Millicent Bulstrode - Tumblr Posts

Hi, I'm sorry I don't know if you've already answered this, but I was wondering why you made Bletchley the Slytherin captain instead of Montague? Also, was Millicent in the Inquisitorial Squad like she was in the books? I don't think so because she's in the Parlor, but I wanted to ask you anyway. I love your writing, but please don't feel pressured and take your time. Have a good day :)

The short answer is that Montague was the Chaser whose spot Ginny took. So he was no longer on the team, meaning Bletchley got the badge instead. (Which also allowed me to sidestep Montague, who JKR clearly made a kind of nasty dude. It was my way of trying to humanize the Slytherin I could while working around the already-established-as-horrid Slytherin.) Of course, in the process of answering this I am realizing a mistake I made in chapter 2 of The Changeling. I specifically mentioned Terrance Higgs as a kind of mean Chaser, which should have been Montague, seeing as how Higgs was the Seeker that Draco replaced. So whoops, my bad.

Millicent in the Inquisitorial Squad is another one of those moments. It was a matter of giving greater depth to Slytherin characters. Where I could, I just tried to explain why Harry’s perception was what it was. I couldn’t work around Crabbe and Goyle and Draco being nasty. And I left Pansy as the sort of coldly nasty character too. But I felt Millicent, of all of them, even though she had very specific, nasty run ins with Hermione, might have been really misunderstood. I also don’t like the way she is specifically pointed out in the text as being unattractive and more than likely fat and a physically mean and nasty bully. (Which boy, the ink I could spill on JKRs depiction of fatness as a negative trait, even Molly is just ‘plump’ like there has to be some distinction to tie to moral lines–like looking down on someone who is frumpy is classist, but being wary of fat people is just good sense. Come on, JKR, you’re better than this.) So I decided that of all the Slytherin that were established in the narrative that I could give an alternate approach to, I wanted it to be her. So I thought about who she could be, not to completely change her. I was happy to leave her aloofness, her prickly approach (which, if the text is any indication, she probably herself was probably the recipient of some nasty treatment due to her looks). She doesn’t owe anyone smiles and pleasantness. She can be exactly who she is and still be three-dimensional and pivotal and important. So was she still an Inquisitorial Squad member? No, I don’t think so. I could maybe buy her working for Umbridge, but definitely not the Carrows. I’m not sure if we read that as a change I made to her character or a change that came about because of Ginny’s leadership in The Parlor. I like to think it’s the latter. As much as The Parlor girls expanded Ginny’s idea of who people can be, she also impacted her sisters’ understanding and approach to class lines and pureblood culture and the war in general.

Thanks for the ask!

Fan art for the fic A Very Slytherin Harry by geoffaree on AO3. It hits so many yes buttons for me. It has severitus, snupin, amazingly fleshed out OC’s. Ah just, words cannot express.

Starting from the top left we have Severus Snape, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Ezra Jacobi, Millicent Bulstrode, Harry Potter, Jax the snake and Blaise Zabini.