#drarry discourse

I apologize for starting off so strongly but I figured it would be best to define what incest is first and foremost.

Incest is defined as two people having romantic and/or sexual relations when they are closely OR distantly related through blood, marriage, or adoption. Incest between blood relatives is immoral because of how it historically causes health complications in descendants and because of the taboo of crossing a familial line into a romantic one. Incest between relatives related through marriage or adoption is primarily viewed as immoral because it is typically coinciding with abuse or cheating. Not to say there's no situations of abuse/cheating when it comes to incest between blood relatives, just that the reasons people consider different incestuous relationships immoral depends on the familial tie. An incestuous relationship between two cousins is considered to be less immoral if you do not have a close familial relationship, are not directly related, and do not share any blood. It is still incest, but it's less frowned upon. Please keep this in mind as you read this post.

Over the years and for some reason it's also been more frequent recently, I've been seeing people saying that Harry and Draco are related and that Drarry is incest. I wanted to clear up this misconception and finally get this out of my system so that I can stop making long posts about it on other sites (Pinterest... your character limit is FOUL). Figured Tumblr is the best place for that.

This is a little embarrassing to admit but for a couple years, I've been passively acquiring information on the family trees in Wizarding Britain and compiling them into a Family Echo. I will likely be remaking the tree so I can fact check myself on some of these ties (and some of them are purely headcanon). But, I can start by saying that Draco's roots tie back through the Malfoy and Black Houses through his respective parents Lucius and Narcissa. Harry, however, comes from the Potters and Evanses. The Evanses are a muggle family, and Lily is a muggleborn wizard, her family has no ties to any wizards in Wizarding Britain. But people argue that the Potters have ties to the Black family when there is no such thing in canon outside of the debatable case of Sirius Black's friendship with James Potter.

The 2 primary arguments people make are A) Dorea Potter (nee Black), who married a Charlus Potter and B) Sirius Black because he's Harry's godfather. These are common points used to say that Draco and Harry are relatives BUT I have counterarguments.

Charlus and Dorea Potter

Dorea Black, who is on the Black family tree and (note this for later) NOT disowned, is proven to have married one Charlus Potter, whom people believe is related to the Potters on only one basis. Charlus bears the last name Potter. Charlus Potter even appears in the Potter family tree on the fandom wiki.

But I don't believe Charlus is of House Potter for two reasons.

Firstly and most importantly, Dorea Black was not disowned from House Black for marrying Charlus Potter and secondly, Potter is canonically regarded as a common surname.

The House of Potter, despite their wealth and the respect they are regarded with, are not part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight due to being considered blood traitors for their established open-mindedness on blood purity since basically the founding of their House. All other people who have married to or become blood traitors were burned off of the tree and disowned. As such, whenever it is that the Potters were declared blood traitors and exempt from the Sacred Twenty-Eight, Dorea Black would have been burned from the tree for her marriage to Charlus Potter, no matter how well respected the House of Potter is and all her descendants would have been removed from the tree, like a branch that got cut off. Unless under the flimsy assumption that her marriage to Charlus Potter was accepted or arranged. Which isn't necessarily unlikely, but it DOES seem like a stretch.

Disclaimer: I have no clue if this is fact. But, the tapestry is seemingly enchanted to track the Black bloodline by itself, I would assume the tapestry would continue keeping track of the Black lineage even in distant cousins who have no contact and aren't from disowned lines. It likely updates in real time when a new Black is born.

Factually speaking, there is someone within the family appointed to the task of burning disowned members off of the tree. Meaning even if Dorea Black had married Charlus Potter prior to the Potters being considered blood traitors, she still would have been burned off the tree at a later date after the Potters were declared blood traitors. So I simply don't think she married a Potter from House Potter, I think she married a wizard who's last name happens to be Potter.

Notably: Dorea and Charlus' unnamed child, presumably a son, doesn't appear on the Black Family Tapestry for some reason, despite it being said they had a child. So, I have no clue if they actually DID have a child or not. No one knows the name of this mystery child. I also have found 0 sources for them having a kid outside of the fandom wiki, so if anyone has more information, I will gladly hear it.

One of the reasons for the Potters being exempt from the Sacred Twenty-Eight, other than their stance on blood purity, is because of how common the last name Potter is among muggles. Linfred of Stinchcombe, who founded the House of Potter, labored as a potterer to amass wealth which he then passed down to his children, who added their own hard earned money to the pot and passed it down to THEIR children, and so on so forth until House Potter was yet another prominent and wealthy Wizarding family.

BUT! If Linfred of Stinchcombe was a wizard potterer, he likely wasn't the only wizard potterer. As such, it's not completely unfounded to believe that there are at least a handful of different, far less wealthy, wizard families bearing the last name Potter within the Wizarding World as well, all because of an ancestor who used to be a potterer.

It doesn't go without mentioning the reason why "Potter" is so common among muggles is not only because of people gaining last names based on their occupations, but also because Potters descendant of Linfred would sometimes marry muggles, which contributed to the spread of the last name and solidified House Potter's stance on blood purity.

With all of this in mind, if she had married a muggle or muggleborn, Dorea would definitely have been disowned. So, while it's not unlikely that Charlus Potter is related to Harry, there's just more evidence to suggest he isn't. It's just simply more likely that she married a halfblood or pureblood wizard who happens to have the last name Potter than her actually marrying into House Potter.

Even if she DID marry into House Potter, we don't know where Charlus would hypothetically sit on the Potter family tree, his placement is speculation at best and headcanon at worst. They also only had one son, don't know where this information came from, but if we go with it the child has no name and no named descendants so it's unlikely that Harry is directly descendant of Charlus, it's more likely that Harry and Charlus share a common ancestor further up the tree, which further removes Dorea's relation to Harry and solidifies that they aren't related by blood, which is the common primary concern when it comes to incest.

I do not defend incest, that is the entire reason I'm making this post. Besides the fact that I firmly believe Drarry is not incest, IF they WERE related, they would not be blood related, they would be relatives through marriage way further up the tree, separated by several generations. It's to the point where IF such a tie exists, it is NEVER mentioned because THAT'S how distant they would be.

As a matter of fact, there's no way Draco wouldn't have mentioned being cousins with Harry when they were 11 years old, IF they were actually cousins. In case we forget, before Draco was rejected by Harry, he initially wanted to befriend Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived presumably for his fame and fortune. Part of me believes Draco genuinely wanted to be friends with Harry because he sounded cool and came up with the "wealth and status" reason to not only make a connection but because that was something his parents taught him to do. But since this is just speculation, I will operate under the assumption it was purely for fame and fortune. As such, I sincerely doubt Narcissa kept their lineage a secret, so Draco would have likely noticed Dorea's relation to Charlus Potter. Even if he hadn't heard of the relation, he probably knows House Black is related to pretty much every prominent pureblood family in Wizarding Britain. He definitely would have asked if he's related to Harry Potter at some point before his first day at Hogwarts, if only to see if he could use it to break the ice. Narcissa would've explained how they're related, IF they were, there's simply no reason for her not to. So honestly, if they were cousins, it WOULD have been brought up.

Sirius Black

As for Sirius Black's relation to Harry Potter, he's only Harry's godfather. There is no blood relation here, no formal adoption. Sirius wasn't adopted by James' parents and made James' brother, Sirius didn't adopt Harry. Ignoring the rocky, up in the air-ness of Dorea Black's relation to Harry, Sirius is Harry's only canonical tie to House Black and thusly, Draco Malfoy.

But, Sirius was formally disowned from House Black. His portrait has been burned off the tapestry. His found family are the Mauraders and thusly, Harry Potter. Harry calling Sirius "Uncle" does not mean Harry's gonna waltz up to Narcissa and call her "Auntie".

You do not have to claim someone's family just because you claimed that someone as your own family, especially if that someone's family has disowned them. If my best friend got disowned for whatever reason, my best friend's my family and the family who disowned them is dead to me. For all intents and purposes, Sirius is JUST Sirius to Harry, not Sirius Black III. Sirius is Harry's family, but ONLY Sirius, no one else in the entirety of House Black is related to Harry with maybe the sole exception of Regulus Black, but he'd still be another "uncle" (ignoring Jegulus here, btw).

Found Family is simply just not a bonding familial tie like adoption, blood, or marriage. Not to say it can't become a bonding tie, but it's along the lines of adoption and ONLY in descendants. Simply, if James and Lily had lived and if Sirius had any kids, Harry and Sirius' kids would've likely been raised as cousins. But the point still stands that Sirius' parents and every relative extended from that mean absolutely nothing to Harry.

I literally feel like I can't express enough just how much Harry is NOT related to House Black because of Sirius.

All of this being said, Sirius did intend to adopt Harry as he was Harry's godfather. But "godfather" isn't a legally acknowledged relationship, at least in the muggle world. Had Sirius not been framed for Peter's death and the one who gave up the Potters which got him locked in Azkaban for over a decade, he would have had to have gone through an extensive custody battle to adopt Harry, assuming Petunia and Vernon didn't sign him away immediately. After Sirius escapes Azkaban, Harry is pretty much already adopted by the Weasleys. Not to erase Sirius as a parental figure for Harry, just to say he remains only as found family with no formal adoption.