NAME: Kyle Nathaniel Bundy
AGE: 16; 15 January 1981
HOUSE/YEAR: Slytherin/11th
SOCIAL STATUS: In Russia, his father’s family had money and power—some of them owned department stores, and historically, at least one male in each generation became a rabbi. His mother’s family were always a little poorer, the intellectuals, the poets and the philosophers and the like, a fact for which they were well-respected. His father’s side of the family lost all of their money when they fled the USSR and had to start all over again in England, and his mother’s family never had much money to begin with, despite their reputation for intellectualism. Kyle’s new money, work-money, and Jewish, and he’s got a chip on his shoulder about it.
SEXUALITY: Heterosexual.

APPEARANCE: Unfortunately, the thing that most people first notice about Kyle Bundy is his Jewfro. His hair is dark and curly and he hates going to get his hair cut, so it tends to grow out longer than it should, wild and unkempt—because brushing it hurts. Beneath the hair, he’s not a bad looking kid, despite the dark circles beneath his deep-set grey-brown eyes. All of his features seem, like his ‘fro, a little too big for his face: he has a very strong nose, a blunt chin, and a wide mouth with rather large lips. Sometimes, it works for him, and sometimes it doesn’t, particularly when he’s upset about something: he’s one of those people that looks okay in repose, and just unfortunate when they’ve lost their temper.

He’s tall: rapidly broaching six feet, and considering he’s only fifteen, he’s pretty solid as well. If he’s not careful, he’s the kind of person who will get a little stout. As it is, the required sports of the school and the fact that he often forgets to eat keeps him at an acceptable, if sturdy weight. He has rather broad shoulders, and that combined with his height and his features, often leads people to assume that he is older than he is.

He is, unfortunately, not a smiler. Although Kyle uses a wide array of smirks, sneers, and smug expressions as well as horrified annoyance to convey how he feels about the world, the pleasant grin that can occasionally be surprised out of him is hidden to most of the world. Kyle's expressions don't endear him to anyone, and add to his slightly off-putting appearance. Out of school, he dresses very casually in jeans and flannel and t-shirts if he can get away with it; he doesn't enjoy dressing up unless he has to, much to the despair of his parents. He's been wearing the same ragged pair of Chuck Taylors for two years, and they're duct-taped together at this point.

PERSONALITY: Kyle’s got something to prove. He’s very conscious of his family’s status and the fact that they’re not really going to be accepted. This frustrates him very much, because he believes that you should be judged on the quality of your character and your work, not who your parents were. (Despite the fact that he’s not above using his parents’ connections for his own advancement.) It’s been beaten into his head that his grandfather, who is extremely wealthy, built all of that from scratch after leaving Russia, and he has to do the family proud. His way of dealing with the pressure is to go them one better. But still, his insecurity has made him extremely touchy, and if someone casts aspersions on either his family, his religion, or his own talent, he’s got a hair-trigger temper.

He’s only fifteen, but he’s already a bit of a grumpy old man. An avowed pessimist, cynic, and skeptic, Kyle accepts nothing without rigorous study. He’s convinced that everything is going to turn out horribly, so that he can have the pleasure of being pleasantly surprised when it doesn’t. At least as a pessimist, you’re never disappointed. He similarly doesn’t have much faith in humanity in general, although part of that is just the fact that he’s intelligent and fifteen years old, a combination that is never good for anyone. He’s crabby, easily annoyed, and quick to show it. Much of the school has suffered from his sharp tongue and the only people he tries to rein it in around are the people who could have some direct effect on his future. Everyone else can feel his wrath, he doesn’t care.

Kyle is an arrogant shithead. He’s convinced of his own intelligence and superiority, and this is part of the reason why classists piss him off so much. It infuriates him that someone could be considered better or more important than he is just because of their name. His arrogance isn’t something he articulates (he’s not the kind of person to go around saying “I’m smarter than you are” or “I’m better than you are”), it’s just in the way that he treats people. He also has a God complex: he loves power over other people, which is one facet of why surgery appeals to him. Having someone laid out on a table, their life literally in your hands, is the ultimate thrill. And to have them owe you their life afterward… well, Kyle finds that really, really exciting.

It is impossible to turn his stomach or to gross him out. He’d eat sloppy joes in the morgue if it were allowed. Smells? Don’t bother him. Innards? Don’t bother him. He has a cast-iron stomach and the only thing that can make him nauseous are his own nerves.

Despite his less-than-appealing characteristics, Kyle isn’t all doom and gloom. There’s a genuine spark of interest behind his ambitions (med school --> surgeon --> chief of neurosurgery --> chief of all surgery) and his god-complex. To some extent, he does want to help people, it’s just that he has other motives behind good Samaritanism. He still believes in God despite his skeptical nature, and although he has a love/hate relationship with Judaism (particularly Orthodox Judaism) he still holds with the traditions, attends Shabbat services when he can, and is probably the only kosher-keeping student in Hogwarts. He hasn’t lost all of his faith in humanity either—it’s just not his fault that they keep proving him wrong. And once you get past all of guards he’s got up, he’s a good friend, if not the most affectionate friend. He might be gruff and not good at expressing his emotions, but he’ll listen if you’ve got a problem and do his best to figure out a solution. And as cutthroat as he might be in a professional environment, he’s yet to betray a friend’s trust.

He also has a genuine love of science. Unfortunately, the kind of person he is, he learns best by dismantling: breaking down and figuring it out, and then putting it together again. The way that the human body works fascinates him, and his best summer yet was helping to take them apart in an internship at a morgue. He loves anything that he can study and explain, really: physics, biology, chemistry, it’s all the same to him—fun. He also enjoys mathematics and while some people enjoy doing crossword puzzles, Kyle’s the sort of nerd who will relax on the weekend with a cup of tea and calculus problems. Literature’s beyond him, he doesn’t understand why anyone would want to read about things that didn’t actually happen, and he has no appreciation for the “beauty of language.”

He’s a workaholic and an ambitious little fuck. He’s also the kind of person who asks everyone else what they got on tests and who will argue with teachers over a couple of points on a test. Sure, it’s petty, but in his view, it’s justified by the fact that all of it will help him get into med school later on. Some people might be able to get by solely on their names, but no one who really matters knows who the hell the Bundys are, and he knows he’s going to have to do most of the work on his own. His sense of humour is morbid, as black as his heart and his coffee, he pulls all nighters when he doesn’t need to so that he can “get ready for university” and despises sport. He is the despair of his parents, because he will never be a Nice Jewish Boy or bring home a Nice Jewish Girl.

While he’s extroverted enough, most people would probably rather he wouldn’t: he’s kind of a jerk.

DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS: He at once hates the class system and plays into it: he’s aware of how low on the totem pole he is and therefore makes a big deal out of it whenever anyone brings it up. Also, he’s “the Jew”, and as much as he hates that that’s also a defining characteristic, it kind of is in this environment. He’s also a science buff, and both “that kid who spent a summer cutting up cadavers” and “that asshole.” And despite being “that asshole” he rarely curses.

LIKES: Biology, chemistry, physics, calculus, geometry, trig, discrete mathematics, morgues, dissection, Judaism, surgery, anatomy, those surgery shows where you can watch them on cable, his grandmother’s cooking, studying in libraries, playing the guitar, the British Museum, music without lyrics
DISLIKES: Literature of any sort, history, Orthodox Judaism, class consciousness, athletics, physical education, jocks, really well-done steaks, and that burning feeling you get in your lungs when you run in the winter, most television, lawyers, people listening to him playing the guitar, being guilted by his female relatives, music with lyrics

INSIDE SCOOP:

01. The only time he’s touched boobs was doing a human dissection last summer. The last time he’s kissed anyone was one of his cousin’s friends at her bat mitzvah. That was two years ago.
02. He’s extremely anxious before exams, to the point where occasionally he will throw up in the loo the night before. After he’s fine and he almost always does well, but he has to work on his nerves a little.
03. Although he’s probably going to be spending most of his life cutting people up in one form or another, he loves his meat extremely rare, although he can never get that at home since his mother will cook things until they have no moisture left.
04. He’s kind of a secret music snob, but doesn’t like to talk about it. Even if he does blare Mogwai and Godspeed You Black Emperor! records in the Slytherin dorms while he’s reading for exams. He also plays the guitar, but he’ll only practice when he knows that no one else can hear. This usually involves sneaking out to the forest and playing there.

HISTORY: The Bunich family always did well for themselves. Even during the hard communist years, even during the war, they managed to hold on to their money and their influence, the latter of which they solidified by holding onto a hereditary congregation in a large Moscow synagogue. However, in the early 50s, the KGB apparently had their eye on the family fortune, and to avoid being sent to the Lyublanka or even worse—Kolyma—they abruptly quit the country, sneaking out, as it were, in the middle of the night. Once in England, the Bunichs rapidly set about Anglicising themselves as much as they could. While Aleksandr Bunich kept his name and eventually gained a new congregation, Daniil Bunich decided that he’d be better off changing his name to Daniel Bundy and pretending to be as English as possible.

Daniel Bundy began from scratch, founding the first of his new stores in 1952. With his vicious ambition and his talent for business, he grew his empire; the first store became a second store, and a third, and eventually, a large, successful department store. He married Sara Lehrer, a well-off middle class English Jew, and had a child, Gabriel Bundy, in 1957. Twins, Samuel and Rebecca Bundy, followed in 1959.The Bunichs, on the other hand, continued much in the same way they always had, and though they were close with the Bundy branch of the family, they always disapproved of the extent of Daniel’s assimilation. Aleksandr Bunich’s congregation grew, and he also married, though his children, unlike Gabriel Bundy, never went to Hogwarts. Gabriel however managed to attend—and didn’t even need to go on scholarship, even though, as the son of a Russian immigrant, he was never really well-respected.

After Hogwarts, he went on to Cambridge, where he studied law. Upon completion of his studies, he moved to Birmingham and joined the prestigiously Anglican firm of Manwaring, Sykes, and Langtrey and married a nice Jewish girl named Rachel Gould, an accountant. In 1981, their first son, Kyle, was born. Gabriel made himself indispensable there, and eventually, became an equity partner three years later. In the meantime, they had more children, a daughter Caroline in 1984 and a son Russell in 1985. His brother Samuel, on the other hand, changed his name back to Bunich (in case the families weren’t hard enough to keep straight already) and took over his father’s congregation. Caroline is currently a Ravenclaw and enjoys writing bad poetry and moping, and Russell is in Gryffindor, and a jock. Kyle loves both of his siblings, but doesn't like either one of them.

Their respective careers took quite a bit of time, and their marriage was cordial and friendly rather than passionate, almost like a very close business partnership that occasionally involved reproduction. Their son and his siblings spent a lot of time at their uncle the rabbi’s house. He always felt slightly out of place there, despite the fact that his numerous cousins made attempts to include him in their play. But he hated going to the Orthodox services where his favourite cousin Naomi had to sit separately on the upper level of the synagogue, and he hated being told what to think by anyone, let alone the imposing rabbi, who held him to a higher standard because he was family. Kyle’s naturally skeptical nature set him apart from the Bunich side of the family, as well.

With his parents, he had an uncomfortable relationship. He was proud of what they had achieved, but they also terrified him. Whenever his father lost his temper, there was no yelling, just a very cold, disappointed voice. Whenever his mother lost her temper, she would turn up the guilt to level 11, and as everyone knows, no one can guilt like a Jewish mother (except a Jewish grandmother, maybe). Kyle’s greatest fear was disappointing his parents; whenever he brought home grades that didn’t match up to his potential, they reminded him how much their family had achieved with so little, and how he had to make them all proud. While this would have made some kids rebellious, and to some extent, it did make Kyle determined to “make his own way,” he was never a problem child in the traditional sense. His “rebellion” was confined to snarky remarks to his parents and deciding, instead of following in the footsteps of any members of his family, he would instead become a doctor.

He had a natural interest in it, too. From a young age and his admittance to Hogwarts, Kyle was planning his future. He concentrated particularly in the sciences, but also on securing volunteer positions and internships during the summers, not above using his parents’ connections to get him places. They have included hospitals and, last summer, a morgue. That was his favourite; he found the work legitimately fascinating.

In school, he doesn’t bother hiding it if he doesn’t like you or thinks you’re a moron. Similarly, he knows that despite his parents’ accomplishments, they’re not only new money, but they’ve earned it all by hard work. He’s got a chip on his shoulder about this, and also about the fact that he’s Jewish, and he is hypersensitive to anything he perceives as being anti-Semitic or classist. He has an unfortunately short temper although, like his father, he doesn’t explode, he merely gets very, very icy and nasty when he does, and this has not endeared him to a large amount of people. Not that he cares. Still, it means that he’s not exactly the most popular kid in his year by any stretch. He doesn’t play sports so he can’t curry favour that way.

Despite his cynicism and skepticism, Kyle’s still naïve enough to believe that he can get by entirely on merit and talent. He is the student head of the Medical Society.

ACADEMICS: English, English literature, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Pure Maths, Statistics, Psychology, Latin, Philosophy, Jewish Studies

ATHLETICS: .22 shooting, weight training (Michaelmas); archery, weight training (Lent); swimming (Summer)

EXTRA: Medical Society (student head), Mathematical Society, Science Society