Barnaby Ryker, Head of House Ravenclaw

HISTORY

Barnaby was born into a family of no gooders. His father left when he was four and his mother usually had no time for Barnaby and his two older brothers, rather spending her time away from them, doing gods know what as she partied her way through Camden town.

Barnaby soon had to learn to fend for himself and turned to a life of lying and petty theft as soon as he could. Learning the trade from his brothers, which both acted as mentors and parents for him. He started attending public school when he was old enough, and soon found he hated it. It didn’t take much time before he got a reputation on him as a no good and a thief.
While the rest of the family was small framed and nimble, Barnaby constantly grew taller and stronger. It didn’t take long before he was the biggest meanest guy in his class and even the other troublemakers from the years above him was wary of butting heads against Barnaby.


Barnaby on the other hand always felt like his life missed something, like he was destined for something other then stealing pocket change from drunks and flunking school to hang with his elder brothers.


The first time Barnaby encountered magic was when one of his older brothers got into a fight with some guys that had caught him stealing. Instead of running away and abandon his brother, Barnaby went straight up to one of the men and punched him square in the chest, magic pushed the man across the street and through a store window, the confusion it caused gave Barnaby time to run away with his brother.
Tragedy soon befell the Ryker family though. When one of Barnaby’s two brothers died. The other brother handled it badly, and soon got caught up with a worse and worse crowd of people. No matter how much Barnaby pleaded for the brother to turn to his senses, it didn’t work, and the brother was soon imprisoned for a rather long list of offences, practically locking him away for life.


Soon to be 11-year-old Barnaby was then left mostly on his own, the only family he had left was a mother that didn’t care for him in a broken home he didn’t care to stay in.
His luck finally seemed to turn a bit when he got a letter of acceptance from Hogwarts. Barnaby didn’t really believe that a school like Hogwarts existed at all, but his childish curiosity won over his common sense and he took what little money he had saved up and traveled to the address in the letter. He entered the world of magic through the portal behind the Leaky Cauldron without even telling his mother were he went.


Barnaby entered the world of wizards on the British isles in a time of turmoil, with the famous escaped prisoner Black on the loose. Making it difficult to see the wizarding world as a nice and welcoming place, but rather a gloomy, dangerous one. This didn’t stop Barnaby though, because he had cut ties with the little broken up family he had and just wanted to run away.


The school ended up becoming Barnaby’s new beginning, a new start, away from the filth he had come from. He threw himself over the teachings the professors gave him with vigor, and he meet lots of friends in the house he was put in, Ravenclaw. It started out quite rocky, because Barnaby wasn’t used to actually paying attention in classes, but a newfound determination he had seemed to be lacking in muggle school pushed him to always perform the best he could.


He experienced a lot of Harry Potter's exploited from the sidelines, he even attended the Battle of Hogwarts in his fifth year, mostly hurling stones and some easier jinxes from the walls down on the Death Eaters engaged in fighting beneath. He turned out to be a Ravenclaw through and through, fiercely protecting his sanctitude of learning, his home.


Because of the lackluster teachings given in his fifth year, Barnaby got to stay for a year more than planned, in his “second” fifth year, Barnaby joined the Ravenclae quidditch team as a beater and found his new passion.


Barnaby always had a problem with following some of the lessons. No matter how determined he was, he never seemed to be able to sit still long enough to get much reading done, which probably reflected a bit in his grades. Quidditch on the other hand was a perfect fit for him. He was big and sturdy built making him an ideal beater, and he ended up devoting nearly every waking moment he had to training. If it wasn’t down on the field flying, it was inside, pretending to pay attention in professor sprouts lessons while actually reading quidditch tactics.


He quickly adapted to the role as beater and became the team's captain by his second season. By his third year on the quidditch team and last year at Hogwarts, Barnaby and his team won the quidditch cup for Ravenclaw.

After school Barnaby got a trial position as beater for the Tutshill Tornados. Barnaby paid little attention to anything else as he used his time trying to prove himself for the team management. After a couple of years as a reserve, Barnaby became one of the teams main players.


His days consisted mostly of training, using the lack of school time Hogwarts used to take up to train even harder. He didn’t really go out to party, having to many bad memories from his mother, so his evenings mostly ended up being dedicated to his other favorite activity, watching old and new gangster movies. While he can take a drink now and again, it ended up being mostly when the whole team went out together and not to look for girls.
His love life have ended up being rather bleak, as the amount of time he have used training have lead to a lack of time to find propper girls, and Barnaby have never seen much interest in the quidditch “groupies” as they remind him too much of his mother.


Barnaby has later amazed as one of, if not the best, beater in the league the last years.
He has helped the team to two championship victories and goes by the nicknames Barnaby the Brute and Ryker the Bat. Both because he is know as an exceptionally brutal beater on the field, using his raw strength and surprising accuracy to crushing effects.
But at the age of 39 Barnaby started to feel like he couldn't keep up with the younger competition anymore, and applied for the position of flying professor for a more secure job.