Character:Walburga Black
From UnknowableWiki
| Character profile | |
|---|---|
| Walburga Black | |
| Birth | 1925 |
| Death | 1985 |
| Parents | Pollux and Irma Black |
| Spouse | Orion Black |
| Children | Sirius and Regulus Black |
| Blood status | Pure-blood |
| School | presumably Hogwarts |
| House | presumably Slytherin |
| First appearance in canon | Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place (OP) (portrait) |
- "Mrs. Black" redirects here. For other uses, see Mrs. Black (disambiguation).
Walburga Black (1925 – 1985) was Orion Black's wife and the mother of Sirius and Regulus. Born a Black and married to her second cousin, she was particularly attached to the family motto "Toujours Pur" and highly prejudiced against anybody of supposedly lesser blood. She severed all ties with her son Sirius when he ran off (OP6). A magical portrait of Walburga is mounted permanently on the wall of number twelve, Grimmauld Place (OP5).
Contents |
Characteristics
In her portrait, Walburga is depicted as an old woman wearing a black cap. Her skin is yellowing and stretched taunt over her face (OP4). Considering that she got only 60 years old, she must have aged prematurely (BFT).
According to her son Sirius, Walburga was proud of belonging to an old and wealthy pure-blood family and thought that being a Black made her "practically royal" (OP6). She regarded Muggles, Muggle-borns, half-bloods, half-breeds and blood traitors as filth (OP4, OP6). Taking several of Sirius' remarks and some dubious magical objects in Grimmauld Place as evidence, Walburga probably also had an inclination for the Dark Arts (OP6). It seems that she had a temper; she used to blast family members who had offended her off the Black Family Tree with her wand (OP6). If the behaviour of her portrait is indicative of her real self, she also was slightly mad in old age (OP4).
Walburga was deeply disappointed with her eldest son Sirius, who openly rebelled against her beliefs. Kreacher, the family house-elf, claims that his behaviour broke her heart and that she hated him. The dislike was mutual; ten years after her death, Sirius still spoke of his mother with hatred and cynical disdain (OP4, OP5, OP6). She favoured her second son Regulus, who shared the family values and beliefs. She and her husband never joined Voldemort, but they were attracted by his ideas at first, until they saw how far was willing to go to reach them. Sirius thinks that they were proud of Regulus for becoming a Death Eater in the beginning (OP6).
Kreacher was very fond of Walburga, apparently his second favourite family member after Regulus, and it can be assumed that she treated him kindly (OP6, DH10).
Life
Walburga is the child of Pollux Black and Irma Black, née Crabbe. Her father was only thirteen years old at the time of her birth. She had two brothers—Cygnus, four years younger than her, and Alphard, whose year of birth is unknown but probably lies between that of his brother and sister (BFT).
She presumably went to Hogwarts and was Sorted into Slytherin, as was customary for the Blacks (DH10, DH33). She married her second cousin Orion, who was four years younger than her, and gave birth to Sirius between September 1959 and August 1960 (DH16). Regulus followed in 1961 (BFT). Served by Kreacher, the family lived at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, a house that had belonged to the Blacks for generations (OP4, OP6). Walburga had her own bedroom upstairs. Orion gave the house every sort of magical protection available and made it unplottable, mainly to avoid Muggle callers (OP6).
It is likely that Walburga and her eldest son were already estranged by the time Sirius went to Hogwarts—on the Hogwarts Express, he already showed an inclination to break with his family's tradition of being Sorted into Slytherin, and indeed the Sorting Hat made him a Gryffindor (DH33). As a teenager, Sirius went out of his way to annoy his parents; for instance, he redecorated his room with the Gryffindor colours, pictures of Muggle girls in bikinis and motorcycles, secured by Permanent Sticking Charms (DH10). At age sixteen, Sirius finally ran off from home to stay with the Potters. Walburga blasted his name off the tapestry showing the Black family tree in return. When her brother Alphard died, he left Sirius a pretty sum that allowed him to get his own place at seventeen. Once again, Walburga retaliated by eradicating a close relative from the family tree (OP6).
Regulus was a much better son in Walburga's eyes; a fact that Sirius was constantly reminded of while he still lived in his parents' house. He was Sorted into Slytherin and joined the Death Eaters, probably making his parents proud. However, Regulus changed his allegiance in 1979 after Voldemort abused Kreacher. With Kreacher's help, he tried to destroy one of Voldemort's Horcruxes and got killed. Before his death, he bound Kreacher to secrecy to protect his family. Walburga was mad with grief after the sudden disappearance of her son. Her husband died the same year, it is unknown whether before or after Regulus' decease (BFT).
Walburga spent the last years of her life alone with Kreacher until she died in 1985 (OP6, DH10, BFT).
Portrait
A life-sized portrait of Walburga as an old woman can be found in the entrance hall of number twelve, Grimmauld Place, concealed behind a pair of long, moth-eaten curtains. It is the most realistic painting Harry Potter has ever seen (OP4). It has been secured to the wall with a Permanent Sticking Charm, probably by Walburga herself. After Walburga's death, Kreacher was left alone in Grimmauld Place for a decade and started to accept the portrait as his mistress (OP6).
When the Order of the Phoenix made Grimmauld Place their Headquarters in the summer of 1995, the portrait became a constant annoyance to them. The echo of Walburga's personality that is captured in the portrait started to skreech abuses at the filth that was befouling the house of her fathers. The screaming fits were a frightening sight—Walburga would start to drool, her eyes rolling and her clawed hands outstretched. She reacted especially violently to the sight of Sirius. To keep her quiet, the curtains in front of the portrait had to be kept shut at all times and nobody could make any noise in the hall way (OP4, OP5, OP6).
Ships
This section contains a list of the pairings in which Walburga Black is involved in canon or that are common in fanfiction.
