graveexcitement

This... really doesn't belong here, in this journal, but there's nowhere this does belong except for the discord I originally posted it in -- which, being discord, is not as permanent/as easily findable, even though I mod the discord in question -- or a FFN review, which... might have a wordcount limit and afaik won't take markdown OR html, so even if it does fit wordcount-wise it would be ugly and unformatted as sin.

The essay in question is written is about the fanfic Vanguard, which is the most recent entry in kitsunerei88's Revolutionary Arc fanfic series (this last link goes to the AO3 version, but Vanguard is currently only on FFN), and also drawing from Liar Liar and From America With Love, two other entries in that series. The Revolutionary Arc itself is a fanfic-of-fanfic, specifically of murkybluematter's Pureblood Pretense series, also known as the Rigel Black Chronicles.

As such, this essay has a very niche audience, and... since I expect said audience to be in the RBC Discord or in Vanguard's review section, and not on this journal unless I direct them to it, I'm mostly just posting this here for posterity and my own personal satisfaction. Cut for length.

The character of Lina has been a mystery thus far. She appears at the end of Vanguard chapter 4, is mentioned once in chapter 5, and then has a somewhat longer scene in chapter 10, which was released last night. Readers have been asking: who is Lina? What does she do, who does she work for, what does she want?

Who is Lina Avery?

I propose: Lina Avery and Lady Eveline Rosier (née Avery) are one and the same. In this essay I will investigate Eveline Rosier and her similarities to Lina Avery, as well as scrutinizing what we know about Lina Avery in general.

The first thing that made me reach this conclusion is this paragraph from chapter 10 of Vanguard: “When she married, Lina Avery had ceased to be, and everything went to her husband, as little as she saw him. She preferred it that way – she preferred to be left alone with her business in France as much as humanly possible. He, similarly, had always preferred to be left alone in the company of his Muggleborn mistress.” (Emphasis mine. I'm gonna do a lot of emphasis in this essay, and it's nearly always mine.)

I read that and thought: who do we know has a Muggleborn mistress? Lord Evan Rosier, that's who. And earlier in the scene, Lina concludes that Aldon Rosier is likely involved in the underground newspaper Bridge -- a conclusion that could plausibly be drawn by someone unrelated to him, but if she is related, she would be predisposed/more likely to notice his involvement. And then I noticed this line: "of course her personal connection to at least one of the probable players [involved with Bridge] didn't help.” So Lina believes Aldon is involved with Bridge, and also says she has a "personal connection" to the people at Bridge. Interesting.

Aldon's adopted mother -- the one who raised him -- is Lady Eveline Rosier. Eveline could plausibly be shortened to Lina.

This is some decent evidence on its own, but why leave it there when I can spend hours scouring the rev arc fics for more evidence to support or disprove this theory?

Lady Rosier née Avery

KaliOfDarkness, on discord, helpfully found the following passage, in which Sirius Black describes to Archie what he knew of the Lady Rosier, who "was famous for breaking the arrangements made for her."

"Anyway, I always thought I'd like to meet Lady Rosier – Lord Evan Rosier was her seventh or eighth arrangement, something like that. Her family, the Averys, were going spare. She was so disagreeable half the proposed grooms broke it off for her, once she defeated the proposed groom in a duel, once she pled deathly illness and said she wouldn't live long enough to produce an Heir. That time, the rumour is that she poisoned herself for weeks and paid off Healers to lie for her. Once she faked her death and reappeared in the Middle East six months later when the groom married someone else. Once she straight up ran away on the day of the ceremony! That time, she reappeared in Russia ten months later, after the groom broke the contract. It was a surprise to everyone when she married Lord Rosier instead of finding yet another way out, and their Heir came along a couple of years later." -From America With Love, ch 6

First off, this confirms that Eveline Rosier's maiden name was Avery (which isn't mentioned anywhere else; I'll get to that later.) Secondly, this passage paints Eveline Avery as wild (by pureblood lady standards). "Half of the proposed grooms broke it off" -- either she was naturally so unlike a normal pureblood noble bride that they decided to drop her, or she intentionally acted "disagreeable" to them to put them off. She apparently dueled one fiance (or, proposed fiance), faked a deadly illness, faked death, and ran away from the wedding itself. But she married Lord Rosier: why?

Meanwhile, Lord Evan Rosier needs a wife, because he's had a Muggleborn lover for fifteen years and presumably he's feeling pressured by his family/society/etc to marry a good noble pureblood. He's still in love with Christine, but due to the rising blood politics along with the pressures placed on a noble heir, doesn't feel like he can marry her (coward.) Therefore, he has to find someone he can marry in name only; someone who would be incentivized to look the other way when he continues seeing his Muggleborn mistress.

It then makes sense that someone like Eveline Avery would marry him. Presumably her reasons for rejecting all her other suitors are something along the lines of, they would expect her to be a "perfect noble lady," and all the expectations that would come with that. Evan Rosier, however, would be willing to look the other way as long as Eveline looks the other way in turn. If Eveline is his wife in public, and a noble lady in public, then he won't mind if she continues doing whatever the hell she wants in private; similarly, as long as he keeps his dalliance with Christine Blake private, she can look the other way.

Christine even says about the Rosiers' marriage: "it was a marriage in name only, which provided considerable benefits to her, and which shielded us as we kept seeing each other."

So what does Eveline do now? What does she do with her time, when she's not playing the noble wife? In Liar Liar, Aldon mentions she has a "love of French culture," goes 'shopping' in France, and is sometimes "away on business," supposedly for Lord Rosier. These might be significant, because Lina Avery lives and works in France, specifically in Toulouse. There's also this tidbit from the Smoke and Ash one-shot: "Anyone else would think Aldon smells like lavender, probably the outrageously, overly expensive soap his mother sends him from the south of France." This would just be another Eveline-France connection, but this time it specifies the south of France, and what do you know? Turns out Toulouse is in the south of France.

But other than that, most of what Aldon says about Eveline is about her parenting style (not demonstrative or physically affectionate, but she makes sure his favorite foods are there, nice clothes given to him, and due to his Truth-Speaker gift he knows his parents do love him) and about his sussing out that Eveline is not his biological mother. Aldon never thinks much about what Eveline actually does with her life other being Noble Wife. Christine dances around this too, just saying that Aldon should talk to Eveline about why she married Lord Rosier.

Lina Avery

Meanwhile, we have thus far had two POV scenes with Lina Avery. In chapter 4, she's "darkly amused" by the Rosier Investment Trust split. In fact, this scene has a lot of comments that could indicate Lina's familiarity with Evan Rosier and Christine Blake (emphases added):

"It was almost like a present that a lover would give. Lina smiled, darkly amused. Here, have half my company, no strings attached! Even surrounded by the warm and congratulatory business nonsense, it was still there for anyone to see if they just looked. Then again, they had had a child together, then worked together afterwards for another two decades; could she really have expected anything else?

Well, that didn't affect her, she thought dismissively, standing up. She had bigger problems than two idiots who were still apparently, against all common sense and in the face of the wild scandal swirling around them, ridiculously in love."

But her chapter 4 scene only gives a few hints as to what Lina actually does: "The whiteboard showed an assault plan for a wealthy wizarding family's manor in northern Russia," which definitely got my interest at the time. Then she thinks, "perhaps it was time to turn her mind to a problem that she had never bothered with before. Not that anyone was paying her for her thoughts right now, but it was an interesting problem, and one never knew."

The next chapter confirms that "Lina Avery" works at a "security analysis firm" in Toulouse, and Professor Newman is her partner (working from overseas). This would match with the "assault plan" mentioned earlier -- one thing security consultants might do is analyze a place's security by figuring out how they would break in, then telling their client all the flaws they found in the client's security, akin to white hat hacking. Though how much of a 'white hat' she really is is unknown, but at the very least, Newman didn't lie in describing it as a "security analysis firm," because he was testifying about that to Justice.

Now for her chapter 10 scene. Relevant quotes:

"The SOW Party was something she understood, having been in it for many years. (...) Of all the players, she understood them the most." Matches up with her being Lady Rosier for over seventeen years.
"The how and the why was for the historians to work out, not for Lina, who was usually (if paid well enough, if her personal duties didn't force her to act) most interested in figuring out how to end the threat. In this case, that was becoming a little more complicated – whoever this new Dark Lord was, he had followers, and that meant the list of people she had to kill got longer and more difficult." This is the main thing that brings up questions to what she actually does, beyond the general description of "runs a security analysis firm." We already know Eveline Avery dueled a proposed groom; how good a duelist is she?
As I mentioned earlier, Lina Avery notices Aldon's probable involvement, and that would be easier for her to do if she was the one who raised him. Not only that, but she writes Aldon's full name, Aldon Étienne Blake Rosier, on her whiteboard -- and Christine specifies that "Étienne" is the name Eveline chose. Most people refer to Aldon as either Aldon Blake or Aldon Rosier. Now, Lina also writes Arcturus Rigel Black, so maybe full names are just a Thing with her, but on the other hand Arcturus' full name is worth remembering anyway (since it also invokes Rigel.)
And then a few lines later she refers to Aldon by just his first name ("since Aldon had befriended Diggory"), which seems odd if she doesn't know him.
"[Bridge] was pushing for the kind of change that Lina thought was long overdue in her native land, and of course her personal connection to at least one of the probable players didn't help." Already highlighted this one, but hey. She's a British native, and has a personal connection to someone she thinks is probably involved in Bridge.
About Lina's marriage: "When she married, Lina Avery had ceased to be, and everything went to her husband, as little as she saw him." No one refers to Eveline as 'Lina,' not even Christine. Only Newman refers to his business partner as "Lina Avery," and Justice accepts this -- but since it's not a lie, even if it is a different persona than Lina's married name, it wouldn't catch Justice's notice. And clearly, few people in Britain think of Lady Rosier as being once an Avery, with Sirius as our exception -- even Aldon, who occasionally mentions "the Averys" in a list of purebloods, doesn't ever mention that that was his (adoptive) mother's house! Does he even know?
Also, "as little as she saw him" -- when Aldon is at home, he eats dinner with both of his parents, but breakfast with only his mother. So Eveline likely only eats one meal a day with her husband, which would make it pretty easy for her to not see him often. Aldon doesn't mention how much time she stayed at home before he went to Hogwarts, but she could have likely spent huge chunks of the year in France once he turned eleven, and based on how Aldon describes her parenting style, she probably could have spent quite a bit of time in France even before then, with the excuse of being away on business.
"She preferred it that way – she preferred to be left alone with her business in France as much as humanly possible. He, similarly, had always preferred to be left alone in the company of his Muggleborn mistress." This of course was what initially pointed my suspicions this way -- the description of a marriage in which the husband had a Muggleborn mistress.
In response to a note from her husband "ordering her to present herself to Wizarding Britain to attend" the ball, Lina thinks "As if he had any real authority over her – whatever the law said, Lina was her own person, and he knew that very well." This matches with Eveline Avery, who rejected numerous fiances, taking extreme efforts to do so. After all that, she would only consent to marry a man who would allow her to be her own person.
"But the tattoos on her back itched, the promises she had made long ago prodded at the little that remained of her conscience. Duty, they echoed to her. She had made her vows, so back to Wizarding Britain it would be." Hmm. Does the "vows" here actually refer to her wedding vows? If so, then her duty to her husband/family calls her back to Britain. If not, what does?

What we still don't know: the meaning of the tattoos running down her spine ("Duty. Tolerance. Caution.") Also, in chapter 4 there's "her silver ring, heavy, weighed down her left hand" -- is this a wedding ring (& perhaps thus foreshadowing of her married status) or a ring for something else?

Also don't know the meaning of THIS quote: "Lina Avery had been born on a battlefield, and war felt more natural to her than anything else. War was where Lina made her mark." Like.... ??? Very interested to know what this is about, especially since this is a continuity in which Britain didn't have a recent major wizarding war.

However, further inspection reveals that Sirius says, "Lord and Lady Rosier are nearly twenty years older than me." He was born in 1959 according to the HP wiki, putting the Rosiers as being born in the early 40s. This could indicate that Eveline was born during the Grindelwald Wars (which granted, are said to have "barely affected Wizarding Britain"), or perhaps during the Blitz.

(Or alternatively, "Lina Avery had been born on a battlefield" could also be a much more metaphorical thing, in that the identity of "Lina Avery" was born on a battlefield, rather than necessarily meaning Lina was actually born during wartime or something similar.)

More Eveline analysis

Also, according to Sirius' description of her, Eveline Rosier nee Avery has travelled quite a bit -- appearing in the Middle East and Russia on two separate occasions in which she ran away from a groom. (Lina Avery was also planning an assault on a Russian manor). Lina Avery definitely seems to be an international witch; she lives in Toulouse, and says "She had been out of Wizarding Britain, out of the centres of power, for too long."

She also, however, displays a good deal of knowledge about Wizarding Britain's various groups, even if she "didn't understand nearly as much as she wanted about most of them." In her analysis she takes into account the SOW Party, Dumbledore's Light faction, the new Dark Lord, the British International Association, the Welsh, the Irish, the Scottish clans, the Lower Alleys, the shifter alliance. So she has a good idea of the various groups who might be involved in the current political climate, both overtly and covertly -- many of which fall beyond most people's notice. About those groups, she says, "Too many people inside the country didn't understand the bubbling cauldron of resentment the whole system rested on. The only reason it hadn't boiled over was because each minor group – the Lower Alleys, the Scottish clans, the Irish and the Welsh, the shifter alliance, the dozen or so Guilds – had no reason or desire to work together." This makes sense for a British native who understandably paid attention to the political climate she grew up in, but then turned her back on as much as possible while still being part of the SOW Party. (And how noble women are 'supposed' to act would be good motivation for spending as much time outside Britain as she could.)

This means that if Lina is Eveline, then both Aldon and the mother who raised him have an eye for analysis, and specifically for analyzing people -- see Aldon in Liar Liar ch 6, analyzing who is reacting in which ways to the Harriett Potter scandal.

Things Christine says about Eveline in chapter 3 -- and she is one of only 3 sources on her, and the only one of those 3 who knows that her marriage was in name only (and thus has a better idea of her character) -- include:

"We got Eveline on the phone, she's creating a cover story" -- again, indicates Eveline was abroad; Lina spends most of her time in France
"Eveline says he's a coward," "Eveline says [breaking it off with Evan] was the smartest thing I ever did, because I always deserved better" -- Eveline doesn't appear to think much of Evan; fits with both Sirius' characterization of her and Lina's dismissiveness towards her husband (snorts at her husband's note/order, doesn't consider him to have "any real authority over her," sends a rude note back to him in return)
"And Evan promised me you would have the world with him. And Eveline, being Eveline, swore she would hold him to it." -- doesn't necessarily connect to the Theory, just a neat characterization tidbit

Since according to Christine, Eveline gave Aldon the middle name Étienne, I looked up its etymology: houseofnames.com says "The noble French surname Étienne was originally derived from the Greek name "Stephanos," meaning "crown." Other sources add the meanings "wreath" or "garland," but it does seem French.

French makes sense, both for Eveline's connections to France and if Eveline is Lina. And garland/crown/wreath makes sense for a child deliberately being raised by a mother not his own so that he will be included as one of the noble/upper class, doesn't it? Could also be minor foreshadowing for Aldon's stint being possessed by Justice, who on day 2 of the trial adds a "golden coronet" to her ensemble.

Things of note that may be points against this theory:

Aldon says his (adoptive) mother has "tiny hands," but Lina is "more graceful than anyone would have thought a woman of her size could ever be," which does not imply tiny hands. Could imply her hands are disproportionately small for her size, or it could imply Eveline's not the Lina we're looking for.
(On discord, Anand has also pointed out that this tiny detail is mentioned only once in Liar Liar, which was written/published over a year ago, and might just be an inconsistency over time. However, some of my notes on Eveline's character and her connections to France in particular are also pulled from Liar Liar, so... I'd rather not dismiss it.)
In From America With Love Archie mentions that "the Nott clan was bigger than most of the other pureblood noble families – almost as big as the Averys, if he remembered right." As such, it would be plausible for Eveline Avery and Lina Avery to be actually related, but not the same person, since apparently the Averys are a big family.

Alternative Theories

If Lina isn't Eveline, she must be someone else. I checked the Vanguard reviews for chapters 4-5-10, and in a chapter 4 review, bluecookies69/avo suggested that Lina might be Alex's mom. I looked into this because it turns out Alex's mom's name is Madeline, and Madeline could potentially be shortened to Lina; not only that, but it's a French-sounding name.

However, there's several things that don't match up: in reciting his vows, Alex states his full name as "Aleksandr Willoughby Dragić", which to me implies that Willoughby is his mom's maiden name, not Avery. (Rereading Smoke and Ash also seems to indicate this: they claim his father is an Eastern European pureblood, but he is Alexander Willoughby, and the Willoughbys are "unremarkable" & from Sussex.) Also, Alex's dad is a dhampir (and also dead), which doesn't match with Lina having a currently living husband with a Muggleborn mistress, and nor does it match with Lina's membership in the SOW party. She could have remarried, perhaps to someone in the SOW party with a Muggleborn mistress, but in that case I would still expect Willoughby to be her maiden name, not Avery.

Alex's description of his childhood also doesn't quite match: after his dad died protecting them from vampires at age 4, "that was when my mother decided, in consultation with the Order, to return to Wizarding Britain to raise me here most of the year, though I have always spent the summers with the Order." Lina prefers to be left alone to her business in France; and also, while Eveline seems to be somewhat of a detached mother to Aldon, Madeline does not seem as detached from Alex as she would have to be if she were Lina.

But there are some interesting similarities. Lina Avery says she was born on the battlefield; maybe she is linked to the dhampir/vampire fight. Alex states, "I want to be known for my honour, my faith, my commitment to duty, not for being a coward, a traitor, a monster.” In chapter 10, Lina reacts to the idea of Irish students betraying their people to attend Hogwarts with this: "The tattoos along her back crawled, and she shifted in discomfort. Lina hated traitors. Better to die than betray your countrymen."

Now, Alex only speaks of oaths, not tattoos, but... still interesting.

In the reviews for Vanguard chapter 5, Kalgene says "Sirius said in FAWL that Aldon's mom was an Avery before she married Evan Rosier so is Lina Aldon's aunt or something?" So that's another possible theory, and also they win points for 1) being one of the only ones to notice the Lina namedrop in chapter 5 at the time along with avo, and 2) making the Lina Avery-Eveline Avery connection way before anyone else as far as I can see! Kudos.

"Personal Connection"

Whoever Lina is, she has a “personal connection” to “at least one of the probable players” involved with Bridge. If that’s not Aldon, then who is it?

She writes down Arcturus Rigel Black, and Aldon Étienne Blake Rosier.
She notes that "the newly-minted Lord Queenscove" is the second cover story.
She connects Archie to the British International Association, but no one specific in it.
She considers the Welsh, and Diggory specifically "since Aldon had befriended Diggory in the Triwizard Tournament and Diggory had clearly used traditional magic" (she also refers to Aldon rather familiarly here) but rules them out. she also rules out the Lower Alleys and Irish.
she does think the Scottish Clans and the shifter alliance, specifically the Abbotts & their allies, are a strong possibility for being connected to Bridge.
"The Scottish Clans were organized, they virtually always had clan kin at Hogwarts, and of course the Lady Ross was permanently stationed there as a teacher." in case you were wondering about "Lady Ross," like I was... hp wiki says Isobel Ross was the mother of Minerva McGonagall (and her father is a muggle, so no magical inheritance from that side), so I'm guessing Minerva is now "Lady Ross." (Not that surprising -- she is Scottish.)
"As for the shifter alliance, one could always count on the Abbotts either having one of their own at the school, or one of their close allies. Damn rabbits were bloody everywhere." 'Damn rabbits' is an interesting phrase -- indicates familiarity and contempt.

So, the people she considers probably involved include Archie, Aldon, the Scottish Clans (including Lady Ross, aka McGonagall) and the Abbotts. And she has a personal connection to at least one of them. Hard for that to be Archie, and she seems disdainful towards the Abbotts. McGonagall is a possibility, though Lina refers to her only as Lady Ross, which seems impersonal; meanwhile she writes out Aldon's full name and then refers to him by his first name!

Conclusion

The last thing I haven’t quite touched on is narrative significance.

Kit likes to make sure everything she writes moves the plot along. She said as much today in chat, even. (“I like nowhere conversations where I get to just spend time with characters too, it’s just I can’t justify writing them in.”)

Of course, that doesn’t mean literally everything serves the plot — sometimes description is just description... but it does indicate to me that if the narrative does go out of its way to mention something, that was probably done with purpose.

And the lengthy description Sirius gives of Lord and Lady Rosier, but especially Lady Rosier and her constant breaking of arranged marriages... seems purposeful to me. the way Sirius characterizes Lady Rosier doesn’t match the way Aldon sees her. No explanation is given for why exactly she married Evan Rosier — Christine has a bit more insight into it, but leaves it vague, only saying that it was “a marriage in name only, which provided considerable benefits to her.”

All that doesn’t mean Eveline has to be Lina, but it indicates to me that there’s a lot we don’t know about Eveline Rosier’s life or motivations, and that the narrative goes out of its way to bring this to light. And those missing pieces fit if it turns out she is Lina.