Helge

Helge Nyström from Sweden

Helge has just turned 16 as the story begins. He lives with his parents in Stockholm. Kalle, another boy from Stockholm tells about Helge: "Helge is my cousin, he lives in the same block of flats as Anna and I, only next door and all the way up the stairs, under the roof."
    His father, Karl Oskar is a wizard, he works at a greengrocer's and is sickly, his mother, Kristina, is not magical, and do not like that Helge and his father share this characteristic. She is a big woman, and quite rough to Helge and Karl Oskar.
   Although Helge is tall and gangly, he looks and acts younger than his years, more of an age with his cousins, Kalle, 13 and Anna, 11. Their mother is Karl Oskar's sister.
   Helge has a hard time with his mother, she always invents jobs for him, that he has to finish before going anywhere, and as he is growing, he is clumsy and always breaks things, spill water and milk and all kinds of mishaps, this leads to him never having much of his allowance left, and almost never getting anywhere in time.
   During Karl Oskar's frequent illnesses Helge is forced to work even harder to fill in for him. Anna and Kalle tries to help, as does Britta, Harald, Lukas and Bo, who are distant cousins and lives near by. But Kristina's draconic temper makes it hard for them.
His beech wand emits grey sparks.

We first meet Helge, as he arrives, a bit late, the first day, brandishing a dish brush. He joins the Potions team and is always pleased to help when he can, but his clumsiness makes it tough on him, and on the ones he's helping.