Sirius Black
fictional character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels
Sirius Black is a fictional character in the Harry Potter series of novels by J. K. Rowling. Sirius was first mentioned briefly in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as a wizard who lent Rubeus Hagrid a flying motorbike shortly after Lord Voldemort killed James and Lily Potter. His character becomes prominent in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, in which he is the titular prisoner, and is also revealed to be the godfather of the central character Harry Potter. He is portrayed in the film adaptations by Gary Oldman.
Character background
Sirius Black is the last heir of the House of Black, a once notable Pure-blood Wizarding family. His parents, Orion and Walburga Black, were both Blacks by birth and second cousins. Sirius had a younger brother, Regulus Arcturus Black, and three older cousins: Bellatrix Lestrange, Andromeda Tonks (his favourite cousin and mother of Nymphadora Tonks), and Narcissa Malfoy (mother of Draco Malfoy). In line with the Black family tradition of naming children after stars and constellations, Sirius was named after the Dog Star. Sirius's early life proved unhappy; he had come to hate most of his relatives, in particular his mother. He rejected his family's pure-blood elitism and reverence for the Dark Arts.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q713701. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sirius Black” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.