Pure Blood Fertility / The 3 Black Sisters' Ages

[lunatique0619]

No: HPFGUIDX 84447

Hello, first time poster here. 

ghinghapuss wrote:
> <snip snip>
> I always thought that the Pure Bloods are dieing out not because of 
> infertility but because of the lack of available partners. <snip>
> Fertility will help but it doesn't really matter in the long run. <snip>
> It still seems odd that the Malfoys have only one child though. 

I think "available partners" depends on how far one takes marriages
between related persons. I understand that marriage between cousins,
for instance, has a long history in many parts of the world. (As in
Wuthering Heights, I suppose.)

For pureblood wizards, the advantage of intermarriage would be
twofold. First, they don't have that much of a choice anyway if they
want to stay "pure." Second, homogenous marriages keep the family's
fortune and prestige *within* the family. That seems to have been
traditionally a huge incentive for cousin marriages. 

Interesting thing is, prolonged for dozens of generations, this can
lead to fertility problems as well. A high rate of inbreeding among
animals has been observed to lead to a higher rates of infant
mortality, reduced body size, less resistance to infection, and
reduced fertility, among other effects. 

So the Malfoys' being able to produce only one heir might not be so
mystifying, after all. It's possible that they were unable to
conceive, or did conceive and experienced miscarriage or death of one
or more child. (An explanation for Draco's extremely pampered
upbringing?) 

Of course, this leads to the inevitable question of the Weasleys
having children galore. My theory is that the Malfoys are far more
homogenous of blood than the Weasleys--as in, they "kept it inside the
family" more by breeding in a much more select gene pool. While both
families are considered pureblooded, I think it's likely the Weasleys
married a wider range of families, resulting in better fertility. 


ghinghapuss wrote:
> Of course the one advantage Lucius Malfoy has in Draco is the fact 
> that his son is now the single heir to two great family fortunes and 
> legacies.

My "keeping it in the family" theory ties in with this. 

ghinghapuss wrote:
>The Black's and Malfoy's have united under the Malfoy 
> name.  Probably not something he imagined when he married the 
> youngest of three sisters with two male cousins. <snip>

Actually I believe Narcissa was the eldest of the three sisters,
rather than the youngest. We know Andromeda was the middle sister(the
charred spot where her name used to be is between Bellatrix and
Narcissa), and that Bellatrix is two years older than Sirius. 

(Reasoning: Sirius said he hadn't seen Bellatrix since he was Harry's
own age, fifteen. Since there's little chance of not seeing her when
they went to school together, I took this to mean she graduated after
Sirius' fifth year, which places her in seventh year when Sirius was
in his fifth.)

So, taking information from the chat where Rowling revealed Snape's
age to be 35/36(presumably GoF time), Sirius is 36/37 during OoP,
while Bellatrix is 38/39. 

Another factor in figuring the respective ages of the sisters is their
offspring. While it's true that Andromeda's daughter is older than
Narcissa's son, that's possibly due to Narcissa's difficulties with
fertility. *points to first half of the post* Andromeda, who married a
Muggle-born much to her family's disgust, wouldn't have the homogenous
gene problem Narcissa could have had. Poetic justice, don't you think?

So anyway, I'd place Tonks at about twenty. McGonagall said being an
Auror required three more years of study after graduation, so that
seems about right. How old would Andromeda have been when her daughter
was born? We know Harry was born when his parents were 21/22, so let's
take that for now as the wizarding norm. (Only because there are no
other clues..) 

That would make Andromeda 41/42--older than Bellatrix. With Andromeda
as the middle sister, that automatically makes Narcissa the oldest.
This might also make Narcissa older than her husband...but that's not
exactly unheard of, is it? 

So yeah, having Narcissa as the eldest daughter makes her more
attractive as Lucius Malfoy's choice of wife. I mean, it might have
been even better if she had no male relatives in her generation, but
hey, he could do worse. If one goes with the reduced fertility theory,
there probably weren't that many witches of lofty enough birth to suit
him anyway. 


Heck of an overanalysis for a first post.. 

-Lunatique