The Carpenter Family

This entry is a placeholder. I will be expanding upon it over the next few days. Note that you can link to individual characters using the formatting [[[The Carpenter Family#NameOfCharacter|LinkText]]].

We first meet Michael, Charity, and young Harry Carpenter in Grave Peril, but the children don't get personalities until the next times we see the family, in Death Masks and Proven Guilty. They are, in order of age: Molly, Daniel, Alicia, Matthew, Amanda, Hope, and Harry.

As of Side Jobs: It's My Birthday Too, the family can also be assumed to have a group of Cobbs resident with them - eight people makes for a lot of shoes.

By the end of Changes Maggie has also been fostered with the Carpenters and "Chewbacca is with her", disguised as a psychological assistance dog.

Michael

Michael Carpenter is a Knight of the Cross and one of Harry's strongest allies. He is one of three Knights, and wields Amoracchius, the sword of love. He is a devout Catholic. We the audience first meet him in Grave Peril, but Harry has known him a good deal longer. As of Changes, Michael's injuries force him to put down Amoracchius. He at last retires being a Knight of the Cross, but he is left with angelic protection so that none of his past enemies can ever retaliate against him. Michael goes back to dealing with his carpentry business and family, like coaching his daughter's softball team, which he had wanted to do for many years.

Charity

Charity is Michael's wife. They met when Michael rescued her from the dragon, Siriothrax. Charity has magical talent which she passes down to Molly, and possibly some of the others. Charity herself hates magic, and never uses hers, even seeing magic as evil. Charity became involved with bad people, and a bad situation early in life because of magic, which is how she came to need rescuing from a dragon. This probably colors her perception.
Charity is very attractive, tall and blond with a powerful build. She is fiercely protective of her family, and is a skilled armorer. The armor that Michael wears is made by her.

Charity mistrusts Harry because of him being a wizard. She claims that it is because Harry brings Michael into danger, but as a Knight of the Cross, its reasonable to assume that Michael gets into danger even without Harry. Their relationship improves after the birth of Little Harry.

Charity has a strained relationship with Molly, Partially because of Molly's decision to use her magic.

Molly

Molly is the Carpenters' oldest daughter, born 11 (or 12—see below) years Before Storm Front. Harry first meets her at age 12, when she's still "in pigtails." Her birthday is sometime after July (when PG takes place) and before late February (when DM takes place). Her age is given as 19 in White Night, but this is an error. She is 18 at the time. However, as I have been informed that this extra year is held consistent in Jim's yet-to-be published works, we just have to assume her age has been retconned. Clearly, Molly has recently spent time in a DeLorean or a certain spaceship cunningly disguised as a Police Box. Or even more likely, Harry as the narrator, simply did not know the exact age of his friend's young daughter. She's an inch or so under six feet, like her mother, and naturally blonde, though she's taken to dyeing her hair in crazy colors: cotton candy pink and blue in PG, bleached white in WN.

In Death Masks, she is 14 and already a rebel. Harry finds her knowledge of the birds and the bees deeply disturbing, especially when she refers to "fun-time handcuffs" and suggests he tie Susan up so that they might "bleep" safely. She also tricks Sanya into making a series of prank-calls, which Harry finds highly amusing.

In Proven Guilty, she is 17. This is her breakthrough story, as her personality and powers develop. Molly found that she has some small ability with magic, and proceeds to break the Fourth Law of Magic on her friends. Her intentions were noble, but this act precipitates a confrontation with the White Council, a breakthrough in hostilities with the Red Court, and finally, a deadly rescue from Arctis Tor, the stronghold of Queen Mab herself. Due to her activities the White Council have levied the Doom of Damocles on her and her new mentor, Harry Dresden.

As of "Dead Beat" Molly moves back in with her parents and becomes Harry's apprentice. She reveals a very serious crush on Harry, and propositions him, only to have him throw cold water on her(literally). Molly's magical strength is very different from Harry's. She has great talent in magic dealing with the mind and perception. Illusion magic, especially veils is her specialty. She is also a "sensitive' meaning that she can feel the emotions of everyone around her wether she wants to or not.

After "Changes" Molly has a breakdown, because Harry asks for her help in his suicide. Harry himself does not remember this, because she erased his memory per his request. This, the Fomor invasion, and the colder way that Lea trains her, leads her to living on the streets, and becoming the Rag Lady; A sort of protector of Chicago that attacks the Fomor slavers, and tries to rescue the humans they would take to watery servitude. In particular, a Fomor agent named Listen, who would rather kill a human then see them freed, is a special enemy of hers.

As of "Cold Days", due to her obligation to Lea as her tutor while Harry is indisposed, and the death of previous Winter Lady Maeve, Molly has become the new Winter Lady.

Physically Molly favors her mother; blond, tall, blue eyed. She is very attractive. She is described as "smoking hot" by her tutor Lea, whereas Harry describes her as "built like a schoolboy's fantasy of the Swedish exchange student".
In her young teen years she was fond of a punk esthetic, often dyeing the ends of her hair in bright colors. She had several facial piercings, but has recently( as of "Changes") removed most of them, just as she now tends to leave her hair its natural blond. She is (from "Bombshells") a self described tomboy.

The Jawas

"The Jawas" is Molly's nickname for her siblings, a reference to a species of alien from the Star Wars films, noted for their shortness. She also refers to her mom's minivan as the Sandcrawler, the Jawas' preferred mode of transportation.

Daniel is 16 at the time of Proven Guilty. Harry thinks's he's "maybe old enough to take a driver's test." When Molly leaves, he becomes "boss kid." He's thin, and both he and Matthew share Michael’s dark hair and solid, sober expression. Based on his reaction to the fetches in PG, we know that he's definitely his father's son!

As of Cold Days Daniel is a part of the Brighter Future Society. Its a group led by Karrin Murphy and funded by Lara Raith and Marcone devoted to keeping the Fomor from taking over Chicago as they have many other cities. Daniel has been training with Murphy and knows how to knife fight enough to face off with a sorcerer who is using a spell to enhance himself kinetically. He is described as looking much like a thinner, younger Michael. Daniel is still rather boyish, and slightly careless due to his enthusaism in fighting evil. Enough so that he lets a member of the White Court, who are allies in fighting the Fomor, know about the two unused Holly Swords.

In the short story "Bombshells", which is told from Molly's POV, we find out that Daniel(or perhaps Matthew?) has served a tour in Afghanistan. " I slipped my hand into the nylon backpack and took out my M9 bayonet, which my brother brought home from Afghanistan. I drew out the heavy blade…"

Matthew is 13-14 in Proven Guilty.

Alicia, or "Leech" as Molly nicknames her, is about 11, and she is "as gawky and skinny as Molly had been when I first met her." She has short dark hair, black-rimmed glasses, and a serious expression, and she endures her despised nickname with a long-suffering air.
As of Cold Days she is the oldest school child. She is on a softball team that her father Michael coaches.

In the short story "The Warrior" she is kidnapped by Father Douglass, a priest who is worried about the inactivity of the two swords of the cross that Harry holds. He kidnaps Alicia and tries to ransom her for the two swords. Alicia is very shaken by this experience but unharmed other then a bruise on her upper arm. It is possible she is more gentle and less brave and reckless then Molly or Daniel.

Amanda we meet in Death Masks. At that time, she is five and a half, and her daddy says she's a princess. As her family "already has a Harry," she dubs him "Bill." She's almost 9 in Proven Guilty. She has curly blonde hair and a fondness for bright-colored clothing. In DM, she wears a pink dress with a clashing orange sweater and bright purple shoes and a red coat.

Hope, or "Hobbit" is 6 or 7 in Proven Guilty and delights in her nickname, preferring it to her real name. She, like Amanda, has curly blonde hair.

Harry was born during Grave Peril, making him 4 1/2 in Proven Guilty. I feel like he was described as having dark hair at some point, but I can't find the reference.

From Jim, here "What's critical to this particular equation is the fact that Charity was consciously and deliberately neglecting her talent—which hadn't been all THAT hot to begin with. She went through the time she got engaged to Michael, all the way through Molly's term, all the intervening time, etc, before she got to Daniel. It had been more than two, maybe three years since she'd done anything with her magic by the time Daniel was conceived." Also: "The Carpenter kids' births are all pretty much within six months of being annual occurrences."

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