Pure-blood

**Pure-bloods** are witches and wizards who supposedly have no Muggle or Muggle-born blood in their family tree. Their numbers have declined and every lineage has at least a few non-wizard ancestors. Many people in the wizarding world are proud to say they do not have any non-wizard blood. A few support a stance that they are superior to other witches and wizards. They appear throughout the *Harry Potter book series*.

## About

The term pure-blood is given to a family or a new generation of children if they havr no Muggle or Muggle-born parents or grandparents. Many pure-bloods will only marry others of the same blood status in order to keep their bloodline "pure", and consider people who are Muggle-born to have no right to call themselves a witch or wizard. Pure-bloods who do not care about blood purity are labelled "blood traitors" because they do not appear to value their blood status enough.

The number of pure-bloods has declined because wizarding families are inter-related and married their cousins, which caused limited choices for marriage. Pure-bloods who do not want to marry cousins or lose their blood status will instead marry a half-blood but they hide their ancestry. They will erase any non-wizards off their family tree. Any pure-bloods who says they have no Muggle or Muggle-born blood are not telling the truth.

Half-blood witches and wizards who support pure-blood superiority thought higher of the wizarding side of their family. For example, Tom Riddle was a half-blood but took on a new name to hide having a Muggle father. He wouldn't speak of their connection but Voldemort advised people to "prune" their family tree of anyone who was a Muggle, Muggle-born, Squib or blood traitor, which the Noble House of Black was known to do.

## History

Salazar Slytherin was a supporter of pure-blood superority. He wanted the other founders of Hogwarts to accept only pure-bloods are worthy of learning magic but they refused and it eventually led to an argument. Salazar left the school but built a Chamber of Secrets in the hope the Basilisk within would one day purge the school of Muggle-borns. It was opened twice. One student was killed while others were Petrified but the Serpent of Slytherin was stopped when Harry Potter killed it. Students in Slytherin are usually pure-bloods with the same core values of its founder. Very rarely, if ever, will a Muggle-born be placed in Slytherin.

In the 1940s, Tom Riddle founded the Death Eaters who were mainly pure-bloods who wanted a world in which they were in control and Muggle-borns were eliminated. During the Second Wizarding War, they distributed propaganda that Muggle-borns had stolen their magic. However, pure-bloods including the Weasley family opposed it and contributed to the eventual defeat of Voldemort and the Death Eaters.

## Known pure-bloods

### Possible pure-bloods

These characters have connections to the Death Eaters or a particular behaviour towards blood status, meaning these could be pure-blood or at the very least, half-bloods.

* Avery
* Brown
* Carrow
* Crabbe
* Fudge
* Gibbon
* Goyle
* Greengrass
* Macnair
* Mulciber
* Parkinson
* Prince
* Rowle

## 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 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix*, Chapter 6
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Chapter 13
4. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*, Chapter 12
5. ↑ *The Tales of Beedle the Bard*: The Fountain of Fair Fortune
6. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Chapter 1
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*, Chapter 9
8. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*, Chapter 17
9. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Chapter 23
10. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Chapter 31
11. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Chapter 36
12. ↑ 12.00 12.01 12.02 12.03 12.04 12.05 12.06 12.07 12.08 12.09 12.10 12.11 12.12 12.13  J.K. Rowling's sketch of the Black family tree
13. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*, Chapter 10
14. ↑ J.K. Rowling's old website (archived) - Nott
15. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Chapter 22
16. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*, Chapter 17
17. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire*, Chapter 27
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Harry Potter and Me (view J.K. Rowling's notes)
19. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Chapter 29
20. ↑ In *Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire*, Chapter 36, Fudge is slated for placing importance on blood status suggesting he's likely pure-blood or at least a half-blood who favours wizarding heritage.
21. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*, Chapter 29
22. ↑ In *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows* Epilogue, Astoria Greengrass's son is described to be pure-blood. Unless she had at least one Muggle or Muggle-born grandparent, she was probably of that blood status too.
23. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire*, Chapter 33
24. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire*, Chapter 30
25. ↑ In *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*, Chapter 7, Pansy Parkinson called Ginevra Weasley a "blood traitor", indicating she is likely to be pure-blood.
26. ↑ In *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*, Chapter 30, Harry Potter says Severus Snape acted up having a "pure-blood mother" when looking at an article, but the article doesn't actually say that. It is unknown if Harry based that on fact.
27. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*, Chapter 28