not sure if this is the right space but would you mind talking about what inspired Bellona’s story? Thanks!

cosmonauthill:

Well, iirc it began with a chat with @essayofthoughts – I think it was mostly me pondering like, Veela social dynamics? Possibly? And the position of half-humanoid but wholly-magical people within wizarding society during the wartime and interwar periods in the UK.

I don’t remember Bellona not being there, she just sees to have appeared fully formed in my head. Some things came later – Ukki and Aleksi in Taivolkovski, Neville’s confrontation, the magpie feathers peeping through Bellona’s milkmaid braids, her whole friendship with Blaise, Lupin’s negative reaction to seeing her for the first time – but Bellona de Poitiers, daughter of Veela, descendant of Diane de Poitiers (hence her mother’s family living in Valence) just sort of. Appeared?

(Part of the attraction of using Diane as her ancestor – aside from the obvious – is Diane’s reputation for wearing black and white. I thought that could be a really nice little thing for Bellona, who’s tied up between her Veela family, who she knows, who she is, and her wizarding family, who she finds, who she becomes, and that’s rendered all in shades of black and white.)