Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Olympe Maxime

Overview
Olympe Maxime is the headmistress of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. She is a very large woman, standing perhaps ten feet (three meters) tall, and she speaks with a French accent.

Goblet of Fire
We first meet Madame Maxime when she arrives with the Beauxbatons students who wish to enter the Triwizard Tournament. She expresses some concern about her horses and the care they need, but Professor Dumbledore assures her that their groundskeeper, Hagrid, will be quite capable of taking care of them when he is finished dealing with another small matter. When Hagrid first sees Madame Maxime at dinner, he is apparently instantly smitten.

The following day, Harry, Hermione, and Ron visit Hagrid. He is quite the sight, apparently having tried to tame his mane of hair with something that looks like axle grease, and now wearing his best suit. Before they leave for dinner, Hagrid puts on some eau de cologne, but he rather overdoes it. Hagrid goes outside to wash it off in the rain barrel, asking the Trio to wait. While he is outside, he sees Madame Maxime and the Beauxbatons students leaving their carriage and heading for the great hall. Forgetting all about the trio, he heads up the lawn to join them as they walk into the castle. The Trio speculate that Hagrid must be sweet on Madame Maxime.

After the selection of the four Champions, Madame Maxime enters the room where they are waiting with the other four Tournament judges, Professor Dumbledore, Igor Karkaroff, Ludo Bagman, and Bartemius Crouch. Also arriving with them are Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape; Professor Moody arrives somewhat later. While Madame Maxime is angered that Hogwarts has two Champions, suggesting that Dumbledore might have made the Age Line incorrectly, and demands that Dumbledore do something about it, most of the discussion here is driven by Karkaroff. In the end, when no alternative is forthcoming to the requirement that Harry enter be accepted into the Tournament, Madame Maxime leaves with her selected Champion, Fleur Delacour, speaking to her rapidly in French.

At the Weighing of the Wands ceremony, attended by all five judges and Mr. Ollivander, Rita Skeeter is present as reporter for the Daily Prophet. Madame Maxime's sheer size makes for significant difficulty in getting her into the picture that the photographer is trying to take of the Champions and the judges.

Just before the First Task, Hagrid invites Harry to visit him at his hut at midnight, wearing his Invisibility Cloak. Harry arrives, and Hagrid immediately takes him to the Beauxbatons carriage, where he meets Madame Maxime. With a slightly embarrassed Harry following invisibly behind, Hagrid and Madame Maxime set off around the edge of the Forbidden Forest, where they find a large paddock with several wizards and four Dragons. Hagrid is, of course, entranced by them, and he has brought Madame Maxime to see them because they are so beautiful. Charlie Weasley, one of the dragon handlers, questions Hagrid on the propriety of his bringing Madame Maxime to see the basis for the Task that her Champion will be facing; Hagrid dismisses his concerns. Harry, having seen all he cares to see, returns to the Gryffindor common room.

At the Yule Ball, Harry sees that Madame Maxime is dancing with Hagrid. Some time later, Harry and Ron are walking in the rose garden. They see Hagrid and Madame Maxime sitting close together, and hear Hagrid starting to admit something very private to her. Unable to get away, they listen as Hagrid admits to his half-Giant ancestry, and asks Madame Maxime whether her Giant ancestor was her father or her mother. Shocked, Madame Maxime claims that she is just big-boned, that she has no Giants in her past, and she stalks off, back to the dance. After sitting a while, Hagrid sadly returns to his hut. Privately, Ron later suggests that Madame Maxime isn't fooling anyone with her protestations.

Rita Skeeter publishes Hagrid's admission in the Daily Prophet; Hermione wonders how she had overheard that, as apart from Harry and Ron, only Hagrid and Madame Maxime had been there.

At the Second Task, Fleur is attacked by Grindylows and is unable to rescue the hostage being held for her. Harry, however, does rescue Fleur's sister Gabrielle, and Fleur is so relieved by this that Madame Maxime has to restrain her from diving back into the lake to meet them.

In Divination class, Harry falls asleep and has a dream of what Voldemort is doing. He makes his way to Dumbledore's office, where he overhears Cornelius Fudge suggesting that the disappearance of Bartemius Crouch could possibly have something to do with Olympe Maxime, as the carriage was right there, and knowing the proclivities of her race. Discovered, and asked about the events of that evening, Harry says that he didn't see Madame Maxime anywhere, and suggests that she would have a hard time hiding.

At one point, Hagrid had been digging in the lawn, and Harry, watching from the castle above, had noticed Madame Maxime walk over to him and say something. Hagrid had evidently rebuffed her, because she had immediately returned to the Beauxbatons carriage. Just before the Third Task, Harry, at dinner, notices that Madame Maxime's eyes seem red, and that Hagrid keeps glancing at her.

After Harry's return from the graveyard, and Fudge's denial of the return of Voldemort, Professor Dumbledore asks Professor McGonagall to request that Hagrid and Madame Maxime meet him in his office. Harry, visiting Hagrid later with Ron and Hermione, notices a second oversized teacup on Hagrid's table, and hears that Madame Maxime had been visiting. Hagrid refuses to tell the Trio what mission Dumbledore has for him, but does say that he's almost got Olympe to agree to go with him.

While we see Madame Maxime getting into the coach as she prepares to leave Hogwarts with her students, she does not then speak to Harry.

Order of the Phoenix
While we do not see Madame Maxime directly in this book, we hear first of her that she has returned from the mission that was set for her and Hagrid by Dumbledore; this is somewhat alarming to Harry and Hermione because Hagrid has not yet returned.

When Hagrid does return, he tells them how he and Olympe Maxime had traveled to the home of the last tribe of giants, and had attempted to recruit them to Dumbledore's side. Their mission had failed when the then-leader of the giants was overthrown; Olympe had been forced to use magic to allow them to escape, which eliminated any further chance of negotiations. The two of them had attempted to form an alliance with the outcasts from the new regime, but were unsuccessful, except that Hagrid apparently had managed, with Olympe's help, to bring his half-brother Grawp back with him.

Half-Blood Prince
The carriage drawn by giant flying horses in which Madame Maxime arrived for the Triwizard Tournament is seen arriving at the school shortly before Albus Dumbledore's funeral. Harry is watching as Madame Maxime emerges and throws herself into Hagrid's arms. It is mentioned that Madame Maxime is present at the funeral, taking up two and a half chairs.

Relationships with Other Characters
Madame Maxime seems genuinely pleased to see "Dumblydorr". This does not, however, prevent her from becoming angry with him when he seems to have engineered two champions for Hogwarts.

Madame Maxime and Hagrid have a sometimes-rocky romantic relationship. Hagrid seems to fall in love with Olympe at first sight; she takes rather longer to return his affections, particularly when he implies that he knows she is half-Giant. While she seems to be ending the relationship at that point, she gradually thinks better of it, and at the end of that book the two of them, reconciled, journey through Europe together in search of the giants.