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" [...] and Araminta Meliflua... cousin of my mother's... tried to force through a Ministry Bill to make Muggle-hunting legal [...]'"
Sirius Black to Harry Potter on Araminta[src]

Araminta Meliflua Black[5] was Walburga Black's cousin. She was noted for her hatred of Muggles. She once tried to get the Ministry of Magic to pass a law that would make Muggle-hunting legal. The bill was most likely turned down.[3]

Etymology[]

  • Araminta is a name of uncertain origin. It may be an elaborated form of Aminta, which derives from the Greek word amyntor, meaning "defender." Araminta Ross was the birth name of African-American abolitionist Harriet Tubman.
  • Meliflua is presumably based on the English adjective "mellifluous," which means "sweet-sounding" and derives from the Latin mellifluus, "flowing like honey".

Behind the scenes[]

  • Although Sirius Black pointed out Araminta to his godson, Harry Potter, on the Black family tapestry, her name did not appear on the copy of the family tree J. K. Rowling donated to a charity auction in 2006.
  • Araminta's exact relationship to Walburga is unknown; she could be a first cousin, or Sirius could have simply shortened their true relation (nth cousin, x removed). Her parentage is also unknown.

Appearances[]

Notes and references[]

  1. Araminta has to be alive at least seventeen years before 1995 (1978) to be of age to petition for a law to be passed at a point pre-1995. However, as a cousin of Walburga's, she may be around the same age.
  2. Her cousins were pure-bloods, and she was not blasted off the Black family tree
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 6 (The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black)
  4. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 4 (Horace Slughorn), Horace Slughorn states: "The whole Black family had been in my house, but Sirius ended up in Gryffindor!" This implies that all Blacks except Sirius were sorted into Slytherin while Slughorn was teaching at Hogwarts. As revealed in Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies, Chapter 3 (Horace Slughorn), Slughorn had "completed half a century of service" at the time of his retirement in 1981, meaning he started teaching there circa 1931.
  5. Wizard's Challenge at the Scholastic Official Site
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