Full Character Name: Jack Howell, born Jonathan Evander Travers
Character Birthday & Age: 19 years old; July 25, 1990
City & Country of Birth: Derby, Derbyshire, England
Blood Purity: Pureblood
Alma Mater: None
Job/Position: Shopkeeper at Magical Menagerie/Bouncer & Busboy at the Sword and Chant; Werewolf
Wand: None
Physical Description: Jack’s face is long and square, with a firm jaw, long aquiline nose and well-defined cheekbones. His mouth is thin and wide, and is usually set in a slight frown, but when he smiles it is endearingly dopey. His dark hazel eyes are large and heavy-lidded, which often makes him look rather sleepy and a bit dim. Combined with his thick, expressive eyebrows and he gets a ‘permanently kicked puppy’ look about him. His dark hair is shaved short to reveal a pair of scars running down the back of his head (which continues down his back). He also has a large bite scar on his right side.
Though not overly muscular, Jack is quite physically fit thanks to his time spent in the gym and doing manual labor. He is about 5'10'' (1.78 meters) with broad shoulders. Clothing wise he wears very simple and cheap clothes, usually tee-shirts and cargo pants or shorts, with trainers. He rarely if ever dresses up and usually has to be forced to do so when he does. Fashion is not important to him.
Personality Description: It’s fitting that Jack is a werewolf because the kid is just a giant puppy-dog at heart. Most people in his life see him as a big, dumb and goofy pushover who is easy to manipulate, and they would be right. He is a sensitive soul, a champion of the underdogs, and an incurable optimist who laughs at any jokes, even if he doesn’t get them (And he generally doesn't). He is also quite honest and straightforward, though he tries to be nice.
He is pathetic with women when it comes to flirting, but is respectful and polite to them in general, and would never harm one if all possible. Though slow on the uptake and possessing a thick 'Chavvy' accent, he isn’t as dumb as people treat him. He can be surprisingly smart at times and seems to be able to teach himself things that he shouldn’t be able to learn on his own, though his lack of a real education often makes him the butt of jokes from both wizards and muggles alike.
He is generally cool-headed and takes things in stride, letting insults and abuse just slide off of him like water off of a ducks back, though his family claims this is because he is too stupid to know he is being insulted. Considering his life up to this point, he should be a cynical, misanthropic bastard, but Jack genuinely believes that people are mostly good and is naïve enough that someone just has to be nice to him and he will trust them completely, until proven otherwise.
Like a wolf, however, Jack can also be a ferocious fighter and dangerous hunter. Though he seems calm, he will hunt down those who cross him with the unerring determination of a force of nature. It might be because he isn’t too bright but he isn’t scared of anyone or anything, be they bigger or stronger than him. In a fight, he will take an incredible amount of damage without backing down, just from sheer force of will. He is fiercely loyal and will protect his loved ones even if it costs him his life. That was how he became a werewolf in the first place.
History: When Jack's parents met, there were no fireworks, no fanfare, in fact there was barely a wedding. It was more like a business transaction between two pureblood households. With their elder son Alaric in Azkaban for murder, the Travers family was desperate to marry off their younger son Yorick in hopes of a pureblooded heir. This was no easy feat considering that Yorick was a childish, hot-headed loser who went through his parents money like a dehydrated man through water. They lucked out when they met the BLAH's, a poor pureblooded family just as desperate to marry off their only child, Yvonne, who was neither pretty nor pleasant. To their parents, the pairing was perfect, but Yorick and Yvonne hated each other almost immediately and entered into the union grudgingly. After moving off to a modest home in Derbyshire, they rarely spoke to each other, slept in different beds and only consorted with each other in hopes of producing the desired heir.
Despite her looks, Yvonne was a prolific adulteress who seemed to get a thrill out of making Yorick miserable, knowing he would never admit to his failings as a husband. Even though she was raised a purist, she even had dalliances with muggles just to get a rise out of him and though she never claimed it outright, when she announced her pregnancy to their first child 4 months into term, he suspected the child was a halfblood.
Jonathan Evander Travers was born July 25th 1990 to a joyless homelife. His father, suspecting his soiled blood, ignored him except when he was angry and his mother found herself to not be the nurturing sort, leaving the bulk of his upbringing to the house-elves. It wasn't until the birth of his sister Samantha a couple years later that Jack recalled actually being happy. Although their parents treated her better than him, she seemed to sense their inability to truly love and clung to her brother whenever possible. At an incredibly young age, he was tasked with protecting her, a task he took to heart. The two were inseparable for most of their young life and took care of each other through the hard times when their parents failed.
Times would only get harder in 1996, when Alaric escaped Azkaban during the breakout and Voldemort rose to power. Yoricks parents decided to invest in their elder son once more, believing that under the Dark Lords rule that he would prosper and bring forth the real heir, and Yorick found his river of wealth trickle slowly into a stream. When Voldemort fell in 1998, the stream stopped completely with his parents deaths and their wills naming Alaric as sole heir. Having no business sense at all, Yorick invested his remaining assets into risky business ventures that failed to pay off, ruining him financially. When Jack was 9, the family had to sell their large home in the small wizarding community on the outskirts of Derbyshire and move into a much smaller home in Derby's lower class, and worse, muggle area.
Jack was forced to live in a small attic room under the guise that Samantha needed her own room. Though he took this in stride, it was readily apparent to everyone else that his parents simply didn't want him around. Since they had to sell off their house elf, Jack became his replacement. When he wasn't following Sam around, he was cleaning the small house from top to bottom. It was hard work for a young boy, but he did it willingly with the hope that one day his parents would show their appreciation. He just wanted them to be proud.
This would never happen. The only thing that could have saved him in their eyes was his skill with the wand, but Jack would never get a chance to go to Hogwarts. Alaric, who seemed to enjoy his brothers misery, found Jack to be far too kind for his liking. He knew that Yorick already suspected that Jack was a halfblood and twisted his weak mind to a breaking point, whispering that Jack could bring great shame to the family name if he went to Hogwarts and failed miserably. The family already had to much to be ashamed of, why make it worse? Yorick, impressionable and weak, agreed and forbid Jack to attend Hogwarts. He even went a step farther and claimed to others that he was dead. When any wizards came over, Jack was confined to his attic in fear that his mere presence would sully the Travers name.
The only bright spot during this time was Samantha. Although she was accepted and even 'loved' by their parents, she still preferred her brothers presence. The two would roam the streets together unsupervised, exploring and playing pretend. Jack made her dolls out of bits of wood and flowers out of paper they found on the streets, toys she seemed to cherish more than her real ones. The dark spot on these bright times together were the other kids in the neighborhood. Ever since they moved in, the Travers were marked as 'weird' or 'Snobs' or a plethora of other derogatory epitaphs. Their refusal to interact with the muggle scum they were forced to call neighbors made Jack and Samantha targets for abuse. Jack would always fight to protect his sister with such a fierce dedication that it scared some of the other kids and when a rare burst of magic sent one of them flying several yards after a slight push, they begin to view him with frightened awe and even a bit of respect. After this, his father grudgingly accepted that he would have to learn how to control his magic and his mother was tasked with teaching him. She soon found that despite his eagerness to learn, he was not a natural student. Around his 14th birthday, she gave up. His lack of innate magical ability only seemed to cement his isolated status in his home and made what would happen later much easier.
While he was failing at magic at home, Jack was learning quite a bit from his new friends in the neighborhood. Some of it was good for him, such as giving him a healthy respect for muggles that defied his parents beliefs, but a good deal of it involved crime. He was considered loyal to a fault and easily manipulated, meaning he found himself constantly in fights with other nearby gangs, where his dogged tenacity won him fights simply because he would not back down until he won or was rendered unconscious. Other than fighting, he found himself involved in the sort of petty, gateway crime that at risk children were often involved in at that age. Usually it was just shoplifting from big stores, who wouldn't really miss it according to his mates, but when Jack was around 13, some of his older 'friends' hatched a plan to steal some equipment from a nearby gym owned by an old man, who they expected to be an easy mark. Jack was short and thin, so they pressured him into being the one who broke into the basement windows alongside a younger boy of the same build named Luke.
What happened next would be forever cemented in Jack's mind as a turning point in his life. After breaking the windows, Jack and Luke had to jump down into absolute darkness. Jack was lucky and landed on a pile of mats, but Luke fell wrong and broke his arm. His pained screams woke the owner up, who, despite being in his 60's, was an army veteran and hardly an 'easy mark'. When he found the two boys in his basement, he threatened to call the police and have them arrested. Jack, who felt tasked with the role of protector, told Luke he would hold the old guy off so he could run away. Having won so many street fights left Jack a bit cocky about his fighting ability and when he threatened the old bloke, he didn't expect him to fight back, and he most certainly didn't expect him to knock him unconscious with a single, well aimed blow.
Jack woke up several hours later in a small apartment above the gym being cared for by the old man, who would introduce himself as Charlie. Charlie revealed that he was not only an army veteran, but also a former professional boxer who had opened his gym in hopes to attract young men to the profession. Although he was disappointed that Jack had broke into his gym and knew he should call the authorities, he told him that he saw something in him that most boys his age didn't have. Loyalty and dedication. He promised Jack that he wouldn't call the police but only if Jack helped him clean up and repair the damage. Ashamed of his actions as well as scared of the repercussions, Jack agreed and begin to go to the gym in the evenings, when his parents were too tired or drunk to care. Charlie was kind to him but Jack was wary, having been hurt by every other adult in his life. When the repairs were done, the old man ask Jack to continue coming back in hopes that he could train him in boxing, having seen some talent for it in him. Jack said he would consider it, but failed to return for several months. When he did, it was for a very different reason.
While Jack and Samantha were off causing trouble with their new muggle friends, trouble was brewing in the Travers household. Money had always been tight and Yorick was close to losing his job at the ministry. Once again Alaric came to the rescue, but not with his own money of course. Instead, he convinced Yorick to get a loan from his good friend Vincent Carrow. Yorick didn't know that Carrow, despite being a charming, rakish figure externally, was a sadistic monster and a werewolf turned by Greyback himself. He was known to take the children of his borrowers as 'treats' if they failed to pay him back when he demanded. Whether Alaric was aware of this or not was unclear, though there is a chance he saw this as his chance to rid the family of Jack since his pathetic brother was apparently incapable of doing so. Vincent took his time in asking for his payment, probably waiting for the tasty little girl, which he assumed he would be devouring, to age and plump up a bit more. It wasn't until Jack was nearing his 14th birthday that Carrow would go to claim his repayment.
Naturally, Yorick didn't have the money and begged for an extension, with little avail. When Vincent revealed his true nature and intentions, Yorick readily promised him a child, but balked at giving him his daughter. Instead, he offered him something 'a bit bigger and meatier' than Samantha. When Carrow's interest was peaked and the time and location was set, Jack was roused by his mother. In a rare show of concern, she gave him a silver edged knife and an awkward hug, telling him to be strong, before taking him to his father. Yorick then explained to Jack that it was his fault that a werewolf was there to kill them, though he didn't offer an explanation as to what he had done exactly, and that Jack had to protect his family. Specifically his sister, he claimed, knowing full well that Jack would do anything to protect her. As expected, Jack insisted that he go and fight this monster, failing to realize it was a full moon that night.
Due to the trauma, Jack remembers very little of what happened next. He recalls waiting in the woods in the dead of night, holding a silver knife like a sword in his shaking hands as he waited for his foe to appear. The attack came so quickly that he didn't have a chance to clearly see his attacker. All he could do was respond with the tenacity he was known for, throwing punches and kicks in a desperate attempt to ward off the teeth and claws that the monster seemed to made of. Though he managed to land a couple blows on the monster, it had no discernible affect and the result was the breaking of his stabbing arm and the loss of his only weapon. The next several hours, or what seemed like hours, were too horrible for Jack to even fully recollect. All he knows is that each of the four scars trailing down his head and back were done slowly and independently, like he was being branded in the most agonizingly sadistic way possible. When the monster finally bit him, he had lost enough blood that he didn't even feel it.
Jack isn't sure how he got home, but the next thing he remembers is collapsing into his mothers arms, covered in blood and barely able to speak. If anyone knew to ask Samantha what was said, she would tell them that all Jack asked, over and over, was “Did ah save 'er?”. Shocked that he survived, and scared that Carrow would come to the house to finish the job, Yorick took Jack to the nearest hospital and dumped him there, leaving him with one last demand. “Don't show yer face an' don't say yer name, yer dead t'me. Yer dead t'ya mum an' yer sister. Goodbye, Jack”. Although it was hardly his intention, Yorick saved Jack's life that night. When he awoke surrounded by muggle healers, he remembered what his father had told him. The howls of the creature still fresh in his mind, he offered his name as Jack Howell. His home? An old Gym with a man named Charlie.
Even though Jack had turned him down on his offer many months earlier, Charlie welcomed the boy with open arms and took responsibility for him, claiming that he was his grandson. Recognizing the signs of trauma from his war days, Charlie never once pushed Jack to tell him what had happened. Instead, he nursed the boy back to health and treated him like he was actually family, which quickly won the wounded boy over and cemented his loyalty. When the evening of the first full moon neared, Jack came clean with Charlie about what he was. Naturally, Charlie assumed Jack had been so traumatized that he had become a bit of a nutter. Though he was dismayed at the boys claims and his request to spend the next evening deep in the same woods where he was attacked, he reluctantly let him go when Jack became frantic. He returned the next day, weaker and sicker than ever, but safe and apparently happy that he hadn't killed anything.
They would move to the outskirts of Hackney shortly after the first moon, since Charlie feared that whatever had hurt him so badly would return to finish the job. Aside from his once monthly excursions into the countryside, Jack and Charlie's new life was refreshingly normal. For the first time in nearly 15 years, Jack had a role model, and a good one at that. Charlie taught him everything a father should teach a son, from how to properly fight to how to survive in the wilderness to how to be respectful to others despite their differences. He also revealed to Jack that he had lost his wife and young son in a car accident nearly four decades ago and that he considered Jack to be his second chance to have a child. Eager to live up to these lofty expectations, Jack threw himself into learning boxing and later parkour, kept the house spotless and helped Charlie run the little gym he had opened nearby.
During the next couple of years, the only secret he kept from the man was his attempt to build a safe room in the basement of the gym, fearing that the monster within him would soon outgrow the woods. Charlie knew he was up to something but had come to accept the eccentricities of his new charge, chalking them up to abuse and trauma. However, he grew more and more curious as the years went on. One full moon, shortly after Jack turned 18, Charlie followed him to the safe room. From his hiding spot, he watched in confused horror as Jack stripped down to his skivvies and locked himself in a heavy iron cage he had built in a soundproofed basement. At first, he was convinced it was some weird sexual thing, but as the light of the full moon flooded the small room, he quickly realized it was something far worse. When the young man he had come to love as his own son was overcome with agonizing pain, his limbs twisting and bending in impossible ways and his skin growing fur at an alarming rate, Charlie realized he had been telling the truth. He was a werewolf.
This came as such a blow to the old man that his age weakened heart gave out. His last breath escaped alongside the howl of the monster Jack had become. Jack would find him the next morning, face twisted in fear and as cold as ice.
Though Jack knew he wasn't really to blame for Charlie's death, he also knew that the police would likely look deeper into their 'family history' and his identity if they found him. After calling the hospital, Jack packed what he could into an empty old punching bag and disappeared, returning only once to watch the funeral from afar. Soon after, the tabloids picked up on the story of an old man found dead in a strange 'torture chamber' and his missing 'grandson' who disappeared without a trace. Deeply ashamed of souring a great mans name and scared that he would be discovered and blamed, Jack begin to travel around London, living rough in any isolated place he could find and working odd jobs where he couldn't be tracked. He had been doing this for nearly an entire year before a chance encounter with a squib in a pub in Camden revealed something he knew but didn't want to admit: That his one chance at something close to a normal existence was back in the Wizarding world.
It should be noted that Travers is a Canon name of a Death-Eater.
Describe your job duties and how you go about them: Magical Menagerie: Cleaning the cages, feeding the animals and helping customers find the right pet.
Sword and Chant: Mainly keeping the place clean (Picking up the glasses and washing them, cleaning tables, sweeping etc) and acting as a bouncer when needed (Throwing rowdy people out, stopping fights etc)
Elaborate on your expertise in your field: Magical Menagerie: Basic knowledge of animals needs and temperaments, as well as cleaning spells.
Sword and Chant: basic cleaning spells and how to subdue a drunkard.
Sum up your character in one paragraph: Jack is a sweet, naive and idealistic young man searching for a normal life, but being a blood traitor in a purist family and a werewolf, he is in for a long, hard journey.
Jack Howell: Werewolf