Sirius-Weasley Cousin-ness

[nuriaobradors]

No: HPFGUIDX 90213

hem hem

Hi,

I don't know whether this issue has been brought up before - if it 
has,  I'll thank the kind listee who can direct me to the right 
thread. 

In Oop, chapter 6, upon Harry's surprise from finding Narcissa and 
Sirius are first cousins,  Sirius explains how pure blood families 
are interrelated and examples (is that a verb in English?) :
"Molly and I are cousins by marriage and Arthur's something like my 
second cousin once removed".

The second part of the sentence is very clear (as long as Sirius 
isn't messing family relations up): Arthur would be Sirius's second 
cousin child, either from Mrs Black side, or on some Mr Black's 
*female* relatives. (none of my second cousins, for instance, has the 
same surname as me, and only one of my first cousins has).

Now, my assumption here is that by saying "Molly and I are cousins by 
marriage" Sirius does NOT refer to her marriage to Arthur. My reasons 
to assuming this are:
1. The sentence then should have probably been "Molly and I are 
cousins by marriage *because* or *since* Arthur's something like my 
second cousin once removed", or "Molly and I are cousins by marriage, 
Arthur's something like my second cousin once removed, see"; or 
plainly "Arthur's something like my second cousin once removed, so 
Molly and I are cousins by marriage".
2. Saying that Arthur's his cousin makes it automatically obvious 
that Molly is her cousin by marriage. 

The possibilities, then, are as follows:

1. Molly's cousin to Sirius by Marriage with *another* of Sirius's 
cousins (very Star Wars, as JKR would say? Yet it throws a new range 
of possibilities... married to Arthur's brother first, had Bill and 
Charlie... First husband dies, finds console in his muggle loving 
brother, end up in love,  married and having 5 more children... shame 
and scandal in the family that wipes the weasleys out of the tapestry)

2. Molly's cousin to Sirius by Marriage because her brother or sister 
is married to one of Sirius's cousins. The thing, then, is *who* 
those two could be. Could we have Molly Malfoy -Weasley? Lestrange-
Weasley? 

Either that or Sirius really find it tricky to determine family 
grades of relative-ness. ;)

Cheers, 

Nuri