despite living a full life of seventy-four years so far, bernadette has maintained a pristine reputation that has kept her employed at fine institutions teaching other young ladies and young men how to properly behave so they may also achieve the same.

she attended académie de magie beauxbâtons for 6 years, completing her o.w.l. equivalents at the end of her sixth year, then attended académie bellerose pour jeunes filles, a finishing school in paris, france for 5 years before eventually getting married

bernadette has parents, quite a few children, cousins, and so on, but listed are the ones most important to her story currently.

husband: guillaume delacour [1805-1880]
son: “sébastien” delacour [b. 1853]
daughter-in-law: marjorie delacour née [1855-1893]

granddaughter: “antoinette” delacour [b. 1875]
granddaughter: “helen” delacour [b. 1878]
granddaughter: “victoire” delacour [b. 1881]

face claim: meryl streep
ethnicity: caucasian
accent: heavy parisian
height: 163 cm
weight: 58 kg
build: average
eyes: blue-green
hair colour: grey, formerly blonde
hair style: elegant & neat updo
wand hand: right
distinguishing features: bernadette is considered to have perfect posture and she practically glides around the room with the way she walks; it’s painfully graceful and clearly took a lot of work and time to master. now mostly faded in her age, she has a few light scars that show on her knuckles from being hit with a ruler while she was a student at finishing school in her youth.

scent: fleurs de bulgarie

demeanor: if there was a poster child for perfect grace, poise, and elegance in a lady, madame delacour would be it. she holds herself to an incredibly high standard, especially since she made her living teaching upper class and upper-middle class young ladies and young men how to behave in the most proper way possible. that being said, she can be incredibly intimidating and you may feel like she’s judging every move you make (which, let’s be honest, she is) and she doesn’t forgive a social blunder as easily as others might. as an instructor, she is strict, harsh, not afraid to hit students with rulers if they mess up and make them try again, and publicly punish her students in front of their peers for serious infractions. most students probably won’t like her that much while taking her class, but might respect her standards and her lessons to a degree once they are in the real world. with her colleagues and people in her peer group, she isn’t really great at making friends and part of that is because she’s always silently judging, but she does try her best to be more relaxed. one thing that’s good to note about her is she’s a romantic, she’s sentimental, and loves her family with her whole heart and you’ll see her softest side when those things are brought up.

fashion: she would be considered upper-middle class, having married well and these days being supported largely by her sons, as well as her own career as an etiquette instructor, since her husband passed away. bernadette wears nothing but the best that she can afford and she is always neat and put together to the point where it’s almost unclear if she’s ever had a bad hair day or spilled something on herself in her entire life. how she presents herself in society is important to how she is perceived and so she makes sure that she sets an example at all times, especially if she’s in front of those who might consider her a mentor of sorts. she has her own subscription to witch weekly and pays close attention to the trends, though, she has to admit, in her age, she finds the newer styles to be rather uncomfortable in comparison to what she has been used to growing up with. her style definitely is a blend of muggle and wizarding, taking only what can be seen as the most practical and most elegant parts of both.

early childhood
1819 - 1830
bernadette was not the first born child of the family of rousseau children, but she was the first little girl and it was clear from the moment she opened her little blue eyes, her mother was absolutely smitten with her; around the same time, her mother’s best friend, an upper class lady that she had gone to school with, also had a little girl by the name of marguerite and they were convinced the two of them would be best of friends, just as they had been. as an infant, birdie was a fairly easy baby, never too loud or too fussy, she never gave her nurse much trouble and her mother would often joke she would have a lot more children if all of them were as docile as she had been. she also didn’t get sick a whole lot, which was a relief because her older brother tended to be sickly and it left their parents always worried that something awful was going to happen to him one of these days.

when she was old enough to finally leave the nursery and be taught by a governess, she shared the one that was hired to teach marguerite, rather than the one that the other rousseau children learned from and if she was honest, birdie didn’t care for her too much. she was strict, had very little patience, and didn’t seem as easy to fool as the one her siblings shared and bernadette often wondered what she did wrong to deserve that; however, she very much liked spending time with the other little girl, whom was hesitant around her in the beginning but ultimately would become her close friend just as their mothers had hoped. birdie thought she was like a princess with her pretty brunette hair, graceful way of acting, and brand new gowns and ribbons made with the finest of silk; she had a few nice things too, but marguerite was different in the fact all of her things were nice.

perhaps it was that initial jealousy of marguerite’s nice things that birdie wanted for herself, but she became a bit competitive with lessons; if her friend played a piece on the piano, she had to play that plus another, if she could balance a book on her head, birdie could balance a book while performing a perfect curtsy as well. while it pleased their parents that it meant the two were excelling in their studies, a lot more eager to practice their romance languages and didn’t complain as much about not being able to play outside in exchange for more time with their studies, it sort of divided them and made their friendship rather shaky. still, neither wished to disappoint their mother and so no matter how angry one might have been with the other for whatever competition one lost, the two would make sure to act like perfect angels and best friends whenever in the public eye.



académie de magie beauxbâtons
1830 - 1836
going to beauxbâtons for the first time seemed to really test birdie’s friendship with maggie, as her best friend now wished to be called, tired of such a long name, as now they no longer had both of their mothers breathing down their necks, trying to force something between them. on one hand, it drove them apart in some ways as now maggie preferred to spend time with other girls of her class and birdie really couldn’t entirely relate to them as their mothers were socialites and their fathers were important ministry men or company owners, whereas her father was just a healer and her mother was maggie’s mother’s lady’s maid before she married. but, on the other hand, with brand new competition between their peers, bullies, and strange children they’d never interacted with before, sometimes they wanted to stick together because at least they weren’t complete strangers.

though their friendship was tumultuous throughout their schooling, in the end, they ultimately felt they could rely on each other when push came to shove. they continued their academic rivalry in school; birdie took first place when it came to charms and potions, but maggie absolutely demolished her in transfiguration, even becoming an animagus in her adulthood, as well as herbology. personally, birdie thought herbology was rather gross because it got one’s hands all dirty and it was not ladylike, but maggie would argue that was the fun part; it was socially acceptable to get messy while gardening! that was something birdie wasn’t sure if she enjoyed or was horrified at maggie about as they grew up; she was far more free spirited and perhaps a bit rebellious than she was, always wanting to stick to the rules and once earning a small reputation as a total tattle-tale in school.

as they finished their fifth year and discussions on their future came up, as they would need to study for their upcoming o.w.l. equivalents they would take at the end of the following year, birdie realized she really didn’t know what she wanted to do other than eventually get married and have children; if she married well enough, perhaps she would not have to work at all, but she hardly wanted to get bored and eventually children no longer needed their parents, as she felt her older siblings didn’t and she at sixteen years of age felt rather adult and didn’t need a mother anymore. maggie always lamented about various things she wanted to do; she found a passion for things like magical creatures and exploration and she wanted to do wild things like cursebreaking or magizoology, but she knew that would never happen as she was betrothed and would be a society wife just like her mother. perhaps, birdie thought, she would do something like that so her best friend could live vicariously through her, though, of course, she knew she would be terrible at it as she certainly never had the constitution required for such things.



académie bellerose pour jeunes filles
1836 - 1841
without consulting either of the two girls, maggie’s parents generously offered to pay birdie’s way through the finishing school they were going to send their daughter to starting at the end of the summer and of course, her parents accepted feeling like it would give birdie the head start in life that she deserved. of course, she was grateful for it, and birdie planned on doing her very best, but bellerose also had a reputation for being incredibly strict and difficult to get through, even for the most polished of future debutantes, though, of course, if you managed it, it was a great thing for a lady to have on her ‘resumé’ when searching for a good husband. as the two waited for their last summer as ‘children’ to end, as they felt they were pretty much ladies once they were at finishing school, they would talk about their anxieties and apprehension regarding what their future would bring.

the first thing the two learned upon entering the halls of bellerose was that nicknames were not permitted and they would be forced to use their given names and that their instructors had a sadistic love for corporal punishment. bernadette would end up leaving the school with a fair amount of light scars on her knuckles from getting hit with a ruler and marks on her legs from the caning, but she didn’t get it nearly as bad as marguerite who seemed to attempt to enter her rebellious stage from the moment she was given the chance. bernadette often wondered if it wasn’t for her and her constant being the voice of reason if her best friend would have completely ruined herself before they had a chance to graduate, if only so she could spite their instructors.

despite its difficulty and bernadette spending most of her time trying to thwart marguerite’s more terrible ideas, five years after going into the finishing school, now in their early twenties, it came time to graduate. it felt almost unreal, having an actual debut and now actually being able to attend society events instead of watching from afar (or sneaking in anyway). it felt like the end of an era, especially as not long after, birdie found herself watching her best friend marry her betrothed, whom she’d only met a few times in childhood, and as a married woman, she would have her own life away from her. in the meantime, birdie would eventually meet a gentleman who could be considered upper middle class, he was a ministry man like the fathers of her wealthy friends; though he was a bit older than some of her other suitors, he offered more financial security than anyone she could have ever dreamed of. however, being a romantic at heart, she wasn’t sure she wanted to marry him for money alone.



courtship, wedding bells, & baby bumps
1841 - 1864
the gentleman, guillaume delacour, didn’t seem the type to give up so easily despite birdie’s initial hesitation to accept his affections; it wasn’t that she didn’t think that he was worthy of her, but she wanted to be sure that she loved him and it was hard to be sure because she’d never been in love before. her mother was particularly cross with her because she felt that by playing so hard to get, she was squandering her opportunity, but birdie was determined to make guillaume win her heart first. it took some time, but eventually won her over, and perhaps arguably more importantly, won her father over and was able to arrange a marriage between the two. birdie couldn’t believe she found someone she loved so much; someone who would pick a beautiful home in paris near the seine because she enjoyed the view. the home was comfortable, bigger than the one she grew up in, but she couldn’t help but think it was nowhere near as grand as the one maggie now lived in; it made her smile to think even years later she still had that competitive streak between them. these days, however, it was friendly and not out of jealousy.

speaking of which, it was difficult at first for birdie, because for the first time in her whole life, she never really got to see maggie as they didn’t live close to one another at all; it was strange to think about how she didn’t have as many friends outside of maggie and her friends in the first place. the two began to write letters to one another, talking about their lives and what they had been up to, even continued to study more about magic and start up another academic rivalry between themselves for old times sake. of course, both had their home lives to also deal with so there wasn’t as much time for it, but birdie was able to master some difficult charms whereas eventually maggie would become an animagus to show off her transfiguration prowess.

of course, with marriage came children, and birdie had a fair few of them as she loved having children around the home; she hadn’t expected to be so maternal when she first found out she was pregnant, but with time they became the most important thing in the world to her. she focused so much of her attention on taking care of them, encouraging their and their talents in school when it was time for them to go. birdie even bragged about them to maggie, who, of course, in turn, would tell her about her own children and their accomplishments, which became a little bit of another layer to their competition. admittedly, she was closest with “sébastien”, who was her youngest child and the baby of the family; he was shy, starry eyed, and so curious about everything that it made her heart swell with joy. her heart hurt quite a bit when he turned eleven years old and she knew that she would be sending him away to school like his older siblings and wouldn’t have him following her around their house.



a strict but effective governess
1864 - 1872
with the last of her babies off to school for most of the year, birdie found herself with idle hands, sometimes hosting dinner parties and other such events, writing letters to maggie, and spending more time with some of her new friends, but mostly she was craving something more to do. it just so happened that in the late autumn, her husband was attacked by a werewolf, and though he survived and was not turned into one, he was injured enough that he wasn’t able to work as much as he used to. while of course, this was a tragedy and at first was difficult on the couple, it opened up the discussion of birdie perhaps finding something to bring in a bit of money as well. of course, not wanting to do anything that would be improper for a woman, it took some time for her to decide on something, but in the end, she had a discussion with some of the upper class ladies she knew and they offered her a position of a governess for their younger children during the school year thanks to her good reputation.

with her husband’s permission, so long as she was strictly seasonal and would be home to look after the younger children during the summer, birdie began to work as a governess and at first, she wasn’t quite sure if it was the right fit for her. but in time, she figured out that she was actually quite good at educating and perhaps she was a bit hypocritical for using the same harsh methods that her own governess and even instructors at her finishing school used on her, birdie found they were effective and it earned her a reputation for a woman who knew what she was doing. birdie loved looking after her own children, of course, but she began to see her charges as her own as well, relishing in their accomplishments, but also taking it personally when they failed. it would warm her heart when some of the older ones would eventually write to her from school, during their debut, and so forth, to let her know how they were doing. she was tough and while the children may not have liked her during her time with them, they would learn to appreciate everything she did for them after they’d grown up; they all did in the end.

it was difficult to believe so much time had gone by as she lived each day of her life; her youngest was almost finished with his time at school and was beginning to think about a career, whereas her elder children were getting married and starting families of their own. then there was maggie, who still wrote to her, but these days it was mostly about how alone she felt without her because she had found out that her husband had been cheating on her their entire marriage and she had just found it out. being as traditional as birdie was, she didn’t know what to say other than to be there for her children; even if her husband could not love her, they could, and they would keep her spirits high. birdie felt guilty as her own husband seemed to still love her even after so many years of being married and she didn’t want the one thing that she had over her in the end to be true happiness.



etiquette instructor at académie bellerose pour jeunes filles
1872 - 1880
while attending a dinner party shortly after birdie’s youngest graduated from school, she was offered a position as an etiquette instructor at the same prestigious finishing school she once graduated from; apparently her reputation was so good that after the old one retired, she was recommended by a few friends to take their place. her husband once again approves of this idea, especially since their children have now grown up to be adults and it would be a way for her to continue to work with young people in a respectable way, besides just interacting with her new grandchildren. while, at first, she could be considered to be one of the easier instructors at bellerose, it doesn’t take long before she becomes just as ruthless with her methods as any of the others; birdie does not delight in using these methods, as she doesn’t exactly have a sadistic streak, but she takes great pride in finishing debutantes every single year so that they uphold the same high standards that every graduating class previously had.

during her time teaching, she writes a few books on the subject of etiquette in order to reach out to other women who may want to make sure their sons and daughters also learn what is appropriate; it keeps her mind occupied, to write some of this stuff down in between classes. she also continues to write to maggie who tragically informs her that her husband has left her for his mistress now that their children are grown and she doesn’t know what to do. guillaume agrees to allow her to stay with them for a time, while she heals her broken heart, but one night she disappears with nothing but a letter saying that she’s running off to follow her dreams as if she’s some teenager instead of a grown woman. birdie is furious with this, not thinking it was right for her to behave like this, but there’s also part of her that wants so desperately for maggie to find happiness even if it’s by doing something that she shouldn’t. birdie tried her best to keep in contact with her adult children, but they inform her that they haven’t heard from maggie at all since she left and it would become years before birdie hears about her friend again.

in the meantime, besides teaching, she also has many grandchildren that she loves to see and play with when given the opportunity; seeing her children happy with families of their own makes her feel like she hadn’t failed at all in her life so far. that is, until her youngest informs her that he’s in love with an englishwoman he’d met named marjorie and they were going to be getting married, then moving to live in great britain where she’s originally from. birdie was not pleased with this at all; she didn’t like marjorie because she seemed like a flighty thing with big ideas and barely could handle a formal dinner without making some minor faux-pas. not to mention “sébastien” was nowhere near old enough to be thinking about marriage; she was quite certain that marjorie had to be charming him somehow or taking advantage of his sweet, innocent nature. birdie tried her hardest to be supportive when they went against her and guillaume’s wishes to marry and she would still visit to see each of her grandchildren, but it was quite clear she did not approve. maybe it could be argued her once romantic heart, the one that believed love was more important than anything had been turned dark because of maggie’s failed marriage or the fact years teaching propriety changed her mind, but whatever it was, birdie would make sure that her baby son was protected from her.



mourning & moving
1880 - 1883
tragedy struck guillaume for the second time in their lives when he was found torn apart in a string of terrible vampire attacks that had been happening in the wizarding community of paris; while they would eventually catch the creature responsible for the murders, birdie still felt that after her husband’s injury from a werewolf and now his death from a vampire, beings were not to be trusted and a hate settled deep within her heart. of course, it didn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things how she felt; she was a woman with adult children, so she could not vote against any laws protecting them, and she taught in a school that only accepted those who could prove their were at least halfblood with no being heritage, but she would always be weary of those who could do something about them infiltrating their communities and trying to start lives there and chose not to. any of her friends that sympathized with their plight were lost to her and while it wasn’t many of them, there were still a fair few.

following the death of her husband, birdie quit her job at bellerose so she could properly mourn his loss by staying inside and only accepting company at appropriate times. as if that wasn’t horrible enough for her, she reads in the paper that several magizoologists were killed by a magical beast gone awry during an exploration into the wilderness and among their ranks was her best friend, maggie. it had been the first time of hearing where she ended up since she left them years ago, and birdie’s heart hurt knowing that she was now living in a world not only without her husband, but also without her closest friend; at least, she thought, in the end, maggie was able to do what she loved and maybe she didn’t do it until she was much older, but she followed her passion. birdie would be the one to help her adult children clean out maggie’s things, and among them birdie would get sentimental as she found boxes of letters and diaries she kept, dating back to their childhood days; reminiscing about their past was hard, but not as hard as it was discovering that this whole time, it turned out maggie had been in love with her. it left birdie with confusing feelings, as of course birdie loved maggie, but it seemed her friend loved her in a kind of way that she shouldn’t have and while it delighted birdie in a bit of a nostalgic, of course until the day she died she was acting out, it also made her feel angry, upset, and confused about how she was meant to mourn everyone with all of these conflicting feelings.

once she had cleared out all of maggie’s things; feeling conflicted about how she kept a lot of things for sentimental reasons despite the confusing feelings, birdie decided that she wanted to move away from paris so she could free her mind from all these reminders of what used to be. “sébastien” offered to get her a house in hogsmeade where she could live close to him and his family and that way she could leave her former home behind but also have people close by that she loved and birdie took him up on that straight away. birdie liked living in hogsmeade, because as different as it was from living in her home in paris, it was good for her heart to be away from that and to be given a chance to have a small fresh start. she spends most of her time at her son’s home, caring for her granddaughters whom she all loves very much, though it’s also difficult because she still doesn’t like marjorie and so she’s always criticizing her; first it’s the fact she can’t seem to produce any sons, then it’s the fact she’s still such a free spirit with feminist notions that make birdie believe even well into motherhood she hasn’t grown up. birdie and marjorie are always disagreeing on how to raise the children as well and while “sébastien” wants them to get along, he does tend to take his mother’s side and he reasons she has the credentials on bringing up proper young ladies. while it does cause some tension in the home, marjorie tends to handle it with grace and it seems to make the mourning period not so horrible.



etiquette instructor at hogwarts school of witchcraft + wizardry
1883 - present
in time, birdie began to miss teaching and with her granddaughter, “antoinette” almost old enough to start at hogwarts, she felt like she had to continue to be able to re-educate her on how to properly behave since it was clear her mother was doing such a terrible job. so, when the position opened up, she applied to be the new etiquette professor at hogwarts; although, she did feel it was a massive step down from where she was previously, due to the fact bellerose was an exclusive finishing school and hogwarts was open to any halfbreed who so much as produced a spark of magic, she felt it would be an interesting challenge that might prove exciting to take. it was definitely more difficult, she thought, as before, she would teach young ladies who had a significant level of manners when she started, at hogwarts, she was teaching some students who never had a proper governess before at all and she was just hoping she could prevent them from being complete and total savages by the time they graduated.

birdie also found it difficult knowing she had to teach muggleborn students and halfbreed students, which she never had to before, but as an educator she knew it was important to swallow down her feelings and carry on with lessons as if she wasn’t feeling some kind of way about them; she wondered how her late husband or even maggie would have felt knowing she was overcoming these challenges. it was also nice, once they were old enough, to begin teaching her granddaughters; they did well enough, but just as she suspected when she arrived in hogsmeade in the first place, they needed a lot of work before she would declare them truly ‘fixed’. during her time at hogwarts, she would write a few more books on proper etiquette; her favorite subject seemed to be comparing the way french finishing schools did things versus english ones and what, as a professional, she believed to be the best method from each one. she didn’t think either country had it better than the other in their teachings, in fact, she believed they ought to work together to create a uniform curriculum because they could learn a lot from one another.

something else she did while at hogwarts was start annual dinner parties for specific groups of students; first, there was the prefect dinner which included prefects and the head boy and girl, then there was the club president dinner, which included all club presidents with the exception of if there was a lady in charge of the dueling club or quidditch club and in that case she would be replaced with a gentleman of high reputation from within the club, the same could be said for the quidditch captain dinner which would never include any female players as birdie believed it wasn’t proper for them to be playing in the first place. finally, and her favorite out of the four, was a special dinner for n.e.w.t. level students who she found to be the most promising in future careers or would be the most promising of the new debutantes; she enjoyed having a way to show her affection for specific students that she felt deserved her attention the most. birdie may also have a few other events throughout the year, but not everyone would receive an invitation and she had no problem snubbing the students she didn’t believe deserved to attend.

it was incredible, she thought, as she reached her tenth year at hogwarts for the year of 1893 to 1894, as she wasn’t sure she would last this long, but birdie was certain that she at least wanted to wait to retire until after at least “victoire” graduated and was married. of course, she would never publicly be filled with glee over it, but when she heard that marjorie was killed in the september 14th dragon attacks, she certainly wasn’t upset by the news and once an appropriate amount of time passed, she would make sure to find “sébastien” a proper, new wife that she approved of this time. hopefully, one that had finished at an actual finishing school, preferably french, but she would be lenient if the girl seemed to be worthy enough, and birdie would hope that she would bless him with a son this time. she loved all of her granddaughters very much but none of them could continue her son’s line the way a boy could and she knew that was important to her and should be important to “sébastien”.

strengths: ambitious, clever, disciplined, eloquent, generous, graceful, organized, romantic, sentimental, shrewd

weaknesses: critical, haughty, impatient, perfectionist, purist, strict, stubborn, traditional, unforgiving, vain

likes: abraxan, art, babies, balls, ballroom dancing, cats, cherries, children, decorum, elegant gowns, flowers, flower language, garden parties, her family, holidays, lacey fans, museums, ‘old fashioned’ fashion, paintings, pearls, perfumes, photographs, silk gloves, silver jewelry, society events, sunshine, tea with milk and no sugar, tough love, traditional gender roles, witch weekly

dislikes: apples, alcohol, beings, being widowed, betrothals, chocolate, dark arts, disobedience, disorganization, dogs, feminism, flute music, halfbreeds, heights, herbology, improper behavior, lady duelists, lady quidditch players, marjorie delacour, mourning attire, muggles, ‘outlandish’ fashion, politics, poor reputations, pranks, pumpkin juice, rainstorms, seers, sweets

fears: a class or reputation drop, beings gaining rights, beings in general, etiquette no longer being taught, feminism corrupting youth, heights, her son getting sick of her meddling, her star students tanking their reputations, seers, the death of a loved one

goals: find suitable wife for her recently widowed son, learn how to do something new, make some more friends within society, prepare another season of perfect debutantes, reprogram her granddaughters, teach the wild first years how to behave

habits: always needs to make her opinion known to her friends and family, needs everything to be neat and organized, silently judges every little improper thing she sees someone do, snubs certain students from her dinners because of her idea of proper, strikes students’ knuckles with a ruler when they make mistakes and harsher punishments for more serious infractions may be used in front of their peers to shame them into behaving, very particular about how she looks and behaves in front of others

hobbies: buying and admiring art, flower pressing, going to museums, hosting dinner parties, hosting in general, needlepoint, piano, playing games with her grandchildren, reading books, singing, spending time with her family, violin, writing letters

— skills —
01. fluent in english, french, italian, latin (magical)
02. graduated finishing school & has the training to have taught at one as well
03. had formal voice training as well as piano and violin
04. has also had the experience as a governess; she has an excellent reputation for success
05. skilled in beauty charms and other ‘essential’ feminine charms

— trivia —
amortentia: her late husband’s cologne
boggart: one of her children’s dead bodies
clubs: ---
electives: ---
patronus: never bothered to learn
pets: monet, snowy owl & chérie, turkish angora cat
quidditch: proper ladies don’t play quidditch
religion: catholic
romantic orientation: heteromantic
sexual orientation: heterosexual
titles: none
zodiac sign: pisces