Kojo Acheampong | First Year | Ravenclaw

KOJO ACHEAMPONG

Age, Gender, & Pronouns 11, Male, He/Him Species & Culture Human, Ghanaian Wand 31.1cm, Maple Wood & Phoenix Feather -------------------------------------------------------

Patronus Unknown House & Dormitory Ravenclaw, Steppe Eagle Dormitory School Year & Favored Subject First Year, Care of Magical Creatures -----------------------------------------------------------

Appearance Kojo stands just below five feet tall, slim in frame yet he still bears the slightly chubby, childish features of any boy his age. He's somewhat dark-skinned, and his long, dark brown, kinky-curly hair rarely bears the same style from week to week (his father ensures he knows how to care for and style his hair on his own). His eyes are a light shade of brown, almost hazel, with bright flecks of green - they light up wonderfully when he laughs and smiles, which he often does.

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Mentality Kojo is, first and foremost, a nerd. Most children eventually grow out of that phase where all they do is ask, "Why?", but this young one never grew out of it. He is an almost stereotypical example of a brainy Ravenclaw, with the added benefit of enjoying getting his hands dirty. From a young age, he's been fascinated with life and the substance of things. "Why do things exist like this, and not like that?"
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To him, life and nature is a thing to be studied, understood, but ultimately admired. Magic can produce some of the most wonderful things to exist, but it did not create as life created. It could be manipulate, alter, and affect... But it could not create in the same way. Kojo didn't care, exactly, to conquer or beat or otherwise become a champion over life itself. He just liked to appreciate it and enjoy it.

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Personality Monday-born and born under the Judge (a Zodiac of African Astrology), Kojo prefers balance. He is strong-willed, but desires other's inputs, opinions, and participation. He is ambitious, but only to know and experience - he cares little for accolades, awards, and attention. He is lively and animated, but peaceful. He is friendly and genuinely nice to others, but also independent and dislikes overt displays of affection.

One of his best and worst traits, however, is his sheer confidence. He can and will walk into any and every place (well, most places) as if he knew where he was and exactly where to go and what to do... Even, and especially, when he doesn't. He can come off a bit aggressive and strong because of it, sometimes being a bit too much for smaller, quieter personalities - but he's trying to gain a bit more awareness over that.

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History Kojo is a first generation immigrant from the Ivory Coast, Ghana. He is the latest, the youngest, in a Pureblood lineage that can be traced for many centuries and countless generations - he is, however, the first to attend a wizarding school outside of Africa.

His mother passed away when he was quite young, too young to remember her - she was what English Wizards would consider an Auror, and fell in the line of duty - a Dark Wizard unfortunately took her life in battle when he was but three years old. His father, on the other hand, was an activist and journalist, which was often at odds with the work that Kojo's mother did - his father liked to report on particularly controversial topics that concerned the Ministry and their activities in relation to the normal and underground wizarding worlds. He ensured that the wizarding world knew of the activities government and Dark Wizards to the best of his abilities. After the death of his mother, however, Kojo's father had trouble for some months remaining in the house they had lived and loved in for so long... And so he left for London, where some of his more adventurous friends had left to, and brought along his one and only son.

Since his son grew up away from his familial culture, Kojo's father was adamant on teaching his son as much as possible about their home. They still had family that lived on the Ivory Coast, and so they visited once a year - sometimes more, during age-specific milestones or new accomplishments that Kojo or any of his cousins had made. While this was great for ensuring that the boy had active ties to his motherland, it occasionally put him at odds with others his age because of sheer cultural difference. He grew up embroiled in both worlds - his accent was both African and English, his garb was markedly traditional and at odds with modern clothing, his morals, ethics, ideals, and actions aligned closer with those from Africa than England, yet he was knowledgeable and kept up with English pop culture. He didn't quite live a double-life, but he was constantly torn between the two.

When he received the letter-by-owl (which his father was still getting used to, since he had been recruited to Uagadou via Dream Messenger) to attend Hogwarts, Kojo was not as excited as most fledgling wizards would be to attend Hogwarts. He knew that the likelihood of attending Uagadou was low to nonexistent, since his father seemed to never want to go back... But a part of him did want to go back to what he considered 'home', even if he had fewer memories there than in England.

Raised to push through trepidation and do what must be done, however, he nonetheless embraced the opportunity. He hoped that he would be able to learn as much at Hogwarts as he would at Uagadou, and so he threw himself into school prep with the hard-working fervor that he inherited from his parents.

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First Instance of Magic Kojo's first instance of magic was one borne of pure, uncontained, uninterruptible mirth. He and his father had a little game they had created when Kojo was a baby and needed distracting - at completely random moments, they would try and startle one another with the weirdest thing they could think of. Kojo particularly enjoyed leaping out at his father with something gross in his hands that he had found, while his father stuck with old faithful funky faces. Once, when the boy was the at young and impressionable age of only six, they tried to startle each other at exactly the same time, Kojo with a mud pie topped with strawberries and a caterpillar, and his father with a really goofy face. The boy had been so startled at the same time so humored by his own prank that the confusing mess of emotions caused him to accidentally turn his father's and the caterpillar's hair the same color as the strawberry, and then into a random assault of changing colors when he lost his mind laughing.