Jackson Holland

Portrayed By	Freddie Highmore
House	Hufflepuff
Year	1st
Position	Student
Sex	Male
Race	Half-Blood
Age	11
Place of Birth	Rural Georgia, United States
Date of Birth	5 May 1983
First Appearance	1994 Sorting And Feast
Last Appearance

Jax is a First-year student at Hogwarts, and somewhat of a newcomer to the wizarding world, having been basically muggle-raised for the first part of his life, despite being a half-blood. He is adjusting quite happily to magical life despite this, and has fallen in love with life at Hogwarts.

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Character History:

Jackson was born in the United States, the son of an American Muggle father and a British Squib mother. Though neither of his parents had any magical aptitude themselves, his mother's parents and siblings in England were all part of the wizarding world. She had moved out of England after her marriage — America was her husband's home and as a farmer he was reluctant to leave his land. Moreover, she was fairly happy for a chance to get away from her family — though they were lovely people and she was quite close to them, her lack of magical talent meant she never really fit in in their world. And so she crossed the ocean and settled in Georgia, living a quietly happy life on her husband's farm — though she hadn't quite filled him in on the whole truth about the 'eccentric' family she was leaving behind.

Jackson was born some years later, after his parents went through a long stretch of unsuccessful attempts to conceive. They couldn't be happier. From young, he was a bright, cheerful child; he had rather a surplus of energy and was constantly getting into one scrape or another, but he was friendly and always eager to be helpful. In school he was always near but never quite /at/ the top of his classes, though he spent long hours studying diligently. Though he never managed to shine in his academics, he did stand out when it came to art — almost as soon as he learned to hold a pencil he was drawing, and drawing led to painting, and it was clear from an early age that the boy had a phenomenal artistic talent that his parents were quite happy to nurture in him.

And so life progressed, happy and peaceful — schoolwork, art, helping around the farm, and grabbing what free time he could to wander the countryside or go swimming. Things would have stayed quiet and uneventful if not for the strange incidents that seemed to happen when the boy was overexcited or extremely upset — just small and barely noticeable occurences at first, but his mother noticed, and kept a close eye on things. When the strange quirks continued, it became obvious to her that her son had the magical talent she herself lacked — and there was nothing for it but to explain the situation to her husband.

He did not take it well, at all. After the initial shock and disbelief there was just anger, and a good dose of fear. A devout Catholic, the idea of magic offended his religious sensibilities. He wasn't sure what to do anymore with this Strange and Unnatural (and, to his eyes, probably demonic) manifestation in his own child. In the end, Jackson and his mother moved back to England to live with her family again. Jackson spent the next couple years catching up on the knowledge of the wizarding world that he had been missing out on. A bright and curious child, he is endlessly inquisitive about all aspects of the magical world; the day his letter arrived from Hogwarts he was ecstatic.

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Personality

Cheerful		Jax is very high-energy, and almost always has a bright smile and a heaping helping of enthusiasm to offer. That's not to say he's perpetually happy, but he tends to have the attitude that sad times are more easily vaniquished with a heaping dose of cheer than with any amount of moping. He's an incorrigible optimist, and not one for dwelling on the negative, always trying to seek the bright side to any situation.
Curious		Jax has a bright and inquisitive nature. Whether it's wandering the castle and its grounds or devouring the wealth of books the library has to offer, Jax has an insatiable drive to explore his world to its limits, even if that means poking his nose where it doesn't belong.
Creative		An artist and a child with a whimsical and overactive imagination, Jax has a strong creative streak. From the drawings in his ever-present sketchpad to experimenting with new spells, his drive to create and innovate is high.
Hard-working		Growing up on a farm meant waking up early for chores and working hard throughout the day; growing up with a teacher for a mother meant being taught the value of his studies from a young age. Whether in class or out of it, Jax is a Hufflepuff through and through when it comes to his patience and perserverence for whatever work he needs to accomplish — or wants to help others with.
Impulsive		An underdeveloped sense of self-preservation and an overdeveloped inquisitiveness often leads Jax to leap well before he looks. He acts on whims more often than is healthy.
Kind		Friendly and warm-hearted, Jax is a compassionate and considerate person, often going out of his way to be helpful or try to cheer someone up if they seem down. He is patient with others and rarely has an uncharitable word to say about anyone, preferring to try and find the best in them. He is quick to forgive and doesn't hold grudges.
Naïve		A drawback of his tendency to try and see the best in people and in situations is that he overlooks negative aspects to things quite often. He is reluctant to believe ill about someone — to a fault, often persisting in thinking of the world in rosy colours even when he would do well to realize everything isn't always shinyhappy.

Family

Mother: Sarah Blackburn-Holland		Jax's mother is a schoolteacher at a Muggle school in Brighton, where her family lives. A Squib who married into a Muggle family, she feels rather alienated from the wizarding world, but is proud of her son and does her best to stay involved with his life.
Father: James Holland		James did not take well to finding out that wife came from a wizarding family and his only child was to be a wizard. A strict Catholic, he is intensely mistrustful of magic. Before finding out he was a wizard, though, Jax and his father were very close. The farmer taught Jax the value of hard work and instilled in him his love for growing things and caring for animals. James remained in America when his wife and son returned to England, and has barely spoken to them since, much to Jax's intense dismay.
Grandmother: Amelia Blackburn		Jax's grandmother is a skilled Healer who has been working for decades at St. Mungo's Hospital. A businesslike, undemonstrative sort of woman, she is quite the opposite of her exuberant grandson, and yet since moving to England she and Jax have gotten extremely close. It is Eleanor who Jax turns to for help and advice most often when he is having trouble navigating the ups and downs of magical life.
Grandfather: Ellery Blackburn		The proprietor of a small wizarding bookstore in Brighton, Ellery is a kind and softspoken wizard. He is fond of cooking and generally always has sweets to share, which makes Jax filled with happy.
Aunt: Jess Naylor		Jax's mother's older sister. A snobby, acerbic witch who looks down on her Squib sibling with a good deal of scorn, a lot of which spills over onto Sarah's child (who may be a wizard, but he's a Hufflepuff, so he can't be that talented, right? She married into a respectable Wizarding family and never fails to remind Sarah and Jax that their Muggle-tainted life is not deserving of any respect.
Cousins: Abigail, Liam, Owen		Jess's progeny. A Slytherin (graduated), a Ravenclaw, and one too young yet for Hogwarts, they luckily take more after their good-natured father than their rather arrogant mother, though Liam occasionally has a bit of a superiority complex.

Friendlytypes

Angelina Johnson		A Gryffindor Prefect, Jax looks up to Angelina a lot. She vouched for him in Moody's Army and took time to practice with him outside of it. She seems like a talented and responsible witch, and she's been kind to him on top of that — without being condescending because of his age or his House. Jax trusts her guidance.
Fred Weasley		Another older Gryffindor, Fred's mischievousness and pranks amuse Jax. He's entertaining, and not a bad companion to have when accidentally teleported into another dimension.
Kalleigh Monahan		A Firstie from his house, Jax went out of his way to befriend Kalleigh when he noticed that the shy girl seemed unhappy and wasn't making too many friends. Her quiet is a perfect counterpart to his nonstop chattering.
Luna Lovegood		Luna intrigues Jax, and he finds her less odd than most people do — she fits nicely with his overactive imagination and sense of whimsy. He likes her rather different outlook on life… even when it winds up transporting him into stranger other worlds.
Neville Longbottom		Despite him being Gryffindor and a few years older, Jax gets along great with Neville. They share a love of Herbology, and Neville's been giving Jax extra tutoring in it to keep him ahead of his class. Jax respects Neville's brilliant Herbology knowledge and appreciates his good-naturedness.
Rene D'Allemagne		A fellow Firstie, Jax likes the company of this Slytherin. They camped out Moody's first Army lesson together, and occasionally practice with each other.

Big People

Mad-Eye Moody		An experienced Auror and a tough wizard, Jax is a little bit in awe of the grizzled DADA teacher. There's a whole lot to learn from Moody, and Jax snuck into his Army lessons for a chance to learn it, despite being nervous about possible repercussions from the intimidating professor.
Pomona Sprout		The head of his House and the teacher of his best class, Jax admires the Herbology professor and always looks forward to her lessons.

Miscellany

• Jax is a very talented artist. Quite skilled with normal Muggle mediums — charcoal drawings and oil paintings especially — he's been branching out and experimenting with magical art since coming to Hogwarts.
• Jax's accent is an odd blend of his Southern-US upbringing and his years spent in England. His drawl has faded somewhat, but is much more noticeable when he is excited or upset..
• Jax keeps a black Bombay cat named Dalí as his companion. Dalí is just as energetic and friendly as his human caretaker.
• Jax is a vegetarian, for ethical reasons. He's not generally preachy about it but will get so if people hassle him about his food choices.
• Partly due to being vegetarian when nobody else in his family is, Jax started learning to cook for himself fairly young. He misses being able to spend time in the kitchen when he's at Hogwarts.
• His energy and apparent short attention span can make him seem like a scatterbrain, but Jax is quite a bookworm. Perhaps due to his mother being a teacher or perhaps due to his innate curiosity, when it comes to his studies he is extremely serious and works very hard in class.
• A holdover from his early years on a farm, Jax loves tending living things and everything to do with it. Herbology is his favourite subject, and he is looking forward greatly to when he can start Care of Magical Creatures.
• Also a holdover from his farm years, Jax adores horses and is rather skilled with their care, and riding.
• Jax studied ballroom dancing from a young age, and kept his love for dance after moving to England.
• Though it's only his first year at Hogwart's, Jax is already on his third wand — the first he got was a 15" rosewood with a unicorn tail core, but this was broken during one of Moody's classes when he was hit particularly hard by an Expelliarmus from Harry Potter. Moody gave him a replacement wand to make up for it, but during spring break his grandmother took him to get a proper replacement, so now he has a 11" cherry wand with a chimaera scale core.