Pure-blood



"The term 'pure-blood' refers to a family or individual without Muggle (non-magic) blood. The concept is generally associated with Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, whose aversion to teaching anybody of Muggle parentage eventually led to a breach with his three fellow founders, and his resignation from the school."

- Where the term 'pure-blood' originated from

Pure-blood is the term for wizards and witches who claim to have no Muggle or Muggle-borns in their family tree; however, when traced back far enough, nearly every family tree had some non-magical ancestors.

By 1995, the number of pure-blood families were declining. Most pure-blood families were related by then in an effort, by some, to retain their status by marrying only other pure-blood families, but it had led to inbreeding. While some families, such as the Malfoys, had allowed for marrying half-bloods, others such as the Gaunts, Lestranges, and Blacks, required their family to only marry pure-blood individuals, or those with no Muggle or Muggle-born parents or grandparents. This refusal of marrying Muggles or Muggle-borns had lead to difficulty in propagating their families.

Overview
"The pure-blood families are all interrelated. If you’re only going to let your sons and daughters marry pure-bloods your choice is very limited; there are hardly any of us left."

- Sirius Black's overview of blood purity

Pure-blood individuals are people who have no Muggles or Muggle-borns as parents or grandparents. Traditionalist pure-bloods like to keep the generations "pure" by breeding with other pure-bloods and are generally the ones who use the term 'Mudblood', a term considered derogatory by the wizarding world. Mudblood means Muggle-born, suggesting they have dirty blood and thus have no right to be a witch/wizard. Pure-bloods who do not share these prejudices are considered "blood traitors" by the ones that do.

In the 1930s a wizard, commonly believed to be Cantankerus Nott, published a Pure-Blood Directory featuring twenty-eight families he believed to be pure-blooded, though many objected to this designation.

Maintaining "purity"
"So-called pure-blood families maintain their alleged purity by disowning, banishing, or lying about Muggles or Muggle-borns on their family trees. Then they attempt to foist their hypocrisy upon the rest of us by asking us to ban works dealing with the truths they deny. There is not a witch or wizard in existence whose blood has not mingled with that of Muggles [...]"

- Albus Dumbledore in a response to Lucius Malfoy



Some pure-blood families can trace their pure-blood status through many generations of magical ancestors and deny ever having any Muggles within the family, such as the House of Black, the motto of which is "Toujours pur", meaning "Always (or Still) Pure". However, the truth is that if they ever did exist in the past, true pure-blood wizards and witches do not exist today. They merely erase Squibs, Muggle-borns, and Muggles from their family trees.

Half-bloods who consider blood purity very important also hide their Muggle ancestry, clinging to the magical heritage they do have. Many Death Eaters are believed to have done this, and their leader himself took on the name Lord Voldemort out of a desire to not keep the name of his "filthy Muggle father". It is likely that Voldemort told his followers he was a pure-blood, or that most of the Death Eaters knew better than to question Riddle's blood status, given the reaction of Bellatrix Lestrange to Harry's "accusation" that he was in fact a half-blood.

Many pure-blood families, such as the Blacks and Gaunts, practise marrying cousins in order to maintain their pure-blood status, and disown any members who marry someone who is not a pure-blood. This practise has been known to cause problems as families become inbred; for example, the Gaunts showed signs of violent tendencies, mental instability, and being enfeebled. The number of pure-bloods is diminishing over time because of inbreeding.

Most wizards and witches consider a person to be pure-blood if his or her parents and grandparents were not Muggles or Muggle-born.

Attitude
"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They’re just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families."

- Draco Malfoy's prejudice concerning Muggle-borns

Some pure-bloods regard themselves as superior to those witches and wizards who are born to Muggles and half-bloods. They believe that Muggles are little more than animals and that Muggle-borns, whom they derisively call 'Mudbloods' are second-class citizens who are inferior and unworthy of being allowed to practise magic. Many also discriminate against: half-breeds, werewolves, and magical creatures.

Salazar Slytherin believed that only pure-bloods should be allowed to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and educated in magic; this was the cause of his conflict with the other Founders and his leaving the school. However, he left behind the Chamber of Secrets in the hope that one day his heir would open the Chamber and release the basilisk within to target Muggle-born students. Tom Marvolo Riddle was this heir, and the basilisk petrified several Muggle-born students in 1943 and the 1992–1993 school year and managed to kill one student, Myrtle Warren, in 1943.



Tom Riddle, later known as Lord Voldemort, continued his persecution of those who were not pure-bloods (ironically being a half-blood himself) with his followers, the Death Eaters. They strived to place pure-bloods in control of the wizarding world and to rid it of Muggle-borns. When Voldemort succeeded in taking over the Ministry of Magic during the height of the Second Wizarding War, his followers created the Muggle-Born Registration Commission in order to weed Muggle-borns out of the population, and send them to Azkaban for allegedly stealing magic. Pure-bloods were also blatantly favoured within the Ministry and, to a lesser extent, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, although half-blood was sufficient to avoid prosecution.

However, there are pure-bloods who do not have these beliefs, and instead treat all magical people and Muggles as equals. These pure-blood folk are often labelled "blood traitors" by the more fanatical pure-bloods.

Possible pure-bloods
Due to their affiliation to Slytherin and Lord Voldemort many wizards and witches may be considered pure-bloods. Others have openly express their prejudice toward Half-bloods and Muggle-borns, which is another reason to believe they are pure-blood supremacist. Some even become Death Eaters.

Behind the scenes

 * On J. K. Rowling's draft list of students in Harry Potter's class, the following students were mentioned as pure-bloods :
 * Lavender Brown
 * Stephen Cornfoot
 * Isobel MacDougal
 * Morag MacDougal
 * Coincidentally, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley are all the three types of wizards; Harry being a half-blood, Hermione being Muggle-born, and Ron being a pure-blood.
 * Many characters mention throughout the series that blood purity doesn't matter, often using Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom as examples. Despite Neville's pure-blood heritage, he is not an extremely talented wizard, and isn't very skilled until later in life; however, Hermione is a supremely gifted witch despite her Muggle-born status, and performed very well right from the beginning.
 * The Harry Potter Glossary at Scholastic's official website lists the term "Trueblood" as "Someone born to pure magical parents." This term, however, is not known to have appeared in any official Harry Potter media. The nuance with "pureblood" may be that while the child of a half-blood and a pureblood counts as a pureblood, a trueblood can only be the child of two purebloods. That is however unconfirmed.
 * The concept of pure-blood is also similar to the real-life situation of nearly all European royal families being related, especially the British and (now extinct) German monarchies. Royals were only allowed to marry another member of the aristocracy, so most of the families were interrelated through marriage.

Author's comments
On the subject of blood purity, J. K. Rowling has said the following:

"The expressions 'pure-blood', 'half-blood', and 'Muggle-born' have been coined by people to whom these distinctions matter, and express their originators’ prejudice. As far as somebody like Lucius Malfoy is concerned, for instance, a Muggle-born is as ‘bad’ as a Muggle. Therefore Harry would be considered only ‘half’ wizard, because of his maternal grandparents. If you think this is far-fetched, look at some of the real charts the Nazis used to show what constituted 'Aryan' or 'Jewish' blood...the Nazis used precisely the same warped logic as the Death Eaters. A single Jewish grandparent 'polluted' the blood, according to their propaganda."

This statement indicates that all of a wizard or witch's grandparents must have magical heritage — i.e. that he or she cannot have a single Muggle or Muggle-born grandparent — in order for him or her to be considered pure-blood. The detailed and lengthy family trees maintained by pure-blood families such as the House of Black maintained a record of all the pure-bloods born and married into the family (as well documenting those who were blasted off to maintain the family's sense of purity).

Appearances

 * PS undefined
 * PS F
 * PS G

Notes and references
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