Leta Lestrange



"ANGLE ON A PHOTOGRAPH INSIDE NEWT’S SHED, which shows a beautiful girl — the girl smiles suggestively."

- Description of Leta Lestrange

Leta Lestrange was a pure-blood witch born into the pure-blood extremist Lestrange family. She attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry sometime between 1908 to 1916. While at school she developed a close relationship with Newton Scamander. Leta was the fiancée of Newt's older brother Theseus by 1927.

Early life
Leta Lestrange was born into the Lestrange family, an old, respected British pure-blood family and one of the "Sacred Twenty-Eight."

She attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. While there, she developed a close friendship with Newton Scamander, bonding over their shared love magical creatures and their outsider status.

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.

Later life
"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 become engaged to Newt's older brother, Theseus Scamander.

Physical appearance
Leta was described as beautiful in her youth. She had brown shoulder length hair and dark skin and at times wore purple eyeshadow and a magenta dress.

Personality and traits
"She's a taker. You need a giver."

- Queenie Goldstein to Newt regarding his former relationship with Leta.

According to Queenie, Leta was a taker and not a giver. Leta has been described as a quite complicated, damaged and confused lady. She is a kind of tragic figure and Newt is absolutely still in love with her; she has a kind of power over him.

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 in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald by Zoë Kravitz.
 * A younger Leta will also appear in the second film of the Fantastic Beasts series.
 * 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 8 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".

Notes and references
Leta Lestrange Leta Lestrange Лета Лестрейндж Leta Lestrange リタ・レストレンジ