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Witch Weekly · May 10, 2021 – 12:37 AM

The Lestrange Family Blood Pact

Many were shocked by this weekend's announcement that Miss Tatiana Lestrange was recently engaged, though not because an engagement itself would have been a surprise. Miss Lestrange was being formally courted by Mr. Charles Macmillan for several months before apparently veering off-course and accepting a proposal from a quarter no one had seen coming: her own cousin, Valerian Macnair. The Macnair family took Miss Lestrange in at a young age after her father's imprisonment (following his mass-murder at the Ministry of Magic) left her, for all intents and purposes, an orphan, and she has remained in their household ever since. Marriages to cousins are hardly unusual, particularly in the wider Lestrange family — last season saw the nuptials of Claudius Lestrange to his cousin Ellory nee Pendergast, and a fortnight later of William Pendergast to Cornelia nee Lestrange. In this case, however, one cannot help but raise an eyebrow, both because the circumstances under which Miss Lestrange was raised makes her almost more a sibling than a cousin to Valerian Macnair, and because she presumably had another strong option in Charles Macmillan. Why marry Valerian Macnair?

Valerian Macnair, heir to the Macnair legacy.

Of course, Mr. Macnair has much to recommend him of his own accord: a handsome and well-established man with a successful career and a fortune to inherit. But is there another benefit to choosing a man within her own family? The answer stretches back to William Lestrange, father to Lucius Lestrange and his surviving siblings. It is not unusual, as we noted, for cousins to marry — particularly in pureblooded families who emphasize keeping their lineage above reproach. Our writers believe that William Lestrange may have actually placed a blood pact on his children to promote such a practice — wrecking havoc and despair on female descendants who married outside the family lines.

What proof do we have of this? What proof could be needed beyond the women themselves! The first so affected was Andromache Pettigrew. After tragically losing her husband, she was then ruined by her own son and left nearly destitute, having to resort to work as a companion in order to sustain herself in her old age. Katherina Selwyn, one of William Lestrange's daughters, had the misfortune of only ever having daughters, and several of those daughters were wildly disappointing — notably, Charles Macmillan's first wife, Noelle Macmillan nee Selwyn, who died in 1885 after producing only one daughter herself. Olivia Pendergast's daughters have likewise been tainted by the curse — Eloise married an American, of all things, and Miss Rosalind has yet to marry at all because of misfortune on her way to the altar. Indeed, the only Lestrange women not apparently ruined are Mrs. Valeria Greengrass and Mrs. Evelyn Abercrombie, but we can only ask: for how long?

This paints a very dire picture indeed for Miss Tatiana Lestrange. After spending so much time in the company of Mr. Macmillan one can only imagine that she must have grown terribly fond of him at the least — perhaps she is even wildly in love! It is clear why a marriage between Mr. Macmillan and Miss Lestrange is not in the cards, however; marrying her would serve Mr. Macmillan no better than his first wife did! And it would be such a shame to see Miss Tatiana Lestrange join Noelle as a ghost when she is still in the prime of life, perhaps after dying in childbirth to bear another daughter.

Miss Tatiana Lestrange, soon to be Mrs. Macnair

Perhaps by choosing Mr. Macnair, Miss Lestrange has avoided a life of misfortune — but is it a worthy choice, if what she loses is a life full of love?

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Issue #259 - The Lestrange Family Blood Pact