Talk:Phineas Nigellus

Family Tree
There is a problem with the Nigellus's family tree, as it shows Nigellus as being Sirius's great-grandfather as opposed to his great-great-grandfather. Which is wrong, the article or the tree?
 * My mistake, didn't notice the space between grandfather and great-grandfather.

There exists a new version of the tree att http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizards/blackfamilytree.html with references to sources, therefore the tree needs to be updated.

Phineas Nigellus, or Phineas Nigellus Black?


Although Phineas Nigellus is an ancestor of Sirius Black, I have yet to see any signs that he ever used the name Phineas Nigellus Black. Please cite your sources that show his full name as "Phineas Nigellus Black" (or "Phineas Black") by stating the book and the page number or (preferably) the chapter in which this appears. An acceptable alternative would be any official Harry Potter web site as defined under Harry Potter. Thank you. --Deathphoenix 17:35, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Phineas/ Phineus Nigellus is in a similar boat Draco Malfoy. Draco's and Phineus's mothers were Black's. Draco's last name is Malfoy. In the black tree (film adaptation) he is on the tree as Draco Malfoy. There are no magical make Blacks left so Draco gets the spot/ or his second son. If Draco would take the black mantle, he would become Draco Malfoy Black. The earlier last name would become a middle name. The same with Phineus Nigellus. His first last name was Nigellus. After he took control/the mantle, he became Phineus Nigellus Black. Sirius is listed as 'Sirius' in the tree and not as 'Sirius Orion'. Phineus Nigellus either - forcefully took control of the Blacks. - the other living males moved away - there where just females alive and Phineus took the other magical male Blackwith the last name Limette. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.91.214.164 (talk) 17:38, 9 September 2018 (UTC)


 * With my humblest apologies to both 82.38.67.106 and 65.27.147.246, I have found the citation that his full name is Phineas Nigellus Black, just by flipping open HBP to a random page. His full name is mentioned very early on in Chapter 13 (the second page of Ch. 13, pg 243 in the Canadian edition), where he calls Harry "Impertinent". I will restore the name. --Deathphoenix 04:42, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

Duties of portraits
In order of the Phoenix/ch.22 st Mungos hospital, phineas' portrait refuses to help Dumbledore. The other wizards in different portraits then gang up on him, one saying he is honour bound to help, another threatening to cast a spell on him. This rather suggests that there is no magical compulsion on portraits to cooperate at all with the headmaster of hogwarts, just that they do so for for the good of the school. Sandpiper 22:39, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

Least Popular Headmaster
Where does it say in the books that Phineas "is considered to be the least popular headmaster Hogwarts has ever had"? I can't recall ever reading that, but of course I could be wrong.
 * Sirius says that to Harry when he's showing him the Black family tree in an early chapter of Order of the Pheonix.Cyclone49 13:11, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Dates, spouse, family
J.K. Rowling has recently released a partial Black family tree, so I'm adding some extra info based on that. The family tree can be found here: http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/images/image.php?image=2006/01/closeupblackfamtree.jpg