#...and it turned out huge as predicted

[killthebxy-archive]

          PLEASE NOTE, before anything else, that this verse is based on my knowledge of the movies + my independent research only. i never read the books and possibly won’t any time soon, therefore, if you would like to discuss anything with me before (or during, or after) we start writing, so that we’re more on a same level, please feel free to --- i am always more than glad to learn more and improve my own ideas. this verse is also heavily influenced by headcanons and by my talks with @wildmoored & @ofherage (bless you both precious souls), and contains some lines of inspiration derived from the Life Is Strange video game. i purposefully leave the default timeline of this verse as vague, so it can easily fit any setting: golden trio era, Marauders era, Tom Riddle era, etc.

          with that said, in this verse, the Starks are an ancient pure-blood family in the wizarding world, well known for the same characteristics they have in the ASOIAF canon: brave and noble hearts, quick temper, honorable and ever ready both to help & for a good fight. despite their nature, though, they aren’t anywhere close to wealthy, and are known to struggle with money every now and then, especially now that their family includes six children. Jon himself was adopted, around the same time Robb was born to Ned and Cat, when they found a newborn baby abandoned nearby their home. they decided to adopt and raise him as their own, and, while Jon is aware of this, he has a very close and positive relationship with his parents and his siblings, no matter the lack of real blood ties. to some surprise, this adopted child eventually proved to be a wizard as well, but Ned and Cat treated it naturally and prepared Jon to attend education at Hogwarts, much as they did with Robb. the two of them joined during the same year, for being practically of the same age save for a few months.

          Jon was sorted into Gryffindor, as tends to happen for most Starks, based on traits such as courage, chivalry, and bravery of heart. he retains most character traits from the ASOIAF canon, still an introvert and relatively shy and very observant, though to a much lesser tragic scale --- aka not having to deal with half his family being murdered, being murdered himself, the end of the world, etc etc. for the most part, he’s as common as any other boy his age, and, while not the top student, still a fairly good one and one always motivated to learn more and improve. and, while he’s far from being a social butterfly and much rather prefers to do his own thing, he still has a few good close friends. on the other hand, and despite having a loving family and having had a very positive upbringing, Jon has quite low self-confidence and self-esteem, and falls easily to both bullying and manipulation --- for motives to be better explored in the next paragraphs.

          having grown up with magic, and with Robb as his rival and best friend, Jon has a natural liking for spell casting. he may not be the most powerful caster, but his spells are usually very precise and he can perform them with relative ease --- as well, just like canon!Jon with Longclaw in hand, he is rather graceful in the casting of his spells. because he’s also naturally curious, with an interest in learning and improving his own performance, it’s not rare to find him (even on his own) trying to master more difficult spells. he’s also decent at brewing potions, though it’s not too big of a deal for him --- more like something he doesn’t mind doing for class, sometimes for fun, but definitely nothing like a goal he’d truly invest in.

          where Jon’s talent truly shines, however, is in the art of Divination, for motives that dwell much farther into his story --- because, in this verse, Jon has a very close connection with the deathly hallows --- namely, with the Second Brother in The Tale Of The Three Brothers. please note that what i am going to state next is my personal headcanon, and slight deviation from the real tale as we know it.

          Meanwhile, the second brother journeyed to his own home, where he lived alone. Here he took out the stone that had the power to recall the dead, and turned it thrice in his hand. To his amazement and his delight, the figure of the girl he had once hoped to marry before her untimely death appeared at once before him. Yet she was silent and cold, separated from him as though by a veil. Though she had returned to the mortal world, she did not truly belong there and suffered. Finally, the second brother, driven mad with hopeless longing, killed himself so as truly to join her. And so Death took the second brother for his own.

          before this happened, however, before the Second Brother killed himself, some events took place. being driven mad with grief for his lost lover, as mentioned, he made a final attempt to reunite with her, even if in a different life, and, for this purpose, mastered the art of separating his soul into parts to be guarded within objects and entities --- creating a few horcruxes as one last, desperate hope to be able to continue existing and, this way, be able to reunite with the woman he loved yet again. throughout the sands of time, these horcruxes were either lost or destroyed; all except one --- a newborn baby abandoned in an alleyway. the same baby Ned and Catelyn Stark adopted as their own, making Jon the final recipient containing the soul of the Second Brother.

          Jon is unaware of this, as are all who live/contact with him (note: this is adaptable to thread), though some quirks in him easily raise suspicion that something is not completely regular about him. from a very young age, he would be plagued with dreams about times past that he could not entirely recognize, but that felt familiar in an unexplained way, and, occasionally, would have actual visions of events yet to happen. despite being an overall healthy child (and then teen and young adult), due to this connection to the Second Brother, he suffers from almost constant headaches and, whenever one of these episodes is more intense (particularly, the visions of the future), he will break down in a fever that lasts for a few good hours and has no bodily explanation, otherwise. these visions are cryptic and symbolic almost always, similar to Melisandre’s visions in the flames, and it takes Jon quite some effort to be able to precisely predict an event.

          another clear manifestation of the Second Brother’s essence in Jon is his deep longing for a girl he doesn’t know about and never met or saw before in his life --- the constant feeling that he is incomplete and aching to reunite with his other half, without the awareness of why this happens or where it comes from. the only clue he has about this mystery girl is the image of a long mane of fire-kissed hair. note: as default for this verse, this girl, who’s also the Second Brother’s lover, is represented by Ygritte --- however, i am open to discuss this and adapt it to different thread ideas. Jon tends to be rather secretive about this story, mainly because he can hardly understand it himself, but it is an overarching theme in his daily life. for example, he’s got a liking for drawing and painting, and the bulk of his spontaneous creations are related to this girl.

          yet another manifestation has to do with the manipulation of time-space. again, this is something that i am headcanoning out of my own musings, because (as far as i know) we do not have information about any sort of spells or anything else able to alter the time-space dimension, save for the time turner device. because the Second Brother was able to project his obsessive will throughout the centuries, however, creating a horcrux in the form of a baby in modern days, Jon retains a little bit of this gift. he cannot do it at will at all and it is a very consuming process, but, whenever his emotions are in strong disarray (e.g., very angry, very sad, very anxious), at times it provokes minor mishaps in the time-space --- such as rewinding a few minutes in time without meaning to, or accidentally warping objects or even to make them disappear.

          on the other hand, Jon’s biggest flaw as a wizard comes from a rather mundane fact: that he has severe phobia of heights. logically, this greatly hinders his skill to ride a broom, which is something he avoids as much as possible. during his first year at Hogwarts, he actually scored a very brilliant last place in Madam Hooch’s flying class and was only able to push through it by means of exceptional willpower and determination --- but make no mistake, he’s the worst broom rider ever and will cling to you for dear life & squish your ribs flat if you make him fly anything else at all with you --- this, if he actually doesn’t slip off it altogether and smacks himself down on the ground below.

          as far as his faithful companion goes, and no surprises here, in Jon’s case it is Ghost. wolves (a regular wolf, not a direwolf, in this verse) are usually not a welcome presence on the school grounds, but, thanks to the good relationships between the Starks and Rubeus Hagrid, and once the animals proved to be well trained and no threat to the students, they were allowed to live in the Forbidden Forest and to visit the castle’s outside areas, though not the castle itself.

a sum-up of general details:

default verse age: varies between 11 and 18, depending on the school year;

in post-school year threads, Jon is a professor at Hogwarts and responsible for the Divination class;

bisexual and biromantic (note: because of his longing for the mysterious girl, building up a romantic relationship with him will take time and effort, though i am not opposed to it if chemistry is present. for this same motive, unless otherwise plotted beforehand, the default, no matter Jon’s age, is that he never had a relationship before, at both sexual and romantic levels);

social drinker, more for the fun of it than anything else, and doesn’t smoke;

no tattoos and no piercings, because he personally doesn’t see the appeal in it;

is quite short-sighted and wears glasses;

sucks at winking because he cannot blink only one eye at a time.

wizarding world details:

Jon’s wand is fir wood with a unicorn hair core, twelve inches, and rigid flexibility. 

          Gerbold Octavius Ollivander always called wands made of fir ‘the survivor’s wand’, for having sold it to three wizards who subsequently passed through mortal peril unscathed. this wood, coming as it does from the most resilient of trees, produces wands that demand staying power and strength of purpose in their true owners, and they are poor tools in the hands of the changeable and indecisive. fir wands favor owners of focused, strong-minded and, occasionally, intimidating demeanor. unicorn hair generally produces the most consistent magic, and is least subject to fluctuations and blockages. wands with unicorn cores are generally the most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts. they are the most faithful of all wands, and usually remain strongly attached to their first owner. minor disadvantages of unicorn hair are that they do not make the most powerful wands (although the wand wood may compensate) and that they are prone to melancholy if seriously mishandled, meaning that the hair may 'die' and need replacing.

          if, in any situation, Jon was to face a Boggart, it would shift into the shape of a broom --- more concretely, one actually poking at him and trying to get him to ride it. this is the symbol of his deep fear of flying and, ultimately, his deep fear of heights. to counter it, his Riddikulus spell would change the broom into a cute dancing one, worthy of any Disney movie.

          Jon’s class record goes as follows, with little fluctuation during the different years (Arithmancy was a third option allowed exceptionally to him when picking the classes to add to the core ones, based on his great talent and liking for the subject):

Arithmancy:  (O)utstanding

Astronomy: (E)xceeds Expectations

Care of Magical Creatures: (E)xceeds Expectations

Charms: (E)xceeds Expectations

Defense Against the Dark Arts: (E)xceeds Expectations

Divination: (O)utstanding

Flying: (D)readful

Herbology: (A)cceptable

History of Magic: (A)cceptable

Potions: (A)cceptable

Transfiguration: (E)xceeds Expectations

          finally, Jon’s Patronus charm takes the form of a Thestral --- more information HERE. Jon is also able to see real Thestrals, for having witnessed death before --- not in his current life, but in his past one. this fact brings confusion both to him and to those he tells about it, exactly because, in his current life, he’s never witnessed a death. it is yet another remnant of his existence as the Second Brother, and the tragic loss of his lover.