OOP Bellatrix, Narcissa & Sirius (was: Wizarding Relations)

[komagata_mai]

No: HPFGUIDX 66541


> For that matter, I felt rather like Narcissa Malfoy being born 
> Narcissa Black was just conceived of for this book, purely for the 
> purpose of Kreacher considering her to be family, so he could go 
off 
> and use the excuse that he was still with a family member to whom 
he 
> was supposed to be loyal.  After all, Harry gives fairly good 
> descriptions of both Bellatrix Lestrange (nee Black) and of 
Narcissa 
> Malfoy (nee Black) in GoF, and they don't seem like they could 
> genetically be full sisters.  Belletrix is described as having 
very 
> dark coloring, whereas Narcissa has very fair hair (and, I think, 
> light eyes, but I'd have to check GoF again--if she doesn't have 
> light eyes, it would be against the odds for her son to have 
> inherited his father's light eye color).  I think putting all of 
> these people into the same family was probably a last-minute 
affair, 
> and something I found to be a little irksome (although not as much 
> as using the tapestry to communicate the info about the family 
tree).

I know a few siblings where one child has really dark hair and the 
other has light blonde hair. I don't think this should be an 
argument. I'm not sure how the eyes are described, but eye color is 
determined by several genes and is not that unlikely that Draco 
ended up with gray eyes (which could be light blue, light green, 
light hazel, or some weird combination of colors). Also, who knows 
how magic can affect genetics? 

Whether this was a last minute decision or not, I couldn't tell you 
that, but there have been hints since book one (by ron I believe), 
that wizards would have died out if they hadn't started marrying 
muggles. That would suggest that the most adamant Pureblood families 
would be very closely related, as if they were nobility. 

> 
> Another thing, from PoA, which makes it seem that JKR hadn't 
thought 
> all along of Narcissa being Sirius' cousin, is the way Draco 
Malfoy 
> talks about Sirius, especially when he's suggesting to Harry that 
HE 
> would go and hunt down Sirius himself if he were in Harry's 
shoes.  
> In light of OotP it just doesn't ring true.  If Draco Malfoy were 
> related to Sirius Black, he'd probably be gloating to Harry about 
> how his cousin had fooled Harry's stupid parents into thinking he 
> was their friend, before handing them over to Voldemort, and that 
he 
> hoped Sirius, his cousin, got away scot-free.  
> 

this has been replied to, but I agree. Sirius was disowned, so he 
might be one of those things that is just not talked about. Plus, 
Draco is bratty. He might not be interested in geneaology. Or its 
something you take for granted, like most pureblooded wizards would 
be related to you in some way or another. Sirius is more of a second 
uncle, I mean, do you mention who your second uncle is to people? 
Especially if he is a convicted criminal and runaway and burnt off 
the family tapestry?

> It's all very well and good to introduce new ideas, and even for 
her 
> to have had brainstorms that didn't occur until the writing of a 
> subsequent book (I'm sure there's plenty of things she might have 
> first thought of that will never make it into the books, and I'm 
> glad she went with Rita Skeeter instead of the Weasley cousin in 
> GoF), but with this one it just doesn't seem that she thought 
about 
> whether it was plausible in light of what went before.  Another 
> purpose of it could be, in general, to make it seem that 
pureblooded 
> wizards are very inbred, but I don't think that we needed the 
> tapestry to come to that conclusion. ;)

Well, yes, pureblood families are very inbred, and the tapestry just 
emphasizes to what degree. I've felt that this pureblood issue in 
the books not only relates to racial hatred in the real world, but 
also, in every day life how class structures (nobility vs 
commmoners) worked, and discriminated people by their relatives and 
connections, rather than by appearance, nationality, or religion. 

I think it is quite plausible she had thought this out before. It 
seems that it is part of the themes of the book, and if tonks can 
change her hair color and her nose at will, I say that a blonde 
member of the Black family is not unreasonable. 

--mai