Nature's Nobility

Our new map of the school proved to be really useful. We were able to find the classrooms much more quickly than last week. I was especially glad about this for Transfiguration; I really wanted to improve my first impression with Professor McGonagall. My match started to turn silvery this week as well, but I was one of the last people who were able to do this. Anthony, Terry and Lisa already managed complete needles during the last lesson of the second week. Only Michael Corner needed even more time than I did. Transfiguration was definitely going to be the subject I'd have to work hardest for if I wanted to do well in the final exam.

Potions still went well, it had become my favourite subject and I wished we had more Potions lessons. No one else really shared this wish though; my classmates didn't really like Professor Snape too much. I didn't exactly like him either but I didn't mind him. This might have to do with the fact that Mandy and I hadn't been on the receiving end of his sarcastic remarks so far. He didn't talk to us at all, most of the time. Snape didn't make much of an effort to teach us, that much was undeniable.

Charms was my second favourite class, Professor Flitwick was a really good teacher and I enjoyed performing spells. Astronomy was interesting as well and Herbology was okay, but the other two subjects remained as boring as they had been during the first week.

During the second weekend, we found a book about wizarding law. We tried to work through it but most of it remained rather cryptic. Letting the Muggles find out about magic seemed to be a severe offense, we really had to be careful there when we returned. Professor McGonagall had warned us about this already though and we knew about the story we were supposed to tell. The rule that underage witches and wizards weren't allowed to use magic out of school didn't really affect us because of that, we couldn't do it anyway.

Things like murder, robbery, fraud, rape or drug dealing were illegal for wizards as well even though some of them were named something else. The book didn't say anything about freedom of speech but there didn't seem to be any laws against criticising the government or anything like that. The most heavily punished crime besides murder was the use of the so-called "Unforgivable Curses." Unhelpfully, the law book didn't tell us what those were.

"Do you think we should ask Madam Pince?" Mandy suggested.

"I don't know," I said. Madam Pince wasn't exactly friendly and I didn't know how bad this stuff really was. Maybe the names of the "Unforgivable Curses" were like the name of the wizard referred to as "You-Know-Who" and something bad was going to happen if they were said aloud.

In some of the books about magic I had read before coming here, speaking a curse was enough to cause its effect. This wasn't true for the stuff we learned in Charms and even less though for the magic taught in Transfiguration but maybe it was in the case of the "Unforgivable Curses" and they were called this for that reason.

"Which way to use magic could be called "unforgivable"?" Mandy wondered.

I shrugged. I had no idea of the things that could actually be achieved by real magic outside of those we had been taught so far which wasn't very much. Were things like sacrificing your soul to a demon or enslaving someone else to your will really possible? I wasn't sure if I wanted to know.

"Maybe we should look for the history stuff," I suggested. "We might find something there."

This search turned out quite disappointing. We found a rather interesting book called Hogwarts: A History, but it mainly dealt with things directly relating to the school. This was fascinating but didn't really tell us much about the larger political situation which we had wanted to learn about.

"I don't like this. Maybe they really don't want to talk about their history," Mandy said. "Maybe it's censored and there's something in the Restricted Section. Do you think Professor Flitwick would allow us to read a book that's in there? We're Muggle-borns and need to know."

"I don't really think we should try something like that," I said. "We're really new here. He might think we want to know about bad stuff."

We still walked towards the restricted section and took a good look. I didn't see anything history-related but with a slight jolt I saw my last name. Someone named Rinaldo Lestrange had written a book called "The Art of Pain." If the title was anything to go by, it was nothing good.

"The True History of the Muggle Inquisition by Elladora Black, that might be interesting," Mandy suggested.

"Yes, but I don't think they'll let us read it," I said.

"No, they won't," a sharp voice said. "Access to these books is restricted for a reason. Get off!"

Madam Pince had approached from behind.

"Sorry," I said, looking at my feet. I really didn't want to get into trouble.

"We were only curious," Mandy added. I wasn't sure if the truth was the right answer in this case.

A thought came to my mind. When Madam Pince was already here, couldn't I ask her about something else? "Excuse me, do you know if there are any books about magical families in the library."

Madam Pince gave me a look through narrowed eyebrows. "You could try "Nature's Nobility," she said. "The third shelf over there, right in the middle."

"Thank you very much," I said and we walked over to the shelf she had indicated. We hadn't been there before. I saw a book titled "The Pure-Blood Myth-Why Muggle blood is necessary to keep magic strong" next to one called "The Development of Anti-Muggle Prejudice from Salazar Slytherin to Lord Voldemort." This book caught Mandy's attention. "Do you mind if I have a look at that while you research the families?" she asked.

"Of course not," I said.

At the far end of the shelf, next to a book called "The Pure-Blood Directory" I found what I was looking for. "Nature's Nobility, A Wizarding Genealogy." The table of contents told me that the book featured chapters about all the existing pure-blood families as well as a list of families who had gone extinct. The Lestrange family was covered in a chapter. I didn't need to leave through the book; it opened at the right page on its own as if it had read in my mind what I was looking for. Curiously, I began to read.

Under the family's name followed the family motto in a language I didn't understand. The book gave a translation though: "Whatever you do, do your best." I liked the motto in a way. I was definitely trying to do this. The Lestranges family colours where blue and silver and the family crest showed a falcon. It did seem familiar in a way. As "most common Hogwarts houses" the book mentioned Ravenclaw and Slytherin. A longer text with information followed.

The Lestrange family is one of the pure-blood families of Norman descend which arrived in Great Britain with William the Conqueror.

The Lestranges claim to hail from a union between a Viking wizard named Thorolf Sigurdsson and Rigantona, the lost firstborn daughter of Hogwarts founder Rowena Ravenclaw. Some genealogists accept this theory while others consider it to belong into the realm of myth. According to them, the historical sequel of events renders it highly unlikely. The fact that the even the existence of Rigantona Ravenclaw is disputed furthers these doubts.

Some opponents believe that the Lestranges made this claim in an attempt to garner a higher amount of respect among old-blood families which distrusted them due to their role in the wizarding war following the Norman Conquest. The success thereof was limited however.

The following statement by Francis Longbottom from 1689 illuminates this: "Even if the Lestranges' claim is true which I do not believe, they aren't entitled to call themselves old-blood. Putting it more bluntly, abducting, torturing and raping one of our women does not turn their family into one of our number and it is beyond me how anyone can assume it did."

Be that as it may, no one can deny the Lestranges a strong thirst for knowledge. The number of sons and daughters of this family with outstanding intellect is immense. They have made great contributions to many fields as diverse as magical theory and philosophy, potion making and the interactions of magic and body including various advances in the healing arts. Highly capable political leaders have also hailed from this family, among them well-known Minister for Magic Ricarda Lestrange.

The Lestranges have always taken great care to keep their blood free of non-magical influence. With the esteem of being old-blood diminishing, the Lestranges have become sought-after marriage partners for most pure-blood families which is a highly welcome development.

The Lestranges reliably pass their intellectual prowess onto their offspring which is highly beneficial for pure-blood families who traditionally value other traits such as martial skills more highly. They do not suffer from any hereditary deficits if you do not count a certain affinity for the Cruciatus curse that is occasionally found among them. Their strength of mind normally keeps this from causing any serious trouble. These inclinations should not be furthered by marriages with witches and wizards of similar predisposition however. If this trait manifests simultaneously with a gift for healing magic, dangerous magical instabilities might result. In these cases, careful monitoring and magical support for the child are in order. This should not deter families with an affinity for healing magic from seeking alliances with the Lestranges however. Such cases are very rare and with proper care, no uncontrollable problems need to be feared.

The text was followed by a long family tree beginning at the time of the Norman Conquest but only reaching up to the 1920ties and therefore being quite unhelpful for my search. I wasn't really sure what I thought about this. I didn't know if I was really related to this family and if I wanted to be. I loved the idea of being a descendent of Rowena Ravenclaw but being related to her because of "rape, torture and abduction" as this Francis Longbottom had said wasn't very appealing. Did Neville dislike me because there was some sort of century-old trouble between our families? I had read books dealing with this kind of thing as well but I always found it rather stupid.

I liked the idea of belonging to a family known for "outstanding intellect" but the rest of this paragraph read as if the book was about dog breeding rather than people. I really didn't like this kind of mentality. I had no idea what the Cruciatus curse was but I didn't like the sound of it. This probably meant that I didn't have an "affinity" for it. I did have something like healing magic though but this wasn't supposed to be a trait of the Lestrange family, was it? The book hadn't really helped me much.

I turned the page and found myself looking at the Longbottom family site. Their crest showed a branch from an apple tree and a few apples, really unusual. The family motto was in a language I didn't know again, but a different one. The translation read "Courage, Honour and Decency." Their house was Gryffindor.

The Longbottom family is one of the few surviving old-blood wizarding families. The ancestors of the Longbottoms hail from the magical island of Avalon. They're related to the great Lady of Avalon Morgana and have been able to flee the island before its destruction following her death. To keep the memory of the Apple Island alive, the Longbottoms have chosen the apple tree for their family crest."

I put the book away for a moment. So Neville's family did come from Avalon like I had always dreamed I did before I knew about magic? Unlike the story about the Lestranges' past, this was presented as fact. I wondered how much Neville knew about the real history of this place, the history that hadn't reached the Muggles. I sighed. Too bad he wasn't going to talk to me about it.

I remembered how his grandmother had thought I look like someone from a family called Black. Why not look them up as well now that I was here? As if it had read my mind, the book opened the Blacks' page at the beginning of the book. The Blacks were normally Slytherins and their coat of arms contained a sword and two stars. Their motto was "Tojours Pur" which meant always pure in French. The first sentence read almost like the first sentence on the Longbottom's page.

"The Black family is one of the few remaining old-blood families.

Morgana's daughter Seren left the island of Avalon because she fell in love with a wizard from the main land, Taranis, called the Black One. In honour of Seren whose name can be translated as star, the Black family later began to name their children after the stars. The Black family gave birth to a huge number of brave and ruthless warriors both male and female. Every wizarding war fought to this day has had members of this family valiantly fighting in it. Often being natural leaders, other family members sought and found political power. Like Morgana herself, many Blacks found themselves attracted by the darker aspects of magic, usually succeeding in bending these forces to their will. Kallisto Black was one of the seven founders of the Knights of Walburgis in 1484 and one of only two witches in this group.

The Blacks' family motto has been adopted towards the end of the 15th century in response to the growing threat from Muggles and consequently intermarriage between magical and non-magical people. The original motto of the Black family is no longer known.

I skipped the part about the Blacks' supposed traits and suitable marriage partners and looked through the family tree. I wasn't too surprised to find the name Bellatrix there even though I couldn't be able to remember this person of course.

"Found anything interesting?"

I flinched. Mandy had approached me from behind.

"Yes, it's quite interesting," I said. "I don't like their attitude though. Reads a bit like dog-breading advice."

"I know who You-Know-Who is," Mandy said. She had obviously been bursting to tell me this. "He's the "Lord Voldemort" in the book I was reading talked about."

"Sh, I don't think you should say the name," I told her.

"Well, he's gone as far as I know," Mandy said. "And I'm really glad about it. He wanted to murder all Muggle-born people like me. And so-called "Blood Traitors" which is what you are if you're really from a magical family and still friends with me. He must have led some sort of terrorist organisation that murdered countless people. I'm really glad this is over."

"Me too," I said. So the magical world had to deal with fanatical terrorists as well. It obviously wasn't as wonderful as I had imagined but I had already realised this.

"This kind of thing might have been understandable in a way back when they were burning witches but nowadays?" I said. "It's really stupid. But maybe some of those people don't even know how Muggles live in the modern world. I don't think Draco Malfoy does."

"Quite likely," Mandy said. "We really should go to dinner now I think."

I spend the entire evening thinking about the Lestranges and the Blacks who really seemed to be the descendents of Morgana. During the following night, I dreamed about Avalon where I was sitting underneath an apple tree with Neville Longbottom until a man coming out of a Wiking ship tore me away from him.

The next morning, something completely different caught my attention. There was a notice in our common room that we would have flying lessons next Friday. I felt a jolt of excitement when I read this.

I'd finally have the chance to fly as I had always dreamed to.