Chapter Text
The House of Black was established in Britain quite late by the standards of Ancient and Noble Houses (see chapter two). Altair Castor Nigellus (1809-1895) was the second son of prominent French wizarding aristocrats who had survived the turbulent “Long 19th century” of French history by supporting first Napoleon and then the July Revolution. Altair split from his family, the Barony Nigellus, in 1830 over his support for the Bourbon monarch over the July Revolution. He took his wife, Rosa who was distantly related to the Selwyn’s of Britain and pregnant at the time, along with his older sister, Cressida Nigellus (1802-1903) to London and a few lesser cousins.
They purchased the right to House status controversially from then Minister Ottaline Gambol. This was the last new House to be added in this way. The otherwise progressive Minister was in desperate need of funds for her newest project, the Hogwarts Express. Altair changed the family name to Black in an effort to blend in, despite his sister being the only one of the three to speak English. It is thought that Cressida was the main driver behind their dealings with Gambol. There were some rumours of an affair between Cressida and Gambol though this was likely Gambol’s political enemies attempting to undermine her or the angry members of the Wizengamot who objected to the inclusion of the new House of Black. The rumours were difficult to discount entirely because the two witches remained close allies despite being politically opposed in most matters. The new House of Black were staunch traditionalists and blood purists while Gambol was seen as a reformer and remarkably pro-Muggle for the era. At the time there were seventeen families recognised by the British ministry as Ancient and Noble Houses and granted a hereditary seat in the Wizengamot. When the Blacks were granted House status an additional ministerial appointed seat was added to maintain uneven numbers at 55.
While Rosa Black’s first and second pregnancies ended in miscarriage, she did eventually bare Altair four children; Sirius Altair, Phineas Nigellus, Iola Rose, and Elladora Lyra, and, all of whom were educated in Hogwarts and so grew up speaking English and French. A tradition of these languages was maintained by the House for subsequent generations.
Both Sirius and Elladora died unmarried and childless, and Iola was disowned for marrying a Muggle man, so the entire House rested on the fortune of Phineas Nigellus, who was briefly the least popular Headmaster of Hogwarts. It was Phineas who purchased 12 Grimmauld Place in London to add to the family holding of Hild Hall in Lydford, Devon. Both properties were warded with blood rituals which were still legal at the time.
Between 1877 and 1889, Phineas’ wife Ursula Flint bore five children; Sirius Nigellus (1877-1952), Phineas Castor (1880-1960), Arcturus Draco (1884-1959), Belvinia Cassiopeia (1886-1962), and Cygnus Altair (1889-1943) who were more fruitful. All five of that generation of Blacks married and had children of their own, though Phineas Castor Black was later disowned for campaigning for pro-Muggle and Muggleborn legislation to be passed in the Wizengamot. Belvinia married into the large and well established Burke family in 1908.
The youngest son, Cygnus married Violetta Bulstrode (1885-1962) in 1907 almost immediately upon graduating school and would have four children between 1909 and 1920; Pollux Leo (1909-1984), Cassiopeia Violet (b. 1912), Marius Orion (1917-1928), and Nymphadora “Dorea” Cressida (1920-1972). Sirius Nigellus married Hester Gamp, another Wizengamot family, and had two children Lucretia Celeste (b.1920) who married in yet another Wizengamot family, the Prewetts in 1945 and Orion Regulus (1926-1979). The second son, Arcturus married Lysandra Yaxley and had three daughters, Callidora, Cedrella, and Charis, who all married out.
That generation was not without its controversies, most tragically the death of Marius Orion in 1928, in what was reported as a tragic accident the day before his eleventh birthday. It was widely believed that the family killed him for being a squib though that was never proven. Cassiopeia never married and spent most of her adult life living in Hild Hall rather than Grimmauld Place which had become the primary family residence by that time. The youngest daughter, Nymphadora, almost exclusively called Dorea married into the Potter family, the younger son of the prominent politician Henry ‘Harry’ Potter (1882-1976). Warlock Potter’s politics were starkly opposed to the House of Black’s positions and many were surprised that Dorea’s marriage to Charlus Potter (1919-1975) had not lead to her being disowned like previous generations or her cousin Cedrella Black (1912-1980), daughter of Arcturus and Lysandra, after Cedrella’s marriage to Septimus Weasley (1911-1988) in 1946.
The growth of the House during the years where wizarding populations began to decline (see: ‘Tracking the Spread of Magic’ by Antiope Burke for further reading) was seen as a sign of good fortune on the House of Black. By 1920, that population decline was one of a number of issues besides the Statute of Secrecy that aided in the rise of political radical Gellert Grindelwald before he began what became the Global Wizarding War. Between 1925 and 1945, it is thought that 79,000 witches and wizards lost their lives internationally. While the fighting largely took place on continental Europe, Asia, the Pacific and North America, a number of British wizards travelled to France, Germany and the United States to fight. The House of Black’s European branch, the Barony Nigellus, was divided in its support ultimately destroying the family with its lack of unity. The British Noble House remained largely neutral and so weathered the conflict intact.
Pollux Leo married Irma Crabbe (1910-1981) and had three children; Walburga Leonie (1928-1984), Alphard Arcturus (1930-1980), and Cygnus Pollux (1935-1987). Controversy struck again when Pollux married his eldest child, Walburga to his younger first cousin Orion. While marriage between second cousins was not wholly uncommon among the Houses, two from the same paternal line was. Alphard never married and lived separate from the House for most of his adult life though he did controversially make Walburga’s disowned eldest son his heir just two years before his sudden death, thought to be at the hand of his younger brother, Cygnus, though that was also never proven.
Walburga and Orion Black had two sons, Sirius Orion (b. 3 November 1959) and Regulus Arcturus (3 January 1961 – 8 December 1979). Sirius Orion was disowned after fleeing the family home in Grimmauld Place in August 1976 at age 16. Regulus was reported dead by the family in early December 1979 after his official recruitment to the Death Eater cause the previous year. It was implied he was killed by Voldemort himself though that was later discovered to be untrue when his remains were recovered in April 1984. Orion was reported dead three weeks later and the cause was listed as dragon pox. This was during the historic outbreak of dragon pox particularly resistant to treatment between November 1979 and April 1980.
That outbreak, sometimes called the Minchum Outbreak or Minchum Pox, claimed several members of the House of Black and its extended family besides Orion. It was named after the Minister for Magic at that time that was seen as having failed to contain the situation before 59 people died in a six month period. That, as well as his handling of the war effort, led to his resignation. Casper Crouch who married Charis Black (1919-1977), daughter of Arcturus and Lysandra in 1934, when she was fifteen, died in the first few weeks of the outbreak on December 5th 1979, one the first recorded deaths. In January 1980 both Prewett brothers were infected, though Ignatius Prewett who married Lucretia Black survived, his elder brother Iago died, as did Iago’s wife Rosalina Prewett (née Boote). Both of Iago’s sons had previously died in the war leaving behind only his daughter Molly. Molly Rose Prewett (b. 1950) was already married into the Weasley family at that point. Her husband Arthur Septimus Weasley (b. 1950) was the eldest surviving son of Septimus Weasley. Septimus’s wife Cedrella was also claimed by the Minchum Outbreak in January 1980. Her sister Callidora Longbottom (née Back 1910-1980) and Callidora’s husband Harfang Longbottom died just two weeks later. A second cousin to those sisters Euphemia Potter (née Burke) and her husband Fleamont Potter, brother of Charlus Potter, were consider de facto adoptive parents to Sirius Orion and both died in March of 1980 near the end of the outbreak.
Cygnus was married young for that generation, immediately after his OWL exams to Druella Rosier who was in his year at Hogwarts in June of 1951. They had three daughters; Bellatrix Druella (b. December 1951), Andromeda Iris (b. February 1953), and Narcissa Cressida (b. May 1955). Bellatrix married Rudolphus Lestrange in May 1972, shortly before Andromeda eloped with Muggleborn Edward “Ted” Tonks in July 1972 and was disowned. Narcissa married into the Malfoy family, another Wizengamot House, in 1976.
Controversies around the House of Black were particularly prominent from the 1970s onward. Bellatrix was one of the most publicly recognisable Death Eaters until her cousin, Sirius Orion’s arrest in November of 1981. Sirius was imprisoned without trial for the murder of Peter Pettigrew and twelve Muggles and the conspiracy to commit the murder of James Potter (Dorea’s nephew) and Lily Potter (née Evans, Muggleborn). During his incarceration, his legal proxy Remus John Lupin (b. 10 March 1960) operated in his place on behalf of the House of Black, despite being unrelated to the family, a half-blood, and as was discovered later, a werewolf.
When Pollux died in February 1984, the legal proxy came into effect and Lupin held the Black Wizengamot seat. This was challenged legally for Cygnus, who was confronted with Lupin receiving far more wide-spread than expected from someone without a political lineage. Most prominently, Madam Cassiopeia Black, the matriarch of the House, publicly supported Lupin, as did Warlock Lucretia Prewett and Cygnus’s disowned daughter Andromeda Tonks who acted as advisor to both Lupin and Prewett. Lucretia had held her husband’s Wizengamot seat by proxy since 1980. Prewett brought with her that House’s traditional political allies the Abbotts and the Longbottoms. Lupin himself seemed to have the favour of Director Amelia Bones and Chief Warlock Albus Dumbledore.
Warlock Lupin notably maintained his position as House of House through a number of controversies between 1984 and 1990. His retrieval of the remains of Regulus Arcturus and public commentary on the former heir’s betrayal of the Dark Lord known as Voldemort happened only two months after he gained the position. In August he killed Walburga Leonie, Sirius’s mother, in self-defence during a duel she instigated outside the Ministry for Magic. A month later Sirius escaped from Azkaban, the first known prisoner to do so. In 1987, Cygnus Pollux was reported dead by his wife Abigail (née Nott). She was arrested on suspicion of poisoning her husband but ultimately found not guilty. She was pregnant during the investigation and so was permitted house arrest. During this time Warlock Lupin took a research trip to Albania and published his controversial first book ‘The Balance of Ideas: Dark Arts and Ideologies in Magical Britain’ with co-author Professor Mary McDonald. McDonald was a Gryffindor classmate of Lupin, Black and the Potters who returned to teach the new Comparitive Cultures course as Hogwarts in September 1987 and would later publish the primary text for the subject ‘Two Worlds: Comparative Cultures and Parallel History’. In August 1987, Abigail gave birth to Cygnus’s last child in August 1987, Antares Rolf, commonly called Reese. Reese became the first heir to the name Black to be born since Regulus, twenty-six years earlier.