1、马尔福家族 ...
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马尔福这个姓氏来自古法语，意为“罪恶”。与许多高贵英国家族的祖先一样，巫师阿曼德·马尔福随着征服王威廉带领的诺曼底侵略军来到了英国。马尔福向威廉一世国王提供了许多未知的、暗地里（几乎肯定是有关魔法）的服务，因此被赐予了侵略军从本地地主手中掠夺来的位于威尔特郡的一大块土地。马尔福家族的后代在此后的一千年都在这里生活。
马尔福家族狡猾的祖先阿曼德性格中的许多品质在家族中流传至今。马尔福这个姓氏略带贬义，如同姓氏暗示，马尔福一家一直有这样的名声，暗示他们是一群狡猾的人，任何时候都不忘追求权利与财富。尽管他们一直是纯血统的拥护者，认为巫师血统比麻瓜高贵，马尔福们在某些方面并不抵制非魔法社会。这种理念使他们成为了英国最富有的巫师家族之一，传闻中（尽管从未得到证明）几个世纪以来这个家族在麻瓜货币与资产方面的投资极为成功。
几百年来，他们在威尔特郡自己领地附近兼并了不少周围麻瓜的土地而得以扩大。另外，他们还与皇室保持着各种关系，对皇室的帮助使他们扩充了家族的麻瓜财富和艺术品收藏。
历史上，马尔福家族将贫穷的麻瓜与当权者和富豪们划分得一清二楚。直到《国际保密法》于1692年颁发前，他们一直与麻瓜上流社会交流甚广。据说，他们强烈反对实施法规是由于在一定程度上，他们将不得不退出这个令人享受的社会生活领域。
马尔福家族的后代极力否认这一事件，但有充足证据支持，卢修斯·马尔福一世曾经是伊丽莎白一世的追求者，有些巫师历史学家甚至提出，女王在那之后反对婚姻是因为被追求自己失败的马尔福下了诅咒。
几个世纪以来，这个家族的人都善于自我保护，因而保密法案通过后，马尔福家族终止了与上流社会麻瓜的交际。他们认为，继续抗议会让他们与新的权力枢纽：新建立的魔法部产生距离。他们的态度突然间转变，一下子成为保密法的忠实支持者，急于反驳他们与麻瓜直接的任何交流（或婚姻关系）。
马尔福家族拥有的巨大财富保证了他们世代对魔法部产生的巨大（令人生厌的）影响，尽管没有一个马尔福渴望担任魔法部部长。常言说道，你永远不会在犯罪现场找到马尔福家人的踪迹，不过作案魔杖上面可能布满了他们的指纹。独立而富有使他们不需要工作维持生活，他们大多宁愿做当权位置后面的支持力量，让他人受累并承担失败可能带来的后果。许多得到他们偏爱的候选者的竞选活动得到了马尔福家族财政上的支持，包括（未得到证明）雇佣黑势力向竞争对手下恶咒。
马尔福们鄙夷不能给予他们财富或力量的所有麻瓜们，他们也自然而然的转向了纯血统说的教条规范他们的巫师同伴，这种行为在20世纪中成为了他们最不受限制的力量来源。在保密法颁发后，马尔福家族中没有人与麻瓜或麻瓜出生的巫师通婚。不过，为了不至于如同少数纯血统的狂热者冈特家族和莱斯特兰奇家族一般在纯血统的小圈子里近亲结婚而让家族走向衰败，因为他们变得虚弱和不稳定，马尔福家的族谱上也有着许多混血巫师存在。
在马尔福家族历史上有着许多较为闻名的巫师，14世纪的尼古拉斯·马尔福，据传闻，他杀死了许多麻瓜房客，并在之后将其死亡原因归咎于黑死病。如果这是真的，那么马尔福就逃脱了巫师议会的谴责，并逃脱了惩罚。
塞普蒂默斯·马尔福，他生活在在18世纪，他对于当时的魔法部有着很大的影响力，他担任魔法部部长顾问，许多人甚至认为，时任魔法部部长安克谢斯·奥斯博特（1789年至1798年之间担任魔法部部长）只不过是他的傀儡，而塞普蒂默斯·马尔福才是实质上的魔法部领导者。
阿布拉克萨斯·马尔福，魔法部部长诺比·利奇（历史上首个麻瓜出身的魔法部部长）因患一种神秘疾病被迫离职，据闻阿布拉克萨斯·马尔福参与了这次黑幕，但没有证据能够证明这一点。
阿布拉克萨斯的儿子卢修斯以身为伏地魔的心腹食死徒而臭名昭著，尽管他在伏地魔发动的两次英国巫师战争后都成功了逃脱刑罚。第一次，声称自己中了神秘人的夺魂咒（尽管许多人声称他得到了“政府”高级官员的支持），第二次，他提供了针对其他食死徒的证据，并帮助确保抓获了许多逃匿的伏地魔追随者。
The Malfoy name comes from old French and translates as ‘bad faith’. Like many other progenitors of noble English families, the wizard Armand Malfoy arrived in Britain with William the Conqueror as part of the invading Norman army. Having rendered unknown, shady (and almost certainly magical) services to King William I, Malfoy was given a prime piece of land in Wiltshire, seized from local landowners, upon which his descendants have lived for ten consecutive centuries.
Their wily ancestor Armand encapsulated many of the qualities that have distinguished the Malfoy family to the present day. The Malfoys have always had the reputation, hinted at by their not altogether complimentary surname, of being a slippery bunch, to be found courting power and riches wherever they might be found. In spite of their espousal of pure-blood values and their undoubtedly genuine belief in wizards’ superiority over Muggles, the Malfoys have never been above ingratiating themselves with the non-magical community when it suits them. The result is that they are one of the richest wizarding families in Britain, and it has been rumoured for many years (though never proven) that over the centuries the family has dabbled successfully in Muggle currency and assets. Over hundreds of years, they have managed to add to their lands in Wiltshire by annexing those of neighbouring Muggles, and the favour they curried with royalty added Muggle treasures and works of art to an ever-expanding collection.
Historically, the Malfoys drew a sharp distinction between poor Muggles and those with wealth and authority. Until the imposition of the Statute of Secrecy in 1692, the Malfoy family was active within high-born Muggle circles, and it is said that their fervent opposition to the imposition of the Statute was due, in part, to the fact that they would have to withdraw from this enjoyable sphere of social life. Though hotly denied by subsequent generations, there is ample evidence to suggest that the first Lucius Malfoy was an unsuccessful aspirant to the hand of Elizabeth I, and some wizarding historians allege that the Queen’s subsequent opposition to marriage was due to a jinx placed upon her by the thwarted Malfoy.
With that healthy degree of self-preservation that has characterised most of their actions over the centuries, once the Statute of Secrecy had passed into law the Malfoys ceased fraternising with Muggles, however well-born, and accepted that further opposition and protests could only distance them from the new heart of power: the newly created Ministry of Magic. They performed an abrupt volte-face, and became as vocally supportive of the Statute as any of those who had championed it from the beginning, hastening to deny that they had ever been on speaking (or marrying) terms with Muggles.
The substantial wealth at their disposal ensured them considerable (and much resented) influence at the Ministry for generations to come, though no Malfoy has ever aspired to the role of Minister for Magic. It is often said of the Malfoy family that you will never find one at the scene of the crime, though their fingerprints might be all over the guilty wand. Independently wealthy, with no need to work for a living, they have generally preferred the role of power behind the throne, happy for others to do the donkey work and to take the responsibility for failure. They have helped finance many of their preferred candidates’ election campaigns, which have (it is alleged) included paying for dirty work such as hexing the opposition.
The Malfoys’ unfeigned contempt for all Muggles who could not offer them jewels or influence, and for the majority of their fellow wizards, drew them naturally towards the pure-blood doctrine, which seemed for several years in the twentieth century to be their likeliest source of untrammelled power. From the imposition of the Statute of Secrecy onwards, no Malfoy has married a Muggle or Muggle-born. The family has, however, eschewed the somewhat dangerous practice of inter-marrying within such a small pool of pure-bloods that they become enfeebled or unstable, unlike a small minority of fanatic families such as the Gaunts and Lestranges, and many a half-blood appears on the Malfoy family tree.
Notable Malfoys of past generations include the fourteenth-century Nicholas Malfoy, who is believed to have dispatched many a fractious Muggle tenant under the guise of the Black Death, though escaping censure by the Wizards’ Council; Septimus Malfoy, who was greatly influential at the Ministry in the late eighteenth century, many claiming that Minister for Magic Unctuous Osbert was little more than his puppet; and Abraxas Malfoy, who was widely believed to be part of the shady plot that saw the first Muggle-born Minister (Nobby Leach) leave his post prematurely in 1968 (nothing was ever proven against Malfoy).
Abraxas’s son, Lucius, achieved notoriety as one of Lord Voldemort’s Death Eaters, though he successfully evaded prison after both of Lord Voldemort’s attempted coups. On the first occasion, he claimed to have been acting under the Imperius Curse (though many claimed he called in favours from high-placed Ministry officials); on the second occasion, he provided evidence against fellow Death Eaters and helped ensure the capture of many of Lord Voldemort’s followers who had fled into hiding.
作者有话说第1章 马尔福家族
