chapter 20

Shows how much he values the purity of blood," commented Harry.

"Actually of the seven Noble and Ancient families that were around at the start of the war, only the Black family bought into all the "purity of blood" crap," said Susan "The rest of us don't. Neville may be a pureblood, but his parents were a mix. His father was a pureblood, and his mother was a half-blood. That's enough to consider Neville a pureblood, but for the elitists, it isn't."

"So then as long as at least one of your parents is pureblood and the other is at least a half blood, you are a pureblood?" asked Harry.

"That's one way in which it works," replied Susan "But you can actually have two half-bloods as parents and still be considered pure, though again the elitists don't like it."

Harry nodded thoughtfully and said "I think I get it. But where does all this pureblood elitism come from, if this house system is in place?"

"Most of them are upstarts from the Lesser and Clan families who think they should be higher ranking," said Susan "The Malfoy, Bulstrode and Flint families are Lesser Houses who think that they should be considered either Noble or Ancient, and the Carrow, Macnair and Rosier families are all Clan families who think that they ought to be Noble. Then there are a few Ancient families who get in on the act. They are the likes of the Nott, Goyle and Gaunt who lost their Noble status and refuse to accept it. It really annoys a lot of these people that some of the higher ranking families contain so many half-bloods and frequently marry Muggleborns. In their opinions we should be the purest of the pure, and if we refuse to be then we need to be eliminated."

Harry wrinkled his nose in disgust "Lovely. So how did the Black family get mixed up in the pureblood dogma?"

Susan shrugged and replied "I suppose they were less careful about who they married. You and I are both related to the Black family, but for the past few generations the Blacks have mostly been marrying the likes of the Malfoys, Flints and Goyles. And eventually they were being influenced by these families. There was a movement back along to try and strip the Black family of its "Noble" status, but that ground to a halt. Aunt Amelia suspects Lucius Malfoy had something to do with it. His wife is a Black and currently his son stands to inherit a lot from the Black estate, what with Bellatrix being in Azkaban, Sirius being on the run, Regulus dead and Andromeda banished. Should Sirius Black die then the estate will be handed over to the Malfoy family. Such an inheritance would force their status to be raised to Ancient."

Harry snorted in derision "Just what Hogwarts needs, Draco Malfoy strutting around playing the "Ancient Family" bit. He's bad enough now."

"You would be well within your rights to slap him down, Harry," replied Susan "The Potter family is Ancient and Noble. You outrank him."

Harry looked at her with surprise showing on his face "I outrank Draco?"

"You certainly do," said Susan "And you can use that to knock the wind out of him. That's how Hannah and I deal with him."

"Hannah outranks him too?" asked Harry.

Susan nodded "Yes, the Abbott, Bones, Potter, Longbottom and Black families are the only current holders of the Ancient and Noble status. As I mentioned before, the Meadowes and McKinnon families used to have this rank before going extinct, and the Nott, Goyle, Gaunt and a few other families have lost their "Noble" status. Actually, I think that the Gaunt family has gone extinct as well."

"You said earlier that when a woman marries, her status changes to that of the house that she married into. What if there was a woman who was a part of the McKinnon family who married into another family before the McKinnon's were wipes out? Could she not have some way to save the family?"

"She could," replied Susan "Naturally the oldest son would have to take the name of his father, but a second son could grow up to head the McKinnon family once more, so long as his father agreed to it. Actually I believe that that could happen with the Noble House of Prewitt. Gideon and Fabien Prewitt were the last to have the name and they died in the war, but their sister is Molly Weasley. If Arthur Weasley agreed to it, any of those sons, apart from the oldest, could take on the name Prewitt and continue the family. Obviously the second oldest son would have the first in line of the Prewitt family, but any of the other four could take on the name also."

"Would the revived family keep its status?" asked Harry.

"That's kind of a grey area," replied Susan "In a fair world then yes they would, but it depends entirely upon the situation. Someone is bound to call it into question these days, especially with regards to the "Noble" status."

Harry nodded but then grinned and said "Well, you've told me who is Ancient and Noble, but what about the rest? Who can I lord it over?"

"Everyone apart from me, Hannah and Neville," replied Susan "If you were that way inclined of course. However, if you must know the Ancient families are the Houses of Bagshot, Bole, Diggory, Goyle, Macmillan, Nott, Smith, Turpin, Gaunt, Marchbanks, Montague, Ogden and Peverell. Of those Gaunt and Peverell are now believed to be extinct."

"Cedric was from an Ancient House?" asked Harry in surprise "Wow, you'd think the Ministry would put a bit more effort into finding out the truth about how he died."

"Not with Lucius Malfoy lining the Minister's pockets," replied Susan, darkly.

She continued "The Noble families are the Houses of Avery, Bagwell, Boot, Cauldwell, Dagworth, Dumbledore, Fenwick, Fudge, Greengrass, Harper, McGonagall, McLaggen, Parkinson, Prewitt, Proudfoot, Rookwood, Scrimgeour and Vector. None of those families have gone extinct."

"Dumbledore and Fudge are considered Noble?" asked Harry.

Susan nodded "According to this, the Dumbledore family is quite young in comparison to some others, but it was granted its Noble status after Albus Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald. Fudge being Minster was an automatic ticket to his family becoming Noble, not that the buffoon deserves it."

"And McGonagall?" asked Harry "What did her family do?"

Susan flipped through several pages of the book with a frown on her face "It doesn't say. Our Professor is a Half-Blood, and her mother was a half-blood, while her father was a Muggle…" Susan flicked through several more pages before shaking her head "I don't see how her family came to be considered Noble…"

Susan flicked through several more pages, before brightening "Ah, here it is. The McGonagall line was believed to have gone extinct four generations before our Professor came along. If her father was descended from a squib of the family then she must have been able to claim back her status. Anyway…"

She flicked back through the book to find the list of families again.

"The Lesser families are the Houses of Babbling, Belby, Borgin, Brown, Bulstrode, Crabbe, Davies, Doge, Finnigan, Flint, Frobisher… oh, that's interesting," she exclaimed.

"What is?" asked Harry.

Susan turned the book around so that Harry could see the page more clearly. She pointed to a name on the list.

Harry leaned forward and read "The Lesser House of Granger (possibly extinct.)"

He leaned back in his chair "Hermione's from a Lesser House?"

"If this is the same situation as with Professor McGonagall then yes," replied Susan.

Harry thought for a moment before realising something "Hang on, earlier you said that the Malfoys are a Lesser House. Does that mean Hermione and Draco are on even footing?"

"If it can be proved that Hermione is a direct descendant of the Granger family mentioned in this book then yes," replied Susan "And although he doesn't have to like her, young Mr Malfoy would be forced to be civil to her, at least in public."

Harry smirked, imagining the look of Draco Malfoy's face as he was forced to say "thank you" to Hermione when she held a door open for him in a public place.

Then he remembered that Hermione was a bit of a sore point for him at the moment and decided to hurry Susan along with the other names.

She gave him a sympathetic smile before continuing to read out the remaining names of Lesser House families "Johnson, Jones, Lockhart, Lovegood, Lupin, Malfoy, Mulciber, O'Brian, Pince, Podmore, Pomfrey, Preece, Quirrel, Rhobards, Selwyn, Shacklebolt, Sinistra, Skeeter, Sloper, Slughorn, Stebbins, Travers, Umbridge Urquhart, Vaisey, Vane and Williamson.

"So this Umbridge woman is from a Lesser House as well?" questioned Harry.

"Seems so," replied Susan "I'll bet it hurts her too. Anyway, of those, Quirrel is extinct, as is Granger unless of course Hermione can prove otherwise, and Lupin is in default as the last surviving member is a werewolf."

"That's not fair," protested Harry.

Susan shrugged "I don't get to make the rules. If it makes you feel any better, the Bones family voted against that rule but were in the minority."

She continued to read aloud "The Clan families are the Houses of Ackerly, Bell, Branstone, Burke, Carrow, Coote, Corner, Croaker, Davis, Dawlish, Dearborn, Diggle, Fawcett, Filch, Goldstein, Hooch, Jordan, Jugson, Kirk, Macnair, MacDougal, Midgen, Moody, Peakes, Pettigrew, Pie, Prang, Prince, Pucey, Rivers, Robbins, Roper, Rosier, Savage, Shunpike, Spinnet, Sprout, Weasley, Wilkes, Wood and Zeller. Of those, Pettigrew, Rosier and Dearborn are believed to have gone extinct."

"Pettigrew isn't," said Harry, before muttering darkly "Not yet, anyway."

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