A Main Character

## Stephanie Ivory Laveaux-Shepherd

**Stephanie Ivory Laveaux-Shepherd** (b. 16 January 1975) was a French-American half-blood witch born to pure-blood Liliane Laveaux and muggle John Shepherd.

Stephanie attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was sorted into Slytherin house in 1986.

### **Biography**

#### **Family Lineage**

Stephanie's maternal family, the Laveauxes were an old and wealthy French pureblood family, who disowned family members who were considered "blood traitors". Since Stephanie's mother Liliane Laveaux betrayed her family's pure blood and married an American muggle, she was disowned from her family, and left no fortune. Liliane met the muggle John Shepherd in Paris in 1974, when he was there temporarily working in a hospital. Liliane eventually kept her relationship with John secret from her family, going into hiding from them with John. She gave birth to their daughter Stephanie a year later. After her family found out about her relationship with John, Liliane decided to leave Paris, and when John moved back to his home in New York, he took Liliane with him.

John Shepherd was a wealthy and well-known surgeon in New York. He was already aware of the wizarding world, since he had a son two years older than Stephanie who was a young muggle-born wizard. He married Liliane that same year, shortly after they moved to New York.

#### **Early Life (1975-1986)**

For the first seven years of her life, Stephanie lived with her parents in a house in a wizarding village in New York state, the United States of America. Stephanie's older half brother Eli lived with them as well, since his mother had died at childbirth. Three years after the birth of their daughter, they had a son named Alexander. Three years after Alexander was born, they had another daughter, named Zoë. During that time, they lived a happy and loving life as a family.

In 1982, there was a mass killing in the hospital John Shepherd worked in. Though the first wizarding war had recently ended, Death Eaters had broken into the hospital, and killed John, because he was a muggle. This was witnessed by seven year old Stephanie and four year old Alex, who managed to run out of the hospital in time. John is buried in their village's churchyard.

After the death of John, Liliane's health was very poor, and she was too frail to care for the four children. She began showing alarming signs of schizophrenia. She married the muggle farmer Will Dawson the same year, and they moved to a farmhouse in the countryside. Will had two young, muggle twin daughters Lisa and Ella, and took on the job of raising six children (Eli, Stephanie, Alex, Zoe, Lisa, Ella), while Liliane's health continued to worsen. The children helped Will out on the farm and, though Will was not a rich man, they lived comfortably enough in their cottage.

Two years after the death of John, a tragedy occurred. One winter night in 1984, Stephanie woke up to find that her younger brother's bed was empty and the front door of the cottage was wide open. They searched for the boy through the whole forest the entire night, but found no trace of him. Alex has been missing since.

After that incident, Liliane's schizophrenia was the worst it had ever been and she could no longer remain at home. She was soon moved to a permanent ward in a wizarding hospital in New York City.

Eli started attending Hogwarts later that year, and the other children continued to live with Will in their farm.

When it was time for Stephanie to attend Hogwarts, Liliane wished for her to be sent to Hogwarts school in Scotland. She would have prefered for her to attend Beauxbatons like she did, but she wished for her and her brother to attend the same school. In 1986, Stephanie started attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and left New York.

#### Hogwarts years (1986-1993)

Stephanie went to London with her parents and went to King's Cross on 1 September 1986. It appears as though Liliane, along with Zoe, Lisa and Ella had come with Will to see her daughter off, since Stephanie mentioned waving to her parents and siblings abroad the Hogwarts Express. She joined a cubicle with Addie Manchester, an Australian girl who would later go on to become her enemy. She had glared at Addie to make her uncomfortable. They were soon joined by Ashley Malfoy. After Stephanie saw an older boy hitting a girl in her year, she performed a jinx that changed him into a mouse and the girl, named Nikki De La Fuente, joined their compartment.

That night Nikki was sorted into Slytherin along with Ashley Malfoy. She began a friendship with the Ravenclaw first year Noah Selwyn after he went up to the Slytherin table to talk to Stephanie. Their conversation was dramatically interrupted by Addie, who then fainted and had to be sent to the hospital wing.

The next day in lessons, Stephanie spent most of the time with her friend Noah, and later with Nikki, who also became her good friend. She got along well with her housemates, although she mentioned that the other Slytherins did disapprove of her friendship with students from different houses.

Merely days after Stephanie had started studying at Hogwarts, Will's farmhouse caught on fire and burned down. Will managed to save Zoë and his daughter Lisa, but his other daughter, Ella, could not be saved. She died in the burning house at the age of 5.

After this incident, Will and Liliane, along with their younger daughters, visited Eli and Stephanie at Hogwarts.

Liliane went back to the hospital ward soon after, and Will, along with Lisa and Zoë, had to move to a shabby old shelter since Will's wordly possesions had been destroyed in the fire.

### **Physical Appearance**

Stephanie was described as beautiful. She had light brown skin, long dark hair that cascaded in waves down to her waist, and bright, emerald green eyes. She looked almost exactly like her mother, except for her eyes, which she inherited from her father.

### **Personality and Traits**

Stephanie was a taker, rather than a giver. She displayed a certiain selfish streak throughout her youth, and could be quite abrupt to others, for instance when she stared daggers at Addie on the train, which made her think that she was not surprised Stephanie was sorted into Slytherin.

Although she could be mean to others, her personality had been severely impacted by the horrible things that had happened in her youth. Due to her father's death, her mother's illness and her little brother's disappearance, she became very reserved and never spoke about these topics. She was careful not to let anyone close to her. However, at Hogwarts, with her friends she showed a cheerful side of herself and had a lot of fun with her friends, although she had a tendency to shut them out sometimes.

In many ways, she contradicted the Slytherin stereotype, since she did not consider her Slytherin status a mark of superiority and quickly befriended the Ravenclaw Noah and the Gryffindor Nikki, despite her housemates' disapproval. She also set no stock to pureblood supremacy, due to her fond memories of her muggle father and little muggle step-sisters. She hated Death Eaters and pureblood supremacists, and wanted to become an auror after finishing Hogwarts to avenge her father's death. She stood up against Slytherin stereotypes, and expected people to think that just because she was a Slytherin, she will become a Death Eater. As in the case of Andromeda Black and Horace Slughorn, she displayed the positive Slytherin traits of cleverness, cunning, ambition and resourcefulness without any of the usual ruthlessness, elitism, or arrogance associated with members of the house, although she sometimes jinxed other students for fun.