House of Black

## The Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black

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

**The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black** is 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 are distantly related to the House of Black. Like the Malfoy and Lestrange families, the House of Black is synonymous with elevated status and wealth. The Blacks were traditionally sorted into Slytherin at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The Black family tree is 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 even more extended, with the female line continuing through the Malfoy family, Goldfinch family, and through the Lestrange family.

## Family history

### 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 traces its origin back to the Middle Ages. They claim to have entirely magical ancestry, but as Sirius Black informed his godson Harry Potter, no true pure-blood families existed by the twentieth century. The pure-blood families like the Blacks simply removed Muggles and Squibs from their family trees.

The Blacks place 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 can be found on the family crest, is *Toujours Pur*, which means "Always Pure" in French. Many members took this phrase very seriously.

### 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. The family went to huge lengths to keep their bloodline alive and "pure", even going as far as marrying their own 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 Willow Tonks, a distant member of the Black family. More members of the Black family that disagreed with the traditional views were Bellatrix and Narcissa.
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 was thought to have died out, but the female line continued through the descendants of his cousins Bellatrix Lestrange, Andromeda Tonks, Star Pikeman, and Narcissa Malfoy, his second cousin, once removed, Arthur Weasley, the Burke family, the Crouches, the Longbottoms and the Potter family. However, Sirius was revealed to be alive, and he married with children of his own.

## Family members

### Main family

Amelié Black (née Potter)Sirius Black IIIRegulus Black IIBellatrix Lestrange (née Black)Andromeda Tonks (née Black)Narcissa Malfoy (née Black)Star Pikeman (née Black)Orion Black IIICedrella Weasley (née Black)
### Relatives by marriage

* Druella Rosier — wife of Cygnus Black III
* Lucius Malfoy — husband of Narcissa Malfoy (née Black)
* Rodolphus Lestrange — husband of Bellatrix Lestrange (née Black)
* Septimus Weasley — husband of Cedrella Weasley (née Black)
* Ted Tonks — husband of Andromeda Tonks (née Black)
* Sirius Pikeman — husband of Star Pikeman (née Black)