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| “ | Marvolo, his son, Morfin, and his daughter, Merope, were the last of the Gaunts, a very ancient wizarding family noted for a vein of instability and violence that flourished through the generations due to their habit of marrying their own cousins. | „ |
| ~ Albus Dumbledore's description of the Gaunts. |
The House of Gaunt are overarching antagonists of the Harry Potter franchise. They were a Pure-blood family, and, until their extinction, the only living descendants of Salazar Slytherin, a Pure-blood supremacist whose descendants perpetuated the heritage and hatred for every non-magic being.
Biography
Background
The Gaunts used to be a very powerful and wealthy family. Nearly every descendants of Salazar Slytherin inherited his pure-blood supremacy views, and the Gaunts were known to marry their cousins and have children who would do the same, in order to retain only pure-blood through the line and Salazar's inherited ability to speak Parseltongue, the snakes language. Once immensely rich, the House of Gaunt's taste for grandeur and lack of sensibility meant the family gold was squandered over the years. Additionally, years of inbreeding made them violent and instable.
20th century : the last of the family
By the 1920's, only three Slytherin's descendants were still alive : Marvolo Gaunt, his son Morfin and his daughter Merope. Although caring for Morfin, Marvolo mistreated Merope on every aspects for her lack of magical abilities. The only remnants of the Gaunt's past were a few heirlooms, a ring with the Peverell's coat of arms and Salazar Slytherin's locket. Condemned to poverty, they are living in a shack outside of Little Hangleton, not far from the Riddle family's mansion. The Riddles, a very powerful Muggle family, were owning nearly the entire village, except for the Gaunt Shack and were disdainful of the family and their habits. Merope would often see Tom Riddle, their son, passing by on horses with his lover, Cecilia. She soon became infatuated with the man, however, she had to hide this from her father and her brother, as they would both be mad at her for this. Riddle, however, never noticed Merope and ended up being hexed by Morfin with hives. The Ministry of Magic intervened and obliviated Tom's memory so he would forget about the incident. However, as Morfin broke the magical laws, the Ministry sent Bob Ogden, head of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad, to the shack the next day.
Ogden, who simply went to the shack to announce Morfin that he would have to face an hearing at the Ministry in the following days for abusive use of magic, was attacked by the latter, hexed with hives, the same that happened to Tom Riddle. He was then greeted by Marvolo, who reluctantly welcomed him in the cottage. Ogden could then witness the misery the family was living in, as well as Merope's awful situation. The ministry official tried his best to continue the discussion, dismissing Marvolo's questions and insults about his blood heritage, who didn't matter at all for Ogden. The situation turned awry when they all heard Tom and Cecilia passing by on horses again. This prompted Morfin to taunt Merope and reveal his sister's infatuation for the Muggle to their father. Heavily angered, Marvolo tried to kill his daughter, but is stopped by Ogden, who then fled and returned with reinforcements to arrest Marvolo and Morfin, both resisting. Marvolo was sentenced to six months in Azkaban and Morfin for three years.
With her family gone, Merope was able to develop her magical skills and then manipulated Riddle into marrying her. He died before Morfin came out of Azkaban, the latter returning to the shack to live a very miserable life, not caring for his hygiene or the shack's condition, damning Merope for betraying her blood and taking Salazar's locket with her.
Although what happened exactly was not revealed, Tom ended up leaving Merope when she was still pregnant and returned to Little Hangleton, believing himself to have been bewitched. Weakened by very poor health and numerous years of mistreatment, Merope couldn't or didn't want to use magic. At the end of 1926, alone in London, Merope sold the locket to Caractacus Burke, who scammed her by solding it for only ten Galleons, the best bargain he never made, according to himself, as the locket was enough priceless.
On the night of 31 December, Merope entered Muggle Wool's Orphanage and was brought it by the staff, notably Mrs Cole. Merope had the baby within the hour, and then named her newborn son Tom Marvolo, like his father and her own father. And she then died the next hour, leaving the boy who would become Lord Voldemort to the care of the orphanage. 16 years later, in 1943, Tom Riddle Jnr discovered the existence of the Gaunts by investigating his mother's past. He then went to the Gaunt Shack and met Morfin, his uncle, who revealed him about his mother's love for the Muggle, living in the manor on the other side of the village. Upon learning of his father's actions, Riddle stunned his uncle, took his wand and went to the Riddle mansion. Frank Bryce, the Riddle's gardener, was the only one who saw Tom Riddle Jnr climbing the hill. The teenager then murdered his father with the Killing Curse and also his grandparents to erase his Muggle heritage. Back to the shack, he implemented false memories in Morfin's mind in order to remember he killed the Riddles, left the wand, took the Peverell's ring and then left. Although the Muggle authorities accused Frank Bryce but never solved out how the Riddles actually died, the Ministry suspected Morfin and he confessed everything. With not further investigation needed, he was sent to Azkaban for a life sentence.
Years later, Albus Dumbledore, investigating Voldemort's past, met Morfin and discovered this memory, left at the bottom of his memory. Once he viewed the memory, he tried to convince the Ministry to release Morfin, but before they took their decision, Morfin died and was buried with all the other inmates who died within the prison.
