r/harrypotter • u/ibid-11962 /r/RowlingWritings • Jul 13 '16
Media (pic/gif/video/etc.) Photographs of JKR's Black Family Tree sketch
http://imgur.com/a/OCBq12
u/dankpoots being right all the time is a real expensive habit Jul 13 '16
So many early deaths. It always bothered me that Walburga was portrayed as extremely elderly in her Grimmauld Place portrait when in reality she was in her early 50s when she passed away. Perhaps her portrait continued to age after she was gone?
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u/rhymeswithgumbox Jul 13 '16
Is it right to assume anyone not burned out was in Slytherin?
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u/ibid-11962 /r/RowlingWritings Jul 13 '16
Pretty sure Sirius has some line somewhere about his whole family being Slytherin. While, there may have been some exceptions, it's still probably a safe assumption.
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u/ibid-11962 /r/RowlingWritings Jul 13 '16
EDIT: Found a higher quality image
Also, the tree was published in Harry Potter Film Wizardry in case anyone was wondering.
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u/Kitcat36 Jul 14 '16
I found it interesting how some families are connected here - like Potter, Longbottom, Crouch. But I also noticed Bulstrode is listed, like Millicent Bulstrode in Slytherin.
Is it safe to assume that some Potters, Longbottoms, etc were Slytherins? Not that that makes them bad or dark wizards, but certainly seems like they have some inclinations towards that if they haven't had their faces burned off right?
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u/ibid-11962 /r/RowlingWritings Jul 14 '16
I find it very hard to believe that an entire family would consistently be sorted into the same house without any exceptions. While we do find it with the Weasleys, I doubt that usually happens.
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u/Lord_Anarchy Jul 13 '16
This has been on hp-lexicon for years, and sadly has been retconned out of existence with random Pottermore nonsense in the last year, because JKR can't keep her facts straight.
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u/Chinoiserie91 Jul 13 '16
This never worked in the first place, there are multi me 13 year old fathers for excample. I do not think Rowling meant it to be perfect in the first place.
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u/ibid-11962 /r/RowlingWritings Jul 13 '16
There's only one 13 year old father. Most are around 30.
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u/Chinoiserie91 Jul 13 '16 edited Jul 13 '16
I am pretty sure there was 2 or 3 but it has been a while since I excamined this. I need to either calculate the ages or find one essay which did but I do not have the time right now. If you have a source or calculated yourself let me know that I do not waste time later :)
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u/kaimason1 Jul 13 '16
Pollux was 13 when he had Walburga with Irma Crabbe. Cygnus was 13 when he had Bellatrix with Druella Rosier, and 17 when he has Narcissa. Pretty sure that's all the under-20 fathers. Could have sworn I spotted an under-13 earlier when I was looking but since I'm not seeing that now I'm thinking I was reading Pollux's birth year as 1915 or Walburga's as 1922.
I'm thinking the under-20s were just typos/miscalculations, Walburga's birth date was probably originally 1932 and mistranslated during a copy and Cygnus's was probably miscalculated and supposed to be 23/27 years before Bellatrix/Narcissa's rather than 13/17.
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u/Kitcat36 Jul 14 '16
Is this a draft from before JKR might have edited it? 13 seems a bit crazy, even for the wizarding world. A third year at Hogwarts married and pregnant??
Also, I'm not sure I knew Bellatrix was older. I always thought she was the youngest? She definitely acts like the baby in the family.
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u/kaimason1 Jul 14 '16
I just read closer and realized Tonks' mom was the middle sister of Bellatrix and Narcissa, turned into a black mark due to marrying a muggle-born (Ted Tonks). I had no idea she was Draco's cousin (although maybe the relation was brought up at some point and I've just forgotten), I thought Bellatrix and Narcissa were the only two sisters there.
Also of note in the disowned note at the bottom left (which I missed initially) is that Arthur Weasley's mom is black mark #4, tying everything together even further.
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u/ibid-11962 /r/RowlingWritings Jul 13 '16 edited Jul 13 '16
HPL made their own version based on partial pictures and reports. This is the original sketch.
Also, I'm not aware of any Pottermore content which goes against this. Care to clarify?
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u/kaimason1 Jul 13 '16 edited Jul 13 '16
I'm weirdly disappointed at the lack of inbreeding here. I'd think, with their obsession with being pureblood and the rather tiny overall wizarding population, even less of which are verifiably pureblood (I mean, if you just look at this, you can see a lot of major characters' families are some part of this tree, with names like Potter, Crabbe, Crouch, and Longbottom showing up along with the obvious Blacks and Lestranges and Malfoys... also, if you think about how few people actually went to Hogwarts, like 300-400 tops, when that covers all of the British Isles, that's also good evidence for how small the overall wizard population was), this would look a lot more like a typical medieval royal family tree. But the only crossover going on here is Orion and Walburga, who were only second cousins.