Jasper McKinnon

age year october 15, 2007 thunderbird race nationality pure-blood ilvermorny

12 2 birthdate house human canadian blood status school

A P P E A R A N C E

Having had an early growth spurt, Jasper stands at 5'5. His arms and legs seem a little too long for his torso, giving him a very lanky look. Due to this, he is a little clumsy and often trips over his own feet, much to his dismay. He is quick to blush at anything remotely embarrassing, although even his most aggressive blushing isn't anything more than a slight pink tinge across his nose and cheeks. brown :: eye color brown :: hair color 127 lbs :: weight casual :: clothing style tyler young :: face claim

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P E R S O N A L I T Y

Shy and soft-spoken, Jasper finds it hard to talk to strangers and make friends. All through his life, his parents looked down on him for this and often forced him into talking to other kids who had no problem jabbering for hours upon hours. Due to this, he tends to gravitate towards those who are quieter, like him, and finds it easier to bond and make friends with fellow introverts/shy people.

He is easily trusting and always assumes the best of people, having not seen much of the world and growing up pretty sheltered. That being said, in large events/large groups of people, he tends to pick out a person who he trusts the most, or feels the closest to, and follows them everywhere, despite feeling like he's annoying them. Large events with lots of people are not his thing, and he tries to avoid them at all costs.

Despite the quiet demeanor, Jasper is quite the chaotic soul. He enjoys playing harmless pranks, although he doesn't find the time to plan them out nearly as often as he'd like. With an aspiration to become a wizarding lawyer, he also likes to spend his free time finding loopholes in school rules in hopes he can finagle something in his favor. That being said, his main motivation for most things is himself. He is more likely to do something if it benefits him, although nothing will ever give him sufficient motivation to do his homework. He tends to struggle academically, despite his career goals. It's not that he doesn't understand the content taught to him, he just struggles to write essays, do his homework correctly, and learn subject matter through a lecture.

B A C K G R O U N D

On October 15, 2007, not one, but two children were born into the McKinnon family. A beautiful boy and girl christened Jasper and Willow, respectively. Their parents, Maisie and Desmond McKinnon tried to give the twins and their older sister Brooke the best childhood possible, although they were both very busy with their jobs and often had to hire a babysitter.

Jasper's first sign of magic was a couple of weeks after his sixth birthday. His babysitter was trying to give him a reading lesson, and Jasper, wanting to go play outside, not sit inside and read, threw a hissy fit, and the book disappeared. Five minutes and one very confused babysitter later, the book reappeared. Jasper was a bit of a late bloomer, sure, considering his sister had shown her first sign of magic at age 2. His parents and siblings had begun to think he was a squib, a lack of patience being a common trait through the McKinnon family.

Jasper has always been really close with his twin. The two of them consider each other their best friends and there has rarely been a thing that they separate for. Until their parents decided to try to give their family name a little boost by contacting distant relatives, the de Fostoncy family. Although the de Fostoncys lived in France and the McKinnons Canada, Maisie and Desmond made sure it was no problem to floo powder their way to the de Fostoncys for every ball and social gathering they held.

Being the shy child he is, Jasper dreaded those events, while his sister, an extrovert, loved them with every fiber of her being. She couldn't understand what about them Jasper didn't like and Jasper couldn't understand what about them she liked. However, one time, Jasper met the de Fostoncy heir, Maximilien, who, coincidentally, was his age. The two hit off and soon became good friends. Maxi was the only good thing about the horrid visits to France.

Little did the McKinnon family know, that the de Fostoncys were just barely tolerating them and soon, they would stop receiving invitations to all the balls and social events.

Meanwhile, Jasper and Willow were having a falling out. With both of them having just completed their first year of school at Ilvermorny and gotten their exam results back, Willow looked with horror at Jasper's results. He'd barely scraped by the written exams, yet done decent on his practical exams. Willow, being one who values education and good grades, took the barely passing grades as evidence that Jasper hadn't been studying and was going off on him for his "poor study habits" and "inability to study". Jasper, had, in fact, tried to study, and tried to explain to Willow that, but his efforts were in vain. She was convinced he wasn't studying and didn't care about school. His parents seemed to share the same idea, although they were less vocal about it. This disagreement between the twins brought Willow vowing to not speak to Jasper until he proved to her that he could study, although that lasted a mere 32 hours. Tensions between the two remained ever since.

Tensions, in fact, were high between Jasper and his older sister too. Well, mainly Jasper was perpetually upset at Brooke. Brooke was like the perfect child. When she was in school, she got perfect grades, was on her house's Quidditch team, and could talk her way into or out of anything. Whenever Jasper brought it up, she always said she had some problems that made her nowhere near perfect but never elaborated. So in Jasper's eyes, she was basically the perfect child. Jasper hated her for that.

He, on the other hand, was nowhere near the "perfect child". He got bad grades in school, was extremely shy, and wanted to duel, but wasn't sure whether he'd get on the team or not. In his family, because their "name" and "family look" mattered so much, he had a sinking suspicion that his bad grades and lack of any major achievements were "bringing down" the "family's name".

S T A T S

stamina: 7 | evasion: 7 | strength: 4 | wisdom: 7 | arcpower: 8 | accuracy: 7
total: 40

A B I L I T I E S

perfectionist (wc: 583)

Reducio

As Jasper went through his first year of Ilvermorny, he found that he failed miserably at the majority of things. Nothing seemed to come naturally to him. While his peers had a slow start but quickly started to excel in all their classes, Jasper was still at the "slow start" part. He was gaining a bit of understanding in every class, but he struggled with homework and tests.

Sometime first year, he found that he was doing a bit better in charms than any other class. At that point, he was looking for any hope that he had a chance to succeed in the wizarding world, and now that he had found it, he was going to run with it. He really wasn't even doing that well in charms, but at least he wasn't failing the class, and now he was determined to at least bring his grade in that class up.

Almost every night after that, Jasper would stay up late in his common room practicing that day's spells.

---

The spell they'd learned in class that day was hard. Jasper had no idea how to pronounce the incantation, despite hearing everyone else in his class pronounce it. That late at night, he'd already forgotten the specifics of each class and hadn't paid enough attention in charms to even remember the pronunciation of the spell.

So there he was, sitting in one of the slightly uncomfortable common room chairs, squinting at his textbook. It was a rare sight, Jasper McKinnon sitting with an open textbook in his lap. He tended to avoid books in general, due to a hatred for reading and due to how the words seemed to swim around the page. It had taken him longer than he'd admit to find the right page, but it wasn't the journey that mattered, but where he was now.

Wingardium Leviosa.

The incantation stood on the page, taunting him. How was he supposed to pronounce it?!

Seven and a half minutes later...

He was pretty sure the pronunciation of the first word was win-GAR-dee-um. He couldn't see any other way to pronounce it. The second word, though, he had no idea how it was supposed to be said. He'd tried lee-vee-oh-sa, but that hadn't worked, and the same with leh-vie-oh-sa. The only other way he could think to pronounce it was leh-vee-oh-sa. Maybe that's it, he thought eagerly, readying his wand.

"win-GAR-dee-um leh-vee-OH-sa," he recited, swishing and flicking his wand with sharp and clean movements. He'd gotten the wand movement down in class. He always seemed to get the wand movements right before the pronunciation. The paper in front of his shakily rose. Finally, finally the charm had worked.

---

That wasn't the first time he'd stayed up late to perfect a charm. Now that he knew it only took a little practice to make the charm work. Practicing by himself on the pronunciation gave him time to commit it to memory in a way he'd never been able to in class. It only took him a couple of months to figure out that he didn't have to just practice spells from charms. Now that he'd gotten his charms grade up, he decided that he could also practice his transfiguration spells and any other spell from every other class. Sure, his grades in those other classes may have remained the same, since not all classes relied on practical tests, but he sure felt good about himself knowing that all his spells were perfected.

the martial artist (wc: num)

Reducio

didn't have time to write it, will be applying for it next time apps. open (:

Is your character a Broom Racer? No
Is your character a Quidditch Player? No
Is your character a Duelist? Yes

So, there was something weird going on. How do you know? Well, it was the trip to Hogwarts. They saw the actual Headmaster very very briefly return to the school. No fanfare. No fireworks. He entered in the late evening, was gone the next morning. That same morning, there was an assembly, an announcement that they were heading back to Hogwarts AGAIN. The last time they went, that went real bad.

S T A T S

stamina: 7 | evasion: 7 | strength: 4 | wisdom: 7 | arcpower: 8 | accuracy: 7
total: 40

A B I L I T I E S

perfectionist (wc: 583)

Reducio

As Jasper went through his first year of Ilvermorny, he found that he failed miserably at the majority of things. Nothing seemed to come naturally to him. While his peers had a slow start but quickly started to excel in all their classes, Jasper was still at the "slow start" part. He was gaining a bit of understanding in every class, but he struggled with homework and tests.

Sometime first year, he found that he was doing a bit better in charms than any other class. At that point, he was looking for any hope that he had a chance to succeed in the wizarding world, and now that he had found it, he was going to run with it. He really wasn't even doing that well in charms, but at least he wasn't failing the class, and now he was determined to at least bring his grade in that class up.

Almost every night after that, Jasper would stay up late in his common room practicing that day's spells.

---

The spell they'd learned in class that day was hard. Jasper had no idea how to pronounce the incantation, despite hearing everyone else in his class pronounce it. That late at night, he'd already forgotten the specifics of each class and hadn't paid enough attention in charms to even remember the pronunciation of the spell.

So there he was, sitting in one of the slightly uncomfortable common room chairs, squinting at his textbook. It was a rare sight, Jasper McKinnon sitting with an open textbook in his lap. He tended to avoid books in general, due to a hatred for reading and due to how the words seemed to swim around the page. It had taken him longer than he'd admit to find the right page, but it wasn't the journey that mattered, but where he was now.

Wingardium Leviosa.

The incantation stood on the page, taunting him. How was he supposed to pronounce it?!

Seven and a half minutes later...

He was pretty sure the pronunciation of the first word was win-GAR-dee-um. He couldn't see any other way to pronounce it. The second word, though, he had no idea how it was supposed to be said. He'd tried lee-vee-oh-sa, but that hadn't worked, and the same with leh-vie-oh-sa. The only other way he could think to pronounce it was leh-vee-oh-sa. Maybe that's it, he thought eagerly, readying his wand.

"win-GAR-dee-um leh-vee-OH-sa," he recited, swishing and flicking his wand with sharp and clean movements. He'd gotten the wand movement down in class. He always seemed to get the wand movements right before the pronunciation. The paper in front of his shakily rose. Finally, finally the charm had worked.

---

That wasn't the first time he'd stayed up late to perfect a charm. Now that he knew it only took a little practice to make the charm work. Practicing by himself on the pronunciation gave him time to commit it to memory in a way he'd never been able to in class. It only took him a couple of months to figure out that he didn't have to just practice spells from charms. Now that he'd gotten his charms grade up, he decided that he could also practice his transfiguration spells and any other spell from every other class. Sure, his grades in those other classes may have remained the same, since not all classes relied on practical tests, but he sure felt good about himself knowing that all his spells were perfected.

the martial artist (wc: num)

Reducio

didn't have time to write it, will be applying for it next time apps. open (:

Is your character a Broom Racer? No
Is your character a Quidditch Player? No
Is your character a Duelist? Yes

So, there was something weird going on. How do you know? Well, it was the trip to Hogwarts. They saw the actual Headmaster very very briefly return to the school. No fanfare. No fireworks. He entered in the late evening, was gone the next morning. That same morning, there was an assembly, an announcement that they were heading back to Hogwarts AGAIN. The last time they went, that went real bad.