The Big Picture

The Black family, one of the oldest and wealthiest wizarding families, prided themselves on their pureblood status and maintained prejudiced beliefs. Sirius Black, the black sheep of the family, defied his family’s traditions and embraced friendship and kindness over arrogance and pride. Regulus Black, after discovering Voldemort’s methods for achieving immortality, defected from being a Death Eater and sacrificed himself to destroy one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes.

In the world of Harry Potter, “The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black” was one of the largest, oldest, and wealthiest wizarding families in Great Britain. Their magical ancestry dates back to the Middle Ages. Like many families, the Black family is full of a variety of different characters, from arrogant, nasty, and flawed, to heroic, good, and kind. Although a vast majority of the Black family pursued a life of arrogance as they clung to prejudicial ideals, there were also a select few Black family members who courageously defied their family’s pureblood mania.

The Black family considered themselves royalty within the wizarding community because they tried to keep their family bloodline strictly ‘pure.’ A pure bloodline meant that the members of magical families could not marry Muggles or Muggle-Borns (witches or wizards with Muggle parentage). So, this meant that the Blacks could only marry into other pureblood wizarding families. There was a record of twenty-eight magical families who were all considered still ‘pure’ by the 1930s, these families were known as the “Sacred-Twenty Eight.” Some of these families include the Malfoys, the Lestranges, the Longbottoms, and the Weasleys. Unsurprisingly, given the desire for blood purity, all of these pureblood families are interrelated. The Black family is related to at least twelve families of the “Sacred-Twenty Eight.”

Sirius Black
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In the Harry Potter series, it is a person’s choices that define their character, not their blood status, wealth, or family history. This can be said for one of the most heroic Black family members – Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), the only Black known to be sorted into Gryffindor, as all his other relatives were sorted into Slytherin. Sirius was the black sheep of the family. From a young age, he was not swayed by his mother and father’s pureblood mania, instead, he detested it, and tried to defy it by filling his bedroom with as many Muggle artifacts as he could, including posters of motorcycles. Sirius wasn’t shy about his hatred of his family, and at sixteen he ran away from home to stay with his best friend, James Potter (Adrian Rawlins). Indeed, Sirius cared more for his friends, James, and Remus Lupin (David Thewlis), than he did for his family’s prejudicial traditions. He is another example of a wizard who refused to be defined by his family and instead defined himself the way he wanted. He was willing to die for his friends because his fellow Gryffindors showed him a place where he truly belonged.

Walburga And Orion Black
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Walburga and Orion Black were the parents of Sirius and his younger brother, Regulus. Walburga and Orion were second cousins. Walburga Black took possession of the Black ancestral home during the mid-20th century, located at 12 Grimmauld Place, in the Borough of Islington in London. Having housed numerous generations of Black family members who were obsessed with the Dark Arts, the walls of Number 12 Grimmauld Place are imbued with ancient dark magic that has left an abundance of unyielding traces. When Sirius ran away from home at sixteen, his mother disowned him. When a family member was disowned, their face was blasted off the family tree tapestry that hangs in the house, which is what Sirius’s mother did to his face on the tapestry when he ran away. Walburga lives on in a portrait at 12 Grimmauld Place, which she affixed to a wall with a Permanent Sticking Charm.

Phineas Nigellus Black
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There is another old Black family member who is immortalized via a portrait that hangs in one of the bedrooms at 12 Grimmauld Place. His name is Phineas Nigellus Black, and he was once a Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the late 18th century. As all former Headmasters and Headmistresses of Hogwarts have portraits in the Headmaster’s office, so did Phineas, and he would often travel between his portrait at Hogwarts and his portrait at 12 Grimmauld Place. Sirius once described his great, great-grandfather as the least popular Hogwarts Headmaster, and truthfully, as a portrait, Phineas is overly opinionated and prone to complaining. However, when Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) were on the run, Phineas kept a reluctant eye on their safety when they took refuge at 12 Grimmauld Place.

Hermione, however, believed that Phineas would snitch about their whereabouts, so she shoved his portrait in her magical purse that was charmed with an Undetectable Extension Charm and thus hauled Phineas’s portrait along with her as she, Harry, and Ron ran from place to place hunting Horcruxes. Despite his intense displeasure at being stuffed in Hermione’s purse, Phineas continued to keep an eye on Harry, Ron, and Hermione and would return to his portrait at Hogwarts in order to update Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) on the Trio’s whereabouts. It was Phineas who told Snape that Harry and Hermione were in the Forest of Dean, which allowed Snape to send his Patronus to Harry and guide Harry to the Sword of Gryffindor. Thus, Phineas played a part in not only ensuring Harry and Hermione’s safety, but also ensuring that Harry had a chance to prevail against Voldemort.

Bellatrix Lestrange
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Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) was the oldest of three sisters. Niece to Walburga and Orion Black and cousin to Sirius and Regulus. Bellatrix was undeniably the most violently unhinged out of the three sisters, and like many other Black family members, she would go on to support Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) and become a Death Eater, eventually becoming Voldemort’s Lieutenant. Bellatrix married a pureblood wizard named Rodolphus Lestrange and then became Bellatrix Lestrange, but maddeningly, Bellatrix was more loyal and devoted to Voldemort to the point of falling in love with him, according to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Andromeda Tonks
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Andromeda was the second Black sister, and like young Sirius, her face was blasted off the Black family tapestry after she fell in love with a Muggle-Born, Ted Tonks, and married him. After she was disowned, Andromeda had no more contact with her family, but she was happy with her husband, Ted, and the two had a daughter by the name of Nymphadora Tonks (Natalia Tena), who would grow to be a highly skilled Aura in the Ministry of Magic. Nymphadora married Remus Lupin and they had one son, Edward Remus Lupin who became Harry Potter’s godson. Devastatingly, Andromeda’s husband Ted, her daughter Nymphadora, and her son-in-law Remus, were all killed during the height of the Second Wizarding War, and she was left to raise her grandson by herself. However, as the godfather to Edward (better known as Teddy), Harry helped Andromeda to care for Teddy after the war.

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Narcissa Malfoy
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The third Black sister, Narcissa Malfoy (Helen McCrory), was a hero in her own understated way. Despite marrying Lucius Malfoy and initially sharing his views of pureblood superiority, and also joining the ranks of the Death Eaters, Narcissa cared more for her son and his safety above all else. The Malfoys admiration of Voldemort soon turned into fear. Narcissa did not want her son to grow up in a world ruled by Voldemort, so when she had the chance to save Harry Potter’s life – she took it. In the Forbidden Forest, after Voldemort used the killing curse upon Harry, he demands his Death Eaters to see if Harry is really dead. Narcissa nominates herself to check, and when she lowers herself to Harry’s body, she notices he is still breathing. But she stands and tells Voldemort that Harry is dead. Harry pretends to be and continues to do so until the right moment when he has his chance to defeat Voldemort once and for all, but that chance would not have been possible without Narcissa. Fortunately, Narcissa’s sacrifice was recognized by the wizarding community after the Second Wizarding War, and she was spared of punishment for being a Death Eater; this allowed her son Draco to live a normal life.

Regulus Black
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Regulus Black was son to Orion and Walburga, and younger brother to Sirius. Regulus took the Dark Mark when he was just 16 and became a Death Eater. Shortly after, Voldemort requested the assistance of Regulus’s house-elf – Kreacher (Simon McBurney). Wanting to please their Master, Regulus and Kreacher keenly accepted. However, little did they know what Voldemort had in store for poor Kreacher. During this time, Voldemort was creating his Horcruxes, one of which was Salazar Slytherin’s locket. Voldemort chose a cave as the hiding place for his locket Horcrux and placed a string of deathly defenses around the locket. Voldemort used Kreacher to test the strength of these horrid defenses, and once satisfied with the results, Voldemort left Kreacher in the cave to die.

Little did Voldemort know that house-elves are equipped with a great number of magical powers, and Kreacher just managed to escape the cave and return to Regulus to tell him what had happened. It was then that Regulus realized the cruel lengths to which Voldemort was willing to go in order to achieve immortality. Regulus realized Voldemort was making Horcruxes, and that was enough to make Regulus defect from the Death Eaters. Knowing that this would lead to his demise, his last act involved creating a duplicate of the locket Horcrux and placing a note inside of it. The note revealed that Regulus knew his secret and that he stole the real Horecrux and intended to destroy it and weaken him.

Regulus and Kreacher returned to the cave where the real locket was hidden and Kreacher guided Regulus through the cave’s defenses. Regulus knew the deadly nature of the cave and was willing to sacrifice himself. In the final defense, he drank the potion, gave the real Horcrux to Kreacher, and then placed the fake one in the basin. Regulus ordered Kreacher to make his escape and destroy the real Horcrux once he was safely home. This act of bravery inspired Kreacher, who later fought against the Death Eaters in the Battle of Hogwarts. Regulus bravely dies in the cave after being killed by Voldemort’s final defenses in the form of the undead Inferi, sacrificing his own life in order to inadvertently help Harry defeat the dark lord.