Snape's Age RE: Tonks's age: A possible solution

[Alec]

> 
> One theory I've seen floated around so much I can't recall who came 
up
> with it is that Bella is actually the owner of the Wiltshire manor
> originally, and Narcissa got it after Bellatrix was sent to Azkaban. 
I
> like this theory because it fits with my longstanding feeling that it
> was Lucius who tipped Crouch off about the identity of the 
Longbottoms'
> torturers to save his own neck. And also to get the manor. 
> 
> Eileen

I've long suspected that Lucius may have got the manor through 
Narcissa, but this theory (with Lucius living up to the family name) 
does have a real beauty to it! 

Maybe the the two surviving branches of the Black family each had one 
of the family homes: Sirius' parents had the London house, and 
Narcissa's parents the country house - suggesting that Sirius' dad was 
the younger of the two brothers. After all, the family is considerably 
older than any London terraced house. 

If this is true, then Bellatrix "ought" to have inherited her parents' 
home - unless (as you say) she was disinherited. (I used to believe 
that Narcissa was the eldest sister, until Dumbledore quashed that 
theory!) Actually, it would make better sense if the last of the 
sisters' parents died "after" Bellatrix was sent to Azkaban, and so 
left the house to Narcissa, as the only child who had not disgraced 
them in any way: after all, in chapter two, Bellatrix doesn't seem to 
treat Narcissa as someone who's "directly" stolen her house!