Olympe Maxime

Name: Olympe Maxime.

Age: Unknown.

House: N/A. Presumably she attended Beaxbatons.

Distinguishing Characteristics: Madam Maxime is a half-giant, and hence the largest person Harry has ever seen with the exception of Hagrid. She is in fact (in Harry’s opinion) almost exactly the same height as Hagrid.

Heritage: Half-giant.

Family: Unknown.

First Mention: Chapter Fifteen of Goblet of Fire.

General: Madam Maxime is the Headmistress of Beaxbatons school of witchcraft and wizardry. She makes her first appearance at Hogwarts when arriving with her entourage for the Triwizard Tournament of 1994-95 in an enormous flying power-blue carriage, pulled by Abraxan winged horses.

Her immense size apart, she is a powerful woman in many ways. She is respected by Dumbledore (and perhaps even grudgingly by Karkaroff) and doted on by Hagrid, whilst inspiring a sense of wonder in most people who see her. It’s not hard to work out why: she is graceful despite her size (and reputedly an excellent dancer), with handsome olive-skinned features, huge black eyes, and sleek hair drawn back from her face. She dresses from top to toe in black satin, and is laden with opal jewellery. She even speaks excellent English, albeit with a strong French accent.

Such was the impression that she made on Hagrid that he immediately started trying to impress her: he filled his hair with revolting sludge, wore his best ill-fitting clothes, and even went as far as to show her the Triwizard Tournament dragons while they were still meant to be a secret. It’s unclear whether she was impressed by this (chances are that she wasn’t, what with her being a woman of style and taste) but either way, Hagrid well and truly blew it at the Yule Ball. It was here that he put it to Olympe that she was a half-giant just like him – he was right of course, but she was not impressed that she’d been rumbled.

Things only got worse following Rita Skeeter’s article in the Daily Prophet claiming that Hagrid was a dangerous half-breed, a development which left him in something of an emotional mess. By June, however, following the tragic end of the Triwizard Tournament, they were friends again. Hagrid even managed to convince her to accompany him to the mountains of Eastern Europe in an attempt to win the support of the Giants for the war against Voldemort.

The friendship between Hagrid and Maxime developed during this trip with each of them seemingly impressed by the other, even though the expedition ended in failure. Olympe certainly showed another side to her personality during this time: normally used to jewels, satin and the finer things in life, she showed an admirable ability to cope with the hardships of travelling through the mountains and negotiating with 20-foot psychopaths. She had at last (to Hagrid at least) admitted her heritage, and at the same time shown herself to be a remarkably adaptable woman.