#about jackson

Hogwarts's Deputy Headmistress actually knew of Jackson long before his other professors. As Deputy Headmistress, it was her responsibility to write to all those students who the Book of Admittance had chosen to attend Hogwarts each year, and one of those such students was Jackson. You can imagine Matilda Weasley's shock and concern when -- after sending Jackson's letter to the address on file for Cassandra Knightly -- she received a letter back from Cassandra's father, Everard Knightly, explaining that his grandson had been kidnapped by his Muggle father the previous year and taken to places unknown. Matilda followed up with the Ministry of Magic about this, and sure enough, a case file had been opened, but with no further leads, it had gone cold and there was no indication of where poor Jackson might be. Matilda was heartbroken by the news and actually sent several letters to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement over the next two years, pressuring them to keep looking for Jackson, just as Everard had been. Fortunately, after nearly three years of separation from his mother, twelve-year-old Jackson was discovered in New York City thanks to the efforts of one Adelia Selwyn @thatravenpuffwitch and the MACUSA. Matilda was very relieved by the news, and quickly set about preparing the new arrival to start his second year at Hogwarts.

One could argue Matilda Weasley was predisposed to like Jackson from the offset, just because of everything he'd suffered through prior to getting to school, but this isn't wholly true. Jackson just turned out to be a rather amiable, charming boy -- upon first meeting Matilda Weasley at the Knightly estate before he started at Hogwarts, Jackson immediately bowed to her, offered to take her cloak, and even brewed up a pot of tea for her, his mother, his grandfather, and himself, without any prompting. Matilda was also both startled and awed when Jackson ended up moving the furniture around the room and even conjuring a white rose out of thin air for his mother, all without a wand. Matilda was quick to caution Jackson about using wandless magic, given the risk of becoming an Obscurus -- a warning she'd have to give him several more times in his school career -- but she could already see that this young man had extraordinary magical talent, especially for her own subject, Transfiguration. When Jackson started at school officially, he soon became one of Matilda's most gifted students, acing just about every Transfiguration assignment he was ever given. Matilda would've probably sung Jackson's praises as a student if it weren't also for him constantly breaking school rules. Sneaking into Hogsmeade; exploring forbidden corridors; breaking into the Headmaster's Office and the Restricted Section; finding dangerous creatures in the Forbidden Forest; sparking duels in the corridors -- Matilda quite frequently arranged for Jackson to serve his detentions with her, just so she could make sure the other professors (like his Head of House, Abraham Ronen) wouldn't go too easy on him and she could bend his ear off about him squandering his potential and defying authority just because he thought he could get away with it.

As Jackson grew older, though, he grew a little wiser and more responsible, to the point that he decided he wanted to go into politics, to make a real difference in the world. Matilda was very encouraged to hear that Jackson hd earned a place on the Minister's support staff while still a young adult and was even more pleased when Jackson became Minister for Magic. She even attended Jackson and Monty's wedding at the Knightly estate. The two did end up having something of a falling-out, though, when Jackson made the decision to actively keep the British Wizarding World out of World War I -- the Weasleys in general, being both so strongly pro-Muggle-rights and unafraid of conflict or battle, were all vocally opposed to the decision, and Matilda was no exception. She even condemned Jackson in a letter at one point, saying that she would never have imagined he could be so blinded by the fears of his past that he'd place a higher value on the Statute of Secrecy than on his constituents' families' lives. After Grindelwald's rise to power, however, Jackson earned back Matilda's favor when he publicly, candidly, and passionately rebuked Grindelwald and his ideals, regardless of anyone else's opinions on the matter. The now elderly retired professor even Transfigured a letter into a paper owl to ensure it reached Jackson at the Ministry, in which she applauded his courage and admitted that she'd always admired how Jackson had never allowed his father's cruelty to blind him with hatred toward all Mugglekind, let alone the world and Fate overall. Later that decade, Jackson was one of many attendees to Matilda Weasley's funeral, and when asked to speak, spoke very fondly of his ex-professor --

"In some ways at school, she was very much like what I've heard many mothers are, for their children. I do very much love my own mother -- but Professor Weasley tried so very hard to try to 'keep me in line,' back then, as it were. And yet, even then, it was like I was doing a high-wire act for her, while doing it -- performing in front of the whole world, showcasing my potential for everyone to see and towering higher than I ever could've, if she hadn't kept me walking that straight and narrow wire. ...I am grateful, truly grateful, that I got to know such a talented witch...a brilliant professor...and a remarkable woman. So let us, when next we enjoy our favorite drink, surrounded by those who push us to be better with their mere presence...take a moment to toast our dearly departed professor. To Matilda Weasley."

How to Summon -

Jackson Whittemore Edition

simply say his name three times spoken unbroken and he will appear.

BOLD : your character does not enjoy this ITALIC : your character is begrudgingly okay with this, used to do it, or will at least look the other way. STRIKETHROUGH : your character displays this trait, approves of or engages in. NO FORMAT : unimportant or irrelevant to your character.

swearing / profanity.  being petted.  certain colors.  nail biting.  quiet environments or people. loud environments or people.  slang usage.  mumbling.  tapping.  knocking.  rocking back and forth. humming.  twiddling of thumbs.  nails on a chalkboard. hedonism.  off-key singing. obnoxiousness.  overconfidence and / or cockiness.  crying.  shyness.  scratching. proper grammar / formal speech. not chewing with their mouth closed. belching. unshaven / unkempt people.  poor hygiene. yelling.  certain smells.  religious people.  non-religious people. zealots. hypocrisy. arrogance.  ignorance.  defiance. assumptions being made about them.  rumors.  arguing. infidelity or cheating. backstabbing.  routines.  gluttony.  laziness. procrastination.

tagged by: @mccallofthewild

13. Describe your character's typical wardrobe for the regular day.

Jackson is a typical dandy! Even while wearing robes at Hogwarts, he always wore his trousers very slender and fitted, his shoes perfectly shined, and his tie knotted formally. He's also very prone to wearing bright white or colorful dress robes and white gloves for more formal occasions.

20. Does your character have a comfort item?

I'm going to give kind of a weird answer here, but the closest thing to a "comfort item" for Jackson is an apple tree that he and his grandfather Everard planted together in the garden outside Everard's manor. When Jackson was a boy, there was an apple tree in his old neighborhood that he loved climbing and reading under, and he was heartbroken to learn it had been cut down while he was in America with his father. After learning of this, Everard bought Jackson a small apple sapling as a gift, and the two cemented a strong, loving relationship through taking care of the tree together. Even after Jackson moves out of the Knightly estate and into a new home with his new husband Monty @cursebreakerfarrier, he took an apple from that tree and buried one of its seeds in his new garden, so that he could tend to a tree of his own born of the one he and his grandfather planted together.

21. What would be one item that they would hate to lose most?

His personal library! Especially his books of poetry -- no matter how well Jackson can recite the works of Lord Byron from memory, being able to parse through the old, earmarked pages and revisit his poems as written is a joy he has trouble expressing.

Jacko is a little funny about public displays of affection. He's really quite openly affectionate in the sense of showering people with compliments, clapping his friends on the shoulder or back, and shaking hands (for men) and kissing hands (for ladies). When it comes to actual hugs, kisses, etc., though, even with his own family, Jackson suddenly becomes incredibly image-conscious. This is largely thanks to his toxically masculine father, John Eglinton, who definitely suspected Jackson might be a "nancy boy" and tried very hard to beat it out of his son however he could. Jackson's fear of hospitals -- places where, in the Victorian period, "mad" people were frequently locked up and mistreated -- also partially stems from this, since Eglinton expressed the belief that "such people" were both criminal and sick in the head. Bloody prat. This makes it so that Jackson has trouble expressing anything too intimate or even tender in public and will only do it when there's some small sense of privacy for himself and the other person. When he's alone with that person he trusts, though, and they're able to share a real embrace or he's able to fix someone's tie or hair, Jackson adores every minute of it, because truthfully he is very starved for love and praise, and he loves partaking in it with those people he cares about and feels comfortable showing that part of himself with.

Aww, thank you, sweetie!! <33 I have ADHD too, so the way I wrote Jackson in that drabble is directly from my own experiences, trying to focus in classes that didn't engage my interest.

In high school, I took a beginner's Psychology class, where my teacher did perhaps one of the best things a teacher had ever done for me in my entire school career by actually hosting our classes outside next to the creek behind our school, rather than keeping us in his sterile, all-white classroom. The teacher in question had read multiple studies that people who study outside are less likely to suffer from depression than those who study inside -- and well, our students being depressed would be unsurprising, given that our entire school, like so many others in America, had been designed like a prison with no possible visual distractions anywhere. Even all of the school's windows were positioned at the very top of the walls, way too high to see out of. And contrary to what many administrators apparently think, having nothing else going on in the classroom doesn't make you pay attention to your teacher's lessons more -- on the contrary, studies show student productivity, attention span, engagement, and creativity are generally all better in an outdoor setting.

Now, admittedly, my brand of ADHD means I'm very prone to hyperfocus, so I find truly multitasking very difficult. Doing two completely different and equally challenging assignments at the same time would be incredibly difficult for me. Trying to troubleshoot my Wi-Fi while simultaneously writing down a grocery list -- yeah, no, I'd have to focus solely on one or the other. What I do find helpful, though, is having some sort of mindless "busy" work for my hands, eyes, feet, etc. to do while I'm focusing on that thing I'm really focusing on. It can also kind of "wake my brain back up" if I've gotten into a rut or I've lost track of what I was doing.

In Jackson's case, he's read these poems by Edgar Allen Poe so many times that he's memorized them, so he's not taking in any new information or challenging his brain too much by rereading them. Brewing tea is something he's done countless times too, so he can do it largely on autopilot. And walking around to do these things involve more physical movement than deep, involved thought. So all of those things help keep his mind present and aware enough to finish his potion, which is his primary focus.

For me, while I'm working on a challenging word game on my phone, I might occasionally pop over to my Tumblr app to scroll absently through some pictures and then go back to my game, or I might also put on some music or some background TV noise while I'm working on that puzzle. The word game at that moment is my focus -- it's just the stuff around it that keeps my brain flexed enough to do the mental exertion needed to focus on the primary thing.