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born in the early, cold days of a new decade, madeline became the newest member of a family whose lineage dates back to the late twelfth century and whose name is well known on every french wizard’s lips due to contributions like helping to establish beauxbatons academy, or to political figures bearing their name such as jacques rousseau and jasmin rousseau, who both served as president of the french ministry of magic in the early eighteenth century. however, their name is most remembered for the establishment of ROUSSEAU, which began as a company for high-end furniture before it became a clothing line in the late 1800s, which offered haute couture for the modern wixen with the means to afford it. although ROUSSEAU is a high-fashion brand, it has also created a ready-to-wear, relatively affordable line for the period following the First World War, selling to both wixen, as well as muggles before the great depression hit and again closed their doors to muggles.

juliette and luc, newly wed in 1940 through an arranged marriage between the pureblood families of belleroses and rousseaus, had been visiting luc’s parents in vichy when the germans invaded france and were therefore separated by many other members of the rousseau family. although they were wizards and therefore had their own means to travel between the occupied and free zones, they still suffered a handful of casualties at the hands of the germans as they attempted to cross the border between both zones once they stopped allowing people to move between zones. it was a dire time for the family, and once acclimated, luc, juliette, and luc’s parents further invested into marketing in order to up their sales. they developed a way to funnel money to the family living in the occupied zone, but being separated from their family, especially on occassions such as hollidays, took its toll on those members of the rousseau family. for two years, the rousseaus would remain separated, doing what they could to help their family until the axis powers disassembled the vichy government and luc and juliette and luc’s parent’s apparated in england. although it should be noted that the rousseaus living in the occupied zones could have done the same, and some did, the rosseaus had lived in france for all of their lives and most had established lives in their specific areas and did not wish to leave them to these muggles.

france did not possess the same view of blood purity as it seemed england did, despite the two countries practically being neighbours. blood purity was not a major issue as it would become in england, although france did possess its own ‘sacred’ families, they did not rely on the purity of their blood. despite this, the rousseaus, as the belleroses, were some of the few families who continued in practices of marrying between families of high standing and, after the first world war, also sought families which they saw as ‘fit’ to continue their bloodline; similar to how france sought to repopulate by allowing immigration from specific countries and ethnicities in order to create a society that it saw as desirable. the rousseaus, however, never let it be known that these were practices they engaged in, nor were they particularly open about their political views.

when madeline’s parents and her grandparents moved to england, luc and juliette moved on establishing a fashion house in london and began to develop the company to such heights that, once the war ended, they were so well established that their sales sky rocketed as people sought to spend their money in a way they never could have before the war. in england, the ROUSSEAU house was the wizarding equivalent of Chanel or other muggle fashion houses.

eventually, juliette would become the first female co-owner of ROUSSEAU and would become the type of woman madeline would come to admire from afar. given their work, it seemed as though juliette and luc were never there when their daughter needed them the most. sure, they saw the intelligence their daughter displayed and had considered moving her up a year in school due to her brilliance, but they did not show nearly enough interest to satisfy madeline’s need for their care and attention.

madeline, who would have preferred going to beauxbatons but had been convinced by her parents to go to hogwarts in exchange for whatever outrageous favour she could think of, had sorted herself into ravenclaw during her research on the school, but when came down to the actual sorting, had been placed into the house of slytherin, where she made friends with people whom she would have disliked and avoided under normal circumstances, but had come to terms with accepting their friendship.

madeline would be known as one of the less ‘extreme’ members of slytherin and could possibly be seen as the type of person one could rely on not to be a purist despite those she chose to make friends with.