For my first supplemental reading I read: “Were the Malfoys Aristocrats? The Decline and Fall of the Pure-Blooded.” By Laura Loiacono and Grace Loiacono from the book. I found it interesting on many levels and agreed on many of it’s ideas and learned from it’s viewpoints. I appreciated the historical context and to how it relates to British history and politics while remaining firmly rooted at the topic at hand. One of the most notable instances comes on page 177 when they bring to mention that the Malfoy Manor may have been in the family’s possession since either the medieval period or from before the seclusion of the wizardry world. The reason why it is significant to me at least comes from how far back the supposed aristocracy can be dated. As this chapter makes clear, the Malfoy’s seem to be the only family in the entire wizardry world to have a manor, the most recent of which in stated history was in the Tudor era in the 16^th century. This does a great deal to support the claim that they do indeed belong in the aristocratic classes.

The last two segments from this chapter were probably the most intriguing of all and the ones that made the parallels from the muggle and wizardry world the most clear. Starting from page 186, a question I had always wondered to myself was detailed brilliantly, this of course pertaining to the number of aristocrats or purebloods in the wizardry world. Much like in the muggle world during the 20^th century, the higher classes saw a great deal of decline from various acts of violence and bloodshed, the majority from the first world war, which saw a great number of purebloods die and families therefore becoming permanently affected by this loss go on to a steady decline, almost wiped out in the coming generations. As stated in page 187, only two great grandchildren of Pollux and Irma black remain, this makes sense to why the pure blood status in Harry’s time was as rare as it was. By the time of Voldemort’s final defeat the class system of the wizardry world had gone into a state of deep confusion. By the time 19 years had passed, being pure blood amounted to very little other than an anecdote, in the play: “Harry Potter And The Cursed Child,” it wasn’t relevant enough to mentioned more than a handful of times, if that.

If this chapter proves anything it is that the Malfoy family were indeed aristocrats for quite some time, potentially at a low estimate of half a millennium. By the end of the 20^th century however they were a family that were by little more than pure luck and chance decisions, barely scraped by past Azkaban, they became a family of resentment and of low whispers. As stated in page 191, the Malfoy’s, or at the very least Lucius, lost all political power, what remained however, was the ultimate symbol of what was, their large and spacious manor. A constant reminder of what was.