Leta Lestrange



"You're too good, Newt. You've never met a monster you couldn't love."

- Leta's opinion of Newt Scamander (and of herself)

Leta Lestrange (1896 - early September 1927) was a pure-blood witch born into the Lestrange family. From an early age, she was distraught over her unstable family lineage and unintentionally bringing about the death of an infant, Corvus Lestrange (V). She attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry between 1908 to 1915, where she was often bullied. While at school, she developed a close relationship with Newton Scamander, but the two parted ways when she caused trouble using a Jarvey and Newt took the blame, leading to his expulsion. In her adult life, Leta became determined to turn over a fresh leaf and live as a productive and appreciated member of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Leta had become the fiancée of Newt's older brother Theseus by 1927. In this year, she sacrificed herself for them during a rally held in Paris by Gellert Grindelwald by distracting him, incapacitating Vinda Rosier, and destroying their skull-hookah. Grindelwald directed his previously conjured fire into her flesh, disintegrating her body. Despite this, Leta's demise inspired Newt to openly go to war against the terrorist that had ended her life.

Early life
Leta Lestrange was born at Lestrange Manor in 1896, the only child of Corvus Lestrange IV from his rape of Laurena Kama. The Lestranges were an old pure-blood family, deemed one of the "Sacred Twenty-Eight" by Cantankerus Nott. On her mother's side, Leta is descended from a powerful and wealthy pure-blood family of Senegalese origin.

Corvus had coveted the already happily married Laurena and placed her under an Imperius Curse to draw her away from her husband and son. Soon after Leta's birth, her mother passed away, and Corvus married Clarisse Tremblay. This union produced one child, a son, Corvus V. Clarisse also died soon after the birth. One her mother's side Leta had an older half-brother named Yusuf, but it's unlikely that they had any contact with each other, due to the family feud.

Upon learning that the Kama family had sworn an Unbreakable Vow of vengeance upon the one he loved most because of his abduction and rape of their matriarch, Corvus IV sent Irma Dugard, his half-elf family servant, to take Leta and her infant half-brother to America. Bothered by his incessant crying, Leta switched him with another baby in a nearby cabin. When the ship sank, one of the escape boats capsized and her half-brother ostensibly drowned. The baby taken by Leta ended up being raised by an unrelated woman in New York.

Hogwarts years
Before beginning education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1908, Leta purchased her first wand, likely from Ollivanders, and was sorted into Slytherin on 1 September.

Leta was severely bullied at Hogwarts due to the gossip about her being an unwanted child and the tragic death of her half-brother. She encountered Newton Scamander while searching for a place to hide from her pursuers, whom she had hexed in retaliation for their malicious gossip. Newt and Leta developed a remarkably close bond, spending much time together over the holidays caring for an injured baby raven.



Leta attended Professor Albus Dumbledore's teaching of Boggarts. During one lesson, her boggart transformed into a swaddled infant sinking into deep water. She was later comforted by Newt when she was upset by her own Boggart. He show her one of the Bowtruckles he had befriended on the school grounds, because he was the only one they would not hide from.

Newt was once given a month's detention for being cheeky to Prendergast, so Leta set off a Dungbomb under the professor's desk to get the same punishment too.

In 1913, one of Leta's experiments involving a Jarvey went too far, endangering the life of another student. It also violated laws prohibiting the possession of this creature. Rather than see his good friend expelled, Newt took the blame, and was thus sentenced to be expelled from Hogwarts in Leta's place.

Post-Hogwarts
"I don't really know what Leta likes these days because people change."

- Newt referring his and Leta's falling out Newt Scamander remained in love with Leta many years after their parting. He kept a framed photograph of her in the work shed inside his magically-expanded suitcase during his travels. In late 1926, while visiting New York, Queenie Goldstein saw the picture, asking Newt about it. She used Legilimency on him, noting that Leta was "a taker" in their relationship. By 1927, Leta had fallen in love with Newt's older brother, Theseus Scamander. They planned to be married on 6 June 1928, and Newt was invited to be their best man. On 19 March 1927 Leta, alongside with Newt, Theseus and Bunty, participated in the  book launch at Flourish and Blotts in Diagon Alley. Spellbound magazine erroneously captioned the photograph from the event, leading to a misunderstanding between Porpentina and Newt.

Ministry employee
Six months later, upon Theseus' advice, Leta began working at the British Ministry of Magic in London, as assistant to the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Torquil Travers. She was part of a delegation led by Travers, to question Albus Dumbledore regarding rumours of Newt's potential travel to Paris. Dumbledore found Leta reminiscing about her school days at her old desk, consumed with guilt about her wicked past. Dumbledore's insight into her pain leads him to tell her about the loss of his sister. During a visit to the French Ministry of Magic, Theseus told her about the rumour that Credence Barebone could be her long-lost stepbrother, which Leta denied. Her fiance urged her to check the Lestrange family records to be certain.

Encountering Newt and Tina in the Records Room, they discover that the box was taken to the Lestrange Mausoleum. The Records Keeper, Melusine, sent Matagots after them because of Newt's entering under false pretences. Newt advised them not to fight the Matagots to keep them docile, but the warning came too late--Leta had already unleashed a spell. When beasts attacked them, Newt put Leta and Tina in the suitcase, and with the help of the Zouwu that he had rescued, the trio fled to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery. They head to the Lestrange tomb and Leta found the Lestrange box which was taken, but they were not alone. They crossed paths with Jacob Kowalski, Yusuf Kama, Credence Barebone and Nagini. Leta stopped her half-brother Yusuf, from fulfilling his Vow under the mistaken impression that Credence was really Corvus Lestrange V. She finally confessed to inadvertently killing Corvus, proving he and Credence were not the same person and that she had no idea who Credence actually was.

Death
When the door to Grindelwald's rally opened, Leta and others joined Queenie Goldstein and dozens of other pure-bloods at the rally. When Theseus and the other Aurors arrived, a fight began. Grindelwald created a circle of blue flame to divide followers from enemies, and Credence and Queenie crossed unharmed (although Queenie seemed to suffer some pain while crossing the flames). When the dark wizard attacked Theseus and Newt, the two most important men in Leta's life, Leta approached him, seemingly about to join his cause. At the last moment, this was revealed to be a distraction in an effort to give Theseus, Newt, Tina, Jacob, Yusuf and Nagini time to get away. Grindelwald was able to deflect her attack, but she successfully destroyed the skull hookah held by Vinda Rosier. Right before being incinerated by the Protego Diabolica, she looked at the Scamander brothers and said "I love you", though it is unclear which of them she was speaking to.

Physical appearance
Leta was described as beautiful. She has intense brown eyes and dark-coloured hair.

Personality and traits
"She was a taker."

- Leta's self-serving nature According to Queenie, Leta was a "taker" rather than a "giver", and she did display a selfish streak throughout her youth: Leta swapped her baby half-brother Corvus for another infant simply because she couldn't tolerate his crying; at Hogwarts, she allowed Newt to take the blame and be expelled for her own childish mistake. On the other hand, Leta suffered a great deal of tragedy throughout her life, and this had a marked effect on her personality: The circumstances of her birth and loveless upbringing left her damaged and confused; the unintentional role she had played in her infant brother's death left her with feelings of incredible guilt and self-loathing (to the point that her Boggart was her infant brother's drowning). Leta regarded herself as not only guilty of killing her brother (rather than the unforeseen accident it was), but as evil and a monster. She also felt additional guilt over ruining her best friend's education. Despite all this, Leta maintained a polite and considerate personality. She remained friendly towards Newt, for whom she continued to have feelings, and later got engaged to Newt's older brother, Theseus Scamander. Newt also continued to care for Leta, and even kept mementos of their time together.

In several ways, Leta's personality contradicted the "evil Slytherin" stereotype held by many students of the other Houses (Gryffindors in particular), and was in stark contrast to her father Corvus, as well as later Lestranges such as Rodolphus and Rabastan. For instance, Leta seemed to put no stock in pure-blood supremacy beliefs, despite her family being one the the Sacred Twenty-Eight. Much like Horace Slughorn and Andromeda Tonks, Leta could be said to represent the more "positive" aspects of Slytherin, in her case ambition and resourcefulness without any of the usual ruthlessness, elitism, or arrogance associated with members of the house. She also did not consider her Slytherin status as a marker of "superiority", as she quickly befriended and grew very close to the Hufflepuff Newt Scamander, the two bonding over their shared status as outsiders. While she would sometimes hex other students, she did so out of anger in the face of bullying, rather than any unprovoked malice. She was quite liked by her Defence Against the Dark Arts professor Albus Dumbledore, but struggled to get along with anyone at Hogwarts, except Newt.

Leta ultimately showed courage and selflessness when she sacrificed her life to save the Scamander brothers from certain death, much like how her fellow Slytherin Severus Snape would likewise sacrifice his life for a good cause many years later. After hearing her former teacher Albus Dumbledore confess his own guilt over not loving his late sister Ariana enough, Leta was able to take his advice and confess to what she had done to Corvus, thereby saving Credence Barebone from Yusuf Kama's revenge.

Leta's selfless and heroic death would have a profound impact on Newt, giving him the resolve he needed to at last choose a side in the Global Wizarding War, as well as inducing Dumbledore to honour Leta's sacrifice by more actively supporting the resistance against Grindelwald.

Magical abilities and skills

 * Magical Mastery: Leta Lestrange was a very powerful and talented witch, being recognised by Albus Dumbledore himself as one of his best students at Hogwarts, proving her a very accomplished witch.
 * Charms: Leta was able to find the Lestrange family section in the French Ministry of Magic Archives much faster than Tina Goldstein, an experienced Auror, although this may have been due to her heritage as a Lestrange. Leta later succeeded in temporarily diverting Grindelwald's deadly blue fire away from the Scamander brothers, Nagini, and Jacob Kowalski.
 * Defence Against the Dark Arts: Leta was highly skilled in this subject, given her ability to fight Grindelwald alongside Newt and Theseus for a time and saving the Scamander brothers from death at the hands of the fearsome Dark Wizard's blue fire even if at the cost of her own life. Albus Dumbledore considered Leta one of his best students in the subject. Indeed, Leta only had trouble repelling a Boggart due to her incredible guilt and self-loathing over the role she played in the death of her brother Corvus.
 * Duelling: Leta was an exceptionally skilled duellist, with her managing to shatter Grindelwald's skull-hookah with a well-aimed spell, and to even hold her own against the incredibly powerful Gellert Grindelwald himself while aided by Newt and Theseus for a few moments, before getting overwhelmed and killed. She was also skilled in the casting of the Stunning Spell.
 * Elemental Magic Mastery: Leta had a limited degree of control over the element fire, with her able to divert the flow of Grindelwald's immensely destructive blue fire away from Newt and Theseus, even if it was only for a few moments.
 * Apparition: Leta was able to Apparate at will as shown when she was able to Apparate to Hogwarts, along with Torquil Travers, Theseus Scamander, and some other Aurors.
 * Indomitable Willpower: Leta's Slytherin ambition granted her an immense willpower, with her thus managing to rise up high through the Department of Magical Law Enforcement despite once failing to fit in at Hogwarts as a student, and with her determination to not be the freak that she was perceived by other students, and her own father to be. At the end of her life, Leta demonstrated her incorruptible spirit and morals by resisting Grindelwald's persuasive speech, and willingly sacrificing her own life to save her beloved friend Newt and fiance Theseus from the lethal blue fire. Indeed, it was this incorruptible willpower demonstrated in Leta's final moments that induced Newt, as well as her half-brother Yusuf Kama, to finally join the Global Wizarding War against Grindelwald.

Etymology

 * Leta most likely originates from the name Leda, daughter of Aetolian king Thestius, an Aetolian princess who became a Spartan queen in Greek mythology, of which the story of Leda and the Swan is the focus.
 * In the story, Zeus takes the form of a swan and rapes her. Their consummation, on the same night as Leda lay with her husband Tyndareus, resulted in two eggs from which hatched Helen (aka "Helen of Troy", said to be the most beautiful woman in the world and an instigator of the Trojan War), Clytemnestra, and Castor and Pollux (who became the constellation Gemini).


 * The name Lita is of Latin origin and means "gladly."

Behind the scenes
"The relationship between Leta and Newt Scamander is a complex relationship, so I think there will be a lot of time for that to grow and develop, which will be fun."

- Zoë Kravitz about her character Leta
 * Leta Lestrange is portrayed by Zoë Kravitz in and 🇨🇬.
 * A younger Leta is portrayed by Thea Lamb in 🇨🇬.
 * According to director David Yates, viewers will learn more about Leta Lestrange and Newt's relationship with her in future movies of the franchise.
 * Leta may or may not be related to Bellatrix Lestrange. But despite Bellatrix being a Lestrange by marriage (her husband Rodolphus and her brother-in-law Rabastan may or may not be Leta's descendants for that matter), Sirius Black has previously mentioned that "the pure-blood families are all interrelated", meaning there is a possibility of at least a Black-Lestrange (and/or vice versa) union/s at any time including the distant past. As the Black family tree provided by Rowling for the production team of only shows the most recent eight generations of descent, it is in contrast with Harry's description of the Black Family Tapestry as "sprawling" and "dating back [...] to the Middle Ages".
 * Zoë Kravitz has described Leta as "Helena Bonham Carter's great-great aunt" in an interview (Helena being the actress of Bellatrix Lestrange). Though that might have been an informal approximation, similarly to when Sirius Black described his great-great-great aunt Elladora Black simply as "dear Aunt Elladora".

Notes and references
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