Bathilda Bagshot was a celebrated magical historian, author of the definitive Hogwarts textbook, A History of Magic. A long-time resident of Godric's Hollow, she was a contemporary of Albus Dumbledore and the great-aunt of Gellert Grindelwald. In her later years, her historical connection to the Dumbledore family made her a person of interest to both Rita Skeeter and Harry Potter. Ultimately, she was murdered by Lord Voldemort prior to the winter of 1997, and her corpse was horrifically animated to house the snake Nagini as part of a trap for Harry.
A preeminent historian in the Wizarding World, Bathilda Bagshot's life's work was the book A History of Magic, which became a standard text for students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She lived her entire life in Godric's Hollow, the same village that would later be home to both the Dumbledores and the Potters. Her most significant impact on history occurred when her great-nephew, Gellert Grindelwald, came to live with her after his expulsion from the Durmstrang Institute. Bathilda introduced the brilliant young Grindelwald to the equally talented Albus Dumbledore, sparking a friendship that would shape the course of the 20th-century wizarding world. Following the tragic death of Ariana Dumbledore, Grindelwald fled, and Bathilda's relationship with the Dumbledore family became strained. Decades later, during the Second Wizarding War, an elderly and senile Bathilda became a key source for Rita Skeeter's scandalous biography, The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore. Skeeter admitted to using Veritaserum to coax memories from her, including the existence of a photograph of Dumbledore and Grindelwald as youths. Sometime before Christmas of 1997, Bathilda was murdered by Lord Voldemort or his Horcrux, Nagini. When Harry Potter and Hermione Granger visited Godric's Hollow seeking information about Dumbledore and a potential lead on the Sword of Gryffindor, they were lured into her home. They discovered too late that the silent, stooped figure they believed to be Bathilda was actually her corpse, possessed by Nagini. The snake attacked Harry, and the pair narrowly escaped Voldemort's arrival.
When Harry Potter encounters her, Bathilda is an extremely old woman, so stooped she is “about the height of a house-elf.” She has a deeply wrinkled face, a mane of wispy white hair, and eyes that are clouded and thick with cataracts. Her home is described as being incredibly dusty and smelling of old age, dirt, and uncooked meat, which were all signs of her death and the subsequent decay of her corpse. In her prime, Bathilda was considered a “most celebrated magical historian” by Albus Dumbledore. Ron Weasley's Great-Aunt Muriel dismissively referred to her as “dotty,” suggesting her mental decline was public knowledge in her later years. Rita Skeeter confirmed that her “mind was going” and that she was an unreliable narrator without magical persuasion. Her notes to Dumbledore in Skeeter's book show a kind and affectionate tone.