InsaneJournal

By default, the Averies were among the few pureblood families who were given safe passage to settle upon the podium that had been once occupied by the Blacks. Owning chains of marketable real estate, including most of the wizarding banks in Britain and parts of Western Europe, the Avery family has slowly but surely developed one of the largest wizarding corporations in the United Kingdom. Seen as old money and a relic of the old times unobstructed by modernity, the Avery patriarch, Gregor, is a remarkably pleasant – yet well-learned and unmerciful, for his confidence with Tom Riddle began in their joint school-years – old man whose word is generally final. While other houses fawn over their firstborn sons, producing a living heir seems to be the one area that the elderly Averies have never seen success. Uniquely, their genuine cherishment of their five girl-childs, with all but one placed in loving and lucrative marriages from France to Austria, has separated them from many of their ilk. Their youngest is supposedly being lorded to inherit, to the dismay of certain son-in-laws.

SOCIAL: By association, they are very close to the Lestranges, the Warringtons, the Dolohovs, the Macnairs and the Mulcibers. On the flipside, Gregor is famously the greatest detractor of the Malfoy family in society – the gossips say his influence over many of the top families is what keeps Malfoys so far down the ladder, and even out of the guest lists of particular events.

SPECIAL: To those of Brotherhood: it is known that Gregor Avery occupies a seat of The Three.

The Bletchleys have made a tradition of involving themselves in national politics as well as those purist and societal; the last six generations of Bletchley heirs have weaselled their way into offices of moderate importance within The Ministry of Magic, with its current patriarch, Miles, supposedly beginning to angle himself toward Minister by gaining support within the Wizengamot where he rests as Chief Warlock. With his and Corvus Mulciber’s cooperation, the ’Bletchley Ward for Brainwashed Minds’ was established in St. Mungos several years after the Second War, and many members of the Dark Lord’s Army were able to be transferred from their cells in Azkaban to be treated with “psychological rehabiliation”. Although the Ministry pays generously when one's status is so plump, the Bletchleys’ position in government also regularly affords them under-the-table bonuses from families grateful for the rescue of their loved ones. While somewhat respected for his usefulness, Miles is generally considered, by his detractors, as a lackey and a tool; how he managed to convince a respectful Travers daughter into marriage, albeit a notoriously temperamental one, is a question often wondered.

SOCIAL: By blood, the Bletchleys are close to the Wilkes, the Pucey and the wilting Travers family. Often socialising with the Parkinsons, Miles is also known to maintain a business relationship with the Mulcibers, and to a much more distant to degree, the Lestranges.

There is no family as closely associated with dread as the Dolohovs. Although the Lestranges, the Averies, and other houses within the family’s immediacy, may be associated with intimidation and unforgivable propriety, the Dolohovs have the lone distinction of being a name linked instantly with raw discomfort. While others of the upper-tier have a certain elegance to their methods, the ancient, dog-faced Antonin Dolohov is a horribly brutal man, sitting comfortably in retirement after a lifetime of galleon accumulation, whose place within the pureblood community has given him perks which the average man could hardly dream of; he has been known to publicly commit murder at dinners, to be loud in the face of disrespect, to brandish punishments as fiercely upon a woman or child as he would on a man, to openly demand the company of young daughters of inferior houses and swear unkind retribution if his wishes are not obeyed. Wild stories circulate regularly on the ill-deeds of the powerful Antonin Dolohov, and one never goes a week without hearing a tragic joke about how the old coot rid himself of his three previous wives, but he is not an individual to be made fun of openly; patriarchs of good standing frequently send their sons to the Dolohov manor to leech off Antonin’s generous expertise in the Dark Arts. Never, however, do they send their daughters.

SOCIAL: The Dolohovs survive from being within the closest council of the Lestranges, the Averies and the Warringtons, for Antonin is not a man widely thought well of. His business transactions are known to include the Notts and the Parkinsons, the latter of whom are currently heavily in his dept, and as the most unkind mentor within the Knights of Walpurgis, Antonin has built ties with the Montagues and the Rosiers. Everyone knows Antonin Dolohov; a room goes quiet when he enters.

SECRET: Unbeknownst to Antonin, his third wife was abducted and murdered by Augustus Rookwood.

SPECIAL: To those of Brotherhood: it is known that Antonin Dolohov occupies a seat of The Three.

Classically a powerhouse in the French social circles, the Lestranges rose to occupy the foremost purist tier in Britain after the extinction of the Blacks left a vacuum few families could hope to fill. However, their star did not rise simply due to the misfortune of the other family, but because of their own machinations and influence, both of which have held strong throughout the generations. While current members are fully anglicized, they are notorious for having a taste for all things French, and as such their wives are often of French pureblood stock, with some exceptions. The current patriarch is the famed Rodolphus, twice a widower and bereft of a direct heir due to the death of the newborn infant delivered to him by his second wife, an intimidating and unapproachable statue of a man. His brother Rabastan, equally well known -- although for wildly differing reasons: Rodolphus comes across as sane, but it takes only a good hard look at Rabastan to see that Azkaban has done its damage - is married to Marielle D’Orgemont, and it is their union that has given the family the much desired heir in the form of Thibault Lestrange. Such is the absolution of the family’s crown in pureblood society that there are many who have not heard any of the Lestranges speak, nor have been granted an intimate audience with any of their persons, but it is rarely a wise decision to complain about this snobbery publicly. To insult the Lestranges is to invite the instant distaste of a great many houses, not simply their allies and friends, but also the families who simply cannot be publicly associated with a detractor. That's the power of politics.

SOCIAL: The Lestranges are an isolated family, though they know everyone; it is lonely at the top, after all, and those who they surround themselves with on an intimate level are few in number and high in standard. The Averies, the Dolohovs and the Warringtons are close companions, with the houses flowing in and out of the top six decorating their tables from time to time. A great many young women are thrown at young Thibault, either directly or through the smiling mouths of their mothers and fathers who desire a good match, but Rodolphus is uninterested in throwing his nephew to the wolves, unlike a great many patriarchs. They have their share of enemies, of course, but they are usually soft-spoken; since the Wilkes lost their son in a duel with Thibault the last time an individual was foolish enough to speak out against the family, people have been hesitant to take a similar route.

SPECIAL: To those of Brotherhood: it is known that Rodolphus Lestrange occupies a seat of The Three.

The Macnairs are a comfortably respectful family, or so it would seem. Occupying an unassuming place in the very heart of society, they have the good fortune of being significant enough in the eyes of others that there is not an event that takes place without an invitation for their presences, but are not so lofty that they have become unapproachable, isolated or the subject of political schemes or envy. Their businesses are the paper-pushing kind; dreary and unexciting, yes, but profitable. As the owners of multiple greenhouses, factories for herbal goods as well as offices for medical research, theirs is an industry that is relatively unchangeable, and therefore, the risk is minimal while the profits are consistent. But even they have their imperfections, however small they seem on the surface – for one thing, their eldest son was born with a volatile sickness, therefore his position as heir has been usurped by their healthier middle son, and for another, their eldest daughter, Seraphine, was betrothed to Felix Montague after her eighteenth birthday until the families decided to untangle the arrangement for reasons unknown; she was then supposed to marry Christopher Warrington several weeks after, but the young man's untameable hell-raising caused Percival change his mind. Fortunately, their problems have been relatively passable and justifiable thus far.

SOCIAL: As the matriarch is the eldest daughter of the Averies, the Macnairs are often considered a 'cousin-house' of the other esteemed family. In truth, Percival is one of the son-in-laws secretly frustrated from not being labelled Gregor's successor, despite having worked closely with the elderly man for decades. Their business relationship is strong amongst the Mulcibers, whose hospitals take regular orders from their greenhouses, and socially they are often seated close to the Puceys, the Parkinsons and the Rookwoods. Ever since the breaking of the engagement between Christopher and Seraphine, the Macnairs' relationship with the Warringtons has been rather strained.

SECRET: Since being bitten as a child, Callahan Macnair has been an infected werewolf. Publicly, it is known only that he suffers from a disease of the blood which flares up from time to time, causing his family to send him to Paris for treatments. Because of what they describe as his "delicate state", the middle son, Tarquin, has been given the mantle of heir. Damocles Montague, the only individual outside the family who is aware of the boy's true condition, calls upon the family often for monetary incentive for his discretion.

There was a time when the name Malfoy was oft-times spoken in the company of Lestrange, Avery, Yaxley, Black – but they seem to have been gone for quite a while. It was quite the knock they received after the official pardon from the Ministry of Magic anointed Lucius and Narcissa as traitors of the Dark Lord, and even in the reign of the young Draco has the family not recovered to its old greatness. When the Malfoys step a foot out of line, there are generally an army of lips that compete for the first opportunity to whisper about it, and so, like many houses, their show of public excellence has become a thing of remarkable repute – they act so very perfectly, so very immaculately, that they seem at times the glass monument in a room full of bulls that everyone is waiting to watch smash. Insofar, they have not. In finances, at least, they have not suffered too greatly; their businesses, both in England and abroad, are able to pull in enough yearly revenue to keep the family comfortable, despite the lack of outside assistance they are able to get. They say it was the influence of the Averies in Germany which moved Draco to abandon their wing of commerce there last year, but in fact, he simply made a lucrative decision to sell.

SOCIAL: The Malfoys, though fallen in the eyes of some, still have friends amongst society's bustling mid-level. The Zabinis, the Parkinsons, the Puceys and the Macnairs are among their common social circle, and they are popular amongst the individuals secretly frustrated with the current leaders of society. Notoriously, there is mutual animosity directed between the Malfoys and the Averies, who are by far the family's greatest opposition in reaching their old greatness. Their children are banned from socialising. The Malfoys are also greatly disliked by the Notts, who despite Draco's assurances, are convinced they had a hand in the death of their eldest son.

SECRET: As some of his friends may know, Scorpius Malfoy escapes his familial obligations for trysts with the very married, very much older, very much a mother to men close to his age, Josephine Pucey.

XO

XO.

SOCIAL: XOXO.

The Mulcibers are among the oldest allies of the Avery family and have profited finely from the alliance, as well as their own guile which has seen them flourish well with majority stocks in several wizarding hospitals, including St. Mungos. While their history is not entirely free from double-dealing and backstabbing, public opinion maintains that they are the epitome of ‘best friends’ -- the fact that the two houses have a long tradition of intermarriage only helps cement this. The family is now under the leadership of one Circinus, thirty-something, childless, charismatic, one half of a marriage that the media simply adores for all the wholesomeness they exude. Circinus is not, however, the patriarch, merely the regent until his deceased elder brother's son, Fornax, reaches his majority. But Fornax is well known to be a sickly child, bedridden, incapable, even, of walking, and only privately hired Healers are allowed to tend to him...

SOCIAL: The Mulcibers are naturally thought to be very close to the Averies and their cousins, the Rosiers. Other amicable ties of note are the Lestranges, the Warringtons and the Wilkeses. In general, one will not find many with a hard word to say of the Mulcibers, and most especially rare is a critique of their current regent who has so generously given up so much to care for his brother's orphaned son; Circinus Mulciber is something of a rising star in all things gentile and noble.

SECRET: The public may lord after Circinus' apparent nobility, but the truth of the matter is that his nephew will never reach passed ten -- he will make sure of it.

The Notts, the wizarding world’s most blatant answer to the Cosa Nostra. Black market trade being their bread and butter, the family is embroiled in a shroud of criminal activity thinly masked by their seafood exportation; they may fool the idiots in the Ministry, but it is no secret within society of what the Notts are involved in, and that it pays well, requiring that they surround themselves with a good number of half-blood goons from time to time. Known loan sharks, they profit splendidly from the weaker families far from the wealth of the purist community, giving much only to take much more, and have been rumoured to involve themselves in occasions where a coffin or two has been needed to be filled with utmost secrecy – for a price. Sadly, their opportunity for greatness has seemingly come and gone with the death of Theodore and Daphne’s eldest son, Vorenus, who was a notably honourable and handsome boy. Supposedly, he was found in a ravine a few days after being noted missing with his throat cut, a few years shy of thirty. His family and his betrothed, Natasha, who would have cemented a permanent relationship between the Notts and the Averies, are said to have mourned him greatly.

SOCIAL: As Vorenus was engaged to Natasha Avery at the time of his death, it has always been Theodore's suspicion that it was the Malfoys who killed his son; the marriage would have profited the family too well, and entangled them in their enemy-house. Therefore, despite Draco's words to the contrary, the Notts have a heavy dislike of the Malfoy family. Apart from that, they are on reasonable terms with the Dolohovs, the Rosiers, and the Rookwoods.

SECRET: Vorenus was not killed by the Malfoys, in truth. Rather, in a fit of rage, his life was ended by his younger brother, Vincent.