Seamus "Shimmy" Hardoteer was the best broom brakes salesman in the business. Well second best. Ok third. Or fifth. Ok, Shimmy Hardoteer was the eighth best broom brakes salesman in the business. But his prices were fair and he did do a fair bit of business with professional Quidditch teams. And by 'teams' he meant the Chudley Cannons.
Shimmy Hardoteer was a bit of a ladies man. By 'a bit' of course he meant not at all, and by 'ladies' he meant cat.
Shimmy Hardoteer was a failure, really. Being the eighth best broom brakes salesman in the business doesn't exactly bring in a lot of fame and fortune. Being a fifty six year old confirmed bachelor and proud owner of one very fat cat doesn't exactly bring in the ladies.
The one thing that Shimmy was proud of, really truly proud of was his sister, Felicity. Felicity had been his baby. His parents had been too busy fighting each other to really raise either of them properly, so Shimmy had thrown all his efforts into raising Felicity right. He had been so proud of her when she had been sorted into Gryffindor (even though he wished she had been sorted into Hufflepuff with him). He had beamed when she had showed him her prefect's badge. He had given her away at her wedding and wasn't ashamed to admit that he had cried the whole way through the ceremony. When Felicity had told him, her hands shaking and blue eyes shining with happiness, that she was pregnant, Shimmy had been ecstatic. His little baby sister was all grown up and having children of her own.
But then the War happened. And little Felicity (who was not so little anymore), was in danger. That fool husband of hers was running around with Dumbledore's crowd and he was going to get Felicity and the baby killed. Shimmy told him so. Bruce Alexander was nothing if not an arrogant sod, and he didn't pay Shimmy a bit of mind.
The baby was born May 2nd 1981. They named him Christian because Bruce was a muggle born and apparently muggles named their babies after daft things like religion. Within three months, Felicity is dead.
Shimmy blames Bruce. If Bruce hadn't been in all that Order business, Felicity would be alive. If Bruce Alexander wasn't a muggle born, Felicity would have had nothing to fear from the army of darkness that was sweeping Britain. But he really knows that it is all his fault. He was a failure in everything except for being a good big brother to Felicity. And then he failed at that too.
Bruce and Christian leave for France shortly after Felicity's murder. Then, suddenly, on October 31st 1981 it was over. Bruce came back, Christian in tow, and Shimmy vowed that his baby sister's child would never want for anything. He kept his promise. He would not fail again. When Christian was five, he bought the boy his first broomstick. Christian was sorted into Ravenclaw; Shimmy sent him a letter that was nearly three feet long congratulating him. In Shimmy's opinion, Christian was the best, smartest, most talented kid in Hogwarts, and maybe the world.
Then Voldemort was back. Bruce Alexander disappeared three weeks into Christian's sixth year and suddenly Shimmy was not only an uncle but also a parent of sorts. Then things got so much worse. Dumbledore was dead (the old fool) and Hogwarts was mandatory for every school aged kid. Reluctantly Shimmy sent Christian back to school in 1997 with a warning-stay out of trouble.
For Christian's eighteenth birthday, he planned to surprise him at school. He planned to take the seventh year (who had so much on his plate what with Voldemort back and all) and take him around muggle London. But when he arrived, he was detained. Hogwarts was preparing for battle, he was told, and all students had been sent via the Hogshead to Wistman's Wood to await pick up from their parents. So Shimmy went to Wistman's Wood. And Christian wasn't there.
It was there, surrounded by students crying for their parents and parents screaming for their children that Shimmy learned that not all students had elected to evacuate. That many of the above age students had stayed to fight. He knew that Christian had stayed (because Christian was so like his mother and maybe his father too).
Shimmy apperates back to Hogwarts. Because that day was his only nephew's birthday, and eighteen was too young to die. Shimmy vowed that he would not fail Felicity, that he would protect her son. He kept his promise.
He found Christian in the hallway to the North Tower bleeding from the head, draped over a younger girl, using his body to shield her from whatever horrible curse the masked man standing over them is going to use.
He shoved the Death Eater down the stairs. He hit the fallen man with a stunner just to be sure. He turned to his nephew. He watched the boy's eyes light up.
"Uncle Shimmy!"
He smiled at the boy, and then happened to glance out the tower window. Suddenly there was a roar from above, a guttural in human roar, and the world around the three of them shattered.
"Uncle Shimmy!"
He fell.
"Uncle Shimmy!"
Into darkness. But he did not fail.
Seamus "Shimmy" Hardoteer was the eighth best broom brakes salesman in the business. But he was the best uncle that ever lived according the Christian Alexander. That was how he was remembered, as a man who sacrificed everything for a child. It turned out that many people didn't think he was such a failure after all.