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

[bluesqueak]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Alec" <alec.dossetor at f...> 
wrote:

> 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. 
> 
Pip!Squeak
House, yes, but what about the land it stands on? You can trace some 
London plots back to the 16th or 17th century with very little 
problem - various houses have been knocked down and rebuilt on the 
same plots. It wouldn't surprise me if the terrace was originally 
built around No. 12 because some builder thought he owned all the 
plots in the street (the plot of land the Blacks were on being 
unplottable) - seems more likely than the Blacks choosing 
deliberately to live amongst muggles 

What Dumbledore describes, with the house going to the oldest male 
Black in the direct line, is an entail. The purpose of an entail was 
to *avoid* the property being split up - so it would seem a bit 
weird if the Malfoy Manor came to Narcissa via the Black side of the 
family as part of a split-up of family property. However, there's 
nothing whatsoever to stop the house having come to her via her 
mother's side of the family - say a childless uncle, leaving the 
house to the only niece who's made a 'good' pureblood marriage?

Another alternative is that *Lucius's* uncle told him he'd make him 
his heir - if and only if he made a 'suitable' match.

Pip!Squeak
"Where do you think I would have been all these years, if I had not 
known how to act?" - Severus Snape