#ariel's condition is the thing that arguably cemented his eugenistics ass views and made him obsessed with a male heir

[argentsnake]

As my first post here is the family tree of my MC, Ariel Argent.

He is Corvus Lestrange's (yes, that Corvus) bastard child.

CW: grooming, and Corvus Lestrange being a creep and a predator in general.

p.s. The origin story of my MC was somewhat inspired by a certain original character from the amazing fanfic series, Draco Malfoy and the Mirror of Ecidyrue . If you know you know. Ultimately the character is a product of how I play him in the game, but the fic is so beautiful it'd be a crime not to pay omage to it when it's the origin of this character.

Belle Argent • 1857 to 1881

Ariel's mother Belle was born in France in 1857 to a muggle family, who knew nothing about magic despite being descendants of a disowned Malfoy squib. That Malfoy was so hurt by his family's callousness he wanted nothing to do with them or the Wizarding world, and thus he took on the name Argent, and married a muggle, never mentioning the existence of magic to anyone.

He died before meeting his granddaughter, who ended up inheriting magic. However, Belle's parents were utterly terrified of magic, and fought to hide and supress their daughter's abilities, lest they be lynched or worse. When Belle was 12 things got so bad that she ran away from home. She bumped into one Corvus Lestrange, who at the time was focused on establishing himself in Paris. He was charmed by Belle's unique coloring, having Malfoy blonde hair and aqua eyes, and after learning about her parents Corvus decided to stipend Belle and sent her to Beauxbatons.

Corvus being Corvus, had immediately thought that if he were to wait for Belle to grow up and have child with her they'd be making the most beautiful and powerful Lestrange heir, and so began his years long attempt to seduce his ward.

And indeed, when Belle graduated at the age of 17 she had already fallen in love with Corvus, and it took only a year for her to become pregnant and have their child. Corvus had already been convinced that it'd be a son, but thought that if it was a girl they'd have plenty of time to try again. But when Ariel was born it seemed that he was neither. He was born with an intersex condition, that at the time in the 1800s was barely understood. Seeing this Corvus was enraged. He changed completely from a loving man to having fits of rage, and discarding Belle and her newborn child with the words "That is no child of mine." He warned Belle that should he ever even hear about the two of them threatning his legacy they would regret it.

Corvus had never married Belle, because he'd wanted to be sure she could actually deliver him the heir he already then desired. This made it very simple for Belle to disappear, to nurse her child and her wounds elsewhere. She was understandably shocked, and the more time passed the more horrified of Corvus she became, seeing only in hindsight what a monster he was. For a few years she remained in Paris as an assistant in a small flower shop. Her affinity with herbology made her a 'miracle worker' among muggles, and that secured her a small salary. It wasn't nearly enough.

Growing more fearful that Corvus would come for her and her little child every day, Belle scrounged up enough savings for a boat ride to London, where she planned to raise Ariel in anonymity, safely away from France. Returning to her parents was never an option, she viewed them as bad as Corvus. Once they arrived in London Belle finally changed her and Ariel's family name to her mother's maiden name, Argent. It was another layer of subterfuge to hide them from Corvus, and perhaps some small part of her yearned for her old family, the way she remembered it being before she manifested magic. But never once did Belle loathe magic itself, despite being mistreated by both wizards and muggles alije for it. She always made sure that Ariel knew what a gift magic was, convinced that Ariel would some day receive that gift as well.

In the meanwhile, in London Belle managed to get a job at an herbalist's shop located in Diagon Alley. Again, the old shopkeep couldn't pay her much, but Belle was greatful for him anyway. She began making some rarer types of potions on the side, not all strictly legal, for extra money, and still found the time to teach Ariel as much about magic as she could. When he began to walk she made the decision to raise Ariel as a boy, since that would be most convenient for him, and from Ariel's perspective all this was quite normal.

The quality of Belle's potions garnered her a reputation as a skilled and discreet potions master, and her clientele began to include some more shady characters in the mix. She couldn't afford to turn anyone away, so she simply made sure to keep her potions work away from Ariel. She could afford her own small workshop, and while she was at work a kindly widowed neighbour took care of Ariel, sometimes along with the widow's two hrandchildren.

Then, when Ariel was 6 years old and walking down Knockturn alley, for Belle needed to get some ingredients for a client's potion, a young man accosted them on the street. He pulled Belle into a cramped alley, and began to argue with Belle about something Ariel never understood. He later thought that what happened that day had been a robbery gone wrong. One second his mother was pushing him roughly out of the alley, the next there was a green light, and his mother's limp body fell on top of him.

Ariel Argent • 1881 to 1890

After his mother's death Ariel was sent to an orphanage in muggle London. He escaped many times, trying to find the magical world of Diagon Alley that was so different from his new home, but he never succeeded. The other children thought he was crazy whenever he spoke of magic, so Ariel stopped speaking of magic. They thought he looked weird, with his aqua eyes and pale blond hair that curled wildly in thick ringlets, and his otherwise Asian features. Whenever the orphanage's matron tried to tame his hair or cut it it would grow back overnight, so instead she began putting it up in a bun and told Ariel to wear a hat.

By the time Ariel was 12 he well and truly loathed the orphanage, and he was becoming desperate, waiting for a Hogwarts entrance letter that never came. For all intents and purposes he was a muggle. But Ariel was convinced that just as his mother always promised, he would someday get his magic. In that belief he tried to write letters to Hogwarts, telling them as much, but he had never seen an owl in muggle London, and had no idea what adress he should direct the letters to, so he just wrote "to Hogwarts" on the envelopes and hoped for the best.

By the time he was 14 Ariel had perfected the art of sneaking out of the orphanage, and finally, one evening as he was walking around London he noticed a woman wearing a delightful green pointed hat, with a miserable looking taxidermy rat adorning it, enter what looked to be just a piece of brick wall. But looking at it again Ariel could see a faint blue glow, which revealed the door to The Leaky Cauldron. Ariel made it as far as the enchanted brick wall, the entrance to Diagon Alley, when he realised in order to open that path he would have to perform magic. And he could not do that.

Defeated, he made his way back inside the Cauldron, and sulked around, but still. Even just seeing the decidedly unmuggle fashion of the patrons brought back memories of his childhood surrounded by magic.

In the coming days Ariel spent almost every day hanging around in The Leaky Cauldron, occasionally striking up a conversation with a curious and slightly tipsy customer. And it was one of those days, that Ariel was spotted by the widow who used to take care of him. She was so surprised to see him she nearly screamed, because she had thought the boy had been killed with his mother. Finding him alive after all this time made a weight she hadn't known was there lift from her shoulders, and she scrambled to introduce herself to the now teenaged boy. Ariel only remembered the woman vaguely, but was practically starving to hear every detail about his mother's life the woman could share.

"I'm afraid it's all too little. Belle was such a quiet girl, private. I always got the feeling se was desperate to disappear. Oh! But now I remember! Before they cleaned out your apartment I managed to find a diary of some sort. I assumed it was your mother's, and I hoped I'd find some clue as to what happened, maybe who did it in there. But she'd enchanted it shut, clever girl. The pages are all empty, but I'm sure there's more to it than just an empty book. You should have it. Maybe you can figure it out."

Thus Ariel was given his mother's mysterious diary, and it became his mission to crack it.

He was off to a poor start, having no magic of his own, but he made a valiant effort. He continued meeting with the widower as well, and together they pondered on the book. The old woman became an invaliable resource to Ariel, being a way to access Diagon Alley. She suggested to Ariel that he was probably a squib, though she was sorry to say it, but Ariel remained firm in that his mother's promise would come true. He was a wizard. It took them a month for Ariel to realise, that perhaps the diary wasn't so much enchanted, as the ink was. Mother had spent all her days brewing potions after all, and the other day Ariel had read about substances used in potions to make invisivibility. The two then turned their focus on agents used to counter such ingredients, and managed to come up with a solution that, when rubbed against the diary pages, would make writing slowly appear in a coppery color.

The diary was Belle's record of her history, from her parents to Corvus to moving to London, and all the people she got to know there. In the last pages Belle had written a warning for Ariel, having felt watched lately, seeing much of the same stange faces. She had never wanted Ariel to know about his father, or have anything to do with the Lestrange family, but she felt that if something were to happen to her she would need to warn her son to stay away from them. That if he didn't it was likely they would have him killed, as it was likely that were she to die under unnatural circumstances the culprit would be the same.

After reading this passage all at once, Ariel was so distraught he caused multiple explosions all around him, wrecking the old woman's house. Luckily no one was hurt, but after cleaning up the damage both of them were grimfaced. The only good that came out of that day was Ariel's newfound fervour to get into Hogwarts. This time when he wrote his letter it reached its recipient, and Ariel was accepted into Hogwarts as a 5th year.