“I know good things, I know bad as well

Any witness of the world will tell

If there is sorrow, then there is beauty and trust

A secret pearl inside the heart of us...”

Name: Khayman Stefan Zirak

Age: 28

Occupation: Professor of Ancient Runes at Hogwarts

Former School: Hogwarts (Ravenclaw)

Blood: Pureblood

Wand: 11½”, ebony, dragon heartstring

Height: 6’1” (185 cm)

Weight: 170 lb (77 kg)

Hand Dexterity: Right

Ethnicity: German

Birthday: March 11

Place of Birth: Bremen, Germany

Current Location: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Relationship Status: In a relationship with Kiara Talbot

Familiar (pet): Khayman’s familiar is a male falcon named Pernix.  He is fiercely loyal and protective of Khayman.  Pernix is fast, dependable, and intelligent.

Appearance: Khayman has straight, brown, shoulder-length hair which he sometimes pulls back into a low ponytail.  He has hazel eyes, always wears black robes, and is lean but muscular.

Personality: For the most part, Khayman is soft-spoken, reserved, and intelligent.  He is incredibly skilled with runic magic, is confident of his abilities, and keeps a cool head in dangerous situations.  He is able to think quickly under pressure in order to determine an immediate course of action.  Khayman is never one to remain idle—if something needs to be done, he will promptly act upon it.

A loner through nature and past experience, his first instinct is to solve problems on his own without bothering to ask for help from other people.  In some part, this is because he hates feeling like he owes anyone for anything. He is very self-reliant and prefers to accomplish his goals unaided.  His reclusive personality also stems from his inherent wariness of others.  Having been betrayed by those close to him in the past, Khayman tends to expect the same from everyone he meets; although he is considerate and respectful of those around him, it can be quite difficult for any of them to earn his full trust.  Over the past few years, however, he has gradually begun to trust in and rely on others more than he once did.

Khayman usually doesn’t talk about his past to anyone and carefully guards his secrets.  He has a certain mystery about him that one can’t help but notice.

Likes: Khayman likes runic magic and often practices his spellcasting.  He spends a great deal of his free time reading and enjoys watching quidditch (he used to be a seeker when he went to Hogwarts).

Dislikes: Khayman can’t stand annoying or ignorant people, as well as anyone who pries into his business or his past.  He also dislikes accepting help from others, unless he realizes that he is in over his head (a situation in which he has often found himself, unfortunately).

History: Both of Khayman’s parents, Koen and Mariel, were pureblood wizards.  Khayman was born near Bremen, Germany, but was raised in England after his family moved there when he was nine.  Although Khayman did not realize it at the time, the reason for moving to England was so that his father could become a Death Eater and support Voldemort's pureblood policies.  About a year later, when Voldemort was defeated by Harry Potter, Koen Zirak was among those Death Eaters who were captured and imprisoned in Azkaban.  During the next seven years, Mariel struggled with bouts of depression.

Khayman attended Hogwarts and was sorted into Ravenclaw. He was never very outgoing at school—partially because rumors spread quickly at Hogwarts and it was hard making friends when everyone knew that his father was a convicted Death Eater. Nevertheless, he did form some friendships and was even a seeker on his house team.  He devoted himself to his studies and received high marks in all of his classes.  In March of his sixth year—just following Khayman's seventeenth birthday—Mariel finally committed suicide. As a legal adult in the wizarding world, Khayman became the owner of his parents' house and property.

After graduating school, he sold his estate in England and returned to Germany to study ancient runes with Ulrick Von Hagen, a wizard famous for his mastery of runic magic and an old friend of Koen's.  When Von Hagen was accused of having connections to Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters, Khayman was also suspected.  Although all charges against Von Hagen were dropped due to a lack of substantial evidence, Khayman wasted no time in leaving his mentor but never gave anyone an explanation for his departure.  He taught Runic Magic at a wizarding school in Germany for several years before coming to teach at Hogwarts.

Shortly after he began teaching at Hogwarts, Khayman met a young woman named Kiara Talbot, who owned a potions shop in Hogsmeade.  The two soon became very close.  Little did he know, however, that she was actually a Death Eater who had been ordered to befriend Khayman in hopes of turning him to Voldemort’s cause.  Following the mass break-out at Azkaban, Koen Zirak came searching for his son.  After a duel of runic magic between father and son ended in a stalemate, Koen attempted to force Khayman to join the Death Eaters, threatening Kiara’s life by holding her at knife-point.  Khayman pretended to go along with his father, but stabbed the Death Eater once he began to let his guard down.

Khayman took Kiara back to the safety of Hogwarts.  In the morning, however, she wrote Khayman a letter explaining her involvement with Voldemort and returned to Hogsmeade.  There she was confronted by Voldemort, who would have killed her but for the intervention of Khayman and Dumbledore.  Khayman was distressed to know that the woman he loved had been lying to him all along, but he was willing to forgive her. Shocked by this show of love—something that was completely unknown to her, Kiara left the Death Eaters and stayed at Hogwarts for sanctuary.

Voldemort was not finished with Kiara, however, and threatened Khayman’s life in order to blackmail her into serving him once more.  In order to protect Khayman, she made a deal with Voldemort and staged her own death to keep her lover from searching for her.  She used a polyjuice potion to take on a new appearance and to make another unfortunate woman look like Kiara.  She then killed the phony Kiara, leaving the Dark Mark to attract attention.  Khayman and McGonagall (now the Headmistress of Hogwarts) found what appeared to be Kiara’s body.  Devastated by the loss of his love, Khayman became bitter and withdrawn.  Since that time, he has been consumed by a need for vengeance.  His search of Kiara’s killer has proved fruitless thus far, however, and has left him desperate and discouraged.

((Khayman's history following his arrival at Hogwarts was all role-played out over the past few years.  I'd like to thank KC, who plays Kiara, and Keb, who usually played the parts of Voldemort and Dumbledore, for their contributions.))