- "Most wizards these days are half-blood anyway. If we hadn't married Muggles we'd've died out."
- — Ronald Weasley in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Half-blood is a blood status in the Harry Potter book series. Witches and wizards are labelled this if they have both wizarding and Muggle heritage. By the late twentieth century, half-bloods are the dominant blood status due to a decline in the number of pure-bloods after they inter-married to preserve their blood purity.
About[]
A half-blood witch or wizard has at least one Muggle or Muggle-born parent or grandparent. They will be considered half-blood even if both of their parents have magic. At a certain point, a family or branch of the family may be reconsidered pure-blood if every single one of their grandparents and therefore parents, are pure-blood or half-blood.[1]
Pure-bloods who value their blood status started inter-marrying with other pure-bloods, causing their numbers decline. To keep their blood status but marry a non-relation, they have to marry a half-blood who doesn't have a Muggle or Muggle-born parent to ensure their children will be pure-blood.[2] However, they are known to hide their half-blood heritage.[2][3]
Even though half-bloods are targeted less by those who consider pure-bloods superior, they are still considered inferior by their standards. A few staunch supporters including the House of Black will say "half-blood" in an insulting way[4] and are even against marrying half-bloods. There are known half-bloods who support blood purity and very highly value their wizarding heritage.[5]
Voldemort is one such half-blood who supported blood purity but he hid his true heritage. Even loyal Death Eaters including Bellatrix Lestrange were astounded to hear anyone say he was half-blood.[4] He was accepting of half-bloods in the Death Eaters, but ignored their non-wizard connections in the same way he ignored his own. He advised people to "prune" their family tree of any non-wizards and Muggle-borns because they had to highly value the wizarding side of their family over the Muggle side.[6]
Known half-bloods[]
| Family | Known Members |
|---|---|
| Abbott[7] | Hannah Abbott |
| Bones[8] | Susan Bones |
| Bulstrode[8] | Millicent Bulstrode |
| Cattermole[9] |
|
| Dumbledore[10] | |
| Finnigan[11] | Seamus Finnigan |
| Lupin[12] | Teddy Lupin |
| Potter[13] | *Harry Potter |
| Riddle[13] | Tom Riddle |
| Snape[14][15] | Severus Snape |
| Thomas[16] | Dean Thomas |
| Tonks[17] | Nymphadora Tonks |
| Weasley[18] |
Notes and sources[]
- ↑ jkrowling.com (archived) - "Why are some people in the wizarding world (e.g., Harry) called 'half-blood' even though both their parents were magical?"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 6
- ↑ The Tales of Beedle the Bard: The Fountain of Fair Fortune
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 35
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 12
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 1
- ↑ J. K. Rowling interview: PotterCast 130
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Harry Potter and Me (view J. K. Rowling's notes)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 12
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 8
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 7
- ↑ Teddy Lupin's grandfather, Edward Tonks was a Muggle-born according to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so Teddy had to a half-blood.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 17
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 28
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 30
- ↑ jkrowling.com (archived): Extra Stuff: Dean's background
- ↑ J. K. Rowling's sketch of the Black family tree
- ↑ In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Epilogue, Rose and Hugo Weasley's parents were shown to be Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 6, Hermione was stated to be a Muggle-born and Ron was a pure-blood, so their children have to be half-blood.