Reid, Madison

From the very beginning, Madison seemed fated to live a life of conflict between pureblood beliefs and acceptance of muggles and muggleborns alike. Her father, Devon Reid (Devon MacMillian at the time) came from a proud pureblood family and he had spent his whole life being influenced by his father, Henry MacMillian, a hateful man who's past steeped heavily in the Dark Arts as well as dealings with Death Eaters.

As Devon grew older, he broke away from his father's influence. He made many friends during his time at Hogwarts, even meeting the girl who would one day be the love of his life. His father of course, did not approve of the sort of students Devon associated with, despite being sorted into the proud house of Slytherin. And as Devon graduated and continued on with his career in the Ministry he spent a lot of time with Belinda Reid, the girl he met in school who had been a Ravenclaw student and had also moved on up into the Ministry right after graduating.

Devon moved into a position in the Ministry of Magic Public Information Services, a branch charged with the responsibility of keeping the public informed, while Belinda was recruited into Auror training, her OWLs and NEWTs as well as her spell casting and deductive skills made her an excellent candidate for the program. As Devon's relationship with Belinda grew stronger as time went on, his father became more and more displeased. Belinda was, after all, a muggleborn, or mudblood as he would often say, and as Devon refused to listen to his father and continue seeing her, Henry practically disowned him, and hardly spoke to him for years. The young couple only found this to be a relief, and quite honestly, Belinda's side of the family was much more pleasant, though they are all muggles.

The two eventually married and months after that, Belinda became pregnant. It was only news of a grandchild that brought Henry crawling back, as he had no other children to speak of that could continue on the MacMillian name. Devon and Belinda were both hesitant to let the man back into their lives once again, but later decided they would try and change him for the better, for their child's sake.

Her parents couldn't have been happier when Madison was born, and they both tried their hardest to be the best parents they could be. Her father always worried that he would be an awful parent, due to the relationship he had with his parents. Despite this, he made the extra effort to spend time with Madison and be everything his parents were not. Belinda was always encouraging him and assuring him that he was a wonderful father. It was Madison's grandfather that they had to worry about.

They were always cautious about of what sort of things Madison might pick up on by spending too much time with Henry, and were rather protective and perhaps a little too strict about raising her. And though her grandfather was an awful man, Madison adored him, seeing him only as the lovely grandpa who was kind to her and always brought her presents.

On Madison's 11th birthday her grandfather dropped by uninvited and unannounced to present Madison with a gift to get her started on her first year at Hogwarts: a 13 inch black wand that has been passed down the family for generations, excluding Madison's father who refused the wand when Henry offered it to him as a graduation gift many years ago. Madison was so overjoyed to receive her first wand that her parents couldn't bare to take it away from her - though they did try to steer her towards a custom wand from Olivander's, albeit unsuccessfully. Madison was proud to wield a wand with so much history in the MacMillian family. What she didn't know was the wand also had a history with dark magic, and because of this, Madison struggled to master the wand for several years before it truly obeyed her wishes.

Henry was pleased to hear that she was so attached to this family heirloom, as he hoped she would be the one to carry on the MacMillian name as well as its reputation, unlike her father. And though her granfather would have been happier if she was sorted into house Slytherin, she was in fact sorted as a Ravenclaw just like her mother. He saw this only as a small loss and continued to lead Madison astray for years to come.

During her first 3 years at Hogwarts, Madison didn't draw much attention to herself and around her classmates she had a tendency to fade into the background. Due to her sheltered life at home she was rather shy at first, and her poor wand work early on did not help her stand out. She did excel rather well in the classes that weren't as heavily reliant on her wand, such as History of Magic, Herbology, and even Potions, despite the occasional wand gesture involved.

Madison also stayed in the good graces of most of her Professors and rarely got into any toruble. And for the few friends she did make during her time at Hogwarts, mostly from her own house, she was always willing to help study, and they often returned the favor, though she was not accustomed to asking for help most of the time. What she severely lacked in, more so than spell-casting, was flying. Madison knew from the start that she was not the athletic sort, and preferred to have her feet planted firmly on the ground.

As Madison's parents were often busy with their work, it was fairly easy for her grandfather to spend time with her during the summer, despite her parents making it clear that he was not welcome. They hid this from Madison of course, wanting to shield her from the truth for as long as they could. So, as Henry became aware of her struggles in mastering the wand, he helped her practice during the summer and also acquired permission from the Ministry to do so without Madison getting in trouble for using magic outside of school.