Basics
Name: Zak Stinson
Age: 28
Hometown: Banff, Alberta, Canada
Blood status: Mixed
Position at Hogwarts: Care of Magical Creatures Professor
Personality:
5+ words that best describe your character: Young, Relaxed, Naturalistic, Druidic, Humour, Colonial, Mixed
Brief Personality Description (150+ words):Young: Zak grew up in a mix of Canadian Muggle and Wizarding Worlds. Since American youth culture has saturated North America, Zak has grown up to enjoy it. he like being young and going out to clubs, both magical and otherwise, and he like hangout out with friends and being active in the world. He loves music and sometimes follows trends so his life seems to remake itself every year or so
Relaxed: Zak is not a serious person by nature. He can be serious but he’s not one to be so all the time. He dosen’t get caught up in little things and most harsh words slide right off him. When teaching he avoids the term professor at all costs and prefers just being called Zak. He a bit lax about his due dates, and he’s reasonable about make up tests and missed classes. He has never been one to take points but hands them out generously.
Naturalistic: Zak loves the natural world, the real natural world that has all of the magic and non magic living together. He thinks it s a perfect balance in the way things are and wishes the human world could mimic it. In Muggle life he supports many green movements around the world, though primarily in Canada and Britain, and thinks there’s a simple answer to global warming: Magic.
Druidic: Zak see magic as a natural art and as hugely organic. To him, the practise of magic is one of the deepest ways to be in tune with nature. Almost everything in the Wizarding world is of natural creation, leather, wood, stone, ext. He practises a lot of his magic outdoors and prescribes to many of the ancient ideas of magic in nature, lay lines, sacred spots and many other traditional ideas.
Humour: If you can’t laugh, what can you do? Zak has a great sense of humour and love to see people laugh. His jokes are often a little off color, and mix Magical and Muggle humour that’s often lost on some people, and its likely that he’s offended more than a few people. but Zak thinks that if you get offended over something that’s meant to be funny then you’re taking things far too seriously, and you need to lighten up.
Colonial: Zak did get a decent dose of Canadian history from his mother before going off to the Rocky Mountain Institute of Magical Learning, so he knows that Canada came from Britain and his mother, Elizabeth Rosewood, was a English witch that moved to Canada and she taught him all about how Wizards help settle the west and the great battles they fought against the natives wizards and shamans and how the British wizards won the day and tamed the west. He imagines himself as a Grandchild of England (Zak>Canada>Britain) and refers to his home as a colony and redirects a lot towards Britain in general.
Mixed: Zak grew up in a mixed blood household. His father was a muggle born Canadian Wizard, William ‘Bill’ Stinson, who had a daughter, Beth, from a failed marriage to a non magical muggle woman who married a English Witch, Elizabeth Rosewood, who also had an young son, Alexi, from a former Wizard lover. So Zak, the youngest child, is the middle of the continuum when it comes to bloodtype. In this way as he grew up he got the influx of the muggle world from Beth while at the same time learning about the Wizarding one form Alexi. So in his late teens Zak came to the conclusion that he was a mix between the two worlds and he began to live it. he ‘came out’ to most of his muggle friends as a wizard and started to mix his muggle and Wizarding life. Since even in wizarding Canada every ones pretty open to everything the two groups merged well and he created for himself a group of friends that met his needs. When he moved to Britain in his mid-twenties he found it hard to create the same atmosphere as he had in Canada and misses it a lot.
Physical Appearance
General appearance (100+ words): Zak is tall ish. Not like over powering tall but your usual half inch above most type thing. His hairs a honey brown blond mix, kinda like a good ale. His eyes are a simple blue, nothing striking or steely just a muted blue-grey. They do posses a puppy dog quality to them that’s made more than a few people melt. He is usually is a state of half scruff beard which he occasionally shaves and loses about two years off his appearance. He has a lean frame, mostly form continual field work and active living. He has more than a few scars and scrapes from various misshapes close calls. He also has an old burn that won’t heal that he received from a close call with a Chinese Fire ball.
When it comes to dress he’s a more eclectic mix of modern western muggle and youth wizard trends. He prefers to utilise the sensible, comfortable clothes. He shies away from the long voluminous robes of other wizards since he finds them cumbersome and impractical for field work or anything done with live creatures.
History
Schooling: Zak never attended a muggle school as a child, but instead spent much of his time with his father on his research expeditions to study magical beast around the world. He learned much about them and often thinks of it as his primary education. He, like most young wizards west of Manitoba, studied at the Rocky Mountain Institute of Magical Learning, located somewhere between Alberta and British Columbia. It is the chief magical school in western Canada and ranked third in North America. There he spent the first 6 years (In Canada magical Primary schooling starts at age ten) studying the basics then chose to majored in Magizoology and a minor in Magical Education (After you finish six years of Primary Schooling you move to your four years Secondary schooling after a year break where you choose a Major to focus on, while working on your advanced magical skills). He graduated in 2001.
Post-Hogwarts Life: After graduation he began work with his father as a research assistant for the Canadian Parliament of Magic’s Ministry of Magical Wildlife, where he was studying the few dragon species in Canada. At 24 he went on a Magizoological survey of the Nile river and then of the Black Forest, after which he wrote two highly celebrated papers. At 26 he taught briefly at La Nouvelle Académie de France de Bourse Magique (The New France Academy of Magical Scholarship) in Quebec city, before leaving on another survey, this time of southern India. At 27 he moved to London and from there he accepted a post as care of Magical Creatures Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Personal
Parents: William ‘Bill’ Stinson and Elizabeth Rosewood
Siblings: Beth and Alexi Stinson
Spouse/Significant other: Zak’s had a few girlfriends and boyfriends over the years but nothing serious
Other: Zak speaks very, very bad French
Lesson Plan: 3rd and 4th year classes*:
101-1: Intro to European Magical Creatures, Focus on British Isle. In Class Specimen: the Anglo-Saxon Unicorn
101-2: Creatures of the British Isles continued. In class Specimen: Undines
101-3: In class specimen: Salamander. Pairs of students will be assigned a salamander egg to hatch. Paper assigned; topic: European magical creature of choice (dragons excluded)
(101-4: Assistant run class)
101-4(5): Building environments for the Salamander, as well as a short study of the Drake.
101-5(6): Post hatching. Care of Salamanders. Paper due
(101-7: Assistant run class)
Final Exam
*I’m working under the Belief that Care of Magical Creatures is still a 3rd year class.
5th and 6th year classes
202-1: Intro to Asian and North African Magical Beasts. In Class Specimen: Arabian Unicorn
202-2: Magical Beasts of North Africa. In Class Specimen: Wadjet
202-3: Middle Eastern and Arabian Creatures. In Class Specimen: Efreet
202-4: South Asian Creatures; India. In class Specimen: Naga. Paper assigned; Topic: Research North African or Asian creature of choice and explain their magical attributes (Dragons excluded)
202-5: South Asian Creatures, cont; Indo-China. In Class Specimen: Garuda
202-6: Creatures of the Orient; China and Japan. In class Specimen: Qilin
202-7: Creatures of the Orient, cont; Korea and Mongolia. In class Specimen: Kumiho. Paper due.
Final Exam
7th year classes
303-1: Intro to North American Beastiary. In class specimen: American Unicorn
303-2: Creatures of the Canadian Shield and Arctic. In class Specimen: Adlet
303-3: Beasts of the Great planes and America: Canotila
303-4: Desert creatures of the Southern States and Mexico. In class special: Chindi. Paper Assigned: Research two Creatures in North America and how they Interact with the Environment (Dragons Excluded)
303-5: Creatures of Central America. In class special: Ahuizotl
303-6: Beasts of the Amazon. In class Specimen: Boi-tatá
303-7: Creatures West of the Andes. In class Specimen: Alicanto
Final
Advanced Course: Dragons of the World
Adv-1: Intro to Dragons: What is a Dragon? In class specimen: Welsh Green Hatchlings
Adv-2: European Dragons
Adv-3: Eastern Dragons
Adv-4: American Dragons
Adv-5: African Dragons. Paper assigned: Research a Dragon breed not mentioned in this course.
Avd-6: Middle Eastern Dragons (possible in class specimen, maybe)
Avd-7: Dragons of the Sea. Paper Due
Final
RP of Lesson (400+ Words):The sun was the perfect mix of intensity and brightness. The combination of light breeze and generally shady area of the standing stones made it very pleasant to be outside. Upon accepting the job position he had made it perfectly clear that he would be teaching almost all of his classes outside around the grounds. Zak had spent the week before class was to begin scouring the expansive grounds for suitable locations. He found several, though he decided not to use the three found in the Dark Forrest, but many of them were majestic to say the least.
Few had stunning views of the mountains that surrounded Hogwarts, while one was actually a natural amphitheatre surrounding a small clear water pool. Though his favourite place had been the standing stones. He felt like this was what the class was about, magic and nature in perfect balance. He felt that it would bring a unique and awe inspire aspect to the course. He hoped that the creatures he had arranged for several of the lessons would aw his students. He had crafted the course so that he had reason to share these majestic creatures with his students.
Sitting in the center of the circle, he felt the light breeze play around his circle of standing stones, birds flit through the glade as the Unicorns grazed in the grass around. They had been enticed to stay at the site by the censors burning vanilla and camomile, two scents that have always enticed Unicorns to an area. Unicorns were a pretty basic magical creature, everyone knew of them and everyone liked them. they were generally harmless, or at least the Anglo-Saxon breed. Black Siberians could be dangerous but they were a strange and rare breed that he had no interest in showing to his students.
Zak opened an eye as he heard the magical bells chime in the distant towers of Hogwarts. His students would be arriving shortly, lead to their Stones by the trail of ribbons that fluttered in the direction the students were meant to follow. Around the center of the Stone Circle Persian carpets and low writing desks had been scattered. As much as he loved the out doors there were practical elements to the class. Though some wizards would have made the outdoor class far more gaudy and decked out far more. But Zak didn’t like that idea for his classes. No his were going to be a more organic class. Just the way magic should be.
Preference of labour division (if any): co-professorship/student assistant two to three classes per-course run by the assistant or co-professor
Estimated activity: Weekly to Bi-weekly
