Drabble: A Matter of Appearances

[attackfish]

Disclaimer: JKR doesn't mind fanfiction writers I hear.

A Matter of Appearances

Black Sentenced to Azkaban The newspaper headline proclaimed, and Walburga scanned the first line, chest fluttering.  Notorious mass murderer Sirius Black was sentenced to life in the Wizarding prison yesterday evening...

Her firstborn was a credit to the family after all.

She pulled out a peace of parchment and wrote the letter needed to re-inherit her son.

With both her sons disgraced, for the right reasons, she could bear her own disgrace and wile away her remaining years knowing she raised them well.

And even if Sirius couldn't touch a knut of it in Azkaban, it was the appearances that mattered.

Comments

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Minor nitpick: Sirius was sent up without a trial thanks to Barty Crouch.

/nitpick

Otherwise--damn, I ♥ this. So much brilliance in so few words. That is totally how she would have reacted. This is awesome.

P.S. Walpurga? Like related to Walpurgis Nacht?

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

I said he was sentenced. I never said he was tried.

Well since the Death Eaters were according to JKR, they were called Knights of Walpurgis when Voldy originally formed them, I'm going to guess yes, but I can't take credit. Her name's from the Black family tree that JKR released. From which we also know that Walburga's dad was thirteen when she was born. Those Blacks.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Black family tree? I know not of such things.

I guess for me "sentenced" implies judicial process, but that could be a personal quirk of mine. And again, hugely minor point.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

A version of the tree seen by someone who viewed the original at auction can be found here: http://www.hp-lexicon.org/images/blackfamilytrees/official-final-version.gif and a fraction of the original drawn by JKR printed in The Daily Telegraph can be found here: http://www.hp-lexicon.org/images/blackfamilytrees/closeupblackfamtree2006-sm.jpg

I'm glad you liked it. It was the only way I could think that Sirius got the house except for some odd inheritance laws of the Wizarding world, but then Sirius left the house to Harry, so...

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Wow, thanks for those links.

Holy crap, am I seeing that Harry's paternal grandmother (or great-aunt, I guess, but Occam's Razor) was a Black?

ETA: Yes, I think you solved the "but he was burned off the tapestry!" problem nicely. I spent some brainpower thinking about this for a bit last month, and that was a stumper. I'd have thought the estate was entailed, but there must have been a loophole that let it go to Harry as Sirius' heir rather than to someone else with a closer blood-claim. Unless the estate has to pass to a man? Even so it would have been Draco.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

I'm of two minds about that, actually. I'll use Doria and Charlus that way in Children of Mars, and they're probably supposed to be James' parents (which would make James Sirius' first cousin once removed) but they helped Sirius after he ran away and was disinherited, and the only other relative who helped Sirius, Alphard, was blasted off for helping him, so why are they still on the tapestry?

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Hmm. That's another good point. I guess maybe because she married a Potter, she became a Potter for tapestry purposes?

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Yes, but when Andromeda and Cedrella were both blasted off after their marriages (more specifically because of their marriages). Maybe Alphard didn't just help Sirius but gave his sister hell over him? Or maybe Dorea kept quiet about helping him or tried to keep in her niece's good graces some other way, like saying she was trying to convince him to go back?

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

ETA, well, it might have not been able to pass through the female line at all, as in Salic law. In which case, Draco wouldn't have been able to inherit because his relation to the Blacks is though his mother. The point however is moot, because Harry's relation to the Blacks is through his father's mother and more distant. Also, since Dumbledore feared the estate would pass to Bellatrix, I don't think it has to be inherited by males. Since Sirius was able to pass the estate to his chosen heir, I suppose it goes to the house owner to his chosen heir.

Which means Sirius had to be reinherited.

I think about this way too much.

[fionawishmaker.livejournal.com]

I think Rowling just didn't think things through here. You're not the only one who is thoroughly baffled by why Sirius inherited his house and, also, how he managed to pass it on to Harry.

The person behind Red Hen Publications theorized that Dumbledore was covering up the fact that Sirius's brother was still alive, which of course turned out not to be true (as far as we know... come to think of it, where's the actual proof?), but it was a good theory that at least tried to explain the otherwise silly premise that the house could pass to Bellatrix.

Here's an excerpt:

I’ve been grousing ever since HBP came out over how JKR could overlook such a fundamental point of British common law — which long predates a separate wizarding world — that clearly states that you cannot legally benefit from committing a murder. This is one of the fundamental principles of all murder mysteries, to which the Harry Potter series bears way too close a resemblance in form for JKR to be unaware of. Three quarters of mystery fiction is engaged in finding out who secretly benefits from the murder (or in what way they benefit) in order to figure out who did it.

There were any number of witnesses — on both sides — who watched Bellatrix knock her cousin through the Veil. She killed him. Publicly. She cannot inherit from him! Not if the wizarding world has the slightest expectation of functioning as a just society. You cannot have a just society if your citizens are periodically murdered and society just hands their goods over to the murderer without protest. That is just plain immoral! The ww that we’ve become acquainted with obviously hasn’t got a clue about ethics, but it does seem to have morals.

I like reading Red Hen's stuff. Even the things that didn't turn out to be true in canon are such interesting ideas or at least make you start thinking in a different way.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Wait, the Wizarding World has any hope of functioning as a just society? that's news to me. They don't go in for due process at all. (sorry, that's just snark) Dumbledore didn't seem much worried about the actual law but about the possibility that the magic in the house itself might consider Bellatrix its owner. The Blacks don't strike me as a family that cares much about legalities. Dumbledore might have been worried that they cast some sort of spell on the house that determines the heir regardless of the law. My theory is that while such a thing was not the case, Dumbledore might not have known Walburga re-inherited Sirius and feared that such a spell was the reason he had.

Or it could all be a case of Did Not Do Research on Ms. Rowling's part. But even if it is, that doesn't mean I can't try to explain it.