Dippet family

**The Dippet family** is a pure-blood family that has a tree that looks quite a bit like a long trunked tree that suddenly expands like a burst of fireworks at the bottom with lots of roots. The reason behind this is steeped in myth and rumour. But the fact stands that until 1878 there was one lone male heir born after Armando Dippet's birth in 1637. Also notable is that these heir were longed lived. Though in this day and age the Dippet family has normalized to a more typical elongated wizarding lifespan and family size. Armando served as Headmaster of Hogwarts from 1925 to 1938 and 1941 to 1964, and was the Patriarch of the family until his death in 1992. Every male heir has been named after Armando since his own son was born. They all took on nicknames based on their suffix.

## History

The interesting and tragic story of the Dippet family does not start with the oldest wizard alive, Armando Dippet I, it starts with his mother, an Italian sorceress by the name of Armida Yakavetta. It is not conclusive or proven that she did what they say she did, but the lives of her descendants have more people than not assuming it's true. The legend goes that she was married at 18 and did not have a living child to show for it by the age of 40. So the witch turned to a secret potion recipe that contained unicorn blood. This unicorn blood is what kept Armando alive in the womb and when he was born in 1637, even though all of his siblings had suffered miscarriage or stillbirth. He was a strong and healthy boy and was born with dark hair, but with a white star at his widow's peak. To some this was another sign that the powerful magic of the unicorn blood was at work.
Like most rumours and vines of gossip, the legend is pretty much lost to time, and only Armando himself remembers it was a concern. It also shrank and grew and branched off into rumours of vampirism, or that in his more youthful 100s he discovered the fountain of youth or created a Philosopher's Stone. The rest of his hair whitened rather early so the star wasn't so noticeable any more. The only thing that continues into the modern day and age is the strange fact that the Dippets have produced a long line of sole male heirs ever since Armando. As well, it has been a common fate of heirs' mothers to die during or shortly after giving birth. It doesn't happen every time, but often enough to have a special room in St. Mungo's Midwife and Infant Care ward dedicated to the Dippet mothers and other extremely high risk births. Of course, it could just be that magical healing has developed better methods and spells over the years, because the further away from Armida Yakavetta the generations get, the greater the survival rate of Dippet mothers becomes.
The Dippet history is also filled with rumours that because of the alleged curse on the mothers, women were forced into marriages and even had their memories tampered with so that they wouldn't be aware that they were marrying into the Dippet family. After all, who would want to marry into that family to die giving birth to the next heir? There has been plenty of muttering about Dark magic surrounding the family. Of course if you ask Armando, he'll tut-tut about all of it and declare that love is a splendid blind thing and instead of Dark Arts, it was pure fearless love that kept his line alive.
Armando the First once said "I've always wanted a grand-daughter, when she is born I hope that everyone will please be quiet about such nonsense surrounding my family and worry about their own families instead." In 1878 Armando got his wish and great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter Adelaide Dippet was born. Soon after, Adelaide was blessed with a sister, Rachel. There seemed a chance that in that generation the Dippet line would go from all male births to all females and no male heir at all! But then in 1885 the sisters were joined by Armando "Novembrus" Dippet the Ninth. Since Novembrus and his sister's births the Dippet Family Tree has finally branched out.

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