Zacharias Smith
From Canonwars
Zacharias Smith (born 4 January 1980) is a minor character from the Harry Potter book series. He’s a former Hufflepuff and well-known for his “abrasive attacks” on Harry Potter during the DA meetings and the quidditch matches (even if they were not attacks). Smith is blond and often stupidly mistaken for Malfoy, even though he’s nothing like Malfoy because he’s not mean. He just needs to stick his foot in his mouth.
But don’t tell the stupid HP fandomers.
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Information
Background
The history of Zacharias Smith does not begin with Zacharias Smith or his father, Matthias Smith, but rather his very distant ancestor, Helga Hufflepuff—or rather, her brother, Horace Hufflepuff. Helga and Horace were three years apart and not particularly close, but it was Horace, the older of the two, that always protected Helga and her interests. When it came to her getting married, he did his best to keep her from being married off, and that eventually led to her being able to meet Rowena and the others, form Hogwarts, and eventually achieve national fame. In the long run, Horace Hufflepuff became more known for the fact that he was Helga's brother and a Hufflepuff than the fact that he was the one that made it possible for Hogwarts to have four houses. Good natured like his sister, though, he didn't bother too much with complaining, especially when he ended up marrying.
From then on, the Hufflepuff line didn't carry down through Helga, as one might suspect, but her brother, Horace. Helga, after all, did not marry due to her intellectual endeavors that were practically unheard of for women at that time. She wasn't Heloise to an Abelard, after all, though many people did have suspicions about the four founders and how they were tied to one another. The only fact that mattered in the end was that Horace's son, Henry, ended up taking on all of Helga's claims to Hogwarts, though he didn't have a special interest in the school (even if he, too, was a Hufflepuff wizard and enjoyed being in the house of yellow and black—after all, they were his aunt's favorite colors and he quite liked his aunt, even if she was different).
Henry eventually carried into another Horace, Horace II, who eventually carried into a series of other names (the tradition of the Hs ended after the second Horace, however, when he had five sons and ran out of names). The second oldest of those five sons was the only surviving, and he eventually had several children, and this carried on until the sixteenth century, when Richard Hufflepuff had two daughters. One was named after their well-known ancestor, Helga, and the other was named Caroline. Caroline was the only one in the entire line that ended up sorted into something other than Hufflepuff—she was sorted into Gryffindor—and the only one that didn't have an interest to carry on the Hufflepuff interests. Helga, in true spirit to her name, was a true Hufflepuff, and ended up marrying a local Pure-blooded and respectable blacksmith, Jeremiah Smith (the last name obviously taken from his profession).
It was then that the Smiths started becoming known for their Hufflepuff lineage, even if they had little fame before that. The Smiths, an ironically religious family in a time when religion was becoming obsolete in wizarding society (especially since, a couple of centuries before, magic was barred as "evil" by the paranoid Catholic Church), had no desire to become anything but Pure-blooded, and when it came to their heirlooms, they cherished them. However, there are no recorded "Horaces" or "Helgas" outside of the first Helga in the Smith history, which is sometimes deemed as a "sign" to the other wizarding families.
From then on forth, though, the Smiths were known for their background, rather than their money or their position in wizarding society. The Blacks were well-known, and so were the Malfoys, but the Smiths were just that founder-related family. They weren't as important as the others, and even were looked down upon for marrying "lesser" Pure-bloods throughout the ages, right to the point in 1975 when Matthias Smith married Maria Gibbon. Matthias, a Hufflepuff like the majority of his family, married Maria out of priority, rather than the fact that he actually cared for her. The sister of a Death Eater, her brother frowned on the fact that she married someone that had no desire to become involved with the cause (and was more haughty and into himself, and therefore, neutral to many things around him).
The pair had a rocky relationship at first, as Matthias was struggling to maintain a good reputation while the world was falling apart. Due to stress and other engagements, the two were unable to conceive a child until 1979, and their first and only son, Zacharias Eran, was born in 1980 (three days after the first day of the year). Unknowingly, the little blond bundle of joy was born into a world full of chaos, chaos that stopped a year and ten months later when Voldemort was "destroyed" and order was returned. Matthias didn't like the fact that his wife was sullen after the fall of Voldemort, and sought to try and distract her from the events. It was around then that he decided that nothing could ever be perfect, for while he was inwardly wishing for the fall of Voldemort (as Voldemort threatened his lineage, Hogwarts, and the wizarding world itself, even if he never managed to be outspoken about his longing to keep any one of these things in place), his wife would never remain entirely attached to him. Matthias, an arrogant man, turned cynic at this time, and even ranted to his son about how he was going to give him everything and how he doubted that Zacharias, still a baby, would never grow to appreciate it.
Unsurprisingly, as a result of this, Zacharias grew up in a cynical and unusual atmosphere. His mother never allowed his father to inform him about his heritage at such a young age, as she thought he needed to learn how to be a good Pure-blood before he learned to be a Hufflepuff (in the hopes that he would become a Slytherin, even if he showed no particular cunning or ambitious streaks) and his father never informed him about Voldemort or how he was destroyed. It eventually leaked to the boy through his agemates, but he never put much weight into the story of how a baby younger than him at the time managed to destroy Voldemort.
For the most part, Zacharias grew up taking after his father—he was arrogant, yes, and a cynic (and therefore, rather inquisitive about everything around him), but a Hufflepuff in the end. Although his inquisitive nature led to him needing to read various children's books, and eventually books above what was his expected reading level before he entered Hogwarts, he never seemed so involved with learning about what he was reading as much as he wanted the answers. In some way, he was really seeking some truth, some justice, that few people could have ever expected out of a boy that was the nephew of a known Death Eater. He didn't get along well with his agemates, despite the fact that he associated with them frequently (albeit unwillingly at times), but that was mostly because he was outspoken. Someone could not acquire answers with a closed mouth, and he inwardly believed that obnoxious behavior, or caustic behavior, could instigate someone into answering something more times than not (a fact that he proved, or believed he proved, too).
At the age of eleven, Zacharias entered Hogwarts with Harry Potter, but he didn't bother to put much weight into the fact that Harry Potter was on the train with him. Instead, he focused on speaking to various people that he already knew, and getting to Hogwarts. When he arrived, it was a surprise to a few people that knew him while he was growing up that he followed his family line with being placed into Hufflepuff, but he ended up there all the same.
His first year of school was hectic, tedious, and a complete waste of his time. Zacharias didn't like living with his roommates. He found all of them to be annoying, especially the leader of the bunch: Ernie Macmillan. At the same time, however, he cherished their company, finding them to be necessary to his every day life. Of course, the far from emotional (in his humble opinion) and cynical young boy didn't allow this information to leak to his friends, and somehow, despite the fact that he always seemed to accompany his fellow Hufflepuffs to everything, he also remained on the outside of their activities. Yes, they were a hoard, a group of people that stuck together, but Zacharias never made it a secret that he was opinionated and he, more times than not, didn't care for his "friends'" personal opinions.
Things didn't change, despite the drama and stress surrounding the various people in his year being petrified (including his roommate, and friend-but-not, Justin Finch-Fletchley). He followed Ernie around like a "good Hufflepuff," but he didn't put any weight into the things that the boy said. He didn't think that Harry had the ability to do anything, but even he couldn't explain why Potter was a parseltongue. Despite everything, he felt a special connection to the violent activities, finding himself in a position of being a school "heir," so to speak, without announcing it to anyone. It was also the first year that he attempted to make it onto the quidditch team, but he failed at this task. The year itself ended, and when it did, he found the heroic actions of Harry to be blown out of proportion. If he and his friends couldn't do things like that, how could Harry Potter?
The skepticism was forgotten during his third year, when he made it onto the quidditch team and ended up growing close to Cedric Diggory and the other Hufflepuffs. It was the first and only year that Zacharias made an effort to be a so-called "true" Hufflepuff. For the most part, despite the inherent paranoia that moved through the school, he couldn't find himself bothered by too much. The cynic that lived inside of him wanted to break out, but he couldn't find reason. His third year ended without hitch, and he remembered the last quidditch match clearly—and hoped for a better showing the year after.
However, the year after did not mean a year for quidditch, and it became the most defining year in Zacharias' life. Despite the fact that he claimed to be indifferent to many Hufflepuff activities, he was among many in that house that felt a certain pride when Cedric Diggory was named Hogwarts Champion, and he couldn't hide the fact (at least to his roommates) that he disliked the fact that Harry was given the opportunity to share the title with him. For the most of the year, though, he kept his skepticism to himself and just supported, albeit quietly, his house's champion.
A crushing blow came to Zacharias at the end of the year when he learned that Cedric died, and the whole of the event seemed surreal to him. Rather than responding in such a manner that would have been positive, he instead dove into himself, and separated him from the "great Hufflepuff." It was then that Zacharias looked at his duties, his house placement, and realized that while Cedric was a perfect example of a Hufflepuff, he was far from that. While he wasn't particularly willing to change his entire personality, he was willing to do otherwise: he was willing to serve his house and his school. Going home that year, he silently made an oath to himself while his father cursed about the recent events. His father, more arrogant than ever, tried to make Zacharias promise that he would never get himself into anything that could compromise his lineage. Little did Matthias know that his son had already promised to do that, so his nod and silenced voice was a complete lie to his father.
The problem with that oath was that in his fifth year, he quickly realized that he would have to compromise his very dislike for Harry Potter in order to do what was necessary. He swallowed his extreme amount of pride and joined the DA, but it wasn't long before he gained a few enemies because of his skeptic behavior. Zacharias was always careful to put up a front of indifference: he acted like he didn't know Cedric very well, didn't care too much about the events, and did his best to get answers through the only means he knew (antagonistic means). As the year carried on, he likely grew to be more of an irritant to his peers, but he did remain a diligent member of the club, even if he didn't waste his time thwarting off "evils" that were the same age as him: Draco Malfoy and his "goons" being the ones included in that.
His sixth year rolled about after a summer of violence and threats from his father to discontinue his education at Hogwarts. Despite the family connection, Matthias Smith was not keen to the idea of the school falling down with his son inside of it. When Zacharias arrived on the train, he didn't mention any of this, and instead followed his usual routine: a routine that eventually landed him in the position of getting hexed before he arrived at Hogwarts (a praised attack by a future Professor, an action that only pissed him off).
Pissed off or not, Zacharias didn't openly retaliate against Potter's future girlfriend or anything, instead choosing to explore different activities in that year. Miffed at not being named quidditch Captain, he instead focused on trying to become an announcer; perhaps if he proved to be impressive at doing that, he would have Captain the next year. The year itself didn't prove to be too good for him when it came to quidditch or when it came to announcing, and he ended up further humiliated for his negative words against the "bold and apparently heroic Gryffindors."
When the year pulled to a close, Zacharias found himself pulled from school early by his father, and he forced himself to keep his head high. He felt like a bit of his pride had been ripped out of him, but he managed to make it through the summer afterward. His father made him go through private tutoring for the whole of his seventh year, but he had a long break when he had to help the glorious Gryffindors find the Hufflepuff cup. He was incapable of being successful at this task, as his father caught wind of what he was trying to do and attempted to remove the Cup from its vault at the bank. The incident led to a standing between Potter and Death Eaters and while none of them ended up dead, Matthias Smith was sent to St. Mungo’s soon after and announced to be dead within an hour. Despite this incident, Zacharias decided to join the side of the light (it had been a Death Eater who killed his father, who considered him to be useless). He continued his tutoring with one of the members of the Order of the Phoenix (though he never officially joined the Order because it was not safe) and at the end of the year, after Voldemort died, he took his NEWTs and passed with flying colors.
Since then, he’s joined the Department of Mysteries as an Unspeakable. He remains bitter, bitchy, and as caustic as ever. But that’s Zacharias Smith.
And he still hates when people call him by any form of a nickname. He is, and will always be, Zacharias.
In Purgatory
Zacharias has only just arrived and bitched about how much he hates it with Susan Bones and K'.
Player Information
Zacharias is played by Alison at caustically.
External Information
Zacharias Smith at Wikipedia.Org
Please note that the writer of this article speculates on things that cannot be taken as canon.
