#reinhard lestrange

Listen, I'm not saying that I have a very heavy favouring to these two men but for some reason I've been heavily vibing with them as I've worked on their personalities / core traits / general vibes also i think i have a weakness for insufferable men On a random side note, I am honestly considering saying 'fuck it' and finding a way to have 99% of these horrid men in my actual novel / the archives, EDIT: THIS GOT SO FUCKING LONG SO I'LL JUST YEET MARCEL AT YOU BC OUFT THIS IS SO FUCKING LOOONG

MARCEL ROSIER ; LOVING IMPERFECTION

Marcel Rosier — thirty-six years old — Walpurgis Knight — Pure-Blood Etiquette & Protocol Specialist — French / French Heritage — It's undoubted that Marcel's profession sounds archaic —— he operates within the shadows of pure-blood society and is highly regarded and known throughout the wizarding world. Marcel is the person who teaches upcoming heirs how to maintain certain standards that have been threatening to erode ever since the war had ended.

Marcel consults on presentation —— How to enter a room, how to hold a conversation, how to sit and stand and speak at different events and scenarios. Marcel teaches young pure-blood witches and wizards how to exist in a way that communicates a reflection of their lineage's power and refinement. After the war, pure-blood society has become desperate to maintain their hierarchy and distinction while pretending that it also no longer matters in the growing world.

Marcel knows every protocol, every exception, every unwritten rule that governs pure-blood interaction. He can identify a person's background from how they hold their fork. He can assess a family's standing from how their children enter a room.

Thusly, he provides the service of making prejudice look like taste, he teaches families how to exclude without appearing to exclude, how to maintain superiority without saying anything actionable, how to weaponize etiquette against those who weren't raised within it. It's subtle, the type of thing that is taught with discretion and threaded through lessons where it becomes natural to their psychology.

His client list is extensive and discreet.

The Greengrass's hired him when their daughter started dating a half-blood. The Zabini's brought him in to prepare their heir for international society functions. The Malfoys—Draco specifically—consult him on how to navigate rooms that used to welcome the name automatically and now require the type of performance that is frighteningly unwavering.

The Knights value him for what he teaches and what he represents. He keeps the standards—he's the one who ensures that pure-blood superiority expresses itself through taste rather than violence. Alongside this representation, Marcel's consulting work doubles as intelligence gathering— Every family that hires him reveals their anxieties, their vulnerabilities, and fears. The information is naturally given to Tom.

Marcel's views on Muggles is possibly the most prejudicial (compared to the other knights) and it tends to align closer in strength with how Tom views Muggles / Muggle-born—— Marcel believes that Muggle culture is juvenile, a millennia of human experience producing nothing worth preserving and no proper standards. To Marcel, muggles reinvent things that wizarding society perfected centuries ago, then congratulate themselves—— It's a waste and that's within itself is a tragedy. Marcel believes strongly that Muggles also can't be taught the same standards of pure-blood wizarding society. Not won't—can't.

THE ARTEMIS COMPLICATION / ROUTE ;

Artemis and Marcel officially meet when Artemis herself is invited to an upcoming event that is hosted by the Malfoy family —— The invitation is given to her out of politeness, her name had made ripples through the wizarding society, his mother is aware that the woman has had an affect on her son and they're genuinely close (although Narcissa can only tell so much from Draco's letters)

Draco —— sweet, innocent, naïve —— truly thought that Artemis wouldn't want to attend the event. The Malfoy heir started brushing off the event naturally; it would be boring, the food is always horrible, it's hours of standing. Eventually, it turned into genuinely trying to convince her not to attend; a muggle at a pure-blood function wouldn't be greeted with warmth, she would be facing prejudice and scrutiny and the type of comments that broke people.

This, only seemed to fuel Artemis' stubborn nature —— Also, she genuinely wanted to meet Narcissa since she is such a large part of Draco's life.

Thusly, and with much muttering and irritation, Draco himself hires Marcel to prepare the woman for the upcoming event —— (to be noted, I've changed the party event up a little more so that the boys do notice something is wrong / when she's been gone a while) —— Typically, he wouldn't have called in Marcel but with the prior interaction between the two, it made things much easier to approach him with the concept.

Marcel himself was already curious about Artemis ever since that evening —— Once again, I've changed the event a little and in the new version, Marcel is the one that actually stays with her in the bathroom as she's trying to purge the drug from her system; he casts the spell that makes her throw up — Marcel himself has been in crisis situations like this before, pure-bloods that drank too much wine or were so anxious they were sick; it's the first time he's had to actually use the spell however.

The interest is sparked from a variety of events that happened —— Primarily, Marcel was impressed at how she handled the situation. There aren't many people in the world who (one) are calm and collected when they've been drugged (two) know what needs to be done and act upon it.

It's the first crack —— He shouldn't be thinking a muggle is impressive.

For Marcel, things only become worse when the etiquette lessons begin —— Of course, Artemis isn't perfect or polished but there's a natural fluidity in how she carries herself and learns. For example, one of the first things that Marcel looks at is her posture and how she walks across a room —— Artemis teases him about it but she's listening to him, she points out that a 'natural' walk isn't going to be instant and thusly, she walks back and forth the length of the room a few times.

A few things happen in this moment; the theatrics of Artemis' walk —— she walks as how she would expect, each for in front of the other in a natural but poised stride; she falls into it easily and when she reaches the end of the room, she spins on her heel and walks back. This is different, her arms are stretched and the stride is more lazed / theatrical as if she's trying to shake out the way her body wants to perform.

Marcel is reading all of it, even the things she's not aware of —— the fact that it is fluid in a way that shouldn't be natural for someone like her, the way she can walk in (albeit chunky) heeled boots — the fact that she is standing there casually while balancing back on said heels.

Of course, there are things that need to be corrected —— she favours her right side when she walks, her shoulders are slightly hunched / her posture defaults to something more casual and lazy ———— What makes things worse for Marcel however is that fact that she learns and adapts quickly, she's able to slip into the role easily. It's a fundamental foundation of Marcel that Muggles are almost primitive, they're unable to be taught and yet this woman is destroying that foundation.

THAT ISN'T THE WORST THING

Despite the lessons and corrections — Marcel becomes affected by the fact that, even after being told how to hold herself, Artemis still makes the choice to be herself, picking comfort over presentation when it suits her.

There's an interaction between the two when they're not in a lesson —— Artemis is in Diagon Alley with the boys and they run into Marcel within a shop that sells formal wear. Marcel approaches her but he also says that he's not there to correct her and she doesn't need to worry.

Artemis——? Artemis admits to two things; she says that she finds his work / lessons interesting but, she also makes the off handed comment; "I mean, it's not as though I have to listen to everything that you say." Artemis is basically saying to him that she's her own person and she'll do what she wants—— Some lessons are valuable, she'll act how it's needed at certain events but, it won't stop her from being herself.

This is something that breaks Marcel—— It starts to get under his skin in a manner that he can't articulate.

There will be times when he will correct her posture and Artemis will look him dead in the eye while slouching. Marcel will present to her a dress that he carefully picked that matches her skin tone and eyes and she'll tell him that it's ugly as hell —— But he can't brush off the words because there are times when she'll do or say something that aligns with his own metrics.

Then, there's the fact that Artemis shows her emotions without shame —— In pure-blood society, emotions can be manipulated and seen as a weakness, they're seen as shameful and Artemis? Artemis has her emotions but she's never ashamed of them and that? That is something that also shakes his foundations.

Overtime, Marcel finds himself not wanting to correct things about her—— that the imperfections; the pen in her hair, the lazy outfits, the lack of polish and poise—— Marcel realized that she's already herself, she's already whole and there's nothing to fix.

Anyway, I have no idea where it'd go from this point but that's the general vibe!! I'm still tweaking things and writing them out; I'm still writing the beginning stages and it's honestly just hilarious to have this man internally screaming because she's being a little shit.

But goodness, he'll never admit to it, but Marcel has imagined her standing in the kitchen of his flat in lyon; wearing his shirt and standing there with mussed hair and uneven socks, whilst she bounces from pastries and consumes them without haste. the thought is disgustingly domestic, marcel has never thought of a woman in that type of lighting. he doesn't correct the thought