Grim Fawley

Grim Fawley
Biographical information
Born	Between 1 September 1984 and 31 August 1985
Blood status	Pure-blood (most likely)
Marital status	Married
Nationality	British
Title(s)	Unspeakable
Physical information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Skin colour	White
Relationship information
Family members	Lucretia Fawley (mother) † Marshall Fawley (father) † Penelope Fawley (wife) Addison Fawley (son) Melody Fawley (daughter)
Affiliation
Occupation	Department of Magical Law Enforcement employee (formerly) Unspeakable
House	Hufflepuff
Loyalty	British Ministry of Magic Department of Magical Law Enforcement (formerly) Department of Mysteries Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Hufflepuff Fawley family

Grim Marshall Fawley (born c. 1985) was a British wizard and a researcher for the British Ministry of Magic, where he spent several years as a research assistant in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement before becoming an Unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries. He was married to Penelope Padgett and had at least two children, Addison and Melody. In 2015, his wife and three of their co-workers went mysteriously missing in London along with a reporter from the Daily Prophet. Following the Ministry's decision to close the investigation into their disappearance, he resolved to do whatever he could to find his wife. He eventually fell under suspicion for having caused the Calamity.

Biography

Early life

Grim Fawley was born somewhere in the British Isles into the wizarding Fawley family during the mid-1980s. Raised in the predominantly magical household of one of the oldest, "truest" pure-blooded families in Britain, he was taught how to read, write and do simple math by his parents, who also impressed on him the importance of not flaunting his magic. Although his parents were loving and took well care of him, the years leading up to the beginning of Grim's magical education was nevertheless marked by the same troubles that marred the lives of the rest of the wizarding community at the time, ranging from the escape of convicted mass-murderers, terrifying calamities, controversy and catastrophe. At the age of eleven, Grim received a letter offering him a place at the prestigious Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Hogwarts years

Searched upon his arrival at Hogwarts Castle on and subsequently cautioned by then headmaster Albus Dumbledore about informing a member of the faculty should they notice anything out of the ordinary, Grim's sorting into Hufflepuff House coincided with the recent outbreak of the Second Wizarding War, and his first term as a student was, along with the rest of the student body, greatly coloured by the vast number of attacks, deaths and disappearances taking place outside the school, with several of his peers losing friends and family at the hands of Lord Voldemort and his followers. Over the course of Grim's First Year, it also became increasingly clear that not even the students themselves were entirely out of harm's way, with certain dark events even taking place inside the school itself and claiming victims from the student population, finally culminating in a very personal lesson in the horrors of war for all occupants when a group of Death Eaters found a way around the castle's defences, successfully infiltrated the school and the murdered their headmaster.

While it is unknown if he attended the subsequent funeral that took place on the school grounds like most of his peers did, any decision made by his custodians about whether or not Grim would be returning for his Second Year in light of the recent tragedy were ultimately rendered inconsequential after the Ministry of Magic fell into the hands of Lord Voldemort, at which point it was announced that attendance at Hogwarts had become mandatory. Placed under the stewardship of Grim's Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher from the previous term, Severus Snape, the students were left largely at the mercy of his new deputies, two Death Eaters by the name of Amycus and Alecto Carrow, who during the 1997–1998 school year taught Dark Arts and Muggle Studies respectively. The new instructors took great pleasure in finding any excuse to mistreat their charges, even torturing students that stepped out of line by means of the by means of the Cruciatus Curse. Although their other teachers did what they could to keep the students out of harm's way, the only real resistance to the Carrows and their reign of terror was made by a group of students calling themselves for Dumbledore's Army, though even their defiance was eventually quelled by the increasingly harsh punishments for disorder. Though the situation had been dire throughout the 1997–1998 school year, their plight ended, however, when Grim and the rest of his housemates were woken up one night by their Head of House, Professor Pomona Sprout, and hastily escorted to the Great Hall.

Joined by the rest of the student body, there, Grim's Transfiguration professor, Minerva McGonagall, informed them of their new headmaster's unceremonious departure from the school, and the fact that the castle was about to come under siege by Lord Voldemort and his forces, and that only those students who were of age were permitted to stay and fight if they wished to help defend the school. Far too young to partake in such a battle, Grim was hurried off up to a seventh-floor corridor through which he and hundreds of his fellow students would be evacuated through a secret passage in the Room of Requirement, though not before joining his housemates in symbolically pledging their allegiance to Harry Potter alongside their peers in Gryffindor and Ravenclaw by placing themselves between him and those of Slytherin House after one of their members wanted to comply with the demand of handing the Chosen One over to the enemy. Whisked away to the safety of the nearby village of Hogsmeade, accompanying them were Grim's Potions Master, Horace Slughorn, mustered up reinforcements for the Hogwartians. Although what would one day become known as the legendary Battle of Hogwarts ended in victory following the death of Lord Voldemort at the hands of Harry Potter, its aftermath marked the beginning of a long stretch of loneliness and unhappiness in Grim's young life: Like most of the magical community, he too suffered personal bereavements during the second period of Voldemort’s power, namely the murder of both of his parents at the hands of the Death Eaters.

Devastated by their passing, Grim rarely spoke about his childhood in later years, and rather than burying his parents, they were cremated and their ashes placed in a porcelain urn that he held onto until adulthood. Following this tragedy, Grim spent the rest of his childhood in various orphanages, taken in neither by his living relatives or fostered by another family. With the conclusion of the war, the damages done to Hogwarts was repaired, and Grim returned for the 1997–1998 school year to complete his education. In spite of everything that had happened, Grim remained the outstanding student he had always been, with his new headmistress remarking that Grim embodied all of the qualities that marked a true Hufflepuff, such as hard work, dedication and loyalty. By the end of his seventh and last year, Grim left school in 2003 with an impressive academic record, earning five Outstanding and one Exceeds Expectations on his six N.E.W.T.s., as well as a "glowing recommendation" from Headmistress McGonagall herself.

Working for Ministry

Early career

An accomplished wizard, Grim Fawley joined the Ministry of Magic following his graduation from Hogwarts, having been hired by the Ministry's research wing, he was assigned to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Landing a desk job as a research assistant at the Auror Office, Grim was tasked with compiling and fact-checking evidence for the Investigation Department; a difficult job, but nevertheless one at which he was rather good. While generally quiet and shy around many of his new peers to begin with, Grim was soon recognised for having both "a wit about him", as well as for displaying "a wicked sense oh humour" around those he was friendly with, A gifted employee, Grim would go on to work alongside many notable Aurors over the course of his career, such as Battle of Hogwarts veteran Ronald Weasley, with whom he was partnered for some time when he first joined the department, and Mordecai Berrycloth. In time, Grim would go on to get along very well with most of his co-workers, earning the respect and gaining the friendship of many of his fellow Ministry officials.

Ultimately recognised for having played an important role in the apprehension and capture of a number of dangerous, Dark Wizards, he was eventually promoted to Head research assistant. It was in this capacity that Grim found himself in frequent contact with was his future wife, Penelope Padgett. A highly gifted witch and an efficient employee, she had accomplished much in her work at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, which ultimately lead no less a person than Harry Potter, the Head of the Auror Office, to offer her a job in his department, which she accepted. As the daughter of two staunch followers of Lord Voldemort, there were those, such as Gethsemane Prickle, who suspected she might have had ulterior motives for agreeing to catch dark witches and wizards for a living. Deemed by Harry Potter to be one of the best and brightest Aurors in the Ministry's employ, she was eventually put in charge of investigations pertaining to the activities of dark witches and wizards, and it was during such an instance that Grim and Penelope first began working together.

More open-minded than many of his associates, however, Grim did not judge Penelope based on the allegiance of her family, and dutifully accepted the task of helping her to work a case she had been put in charge of. Growing close during the course of the investigation, the pair eventually fell in love while solving crimes and eventually began going out on dates. Worried that their superiors would find their newfound infatuation for one another inappropriate and transfer him to another department, the pair was very private about their relationship to begin with. After dating a year, however, he finally told the truth during a Christmas party to Constance Pickering. While the revelation of their workplace romance was later described as "a bit scandalous", rather than taking an issue with two colleagues dating each other, however, the reactions they received from their associates turned out to instead be one of surprise, as many of them thought the couple to be an odd fit. Now free to continue seeing each other openly, however, Grim and Penelope eventually married, their wedding taking place in in West Bromwich in June of 2006. At some point not too long after, the had a pair of fraternal twins, naming them Melody and Addison.

Promotion

While Penelope went on “adventures” alongside her new colleagues, however, Grim remained a quill pusher. Despite Grim’s beliefs to the contrary, his wife would eventually convince him that he was cut out for bigger things, prompting him to apply for a job as an Unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries; and would go on to be successful in obtaining a position there. A gifted employee, he would eventually receive a promotion for his efforts. Around the same time, the department would have a “breakthrough”, though whether the breakthrough was responsible for his promotion is unknown.

At some point during his tenure, Grim rescued Eric Munch in the Department of Mysteries' Brain Room.

The "London Five" incident

Some time later, Grim was horrified to learn that his wife was counted among a group of five people who gone mysteriously missing in London, along with Riya Patel, Timothy Hale, Kit Gerrard, and Genevieve Bladt - a case that would be referred to as “The London Five”. Soon after, Gareth Greengrass, a high-ranking official in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, assured Grim that he would “do everything in [his] power" and "save no expense" to find his wife. Considering one of the missing individuals were one of his own subordinates, Harry Potter, was in charge of the investigation. Despite their best efforts, however, the Aurors met a dead end in the London Five investigation, and thus, the council on which Gareth Greengrass and his colleagues presided over the investigation decided to close the case, leaving the families of the missing distraught. Worse still, part of the reason given for the decision was that the costs of the investigation exceeded the amount that the Aurors could afford to spend.

Soon thereafter, Grim sent a memo to Greengrass, pleading with him to convince the council to re-open the investigation. To make matters worse, not only had Greengrass deemed it to dismiss it as a bad job, he also implied that he was convinced that Penelope was most likely dead, throwing Grim further into a state of despair. Although Greengrass advised him to take time off work "to grieve and look after his children", having gone so far as to even admit that he had already gone over Grim's head and proposed it to Grim’s superiors behind his back, Mr Fawely refused to take the alleged demise of his beloved Nel on face value and resolved to take matters into his own hands. Not long afterwards, he turned to Harry Potter instead, imploring him to 'bend the rules', and continue the search off the records, for Penelope's sake. Soon thereafter, he tried to retrieve his wife's file in order to learn exactly what she had been doing at the time of her disappearance, only to be denied access to it due to the confidentiality of much of its information. This lead him to write an angry message to Mr Potter, insisting that he had a right to access to it, accusing him of showing blatant disregard for his own subordinates and tried to make him change his mind by claiming that he was actively "barring a grieving husband from the closure he deserves", implying he was pretending to have accepted Greengrass's conclusion as a way of appealing to Harry's emotion to try and convince him, once more, to bend the rules.

At some point later, he stole investigation files regarding the investigation into the disappearance of the London Five, where he discovered that the cited reason given for closing the case, namely the strain of the budget, did not correlate with the actual costs of the investigation, prompting him to issue a complaint to the Ministry's Accounting Department and demand an explanation for the inaccuracy in their financial records. Around the same time, Mr Fawley received a letter from a witch by the name of Amorette Deneuve, in which she expressed the belief that Love was "the greatest and most dangerous magic in the world", describing it something that "imbues itself into our very bones, our very souls." This lead Grim Fawely to believe that the power of love might just be the key to find his wife. At a later date, during the investigation into the Calamity, of which Grim was eventually strongly suspected of having caused and whose whereabouts became unknown to the Ministry around the same time, it was revealed by the log documenting the time of her entry and exit of the Love Chamber that Grim had been coming and going at odd times.

The Calamity

Around the time shortly prior to outbreak of the aforementioned threat to the International Confederation of Wizards' Statute of Secrecy, Grim was known have begun acting rather suspiciously. This was shown when the British Ministry suddenly received an unexpected, written objection complaint from their Japanese counterpart, asking for an explanation as to why one of their employees had written to them and requested classified documents from their archives without going through the proper channels, demanding that they have Grim provide them with a "detailed and polite explanation".At some point later on, a wizarding library in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic reported that several ancient spell books had gone missing, with its librarian suspecting a recent visitor of being the culprit. This was presumably tied to Fawley's search for his wife.

Appearances

• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite (Mentioned only)