Mathilda Greengrass

## Mathilda Yaxley (née Greengrass)

**Mathilda Yaxley** (née **Greengrass**) (10 August, 1884 - 1 January, 1956) was a half-blood witch. She was the second-born daughter and third child overall born to Magnus Greengrass and his wife Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg. Her mother was a muggle-born witch of muggle nobility, and her father was a member of the Noble and Ancient House of Greengrass.

She attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from September 1895 to June of 1903, and was a member of Slytherin House. She married Bertram Yaxley on 6 December, 1899, at the age of fifteen (which caused a minor scandal at the time) and the couple had five children together, including Florinda, Serafina, Eugenie, Lucinda, and Corban Yaxley. Her son, Corban, became one of Lord Voldemort's earliest and devoted followers.

Mathilda was the maternal great-grandmother of Druella and Anselm Rosier, and a great-grandmother of Bellatrix Lestrange, Andromeda Tonks, Narcissa Malfoy, Evan Rosier, Felix Rosier, and Boniface Rosier. Among her descendants are Nymphadora Tonks and Draco Malfoy.

## Biography

### Early life (1884-1895)

Mathilda Greengrass was born on 10 August, 1884, on the Greengrass estate in Bath, Somerset, England. She was the daughter of Magnus Greengrass and his wife, Antoinette of Saxe-Coburg. Her mother was a muggle-born witch, though a muggle-born of muggle nobility, which interested Magnus Greengrass greatly at the time. Mathilda was their youngest child.

She grew up with an older brother, Percival, and an older sister, Antoinette, named for their mother. Mathilda was the youngest and considered less prettier than her sister, a fact for which made her bitter. She was often ignored by her mother in favour of her sister and her older brother, who was ill as a child.

She was the paternal granddaughter of Percival Greengrass I, head of the House of Greengrass from 1858 to 1898, a period of forty years, and niece of Ignatius Greengrass I, head of the Noble and Ancient House of Greengrass from 1898 to 1935. She was the first cousin of Ivor Greengrass I, who would succeed his father as head in 1935.

She had an additional uncle on her father's side, Horatius, who never married or had any children. When she was six years old, her father's mother, Claudia Greengrass (née Ollivander) passed away, and Mathilda was present at the funeral which took place in April 1890.

### Hogwarts years (1895-1899)

She received her Hogwarts letter in the summer of 1895. That same summer, she visited Diagon Alley, located in London, and purchased a wand made of hazel and dragon heartstring from Ollivander's Wand Shop. On 1 September, 1895, she boarded the train for Hogwarts and was sorted into Slytherin House that same night, like her siblings had been.

She attended the school for four years until she was removed by her parents during her fifth year in 1899, when she was discovered to be expecting a child. Scandalized, her father, Ignatius, demanded that she reveal who had impregnated her, and Mathilda admitted to have been seeing an older boy named Bertram Yaxley over the summer holidays. In order to remedy the problem and not cause him further embarrassment, Ignatius demanded for the House Yaxley to arrange a marriage contract between the twenty-year-old Bertram and the fifteen-year-old Mathilda right away.

### Marriage (1899)

Mathilda Greengrass married Bertram Yaxley at the age of fifteen on 6 December, 1899. She was already three months along in her pregnancy at the time. The incident caused a minor stir at several society meetings of the day.

She gave birth to a baby girl, Florinda, on 24 June, 1900, in Upton Noble, Somerset. Six years later, at the age of twenty-one, she gave birth to her second child, Serafina. Bertram and Mathilda had a further three children during their marriage, including Eugenie, Lucinda, and Corban, who was their final child, and the Heir Apparent to the House of Yaxley.

### Later life (1911-1956)

Mathilda Yaxley's eldest daughter, Florinda Yaxley, began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in September 1911. She, like her parents, was sorted into Slytherin. Seven years later, after Florinda had already finished, Mathilda's second daughter, Serafina, began attending. She was sorted into Slytherin on 1 September, 1918.

Mathilda's eldest daughter, Florinda, became engaged to Marcelin Rosier, the heir to the Noble House of Rosier, in the winter of 1920. One year later, they married, in February of 1921. Florinda Rosier would struggle to have children with Rosier over the course of the 1920s, so much so that Mathilda feared that her daughter was infertile, among many other problems the House of Yaxley would face.

In 1922, Mathilda's daughter, Eugenie, began attending school. By this time, Bertram Yaxley still did not have an heir, and two years later, their son, Corban Yaxley, was born, bringing great joy to Mathilda's husband.

#### Vae Annis (1924-1925)

However, her second daughter, Serafina, left Hogwarts early to pursue her engagement with the recently-widowed Paschal Parkinson, the head of the House of Parkinson, at the end of her fifth year in 1923. At the age of just sixteen, she married him, in August of 1923. Serafina gave birth to a son, Antonius Parkinson, in May of 1924, but it was difficult, and she died aged just seventeen. Serafina's death was the start of the "*vae annis*" which plagued the House of Yaxley, between 1924 and 1925.

Just one year later, in January of 1925, Mathilda's youngest daughter, Lucinda, drowned, while the Yaxleys were visiting the Isle of Skye. The death of her daughters, Serafina and Lucinda, were great tragedies for Mathilda, and she went into a state of near-permanent mourning for her children, refusing to interact with her husband any further, barring him from accessing her rooms. As a result, their one year old son, Corban, was neglected, and raised differently than his much elder sisters.

#### Grandmother (1930-1956)

Mathilda became a grandmother again at the age of 46, when a baby was born to her daughter, Florinda Rosier, in March of 1930. The baby girl, named Druella Lucinda, was initially not expected to survive, but luckily she did. Her birth, according to Mathilda, broke the spell of terrible luck that had been cursed upon the Yaxleys, and two years later, Florinda gave birth to a baby boy, Anselm Rosier, who became heir to the House of Rosier.

Mathilda was present at the wedding of her granddaughter, Druella, to Cygnus Black IV, which took place in 1950. Cygnus Black IV was a member of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, arguably the richest family in Wizarding Britain. He was the son of Pollux Black and grandson of the brother (Cygnus Black III) of a former Head, Sirius Black II, and he was most certainly a minor member of the family, but he was wealthy.

Mathilda became a great-grandmother when her great-granddaughter, Bellatrix Black, was born in 1951. A second great-granddaughter, Andromeda, followed in 1952. Then came Narcissa, in 1955, but Mathilda died in 1956.

#### Death

Mathilda Yaxley passed away on 1 January, 1956, at the age of 71, on the Yaxley estate in Upton Noble. She was survived by her husband Bertram Yaxley, three of her children, Florinda, Eugenie, and Corban; as well as four grandchildren, Druella Black (née Rosier), Anselm Rosier, Corvus Yaxley, and Antonius Parkinson.

After Mathilda's death in 1956, her grandson, Anselm, married Anastasia Vulchanova, a member of a prominent Russian pure-blood family, and had three children with her, including Evan, Felix, and Boniface.

#### Legacy

Mathilda was a great-grandmother of Bellatrix Lestrange, Andromeda Tonks, Narcissa Malfoy, Evan Rosier, Felix Rosier, and Boniface Rosier. Among her descendants are Nymphadora Tonks and Draco Malfoy.

## Etymology

Mathilda is the English form of the Germanic female name *Mahthildis*, which derives from the Old High German "*maht*" (meaning "might, strength") and "*hild*" (meaning "battle"), therefore having "strength in battle".