Name: Victoria Elaine Blanchard
Age: 15 years
Position: Prefect, Slytherin House; 5th year Student, Hogwarts
Background: As Victoria will coldly remind anyone who forgets, the Blanchard family can trace its wizarding blood back in most cases to before the discovery of the New World. It's certain that no muggles have polluted the line in at least the past five generations, and just as infrequently has there been a squib. Pureblooded snobs born and bred, the Blanchards take a dim view of the typical rabble that makes its way into Hogwarts, but they take a similarly dim view of the upstarts and fools who've continued to throw the wizarding world into chaos over the years. There are many rumors surrounding the family's apparent ability to remain detached and unscathed during these periods; some believe they had a true diviner among them at one time, others think they may have invented a secret new branch of magic. Still others claim it's just luck. And luck always runs out sometime.

Victoria is the only child on her particular branchlet of the family, born into a particularly prized position: the first (and only) child of the eldest son and the eldest grandchild of her grandparents. In consequence, she has a very good opinion of herself, having been very much petted and indulged all through her life. In most cases her confidence is justified; she's no fool, nor is she an incapable witch. She's always been comfortably ahead of most of her peers.

As a family of consequence -- but not one which seeks obvious routes of power, the Blanchards came through the affair of Voldemort virtually untouched. A few of their holdings were destroyed, some of their associates were revealed as accomplices, but no hint of treachery even skirted past their name. Though they remained circumspect in their criticisms of Voldemort even after his defeat, they were not quite so closemouthed about their opinions of his allies, and Victoria's father amused himself for a year or so in ruining financially one or two of the lesser ones.

The incident which got Lucius Malfoy sacked as a Governor of Hogwarts the year before Victoria entered only served as further evidence to them that even some of the pure wizarding blood is in need of cleansing -- it's infected with what some of the Blanchards have whispered among themselves as being even worse than muggle genes: incompetance. Failure is not something to be tolerated.

Victoria was sorted into Slytherin without surprise when she arrived; most of the Blanchards have been, though once in a while there's a hop-out-of-kin and someone lands in Ravenclaw or even Gryffindor. Her first two years found her with marks near the top of her class, though not leading and with growing contempt for some of her housemates. She brought her grades up high enough over the next couple of years to be awarded a Prefecture before her Fifth.

Inspiration: I love schemeing female characters. ^_^ Victoria isn't really based on anyone I didn't create myself. In some ways, she is similar to the character Ophilya, but there are some very basic differences which make them, well, different. The main difference being that Victoria doesn't yet have an all consuming vision.
Created: November, 2001
Location: Harry Potter: Alere Flammas

Relevant Links:
Family Tree - A family tree for Victoria and her immediate ancestors.