FAMILY MEMBERS. | Father: William Edgar Blackbyrn II. 50. Barrister with the Wizengamot
Mother: Serena Merideth Blackbyrn. 47. Unemployed socialite.
Brother: Michael Rene Blackbyrn. 24. Defense Barrister with the Blackbyrn Set of Chambers
Sister: Merideth Angelina Blackbyrn Abrams. 22. Prosecuting Barrister and Partner with Blackbyrn Set of Chambers (She is not currently married but uses a different name in legal practice).
Brother: Yuuma Kurosaki, 33, Obliviator
Nephew: Atsushi Syouma Kurosaki, 15, Student at Hogwarts, Gryffindor.
Niece: Natsuki Kurosaki, 15, Student at Hogwarts, Slytherin.
Sibling: Jun Kurosaki, 27, Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures worker
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CHILDHOOD. | William Edgar Blackbyrn III was born the first child, and specifically the first son, of William Edgar Blackbyrn II (Call him Edgar but do not call him junior as that is a title for the lower class) and Serena Merideth Blackbyrn. Edgar Blackbyrn is a barrister with the Wizengamot. Serena is a socialite with her hand in several charities. All of which were designed to help orphaned purebloods or underprivileged pureblood families. Serena sees those purebloods she helps in her charities as inferior and in need of re-training to understand the need for purebloods to excel and put the effort to better themselves and rise to a higher station. From the moment he was born, it was clear to his parents that he had inherited the metamorph ability from his great grandfather William Edgar Blackbyrn, as his hair morphed from straw-blond to red to purple and back to red all in a matter of minutes as he began to settle into life outside the womb. Although it was not a very common trait at all, it was still not seen as extraordinary in his household, as his father could name several metamorphs going back two centuries. The accidental morphing of features caused his mother to stress anytime she would have a garden party or host other volunteers to review charity events. Though it was not something he could control, he was always chastised and reminded that “social events are not the venue for this type of magical nonsense.” This disappointment from his mother led William to try to hide and stop the morphing in order to be more acceptable within the wizarding world.
William was raised to believe in the ideal of the Purists, seeing himself as better than not only those of mixed blood, but also those of lower economic backgrounds. He never wanted anything and was showered with attention from both his parents. His father would work with William on reading and math and started him early in debate, debating everything from if the grass was truly green to the validity of the purist beliefs. William took to debating and would debate everything with his parents when they did not see eye to eye on something he wanted. He was raised with his foster siblings as well as his own younger brother and sister. Yuuma was six years older than him, and Jun and he were the same age. Yuuma always seemed to be at odds with his father as, for reasons unknown to him, Yuuma had a soft spot for those of mixed blood. It was not something he thought too much about growing up. Yuuma was always nice to him and never teased him or questioned him about his metamorph mishaps. He always thought it was cool. He and his siblings grew up with the run of the 170-acre estate, complete with ponies and horses for riding, and several chickens and rabbits for eggs and meat. Although never wanting for attention, William’s best friend growing up was one of their house elves. Woody had been tasked with keeping William and Jun occupied once his mother realized that William had taken a liking to the house elf and she had two younger children to tend to. Woody spent his days trailing after, or being dragged around, the estate by William and Jun. The house elf learned to ride both a pony and a broom and the two would spend hours flying over the grounds or chasing each other through the wood, either over the horse trails or on foot through the underbrush.
Overall, William’s childhood was spent enjoying nature and his family, learning the art of debate, and otherwise beginning preparation to start Hogwarts and follow his father into the Wizengamot as the next Blackbyrn barrister. The summer of his eleventh year saw the arrival of his letter from Hogwarts. It was not a cause for celebration as it was expected that every child in the household would attend Hogwarts. After breakfast, when William and Woody headed out to the barn, Woody presented him with a small cake and a hug and was so proud that Master William was going to Hogwarts.
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SCHOOL YEARS. | William was sorted into Ravenclaw, which was no surprise to him as his father, grandfather, great grandfather, etc., had all be members of the Ravenclaw house. However, he did differ from his ancestors on a couple substantial points. The first being that as he grew up running roughshod over the 170-acre estate, he was not the mousy bookworm that was usually associated with Ravenclaw or his family. And secondly, his love for the game of polo and flying lead him to a love of quidditch. William made the house team in his fourth year and played as beater for the remainder of his time in Hogwarts.
The second or third week of school when the inevitable happened, his metamorph powers flared during breakfast, leaving him with one bright yellow eye and one dark brown eye and a patchwork of multi-pigmented skin over his face and arms. Probably the rest of his body as well, but luckily, he was clothed, which lessened some of the embarrassment. This, however, did not stop the kids, even those in his own house, from laughing at him. He had left the Great Hall and spent the rest of breakfast in the restroom. On his way out, there was another Ravenclaw student, one slightly older, leaning against the wall. He tensed, expecting additional harassment. Instead, Vito Brando , explained to him that they were also a metamorph, letting him know he was not alone in the school, not even in his own house. They were also struggling to accept who they were but told him that the morphing comes from within and is an expression of who he really was. After years of trying to hide his ability, this started his journey to his own acceptance of the morphing as a part of who he was rather than something he should control and hide. He found it was odd advice at the time, but ultimately came to understand and appreciate it. This encounter started a friendship between the two that grew over the years.
It seemed that while William’s metamorph abilities became accepted and ignored, V’s changes only drew more attention and criticism for them. William, although a couple years younger, would step up to intervene with these bullies and would protect V to the best of his abilities, the same way Yuuma (already in his 6th year) stepped up to protect him. Although being younger made it harder for him in the beginning, as he grew, his size and strength increased, and he would often find himself in front of one professor or another for fighting. This is where his debate skills usually came into play, and he was able to argue himself out of trouble the majority of the time. Even for instances where he was clearly the instigator, for example he found out about someone bullying V after the fact and decided that person needed to go swimming in the black lake in the middle of January, or spend the night trapped inside a suit of armor. As he grew, so did his intolerance for bullies, and he was known for stepping in regardless of age, blood status, or house, when someone was being bullied. While his studies and academic success could have earned him a spot as a Prefect, like his father, his propensity for being in trouble with one professor or another at any given time, prevented him from being named as one.
His friendship with V, and their lack of differentiation between blood status, opened his eyes to the error of his parents’ ideals and values. He learned to see the witch or wizard instead of the blood status. This put strain on his relationship with his parents, but he learned to appreciate Yuuma more and the two were close as brothers and friends by the time Yuuma graduated. Eventually, William learned not to mention anything about blood status and ideals around his parents. This would save the arguments for now, but only postponed the inevitable.
It was during his fifth year, after yet another round of banter with some of his friends about the pretentiousness of his name, that he sought out the one person he’d come to be closest to, V. They were one of the few people who he allowed to tease him about his name, as he knew they were always just teasing, and there was never any harm meant. However, it was V that suggested he adopt the moniker of Spydyr since his initials were WEB. He contemplated it after a while and decided instead to go with Copyn. Copyn is Welsh for spider, however it had two distinct advantages, the first being that only those who were fluent in Welsh or who he told, knew what it truly meant. Secondly, it was a shot at his father who, with the exception of knowing the language for purposes of broadening his own Barrister practice, detested his Welsh ancestry believing it linked them with a more common background than their current status warranted. It took several months, but with V’s help, he ceased to be known as William and fully took on the identity of Copyn. And with this new identity, came his first tattoo, that of a spider’s web covering the back of his right shoulder.
Regardless of his change in attitude towards blood status and the purist ideals he was raised with, William remained true to his own ambition to become a barrister. However, as he grew and changed, his desire to be content working with the Wizengamot changed. His desire to protect those who could not protect himself, lead him to see that a good portion of the Wizengamot held the same beliefs as his father and that some of his friends may not get the best representation. Although he kept that to himself as the easiest way to get to where he could actively help those he wanted, was to use the Wizengamot to solidify his career. And thus, upon graduation, he entered an apprenticeship with the Wizengamot.
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ADULTHOOD. | Directly out of school Copyn, well he still used William in his professional life, took an internship with the barristers of the Wizengamot. During his first year as an internship, he noticed that several of the clients that passed through their doors had to deal with Muggle court appearances. There were only a limited number of barristers that were licensed both within the Magical and Muggle communities. This, he noted, as a short coming as being able to represent wizards in Muggle court seemed like it could make up a good deal of their business as a lot of wizards ended up in trouble with Muggles simply because they did not understand the Muggle way of life. After several arguments with his father, Copyn shifted his mentorship to Rene Randall who has a Set of Chambers and successful presence in the Muggle community. Under Randall’s direction and tutoring, Copyn started an online program to start his bachelor’s in business during his second year in his internship at the Wizengamot. He completed his bachelor’s degree in three years, finishing the year after he completed his internship with the Wizengamot (at 22). He then continued to work with Randall in both the Wizengamot as well as in the Muggle communities. He completed his Muggle Graduate Diploma in Law in two years (at 24) and was accepted and completed The Bar Professional Training Course at 25, sitting for the bar and passing it successfully the first time. In addition to taking on the studies, he moved from his family home to a flat in a muggle community so he could learn as much about them as possible to better defend his clients. During the first few years out of school, Copyn had lost touch with everyone he had known at school, with the exception of a few that had made their way into internships within the Ministry. He’d had little to no time to socialize and even less time to consider a relationship, so he hadn’t completely noticed the lack of friends in his life. Not until V’s name showed up in one of the case files that crossed his desk. V was being charged with selling a wand to someone who was not supposed to use a wand. He frowned, noting the barrister assigned to the case and, understood V would not get the representation they needed and deserved. He convinced one of the best unbiased barristers in practice at the time to take the case, but as the barrister’s case load was already high, Copyn was put in charge of gathering the evidence and putting together the defense strategy for the case. Although Copyn only sat as second chair during the trial, it was his research and strategy that drew the win in the case sighting that the law stipulated the man was not allowed to use a wand and that there was no law preventing someone selling a wand to people who were not allowed to use them as there was no easy way for wand merchants to determine who was and was not allowed to use a wand. Further, purchase and possession of a wand did not necessitate the use of them. This second point was demonstrated by noting several prominent wizards, including a judge, that had collection of wands that were displayed in their home but had never actually been used. The case gave him the opportunity to re-unite with V and see how they were doing. After the trial Copyn kept the renewed friendship alive and, if any of V’s friends ended up in trouble, he would direct the case to the barrister that would help them the most.
After his internship he spent three years making a name for himself and cutting his teeth on some high-profile cases. He proved himself worthy of the family name, however he was not content to work only on cases for well-known and established witches and wizards. They could afford more for legal services, yes, but they were not always the nicest to work with and he found that the economic barrier not only dictated where people lived, it also dictated the quality of their legal representation. This again challenged Copyn’s beliefs and after three years he left the security of the Wizengamot to form the Blackbyrn Set of Chambers.
Following his heart, he reached out to V and set up a residence in Knockturn Alley, effectively joining V in the Rats. He has a flat based office to keep costs low and charges what his clients can afford, with any and all services rendered to his fellow Rats being free of charge. While unable to bring Woody (his boyhood friend and house elf) to his muggle apartment, he wasted no time in moving Woody into his flat in Knockturn Alley. Woody is free to come and go as he pleases as spends as much time at his parents’ estate as he does with Copyn.
He maintains an office in London and continues to try cases in front of the Wizengamot for the wealthy elite. While each of the barristers within the Set of Chambers maintains their independence, they can and will pass cases around to where the best barrister for circumstances has the case. Copyn has also made numerous acquaintances within solicitors’ firms such that clients that may find themselves in need of legal representation in a courtroom setting are funneled to his Set of Chambers in the Wizarding World. In the Muggle world, Copyn acts as a barrister for the Randall and MacNeil Set of Chambers, which is the Set of Chambers established by the Wizard who mentored him through the Wizengamot. Through this Set of Chambers, he tries cases in Muggle courts for those among his own kind that would typically be unable to afford the quality of representation he and his Muggle Set of Chambers can provide.
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