Bio - Jacob Dreyfuss
Jacob was raised as the eldest child born to Josiah Dreyfuss, a wizard, and his wife Danya Dreyfuss, a muggle. Josiah met Danya when he was visiting his family in Israel- he stayed there, and away from England, during the second rise of Voldemort, attempting to feed information to a failing ministry and trying to keep his wife and young child safe. Josiah was sorted into Gryffindor when at Hogwarts, and these days his passion is Wizard-muggle relations; Danya has been obliviated twice without Josiah’s knowledge, and since he found out he broke ties with the ministry and joined the MIL, the Muggle Integration League, which is dedicated to helping non-wizarding family of wizards function within the Wizarding world. Danya is less devoted to the cause, and more forgiving of the motives for the separation of the muggle and Wizarding worlds, than her husband; she works as a fine arts professor at the University of Manchester, where the family is based.
Jacob’s always been exceptionally large, taking after his father in this regard- his mother is of average height and slightly rotund, and his father tops out at just under seven feet.
As a child, his defining characteristic has been his size- all the way through his primary school days, he has been the largest child in his year by a good way, and this combined with the arrival of two younger sisters when he was 5 and 8 respectively have contributed to that careful, gentle nature so often possessed by the tall and strong. He showed almost no signs of magical power until his 8th year, when his cat King Jellybean grew wings to chase birds with “so it was fair”. His father was delighted at this, as was his mother, and preparations began to teach him some basic magic to “give him a grounding” for Hogwarts.
Unfortunately, Jacob showed- and shows- very little aptitude for the more complex magics, such as Transfiguration and Charms. He quickly rose to the front end of the class in COMC, Potions, and Herbology, but constantly has trouble with classes that require wand work. He was made a beater for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team in his third year, and is taking over the captaincy by popular acclaim this year, as well as becoming a generally well-liked prefect.
However, Jacob does tend to be hard on himself about his lack of magical prowess; he works well in the Wizarding world, but his areas of interest- such as potions, mathematics, and looking after magical creatures- could be done just as easily by muggles, a fact of which he is painfully aware of due to his father’s constant diatribes on muggle equality. Josiah is not really aware that he’s causing his son to doubt he has any true gifts, but the fact remains that Jacob is seriously considering dropping out after his OWLs and taking A-Levels at a local Sixth Form College.
Jacob is Jewish, but not especially religious about it. He celebrates Hannukah with his parents and his little sisters Hannah and Ruth every year; it’s become clear that Hannah has no magical talent, but little Ruth may yet. Jacob’s very close to his little sisters, and writes them letters often.
One final note- last year, after an incident in COMC, it became clear that Jacob is a Parseltongue. He’s not really used it for anything- other than greeting any snakes he meets- but it did cause him to change his familiar to a small grass snake, which tends to sleep in the hood of his robe and hunt the mice in the Hufflepuff common room. He’s called Socrates, and considers himself a damn sight cleverer than Jacob.
Character's Appearance
Jacob is very, very tall and broad. He’s just topped 6’4” this year, and he’s worried about growing much bigger- he’s already taller than all the teachers except Hagrid, who just says he’s a good size for Hippogriff rearin’. He doesn’t stoop, unlike many tall people- like all boys, part of him keeps checking if he’s as tall as his dad, and his habit of standing to his full height extends to school. He’s big enough that he’s been accused of being part giant, which he thinks might be true and finds a little amusing.
He’s got dark brown eyes, a classic Jewish nose, and dark curly hair that he keeps trimmed reasonably short. He’s also got a ready smile and a quietly melodious voice, which hasn’t so much broken as sunk deep beneath the waves, where only whales can fully understand it. He tends to keep a muggle pencil behind one ear, and writes with biros because “well, they’re just plain better than quills, really”. His assignments are handed in on yellow lined legal pads, which he has embossed with the hufflepuff crest- one of the few charms he can reliably pull off.