Nikolai Dragos // First Year // Hufflepuff

Nikolai has always been small. Scrawny, sort of fragile-looking, and awkward. A thin oval face generously spotted with freckles, carefully-parted blond hair, with brown eyes that look nearly perpetually concerned. A pout or a dour-looking expression is not uncommon on his face, which makes it all the more bright when he smiles.

Nikolai is fastidious, to put it lightly. Annoyingly tidy, and afraid of everything from heights to anything with more than four legs. He likes to think that he has a good sense of what is right and what is wrong. He's not top of his class, and he's never had many friends, but he considers himself a good judge of character and insightful. Behind all of this is a desperate desire to be liked and appreciated. Not adulated, but respected. Being acknowledged for good deeds—but still doing them regardless, because it's the right thing to do. He also has a short temper (likely one of the reasons he has so few friends) and is easily frustrated.

Nikolai is the youngest son of the muggles Arken and Anya Dragos. Along with his older brother Stefan, Nikolai and his family lived a modest life in Chiswick, London. Arken is a second-generation Polish immigrant, who married local London girl Anya when they were fairly young. Stefan was their first son, and Nikolai a pleasant surprise five years later. Arken took up a position as a local policeman, which made Niko a bit of an outcast with his peers from the start. Not to mention that he’s always been small, even for his age—an easy target to pick on, but also someone to avoid.

He's never been top of his class, despite all the time spent studying; he's never really had friends that have lasted longer than a convenient summer, so why not spend the time in a book instead? He's been bullied for everything from his stature to his father's reputation. Sometimes he would let the words ping off of him, but sometimes he would fight back, a little scrappy jerk. His parents worried about him, especially when he told the story about outrunning his bullies for once and somehow managing to jump a park fence in a single leap.

The Dragos family, though utterly confused and somewhat aghast, reacted eagerly when Nikolai received his letter (however jealous his older brother Stefan may have been). They bumbled happily together through the whole ordeal, and Niko slowly came to find himself growing more and more excited—and terrified—to finally get to Hogwarts.