Marie Antoinette, the Half-Blood Queen
As a half-blood, Marie Antoinette never truly belonged in either world. She was born on November 2, 1755 to a muggle mother named Maria Theresa, the Queen of Hungary and a wizard named Francis I, who made himself the Holy Roman Emporer. Her father was an ambitious man who attended Durmstrang and loved the muggle world. He was facinated by the different culture. When he graduated, he traveled around Europe and eventually settled in Austria out of his love for gold and lavish façades. The French gothic buildings appealed to his sense of grandeur and through magic, charm, and some luck, he made a name for himself in the muggle world as the Holy Roman Emporer. He fell in love with a young woman named Maria Theresa who was beautiful and yet approachable. It was her bright smile that won him over. They married and had many children several years later. Their youngest daughter was named Marie Antoinette.
As a child, Marie Antoinette lived a sheltered life. Around age 10, she started displaying signs of magic. Cake would appear out of nowhere as well as fancy necklaces and dresses. Francis I was deeply conflicted. On the one hand, he was proud that his daughter was a witch, but on the other hand, he was worried about explaining this behavior to his wife. He had never told her that he was a wizard. Eventually, he could no longer bear to keep silent while Marie became more adept at magic. He told his wife the truth about a month before Marie turned 11. This led to a heated argument. Her mother was not the biggest fan of magic, but her father wanted her to attend Beauxbatons while Maria Theresa was insistent on grooming her daughter to be queen of France. Eventually, they compromised and her father homeschooled her and taught her magic.
So she learned to play the harp, to sing, and to perform other ladylike duties by day and learned the history of magic, transfiguration, and charms by night. She grew up mildly anxious, because even though she was raised in the muggle world, she knew she could never be a muggle. But she did not belong in the wizarding world either, because she never attended Beauxbatons, the magical school her father told her about.
Despite such feelings, she grew up comfortable as a muggle aristocrat. She married Louis XVI and became the Queen of France in 1770. Louis XVI was a shy gentleman who prefered stability and order. He was conservative and while they were amicable, they were closed-off to each other so Marie did not tell him that she was a witch.
Perhaps it was the fact that she never embraced the muggle world fully that the French people did not embrace her. They eyed her with distrust because they considered her a foreigner from Vienna. And she, too, considered herself a foreigner, and in more ways than one. When she was younger, she wished she was a muggle because she couldn’t control her magic. But as her father taught her about her magical heritage, she started to accept the magical side of herself, even if she had never grown up in the wizarding world.
She did, however, embrace her role as a mother very much. She gave birth to two children and became attached to them. Although they did not have magical inclinations like her, she would tell them the stories her father told her. Her children loved listening to her talk about dragons and ogres, never realizing that the fairytales were true.
As the French Revolution raged on in the late 1700s, she feared for her life and the life of her family. Eventually when her family was placed under house arrest, she made the decision to tell her family about her magical lineage. Her husband was shocked but still loved her. Her children were amazed by her displays of magic and were disappointed that they didn’t have magical abilities themselves. That night, she came up with a plan to protect their safety. She faked her husband’s death so he could take care of her children while she went to find Beauxbatons, the magical school that was her only link to the wizarding world. She found the school by luck when she overheard two people talk about a Triwizard Tournament in which a Beauxbatons Head was injured by a Cockatrice. The two strangers pointed her in the right direction and eventually, she met with the headmistress and explained to her the danger her family was in. The headmistress was very understanding but explained that since her children were not magical, they could not be admitted into Beauxbatons. She did, however, mention that there was a place in England called Godric’s Hollow where her family could live. The wizard community there was much safer than France and so, with no other option, Marie Antoinette faked her death and moved her family to England. They lived the rest of their lives in peace and quiet obscurity. In time she befriended other French aristocrats who had emigrated to England and met wizarding folk in Godric’s Hollow who welcomed her into the community. Thus, the woman who grew up without roots finally made England her home.