that range from petty theft to murderers. With 20 years of service, he's pretty much jaded and used to seeing the dark side of London city. He's had to take some drastic measures himself; in The Study in Pink he organised a drug bust at Baker Street, just to get Sherlock to share information he's discovered on the case with him. He's quite alright with making threats, and he's at least semi-proficient with his fire-arm, though not on the level of Watson. And that's just the normal day's work for him, much less dealing with Sherlock Holmes. Greg has to navigate the tricky waters that is the tumultuous antagonism between his team and Holmes. It's clear that his team respects him; they obey his every word no matter how much they dislike having Sherlock on the scene. Sherlock himself doesn't shy away from making snide comments and remarks that don't earn him points with the team, often deriding Anderson and Donovan quickly and ruthlessly. Holmes isn't very polite to Lestrade either, quick to point out the DI's flaws in a non-flattering way.
Yes, it is hard work when you have to work with the biggest prick in London.
Greg can be patient, but even this wears thin when the stakes are too high to be messed with. Other than the example mentioned in The Study in Pink, he starts to lose his cool when the fourth hostage is revealed in The Great Game: a little boy, probably covered in Semtecs just like the other hostages. With just ten seconds to solve the mystery, Sherlock pushes Greg's nerves to breaking point; at the 2nd last second, Lestrade shouts at him when Sherlock solves the puzzle, but is slightly too wrapped up in the brilliance of it to give his answer. He does have a temper that flashes when the situation gets bad and Sherlock doesn't cooperate. This suggests to me that his patience is one that isn't something he's born with; rather, it's build up and honed with years of experience and work, five of them with one of the most insufferable genius in the world.
Greg is also a very practical and unfortunately, slightly blunt man. With a thick working class accent, he seems to be someone who's had to grow up in the tough part of the neighbourhood; he's had to rough it out as a kid. Lestrade is tough; even when Sherlock bluntly tells to his face that his wife is still cheating on him, he doesn't crumble or cry. He still grimaces, and he's still put off and upset by it, but he shoulders on. However, this background does influence his thinking, and sometimes not in a very good way. For example, at the beginning of The Study in Pink, he demonstrates very little sensitivity with suicide issues. He's also not very good with people at times; he has to let Donovan lead the press session, because he's just not that good at it. He forgets sometimes that not everyone acts, or thinks, in his specific kind of way. It definitely can strain relationships with people, even within his team.
Lastly, Greg is a very brave man. It comes with the job; to tackle London's crime, he's had to engage in difficult and dangerous situations. Crime, rape, drugs (It's implied that he first met Sherlock Holmes on a drugs bust), murder, he's seen it all. He's got a strong gut, and bodies, no matter how mutilated they are, no longer phase him. It also takes courage to stand up for what, or who, you believe in, even when the rest of the world is against you. He proved his mettle when he phoned Sherlock Holmes in the Reichenbach Falls episode to warn him about the police warrant. He walks in with Sherlock into the room with the shoes in The Great Game, aware that at any time a bomb could go off and blow all of them up. Lestrade isn't afraid, and even if he is he'll still go ahead anyway just simple because it's the right thing to do.
The difference between DI Lestrade and 6th year Hufflepuff Greg Lestrade is mainly due to the giant age gap between them. Greg is still pretty young; at age 16 he's yet to develop that near iron bravery that his older self has. Lestrade is a DI in the Homicide department; that's a far-cry from dealing with poisoned jelly beans and school bullies. Greg is still brave, but if confronted with the more disturbing situations his older self has to face with on a day-to-day basis, he won't be as tough as he normally shows himself to be. This lack of bravery does not mean though that Greg would still hold himself back from doing the right thing; it just might involve more initial fear and reluctance.
Furthermore, Greg's still learning the ropes of proper team management. He's good at it, but there's still more he has to learn. He can get the prefects to agree to work together but keeping them together is proving more difficult than he had originally hoped. Sherlock doesn't make his life any easier either and he commands less respect than his older self does, making it even more difficult to get his team to do as he says. The art of diplomacy has yet to be properly learned by young Greg, but he is noted as getting better at it. Still not quite up to the level of his older self but with the past few cases he's been getting experience in it.
Greg's more hot-tempered and rash than his older self as well. He jumps into things more than his older self and sometimes neglects to think things through properly. A few costly spell-casting mistakes have managed to help tame this side of him and given him food for thought, but overall he's still more likely to use a spell to blast something out of his way rather than puzzle out how to move it without the use of magic.
Thread Sample:
Greg talking about Quidditch.
Prose Sample:
"Can't you do anything about it?"
Greg just about manages to prevent himself from rolling his eyes. "Sally, how many times have we gone over this? You know that he's good at what he does. We need his help for this."
The Ravenclaw prefect fixes him with a flat glare; there's clearly no love lost between Sherlock Holmes and Sally Donovan. "He's a pain in the arse to deal with, and honestly I don't feel comfortable with a known psychopath-"
"He says he's a sociopath-"
"Psychopath," she reiterates, carrying on as if Greg hadn't interrupted her. "Don't try to defend him Lestrade, you know he gets his kicks out of the cases. He doesn't solve them because it's the right thing to do."
Greg raises his hands in defeat, tired but carrying on nevertheless. "I never claimed he's a saint, but he's never given us reason to doubt him and I don't see why we should ignore his help when he's the next best thing to Verita Serum that we've got."
"Unless you're ignoring the time he was caught smoking weed. If I recall, you were the one who found him. Hardly the model of a crime-solving detective now, is he?"
"Come of it. He's been clean-"
"-and you believe him?" She pushes a lock of hair out of her face and gives him a disbelieving look. "Lestrade, you can't seriously be taking his word on that? I know you're a Puff and you'd like to believe otherwise-"
"Yes Sally, I do!" he snaps back sharply, aware of the slight condescending manner she regards his house with. "I know because I check on him every week and he reports himself to the Head Matron for health checks. If he's been somehow smoking the stuff behind our backs, then he's fooled the Head Healer. As brilliant as he is I don't see him tricking that lot up there now, do you?"
She crosses her arms and says nothing, but he catches that unsatisfied look she has on her face, as well as some anger. Neither of the Ravenclaws liked or worked well with Sherlock; Donovan and Anderson could talk all day with each other, but to tolerate Holmes' presence for longer than an hour was to ask a miracle. Greg has a feeling it's to do with the Ravenclaw ego when it comes to being smart because Sherlock sure as hell made everyone else feel dumb.
With a sigh, he reigns in his temper and addresses her as calmly as he can. "Look, I know he rubs you and Anderson and the rest of the team the wrong way. He's an arrogant prick to work with and I'm not saying it's easy." His words do have some effect on her; by agreeing with her on some of Sherlock's bad points, he's found that she'll be more receptive to what else more he has to say. "But we've got to think of the bigger picture here. There are students getting hurt out there and Sherlock is our best chance at stopping all of this nonsense. He's proved himself with a few cases, so I say we give him a chance."
Sally presses her lips together with disapproval but Greg can see that he's won this battle with her. "Urgh, fine. He can come along for the next case, if we really, really need him." Greg breaks into a relieved grin; if Sally's on his side, then the other prefects will definitely cease their objections. "Thanks Donovan. Trust me, it's for the best. With him on our side, there's no mystery we can't solve."
She can't pop his bubble, not when he looks so pumped up, so Sally let's it slide. But before she leaves she drops him a stern warning. "Lestrade...I know you like to think the best of everyone. I'm not saying it's wrong. And I think it's good that you want to give him a chance and to try and change him. I just think that that's not possible. Sherlock Holmes is a psychopath; he can't emphasize with anyone. So don't get your hopes too high up."
Greg held her gaze evenly, before he reluctantly nodded in agreement. He couldn't lie that he had his reservations but if he didn't believe in Sherlock's better parts than he'd have to face the alternative. And that is a thought that secretly frightened him.
"He's a great man. I'm just hoping we can change him into a good one."
Second prose sample:
"Oi! What the hell are you two doing there!?"
The boys jumped and whirled around to face Greg as he headed towards their direction. He hadn't been sure from afar but as he drew closer and took note of their young, frightened faces, he was certain that they were first years, no doubt about to engage in some form of misbehaviour. First years still found prefects scary, and second years were smart enough to fake innocence. Arms akimbo, he stopped in front of them and asked sternly, "You aren't up to any trouble, are you?" Both boys glanced at each other, before their eyes sank to the floor where a small black bag lay. Greg raised an eyebrow at the small bag and beckoned towards it. "What's in it, eh? Show me. Come on now," he added impatiently as the seconds ticked by. "I've got class in fifteen minutes. Unless you'd rather I report you to a teacher, it's best you come clean with me. And I hear the Forbidden Forest's particularly nasty this time of the year too; you don't want to do your detentions there now, do you? Not when you've got werewolves and other manners of nasty beast watching." Greg was talking bull; there were no werewolves in the Forbidden Forest, and detention there was as safe as can be. There was no way the professors would ever allow any of the students to get injured, but most first years would probably have been bombarded with enough school legends and gossip from their second year seniors that most of the time they swallowed the made-up facts without even thinking it through. Judging from their panicked expressions, these two fell into the majority and eventually the shorter one spoke up shakily.
"We weren't doing nothing too bad. Just a couple of Dung bombs. We just-"
"We just want to get back at the bullies!"
The shorter boy immediately made to shush his friend, but Greg held up a hand to stop him. "What bullies?" he inquired sharply. Out of both boys, one wore the silver green tie of Slytherin, while the other wore the Ravenclaw colours instead. The hidden lines that divided the school houses usually kept the students making friends with those of the same house, but these two were co-conspirators engaging in an act of vengeance together. Something had to be up. "I won't rat on you two, but I've got to know what's going on here. Either you tell me, or I'll have to bring the two of you in to face further punishment."
Reluctantly, both boys shared their story. It took a little more cajoling to get the full story out, but after a bit of warm-up they both seemed relieved and eager to finally share what had happened to them. With a lot of bitterness, they told Greg about how they had been the target of bullying by their seniors from both Ravenclaw and Slytherin. The bullying had started when the two boys started hanging out more together (they had paired up for Charms one lesson and got along very well); the Slytherins accused their first year off not being pure enough, for siding with 'Mudblood' scum, while the Muggle Ravenclaws started spreading rumours about their junior betraying their own kind. The bullying had taken on different forms. It had started out mild, as simple taunts and name-calling, but it slowly grew more and more unbearable for the boys as their books were stolen and hidden in the most difficult places, hurtful words scribbled all across the front pages accusing the boys of being traitors and deserving capital punishment for dealing with the other side, silent treatment from other first years who were either too afraid to speak out or who agreed with their seniors, ink bottles mysteriously falling and spilling their contents on their homework ("I had to rewrite eleven inches about the Goblin War!" cried the Slytherin in disgust, while his Ravenclaw friend nodded sympathetically), and other such small but consistent acts of repercussion for maintaining their friendship. Now, both boys have had it and they had been planning to prank the ringmasters of the whole operation to split them apart. They had been planning to target the Slytherin fifth year who had started the bullying on the Slytherin side of things, and then to go after the Ravenclaw fourth year. "I don't want to do this, but I'm sick and tired of fishing my quills out of the loo," the Ravenclaw said angrily. "We can't go to the teachers either because we'll be labelled as snitches. It's a horrible thing and we're sick of being everyone's punching bag!"
Greg sighed; this kind of bullying wasn't exactly common, but bullying was still bullying and it's inexcusable. No names were named for the boys feared repercussions, but Greg knew enough of the story to warrant a guess at who was involved. It was just too bad, really. The Ravenclaw girl used to be such a sweet person but after her father had been lost to the Death Eaters she had turned into a completely different person, taking every opportunity to badmouth the Slytherins, whom she suspected were all Death Eaters. The extremist pureblood lot at Slytherin weren't helping either; Greg knew that some of them were threatening the younger generation to follow in their footsteps or be isolated by the rest of the community. And caught in the crossfire were two young first-years who just wanted to do their homework together and play Wizard's Chess. It really wasn't fair. Running his hand through his hair he told the boys wearily, "And you don't think that they'll figure it's the both of you who's got it out for them?"
The Slytherin looked a bit worried, but the Ravenclaw shook his head and said as boldly as he could, "We were going to pit them against each other, you know? Get them so busy having a go at each other then they'll leave us alone. We'll plant the evidence. We've got it all sussed out, right mate?" He gave his friend a nod that was returned with a determined one.
Greg was less impressed. "Well it's still a pretty stupid idea," he snapped sharply, causing both boys to shrink back a bit. "It's just the two of you against what, half of Ravenclaw and three quarters of Slytherin, and that's me being generous. For being a Ravenclaw, you're not very smart are you? I thought Slytherins were good at keeping themselves out of trouble too, or at least capable of thinking up some less obvious way of getting back at someone. You might as well spell it out for everyone that the two of you idiots were the ones behind it all." The Slytherin wilted and winced under Greg's lashing but his friend eyes suddenly lit up and he rallied back against Greg. "Well you're just a stupid Hufflepuff, so how would you know anything? You didn't even ask about our evidence! You just made a stupid assumption about us and you're looking down on us as well! You're just as bad as them!!"
After the second outburst, Greg glared down at both the boys and felt his temper peaking. Fine, maybe he shouldn't have been so harsh at them, but he was still a prefect and he deserved some respect all the same. He hasn't had a good day himself either, and being called a stupid Hufflepuff by a bunch of idiotic and over-confident first years did little to soothe his irritation. Reaching over the two boys, he grabbed both their collars from the back, with every intent of dragging them to detention if had to. "And I think you lot need a lesson in respect! I'm trying to help you out here, but all you're doing is calling me names yourselves!" Both boys squealed, all pretence of bravado fleeing their faces as he gripped the back of their shirts tightly, and the Slytherin immediately apologized. "Look, w-we're sorry, a-alright? We're j-just...just tired and sick of everyone t-teasing us a-and laughing at us. They don't even do it behind our backs, they call me Blood traitor right to my face," he said miserably. The Ravenclaw nodded along and muttered a shame-faced apology as well.
Greg stared down at the both of them; two frightened and frustrated boys, stuck in a situation they can't fix and judged for not fitting in with the status quo and being different. He took a deep breath and let go before rubbing his temples and feeling a tinge of regret; he had lost his temper again. He was always being cautioned against letting people bait him into retaliation. His control has been improving as a result of associating with Sherlock but he still had moments when he just couldn't hold in his anger, and this had been one of them. Taking another breath, he calmed himself down further and took a moment to think through carefully what he wanted to say. "Alright, I get that you're having a bad time. I'm not having it easy myself either, being a 'stupid Hufflepuff' and all. I deal with those kind of insults on a daily basis." Both boys blushed a little at that comment; Hufflepuffs didn't have that good a reputation in Hogwarts. They were the dregs of Hogwarts society, not having any particular skill that would set them apart from their peers. Greg had one more thing going against him as well. "And I get it. It sucks to be teased and laughed at, just because of who you are or who you're not. I'm Muggleborn and there's not a day that goes by where I don't hear "filthy Mudblood" or insults on my parents." In fact, just this morning a mouthy Slytherin had said something very unpleasant about his mother, and while Greg didn't care much for her it still made him angry. It was a constant anger that throbbed inside him, to have to deal with the injustice of it all. It's part of the reason why he chose Beater as his role in the Quidditch team, it's a secret guilty pleasure of his to imagine that he's smashing in the head of every person who had sneered at him whenever he's swinging his bat. "But you can't just go off and do these sort of things. You're going to get into even more trouble and trust me, what you're going through isn't half as bad as what's happening to some of the other students around here. You heard about Hughes right? Third year Gryffindor who tried to stand up for his mate? In case you haven't, he got jumped on by a bunch of older students and he had to spend a week at the Healer's Wing. He doesn't know who got him either; it's all quick and clean." He paused, letting that fact sink in. "Things aren't pleasant these days, with the war and You-Know-Who. And there's a lot of nastiness going around because of it, even here in Hogwarts. Fact is that as long as the two of you insist on being friends you're going to be targeted by everyone else. It's not nice, but there it is. Now," he said quickly when the boys started to protest, "I'm not going to report either of you. As far as I see it, you technically haven't done anything wrong, so long as you keep your mouths shut and you leave those bombs with me. Got it? Now clear off before I change my mind." Both boys clamped their lips together and nodded, their expressions a strange mix of relief and disappointment. Greg saw them off to their classes and took a look at the bombs in the small bag. A grim nod and he picked them up and made a mental note to drop by the Potion Dungeon later after class.
If there's one person who could see justice down for those boys and expose the culprits without implicating them, it would be Sherlock Holmes. Because Greg would be damned if he'd let them get away with their petty ways and ruining two boys' time at what was supposed to be the sole haven in the wizarding community.
Plans: (OPTIONAL)
Notes: N/A
DÆMON
Name: Gunvor
Sex: Female
Form: European Badger
Additional notes: N/A
Why this form: The European Badger is commonly known to be a gentle and peace-loving creature. However, it will fight ferociously to the death if it's to protect their family and itself; it has sharp claws and teeth that can rip skin to shreds if it so want to. German folklore depicts the badger as someone who enjoys a comfortable life in the home with family and friends, but who will get angry if unpleasantly surprised. Greg can be generally laid-back and casual when in the company of friends and family. He's got a temper that he's learning to curb and he's trying to approach things patiently. And much like the European Badger, he won't hesitate to let his temper rip when it's needed. He's willing to get his hands dirty if it'll resolve a case or uphold justice. This includes roughing up uncooperative suspects or bending the law if needed. When it comes to those he cares about, he's more willing to walk on the grey sides of morality if it will protect them.
The European Badger is noted to share its home with other creatures; it is more social than most other kinds of badgers, willing to live in up to 23 packs of badgers, although groups of 6 are more common. It sometimes even works together with raccoon dogs to dig a den in the ground and even allows the raccoon dog to live with it. Greg isn't the friendliest but he's a good sport and he's willing to give chances and work together with other. If there isn't something that needs his immediate attention, then he'll be quite happy to go out with his friends and have fun with them. He won't be the life of the party but neither will he be a wall-flower.
There are cases of badgers and foxes living side-by-side assisting each other and in German folklore, the badger often tries to convince its cousin the fox to abandon its cunning ways and return to righteousness but is usually unsuccessful. This is similar to the relationship between Greg and Sherlock; Greg gives Sherlock something to work with while Sherlock gives Greg the answers to the cases. Greg is also trying to influence Sherlock to be a better person, though he has yet to see any real change just yet and can get quite irritated by Sherlock's lack of clear morality and sensitivity.
The European Badger is a very common and average animal, and is the most common of all types of badgers; there's nothing that much special about it. Greg is often touted as a better-than-average detective, but compared to the likes of Sherlock and John he's not as smart or as brave as they are. Next to them, he is very much an ordinary man.
Lastly, the European badger is the symbol of Hufflepuff House. Hufflepuff house values "hard work, patience, justice, and loyalty", and Helga Hufflepuff, the founder of the house, is quoted as saying that she will "...teach the lot and treat them just the same”. There's a strong sense of fairness in Hufflepuff House, of doing things the honest and right way and giving to each what they deserve. Puffs are known to be loyal and kind folk, but are also looked down in the school as having no particular special trait. This description matches Greg Lestrade perfectly. He appreciates hard work and is very loyal to those who deserve his loyalty. Greg isn't always honest either, but his motives are. He is trying to be more patient in his dealings, but overall the trait that solely defines him as a Hufflepuff is his fairness. He gives each person a chance and listens to everyone's piece even if he may not like what they have to say, and he refuses to give anyone preferential treatment. He treats each person fairly and gives them their due although it may be something that he dislikes. If he has to break the rules to save a man he knows is innocent, then he will do so because it is the just thing to do.
Name: San
Are you 18 or over?: Yes.
Other characters played: N/A
CHARACTER
Name: Greg Lestrade
Canon: BBC Sherlock, but AU'd into Harry Potter-verse
Age: 16
History: Greg Lestrade was born in a rough part of London where crime was an accepted part of daily life and you either move out or wise up and toughen up. The combined salary of his father and mother (the former a truck driver, the later a waitress) was not enough for better accommodations in a nicer part of town, so it was up to Lestrade Senior to make sure his son grew up with a good head on his shoulders and a proper sense of right from wrong. A messy divorce when Greg was 5 left him in the custody of his father but otherwise he had a relatively normal childhood: he went to school, played football with the other kids in the neighbourhood and had his fair share of scraps and fights. His grades were average but he was good enough at sports. He could dribble a ball, swing his bat, and kick well enough to score a goal every now and then. However his true strength lay in leading and directing his team mates and by utilizing each of their own strengths and weaknesses he ensured that they brought back more wins than losses at the inter-school football matches.
His relationship with his father was a great one. Greg loved and respected his father more than anyone else in the world. His father was not the most affectionate of parents but despite his gruff exterior he always knew what his son needed and made sure to supply as much love and guidance as a single working parent could give. This meant giving praise, punishment and encouragement when due.
However, while ordinary seemed to be the one word that best defined his school life, there were always those one-off incidents that seemed to happen around him especially when bullies were involved. They ranged from the very mild (a boy's pants suddenly disappearing while he was teasing another student) to the very strange (he couldn't exactly explain to the teachers how the school bully ended up being chased up a tree by a random pack of dogs that seemed to appear out of nowhere). And though Greg could never be proved to be the culprit, he always seemed to be there at the scene of the crime. It wasn't every time but bullies soon found out that every now and then taking on Greg Lestrade meant that something freaky was going to happen. The other children were slightly reluctant to befriend him; they liked him well enough to include him in games and conversations at school but many stopped short of inviting him to join them in their outings or parties for fear of more weirdness happening. The initial willingness to help out someone in need soon grew to be replaced by anxiety. It didn't mean that he stopped sticking up for someone who needed it, but he came to approach these moments with more and more reluctance out of fear that something out of his control was going to happen again.
Eventually though, the fateful letter arrived on his 11th birthday. It was promptly disregarded as a prank letter, crumpled up and disposed off. Only when a man stepped out of the fireplace a day later brushing green ash off his fanciful robe did Greg and his father start paying proper attention to this magical school for wizards and witches. His father was reluctant to send him so far away to a school that was teaching something as crazy as magic. Greg himself didn't want to leave his father either and tried to hide the tiny bursts of magic that he couldn't control. But his attempts were futile and it was obvious to his father that it was for his son's well-being that he attend this Hogwarts and learn to master the strange talents he had been gifted with. At his young age though, Greg couldn't understand why his father had seemingly betrayed him and boarded the Hogswarts Express with a hurt and angry heart. His relationship with his father has not completely repaired itself either. Greg was too stubborn to admit that his father did what was right, and his father wasn't the type to discuss things like feelings and emotions.
He was sorted into Hufflepuff house, known for loyal and hard-working folk. Life as a Muggle-born wasn't a bed of roses though. The first few weeks were completely miserable. Greg felt inept and foolish, having to ask his peers about daily wizarding items and cultural facts that seemed so easy for them to understand, but were such a foreign concept to him. Magic did not come very easily to him either, displaying only average natural talent at best. School had never been his strong point, but spells, incantations and potions completely blew his mind. It took much hard work and pure dedication for him to eventually catch up to his peers and as a result he had to sacrifice much free time. Instead of socializing with fellow dorm and class mates, Greg could be found practising his spells in empty class rooms or scribbling over pieces of parchment in the library, trying to remember the difference between a Knarl and a Kneazle. The wizarding world itself was undergoing a period of much uncertainty and danger, with Lord Voldemort a looming threat over the head of every Muggle born wizard. While Hogwarts was definitely safe under the care of Albus Dumbledore, even the great Headmaster couldn't prevent every case of bullying and prejudice that Greg had to face as a filthy Mugblood. It was only the support of some of his seniors and peers that helped him to get through the vicious first few years and eventually Greg came to adjust to his new life as a wizard. He found his love for team sports rekindled in Quidditch where he played the role of Beater and in his fifth year he was not only made Team Captain but also a Prefect due to his good, responsible character and desire to always do what was right and just.
As a Prefect his job included ensuring that any illegal student activities were promptly reported to the Head of Houses. One such student that he somehow managed to catch was Ravenclaw Sherlock Holmes, whom he found smoking Muggle weed. He reported the skinny and angular boy to a teacher, despite the reputation of the Holmes family as being one of those old Pure-blood families where the lineage went back a few hundred years. His decision garnered him quite negative attention from the pure-blood supremists, not because the Holmes boys were popular in the school (on the contrary, the elder was feared as the Head Boy when he was in school, while the younger was hated for his lack of tact and skills in deducing the most embarrassing escapades of his peers) but rather due to the fact that a Mugblood had dared to report a Pureblood. However, big brother Mycroft was far from insulted. Rather he approached Greg with an interesting proposal: to keep an eye on his younger brother and to ask Sherlock for help when Greg was confronted with a situation that he couldn't solve. Greg couldn't deny that he could use the help; with the Wizarding War reaching its zenith outside the school, ambitious students with darker leanings were engaging not only in bullying, but actually planning attacks on Muggle-born students and pro-Muggle supporters. While most of the perpetrators could be caught, there were always cases that left both teachers and prefects in the dark and they happened to be the more vicious ones. It was Mycroft's opinion that perhaps Sherlock could not only occupy his time in non-law-breaking activities but also assist the general school body. And so started the strange working arrangement between Greg and Sherlock, with Sherlock occasionally pitching in to help Greg catch the students behind the threats and attacks.
There's much to be said about working with a person as difficult as Sherlock Holmes. The Ravenclaw 5th year had a penchant for pissing off the other prefects and a flippant disregard of the law. Greg really found his patience and his leadership qualities stretched to his limits at times; Sherlock did not respect authority and often derided Greg's and his fellow prefects' efforts. Sherlock skirted the rules, sometimes engaged in illegal practices for the sake of knowledge and curiosity, but he was never wrong in his deductions and Greg acknowledged that Sherlock, as amoral as he could be, was possibly the most brilliant man he would ever have the chance to work with. He tried to influence Sherlock to having some sort of moral stance on things; part of him knew that if Sherlock entered magical law enforcement then they'd have a shot at actually defeating Lord Voldemort and his followers, but the other part feared that Sherlock might be enticed by the Dark Arts and its allure of power and knowledge. Greg both feared, respected, dreaded and looked forward to Sherlock's inclusion in his cases, and realised that it was crucial that Sherlock be won over to the right side before it was too late. As such, Greg realised he was going to have to tolerate some of Sherlock's antics and occasional minor infringements of the law that were made in the name of research if he wasn't going to completely alienate the eccentric Ravenclaw. Greg had to take big lessons in humility, patience, understanding and keeping a calm mind when dealing with frustrating people, and he'd have to be careful with his temper less he snap and ruined any chances of cooperation with Sherlock. Even after a year of working together, he still can't claim to completely know what's on Sherlock's mind, and all he can do is swallow his pride, curb his irritation, and accept that Sherlock knew what he was doing. This was not to say that Greg became Sherlock's doormat; when Sherlock crossed a line Greg had no qualms with stepping up and giving Sherlock a sharp reprimand. In fact, their first few weeks working together often involved Greg giving Sherlock something of a lecture on proper ethics. It's taken a year, but Greg's glad to notice that Sherlock's been clean on weed and has stopped some of his illegal Dark Arts experimentation (though exactly how much he hasn't is something Greg's not ready to know or take on just yet). Greg himself has managed to tame his temper, and his fellow Quidditch team mates and prefects do note his improvement in team management and leadership.
To date, Greg and Sherlock have a strange reliance on each other; Sherlock needs Greg to find "healthy" outlets for his mental activity, and Greg needs Sherlock to help him prevent anymore student bullyings. Both men have come to grow (albeit the amount of growth on Sherlock's behalf is minimal) due to each other's influence and Greg's trust in Sherlock has just started to take firm root. He caught news of Sherlock befriending a fellow 6th year Gryffindor who'd be involved in a Death Eater attack during the last summer break. Greg's noticed that Sherlock's behaviour has been improving since his acquaintance with John and he's hopeful that perhaps John might be the man to bring Sherlock onto the side of the angels.
One of the cases that Sherlock and him have managed to solve is "The Analysis in Fuschia", where a house-elf had been poisoning students with tampered Bertie Bott's every Flavoured Beans. There was also the case of "The Vandalized Veela", one which Greg wasn't involved in because he had other responsibilities to attend to. Still, he advised the other prefect, Dimmock from Gryffindor, to give Sherlock a chance and was greatly pleased to hear that the student's black market trade of rare and illegal potion ingredients in Hogwarts had been stopped. But although Greg was glad that these crimes were being solved, there was trouble brewing on the horizon as the Lord Voldemort's reign of terror reached it's zenith. He was pretty sure Sherlock had an idea on what was going on, perhaps he even had a name on who was the real master-mind behind all these crimes, but until the great genius deigned to give him an answer, he knew he wasn't going to get one.
Point in canon: The year 2013. The whole timeline of the Wizarding War has been pushed to modern times and as such Lord Voldemort has yet to be defeated by this year. Moriarty is about to start "The Great Game" with Sherlock, so Greg's and Sherlock's relationship will be around the same as this point in the original canon. The canon point, Harry Potter canon-wise, is during Voldemort's first reign of terror, one year and a half before the first book. Voldemort has not been defeated by baby Harry yet; that will happen a year and a half later, when Greg is facing the end of his 7th year at Hogwarts. As such there is a general air of uneasiness even among the students, of hostility between pure bloods and non-pure bloods, and a lot of open anti-Muggle feelings as well. Greg is thus much older than Harry and has not heard about the Boy who Lived nor does he know that Voldemort will eventually be defeated by Harry. Greg knows of Harry's parents and the other wizards of their year by name only, as they would've been in Hogwarts around his earlier years (James and co were at age 20 at the time of Harry's birth, make them Greg's seniors by 4 years) and because James and Lily had been Headboy and Headgirl respectively during Greg's 3rd year at Hogwarts.
Window Location: A lonely, abandoned classroom on the 7th floor at the West Wing, accessed only when a staircase moves to the nearby platform. This happens very rarely and as such very few students and teachers actually stumble upon this classroom, much less use it.
Universe: This AU is based on the Harry Potter series but in more recent times. As such, the Muggle World is up to par with the technology of today's real world and political, economical, cultural and societal situations are the same. The Wizarding World is known for being backwards (eg. refusal to use electricity, poor knowledge of Muggle electronics and use of old-fashioned wizard clothing) and as such will not be changed much, save for the fact that Voldemort's War started later and has yet to end in the year 2013. BBC!Sherlock characters have also been altered to fit into this AU, and the differences are noted here:
Greg Lestrade: 6th year Hufflepuff, Hufflepuff Beater and Prefect, Muggleborn. As he is much younger than his canon counterpart, Greg is more hot-headed and less mature (explained more in the personality section).
Sherlock Holmes: 5th year Ravenclaw, Pureblood, as pure and old as they come. Still a genius, but Sherlock has already garnered a bit of a bad reputation among teachers as a trouble-maker and among students as a know-it-all git. Sherlock is curious about Muggles, a result of his pure-blood upbringing that kept him away from any Muggle contact, as well as the general ignorance that pervades wizarding society when it comes to their non-magical neighbours. As a teen, he has yet to develop the cold heart that he comes to be famous for as a working adult, but he still displays a rather detached approach to the sufferings and pains of other students.
John Watson: 6th year Gryffindor, Muggleborn. John is pretty much the same as his canon self personality-wise. His trauma came from a Death-Eater attack that left him with a limp and a deep distrust of others. John and Greg actually share a slight friendship in this AU. Muggleborns had to stick together during the anti-Muggle times of Lord Voldemort's War and being in the same year it'd be difficult for John and Greg not to have contact with each other. John as a younger person is less controlled with his emotions and actually developed a slight bias against Purebloods after his attack.
Molly Cooper: 4th year Hufflepuff, Halfblood. Molly is still as awkward in her interactions with others as ever. She has dated Moriarty before, but currently has a crush on Sherlock that, given her current age, is one she won't let go quite as easily as her adult self did. Molly is more gullible but optimistic of her future and that she will eventually make more friends than she currently has at the moment.
Irene Adler: 5th year Slytherin, Pureblood. Irene hasn't shown up much yet as the current canon point in this AU is equivalent to "The Great Game", but she is still her sneaky, ambitious self. She is perhaps a little nicer and kinder than her canon self, but there's still a lot of her ruthless and manipulative nature in play. She hasn't completely discarded all her innocence just yet, although like Sherlock she is getting dangerously close.
James Moriarty: 5th year Slytherin, Pureblood. Jim is at the stage where he's losing interest in humanity and is rather bored with life in general. He gets involved with the Dark Arts and the Death Eaters simply because he got bored with being a good and model pupil. Rather than developing an interest in Sherlock because Mycroft told him about Sherlock, Moriarty hears about Sherlock's abilities through the school grapevine. Moriarty is the brains behind the more devious bullying happening in the school and uses his family's butler to commit his murders for him outside of school.
Mycroft Holmes: Already working in the Ministry, Mycroft keeps in correspondence with Dumbledore and also keeps a sharp eye out on his younger brother. It's rumoured that he has spies even in Hogwarts who report to him.
Mrs Hudson: The motherly assistant Healer at the Nursing Ward. Because Sherlock's experiments have often landed him there, she's set up a bed specifically for him and tries to make sure he's as comfortable as possible while he's recuperating. It's gotten to the point where she's actually prepared a place for him to work; she can keep an eye on him, and he can get immediate medical help if necessary.
As mentioned in the Character History section, cases that occurred in canon have been altered into the Harry Potter-verse and are made more kid-friendly to reflect the school setting. The cases so far are:
1. "An Analysis in Fuchsia" is this universe's "A Study in Pink". It involves a house elf poisoning students of all blood status with tampered Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans. Sherlock and John are introduced by Mike Stamford: John is struggling to keep up with studies and his paranoia works against him having good study buddies, leading to him and Sherlock starting a group together. Greg is more familiar with John, but not any less surprised that John is accompanying Sherlock around during these cases. The culprit is revealed to be a house-elf that was placed in Hogwarts by a Death Eater family. Wanting to please his family, the house-elf takes advantage of his position to place the poisoned candy near the student's beds. While Sherlock does solve the case with John's help, the supplier of the poisoned beans remains a mystery save for a letter: "M".
2. "The Vandalized Veela" is this universe's "The Blind Baker". Following the vandalism of an statue of a veela which had red paint splattered all over it's face, Sherlock uncovers a web of student blackmail and threats that eventually culminates in a showdown between him and the head of the student black market for potion ingredients. Greg is not involved as he is given a different task by teachers, but the student, who is suspended from school but not expelled, is killed with an Avada Kedavra while she is stuck at home on "M"'s orders.
3. "The Great Game" has yet to start, but due to the upcoming Quidditch match there has been a lack of interest in anything else including the usual Muggle student bullying, leaving Sherlock quite bored.
Abilities: Greg's a wizard; he comes with the usual repertoire of spells that most students in Hogwarts would learn in their 1st to 6th year. However, Greg isn't exactly a model student and as such struggles with his 6th year spells. A list of subjects taught in Hogwarts is here. The branches of magic that Greg has knowledge of include the compulsory 1st year to 5th year subjects, 3rd to 5th year knowledge of his elective subjects ("Care of Magical Creatures" and "Muggle Studies"), and in his 6th year the subjects he takes are Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Charms, Defence against the Dark Arts.
His best subject is Defence Against the Dark Arts, but Greg is a better flyer. He's the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team Captain, playing as a Beater.
His personality strength includes his determination to see things straight through to the end, to always work his best no matter the circumstances, his loyalty to others and he knows how to use members of his team well.
Greg does has his weaknesses. His skills may be better than average, but that's only because a lot of hard work went into becoming a better wizard. He is naturally not a very good wizard and it's only through a lot of hard work that he managed to be as good as he is at present. Socially he is a bit closed to others; he gets along best with people he works with, but outside the prefects and the Quidditch team he doesn't have much communication with others. In this AU he is also more hot-headed and rash compared to his canon self, having not had the time to develop the patience and experience that he shows in his original canon. He is also still green around the ears, and as such will not be as calm as the older Greg Lestrade is when confronted with grim and disturbing scenes like murder and torture. His worse subjects are Transfigurations and Potions.
Possessions: One wand and the robes on his back.
Personality: Greg doesn't get as much screen time as Sherlock or Watson, but enough can be deduced to know that Greg is, at his core, a policeman dedicated to his job of fighting crime and protecting innocents. His sense of right and wrong is what motivates him throughout the whole series. Recognizing that some crimes are just too much for him and his team to handle, he's willing to swallow his pride and tolerate Sherlock's jibes and antics because he knows and understands that it's more important to catch the culprits than to protect his ego. Even when Sherlock's reputation is dragged through the mud by Moriarty, he risks his job and his freedom to warn Sherlock before the police arrive with his warrant for arrest. Greg believes that Sherlock is innocent and while he may be a man of the law he's willing to bend it if it obstructs justice and endangers the wrong man.
With his dedication to his job, Greg is no stranger to hard work in two senses of the word. One, he's not shy to burn the midnight oil or work over-time. I've headcanoned that this might be the reason behind the split between him and his wife: he simply works too hard. Being a Detective Inspector, he's had to get his hands dirty when he's involved in a case; he's often seen pursuing leads actively on the site of the crime with his team or with Holmes and Watson. And this relates to the second sense of the word: his work is hard. Lestrade is a Detective Inspector, an inspector who works in the Criminal Investigation Department. He's seen a lot of bad things in his time as a DI, dealt with a lot of crooks that range from petty theft to murderers. With 20 years of service, he's pretty much jaded and used to seeing the dark side of London city. He's had to take some drastic measures himself; in The Study in Pink he organised a drug bust at Baker Street, just to get Sherlock to share information he's discovered on the case with him. He's quite alright with making threats, and he's at least semi-proficient with his fire-arm, though not on the level of Watson. And that's just the normal day's work for him, much less dealing with Sherlock Holmes. Greg has to navigate the tricky waters that is the tumultuous antagonism between his team and Holmes. It's clear that his team respects him; they obey his every word no matter how much they dislike having Sherlock on the scene. Sherlock himself doesn't shy away from making snide comments and remarks that don't earn him points with the team, often deriding Anderson and Donovan quickly and ruthlessly. Holmes isn't very polite to Lestrade either, quick to point out the DI's flaws in a non-flattering way.
Yes, it is hard work when you have to work with the biggest prick in London.
Greg can be patient, but even this wears thin when the stakes are too high to be messed with. Other than the example mentioned in The Study in Pink, he starts to lose his cool when the fourth hostage is revealed in The Great Game: a little boy, probably covered in Semtecs just like the other hostages. With just ten seconds to solve the mystery, Sherlock pushes Greg's nerves to breaking point; at the 2nd last second, Lestrade shouts at him when Sherlock solves the puzzle, but is slightly too wrapped up in the brilliance of it to give his answer. He does have a temper that flashes when the situation gets bad and Sherlock doesn't cooperate. This suggests to me that his patience is one that isn't something he's born with; rather, it's build up and honed with years of experience and work, five of them with one of the most insufferable genius in the world.
Greg is also a very practical and unfortunately, slightly blunt man. With a thick working class accent, he seems to be someone who's had to grow up in the tough part of the neighbourhood; he's had to rough it out as a kid. Lestrade is tough; even when Sherlock bluntly tells to his face that his wife is still cheating on him, he doesn't crumble or cry. He still grimaces, and he's still put off and upset by it, but he shoulders on. However, this background does influence his thinking, and sometimes not in a very good way. For example, at the beginning of The Study in Pink, he demonstrates very little sensitivity with suicide issues. He's also not very good with people at times; he has to let Donovan lead the press session, because he's just not that good at it. He forgets sometimes that not everyone acts, or thinks, in his specific kind of way. It definitely can strain relationships with people, even within his team.
Lastly, Greg is a very brave man. It comes with the job; to tackle London's crime, he's had to engage in difficult and dangerous situations. Crime, rape, drugs (It's implied that he first met Sherlock Holmes on a drugs bust), murder, he's seen it all. He's got a strong gut, and bodies, no matter how mutilated they are, no longer phase him. It also takes courage to stand up for what, or who, you believe in, even when the rest of the world is against you. He proved his mettle when he phoned Sherlock Holmes in the Reichenbach Falls episode to warn him about the police warrant. He walks in with Sherlock into the room with the shoes in The Great Game, aware that at any time a bomb could go off and blow all of them up. Lestrade isn't afraid, and even if he is he'll still go ahead anyway just simple because it's the right thing to do.
The difference between DI Lestrade and 6th year Hufflepuff Greg Lestrade is mainly due to the giant age gap between them. Greg is still pretty young; at age 16 he's yet to develop that near iron bravery that his older self has. Lestrade is a DI in the Homicide department; that's a far-cry from dealing with poisoned jelly beans and school bullies. Greg is still brave, but if confronted with the more disturbing situations his older self has to face with on a day-to-day basis, he won't be as tough as he normally shows himself to be. This lack of bravery does not mean though that Greg would still hold himself back from doing the right thing; it just might involve more initial fear and reluctance.
Furthermore, Greg's still learning the ropes of proper team management. He's good at it, but there's still more he has to learn. He can get the prefects to agree to work together but keeping them together is proving more difficult than he had originally hoped. Sherlock doesn't make his life any easier either and he commands less respect than his older self does, making it even more difficult to get his team to do as he says. The art of diplomacy has yet to be properly learned by young Greg, but he is noted as getting better at it. Still not quite up to the level of his older self but with the past few cases he's been getting experience in it.
Greg's more hot-tempered and rash than his older self as well. He jumps into things more than his older self and sometimes neglects to think things through properly. A few costly spell-casting mistakes have managed to help tame this side of him and given him food for thought, but overall he's still more likely to use a spell to blast something out of his way rather than puzzle out how to move it without the use of magic.
Thread Sample:
Greg talking about Quidditch.
Prose Sample:
"Can't you do anything about it?"
Greg just about manages to prevent himself from rolling his eyes. "Sally, how many times have we gone over this? You know that he's good at what he does. We need his help for this."
The Ravenclaw prefect fixes him with a flat glare; there's clearly no love lost between Sherlock Holmes and Sally Donovan. "He's a pain in the arse to deal with, and honestly I don't feel comfortable with a known psychopath-"
"He says he's a sociopath-"
"Psychopath," she reiterates, carrying on as if Greg hadn't interrupted her. "Don't try to defend him Lestrade, you know he gets his kicks out of the cases. He doesn't solve them because it's the right thing to do."
Greg raises his hands in defeat, tired but carrying on nevertheless. "I never claimed he's a saint, but he's never given us reason to doubt him and I don't see why we should ignore his help when he's the next best thing to Verita Serum that we've got."
"Unless you're ignoring the time he was caught smoking weed. If I recall, you were the one who found him. Hardly the model of a crime-solving detective now, is he?"
"Come of it. He's been clean-"
"-and you believe him?" She pushes a lock of hair out of her face and gives him a disbelieving look. "Lestrade, you can't seriously be taking his word on that? I know you're a Puff and you'd like to believe otherwise-"
"Yes Sally, I do!" he snaps back sharply, aware of the slight condescending manner she regards his house with. "I know because I check on him every week and he reports himself to the Head Matron for health checks. If he's been somehow smoking the stuff behind our backs, then he's fooled the Head Healer. As brilliant as he is I don't see him tricking that lot up there now, do you?"
She crosses her arms and says nothing, but he catches that unsatisfied look she has on her face, as well as some anger. Neither of the Ravenclaws liked or worked well with Sherlock; Donovan and Anderson could talk all day with each other, but to tolerate Holmes' presence for longer than an hour was to ask a miracle. Greg has a feeling it's to do with the Ravenclaw ego when it comes to being smart because Sherlock sure as hell made everyone else feel dumb.
With a sigh, he reigns in his temper and addresses her as calmly as he can. "Look, I know he rubs you and Anderson and the rest of the team the wrong way. He's an arrogant prick to work with and I'm not saying it's easy." His words do have some effect on her; by agreeing with her on some of Sherlock's bad points, he's found that she'll be more receptive to what else more he has to say. "But we've got to think of the bigger picture here. There are students getting hurt out there and Sherlock is our best chance at stopping all of this nonsense. He's proved himself with a few cases, so I say we give him a chance."
Sally presses her lips together with disapproval but Greg can see that he's won this battle with her. "Urgh, fine. He can come along for the next case, if we really, really need him." Greg breaks into a relieved grin; if Sally's on his side, then the other prefects will definitely cease their objections. "Thanks Donovan. Trust me, it's for the best. With him on our side, there's no mystery we can't solve."
She can't pop his bubble, not when he looks so pumped up, so Sally let's it slide. But before she leaves she drops him a stern warning. "Lestrade...I know you like to think the best of everyone. I'm not saying it's wrong. And I think it's good that you want to give him a chance and to try and change him. I just think that that's not possible. Sherlock Holmes is a psychopath; he can't emphasize with anyone. So don't get your hopes too high up."
Greg held her gaze evenly, before he reluctantly nodded in agreement. He couldn't lie that he had his reservations but if he didn't believe in Sherlock's better parts than he'd have to face the alternative. And that is a thought that secretly frightened him.
"He's a great man. I'm just hoping we can change him into a good one."
Second prose sample:
"Oi! What the hell are you two doing there!?"
The boys jumped and whirled around to face Greg as he headed towards their direction. He hadn't been sure from afar but as he drew closer and took note of their young, frightened faces, he was certain that they were first years, no doubt about to engage in some form of misbehaviour. First years still found prefects scary, and second years were smart enough to fake innocence. Arms akimbo, he stopped in front of them and asked sternly, "You aren't up to any trouble, are you?" Both boys glanced at each other, before their eyes sank to the floor where a small black bag lay. Greg raised an eyebrow at the small bag and beckoned towards it. "What's in it, eh? Show me. Come on now," he added impatiently as the seconds ticked by. "I've got class in fifteen minutes. Unless you'd rather I report you to a teacher, it's best you come clean with me. And I hear the Forbidden Forest's particularly nasty this time of the year too; you don't want to do your detentions there now, do you? Not when you've got werewolves and other manners of nasty beast watching." Greg was talking bull; there were no werewolves in the Forbidden Forest, and detention there was as safe as can be. There was no way the professors would ever allow any of the students to get injured, but most first years would probably have been bombarded with enough school legends and gossip from their second year seniors that most of the time they swallowed the made-up facts without even thinking it through. Judging from their panicked expressions, these two fell into the majority and eventually the shorter one spoke up shakily.
"We weren't doing nothing too bad. Just a couple of Dung bombs. We just-"
"We just want to get back at the bullies!"
The shorter boy immediately made to shush his friend, but Greg held up a hand to stop him. "What bullies?" he inquired sharply. Out of both boys, one wore the silver green tie of Slytherin, while the other wore the Ravenclaw colours instead. The hidden lines that divided the school houses usually kept the students making friends with those of the same house, but these two were co-conspirators engaging in an act of vengeance together. Something had to be up. "I won't rat on you two, but I've got to know what's going on here. Either you tell me, or I'll have to bring the two of you in to face further punishment."
Reluctantly, both boys shared their story. It took a little more cajoling to get the full story out, but after a bit of warm-up they both seemed relieved and eager to finally share what had happened to them. With a lot of bitterness, they told Greg about how they had been the target of bullying by their seniors from both Ravenclaw and Slytherin. The bullying had started when the two boys started hanging out more together (they had paired up for Charms one lesson and got along very well); the Slytherins accused their first year off not being pure enough, for siding with 'Mudblood' scum, while the Muggle Ravenclaws started spreading rumours about their junior betraying their own kind. The bullying had taken on different forms. It had started out mild, as simple taunts and name-calling, but it slowly grew more and more unbearable for the boys as their books were stolen and hidden in the most difficult places, hurtful words scribbled all across the front pages accusing the boys of being traitors and deserving capital punishment for dealing with the other side, silent treatment from other first years who were either too afraid to speak out or who agreed with their seniors, ink bottles mysteriously falling and spilling their contents on their homework ("I had to rewrite eleven inches about the Goblin War!" cried the Slytherin in disgust, while his Ravenclaw friend nodded sympathetically), and other such small but consistent acts of repercussion for maintaining their friendship. Now, both boys have had it and they had been planning to prank the ringmasters of the whole operation to split them apart. They had been planning to target the Slytherin fifth year who had started the bullying on the Slytherin side of things, and then to go after the Ravenclaw fourth year. "I don't want to do this, but I'm sick and tired of fishing my quills out of the loo," the Ravenclaw said angrily. "We can't go to the teachers either because we'll be labelled as snitches. It's a horrible thing and we're sick of being everyone's punching bag!"
Greg sighed; this kind of bullying wasn't exactly common, but bullying was still bullying and it's inexcusable. No names were named for the boys feared repercussions, but Greg knew enough of the story to warrant a guess at who was involved. It was just too bad, really. The Ravenclaw girl used to be such a sweet person but after her father had been lost to the Death Eaters she had turned into a completely different person, taking every opportunity to badmouth the Slytherins, whom she suspected were all Death Eaters. The extremist pureblood lot at Slytherin weren't helping either; Greg knew that some of them were threatening the younger generation to follow in their footsteps or be isolated by the rest of the community. And caught in the crossfire were two young first-years who just wanted to do their homework together and play Wizard's Chess. It really wasn't fair. Running his hand through his hair he told the boys wearily, "And you don't think that they'll figure it's the both of you who's got it out for them?"
The Slytherin looked a bit worried, but the Ravenclaw shook his head and said as boldly as he could, "We were going to pit them against each other, you know? Get them so busy having a go at each other then they'll leave us alone. We'll plant the evidence. We've got it all sussed out, right mate?" He gave his friend a nod that was returned with a determined one.
Greg was less impressed. "Well it's still a pretty stupid idea," he snapped sharply, causing both boys to shrink back a bit. "It's just the two of you against what, half of Ravenclaw and three quarters of Slytherin, and that's me being generous. For being a Ravenclaw, you're not very smart are you? I thought Slytherins were good at keeping themselves out of trouble too, or at least capable of thinking up some less obvious way of getting back at someone. You might as well spell it out for everyone that the two of you idiots were the ones behind it all." The Slytherin wilted and winced under Greg's lashing but his friend eyes suddenly lit up and he rallied back against Greg. "Well you're just a stupid Hufflepuff, so how would you know anything? You didn't even ask about our evidence! You just made a stupid assumption about us and you're looking down on us as well! You're just as bad as them!!"
After the second outburst, Greg glared down at both the boys and felt his temper peaking. Fine, maybe he shouldn't have been so harsh at them, but he was still a prefect and he deserved some respect all the same. He hasn't had a good day himself either, and being called a stupid Hufflepuff by a bunch of idiotic and over-confident first years did little to soothe his irritation. Reaching over the two boys, he grabbed both their collars from the back, with every intent of dragging them to detention if had to. "And I think you lot need a lesson in respect! I'm trying to help you out here, but all you're doing is calling me names yourselves!" Both boys squealed, all pretence of bravado fleeing their faces as he gripped the back of their shirts tightly, and the Slytherin immediately apologized. "Look, w-we're sorry, a-alright? We're j-just...just tired and sick of everyone t-teasing us a-and laughing at us. They don't even do it behind our backs, they call me Blood traitor right to my face," he said miserably. The Ravenclaw nodded along and muttered a shame-faced apology as well.
Greg stared down at the both of them; two frightened and frustrated boys, stuck in a situation they can't fix and judged for not fitting in with the status quo and being different. He took a deep breath and let go before rubbing his temples and feeling a tinge of regret; he had lost his temper again. He was always being cautioned against letting people bait him into retaliation. His control has been improving as a result of associating with Sherlock but he still had moments when he just couldn't hold in his anger, and this had been one of them. Taking another breath, he calmed himself down further and took a moment to think through carefully what he wanted to say. "Alright, I get that you're having a bad time. I'm not having it easy myself either, being a 'stupid Hufflepuff' and all. I deal with those kind of insults on a daily basis." Both boys blushed a little at that comment; Hufflepuffs didn't have that good a reputation in Hogwarts. They were the dregs of Hogwarts society, not having any particular skill that would set them apart from their peers. Greg had one more thing going against him as well. "And I get it. It sucks to be teased and laughed at, just because of who you are or who you're not. I'm Muggleborn and there's not a day that goes by where I don't hear "filthy Mudblood" or insults on my parents." In fact, just this morning a mouthy Slytherin had said something very unpleasant about his mother, and while Greg didn't care much for her it still made him angry. It was a constant anger that throbbed inside him, to have to deal with the injustice of it all. It's part of the reason why he chose Beater as his role in the Quidditch team, it's a secret guilty pleasure of his to imagine that he's smashing in the head of every person who had sneered at him whenever he's swinging his bat. "But you can't just go off and do these sort of things. You're going to get into even more trouble and trust me, what you're going through isn't half as bad as what's happening to some of the other students around here. You heard about Hughes right? Third year Gryffindor who tried to stand up for his mate? In case you haven't, he got jumped on by a bunch of older students and he had to spend a week at the Healer's Wing. He doesn't know who got him either; it's all quick and clean." He paused, letting that fact sink in. "Things aren't pleasant these days, with the war and You-Know-Who. And there's a lot of nastiness going around because of it, even here in Hogwarts. Fact is that as long as the two of you insist on being friends you're going to be targeted by everyone else. It's not nice, but there it is. Now," he said quickly when the boys started to protest, "I'm not going to report either of you. As far as I see it, you technically haven't done anything wrong, so long as you keep your mouths shut and you leave those bombs with me. Got it? Now clear off before I change my mind." Both boys clamped their lips together and nodded, their expressions a strange mix of relief and disappointment. Greg saw them off to their classes and took a look at the bombs in the small bag. A grim nod and he picked them up and made a mental note to drop by the Potion Dungeon later after class.
If there's one person who could see justice down for those boys and expose the culprits without implicating them, it would be Sherlock Holmes. Because Greg would be damned if he'd let them get away with their petty ways and ruining two boys' time at what was supposed to be the sole haven in the wizarding community.
Plans: (OPTIONAL)
Notes: N/A
DÆMON
Name: Gunvor
Sex: Female
Form: European Badger
Additional notes: N/A
Why this form: The European Badger is commonly known to be a gentle and peace-loving creature. However, it will fight ferociously to the death if it's to protect their family and itself; it has sharp claws and teeth that can rip skin to shreds if it so want to. German folklore depicts the badger as someone who enjoys a comfortable life in the home with family and friends, but who will get angry if unpleasantly surprised. Greg can be generally laid-back and casual when in the company of friends and family. He's got a temper that he's learning to curb and he's trying to approach things patiently. And much like the European Badger, he won't hesitate to let his temper rip when it's needed. He's willing to get his hands dirty if it'll resolve a case or uphold justice. This includes roughing up uncooperative suspects or bending the law if needed. When it comes to those he cares about, he's more willing to walk on the grey sides of morality if it will protect them.
The European Badger is noted to share its home with other creatures; it is more social than most other kinds of badgers, willing to live in up to 23 packs of badgers, although groups of 6 are more common. It sometimes even works together with raccoon dogs to dig a den in the ground and even allows the raccoon dog to live with it. Greg isn't the friendliest but he's a good sport and he's willing to give chances and work together with other. If there isn't something that needs his immediate attention, then he'll be quite happy to go out with his friends and have fun with them. He won't be the life of the party but neither will he be a wall-flower.
There are cases of badgers and foxes living side-by-side assisting each other and in German folklore, the badger often tries to convince its cousin the fox to abandon its cunning ways and return to righteousness but is usually unsuccessful. This is similar to the relationship between Greg and Sherlock; Greg gives Sherlock something to work with while Sherlock gives Greg the answers to the cases. Greg is also trying to influence Sherlock to be a better person, though he has yet to see any real change just yet and can get quite irritated by Sherlock's lack of clear morality and sensitivity.
The European Badger is a very common and average animal, and is the most common of all types of badgers; there's nothing that much special about it. Greg is often touted as a better-than-average detective, but compared to the likes of Sherlock and John he's not as smart or as brave as they are. Next to them, he is very much an ordinary man.
Lastly, the European badger is the symbol of Hufflepuff House. Hufflepuff house values "hard work, patience, justice, and loyalty", and Helga Hufflepuff, the founder of the house, is quoted as saying that she will "...teach the lot and treat them just the same”. There's a strong sense of fairness in Hufflepuff House, of doing things the honest and right way and giving to each what they deserve. Puffs are known to be loyal and kind folk, but are also looked down in the school as having no particular special trait. This description matches Greg Lestrade perfectly. He appreciates hard work and is very loyal to those who deserve his loyalty. Greg isn't always honest either, but his motives are. He is trying to be more patient in his dealings, but overall the trait that solely defines him as a Hufflepuff is his fairness. He gives each person a chance and listens to everyone's piece even if he may not like what they have to say, and he refuses to give anyone preferential treatment. He treats each person fairly and gives them their due although it may be something that he dislikes. If he has to break the rules to save a man he knows is innocent, then he will do so because it is the just thing to do.