House of Black

"*Toujours Pur.*"
— The family motto, translating to "Always Pure"

**The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black** was one 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 Brookstone, Malfoy and Lestrange families (All 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.

By the late twentieth century, the House of Black had become extinct in the male line with the deaths of Sirius and Regulus Black, neither of whom had children. The female line continued through members of the Malfoy, Potter and Weasley families, as well as through the individuals Teddy Lupin and Delphini, the latter of which was Bellatrix's illegitimate daughter with Lord Voldemort.

## History

"*...my parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal...*"
— Sirius Black to Libby Vanet on their family's values

### Early History

The Black family traced its origin back to the Middle Ages. They claimed to have entirely magical ancestry, but as Rose Vanet (née Black) informed her eldest granddaughter Cassiopeia, 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 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, Rose Vanet, 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. Eventually the male line of Black, restarted after Libby Black Vanet, gave birth to her second child: a son, whom she gave the surname Black too.

## Family Members

### Main Family

* Alphard Black
* Andromeda Tonks (née Black)
* Apollonia Black
* Araminta Meliflua Black
* Arcas Black
* Arcturus Black I
* Arcturus Black II
* Arcturus Black III
* Bellatrix Lestrange (née Black)
* Belvina Burke (née Black)
* Licorus Black
* Lucretia Prewett (née Black)
* Lycoris Black
* Marius Black
* Misapinoa Blishwick (née Black)
* Narcissa Malfoy (née Black)
* Nysa Black
* Orion Black
* Phineas Nigellus Black
 * Callidora Longbottom (née Black)
* Cassiopeia Black
* Cedrella Weasley (née Black)
* Charis Crouch (née Black)
* Cygnus Black I
* Cygnus Black II
* Cygnus Black III
* Dorea Potter (née Black)
* Eduardus Limette Black
* Elladora Black
* Hesper Black
* Phoebe Black
* Rasalas Black
* Regulus Black I
* Regulus Black II
* Rigel Black
* Sirius Black I
* Sirius Black II
* Sirius Black III
* Vega Black
* Walburga Black

### Relatives By Marriage

2. Jimbo Blishwick
3. Cordelia Brookstone
4. Ophelia Brookstone
5. Violetta Bulstrode
6. Herbert Burke
7. Irma Crabbe
8. Casper Crouch
9. Ursula Flint
2. Hesper Gamp
3. Bob Hitchens
4. Rodolphus Lestrange
5. Harfang Longbottom
6. Melania Macmillan
7. Lucius Malfoy
8. Ella Max
9. Charlus Potter
2. Druella Rosier
3. Ceres Swale
4. Edward Tonks
5. Magenta Tripe
6. Septimus Weasley
7. Lysandra Yaxley

## Family Tree

### Blasted off 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!*"
— Walburga Black's 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:

## Etymology

Black can be considered a colour, and is the result of the absence of, or complete absorption of, light. In Western culture, the colour black has typically been associated with evil, darkness, and witchcraft, but also with prestige and sophistication — appropriate for the rich and House of Black. Black has also been associated with life and prosperity by other cultures. In ancient China, black was the symbol of the element of water, which also corresponds to Slytherin, the Hogwarts house of almost all members of the Black family. In English heraldry, black represents darkness and ignorance; a possible allusion to the prejudice common to members of the House of Black.

However, the English word *black* is derived from either the Old English *blœc*, meaning "black", or *blac*, meaning "pale". Pallor is associated with sickness and the colour white, which is usually held to symbolise purity in Western and Indian culture, and death in East Asian cultures. This mirrors the typical colouring of members of the House of Black — dark hair and pale skin.

### Etymology of given names

Most Black family members are named after stars, moons or constellations. For example, the star Sirius is in the constellation Canis Major (the Dog). What's more, Sirius Black, an Animagus, could change into a massive black dog named Padfoot. Another example is Bellatrix, the third brightest star in the constellation Orion, which is also the name of Sirius's father and Bellatrix's uncle. Cygnus, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Arcas and Aries are also constellations, and Regulus, Alphard, Arcturus and Vega are named after stars as well. Phoebe Black is named after a moon of Saturn Phoebe.

Some members of the extended family have also chosen to follow this naming pattern. For example, Narcissa Malfoy née Black named her son Draco, which is the name of a constellation. In turn, he named his son Scorpius, which is one of the constellations of the zodiac, known as *Scorpio* in Western astrology.

Narcissa herself, however, was not named in keeping with this convention. She was instead named for a plant, the flower Narcissus. Lycoris Black was also named for a plant.

However if a member of the family is disowned and blasted off the Black family tree then the name is never used again in the following generations.