[HPforGrownups] Sirius a "pureblood"?

[Jennifer Boggess Ramon]

No: HPFGUIDX 37291

At 12:02 PM +0000 3/31/02, grey_wolf_c wrote:
>We know for certain that James was a "pureblood" (that is, he came from
>a wizard family), that Lily came from a muggle family, that Ron's
>family is pure wizards, etc. However, I'm pretty unsure of Sirius'
>origins. Are his family wizards, muggles or both? (Please give as much
>canon as possible).

The short answer, of course, is We Don't Know.  Moreover, it's 
unlikely that Rowling is going to tell us, unless his family becomes 
a plot point later on.  Sounds like fanfic fodder to me . . . ;)

>To start you out, the only canon I could recall on the matter is
>Harry's letter to Siruius at the start of GoF,

Unless Sirius was not only from an at-least-part-Muggle family but 
from an uncommonly technologically oriented one, describing a 
computer that can be flung out a window in a fit of anger is only 
going to confuse him more.  At the time he went to Azkaban, personal 
computers were only beginning to become popular; most people's idea 
of a computer in 1981 would still have been something the size of a 
washer-and-dryer set.  Even a personal computer would have been 
awkward; while I could defenestrate the iMac in front of me, doing so 
with the Apple II I was using back in '81 would have been quite a 
strain.

Of course, Harry might well have explained computers to Sirius in a 
prior letter.  GoF 2 says that Sirius had sent two letters that 
summer; one would presume that Harry at least wrote brief notes back.

It seems to me that the motorcycle is better evidence.  As has been 
previously noted, it's not proof of anything; Arthur Weasley is a 
pureblood and he had the flying car, after all.  But Arthur has a 
fascination with Muggles and Muggle artifacts that Sirius has so far 
shown no sign of.  It seems slightly more probable to me that Sirius 
is a half-blood whose Muggle relatives introduced him to motorcycles, 
which he adopted as an insignia of his own coolness.  (Not that his 
being a half-blood need not mean that he has a Muggle parent; a 
Muggle-born one will do, for those who want him steeped completely in 
the wizard Warrior Ethic, and he can pick up the motorcycle from a 
cousin who saw _Easy Rider_ a few too many times.)


At 2:41 PM -0800 3/31/02, Dave Hardenbrook wrote:
>This is an interesting question about the nature of Sirius' family:
>What sort of family, Wizard or Muggle, would allow their son to go
>to prison without a trial??

As several others have pointed out, one that was dead or that thought 
he was guilty as sin would do.  However, one that was Imperiused 
would also work; perhaps Pettigrew covered his trail better than he's 
letting on.  Or perhaps he Memory Charmed them to forget it.

It's not clear how trials work in the wizarding world, anyway.  Of 
the Pensieve scenes, only one - Bagman's - appears to actually be a 
trial to determine guilt or innocence.  The one with the Lestranges 
appears to be a sentencing, since Mrs. Lestrange is making no 
pretense of innocence, and Karakoff's is only a hearing of some sort, 
as he's already been convicted.  If Sirius did get a trial, what 
would it look like?  Who would testify?  The Muggle witnesses were 
already Obliviated (and probably couldn't give valid testimony under 
wizard law anyway).  Peter was gone.  Would the Ministry officials 
who were first on the scene just present the evidence that was left?

-- 
  - Boggles, aka J. C. B. Ramon			boggles at earthlink.net
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