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I am reading Chapter 10 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and I don't understand this part:

“that Regulus changed his mind . . . but he doesn’t seem to have explained that to Kreacher, does he? And I think I know why. Kreacher and Regulus’s family were all safer if they kept to the old pure-blood line. Regulus was trying to protect them all.”

What did Regulus's situation have to do with the old pureblood line? How was Regulus trying to protect his family by stealing the Horcrux?

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    "Line" as in "party line" not "blood line;" note that it's "pure-blood line" not "pure blood-line."
    – DavidW
    Commented Nov 15 at 14:11
  • @DavidW yes I get its meaning. "Line" here is a lot of generations of a big family
    – Dat
    Commented Nov 15 at 14:33
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    Yeah. Following the pure-blood line means doing things like insulting muggles and spending time on genealogy. If the family was noticed inviting Hermione's parents to dinner or anything else that pure-bloods didn't generally do, it would be "out of line" with purebloodery and put them in danger
    – Andrew
    Commented Nov 15 at 14:58
  • oh, I understand: "Pure-blood line" means the assuming (thinking) that pure-blood is superior than all other types
    – Dat
    Commented Nov 15 at 15:12
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    Actually, @Dat, DavidW was explaining that line here is not the generations of a big family. Here, line is used to mean "the accepted position/opinion of the purebloods". See definition 4(a) here.
    – terdon
    Commented Nov 16 at 18:03

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Regulus wasn't trying to protect his family by stealing the Horcrux.

He was trying to protect his family despite stealing the Horcrux.

He didn't tell anyone he was no longer serving Voldemort. If he had, it's likely that either (a) someone in his family would turn him in, or (b) when Voldemort found out, he'd kill the whole family, not just Regulus.

"...kept to the old pure-blood line..." is meant in the sense of "keep to the party line." This means to hold to the standard belief of a group of people, usually one's in-group.

In this case, it means the standard beliefs of the purebloods, such as showing contempt for Muggle-borns, Muggles, lesser magical creatures, and so forth. By keeping to the old pure-blood line, Regulus avoided giving any outward signs that he wasn't following Voldemort's ideology.

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  • I understand that if Regulus didn't give any outward signs that he wasn't following Voldemort, his family would be safer. But I still try to figure out the literal meaning of "...kept to the old pure-blood line..."
    – Dat
    Commented Nov 15 at 14:32
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    Following the pure-blood line means doing things like insulting muggles and spending time on genealogy. If the family was noticed inviting Hermione's parents to dinner or anything else that pure-bloods didn't generally do, it would be "out of line" with purebloodery and put them in danger
    – Andrew
    Commented Nov 15 at 15:15
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    @Dat It's not referring to heritage or bloodlines. "Towing the party line" is a common English phrase for people who blindly follow whatever their ideology's dogma is.
    – Ryan_L
    Commented Nov 17 at 20:55
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    @Ryan_L I thought it was "toeing" the party line, not "towing" it. Like "toeing" in the sense of how one would generally not step over some sort of official line.
    – Lieutenant Zipp
    Commented Nov 18 at 2:48
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    I looked it up- it is "toeing", and seems to probably derive from military terminology about lining up for inspections or roll call or something.
    – Lieutenant Zipp
    Commented Nov 18 at 3:24

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