Half-blood

"*Most wizards these days are half-blood anyway. If we hadn't married Muggles we'd've died out.*"
— Ronald Weasley in *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*

**Half-blood** is a blood status in the *Harry Potter book series*. Witches and wizards are labelled this if they have both wizarding and Muggle heritage. By the late twentieth century, half-bloods are the dominant blood status due to a decline in the number of pure-bloods after they inter-married to preserve their blood purity.

## About

A half-blood witch or wizard has at least one Muggle or Muggle-born parent or grandparent. They will be considered half-blood even if both of their parents have magic. At a certain point, a family or branch of the family may be reconsidered pure-blood if every single one of their grandparents and therefore parents, are pure-blood or half-blood.

Pure-bloods who value their blood status started inter-marrying with other pure-bloods, causing their numbers decline. To keep their blood status but marry a non-relation, they have to marry a half-blood who doesn't have a Muggle or Muggle-born parent to ensure their children will be pure-blood. However, they are known to hide their half-blood heritage.

Even though half-bloods are targeted less by those who consider pure-bloods superior, they are still considered inferior by their standards. A few staunch supporters including the House of Black will say "half-blood" in an insulting way and are even against marrying half-bloods. There are known half-bloods who support blood purity and very highly value their wizarding heritage.

Voldemort is one such half-blood who supported blood purity but he hid his true heritage. Even loyal Death Eaters including Bellatrix Lestrange were astounded to hear anyone say he was half-blood. He was accepting of half-bloods in the Death Eaters, but ignored their non-wizard connections in the same way he ignored his own. He advised people to "prune" their family tree of any non-wizards and Muggle-borns because they had to highly value the wizarding side of their family over the Muggle side.

## Known half-bloods

 Harry Potter  Tom Riddle  Albus Dumbledore  Minerva McGonagall

## Notes and sources

1. ↑ J.K. Rowling's old website (archived) - "Why are some people in the wizarding world (e.g., Harry) called 'half-blood' even though both their parents were magical?"
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix*, Chapter 6
3. ↑ *The Tales of Beedle the Bard*: The Fountain of Fair Fortune
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix*, Chapter 35
5. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*, Chapter 12
6. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Chapter 1
7. ↑ J.K. Rowling interview: PotterCast 130
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Harry Potter and Me (view J.K. Rowling's notes)
9. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Chapter 12
10. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Chapter 8
11. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, Chapter 7
12. ↑ Teddy Lupin's grandfather, Edward Tonks was a Muggle-born according to *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix* and *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, so Teddy had to a half-blood.
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*, Chapter 17
14. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*, Chapter 28
15. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*, Chapter 30
16. ↑ J.K. Rowling's old website: Extra Stuff
17. ↑  J.K. Rowling's sketch of the Black family tree
18. ↑ In *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Epilogue, Rose and Hugo Weasley's parents were shown to be Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, Chapter 6, Hermione was stated to be a Muggle-born and Ron was a pure-blood, so their children have to be half-blood.