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Sep 21, 2023 · Some of these families include the Malfoys, the Lestranges, the Longbottoms, and the Weasleys. Unsurprisingly, given the desire for blood purity, all of these pureblood families are...
- Overview
- History
- Family members
- Family tree
- Physical appearances
- Wealth
"Toujours Pur."
— The family motto, translating to "Always Pure"
The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black was one of the largest, oldest, and wealthiest pure-blooded wizarding families in Great Britain, and one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. Many wizarding families in Britain were distantly related to the House of Black. Like the Malfoy and Lestrange families (both of whom are related to the Black family), the House of Black was synonymous with elevated status and wealth. The Blacks were traditionally sorted into Slytherin at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The Black family tree was displayed in the drawing room of the family home at 12 Grimmauld Place in London, England on an intricate tapestry, as an ornate mural. The tapestry started in the Middle Ages and showed the dominant line of the family up to the death of its last members.
Early history
"...my parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal..." — Sirius Black to Harry Potter on his family's values The Black family traced its origin back to the Middle Ages. They claimed to have entirely magical ancestry, but as Sirius Black informed his godson Harry Potter, no true pure-blood families existed by the twentieth century, and the pure-blood families like the Blacks simply removed Muggles and Squibs from their family trees. The Blacks placed a great importance on blood purity, considering themselves akin to royalty in the wizarding world and disdaining Muggles, Squibs, blood traitors, and Muggle-borns. The family motto, which could be found on the family crest, was Toujours Pur, meaning "Always Pure" in French. Many members took this phrase very seriously, and were willing to even marry and have children with their own cousins to keep the bloodline pure.
Recent history
Because of their views, a large number of the Black family members practised the Dark Arts and supported Lord Voldemort during the First and Second Wizarding Wars. A few Blacks even became Death Eaters, while many others never took the Dark Mark but believed in the "purification" of the wizarding world nevertheless. Walburga and Orion Black, two members of the family who were alive during the rise of the Death Eaters, were known for being cousins. A few members of the family, however, disagreed with the traditional views of their family; Sirius Black, for example, joined the Order of the Phoenix, as did Andromeda Tonks, who married a Muggle-born, and Nymphadora Tonks, a distant member of the Black family. Both were murdered by Bellatrix Lestrange (née Black), Sirius's cousin and Tonks's aunt, in battle. Supportive of Voldemort at first, the family loyalists who did not become Death Eaters got cold feet when they saw the levels he would go to achieve his goals. Their hatred towards Muggles is such that some members who are not outright Death Eaters would go to lengths to persecute them, such as Araminta Meliflua trying to pass a Ministry Bill to make Muggle-hunting legal. However, even those who originally supported Voldemort's actions to purge the Muggles got cold feet when they saw what he was willing to do for power. With Sirius's death, the male line of the Black family died out, but the female line continued through the descendants of his cousins Bellatrix Lestrange, Andromeda Tonks and Narcissa Malfoy, his second cousin, once removed, Arthur Weasley, as well as members of the Burke family, the Crouches, the Longbottoms and the Potter family who were related to the Blacks.
Main family
•Apollonia Black •Araminta Meliflua Black •Artemisia Blackwood •Artemisia Blackwood's mother •Black family ancestor
Blasted off of the tapestry
"Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh! ... Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers!" — The portrait of Walburga Black screaming at her "traitor" son The original tree described from Grimmauld Place was subject to some magical interference. According to Sirius Black, his mother Walburga blasted names of "blood traitors" off the tapestry without hesitation. The Black family motto of Toujours Pur ("always pure") was followed assiduously by family members; any who disagreed with the notion of blood purity or married Muggles or people of different blood statuses were disowned and blasted off the family tree, as were any Squibs. Thus, family members that remain on the tapestry can be assumed to have married fellow ("respectable") pure-bloods. Some even married their own cousins; Orion and Walburga Black, for instance, were second cousins. Generations of this practice resulted in Inbreeding, which in turn has caused problems such as low fertility and emotional instability throughout the family line. The known disowned members are Eduardus Limette Black (for an unknown reason); Iola Black, for marrying Muggle Bob Hitchens; Phineas Black, for supporting Muggle rights; Marius Black, for being a Squib; Cedrella Black, for marrying blood traitor Septimus Weasley; Alphard Black, for giving gold to his runaway nephew Sirius; Sirius Black III, for running away from home; and Andromeda Black, for marrying Muggle-born Ted Tonks. Thus, the Blacks are related to the Max, Blishwick, Flint, Hitchens, Gamp, Bulstrode, Burke, Yaxley, Macmillan, Crabbe, Potter, Peverell, Gaunt, Longbottom, Fortescue, Weasley, Delacour, Johnson, Granger, Crouch, Prewett, Rosier, Lestrange, Meliflua, Tonks, Malfoy, and Lupin families (albeit most of them distantly) but are technically related, at least distantly, to all wizarding families as all families were once pure-blood and all pure-blood families are related. Ironically, despite the Black family's strong belief in blood purity, Bellatrix Lestrange (née Black) commited a disownable offence by having a child with Lord Voldemort, a half-blood (even though the person in question was a pure-blood supremacist). Additionally, Draco Malfoy may have committed a disownable offence by marrying Astoria Malfoy, who was openly supportive of Muggles.
The Blacks were commonly described as having "great good looks" and a certain aristocratic elegance and haughtiness that reflected upon their personalities, for they considered themselves "practically royal".
The traditional look for the majority of the Black family is dark hair and dark eyes, though there were some exceptions: Sirius Black III was grey-eyed, Andromeda Tonks née Black had light brown hair, and Narcissa Malfoy née Black was blonde-haired and blue-eyed. Despite these differences, each and every one of these three cousins were still noted to be a beauty in their own right, being of tall and elegant stature, with attractive features. Besides this, even after their incarceration in Azkaban and subsequent escape, Bellatrix Lestrange and Sirius were both described to have retained vestiges of these "great good looks", despite losing much of it in the depression of the prison.
The Black family, as with many other pure-blood wizarding families like the Malfoys, the Lestranges and the Potter family, is considered to be very wealthy. This may be one of the reasons why the members of this family acted somewhat arrogantly.
In 1993, Sirius Black III used money from Vault 711 to pay for Harry Potter's Firebolt. This vault may have been property of the Blacks, since Sirius may have inherited this vault after his mother's death. However, he may have acquired it after being disowned, using the money given to him by his Uncle Alphard.
Jan 28, 2024 · Mentioned in Hogwarts Legacy. Born to an unnamed witch of the Black family and a Muggle man, Artemisia Black kept her mother's last name despite being disowned by the House of Black. She attended Hogwarts, where she met and fell in love with Eunon Wood, a fellow half-blood who also shared her blood-purist views.
- Features & Lists Writer
Jul 25, 2022 · It's common knowledge in "Harry Potter" that descendants of pure-blood Slytherin families, such as Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), rarely intermingle with half-bloods, Muggle-borns, and "blood traitors"...
- Samantha Bambino
The Malfoys are related to the Black family through Narcissa (a first cousin of Sirius Black, Harry's godfather), which makes Draco a nephew of both Bellatrix Lestrange and Andromeda Tonks. Draco is also Nymphadora Tonks ' first cousin through their mothers.
Oct 22, 2017 · But you don’t have to go back all that far on the Malfoy family tree to find other famous surnames from the wizarding world and how they are related to the Malfoys. Draco’s mother, Narcissa, was the daughter of a Black, and her mother was a Rosier (another family who were Death Eaters).
