I'm back and raring to go! If you have read Chapter Eight, you will know exactly who Harmonia Tisiphone Black is- a Pureblood who is forced to flee from her home in Dijon, France (a nice little reference, that hopefully all you hardcore Harry Potter fans will know). She is the daughter of Orpheus Black and Electra Black (née Burke), sister to Deimos and Phobos Black. Harmonia is the only known survivor of the "massacre" at her home. An attack set about by French allies of the Order of the Phoenix. She has fled, via Portkey, to a unknown safe haven. She was always told if anyone in her family needed to escape, all they had to do was get to the Black family ring.
Seeing as I am stickler for detail, and I like to show my readers what is going on in my mind and how I visualise things when I write. So, here's the type of clothing that I plan to have Harmonia wearing. It seems in the Harry Potter films, that elitist Pureblood families like the Malfoys and the Blacks are always impeccably dressed, either in a suit or formal dress. I noticed particularly that there seems to be no correlation in fashion in the Wizarding and Muggle worlds. At Hogwarts it's understandable that due to Half-Blood and Muggle-born exposure to Pureblood students, the trend is different. However, I'm focusing on the type of designs I saw in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Narcissa Malfoy's clothes were clearly a throwback to the Fifties and early Sixties, with the A-line skirts. Bellatrix Lestrange has more of a Victorian Gothic feel to her clothing, almost Steampunk in its finishing touches. So, I decided on having Harmonia's clothes to be distinct from these two eras. I chose more of a Twenties and Thirties, pre-war style- incorporating both the feminine and practical.
(The first photograph is from a brilliant artist on DeviantArt called Rachel Midgley aka Velven, you can check out her other works here.)
On another note, I don't know about you all, but I was sorely disappointed with the way the Harry Potter films portrayed Malfoy Manor. I liked the interiors, but exterior image was so weak. It blatantly looked CGIed and not how I thought it should look. Anyway, I found the perfect Malfoy manor and it is called Château de Challain-la-Potherie in the district of Maine-et-Loire in France. As JK Rowling stated on Pottermore, the Malfoys had roots in France. Armand Malfoy was the first Malfoy in Britain, c. 11th Century, arriving with the Norman Conquest. He was given land in Wiltshire because of his services to King William I. So, I thought it was fitting to have a French influenced architecture for Malfoy Manor.
More will feature in later posts about the interiors of Malfoy Manor! Hope you've enjoyed this image-overload!
