Narcissa Malfoy (WAS: Everything Stolen (WAS: Why the Dark Mark?

[Amanda]

No: HPFGUIDX 121773


<snip>
> 
> Betsy:
> Here's another little tid-bit on the "Narcissa" name, that may give 
> some more insight into Mrs. Malfoy's character:
> 
<snip>
> 
> Also, in message # 121706, Carol makes a good argument for Narcissa 
> being the eldest of the Black girls.  Which leads me to a question 
> that's been bugging me for a while.  Why is Draco an only child? It 
> doesn't make sense for the Malfoy family to have only one heir, 
> especially in those dangerous times.  And if Narcissa is about 
> Lucius' age (which puts them in the same age group as Arthur and 
> Molly Weasley, I think) why did they wait so long to have a child?
> 

Kethryn now -

I don't think that Narcissa is the eldest of the Black girls and I 
think, if the magical world does it the same way we do in real life, 
the tapestry of the Black family on page 113 of OoTP proves my 
supposition.  In real life family trees, the person to the farthest 
most left in a group of siblings is the eldest of the siblings.  
Therefore, Bellatrix must be the eldest, Andromeda in the middle, and 
Narcissa is the youngest.  

"He pointed to another small round burn mark between two names, 
Bellatrix and Narcissa."

"Harry, however, did not laugh; he was too busy staring at the names 
to the right of Andromeda's burn mark.  A double line of gold 
embroidery linked Narcissa Black..."

The HP lexicon has Bellatrix tentatively listed as being born in the 
50s and going to Hogwarts/graduating in the 70s.  Neither Andromeda 
nor Narcissa have even tentative dates but Tonks, who is Andromeda's 
daughter, was born in 1973, 13 years after Sirius, and Draco is, of 
course, a 1980s baby.  Therefore, it is not too impossible to imagine 
that Bellatrix is about Lucius' age, Andromeda is two or three years 
younger, and then Narcissa is a year or so younger (which would put 
her at Hogwarts for the last year or two that Lucius was there which 
lets the two of them at least meet before they got married).  That 
would also help explain why they waited so late for Draco; Narcissa 
would have been at Hogwarts til she was seventeen and then, knowing 
the Malfoys and the Blacks, they probably waited a year before having 
an elaborate wedding.  Draco was probably conceived shortly 
thereafter.

So, that's my take on it at any rate and it could be false, of 
course, if the magical world reads backwards from us but I tend to 
doubt that.

Kethryn