Revisiting the Black family tree

[khinterberg]

No: HPFGUIDX 118287


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "alshainofthenorth"
<alshainofthenorth at y...> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> When Sirius says that all pure-blooded families are inter-related, 
> people usually tend to take it literally and infer that every old 
> family we've seen in the books so far has to be on the Black family 
> tree. I'd like to challenge this conception a bit and at the same 
> time check if I'm reading more into the text than what is actually 
> there (then again, this wouldn't be unusual in HPFGU either), and 
> save the family tree from breaking under the weight. Basically I'm 
> viewing it as equal parts of generalisation and hyperbole.
>  
> For all that pure-bloods are said to be rare, there seems to be a lot 
> of them dotted throughout the books. The Blacks, the Crouches, the 
> Lestranges and the Malfoys are explicitly pure-blooded, the Fudges 
> probably so as well (assuming that Cornelius isn't just projecting 
> his own insecurities when he's placing overmuch importance on blood 
> purity), the Longbottoms, the Snapes as per JKR, the Death Eater 
> families -- Crabbes, Goyles, Notts, Mulcibers, Traverses, Rosiers, 
> Wilkeses. Several possible others, including but not limited to 
> Weasleys, Flints, Bletchleys, Warringtons, Bulstrodes, Derricks, 
> Boles, Higgses, Montagues, Zabinis, Parkinsons, Puceys, Browns, 
> Cornfoots, Greengrasses, and MacDougals. Unfortunately I don't have a 
> degree in genetics, so I can't tell how many generations of 
> intermarriage it would take for thirty-ish families to produce a gene 
> pool so uniform that fresh blood would become necessary. What I'm 
> dead certain about, however, is that the WW must have its Capulets 
> and its Montagues, families that wouldn't interbreed even if their 
> survival depended on it.
> 
> I tend to interpret Sirius' words as meaning "All pureblood families 
> are interrelated, though not necessarily all with one another. My 
> mother would have thrown a wobbler if I'd married Lucia Zabini. Or 
> Edith Bulstrode. Or Lavinia Higgs. And imagine having to be related 
> to Snape, even if it was by marriage." Why doesn't he say so 
> outright? Because that isn't the purpose of the exchange and would 
> overshadow the crucial point, establishing the family ties between 
> the Blacks and the Malfoys, that Kreacher may have other loyalties 
> than his master, and that he'll at one point take orders from other 
> family members.
> 
> At the same time JKR retains some mystery; if the Black family tree 
> isn't conclusive, other pureblood players can still enter the scene 
> with or without family connections. (Though I wish she wouldn't be so 
> inventive with funny names and stick to working with what she already 
> has instead. It struck me when checking the chocolate frog cards at 
> the Lexicon that the family names in modern magical society are 
> entirely absent from historical accounts. Surely there must have been 
> medieval Malfoys, Blacks, Snapes or Longbottoms who distinguished 
> themselves enough to be mentioned in History of Magic or on chocolate 
> frog cards? But that's beside the point.)
> 
> Alshain


khinterberg here: 
I just wanted to mention that JKR has not actually said that Snape is
a pureblood, she just said that he isn't muggleborn.

Audience member: Apart from Harry, Snape is my favourite character
because he is so complex and I just love him. Can he see the
Thestrals, and if so, why? Also, is he a pure blood wizard?
JKR: Snape's ancestry is hinted at. He was a Death Eater, so clearly
he is no Muggle born, because Muggle borns are not allowed to be Death
Eaters, except in rare circumstances. You have some information about
his ancestry there. He can see Thestrals, but in my imagination most
of the older people at Hogwarts would be able to see them because,
obviously, as you go through life you do lose people and understand
what death is. But you must not forget that Snape was a Death Eater.
He will have seen things that
 Why do you love him? Why do people love
Snape? I do not understand this. Again, it's bad boy syndrome, isn't
it? It's very depressing. [Laughter]. One of my best friends watched
the film and she said, "You know who's really attractive?" I said,
"Who?" She said, "Lucius Malfoy!"