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Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Secondary

Full Character Name: Pollux Thursby
Character Birthday & Age: October 12, 1975; 36
City & Country of Birth: Speightstown, Barbados
Blood Purity: Halfblood
Alma Mater: Hogwarts, Gryffindor; graduated in 1994
Job/Position: Owner and Head Brewer of Hopworts Brewing Co.

Wand: 10 3/4 inches, Hornbeam, with a dragon heartstring core; flexible and springy.

Physical Description:
Pollux stands on the tall side of average, with medium-brown skin that reflects his Barbadian heritage.  He has a slightly wide nose and dark, alert eyes that are quick to twinkle when he smiles. Recently, he's taken to wearing his curly black hair cropped short, with a closely trimmed beard to match.

Growing up in Belfast has lent an Ulster Irish lilt to his voice.  Traveling has made him comfortable crossing all sorts of boundaries, and his dress in recent years has been a bit more Muggle-ish than magical, leading to all sorts of teasing from his family. 

Pollux is near-sighted, and he wears round, silver-rimmed glasses to help correct this.

Personality Description:
An easygoing smile and a relaxed laugh have helped Pollux Thursby slide through life with little friction, even when things do not go his way.

Pollux is gifted at effortlessly filling up a room.  He's just as comfortable chatting someone's ear off as he is listening, as happy to hear about others' passions as much as he enjoys sharing his own.  Ideas about community and belonging have always been important to him, and as a result, Pollux is quick to approach outcasts and speak up on behalf of friends. He has a sharp wit and a broad vocabulary that lends itself well to wordplay and teasing, especially with those that he's closest to.  Although he sometimes missteps and accidentally offends, he's usually the first to back down and apologize.

For many years, Pollux seemed destined to be a drifter.  He meandered from position to position without any real ambition, with neither any semblance nor desire to string his work together into a career.  He cruised through his personal life with the same sort of casual rambling, never really the sort to put in too much effort. Although his romantic relationships never lasted long, he has also stayed on good terms with most of his exes. It's only been within the past year that he seems to have found his calling.  He's thrown himself into his new brewery with a passion that few who know him well have seen in him before, but his newfound excitement seems to suit him just as well as his years of drifting did.

Pollux is less idealistic than his sister, but still cares deeply about justice and righteousness.  He deeply mistrusts many forms of authority, and is skeptical of the need for the Statute of Secrecy.  Nonsensical rules bother him, and he'll often go out of his way to avoid following restrictions that he doesn't agree with.

History:
Pollux Thursby was born in Speightstown, Barbados.  Tragedy struck at a very young age when his parents passed away suddenly in an accident.  He was taken in by his father's older sister, who was living in Belfast with her husband and young daughter.

Growing up in Belfast, Pollux hardly knew that his life could have been any different.  He grew very close to his adopted parents and his cousin Niobe, who was a sister in everything but blood relation.  Although the late 1970s and early 1980s were a troubled time both in Northern Ireland and in the magical world of the United Kingdom, their small family seemed to be shielded from most of that. 

Pollux started at Hogwarts in 1981, where he was sorted into Gryffindor along with his sister.  He was a passable student, shining far more socially than he did in the classroom.  Potions would have been his favorite class thanks to a natural talent for brewing, except for the fact that the greasy Potions professor obviously favored Slytherins.  Pollux scraped by with a Dreadful on his Potions O.W.L. and dropped out of the course after that.  Although he stayed on for his N.E.W.T.s, his scholarly efforts were always half-hearted, and he was far more interested in spending time with mates or sneaking into the kitchens than he was with studying.

After graduating from Hogwarts, Pollux landed back at home for a while, but he drifted from job to job.  Nothing seemed to stick: bartending in a local pub, tending gardens, working in a shop.  He left for London, where he worked various jobs in Diagon Alley, in Muggle pubs, at the Ministry in Magical Maintenance (which he considered particularly soul-sucking), all without any real passion. When he could afford it, he took time off and on to travel: back to Barbados, onward through the Caribbean, and then on to Florida, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan.   

He had always enjoyed potion brewing, although he was not well-trained enough to turn it into a real career.  But on a holiday through the United States in 2009, traveling with one of his best mates from school and her husband, he came across a magical brewery operating outside of Denver.  Suddenly, Pollux was intrigued: perhaps this was something that he might be able to take on himself.

That sparked an idea. A year later, Hopworts Brewing Co. was formed with Pollux, his school friend, and another of their good friends as the chief investors. (They'd originally wanted to call it Dumblepour, but had to go with their second choice after Albus Dumbledore's estate expressed disapproval.)  In late 2010, they finally secured a space in an old railway arch near the tracks in Bermondsey.  Since then, Pollux has been feverishly brewing, mastering new techniques and testing recipes to prepare for their grand opening.

Hopworts Brewing Co. opened to the public for the first time in June 2011.  Unfortunately, it then proceeded to close very quickly, after an unfortunate incident when a Muggle managed to stumble into their tasting room on its opening weekend and was transfigured into a hat rack by a nervous patron.  After an extended round of back-and-forth with the Ministry, which was Not Impressed with the Hopworts crew's rather liberal attitude towards allowing Muggles into a space with enchanted beverages, the brewery was finally permitted to re-open again in December: this time, armed with improved Muggle-repelling charms, a disguised entryway hidden inside the cheese shop next door, and sincere promises from Pollux and his fellow co-owners that they would obey the Statute of Secrecy wholeheartedly.

Describe your job duties and how you go about them:
Pollux is part-owner and head brewer of Hopworts Brewing Co., a magical craft brewery that opened in December 2011 in the Bermondsey neighborhood of London.  Hopworts serves both normal craft beer (such as IPAs, pale ales, and stouts) and enchanted craft beer, where charms are layered in during the brewing process.

As head brewer, Pollux is responsible for the day-to-day operations at Hopworts.  As they are still a very small brewery, he oversees most of the actual brewing himself, making creative decisions about what kind of beer to produce, sourcing raw materials, layering in enchantments, and managing production.  Unfortunately for their customers, he has also taken the lead on naming all of the brewery's beers, resulting in a never-ending Hopworts Express train of puns that has probably left most of his customers wishing that someone had forced him to choose a different theme.

On Friday and Saturday, when the brewery's taproom is open to the public, Pollux often cheerfully steps in as bartender, pouring pints and chatting up customers.

Elaborate on your expertise in your field:
Pollux has always had a knack for potions and brewing, although he dropped out of the Potions course at Hogwarts after his O.W.L.s.  Most of his expertise in craft brewing has come about through learning as he goes and collaborating with other brewers.

Not all of his experiments turn out well, though: although he's gotten better at creating reliable drinkability, sometimes he produces a beer that not even his fellow Gryffindors would tolerate.

Writing Sample:


Sum up your character in one paragraph:
After years of drifting along without any real direction, Pollux Thursby seems to have discovered his calling a little later in life than most.  As the head brewer of the new magical craft brewery, Hopworts Brewing Co., he is enjoying creating a community space that brings his fellow wixes together for a good beer.