I like to imagine that the Black cousins were all really close in age: Bella and Andy were in the same year, Narcissa was the year below them, Sirius was the year below Narcissa, and Regulus was the year below his brother. If JKR can claim Cygnus had 3 kids at 17 and had Bellatrix at 13, I can say whatever the hell I want about the timeline. Plus, it’s fun to think that there are several years where the entire school is subjected to the Black Family’s chaotic nonsense.

hehehe i love both this option and the other one, that they were all a little spread out in years bc the hilarity of like. blacks being utter menaces and the profs being exhausted but relieved to see them go. except, a new one pops up every couple or so years and it’s like ‘oh merlin’s saggy balls no, not again’ so it’s like a black reign of terror for like. a decade and a half, starting from bella, who’s managed to get slytherin under her thumb in her first year alone thru sheer malice and magical power, then it was andy and her assorted rebellions (she started a minor unionisation campaign in slytherin in her second year; to date, no one knows how or even for what, just that for atleast 5.3 months, lil kids were going around chanting about the rights of the proletariat and it was only when sirius stepped in with ‘andy ur literally the bourgeois, what r u on about’ that it slowed down), then there was cissa who was a Younger Sibling™️ and wrecked havoc trying to be Everywhere, and do Everything bc she finally has freedom and no limits.

and then came sirius, of course, who kick started chaos on his first day by sorting into gryffindor and soulmate-ing a potter. he was not only a genius, but a bored one, which made him dangerous. making other kids cry was a specialty and unintended consequence of his sharp tongue and indifference, and generally, he was a Problem bc he couldn’t be controlled. and regulus, who finally seemed to be a decent options and slughorn (?) could’ve cried in relief at finally getting a normal black but alas, he should’ve known that typology just did not exist in nature bc the youngest black turned out to be a raging death eater with a massive hard on for a man his grandfather’s age steeped in dark arts to the point of losing his soul. so ykno.

black reign of terror.