The Admiral of Hogwarts

After the last stew dish was placed on the table, everyone sat down. Because everyone had been busy all morning, they were all hungry, so for the first few minutes, everyone was engrossed in eating.

No one spoke, only the clatter of plates and cutlery as everyone sat down to eat, and the scraping of chairs, until the final dessert, rhubarb crumble, appeared on the table, and everyone, having filled their stomachs, began to chat.

However, because of Harry's situation, everyone subconsciously avoided discussing anything related to Voldemort, Death Eaters, or the Order of the Phoenix, to avoid upsetting Harry, and instead just chatted about various interesting things about the holidays.

Because of the meeting today, everyone ate a little late, so after finishing the meal, except for two people who stayed behind to help clean up, the rest went back to their rooms to rest.

The next morning, Mrs. Weasley went to Diagon Alley to purchase supplies, and Vianetto also said that he had something to do and needed to go out. Perhaps because they had received some news from Dumbledore, no one stopped Vianetto from leaving.

And after those who had left departed, Sirius, leading the others who had finished breakfast, left the dining room and headed upstairs to the rooms that needed cleaning today.

The first floor wasn't very important. Sirius only emphasized that under the curtain at the entrance was a portrait of his mother. If disturbed, she would shout and curse wildly, so it was best to be quiet when passing by there.

Afterward, the three of them arrived at the drawing room on the second floor, a long room with a high ceiling. Because it hadn't been cleaned before, the tapestries hanging on the olive-green walls were still very dirty. Every time someone stepped on the carpet, a small cloud of dust would rise, and the long, yellow-green velvet curtains buzzed, as if many invisible bees were flying inside.

"Damn, how long has this place been abandoned?" Hugo said, looking rather disgusted at the buzzing sounds coming from the curtains. "I feel like the doxy infestation in this room must be rampant."

"Will it be difficult to clean up?" Sirius turned and asked after hearing what Hugo said. "If it's too difficult, I might need to tell Mrs. Weasley to buy some special potions—"

"No need," Hugo said with a smile. "It's just that I'll need to inscribe more runes, and consume more raw materials and magic power."

"Sirius, your family has such a long history," Hermione exclaimed, looking at the tapestry that took up an entire wall at the end of the room, as Sirius and Hugo discussed cleaning issues.

The tapestry looked very, very old, and the colors had faded. It seemed that the doxies had damaged several places.

However, the gold thread embroidered on it still glittered, and they could clearly see a sprawling family tree that could be traced back to the Middle Ages. At the top of the tapestry were embroidered the words: 'The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black: Toujours Pur.'

Hermione was amazed because in Europe, only noble families with a long history would record their family history, so she was a little surprised that Sirius's family tree could be traced back to the Middle Ages.

"Yes, but it's full of Dark wizards. Occasionally, one or two decent people appear and they're expelled. For example—" Here, Sirius pointed to a charred little hole in the tapestry, like a cigarette burn.

"I used to be here, but after I ran away from home, my dear mother destroyed me—Kreacher loves to mutter this story."

"You ran away from home?"

"I was about sixteen that year," Sirius said. "I'd had enough. Fortunately, Harry's grandparents took me in. After that, I lived with them during school holidays.

After graduation, my uncle Alphard, who was also disowned, left me a considerable amount of gold, so I could just find a place to live."

Hugo stepped forward and carefully looked at the family tree, only to find that it wasn't as Sirius had said, with only one or two people being expelled. At least the destroyed marks on it accounted for more than 1/5 of the total number of people.

"It doesn't feel like your family is as bad as you say," Hugo said, pointing to the holes in the tapestry. "One out of every five people chooses not to be a Dark wizard."

"Ah—not all of these people left because of different ideas," Sirius said with a sarcastic smile after taking a step forward and looking at the holes.

"For example, some Squibs and people with obvious congenital defects would be removed from this list. Also, for example, those who chose marriage partners that the family didn't approve of—"

Unlike those nobles in the ordinary human world, the British wizarding world only has one full-time boarding magic school, and pure-blood wizards must study with those so-called Muggle-born or half-blood wizards.

In this case, pure-blood wizarding families obviously have less control over their children than ordinary human families, so the probability of elopement is naturally much higher than that of noble families on the ordinary human side.

"Like my family's motto is 'Toujours Pur,' so they kick out all the guys they think aren't pure enough from here, so that this thing can look like it's very noble," Sirius said with a look of disdain.

"I remember hearing someone say that all the pure-blood wizards in the entire wizarding world are related to each other. Is that true?" Hermione asked at this time, pointing to a line of words on the tapestry. "For example, it seems like there's a person named Potter here."

"You're very observant, Hermione. The fact is just as you see it," Sirius nodded and said. "If you only want your children to marry people of pure blood, then your choices are very limited."

"For example, the Weasley family. Molly is a cousin of mine through marriage, and Arthur is probably a great-great-grandson of my great-uncle. This situation is very common in the wizarding world."

"Very common," Hermione said, widening her eyes at this time. "How do you avoid the various problems that occur with inbreeding? Or is it that inbreeding among wizards doesn't cause problems like it does among ordinary people who can't use magic."

"How can we avoid it!" Sirius said with a wry smile. "That's why there are so few of us left. If you observe carefully, you'll find that many descendants of families who pursue extreme pure-blood have some problems."

"For example, when looking at this tapestry, you'll find that the number of people who have been crossed out increases over time. And as far as I know, a large part of these people have congenital defects."

"It's a pity that they still have to maintain the so-called pure bloodline, and even try some evil magic to solve this problem, but until now, there have been very few successes, and the cost is huge."

"Which family succeeded?" Harry, who had been listening in confusion, suddenly showed a curious expression. "Is it Voldemort's family?"

"Of course not, and we think that the possible success is only the content discussed in private discussions, and no one will directly admit this," Sirius shook his head and said.

"When I was in Azkaban, I heard that the Malfoy family seemed to have achieved success in this regard, and several generations of singleness were the price their family paid. Of course, this is just a possibility that everyone has deduced based on the facts."

"But no matter what, most pure-blood wizarding families don't have the ability to solve this problem. I think even if there hadn't been that war, the so-called noble House of Black might not have lasted too long."

Speaking of this, Sirius sighed. Although he was not proud of his pure-blood status, and even hated the discrimination and conservatism of pure-bloods, he still felt a sense of sadness for the disappearance of those people.