I AM LORD VOLDEMORT: The Life of Tom Marvolo Riddle & His Flight from Death
written by Regulus Viridian Fawkes
A biography on the life of Tom Marvolo Riddle, infamously known as "Lord Voldemort," a man so feared by the wizarding community that not even Rita Skeeter would dare to write about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
Last Updated
05/31/21
Chapters
20
Reads
1,053
Ancestry // Lineage
Chapter 3
By the conclusion of the Second Wizarding War (1995/96-98), Tom Marvolo Riddle, through his maternal side, was the last known member of the House of Gaunt, a pure-blood family listed in the "Sacred Twenty-Eight." The House of Gaunt was an ancient and formerly wealthy & influential wizarding family. However, the gold was squandered generations before Riddle was born, and the family is now noted for producing individuals with violent character due to generations of inbreeding & incest in order to "maintain the purity of blood." The Gaunts are also known for being the last remaining descendants of Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Previous known members of the Gaunt family included Corvinus Gaunt, the one who hid the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets (which, therefore, concealed its existence until it first opened in the 1940s), as well as Rionach & Gormlaith Gaunt, mother & aunt to Isolt Steward (née Sayre; more widely known using her maiden name) -- founder of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry -- and grandmother & grandaunt (or great-aunt?) to Martha and Rionarch Steward. It is believed that Gormlaith Gaunt was the last of the Irish branch of the family.
The North American branch of the Gaunt family (through Isolt Sayre) is believed to have died out in the 17th or 18th century. Rionach Steward, Sayre's daughter & professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Ilvermorny, was rumored to have been a Parselmouth (which she supposedly inherited from her mother) -- one who can communicate with serpents through Parseltongue, the language of snakes. The common story is that Steward never had children because she didn't want to continue the bloodline of Salazar Slytherin, whom she viewed as a Dark wizard, and so she believed that the Slytherin bloodline would die out with her. Unbeknownst to Steward, however, another branch of the Gaunt family was present in England. Here it was upon which Riddle descended from.
Riddle's maternal grandfather and maternal uncle, Marvolo and Morfin, respectively, claimed to be Slytherin's last known, pure-blood, male descendants in the early 20th century. Despite their poor living conditions & mental and physical disorders stemming from generations of inbreeding, they believed themselves to be royalty. They often abused Riddle's mother, Merope, and believed her to be a Squib due to her magical gifts not manifesting.
Riddle's father, Tom Riddle, Sr., was a wealthy Muggle who lived in Little Hangleton, a village near the Gaunt shack. Merope manipulated Tom Riddle, Sr. into a relationship, suspected to have been caused by either the Imperius Curse (Harry Potter's suspicions) or a Love Potion (Albus Dumbledore's suspicions; more likely). When she stopped bewitching Tom Riddle, Sr., hoping that he would either show genuine love towards her or stay for the child, Riddle, Sr. left Merope. Merope would never use magic again.
Previous known members of the Gaunt family included Corvinus Gaunt, the one who hid the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets (which, therefore, concealed its existence until it first opened in the 1940s), as well as Rionach & Gormlaith Gaunt, mother & aunt to Isolt Steward (née Sayre; more widely known using her maiden name) -- founder of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry -- and grandmother & grandaunt (or great-aunt?) to Martha and Rionarch Steward. It is believed that Gormlaith Gaunt was the last of the Irish branch of the family.
The North American branch of the Gaunt family (through Isolt Sayre) is believed to have died out in the 17th or 18th century. Rionach Steward, Sayre's daughter & professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Ilvermorny, was rumored to have been a Parselmouth (which she supposedly inherited from her mother) -- one who can communicate with serpents through Parseltongue, the language of snakes. The common story is that Steward never had children because she didn't want to continue the bloodline of Salazar Slytherin, whom she viewed as a Dark wizard, and so she believed that the Slytherin bloodline would die out with her. Unbeknownst to Steward, however, another branch of the Gaunt family was present in England. Here it was upon which Riddle descended from.
Riddle's maternal grandfather and maternal uncle, Marvolo and Morfin, respectively, claimed to be Slytherin's last known, pure-blood, male descendants in the early 20th century. Despite their poor living conditions & mental and physical disorders stemming from generations of inbreeding, they believed themselves to be royalty. They often abused Riddle's mother, Merope, and believed her to be a Squib due to her magical gifts not manifesting.
Riddle's father, Tom Riddle, Sr., was a wealthy Muggle who lived in Little Hangleton, a village near the Gaunt shack. Merope manipulated Tom Riddle, Sr. into a relationship, suspected to have been caused by either the Imperius Curse (Harry Potter's suspicions) or a Love Potion (Albus Dumbledore's suspicions; more likely). When she stopped bewitching Tom Riddle, Sr., hoping that he would either show genuine love towards her or stay for the child, Riddle, Sr. left Merope. Merope would never use magic again.
