Accepted! ~Elle

Your Nickname: Martin
Have you read and do you agree to the Code of Conduct?: Yes
How did you find us and decide to write with us? Web Search
If you have written other characters here: Yes
If Yes, list them all: Theobald Mainwaring
Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Primary

Full Character Name: James Vincent Howard
Character Birthday & Age: 6/9/68
City & Country of Birth: Cannock, England
Blood Purity: Muggleborn
Alma Mater: Hogwarts (Gryffindor)

Cover Job (If any): Security Troll Trainer

Type of Creature: Werewolf
Are they Registered with the Ministry of Magic?: No

Are they considered a 'Dark' Creature?: Yes
If yes, What crimes have they committed to earn this title: To earn this particular crime (far from his worst) by being bitten by a werewolf and not notifying the Ministry of Magic. . The unregistered werewolf in question , Nicole Harrison was captured by Iona Bruce and Olaf Parkinson, and is still serving time in Azkaban.

Are you currently under pursuit by the Ministry of Magic for these crimes?: Yes

Wand: Initial wand was alder, phoenix feather, supple

New wand ivy, kelpie mane hair, inflexible

Type of Criminal: Murderer, Unregistered Werewolf, Vigilante, Revolutionary
Allegiances / Loyalties / Political Faction: As yet unnamed alliance of vengeful muggle-borns

Have they committed any previous crimes?: Yes
If yes, what were they and were they convicted?: Unregistered Werewolf from 2004
Murder of Griselda Muller
Murder of Gannon Raosier
Grievous Bodily Harm (Iona Bruce)
Accessory to Murder (Olaf Parkinson)
Assault with intent to murder
Treason
Terrorism

As yet unconvicted. The Ministry wants to capture the man responsible for his crimes but does not yet know his identity.


What crimes might you commit in the future?  Discuss all possible: The subjugation and/or murder of all purebloods

Are you currently under pursuit by the Ministry of Magic?: Yes


Physical Description: James is clean-shaven with thinning dark hair. He is a large, musular man who looks capable of taking almost anyone on in a fight.

Personality Description:  James has his good qualities. He is a brave, loyal and fair-minded. Were it not for his tragic background he could have become a good man. As it is he is bitter, vengeful and prejudiced and is consumed by his hatred of purebloods. He can appear normal and friendly, especially to muggle-borns and half-bloods but he erects barriers when dealing with anyone he knows to be a pureblood. 

History:  James Vincent Howard was born to an unremarkable lower class family in Cannock, Staffordshire on the 6th of September 1968. His father George was a good-natured lapsed Anglican who worked as a railway guard but it was his barmaid mother, Amy, who would prove to be the dominant influence on her son’s upbringing.  Amy, a former hippy and fundamentalist atheist, instilled in her son and later her daughter Tania, and a need to challenge the establishment and to question everything   but also her genuine wish to love all people.
 James had a happy childhood. His parents’ low wage meant that he and his sister never had the best clothes or the newest toys but they had a loving family and good friends.  The revelation that James was in fact a wizard (after he displayed his powers by setting fire to an offending bluebottle) did place a great strain on the family for a time, especially when James had to go away to boarding school, but they were able to accept it and come together again.
  On his arrival to Hogwarts the sorting hat placed him into Gryffindor. The house of the lion was a perfect fit for James, who was courageous without being foolhardy. His willingness to take a stand at what he perceived to be injustice whatever the consequences earned him several detentions but he was never a cruel boy and did work hard at his studies. At Hogwarts he made many friends that he thought he would be able to relay on for life including Howard McGooken, Anna Gibson and Lisa Smith. After leaving Hogwarts with decent if not especially impressive grades he travelled the world with these three friends, visiting amongst other places Liechtenstein, Eqypt and China.
 On returning to England James took a job at the Ministry of Magic working for the Ludicrous Patents Office. As in school he performed competently at his work if not spectacularly and rose only gradually up the ladder. This did not particularly bother James. He had good friends, a job he enjoyed, a family who he loved and an American girlfriend, Janessa Watson, whom he had plans to start a family with once he summoned up the pluck to ask her to marry him.

 
   All of this was to be turned upside-down however. In 1997 one of his closest friends, a muggle-born auror and his wife were killed defending Rufus Scrimgeour as the Ministry fell to Lord Voldemort.  On August 1 the Muggle-Born Registration Commission was set up, and another of those closest to him, Lisa Smith, was amongst the first to be sent to Azkaban.  James fled from his job and the life he had known in order to retain his freedom. He feared hiding with his family as he knew that the Ministry knew where they lived and he did not want to endanger them but he did not fall into despair. He had good half-blood friends whom he knew would shelter him until he could find and join the resistance against the new tyrannical regime.
 On this point however he was deeply mistaken. His girlfriend Janessa, whom he turned to first, decided to flee back home. Her family were grateful for this and she gave James the offer of staying with her folks in Tennessee. He refused to do this though, his keen sense of justice driving him to stay in Britain to combat the growing darkness.
 James turned next to the girl who he thought was his closest remaining friend outside of Azkaban, Anna Gibson.  Anna had been in his year at school but in Ravenclaw rather than Gryffindor. She had many good qualities: intelligence, tolerance, kindliness and humour. She was not a brave woman however and Ministry officials knew this as well as the fact that she was close to the fugitive Howard. Anna agreed to shelter James initially despite her fears after learning that several half-bloods had been sent to Azkaban for protecting muggle-borns.  After several visits by threatening stern-faced Ministry officials searching for James’ whereabouts though she cracked and told them where she had hidden him.
 James overheard this conversation though and burst from hiding to face his hunters.  More through luck than skill he managed to fight off the Ministry men long enough to apparate away but Anna’s betrayal cut him to the very quick. In despair he returned to his family home desperate for the company of someone he could trust. The snatchers of course were waiting for him. Already exhausted from his earlier fight he proved easy prey for them and he was quickly stunned, tortured and bound.
 By unhappy circumstance Amy, George and Tania Howard were all in their house and came rushing out when they heard James’s screams. Their attempt at a recue while valiant was a forlorn one as they were all muggles. Although George managed to brain one snatcher with a hammer-blow to the heard all three of them were captured and subjected to the cruciatus curse before being murdered while a bound James had to watch helplessly.
 This horrific series of events was one that James would never get over. He was taken before Dolores Umbridge, found guilty of stealing magic and sent to Azkaban. As he rotted in his cell surrounded by demenetors he was consumed by negative emotions: loneliness; self-loathing for going back to his family home; rage at Janessa and especially Anna for their betrayals; but mostly hate, hate of the snatchers, hate of the Ministry, hate of Voldemort and his Death Eaters, but especially hate of pure-bloods. Day after day his loathing of the purebloods, of the ‘inbreds’, intensified. He hated their bigotry. He hated their airs. He hated their arrogance. He hated every fibre of their incestuous beings. 
  After the fall of Voldemort in 1998 James was released from Azkaban to pick up the pieces of his broken life. No longer surrounded by dementors he regained some hope and his hatred ever so briefly subsided. Jobs were few and far between however in those days as the Wizarding World was still picking itself off its knees. As he was turned down from interview after interview his bitterness grew once again as he suspected that the jobs he was applying for were going to purebloods and half-bloods instead of muggle-borns.
 Turning his back on the prejudiced wizarding world that clearly wanted nothing to do with him he sought employment in the muggle world. He had difficulty finding work there too. What use were OWLs and NEWTs there? Instead potential employers wanted ‘real’ qualifications and justifications as to why he had such a long period without referenced gainful employment. Thankfully given that he was brought up in the muggle world he was at least able to survive on state benefits while he sought work. During this time he started training and doing Ju-Jitsu at his local leisure centre, and pursued them with a focus that he had previously found lacking. He was getting stronger, a better fighter, more disciplined. His rising proficiency at martial arts and growing muscles led to his employment as a bouncer at a local nightclub. It wasn’t much but it allowed him to pay the bills and gave him the opportunity to think of more than just survival. He started a part-time course in sport and leisure management in order to gain a better job and began dating a muggle girl and hoping of better things.
 It was not to last however. In February 2004 he was walking home late after work as usual when he heard a commotion in the alleyway next to him. Responding to a man’s screams he ran to help when he saw it...a werewolf, a werewolf on the streets of Cannock. He had a moment before the werewolf lunged at him. In that instant he saw that he was too late. The man’s throat had been torn out. Then it was upon him. Had it occurred a few years previously he would have died that night.  By this stage in his life however he was a trained warrior who knew how to turn a stronger foe’s weight and speed against him.  As it was he barely survived, bruised and bitten once on the shoulder, but he survived and was able to keep the beast at bay until the wailing sirens and blazing lights of the arriving police cars caused it to flee.
 He was taken to Stafford Hospital where he was interviewed by the police as to the injuries he had sustained and the death of the gentleman in the alleyway.  He gave non-committal answers saying that something had attacked him but that he had not seen its face. The police, who had seen a roughly man sized shape fleeing, eventually put the attack down to an unknown and rather brutal assailant but the case was never solved and neither they nor his doctors could explain the bite wound that on his shoulder that stubbornly resisted all efforts at healing.
 James knew what it meant though. It meant that the wizarding world would not leave him alone. It meant that he would have to go back to the world of the ‘inbreds’ and all their bile in order that he wouldn’t be a threat to those around him every month.  All his bitterness and hatred flooded back in an instant as his world fell apart for a second time.
 Of course spending 6 years in the muggle world was looked down upon by polite wizarding society and James had difficulty in finding a job once again. His first priority wasn’t employment though but in finding supply of wolfsbane potion as he did not want to kill innocents but also had no intention of registering himself as a werewolf and suffering further discrimination from the purebloods and their ilk.  He was able to do this but his first supplier, a German pureblood witch by the name of Griselda Müller, sensed his desperation and charged him through the nose for it. Eventually to pay the bills he had to sell his family home and buy a small apartment. He finally got work as a security troll trainer but as his ability to pay increased so did Müller’s demands. Eventually when she tried to blackmail him with the threat of exposing his status as a werewolf he snapped and killed her by breaking her neck.
 He found to his surprise that he had no remorse. She was a pureblood, an inbred, one of the ones responsible for all the injustices that had been committed against him and all the other muggle-borns.  He felt justified...elated even...It was like nothing he had ever felt before...It was justice...It was vengeance...It was pure.
 He can back down to earth enough to have the sense to transfigure and hide the body. After stealing enough of the wolfsbane potion to survive until he could find another supplier he disappeared into the night, setting the shop on fire for good measure in order to further disguise the crime.
 He tried tore-adjust to a normal life again but he couldn’t get how he had felt out of his head. While killing the inbred he had felt righteous and alive. His tawdry everyday job just seemed so meaningless by comparison. A French pureblood customer looking for a troll to be trained soon gave him the opportunity to feel special again. Serge Pelous was not an especially cruel or bloodist man. He was rich however and had a tendency to think of himself as better than his economic inferiors. Moreover his pushy and arrogant manner rubbed James right up the wrong way.  When James heard that he was a pureblood to boot he was quick to select him as his next target. James trained his troll for him but he taught it to be loyal to James not to Pelous. He taught the troll, Ugg, to kill on his command, an order its simple mind was only too happy to follow. Careful not to leave a trail he waited until Pelous had returned with the toll to France then tracked him down to his home and gave Ugg his command to kill. Pelous died in his bed, his skull caved in. James then stole Pelous’ choicest goods and covered a candlestick in Pelous’ blood to throw the muggle police off the scent. He then returned to England with Ugg, leaving the troll in a cave to call upon when needed.
 Again he felt elated. Another condescending inbred had met his end but it wasn’t enough. He wasn’t enough. He could kill purebloods until the day he died but he would never kill them all. He needed allies.
 James kept a low profile for the next two years as he sought out those with similar views as his own. To his delight one of his earliest recruits was his old friend Lisa Smith. A shadow of her former self from her time in Azkaban, Lisa had lost much of her looks and spirit but nursed a resentment every bit as great as James’ own. She was able to put James in contact with many of her old acquaintances from Azkaban and the wandless and the two gradually assembled a gang of eight other muggle-borns committed to the cause.
 The first target they picked together was the supremacist Gannon Rosier. A relative of Death Eaters, he was a symbol of the justice to come. They chose the night of the full moon for their attack in order to hide their true purpose. James, transformed into his werewolf form but fully mentally aware due to his wolfsbane potion, ripped the elderly Rosier apart as Lisa and their cronies cheered.
 They had underestimated the determination and skill of the werewolf Capture Unit however. Instead of misdirection and a leisurely celebration he instead found Iona Bruce and her best poking their noses around their hideout almost immediately after the event. Only tipped off by pure chance due to a conversation between one of his followers and a muggle shopkeeper whom had talked of seeing funnily-dressed people asking questions James resolved to turn the situation to his advantage by staging an ambush.
 After learning of the composition of the team hunting him from a Ministry insider he laid a careful plan. Initially it worked brilliantly. To his great delight another pureblood, Olaf Parkinson, died during the initial attack however his plans went astry when the skilled surviving werewolf hunters were able to turn the tide against his rag-tag group. They lost two of their number that night, Velvet Spiers and Jim Diamond. Worse the other pureblood inbred Bagnold escaped, after killing poor Jim. Even worse the surviving members of the Werewolf Capture Unit had heard another of his group Michael Orr calling out, “All inbreds will be next!”.  He wanted the purebloods to live in fear as they had made the muggle-borns do but it was too early for the Ministry to learn their purpose. Now the more senior inbreds in the Ministry would know to prepare for what was to come.
 He read every Daily Prophet from cover to cover over the next few weeks and was surprised not to see mention of Rosier’s and Parkinson’s deaths. Clearly the Ministry was suppressing it for now. They wouldn’t be able to do so for long once they stepped up their attacks. When high-ranked inbreds started dying the truth would hit the street and other muggle-borns would flock to their banner. He was sure of it. Then justice would truly come.


Writing Sample: n/a

Sum up your character in one paragraph:  James was once a good man but is a man whom has been twisted by the prejudice that he has suffered from and the tragedies in his past. His story is a tragic one but it in no way excuses his many crimes and what he has become. In his own way he is as vile and dangerous as any Death Eater, perhaps more so as he sees himself as morally righteous.