| abstract | - Marius Corneliu "Mari" Iliescu (7 April, 1975 - 25 August, 2017) was a Romanian pure-blood wizard and professional Quidditch player who played for the Romanian national team in the 1998 and 2002 Quidditch World Cups before being sidelined as the team's star Seeker to Wanda Maximoff for the 2006 World Cup until he was dropped from the team entirely. He was the only child of former Romanian Minister for Magic Sorian Iliescu and his wife, Antonia and held much influence within the popularity hierarchy of the Carpathian School of Magic, which he attended from 1984 to 1994. Marius was a third of "the clique," which consisted of him and fellow pure-blood wizards Dragomir "Drago" Dumitru and Vyacheslav "Slava" Shostakov, with the former being the leader of sorts. Along with his friends, Marius was a regular tormentor of Mateo Maximoff and many other students, frequently attacking them and generally making their life miserable. Marius stopped his bullying on Drago's orders after he was nearly decapitated by an enraged Mateo, but never strayed from his low opinion of those he deemed "beneath" him. During school, Marius was a Quidditch sensation, with him being granted a spot on the Romanian national Quidditch team as their starting Seeker. Although the team failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup, Marius and his team were able to claim victory in both the 1996 and 2000 EUQA European Quidditch championship. On the world stage, however, Marius couldn't quite grasp victory; they secured a spot in the 1998 World Cup matchup, but were beaten in the semi-finals against Senegal. Not long after the cup, he was struck with news from his on-again, off-again girlfriend Sandra Niță that she was pregnant with his child. The two quietly married and named the child Ruxandra Natasha Iliescu. Romania failed to qualify for the 2002 Quidditch World Cup, and sequential miserable performances from Marius afterwards prompted the team to sideline him in favour of an up and coming Quidditch Seeker, Wanda Maximoff, Mateo's half-sister. Being bested by a Maximoff infuriated Marius, and after several public confrontations with the Seeker, he was dropped from the team. Marius retired from Quidditch entirely and began living off his fortune. He lived in a mansion in central Romania with Sandra and their child. Although he publically remained committed to his marriage for his status' sake, he privately held no emotional attachment to Sandra and was unfaithful, routinely having affairs with other witches. He did, however, make an effort to raise his daughter, but the two were never entirely close. On 25 August, 2017, Marius died in his sleep, officially from an unknown illness he was suffering from weeks prior to his death. His funeral was held on 31 August, 2017, while doctors investigated the cause of death.
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