Malfoys on the Tapestry

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 96186

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Chelle" <teshara at y...> wrote:
> Sirius says most of the pure-blooded families are related in Book 5.
> The Weasleys are related but have been removed, one would think,
> centuries ago because of their complete absence from the tapestry
> where others are merely burned off. That was a viable reason for their
> complete absence, but what of the Malfoys?
> The only reference to the Malfoys is Lucius marrying Narcissa and
> joining the line through the birth of Draco.
> Are the Malfoys so elite they have intermarried within themselves for
> centuries, or are they not as pureblooded as one might think?
> 
> ~ Chelle

Harry and Sirius examined only the most recent entries on the
tapestry--only two generations, IIRC. The farther back you go, the
more entries there are per generation--every person has four
grandparents, eight great0grandparents, sixteen
great-great-grandparents, and so on. It's quite likely that the
Malfoys, the Lestranges, the Longbottoms, the Crouches (now extinct),
earlier generations of the Weasleys, and even the Snapes and Potters
appear on the tapestry at various earlier points. I'll bet the
Ollivanders are on there, too, since the family has been making wands
since 382 B.C. We don't know--Sirius hates the whole business of
genealogy and probably hasn't examined the tapestry closely--but
chances are he's related to them all in some degree. Maybe Harry will
have another look at it, or better, flip through the pages of that
book that Sirius used to crush the spider thing.

Anyway, we can't assume the "complete absence" of any family on a
tapestry that goes back over a thousand years when we've only seen the
last few generations. When Sirius says that the pureblood families are
all related, I think he's including the male line of the Malfoys and
not just a relationship by marriage through Narcissa. I don't *know*
that I'm right, but I think it's a safe bet.

Carol