Iola Black

## Iola Hitchens (née Black)

**Iola Hitchens** (née **Black**) (**13 July**, **1853** - **20 April**, **1914**) was an English pure-blood witch, and a former member of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. She was the younger daughter of Cygnus Black II and Elladora Black (née Maxime), the sister of Sirius I, Phineas, and Elladora. Iola attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from September 1864 to June 1871.

She was disowned from the Black family for marrying a muggle-born, Bob Hitchens, in 1878. She had two children with him; they were Alice and Robert. Her daughter, Alice Hitchens, married Credence Seymour, an ambitious politician. Her granddaughter, Elsie, later became the wife of Ogden Rutter, a famous Quidditch player.

Iola's has many descendants, two of whom are Richard Beasley and Evander Bourdillon, her second great-grandsons. Both attended Hogwarts in the 1990s.

## Biography

### Early life (1853-1878)

Iola was born into the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, one of the oldest and wealthiest pure-blood English wizarding families, and a member of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. Her parents were Cygnus Betelgeuse Black II, and his wife Elladora Maxime, a French pure-blooded witch. Iola grew up speaking French, German, and Italian, and learned Latin from an early age.

She had an older brother, Sirius Black I, who passed away of an unknown illness the month before she was born. Sirius Black I was the heir to the House of Black and his passing was mourned greatly, and Iola's birth held little significance as a result, as the baby was a girl and not another boy like Cygnus and Elladora had hoped for.

Apart from Sirius, Iola had two other siblings growing up; Phineas Nigellus Black, who later became one of the most hated Hogwarts Headmasters in history, who became the defacto Black heir when Sirius died, and a sister, Elladora Black, named for their mother. Elladora was known later in life for starting the Black family tradition of chopping off a House Elf's head when they became too old to carry tea trays.

Iola grew up ignored by her family and as a result, became a depressed and miserable individual. That changed when she left for school, and came to love Hogwarts and what it represented.

#### Hogwarts years (1864-1871)

Iola received her Hogwarts letter in 1864, three years after her sister, Elladora, and six years after her brother Phineas. Before attending, she purchased a wand made of hawthorne and dragon heartstring from Ollivander's Wand Shop in Diagon Alley.

She was sorted into Slytherin House like all of the rest of her family on 1 September, 1864, but the circumstance was not celebrated as her siblings' sortings had been at home, rather, it was felt that Iola was meeting an expectation. Iola felt disappointed and unloved for a considerable time, and with every accomplishment of hers that came, it was further overtaken by her brother and sister's.

#### Marriage and disownment (1870s)

Iola had fallen in love with a Ravenclaw in her year, Robert Hitchens, and the two saw a lot of each other at Hogwarts, and when they left the school together, they continued their forbidden romance, kept secret from Iola's parents, who did not care for her.

Iola disappeared from her family's house at the age of twenty, and the Blacks originally thought that she had been kidnapped, but she was found six years later living with Robert, who she had married in secret, at which point she was struck off the tree when Iola's mother, Elladora, discovered she was eight months pregnant with "mudblood spawn".

### Later life (1878-1914)

She had two children; the eldest, Alice, was born in 1879. Their second child, Robert Hitchens Jr., was born in 1882. Iola continued to live quietly with them and her Muggle-born husband, Robert Hitchens Sr., until his unfortunate death in the year 1900, at the turn of the century. She died a natural death on 20 April, 1914, at the age of 60 in Bath, Somerset.

She was survived by her son, her daughter, a son-in-law, Credence Seymour, as well as three grandchildren. Iola was the grandmother of Elsie Seymour, who married famous Quidditch Beater Ogden Rutter.

## Etymology

Iola is probably a female variant of the Ancient Greek name *Iole*, meaning "violet". In Greek mythology, Iole was a beautiful young princess who was claimed by Heracles for a bride, but her father, King Eurytus of Oechalia, refused her hand in marriage, which seems to suit Iola Black's story of a morganatic marriage and subsequent disowning.