Ravens and Asphodels | Harry Potter Marauders Era (Regulus Black x OFC)

Black Oddities

9 July 1976

Despite the success of last night's dinner with the Potter and Longbottom families, Diana wasn't looking forward to dinner with the Blacks. She had an excellent first impression of Lord Black, Sirius, and Regulus, but Barbara, Paul, Charles, and Mary spent about an hour after returning to Prince Manor last night going through the Black family to prepare her for dinner tonight.

The members of the Black family that were still maintaining residency in the U.K. or Ireland included Lord Black, his wife Lady Black, and their two children. Her aunt and uncle didn't have anything bad to say about Lord Black besides her uncle's disdain that he usually voted conservatively in the Wizengamot. Lady Black was related to Aunt Mary, and they got along swimmingly, but neither Lord nor Lady Black went out much. Both her uncle and aunt liked their daughter Lucretia, and Paul had good things to say about her twin nephews Fabian and Gideon Prewett, with who he graduated Hogwarts, and their sister Molly who was a couple of years older than Paul and already married with two kids and another due next month. The problem with the Black family was with their son Orion. Not Orion per se since he had died several years ago, but instead, his wife and adopted second cousin Walburga and her family.

Walburga was one of the three children of Pollux Black and Irma Crabbe. Pollux and Irma had adopted Walburga from Japan after Orion's birth in 1929, and it was suspected that her adoption was the start of a power play so that Pollux could remain an essential member of the Black family and not some distant cousin of Lord Black. After adopting Walburga, Pollux and Irma had two biological sons, Alphard and Cygnus. Alphard was well-liked, and he did his best to distance himself from his parents and siblings. Walburga's other brother, Cygnus, took after Walburga and their parents more than Alphard.

Pollux and Irma had moved to France soon after the former Lord Black, Arcturus' father Sirius, declared Arcturus his heir.

Walburga had first raised eyebrows when she and her parents pushed for a marriage contract between herself and her cousin Orion in 1957. Many suspected that the marriage of Walburga and Orion was part of Pollux's plan to remain relevant. After the wedding, Walburga continued to keep society's eyebrows raised when after her two sons, Sirius and Regulus, were born, Orion died suddenly. Her behavior after Sirius was sorted into Gryffindor led some to speculate abuse, but no one voiced these opinions to Lord Black, which led many to believe he was unaware of at least most of her actions. Despite Walburga, her two sons were generally well-liked.

Sirius was the heir to the family. He was known to be friends with pureblood 'blood traitors,' half-bloods and muggleborns, despite other members of his family's vocal objections to these individuals' rights. Sirius was vocal at Hogwarts about his dislike of his family and their beliefs. He broke the Blacks' Hogwarts tradition of being sorted into Slytherin and instead was sorted into Gryffindor in 1971. Paul and Barbra said that Sirius was a prominent troublemaker who could usually be found running through the halls with his friends, away from Hogwarts caretaker Argus Filch, or in detention. Although most of the other traditional pureblood families in the Black family's social circle turned their noses up at Sirius and wrote him off as 'the next Black disownment,' most everyone else liked the young heir and were excited to see him continue to buck tradition.

Almost everyone liked Sirius's younger brother Regulus, but no one knew much about him other than a few basic things. It was publicly known he was his mother's favorite. He followed family tradition and was sorted into Slytherin when he entered Hogwarts in 1972. According to Paul and Barbra, in his younger years at Hogwarts, he seemed to just quietly follow his cousin Narcissa and the other older Slytherins while avoiding his older brother. As he got older, they said Regulus developed into something of a leader in the Slytherin community. That was pretty much all that her family knew about the youngest Black scion.