House of Black

"Toujours pur."

- The family motto, translating to "Always Pure"

The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black was one of the largest and oldest pure-blood wizarding families in Britain. Many wizarding families in Britain are distantly related to the House of Black. Like the Malfoy and Lestrange families, the House of Black is synonymous with elevated status and wealth. The Black family tree is displayed in the drawing room of the family home at 12 Grimmauld Place in London, England on an intricate tapestry, as an ornate mural. It starts in the Middle Ages and shows the dominant line of the family up to the present day.

By the late twentieth century, the House of Black had become extinct in the male line with the deaths of Sirius and Regulus Black, neither of whom had children. The female line remained extant through the Malfoy family and Teddy Lupin, though the latter descends from a Black who was disowned. The Potter family is also distantly related to the Black family through Dorea Black.

History
"...my parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal..."

- Sirius Black to Harry Potter on his family's values



The Black family traces its origin back to the Middle Ages. They claim to have entirely magical ancestry, but as Sirius Black informed his godson Harry Potter, no true pure-blood families existed by the twentieth century. The pure-blood families like the Blacks simply removed Muggles and Squibs from their family trees. The Blacks place a great importance on blood purity, considering themselves akin to royalty in the wizarding world and disdaining Muggles, Squibs, Blood traitors and Muggle-borns. The family motto, which can be found on the family crest, is Toujours Pur, which means "Always Pure" in French. Many members took this phrase very seriously.

Because of their views, a large number of the Black family members practise the Dark Arts and supported Lord Voldemort during the First and Second Wizarding Wars. A few Blacks even became Death Eaters, while many others never took the Dark Mark but believed in the "purification" of the wizarding world nevertheless. A few members of the family, however, disagreed with the traditional views of their family; Sirius Black, for example, joined the Order of the Phoenix, as did Nymphadora Tonks, a distant member of the Black family. Both were murdered by Bellatrix Lestrange née Black, Sirius' cousin and Tonks' aunt, in battle.

With Sirius' death, the male line of the Black family ended; the female line continues through the descendants of his cousins Andromeda Tonks and Narcissa Malfoy, his second cousin, once removed, Arthur Weasley, the Burke family, the Crouches, the Longbottoms and the Potter family.

Harry is shocked to find Sirius is related to the Malfoys, but Sirius explains all pure blood families are interlinked somehow. Sirius is, in fact, related to Molly and Arthur Weasley.

--> --> --> --> --> --> --> --> --> --> --> --> --> --> --> --> --> --> --> -->==Family Tree== "En stirps nobilis et gens antiquissima Black."

- Latin inscription on the Black family tree tapestry; "Behold the offspring of noble birth and the nation of the most ancient of Black".



Legend: Names in grey boxes were removed from the tree by Walburga Black. The published tree does not contain descendants of side branches of the family.

==="{|class="wikitable" border="1" !Disowned Black !Reason ]] née Black]] named her son Draco, which is the name of a constellation. In turn, he named his son Scorpius, which is one of the constellations of the zodiac, known as Scorpio in Western astrology. Narcissa herself, however, was not named in keeping with this convention. She was instead named for a plant, the flower Narcissus. Lycoris Black is also named for a plant.
 * Unknown
 * Isla Black
 * Marriage to Muggle/Muggle-born Bob Hitchens
 * Marriage to Muggle/Muggle-born Bob Hitchens

However if a member of the family is disowned and blasted off the Black family tree then the name is never used again in the following generations.

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Etymology
Black can be considered a colour, though it is more accurately the absence of colour. In Western culture, the colour black has typically been associated with evil, darkness, and witchcraft, but also with prestige and sophistication — appropriate for the House of Black. Black has also been associated with life and prosperity by other cultures. In ancient China, black was the symbol of the element of water, which also corresponds to Slytherin, the Hogwarts house of almost all members of the Black family. In English heraldry, black represents darkness and ignorance; a possible allusion to the prejudice common to members of the House of Black.

However, the English word black is derived from either the Old English blœc, meaning "black", or blac, meaning "pale". Pallor is associated with sickness and the colour white, which is usually held to symbolize purity in Western and Indian culture, and death in East Asian cultures. This mirrors the typical colouring of members of the House of Black — dark hair and pale skin.

Behind the scenes

 * A hand drawn copy of the most recent section of the family tree was donated to a charity auction for Book Aid by J. K. Rowling, in February 2006. The drawing was purchased on behalf of Daniel Radcliffe for £30,000.
 * According to Sirius Black, if all of the pure-blood families stick with the pure-blood marriages, almost all of them will be relatives because there are only a few pure-blood families. Therefore Sirius relates to the Crabbe family, the Potter family, the Weasley family, the Malfoy family, the Crouch family, the Longbottom family, the Lestrange family, the Lupin family, the Gaunt family, the Riddle family, the Peverell family,the Bulstrode family and the Slytherin family.
 * Walburga and Orion Black were second cousins though they married.
 * Another version of the family tree tapestry appeared in the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film). When film makers told Rowling that they needed to "visualise Sirius Black's family tree," she faxed them the complete Black family tree, going back eight generations. On that tree the name Phineas is misspelt Phineus.
 * Many members of the House of Black have died at considerably younger ages than is the norm for wizards and witches. Of those whose dates of birth and death are shown on the family tree, none lived to be older than one hundred, and most died between the ages of fifty and eighty, though this is possibly the result of major inbreeding (see above) as well as mental instability (As seen ).
 * Many members of the family are said to have great good looks, with a touch of aristocratic arrogance to it.
 * After Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the only pure-blood members who weren't dead or imprisoned are: Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, Scorpius Malfoy, Andromeda Tonks, Arthur Weasley, Molly Weasley, Bill, Charlie, Percy, George, Ron and Ginny.
 * The female lines continue through Narcissa (through her descendants with Lucius Malfoy), Andromeda (with Ted Tonks), Callidora (with Harfang Longbottom), Cedrella (with Septimus Weasley) and possibly Isla (with Bob Hitchens).
 * It is also possible that the female Black line continues in Harry Potter, as he is possibly related to Charlus Potter and Dorea Black.
 * Out of 36 members, most are descendants of Phineas Nigellus and Ursula Flint (25), 7 were of known generations preceding him and 3 were his siblings. The remaining 1 was Phineas himself.
 * There is at least one disowned Black in each generation (except the generation consisting of Cygnus Black I, Arcturus Black I and Misapinoa Black.
 * All of the males that have been blasted off the family tree were not disowned due to marriage (except for possibly Eduardus Limette Black, who was blasted off for an unknown reason). Phineas was disowned for supporting Muggle rights, Marius was disowned for being a Squib, Alphard for leaving gold to his disowned nephew, and Sirius for running away from his home and not believing in the importance of blood-purity. The three females to have been disowned after marriage are Andromeda, Cedrella and Isla Black (all for marriage to a Muggle/Muggle-born, a disrespected family, and a Muggle, respectively).
 * It is possible James Potter was not the son of Dorea Black, as he married Muggle-born Lily Evans and would possibly have been disowned for that. At the same time, Walburga Black was growing old at the time, and it is possible she overlooked the marriage (as it was around the same time her son, Regulus Black, both disappeared and died).
 * It is possible that some of the disowned male members of the family have male-line descendants that are recognised by the greater Black family due to their ancestors' actions. Hence, the Black family may still be extant through the existence of unrecognised branches.

Notes and references
Familie Black Casa Black Famille Black Блэки