New Blood (Blood Status Lore)

## Word of Mouth

Prior to 1990, the term New Blood did not exist in the magical world. It was first coined by Luna Lovegood on September 20th, 1990, when a prophecy was invoked upon meeting Hermione at Flourish and Blotts. Hermione, unaware of the coinage, spent three months researching in vain to learn of the lore surrounding New Bloods. By December, she decided to best handle the situation by creating her own definition of New Blood, as well as create lore to convince the public of its veracity.

On her first night at Hogwarts Hermione began spreading the New Blood lore. Informing her dormmates that both a Seer and the Sorting Hat verified her identity as such. *"It means that my blood is destined to be the start of a new Great House ...my magic was gifted to me by Magic itself." -Hermione Granger*  Over the course of the term she slowly spread the name and concept to classmates of different houses, ensuring the the word be spread through the rumour mill.

As no one had heard the term New Blood before, there has been reasonable suspicion and dismissive attitudes towards the claim. Knowing that would happen, Hermione has made various plans to enhance her magical abilities so as to convince the world of the existence of New Bloods.

## The "Official" Lore

In the summer of 1992, Hermione interned at the publishing company Lleuwlynn and Selwyn. During her internship she formulated a plot to solidify the existence of New Bloods. With the help of a page worker named Michael, they secretly edited the master copy of *The Pure-Blood Directory* by Cantankerus Nott to contain a definition for New Blood. By editing the master copy, all copies of the book in existence (except for the Original Copy) now contain that addition.

*"Most venerated and rare of the purebloods is the **New Blood**, the originator of a new Great House. New Bloods represent the spontaneous generation of magic from an entirely unmagical line, given their power by being touched by Magic itself. Those of New Blood are exceptionally powerful, through this connection with Magic itself, and they have been gifted with fertility, destined to be blessed with many powerful children, ensuring the success of their new Great House.*

*New Bloods can be noted by their skill with nonverbal and wandless magic, as well as the amount of power they control. Once a witch or wizard of New Blood comes of age, they may formally make their claim as one of sacred and new blood. A convocation of the Sacred 28 families will be called, and the New Blood will demonstrate their strength and purity of their magic and blood. Two-thirds of the existing families must agree that the person is truly of New Blood, gifted by magic itself, and not the spawn of a squib pretending at power.*

*Once the quorum agrees, the name of the New Blood must be added in, considered another Sacred family, and the Directory updated to the Sacred 29 (or the Sacred 30, the Sacred 31, and so on)."*

## Gifted or Claimed?

Although Hermione has created a definition and lore for New Bloods, there have been hints throughout the story to suggest that New Bloods are, in fact, real.

### Hermione's innate power

1. At ten years old, her magic was already so powerful that she was deemed "a threat" by the Ministry. They had to send her acceptance letter right on her eleventh birthday in hopes that she would reign in her magic while in the muggle world.
2. She does unusually well in Herbology. For example, she is one of only two students with a flourishing Amanello plant, despite not doing any purposeful actions to make it that way. It's likely that her innate magic is fueling the plants' survival.
3. She is knows at least two NEWT level spells. She learned *episkey* in a single afternoon during her first term at school (and possibly other healing spells). Despite healing spells being an advanced subject, she describes some of them as "simple". In her second year she learned *aguamenti* from Cedric. When a hag pointed out that it's not an easy spell (being a NEWT level charm), Hermione claimed that it's not a hard spell.
4. In her first year she is able to do the levitation charm wordlessly completely on accident.
5. When doing the Air Elemental ritual in her first year, Hermione was perfectly fine after taking on the air spirit. In contrast, her coven mates were exhausted from their air elemental rituals. This is notable as this was pre-core expanded Hermione vs four coven-bonded, of an age witches.

### Intrinsic knowledge of magic

1. When discussing wand-based spells with the Ravenclaws, Hermione goes into detail explaining how and why the wand movements help with the spells. When the Ravenclaws ask Hermione where she got this information, she is unable to give an answer. She believes the knowledge must have come from a book, however her impressive memory should have been able to recall said book. The Ravenclaws test her on this, asking her to explain the wand movements of different spells. Each time, she is gets an intrinsic feeling to explain how the spells work.
2. In a discussion with Professor Snape about rituals, Hermione and he went at odds about how Hermione was able to make rituals. First he questioned how she came up the terminology for channels and veins (which may have been sourced from books, though Hermione was vague about it). Then he demanded to know how she was so sure she could successfully re-write incantations in English. She claimed that the intent and meter was what mattered the most. When pushed of how did she know for sure it would work her response was more-or-less "I just knew it would".

### External Verifiers

1. Luna's Prophecy - Luna's focus before, during and after the prophecy was based on the title New Blood. That said, their veracity is debatable as the prophecy includes the line *"Whether gifted or claimed, true, faked, or false, pure magic unfurled,"* hinting that the origins can be Hermione's or historic.
2. The Sorting Hat - Even though the prophecy includes the idea "gifted or claimed" the fact that the Sorting Hat agreed with the concept lends a possibility of truth. Perhaps she's not the first New Blood that the Hat has come across?
3. The Truth Circle - When Hermione testified against Rhamnaceae Rookwood she was unable to call herself a "muggle-born". This is interesting because Hermione was capable of telling partial truths while in the Truth-Circle, yet she could only call herself a New Blood. This particular event has been a major turning point in Magical Britain believing her claim as New Blood.
4. Pureblood Wards - Hermione was able to enter the home of Phaedra Lestrange, even though her manor has pureblood wards. This is a debatable Verifier, as it might be possible that the coven-uniting ritual has given her pureblood status. It won't be possible to confirm this unless Harry tries something similar (or if another coven of mixed heritage tries the same).

1. ↑ Chapter 4: The Prophecy https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13051824/4/New-Blood
2. ↑ Chapter 8: Preparing https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13051824/8/New-Blood
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 1: The Sorting https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13051824/1/New-Blood
4. ↑ Chapter 16: Witchy Photos https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13051824/16/New-Blood
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Chapter 42: The Ravenclaws https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13051824/42/New-Blood
6. ↑ Chapter 77: The Pure-Blood Directory https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13051824/77/New-Blood
7. ↑ Chapter 2: Magic https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13051824/2/New-Blood
8. ↑ Chapter 10: Routine https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13051824/10/New-Blood
9. ↑ Chapter 27: The Hospital Wing https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13051824/27/New-Blood
10. ↑ Chapter 233: Exploring the Goblin Hold https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13051824/233/New-Blood
11. ↑ Chapter 220: The Air Ritual https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13051824/220/New-Blood
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Chapter 198: Detention in the Dungeons https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13051824/198/New-Blood
13. ↑ Chapter 208: The Trial, Part II https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13051824/208/New-Blood
14. ↑ Chapter 210: Post-Trial Plotting https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13051824/210/New-Blood
15. ↑ Chapter 287 - The Budgetary Committee - Part 1 https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13051824/287/New-Blood