fuck the system

Recently I took part in a Harry Potter meta fest and I choose the subject of

Why did the Black family chose to live in a Muggle neighbourhood

My piece is under the cut :)



The Black Family's home at 12 Grimmauld Place definitely stands out among Wizarding homes. It is one of the few we encounter that is in an urban area. The Malfoys have their vast gardens and the Weasleys a large yard filled with chickens and Arthur's junk. Even the Lovegoods have spacious enough grounds. The Black family certainly appear to buck the trend but I think there are many reasons that could explain why they chose to set up shop in a Muggle neighbourhood.

Kreacher states that the Black family tapestry has been around for at least seven centuries which puts into perspective just how old the family is. Given the dates of the book that would put the Black family around the 1300s. They may of course be older than that but London in 1300 and then onwards was a very different and much smaller place. The Wizarding community was a very different place as well. While it is often criticized for failing to move forward these early Black family members would have faced a far more dangerous era. With witch hunts and burnings at the stakes happening over the centuries the family's position in London may have been for safety reasons. Diagon Alley was around before the black family appeared and wizards had to socialise somehow. A sense of community may have allowed them to feel safer as suspicion around magic grew. Living within walking distance of the Alley, and then the Ministry, would remove any need to travel by broomstick for example and risk being seen by Muggles. Orion Black was a very paranoid man but it could be a trait that ran in the family for generations.

Then there is the fact that the Ministry of Magic appears to be a huge employer in the Wizarding world and while the Blacks are rich by the time we meet them they had to earn that money somehow. Nothing we have from canon explains what the Black family actually did to earn their wealth. They don't appear to have ties to Broomstick companies or anything like that. It is possible that London was a sound choice of home purely on a working and trade basis. The day to day business of the Wizarding world is not explained in much detail but just as Muggles in England cannot produce all of their own foods neither could the Wizarding population. It is perfectly feasible that they too shipped sugar from the new world or had a roaring European firewhiskey trade going on. The city also homes the only known Wizarding hospital and it appears that Wizards of the earlier centuries were no better at avoiding nasty diseases and plague than their muggle counterparts. Living in London could have simply been for convenience.

I think it is also important to consider the street iself. We don't have an exact date for the creation of Grimmauld Place. Just because the Blacks end up in a Muggle area doesn't mean they started there. Homes and a community could have sprung up around them. The house Sirius grows up in is not necessarily the original. They could have lived in a cottage or small house much like other Londoners and then demolished it and rebuilt it as a townhouse later. Basically, they could own land and have done numerous things with it over the course of seven centuries. Since the Muggles are repelled with charms they are not going to have noticed anything and so just carried on with their business as usual.

This in itself I believe gives the Black family an advantage. They are essentially hiding in plain sight. This protects them from both Muggles and their fellow Wizards. In old stories and tales, both fiction and non, people suspected of witchcraft were often people who lived on the edge of society, that people had always thought a bit different. Of course, this was not always the case but if the Blacks were living with the Muggles and sometimes seen wandering around with loaves of bread just like anyone else it might take suspicion off them. Clothes would not have been quite as different in 1400s London as they would for Arthur Weasley trying to take Harry Potter on the tube in the 1990s after all. Then there is the threat the Black family could have faced from their own.

Given the age of the family and the position of their vaults within Gringotts bank I think it is highly probable that the Black family found themselves caught up in the Goblin Wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. While, as previously stated, we cannot be sure how or when the Blacks made their wealth, we at least know they were using Gringotts in the early days. They would have an interest in the rebellions because they had money, and possessions, to lose. Having a home in a Muggle area may have discouraged either Goblins or Wizards from attacking the family over it if it was ever something that they considered. Muggles are not completely unaware of their surroundings. The Ministry has a whole division dedicated to erasing their memories after all. Exposing magic is a serious offense and I suspect was even more serious when Muggles were prone to setting suspects on fire. A home in a muggle neighbourhood may have meant the risks outweighed the benefits when it came to taking on the Black family.

I think a fascinating point is that while Orion Black agreed with many of Voldemort's views and was proud of his son he still threw every defence he could think of at his home. He was still concerned and given that he wasn't doing anything to bring say, the Order of the Phoenix down on him personally I think that says a lot. Who was he expecting to turn up? Voldemort's followers perhaps? Sent to convince him that sitting on the sidelines was no longer enough and hold your arm out please?

Orion would have lived through the war of terror that Grindewald created, studying at Hogwarts for most of the later years of the conflict. I think this has to have shaped him as a man and perhaps his wife too. We cannot say which war provoked him to defending his home for sure but it sure seems that he was influenced by his surroundings and unwilling to rely purely on hearsay that he supported one side or another to protect him or his family. A townhouse in the city would be a smaller area to have to shield with magic. The larger the area the more magic required so again, the Black's urban home and lack of land presents them with an advantage. Their social connections would allow children to visit other pureblood families and run around in their grounds with their own home remained safe.


Then of course there is another point to consider. There could be many, many more old Pureblood families living in London and other big cities. We only hear about certain pureblood family homes but what about Parkinson, Shacklebolt, Abbott, or Macmillan? We have no way of truly knowing if the Black family home is the exception or not.

So in conclusion we can only guess at why the Black family lived in a Muggle neighbourhood. Maybe they chose to do so because of war, work or convenience. Maybe they didn't expect to find the Muggles cropping up all around them. Maybe they just thought they were so much better than the Muggles that it really didn't matter either way.