pure-blood families

[Mint]

LMAO!!! I feel so stupid now. Im sitting here thinking ...hmmm.....i think i heard name "Merlin" somewhere in the books, but I cant remember where....

Duh! yeah, I am quite slow sometimes....thanks Broccoli!

[highsorcerer]

Perhaps the distinction of pure-blood depends on the total mix of your wizard-blood ancestors. There ARE real-world equivilents to this concept, at least in the United States. Most notably, it's used by certain aid agencies, such as scholarships given to members of minority groups. I believe you can be as little as 1/16th Native American to qualify as such.

There are quite a few pure-blood family out there assuming the death eaters are all pure-bloods. Other pure-blood families would include the extinct Black and Crouch lines, the Weasleys, the family of Molly Weasley (she's of a pure-blood line), the Longbottoms, and the family of Alice Longbottom. The Potter line is probably pure-blood as well, and very probably well-off (this is indicated by both the wealth Harry inherited, and the fact that James Potter owned an invisibility cloak, a rare and valuable item, at the age of 15 at the very latest. See PoA for details on that).

[Mistress Siana]

Hm...in OotP it's said that there ar only a few pure blood families left:
The Weasleys, which doesn't necessarily mean that Molly's family is pure. Maybe she has a sibling that married a muggle (or she she's the result of an illegitimate affair ),
The Blacks, who are gone now that Sirius's dead ,
The Malfoys and the Lestranges.

The Longbottoms aren't, neither are the Death Eaters. The Potters could have been all pure bloods, but the line ended with Harry.

[highsorcerer]

A person no less than Albus Dumbledore referred to Neville as a pure-blood, so I'd have to say they qualify.

Also, many of the Slytherins are described unflatteringly when it comes to either intelligence (Crabbe, Goyle), or physical appearance (Warrington, as well a C&G). While not proof positive, it is somewhat suggestive as a result of inbreeding. If the available pool of mates is that limited, pure-bloods are reduced to marrying second cousins, cousins, and (worst case scenerio), double-cousins (a person who is a first cousin on both sides of the family). Double-cousin marriages are legal, but the genetic offspring is pretty much the same result of having a child with your brother or sister. My father knew a double-cousin marriage; of the two offspring, one was a genius and the other was... well, at the exact opposite side of the spectrum.

[Mistress Siana]

Sorry, i forget about that one...the hp lexicon says that only those are pure-bloods:

Black family (now died out with the death of Sirius Black)
Crouch family (now died out with the deaths of Barty Crouch Sr. and Jr.)
Lestrange family (married into by Bellatrix Black)
Longbottom family (Neville)
Malfoy family (Lucius - Draco)
Weasley family

[Jotomicron]

I remeber Ron saying Harry that Molly Weasley has a Muggle cousin. I would think that the fact that Ron used the word Muggle means he is not a Squib. Does this mean Molly comes from a Muggle family? Maybe! I'd think so...
Anyway, I just wrote this cause I saw Molly refered earlier in this topic...

[Mint]

Molly has a muggle cousin? I dont remember reading that....

Yes, the stupidity may very well be result of inbreeding. But, only if we think that there are more pure families than those Siana listed.

Neville is smart, Draco is smart, James Potter was smart and so on...

this is so confusing....

[gecko]

I had never thought of inbreeding before! But now that you've mentioned it, it does seem very likely to be so!
Snape's very smart as well, and he was a Slytherin... not to mention Tom Riddle. So not all Slytherins have the bad qualities inbreeding usually comes with..

These books are getting more complex to me everyday !

[Jotomicron]

Hmmm sorry!!! Inbreedings? Where did they come from (what is it, BTW?)

You say stupidity is result of inbreeding but then say pure-blood are smart? I think i must swallow a dictionary...

[gecko]

Inbreeding means that closely related individuals (with more genes in common with each other than when 2 non related individuals mate) produce offspring. This can (but doesn't have to) result in various things, like highsorcerer mentioned.

What I meant was that some Slytherin appear to be the result of inbreeding, but that not all Slytherins are the result of it apparently, because there are/have been in fact smart slytherins, namely Snape, Tom Riddle, Draco (and more probably).

[Mint]

We are not talking about Slytherins - we are talking about pure-bloods (weasleys are poor-bloods but they aren't in slytherin)

Thus Tom RIddle is NOT a pure-blood, Snape is not known, and yes - Draco IS pure blood and IS smart.


THere has to be more pure blood families!!! I meant we only know of the local families - what about other schools? other countries? For all we know - Krum could be pure-blood too...

[gecko]

Actually, I thought we were talking about the Slytherins, and the effect the inbreeding (if there has been inbreeding at all) had on them (and other pure-bloods of course), because most (but not all) Slytherins are pure-bloods. But oh well .

Oh I almost forgot that there are loads of wizards who aren't selected for Hogwarts, so maybe some of those are pure-bloods, but we just haven't heard of them in the books?

[Mint]

Nuh, the question of the thread is "when is a family considered pure?"

I think that may be majority of wizards are pure bloods because ....well.... they are trying so hard to not have anything to do with muggles...

[Jotomicron]

Oh I almost forgot that there are loads of wizards who aren't selected for Hogwarts, so maybe some of those are pure-bloods, but we just haven't heard of them in the books?

I always assumed English wizards would definitely come to Hogwarts...

[gecko]

Joto, yeah, that's what I thought at first too, but I think I read somewhere that someone like Stan Whatshisname, the knightbus conductor, would hardly be able to uhm go to Hogwarts.. he didn't seem too bright, did he?
Then maybe he did go, it's hard to say..


Would the ratio of purebloods : non-purebloods be very different in other countries, say in Bulgaria? More purebloods there, or less?
Because I wonder if the english purebloods like the Malfoys see purebloods from other countries as equals. Maybe they don't consider them purebloods, because they aren't english?