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Character
Name: James "Jimmy" Edward Peakes
Gender: Male
Date of birth: 30 December, 1982
House/Year: Gryffindor (1994 - 2001)
Blood status: Halfblood (Muggle father, witch mother)
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Suggested livejournal username: abitpeaky
PB/Avatar: Joe Thomas
Physical characteristics: As a third year Jimmy was described as "short" and "broad-chested" by Harry Potter, as well as "strong" and "fierce" in spite of his youth. While he's undoubtedly grown since then, Jimmy could still never be considered tall in anyone's book, lingering at around 5'9". His broad shoulders do give him some presence though, ensuring that in spite of his lack of height he seldom gets zeroed in on as a likely target by frustrated Saturday night drunks looking for a bar brawl. In recent years he's slimmed out, but not by much. In spite of his stocky build he has a rather sweet, babyish face, something that he inherited from his mother. He has thick brown hair and blue eyes. While not a dashing, debonair dresser of the calibre of Stebbins or Zabini, he does make sure that both he and his clothes are at least clean and his hair brushed, and protests at any lumping of him in with his two other male housemates together as slobs.
History: The Peakes originate from Derbyshire, a county in the east-midlands of England. Edward Peakes was the middle of three sons from a farming family just outside of Coton in the Elms, a village proven to be the furtherest point from the sea in the country. Perhaps paralleling this, his son Jimmy has a fear of water. Even deep baths make him slightly nervous - though he does maintain that he showers regularly and otherwise keeps himself clean! As a youngster though, his mother had to struggle to get him into the tub. Bathtimes always ended up as a battle, perhaps grooming him to be a future Beater of his eventual house team.
Anyway, back to the two older Peakes. Elizabeth Martin, a witch with a Muggle mother and Muggleborn father who felt equally at home in both worlds, was clocking off from work when she decided she felt like a drink. Forgoing the usual destination of the Leaky Cauldron where she would undoubtedly bump into her boss and a few of her more annoying colleagues, she instead stepped out of Diagon Alley and found a pub a block or so away in Muggle London. Also at the bar was one Edward Peakes, in town for a cousin's wedding. They fell to talking and Edward, being the old-fashioned chivalrous sort that he was, felt obliged to pay for a drink. By the end of the evening he had quite willingly asked her out on a date. A year or so later they were married, and Edward not being an overly excitable sort took the relevation that his new wife was a witch rather well. In 1982 Jimmy was born, followed in 1988 by younger sister Georgie.
Away from a broomstick, Jimmy was a reserved, even shy, and by all appearances unassuming young lad. Once he mounted one, however, it was a completely different story. Coming from a moderately large family and with at Hogwarts four roommates breathing down his neck, one of the few ways he could snatch time to himself was through being airborne, and he took to it like the proverbial Grindylow to water. Classmates were surprised when this quiet lad made the starting Gryffindor line-up at the relatively tender age of thirteen, but the truth of the matter is that Jimmy is not completely incapable of anger. Things that draw him out of his shell are unnecessary rudeness, particularly towards females (hence the snapping at Ron to "leave her alone!" when the older boy almost reduced Demelza Robins to tears during one practice), and unfair behaviour. Therefore when Harry described him as "fierce," he wasn't off-track. His staunch exterior also hides a quietly ambitious nature. Conscientious people seldom hope to get absolutely nothing out of it, and thus Jimmy plugs away at whatever it is that he's assigned to do, believing that hard work is its own reward and will get him to where he wants to be without him blowing his own trumpet as some others may do.
A second way in which Jimmy exhibits fierceness is when people he considers himself to be loyal towards are threatened. During his fourth year the Carrows were likely quite astounded when the previously hard-working and taciturn student suddenly turned rebel, mouthing back in class and seemingly looking for infringements to protest against. Needless to say, he found plenty of them. Similarly unsurprisingly, this lip didn't exactly go unpunished, and like the DA members he earned himself a fair amount of punishments and battle scars, all punishments which he staunchly took on the chin (sometimes even literally). Somehow he managed to avoid being put under the Cruciatus Curse, something which he feels oddly guilty for. At this time his parents had gone into hiding in Australia, leaving the farm for his father's Muggle neighbours to manage. The family had fled to protect Georgie, a decision supported whole-heartedly by Jimmy.
Like Colin Creevey he also tried to remain in the school for the battle despite being underaged, and for his efforts was chucked out by Minerva McGonagall. However, unlike Colin, he didn't manage to sneak back. He lived. The other boy didn't. Yet another thing that Jimmy feels guilty about. He isn't under the deluded impression that without even OWLs under his belt at the time he could have taken on a fully-fledged Death Eater and lived to tell the tale, but he would have been another pair of eyes, another hand grasping a wand for the right side and prepared to duel. Maybe he would have made a difference. Maybe not. Either way, he'll never know.
After the Carrows were sent unceremoniously on their way, Jimmy's remaining three years passed rather uneventfully. He continued working hard at both academics and his Quidditch training, passing all his OWLs (albeit not outstandingly) and finishing with NEWTs in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology (his best subject), Charms and Muggle Studies. Jimmy was a solid student, but not above average. His passing marks were down to sheer hard work and organised study habits rather than any brilliance or intuitive knowledge of the material, and while he is not dense by any means, none of his professors would have expected his future to lie in academics. He remained as one of Gryffindor's two Beaters, but wasn't selected for the captaincy, that honour going first to Ginny Weasley and later to another senior teammate.
Post-graduation Jimmy had a brief tenure as one of the reserves for the Ballycastle Bats, but soon found that professional Quidditch wasn't for him. His chances of making the first team seemed slim, and the attention of being attached to the team made him want to crawl into his shell. For the first time he found that he wasn't able to blinker out things through hard work, that they were somehow able to creep through and somehow snag his attention. He quit and performed a series of odd jobs until he found his current position.
Current employment status: With his dad being a farmer, Jimmy could have well found a place on the family homestead, but after living seven years as a wizard, the Muggle world felt foreign to him. He worked well and hard but didn't get along with the other lads, and after a few months packed his bags and headed south to look for work in the wizarding world. After some unsuccessful gigs as a waiter and even a cook, he found employment as a bouncer at Sirens. He had gone there seeking a job as a bartender, but the owner took one look at him and decided he was better put to use manning the front doors. Being a former brawler himself, he does well at his vocation, able to break up fights without damaging any collarbones in the process and escort out unruly patrons in a no-nonsense manner. His eventual ambition is to start his own club.
Personality: By all appearances Jimmy comes across as being an even-keeled young man, and supporters of his house team back in the day likely wondered where all the aggression he displaying during matches comes from. However, there's little point in developing control unless there is actually something to control. He can have a fiery temper, and during his childhood earned the nickname "Hurly" from his older cousins, due to his habit of doing as such to any nearby objects when driven to anger. Those same cousins sound pounded his temper, or at least the expression of it, out of him, at times literally. He quickly realised that it perhaps wasn't always for the best to act on his emotions, especially around people much bigger and stronger than oneself.
This self-discipline doesn't always work. When it doesn't, Jimmy explodes. Perhaps the net result of it all is that Jimmy has gone from having a quick temper to a bad temper, and he is starting to realise that he needs to seek out better means to keep it under wraps. To prevent things from building up in the first place, he goes jogging regularly and meets up with old teammates for a pick-up game of Quidditch the odd weekend. He also plays some guitar, though he's more of a strummer than a rock god. Those few who have heard Jimmy singing (he tends to limit this to when he is the only one home) say that he has a decent voice. A moderately dedicated follower of football, he also supports local Premier League side Derby County.
As a flatmate Jimmy doesn't give fellow occupants much to complain about. He cleans up after he's done with the kitchen, pays his rent and bills on time, doesn't make a huge amount of noise and keeps by-and-large to himself. More sociable sorts might find his reserved nature offputting, though when they want to talk his housemates will find him a willing and non-judgemental listener. He will also be very protective of any female flatmates he ends up with. Out one night and your dud of a date won't leave you alone? Just head over to where Jimmy is watching out for any miscreants at Sirens and he'll make sure that the fellow does. If you wake him up from one of his naps when he's sleeping off the late hours of his job, however, watch out.
Samples
First person entry: Dear Higgs,
If you don't stop the toads from popping out of this effin sink, I will punch you so hard that you'll have to take off your shoes to read the paper-
Dear Higgs,
If you don't fix this sink, I'll hex you until your toes curl up and drop off-
Dear Higgs,
If you don't fix this sink, I'll-
Anyone have a clue of how to fix a kitchen sink?
Or how to get toad guts off the underside of a guitar, for that matter?