Arcturus Black II

**"Point me!"**

This article is about **Arcturus Black (1884-1959)**. You may be looking for **his great uncle or his nephew**.

## Biographical information

### Born

10 November, 1884Islington, London, Middlesex, England

### Died

11 March, 1959 (aged 74)Ilminster, Somerset, England

## Relationship information

### Family members

* Phineas Nigellus Black (father) †
* Ursula Black (née Flint) (mother) †
* Lysandra Black (née Yaxley) (wife)
* Callidora Longbottom (née Black)
* Harfang Longbottom (son-in-law)
	+ Eugene Longbottom (grandson)
	+ Augusta Longbottom (née Brown)
	+ Frank Longbottom (great-grandson)
	+ Alice Longbottom (née Fortescue) (wife of great-grandson)
		- Neville Longbottom (2nd great-grandson)
* Charis Crouch (née Black)
* Caspar Crouch (son-in-law)
	+ Mathilda Goyle (née Crouch) (granddaughter)
	+ Malvina Crouch (granddaughter) †
* Cedrella Weasley (née Black)
* Septimus Weasley (husband of daughter)
	+ Hugh Weasley (grandson)
	+ Chantilly Weasley (née Chittock) (wife of grandson)
		- Barnaby Weasley (great-grandson)
		- Evander Weasley (grandson)
	+ Arthur Weasley (grandson)
	+ Molly Weasley (wife of grandson)
		- Bill Weasley (great-grandson)
		- Charlie Weasley (great-grandson)
		- Percy Weasley (great-grandson)
		- Fred Weasley (great-grandson)
		- George Weasley (great-grandson)
		- Ron Weasley (great-grandson)
		- Ginny Weasley (great-granddaughter)
	+ Leonard Weasley (grandson)
		- Three more great-grandsons
* Sirius Black II (brother) †
* Hesper Black (née Gamp) (sister-in-law) †
	+ Arcturus Black III (nephew)
	+ Lycoris Black (niece)
	+ Regulus Black III (nephew) †
* Cygnus Black III (brother) †
* Violetta Black (née Bulstrode) (sister-in-law)
	+ Pollux Black (nephew)
	+ Cassiopeia Black (niece)
	+ Marius Black (nephew) †
	+ Dorea Potter (née Black) (niece)
* Phineas Black II (brother) †
* Belvina Burke (née Black) (sister)
* Herbert Burke (brother-in-law)
	+ Ulyssa Lestrange (née Burke) (niece)
	+ Bartholomew Burke (nephew)
* Cygnus Black II (paternal grandfather) †
* Ella Black (née Maxime) (paternal grandmother) †
	+ Sirius Black I (paternal uncle) †
	+ Elladora Black (paternal aunt) †
	+ Iola Hitchens (née Black) (paternal aunt) †
* Llewellyn Flint (maternal grandfather) †
* Gwendoline Flint (née Morgan) (maternal grandmother) †
	+ Archibald Flint (maternal uncle) †
	+ Hortensia Flint (née Farfan) (aunt by marriage) †
	+ Dulcibella Rowle (née Flint) (first cousin) †
	+ Helmold Rowle (husband of first cousin) †
	+ Agilmar Flint (first cousin)
	+ Alodia Avery (née Flint) (first cousin)
	+ Ranulph Avery (husband of first cousin) †
	+ Petronia Bulstrode (née Flint) (first cousin)
	+ Theodore Bulstrode Sr. (husband of first cousin)
	+ Ulric Flint (maternal uncle) †
	+ Tuilla Flint (née Bobbin) (aunt by marriage) †
	+ Flavia Flint (first cousin)
	+ Otto Flint (first cousin)
	+ Fulvia Flint (first cousin)
	+ Earlene Flint (first cousin)

## Affiliation

### Loyalty

House of Black

**Arcturus Black II** (10 November, 1884 - 11 March, 1959) was a pure-blood English wizard who attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from 1 September, 1896 to June of 1903. He was the fourth-born son of Headmaster Phineas Nigellus Black and his wife Ursula Black (née Flint). He was the younger brother of Sirius Black II, Cygnus Black III, Phineas Black II, and was the older brother of Belvina Burke (née Black).

His father was a greatly influential man in education, but he was truthfully one of the most hated Hogwarts Headmasters of all time. Arcturus's mother, Ursula, passed away when Arcturus was only four years old. He later attended the school for which his father was Headmaster of, and was a student of Slytherin House.

He later married Lysandra Yaxley, the youngest child of Antonius Yaxley and Ada Yaxley (née Parkinson), and over a period of four years, the couple had three children together, all daughters. They were Callidora Longbottom (née Black), Charis Crouch (née Black), and Cedrella Weasley (née Black), the latter of whom was disowned for marrying blood-traitor Septimus Weasley.

At some point in his life, a hand-drawn portrait was drawn featuring Arcturus Black II and hung in 12 Grimmauld Place in London. This portrait had to be removed from the First Floor Toilet in the summer of 1995. It is unknown why this portrait was hung there, or when.

## Biography

### Early life (1884-1903)

Arcturus Black II was born on 10 November, 1884, into the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, an old wizarding family, who looked down on any others except other "respectable" pure-blood wizards and believed in pure-blood supremacy. He was the fourth child and youngest son of Phineas Nigellus Black and his wife Ursula Black (née Flint). He was seven years younger than his oldest brother, Sirius Black II, and five years younger than Cygnus Black III. He was only a year apart from his older brother, Phineas Black II.

#### Earliest years (1884-1889)

His father, Phineas Nigellus I, was Head of the House of Black, and his oldest brother, Sirius, was heir to the house, making the infant Arcturus II fourth in line for the headship at the time of his birth, behind his brothers Cygnus and Phineas II. When Arcturus was a little more than a year old, his mother, Ursula, gave birth to his younger sister, Belvina.

Apart from his father's duties as head, Phineas Nigellus Black also held the position of Headmaster of Hogwarts, and as a consequence had very little time for his own children. The Black children were raised in London, while their father worked in the Highlands of Scotland.

Arcturus's mother, Ursula, stayed at home and was instrumental in the running of the Black household. During this time, the Black family had only a handful of human servants staffed at Grimmauld Place, and they used house elves mainly as cooks. It was Ursula who was notorious for her preferences to be waited on by "clean" individuals, and not such "dirty" house elves as the Black family traditionally relied on.

But after the birth of Arcturus's younger sister, Belvina (his mother's fifth child overall), Ursula became very ill. Immediately after the birth of Belvina, Ursula was confined to her bed. Arcturus was only two years old. For the next three years she would linger, until she finally passed away on 27 October, 1889, when Arcturus was four years old, nearly five. His brother Phineas was six, almost seven.

#### Aunt Elladora (1889-1896)

His father, Phineas Nigellus Black, then already Headmaster, as well as the five year old Arcturus's older brother, Sirius Black II, then a first-year student at Hogwarts, briefly returned to Grimmauld Place during the autumn of 1889 to bury Ursula, but afterwards they both returned to Hogwarts. Arcturus's father hired additional servants to take care of the younger children, including Phineas, aged six, Arcturus, aged five, and Belvina, aged three, and Cygnus- aged ten. Their spinster aunt, Elladora Black, 39, who Arcturus's sister Belvina supposedly loathed, began living at Grimmauld Place as well, in order to keep an eye on things.

Elladora Black, according to one of the servants living in Grimmauld Place during this time, was not "benignly maternal." Elladora was the one who began to institute the policy of cutting off the heads of the family house-elves and mounting them on the wall once they became too old to carry a tea tray. She effectively ran her brother's household after the death of her sister-in-law.

As a consequence of Aunt Elladora's policies at Grimmauld Place, the young Arcturus came to know his governess, Amelia Pettigrew, and nursery maid, Delia Goshawk, better than he knew his own parents. Even still, his aunt Elladora was an ever-looming presence in his life, and instilled fear in the minds of Arcturus, Phineas, and the little Belvina.

The year before Arcturus began his schooling at Hogwarts, his governess, Cora Shacklebolt, was sent away: this was in part due to his brother, Phineas's unusually progressive political expressions which had been brought to Phineas Nigellus Black's attention when Phineas the Younger arrived at school. Arcturus protested Shacklebolt's removal from the Black household, but there was very little that he could do from under Elladora's control.

#### Hogwarts years (1896-1903)

"*All you write about is your everlasting Quidditch of which I am heartily sick…*"
—Belvina Black's response to a letter written by her brother, then 12
Arcturus Black II began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the school of which his own father was Headmaster of, in September of 1896. He was sorted into Slytherin House on 1 September of that year. He was five years behind his older brother, Cygnus, who was a fifth year when he started. His older brother, Sirius Black II, and heir to the house, had already finished the previous summer. It was his older brother Phineas who in his second year when Arcturus began his first year of schooling.

In fact, Arcturus Black arguably was closest to his older brother Phineas, due to their small age difference, though he often wrote his sister, Belvina, throughout his schooling experience. He wrote her many letters from his first to his third year at school: his father, Phineas Nigellus, was largely a stranger to him, and at school, he likely came to know his father in private meetings in the Headmaster's Office: but he often assured his sister that "*the old man just likes to hear words, regardless of their truth*."

Academically, the young Arcturus was not very bright, although he did show a particular aptitude in transfiguration, Arcturus's sole interest became sports, particularly Quidditch. "*All you write about is your everlasting Quidditch of which I am heartily sick*", wrote his sister, answering a fully detailed letter from Arcturus about a match.

### Later life (1904-1959)

Arcturus left England with his brother Phineas, to shoot big game in Africa, after leaving school in 1904. Phineas hoped to enter politics: Arcturus disliked the way that his brother avoided hunting and encouraged him to participate more fully in their big game activities. Phineas, however, was wholly distracted, and was just beginning to focus on Squibs and their rights.

The brothers parted after an argument in central Kenya, where Arcturus was to stay for a while. There, he was entertained by Louis Pétau, a Frenchman, and his wife Hélène Delacour. Hélène and Arcturus soon started an affair (though sources differ over when the affair started; many say it was not until her visit to England). In September, the brothers were recalled to England, and soon after Hélène returned too.

#### Brother's disownment (1908)

Arcturus's brother, Phineas Black II, founded the Association for the Advancement of Squib's Rights in 1908: this was considered widely to be the last straw for Phineas Nigellus the Elder, who violently disowned his brother as a result of Phineas's involvement with the Association. Arcturus henceforth became forbidden to have contact with Phineas or assist his brother or any organisations Phineas was affiliated with in any way.

#### Marriage (1914)

Some time after leaving school, and pressured by his father, Arcturus decided it was time to settle down and proposed to Lysandra Yaxley, sister of one of Arcturus's best friends, Bertie Yaxley. The proposal, wrote Lysandra many years later, was not at all romantic as "it was not his way", instead he just "mumbled it as we were on a walk one day". They were married on 4 February 1915.

Arcturus and Lysandra had three daughters together, the first of which was Callidora, born later that year in 1915, and the second and third of which were twins, Cedrella and Charis, born in 1919.

#### Later years (1919-1959)

His daughter, Callidora, married Harfang Longbottom in 1936. He became a grandfather in 1937, at the birth of Callidora's son, Eugene Longbottom, the next year. His daughter, Charis, married Caspar Crouch in 1941: Arcturus Black became a grandfather yet again when his grand-daughter, Mathilda Crouch, was born in 1942.

His third daughter, Cedrella, was reportedly "desperately in love" with Septimus Weasley, a pure-blood wizard, if an impoverished one. The eldest son of Octavius Weasley and Hortensia Weasley (née Jigger), he was not considered what their head of house, Sirius Black II, would call marriage material. All daughters of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, no matter how far removed they were from the line of succession, had to get the Headship's permission to marry, so as to protect the status of the House.

Although the Weasleys were Sacred Twenty-Eight, Arcturus forbade Cedrella from accepting Septimus's proposal, for fear of his brother, Sirius Black II, declaring the union unlawful. However, Cedrella accepted Septimus's proposal anyway, and the couple got married in 1943. Arcturus's brother, Sirius Black II, was forced to take drastic action.

Cedrella was disowned from the House of Black. Although she couldn't be formally disinherited, as that right fell to Arcturus alone, any children she had with Weasley would be declared illegitimate and would be excluded from the line of succession to the headship of the House of Black.

Arcturus's disowned daughter Cedrella had three sons, including Leonard, Hugh, and Arthur Weasley.

#### Death (1959)

Arcturus Black II died on 11 March, 1959, at the age of 74.

## Legacy

* Arcturus Black II's descendants, via his daughter Callidora Longbottom, include Auror Frank Longbottom, Arcturus's great-grandson. Neville Longbottom is Arcturus's second great-grandson. Through his daughter Charis, no descendants survive: but through his daughter Cedrella, Arcturus Black was the great-grandfather of Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny Weasley.

* Also through his daughter Cedrella are the children of his grandson, Hugh Weasley, Barnaby Weasley and Evander Weasley. And through his grandson Leonard Weasley, he was supposedly a great-grandfather to three more sons. However, Arcturus Black died in 1959 and thus most likely never met Cedrella's grandchildren, as she had been disowned in 1943.
* At some point between 1884 and 1959, a portrait was drawn of Arcturus Black II and hung in 12 Grimmauld Place in London. This portrait had to be removed from the First Floor Toilet in the summer of 1995. It is unknown why this portrait was hung there, or when.

## Etymology

*Arcturus* is the name of the brightest star in the constellation Boötes. Its name derives from Ancient Greek Αρκτοῦρος, meaning "bear guard"; this refers to the story in Greek mythology that Zeus placed Arcturus in the sky to look after Arcas and Callisto, who were turned into bears and then into the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor to protect them from Hera's wrath. The name has been used three times in the Black family: Presumably, he was named after his great-uncle, Arcturus Black I, while his nephew, Arcturus Black III, may have been named after Arcturus himself.