Belby family

**Belby** is the surname of a wizarding family that lived in Puddletown, Dorset, England. Members of this family are typically pure-blood and sorted into Slytherin or Ravenclaw House. The family motto is "*vive ut vivas"* which translates to "live to live."

The Belby family became known in the 1980s for Damocles Belby's invention of the Wolfsbane Potion, which allows a werewolf to keep their mind during a Full Moon, though it is unable to reverse a transformation under the Full Moon's effects.

A member of this family that recently attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is a boy named Marcus Belby, a Ravenclaw, who attended from 1990 to 1997. He was invited to Professor Horace Slughorn's Slug Club in the 1996-1997 school year on the merits of his uncle, Damocles Belby, who invented the Wolfsbane Potion.

## History

### Early history

The wife of British Minister for Magic Hector Fawley, Belinda Fawley, was born into the Belby family in late 1870. Thus, the Belby family was related by marriage to the Fawleys.

Hector Fawley was Minister for Magic from 1925 to 1939, voted in because of his marked difference to his predecessor, Lorcan McLaird. His term in office coincided with the beginning of Gellert Grindelwald's "For the Greater Good" revolution. Fawley did not take Grindelwald's threat to the world wizarding community sufficiently seriously, and his lack of response was openly questioned. The *Daily Prophet* once asked in 1926, whether "Flamboyant Fawley" was doing enough. Little is known of his wife, Belinda.

### Recent history

Damocles Belby was born into this family in the year 1948. He began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on 1 September, 1960, where he was sorted into Slytherin House. Damocles Belby was a favourite student of Horace Slughorn, the Potions Master, who remarked that he was an "outstanding" wizard.

After graduating from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Damocles Belby went on to become a Potioneer and invented the Wolfsbane Potion. The potion was still in its developmental stages in 1984, but was approved for brewing by 1989; nevertheless, it was expensive. Belby was awarded an Order of Merlin for his contributions.

Damocles had a nephew, Marcus Belby, who stated that his uncle and father did not get along. As such, Damocles had little contact with his relatives, and was not very well known to his nephew Marcus.

## Known Members

* Belinda Fawley (née Belby) (1870-1959) † - Wife of British Minister for Magic Hector Fawley
* Phillis Belby (1894-1967) † - Cousin of Belinda Fawley, never married
* Prudence Bole (née Belby) (1896-1977) † - Sister of Phillis, cousin of Belinda, wife of Simeon Bole
* Damocles Belby (1948-) Celebrated Potioneer and Inventor of the Wolfsbane Potion
* Edmund Belby (1950-) Brother of Damocles Belby and father of Marcus Belby
* Marcus Belby (1979-) Hogwarts student

## Related families

* Fawley family (through marriage), Belinda Belby to Hector Fawley
* Bole family (through marriage), Prudence Belby to Simeon Bole

## Etymology

Belby is a locational surname, derived either from the two villages called "Beelby" in Lincolnshire, and "Bielby" in Yorkshire or from individual farms of the same spelling.