Walburga Black
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Harry Potter character | |
|---|---|
| Walburga Black | |
| Gender | Female |
| Hair colour | Grey and messy |
| Eye colour | Popping and Rolling |
| House | Slytherin |
| Parentage | Pure-blood |
| Allegiance | The House of Black, Initially sympathised with Lord Voldemort |
| First appearance | as a magical portrait: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix |
Walburga Black is a fictional character in the Harry Potter series. She was a matriarch of the House of Black. Her name may be a reference to both the Catholic Saint Walpurga and to that saint's feast day, Walpurgis Night, traditionally considered a festival of witches. Unlike most members of the Black family, her name is not related to a star or constellation.
Walburga was born in 1925, to Pollux Black and Irma Black née Crabbe, as the oldest of three siblings. Her brothers were Alphard and Cygnus Black. She married her second cousin, Orion Black, and was the mother of Sirius Black and Regulus Black. She is the sister-in-law of Druella Black née Rosier and paternal aunt of Bellatrix Lestrange née Black, Andromeda Tonks née Black, and Narcissa Malfoy née Black. Walburga had two paternal aunts and one paternal uncle of her own: Cassiopeia Black, Marius Black (a Squib), and Dorea Potter née Black. She had a cousin Araminta Meliflua (Meliflua may be a surname or, like Nigellus, a middle name). Walburga Black was a Black by birth, suggesting inbreeding within the Black clan.
After he ran away from home, Walburga blasted the name of her son Sirius off of the family tree that is displayed on a decorative tapestry in the ancestral Black family home at 12 Grimmauld Place, London. She also removed the name of her brother Alphard, who bequeathed his money to Sirius, and that of her niece Andromeda for marrying Ted Tonks, a Muggle-born. Sirius hated his mother and the rest of his family for their fanaticism. He and his cousin Andromeda were rarities in the Black clan as Sirius once said that the Black family rarely produced people who were even "halfway decent".
Walburga was a bigot who viewed Muggles and Muggle-borns with disdain. She supported Lord Voldemort, but changed her mind after she discovered that he was as willing to prey on pure-bloods as on muggle-borns.
She died in 1985, but her portrait remained at Number 12, Grimmauld Place, attatched to the wall with a Permanent Sticking Charm, where it screamed insults at the various members of the Order of the Phoenix, including her son Sirius, after they made the house their headquarters. In the portrait she appears as a hysterical woman in a black cap whose eyes are rolling and yellow-skinned face stretched taut.
