Character name: Alessandra Zabini
Age & Birthday: 26 & October 25th
Gender & Pronouns: Cis-Female & She/Her
Occupation: Socialite
Blood status: Pureblood
Previous house: Slytherin
Affiliation: Death Eater
Face claim: Savannah Lee Smith
There had been a time when the Zabini family had been fabulously wealthy, but that had been long before Alessandra Zabini had been born. The patriarch of the Zabini family, her grandfather, had gotten himself involved in some…untasteful dealings, which had resulted in a stint in prison and the loss of most of the Zabini wealth. Francesco Zabini, Alessandra’s father, was determined to change the trajectory of the family after his father’s death, and he hinged all of those ambitions on his youngest daughter. It was a lot of pressure to put on a young child, but Francesco saw the most potential in his youngest. From the start, Alessandra had been charming and beautiful, and she had a way of wrapping people around her finger.
The scandal with Francesco’s father had lost them their high society status in Italy, but in England, Francesco and his wife Lucia saw a way for a new start. Whispers followed them, of course, but English society was much more polite and willing to overlook the obvious: The the Zabini family had been ruined, but they weren’t harming anyone, and their blood was as Pure as the rest of them so the family was welcomed in. They might not have been invited to every party, but it was an in, and Lucia and Alessandra quickly became staples at high society functions. Lucia proved to be a talented seamstress, which helped the family keep up the charade that they weren’t completely broke.
Lucia and Francesco had always planned to send Alessandra to Beauxbatons, but when it came time for Alessandra to attend school, they made the last minute choice to send her oof to Hogwarts, much to her disappointment. Alessandra had dreamt of attending school in France, and she thought that the uniforms at Beauxbatons were far superior to the drab robes of Hogwarts. But her parents decided that they didn’t want the families of the Sacred Twenty-Eight to forget about Alessandra when it came time to find her a betrothal. At Hogwarts, Alessandra was sorted into Slytherin, following in her older brothers footsteps. Alessandra spent far more time flirting with boys and partying then on her schoolwork, so her grades were always mediocre at best. Her professors always told her that she wasn’t ‘living up to her potential’ whatever that meant, but she refused to let their words have any effect on her. Being surrounded by the likes of the Malfoys and Blacks and Lestranges made her resent that her family didn’t have access to exorbitant amounts of wealth like they did, but one day, Alessandra would marry well and it would solve all their families problems.
At nineteen, Alessandra’s father found a match between Alessandra and a man many years older then her. He was Italian, and obscenely wealthy, and while Alessandra had her reservations, she remembered her duty to her family, and she married him in a lavish ceremony in Italy. She finally felt like she had everything that she could ever want; she had access to money to buy the latest fashions, several estates in Italy, and a husband that spoiled her.
But Alessandra quickly learned that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
He hit her for the first time after he saw her spending time with an old friend from Hogwarts. It had been a shock, and he bought her diamonds and jewels the next day as an apology. The wealth made her willing to look the other way for some time, until it happened again a few months later. Alessandra hatched a plan to escape and well…her first husband died a few weeks later, and Alessandra inherited all of his wealth.
A widow at twenty had never been her life plan, but he had no children to inherit his estate, so it had all been left to Alessandra. She returned home to England and bought her parents a townhouse in London, and bought herself a beautiful home in Kensington. She had decided that when she married again, she would marry for love.
Alessandra met Damon Burke at a society party, and it was a whirlwind romance. Married by twenty-two, Alessandra thought that she could never be happier. Damon was a distant relative of the shopowner, but he had his own money, and Alessandra thought that they were going to be together forever. That was until she found him in bed with another woman. It all came out that he wasn’t even really a Burke, and he was broke, and well, one thing led to another and…
It was an accident. They whispered how terribly sad it was that Alessandra was widowed twice and she wasn’t even twenty-five. She must be cursed.
After all of the lies, Alessandra decided that love was for fools. You couldn’t trust anyone, and when her father approached her with a proposal to marry Gabriel Greengrass, Alessandra agreed to the marriage. He was wealthy in his own right, with a family that he was close to, and Alessandra knew that his name would bring her family more legitimacy.
They were only married for a few months before Gabriel died of Dragonpox, leaving Alessandra a widow again. When the medical professionals arrived at their estate, they found a very shocked Alessandra. She had really thought that it would work out this time.
It was another shock a month later when she found out that she was pregnant. She bought another home in London and prepared for motherhood. With more money then she knew what to do with, she had decided that marriage clearly wasn’t for her, and she focused on being the best mother to her son, Blaise, who she gave her last name, much to the Greengrass family’s displeasure. It was nothing against Gabriel, but Alessandra thought that Zabini was a much better last name.
Alessandra knows that they whisper about her whenever they see her, but she doesn’t care. She has a vault in Gringotts filled with galleons and property in Italy and England, and a son that she can spoil. That’s enough for her. For now.
Played by: Courtney
Time Zone: EST
