Orion Black's study

## Location information

### Location

First floor of 12 Grimmauld Place, London Borough of Islington, London, Great Britain

### Affiliation

* House of Black

**Orion Black's study** was a room located on the first floor of 12 Grimmauld Place, adjacent to the drawing room. It was the place where he committed suicide. During the summer that the Order of the Phoenix and the Weasley children came to stay, the door was always kept locked, until Sirius forced Aquila to open it.

## History

### Early history

The study had always been used as a private office for the head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black during their time at Grimmauld Place. The office has been used by nearly every head since Betelgeuse Black, who coveted the beautiful house and managed to "persuade" the original Muggle occupant to leave the home to him in his will, and put the appropriate spells on it. It is unclear whether the study was used before that.

### Orion Black

Orion Black began using the study when he moved back into Grimmauld Place with his wife Walburga, in 1958. Before that, it had been used by his father, Arcturus.

He often used the office for disciplining his older children when they stepped too far out of line. This included Sirius and Regulus. But as a result of the changing times and himself growing older, Orion decided to not discipline his youngest two children, Altair and Aquila, the same way. Despite this, a very important event occurred inside this very study.

#### Death of son (1991)

Orion's youngest son, Altair Black, did not receive his Hogwarts letter on the 31st of July when they were meant to be sent out. For years, Orion's wife, Walburga, had been paranoid her son could not perform magic. Orion called Altair into his personal study and snapped. Walburga entered the study in the evening of the 30th of August, where Orion began beating his son, and when their daughter, Aquila, tried to interfere, she ordered her daughter to stop.

Orion killed his youngest son, Altair, with the killing curse on the evening of the 30th of August, 1991, while his wife and daughter watched. Walburga agreed however, that a dead son was better than a squib son, and promised to cover up Altair Black's death. While Orion retreated into seclusion, Walburga informed the public that her husband and two children were suffering from an illness. News came out later that only Altair Black, however, had succumbed to Dragon Pox.

#### Suicide (1991)

After Altair's death and murder, Orion fell deeper than he ever had before into a spiral of guilt and self-destruction. He was eventually found in his study, hanging from the wooden rafters, on Christmas Eve, 1991. Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, who were visiting with their son Draco, who had arrived home from school, were the ones to find his body. He was 62.

### After Orion

Draco and Aquila were kept out of the room while the Ministry got involved, and Walburga herself was witnessed by a Ministry employee, Edalbert Crimble, yelling at her dead husband and screaming about his selfishness, while Ministry employees investigated the study.

They removed the body and afterwards, Walburga closed and locked the doors to the study forever, refusing to let anyone inside. The enchantment faded, however, upon her own death.

### Second Wizarding War

Much later, in 1995, the door was still locked, though not out of Walburga's doing. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny always knew the door was locked, and when Mrs. Weasley told Sirius this he didn't seem to care about opening it, but he did tell her that they should probably tackle the drawing room first. This was before Aquila's arrival.

When Aquila came, she told Mrs. Weasley in no uncertain terms that it would be rather unwise to unlock it, and that there were plenty of other rooms available for cleaning. Ginny asked Aquila the real reason and she did not explain at first, but later told her it was because she was afraid to go in there. This was probably true, although it also most likely had to do with the study being the place of both her father and her brother's deaths.

Once many of the other rooms were cleaned Mrs. Weasley insisted that the office could also be used as another spare bedroom if they cleaned it out, and Aquila was later forced to unlock it by Sirius, who menaced her, according to Harry, and Harry found it odd for Sirius to be acting that way.

The office had been left in its original state following Orion Black's suicide. His old wand still sat on the desk, gathering dust, where he had left it. When Harry entered it he found himself feeling cold and clammy, but could not explain why. Aquila also did not like the situation, as when the teenagers began pulling it apart, they found papers that seemed to unravel her father's entire life, and she was forced to explain that he had killed himself.