Melody Lestrange
NOTE:This is the page for the OLD version of this character. Her parentage was changed after the release of Order of the Phoenix. The new character's page is here  

Overview
House:	Slytherin
Year:	Fifth (in 1995-96)
Wand Core:	Doppelganger Hair
Wand Casing:	11 1/4" Mountain Laurel
History
Melody was wizard born, daughter to a pair of the most fanatical devotees of the rights of wizard born to ever take up the title of Death Eater.  Born the March before Harry Potter, it wasn't long after he lost his parents that she lost hers as a result of Voldemort's fall.  The Lestranges remain to this day in Azkaban for their numerous atrocities including use of the Crucio Curse on the Longbottoms. Their daughter was raised until the age of ten in London muggle orphanages, but always under the close eye of the Ministry of Magic, most notably Barty Crouch whose own son had been a part of the same incident that sent her parents to prison.  She has seen her parents only once, at the age of seven, when they were brought before the Ministry for questioning on an incident which they were suspected to have been involved in.  It is unclear whether the act of allowing the child to see this go on with her parents was supposed to be a kindness in letting her meet them, or just one of the Ministry's warnings of what she can expect if she turns out like her family. Their efforts perhaps worked a bit too well, producing a girl who was uncertain of her every action. Like many children who exude such uncertainty, Melody while in wizarding school was a target for being picked on, as she lacked the ability to retaliate. At age fifteen she was transferred to Hogwarts due to the events at the TriWizard tournament. She was desolated to be put into Slytherin, and never completel lost her envy of Gryffindors. She spent her single year at that school without ever truly understanding that with her childish tendencies to care only about what she wanted, she was by nature suited to Slytherin. She made both friends and enemies, but none would have more impact on her than Trevor McGaritty, a fellow Slytherin fifth year who she chose to follow. Both in their own way were burdened by their lineage.
Goblet of Fire References to the Lestranges

Melody's Story

Aethel's Commentary 

Melody's RP took place in an alternate 1995-1996 school year, after Goblet of Fire, and in real life before Order of the Phoenix was written. She was a vastly complex character, one who even with hundreds of pages of play, I never fully got the chance to explore. Her greatest flaw was an inability to take responsibility for her actions, something she was only beginning to discover by the end of the year. She garnered much sympathy from people until they got to know her better, and would come to realize she wasn't the victim of malice she believed herself to be, but rather of her own manipulations. Because she never saw that it was her own habit to take whatever she wanted, especially emotionally, that caused people to turn against her, she never grew past a certain point. It's not surprising that she was immature. She was only fifteen, and moreover never had any true parental influences. There were several adult characters who she cared for despite herself and the fact they didn't just give her everything she wanted. She never had a chance to realize this was a manifestation of her own need for a parent figure. She was in essence lost under the weight of her parents' name. While she embodied many ideas, this was the one that I played most heavily with, as to one degree or another almost all children are trying to differentiate themselves from their parents. (It was also one I was gratified to see raised in Order of the Phoenix with the increased emphasis on how Snape and Sirius could only view Harry as his father. I also devoted a good deal of time to the idea the sorting hat brought up, that the houses were in essence divisive.)

Melody was never a strong person, she was "evil" because it was easier than being good. This is why it was so easy for her to feel like her only value was in her parents' legacy, and to a lesser extent her beauty, all gifts of her blood rather than anything she'd earned. Towards the very end of her tale she began to have an inkling of her flaws, when she inadvertently betrayed the trust of Trevor, the only person she had ever truly felt loyal to. The themes of the nature of friendship and loyalty also played heavily into this character, who wanted so much to be liked and yet never really was friends with anyone but Trevor. She wanted Slytherin to be something it wasn't, but it was something she herself was equally incapable of. And while I believe that in another year she would have solidly come to embody loyalty (as I always saw deliberate parallels between her worship of Trevor and her mother's of Voldemort), it was a chance that within the span of RP she never got. I honestly can't say what I picture her future holding "off screen", whether she would ultimately grow up enough to work towarding being a person people could like as much as she always wanted them to, or whether she'd never get past so much of the resentment she holds for perceived wrongs. Either way I believe a part of her will always love Trevor, who despite how much he thrived in Slytherin, really had far more in common, in terms of self worth and bravery with the Gryffindors he hated and Melody envied, than she herself ever would.

Factlets

• Melody did not have a role in the selection of her wand, and thus her spells often lacked power
• She was eventually going to get a wand with a veela hair core
• Mountain laurel, like yew, is a poisonous tree
• She actually hates muggles, and was a delinquent in the muggle world, but I never got a chance to do summer RP with her and explore this facet
• The difference in assertivenes was due to the fact that it was only wizards(aurors) who intimidated her in childhood
• Melody highly exaggerated her treatment by the aurors. Usually she had done something to prompt a scolding visit.
• Her tag line Scelus Parentum Liber Praegravat means "the sins of the parents weigh on the child"
• Her birthday is March 21'st, the first day of spring

~*Melody Lestrange*~ | ~Gabriel Archer~ | ~Lucius Malfoy~ | *Kimmy Knightdale* | -Jacob Wrathorne- | #Professor Meridian#