Millicent Bulstrode

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Character
Name: Millicent Bulstrode
Occupation: School girl
Relationships:
Fandom: Harry Potter
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Millicent Bulstrode is a minor character in the Harry Potter novels. A Slytherin girl, she is in the same year as Harry.

In Canon

Tantalisingly little is known of Millicent in canon. She's physically large & strong; Gryffindors describe her as ugly. She keeps a pet cat at Hogwarts. In common with many Slytherins, she was one of Dolores Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad. Her parentage isn't mentioned in the novels, but in a 2001 interview J.K. Rowling showed early character notes in which she is classified as half-blood.[1] Her most memorable moment is probably in Chamber of Secrets when she fights with Hermione at the duelling club.

Fannish Opinions

It doesn't matter how, being physically different from the rest of the pack is a hard thing to handle. Being traditionally unpretty is difficult. Being a girl and built like a linebacker has got to be hell. I imagine that unless Millicent asserts her physical strength to defend herself, she gets a lot of taunting and teasing. If she does assert that strength, she is probably viewed with fear, resulting in loneliness. If she is befriended, it is very probably because of her strength, which must be saddening. I'm willing to guess that the girl is mostly lonely and distrustful of what friends she might have. ...
I think Millicent's an angry girl who sees her strength as virtually her only asset. I don't think she has friends, she has people that she tolerates and who tolerate her. She secretly wishes people would see past her exterior and see she is more than a sort of muscle, but wouldn't dare tell anyone that. She will never be considered attractive in the common sense and the very best she could hope for is striking. As a Slytherin, she's ambitious and is willing to use others to gain "power" in an uncertain world. (alice_and_lain)[2]

...it’s obviously harder to describe Millicent since we know next to nothing about her.

Despite this, Fanon!Millicent is surprisingly uniform across the board. Unlike characters such as Pansy and gender-confused Blaise who tend to vary drastically from fic to fic, Millicent consistently remains her taciturn, cynical, intelligent self. ...

Fanon Millicent is- unlike Hermione- something of a loner. This makes sense; from what we know of her, she’s not the most attractive or feminine girl, and being put in a house like Slytherin more or less guarantees that she will be teased. So not only does it make sense for her to be a loner, it also makes sense for her to be a defensive loner. Given her tendency to plow right in with her fists, her defensiveness has probably earned her a grudging respect from her housemates as well.

Not to say that Millicent is the female Crabbe/Goyle; she’s intelligent, practical and sharp-sighted. This leads her to be bitingly realistic about her situation; she’s not one to delude herself into thinking she is/has more than she does. So she’s something of a cynic. This isn’t to say that she’s completely invulnerable and ready for everything that comes her way- it just means that she thinks she’s invulnerable. Fanon Millicent tends to be one of those closet softies- so closet that she doesn't realize it herself. She's doesn't necessarily breed pymgy puffs in secret or write sappy love poetry, but Millicent does care- about others as well as what they think of her.

So. Fanon Millicent in brief: independent, mentally and physically tough, closet softie. (ofangoriousone)[3]

In Fandom

Unlike most other Slytherins from her year, Millicent only rarely stars in fanworks and doesn't tend to get the Leather Pants makeover. Her blunt, brutally direct[4] approach to life attracts some fans, and she has a small following among those who appreciate large &/or conventionally unattractive characters; for example, she's among the most popular characters in the HP Beholder exchange. She also gets background roles in Slytherin!Harry and Harry/Draco or Hermione/Draco stories.

Until Rowling's notes were published, fanfiction generally assumed that, as a Slytherin, she was a pure-blood. Subsequently some authors have chosen to retain her fanon pure-blood status, while others have explored the experiences of a half-blood in Slytherin. She is usually portrayed as white, but occasional fanart gives her brown or black skin.[5] Fanon often makes her a Quidditch player. There's no consensus on what profession she might take up as an adult, with stories featuring everything from barmaid to Auror or even healer.[6] Redeemed-Millicent, where she comes to regret her associations with fellow Slytherins, is a relatively common trope which plays on how little is known of her character & motivations from canon.

In het, she's commonly paired with Slytherin men other than Draco, particularly Blaise Zabini & Gregory Goyle; Dudley Dursley & Viktor Krum are other frequent male partners. A few stories have paired her with male Gryffindors. Femslash is relatively common, with partners including Pansy Parkinson & Hermione Granger, the latter sometimes playing off their physically antagonistic relationship in canon.

Example Fanworks

Fanfiction

Fanart

Meta

Recs

Archives & Links

References

  1. ^ HP Lexicon: A–C (accessed 18 February 2014)
  2. ^ alice-and-lain: "And Millicent Bulstrode's no pixie." (accessed 18 February 2014)
  3. ^ ship_manifesto: Cat Scratch Fever: Hermione Granger/Millicent Bulstrode (Harry Potter) (accessed 18 February 2014)
  4. ^ Thread started by Dragonelle in alice-and-lain: "And Millicent Bulstrode's no pixie." (accessed 18 February 2014)
  5. ^ For example, Bulstrode and Greengrass by Dollar-Chan
  6. ^ An example of Healer Millicent is The Accidental Malfoy by Rumaan
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