Jacob

**Jacob** (born 1962/1963) was a wizard who attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry during the First Wizarding War until he was expelled during his final year for having tampered with the fabled Cursed Vaults and unleashed a series of curses upon the school, endangering his fellow students.

## Biography

### Early life (1962/1963-1974)

Jacob was born somewhere in Great Britain in the early 1960s, and grew up in a magical household, apparently residing alongside or in close proximity to Muggle dwellings. He had one younger sibling. When his younger sibling was five or six years old, he and his younger sibling pretended to duel with Liquorice Wands.

During their childhood, their parents taught Jacob and his sibling that they could not go around flaunting their magic. In particular, their mother was strict about the use of magic outside of school, refusing both of her children to ride a broomstick before they began attending school. At some point in his childhood, Jacob convinced his younger sibling to steal Sickles from their mother's coat pockets.

### Hogwarts years (1974-1980)

At age eleven, Jacob visited Ollivander's in Diagon Alley, and caused Mr Olivander's favourite inkpot to explode when trying out wands. He attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry where he was sorted into an unknown house and excelled academically.

At some point during his school career, Jacob embarked on a foolhardy quest to uncover the secrets of the fabled Cursed Vaults, presumably in order to get his hands on the gold, prophecies and various other powerful magical artefacts, myth would have it, had been sealed within them. He was joined by his friends Duncan Ashe and Olivia Green, two fellow students in Slytherin and Ravenclaw House, respectively.

This was not the first time that a student looked for the vaults. The last student to have tried was a Gryffindor named Patricia Rakepick, but her claims were dismissed due to a lack of evidence. In Jacob's case, however, his reputation as one of the most talented and rebellious students of his time at school gave credence to his search. As such, the Headmaster Albus Dumbledore took a personal interest in Jacob, and even helped nurture his gift after discovering that Jacob was a born Legilimens.

As time passed, however, Dumbledore noticed Jacob had become increasingly obsessive in his search for the vaults and changed because of it. He was more impulsive and reckless, leading to the violation of "all sorts of school rules" and endangerment of both himself and his peers in the process. Eventually, Dumbledore grew concerned that this fixation might even drive him to madness. Dumbledore reprimanded both Jacob and Duncan for their recklessness on at least one occasion.

This did not dissuade the adventurous youth, however, and their hunt for the vaults ended in tragedy when the latter was killed while attempting to brew a particularly potent Erumpent Potion in an effort to get past one of the obstacles standing between them and one of the Cursed Vaults. No longer able to turn a blind eye to the magnitude of what had transpired, Dumbledore notified the Ministry of Magic about Duncan's untimely demise, and they sent two Aurors to bring Jacob in for questioning about the incident. They apprehended him in the Three Broomsticks Inn in Hogsmeade village. During the interrogation, Jacob admitted he had pressured his friend into making the potion as part of their bid to open the vaults. In light of Jacob's confession, Professor Dumbledore had no other choice but to expel him from the school.

Duncan Ashe was not the only casualty, unfortunately. Every time one of the vaults was disturbed, another curse was triggered and unleashed upon the school. Cursed ice began to appear and spread throughout the castle, turning whole rooms into crystalline prisons, threatening to encase the whole school, and severely injuring several of the students. A Sleepwalking curse was also triggered, placing students in a deep slumber and causing them to mindlessly wander off into the Forbidden Forest in the direction of one of the vaults, where those whom the staff failed to stop were, due to their condition and inability to defend themselves, ravaged and some even outright devoured by the dangerous creatures within. Others, Madam Pomfrey observed, simply never woke up again. Although Dumbledore and the rest of the staff ultimately managed to contain the curses and got the situation under control, the faculty nevertheless denied any knowledge that the vaults actually existed, quite possibly hoping to dissuade other students from pursuing the vaults as well, by quieting down the attention around them after Jacob's removal from the school was so prominently covered in the *Daily Prophet*.

At some point after all of this took place, however, Jacob became aware of the existence of a secretive clique known simply by the initial 'R', which had become active in the wizarding world some time prior. A dissenting, clandestine group of dangerous Dark Wizards about which very little was known, yet whose ruthless pursuit of 'enlightenment and immortality' had given rise to various furtive activities and operations around the world and ultimately saw them turn their attention to Hogwarts. Their involvement in the disturbance of the Cursed Vaults had been a covert one, though, and unbeknownst to Dumbledore and the rest of the staff at the time, coercion had been a driving force behind Jacob's obsession with the vaults.

Having initially joined forces with the cabal in question hoping that they could help him find the vaults, the villainous organization had instead eventually turned the tables on him and forced him to assist them in their own search instead by threatening to make those Jacob cared about 'disappear' if he failed to cooperate, while simultaneously hanging a promise of future membership over his head if he did well. It had in fact been 'R' that pressured Duncan Ashe into making the potion that cost him his life, and Jacob had simply taken the blame out of fear that they would make good on their threats had he exposed them.

At some point before he disappeared, Jacob went to the Forbidden Forest and ran into a centaur named Torvus. He told Torvus of the Cursed Vaults and convinced him to help. Jacob wanted a Centaur's arrow for his search of the Cursed Vaults, but when Torvus refused, Jacob used magic to steal it from the camp.

### Disappearance (Pre-Hallowe'en, 1981-1989)

Shortly after he was kicked out of school, Jacob ran away from home and went mysteriously missing. He was eventually heard from again, however, when rumours reached Hogwarts Castle that indicated that he had earned quite a bit of notoriety in the figurative underworld of wizarding Britain, with former teachers even describing him as the "most feared wizard in Knockturn Alley", a reputation that lead some to believe that he had even joined the ranks of the Death Eaters under Lord Voldemort's command. This, however, was not the case. In truth, Jacob, from the moment of his expulsion and up until he disappeared, had in fact continued to work for 'R' to uncover the secrets of the Cursed Vaults as means of keeping his loved ones safe.

Although 'R's involvement had become known to the faculty and even some of the students at the time, the *nature* of their involvement was something Dumbledore first learned about after the fact. Any decision he might have meant to make about revoking Jacob's expulsion upon said discovery, however, was ultimately rendered inconsequential following his disappearance. With Jacob gone and the possibility that the Cabal, whose members were still unknown and very much at large, might go after Jacob's family should he move against them, Dumbledore kept his findings to himself so this new enemy would be kept from knowing that he was on to them. As such, only three of the school's inhabitants who knew the full story of what had transpired during Jacob's search for the vaults once the dust had settled: Jacob himself, the Headmaster, and Duncan Ashe, who had returned as a ghost after his demise.

### Found (1989-)

During the end of the 1988–1989 school year, when Jacob's sibling and their friends along with Rakepick entered the portrait vault and defeated the Hungarian Horntail inside, it is revealed that Rakepick entered this vault with Jacob and Peter Pettigrew (who ran out in fear of the dragon) and that Jacob opened a door with his Legilimency as it was the 'key' to the treasure inside. Rakepick had unwillingly left Jacob in there and used his sibling, who had his same talent for Legilimency, to open the door and use their friends to help along the way. Rakepick showed her true colours when she decided to kill them all and used the Cruciatus Curse on Merula. Jacob's sibling and their friends initially tried to disarm her, but a powerful Shield Charm she had cast over herself blocked their spells. Jacob's sibling however managed to subdue her with Garrotting Gas, causing her to choke, allowing them all to knock her out, although she managed to disapparate away afterwards.

Jacob was found by his sibling trapped inside a portrait, and, upon realizing it was him, they excitedly professed their pleasure at finally seeing him after all these years, and rushed over to him, lovingly embracing him in joy and relief, with the two siblings sharing a heartfelt and emotional reunion. After breaking apart, Jacob then sarcastically asked his sibling why it had taken them so long to find him, to which they responded incredulously, although Jacob, addressing his younger sibling as "Pip", acknowledged that he was merely joking and knew he hadn't been easy to find. Upon expressing their disapproval for their childhood nickname, "Pip", Jacob cheerfully assured them that that it was a quality nickname and remarked in surprise how they hadn't changed a bit, and they responded likewise, prompting Jacob to point out that he had been trapped inside a portrait for years after all.

Jacob then compassionately noted that his sibling must have endured a lot to find him, to which they also noted that he'd been through a lot too, upon which Jacob acknowledged that he had. He then proceeded to thank them deeply for their refusal to give up on him after all these years, upon which they asserted that they could have never given up on him, as he was their older brother. His sibling's friends then entered and were equally shocked and surprised to see him. After telling him that Rakepick brought them into the vault, he became angry and informed them of Rakepick being "evil", and that he had to go and stop her before she could find the 'treasure' and give it to "R". His sibling tried to make him stay, as they had only just been reunited, and that together they could stop her, but Jacob told them that, because he was the one who caused all the mess, he should be the one to stop it. He told his sibling that they will meet again and told them to stay safe before leaving via Apparition.

## Physical appearance

Jacob had a shaven head. He wore a brown coat, a grey vest over a red button-down shirt, and a leather brown sash over his vest, with brown trousers and black boots. He did not age while being trapped in a painting by the Portrait curse for years, and thus appeared just as Jacob's sibling remembered them.

## Personality and traits

While known among students and staff at the school as a troublemaker (whose apparent disregard for school rules and the safety of those who dwelt at the school proved outright dangerous), there were indicators that suggested that there was more to him than the circulating rumours would suggest. For example, while a rebellious young man, he was still a clever and talented student, being one of Professor Flitwick's most gifted students prior to his expulsion and is remembered fondly by the school's Head of Herbology, Professor Sprout, for being a kind and caring individual. This was later reinforced when Jacob's own younger sibling reacted with righteous anger over being confronted with even the possibility of Jacob ever having had anything to do with Lord Voldemort when Merula Snyde confronted them with the rumour claiming he worked for him.

From what Jacob had shown after he was freed, he showed guilt and remorse for the mess he had started by tampering with the Cursed Vaults and lack of fear in pursuing Rakepick despite the warnings of his sibling, proving he was indeed a good-hearted man with a strong capability for remorse and desire to make up for his mistakes along with great courage. Jacob also returned the great concern of his sibling by refusing to bring them with him to pursue Rakepick.

## Magical abilities and skills

* **Charms**: Professor Filius Flitwick, the school's Charms Master, claimed Jacob had been one of his most gifted students, meaning he was very proficient with more or less all the charms that the curriculum had to offer up until his expulsion. His charm-work would have to be very sophisticated and strong indeed for him to be able to locate and deal with the Cursed Vaults.
* **Transfiguration**: Jacob was proficient in transfiguration, as he was capable of transfiguring his notebook into the form of a black quill to keep other suspicious parties from seeing its contents, a method of concealment that would later be duplicated by R when this individual began leaving messages to different residents of Hogwarts. He also noted he could untransfigure the white quill he and his sibling found but chose to give the honor to them.
* **Flying**: In their very first lesson with Madam Hooch, one of the classmates of Jacob's sibling mentioned that they had heard he was a "fairly good flyer". His skill on a broomstick would have to be very impressive indeed, if this was the manner in which he entered and exited the Forbidden Forest to find one of the vaults and leave afterwards safely (a feat that was very notoriously difficult and required an impressive amount of control and even his younger sibling, themselves a highly talented flyer, had to improve their abilities first before able to perform such a feat).
* **Herbology**: Professor Pomona Sprout noted that Jacob had been among her favorite students, meaning he would have been rather gifted and skillful in this field.
* **Duelling**: Jacob was an excellent duelist, as while he only held his own against his younger sibling, he later on noted he was holding back and could have defeated them had he wanted to. Jacob was later on able to fight against Patricia Rakepick, an extremely powerful duelist in her own right: He alongside Moody quickly pushed her back, causing her to abandon the fight, and he later lasted longer than Ben Copper against her in the final Cursed Vault, losing when he was distracted due to seeing Ben go down.
* **Legilimency**: Jacob was a natural born Legilimens, same as his younger sibling, thus meaning he had the magical talent of navigating and reading the minds of others.
* **Apparition**: Jacob was able to Apparate at will.

## Possessions

* **Wand**: Jacob purchased this wand at Ollivander's before he began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This wand is Maple with a Dragon heartstring. Jacob snapped his own wand in half to open the Vault of Fear.