"And lastly a Newblood family is one that is less than three generations old."
Harry nodded thoughtfully "Seems simple enough, I guess. Are Muggleborns taken into consideration in this?"
"Once they marry, yes," replied Susan "For example, once Justin Finch-Fletchley from Hufflepuff marries, he will be the head of the Newblood House of Finch-Fletchley. Even if he were to marry a pure-blood witch from an Ancient and Noble house, his family would still be called a Newblood family. Sally-Anne Perks on the other hand will just become a part of whatever house she marries into. Were she to marry Justin, she would be a part of the Newblood House of Finch-Fletchley, but were she to marry, say Neville Longbottom, she would be a part of the Noble and Ancient House of Longbottom."
"Okay," said Harry "And then once the Newblood House of Finch-Fletchley became three generations old, it would become known as the Clan House of Finch-Fletchley?"
"Exactly," said Susan "And they would remain at that status until they were deemed to have earned the right to become a "Lesser" House."
Harry nodded in understanding before asking "So which families have which titles?"
Susan flipped through a couple of pages in the book before finding an answer. She frowned though and said "This needs updating. The McKinnon and Meadowes families are still listed under the "Ancient and Noble" section."
"Did they lose their Noble status?" asked Harry.
Susan shook her head "No. They went extinct. You-Know-Who wiped them out in the war."
"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?"
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