Roland Foss has definitely not had an easy life. He and his mother arrived in a quiet little town about an hour outside of Boston when he was a newborn; there was no sign of any father. A year and a half later, his mother Astrid was killed by a drunk driver. For the next two years he lived in a Boston orphanage; when he was four, he was taken in by the first of several foster-families. When at the age of five (and a half, he always insisted) he had a nightmare and broke every mirror in the house, the superstitious family took him back to the orphanage. Not long after, he went to another couple; this time, it was an unfortunate incident involving his foster-mother's garden and an overly enthusiastic pair of pruning shears. His third foster-family consisted of an aging woman known affectionately as Ma by just about everyone and her grown son, a civil engineer named Jim. From the time he was six to three weeks before his ninth birthday, he lived happily with Ma and Jim; they accepted his 'accidents' without too much question, and he adored them in return, even if Ma's arthritis had gotten so bad she couldn't play games with him and Jim often had to work long hours.

A little less than a month before his birthday, though, he and Jim got into a very serious car accident; Roland survived with a few cuts and bruises and a broken wrist, but Jim lost all sensation below his waist and was confined to a wheelchair. Ma was too old to take care of Roland all on her own, and with Jim in the hospital, they had no choice but to take Roland back to the orphanage, and put him in the care of another family. The seperation was a hard one for all three, and Roland still writes Ma and Jim regularly.

His next two placements lasted even briefer periods; at both, school bullies made fun of his too-small, too-thin hand-me-downs and used him as a scapegoat, prompting several rather nifty escapes courtesy of Roland's budding magical ability. He was at the orphanage again when the newly turned eleven-year-old received a letter delivered by - of all things - an owl. The next day, a representative from the Magical Cabinet arrived at the orphanage and took Roland to his sixth (and hopefully last) foster home.

Celeste and Edgar Turner are your run-of-the-mill Muggles - she's in advertising, he's a lawyer - with one notable exception; they know about the magical world, as Celeste's younger brother Claude is a Muggleborn wizard and has two magical children of his own, along with a witch for a wife. Celeste and Roland have, since his placement with them in June, formed a hesitant bond, and both are becoming increasingly fond of one another; Edgar is more aloof, as he has less experience with magic and finds it unpredictable and uncomfortable. Nevertheless, while it isn't the exuberant and unconditional love offered by Ma and Jim, Roland is relatively happy with the Turners. There are downsides, of course - the Turners have no idea about the exchange rate to Muggle money and, for example, sent Roland only seven Galleons for his trip to Baron Hollow his first year, and when he's home from school they spend much of their time at work.

Roland is currently a first-year Terrigena. He loves to read, is a notably shrewd judge of character, and aspires to journalism. His best friend is Mendelson Krowley.

Though he rarely mentions it or gets involved when the subject comes up, the politics of blood in the magical world already trouble Roland; as no one seems to have known his mother's identity beyond her first name -- Foss was given to him by the orphanage, a random selection -- he has no idea of his own blood status. Given the fact that he ended up in a Muggle orphanage, though, he's relatively certain he's not a pureblood -- but then again, one never knows.