Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chapter 10

Home | Science News | My Brain Doesn't Bibliograph | Haiku | Harry Potter | Writing...of sorts

Previous chapter | Index to chapters | Back to blog | Next chapter

Chapter 10: The House of Gaunt

Harry goes to Dumbledore's office for his first private lesson to find out that Dumbledore arranged for him to do Snape's detention the next weekend. Harry learns that his lessons will consist of finding more about Voldemort's past, and trying to help Dumbledore fill in some missing pieces. Dumbledore uses the Pensieve in his office to explore memories he has obtained from others, and takes Harry with him to see the memories unfold.

The first memory belonged to Bob Ogden, an employee of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Dumbledore convinced Ogden to give up some of his memories before he died some years earlier. The memory begins. Ogden is trying to talk to some people in a cottage but they don't want to let him in or talk. The people living inside speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes, but Ogden can't understand it. Ogden is there to talk to Mr. Gaunt about his son, Morfin, using magic in front of a Muggle. Gaunt's daughter, Merope, is also present in the house. Gaunt is very cruel to his children, especially Merope, who is not very good at magic. It makes her seem too much like a Muggle and he hates Muggles more than anything.

Gaunt reveals his family members are the last remaining descendents of Salazar Slytherin, and shows him one of Slytherin's gold lockets to prove it. While Ogden is questioning the Gaunts, some Muggles go by in a cart, and Merope watches the man in the cart closely because she is interested in him, to her father's disgust. It is that man in the cart who Morfin had attacked with magic and the reason for Ogden's investigation. Gaunt goes crazy at his daughter looking at the man, and Ogden flees the house.

The son, Morfin, and the father, Marvolo Gaunt, are later convicted of crimes by the Wizengamot and sentenced to serve time in Azkaban. Harry recognizes the name Marvolo, and Dumbledore confirms that Mr. Gaunt was the grandfather of Tom Marvolo Riddle, or Lord Voldemort. Marvolo's daughter Merope had enchanted the man in the cart, Tom Riddle, and tricked him into marrying her. When she released the enchantment, Riddle left her immediately, but she was pregnant with the boy who would become Voldemort.

Once Harry has heard these stories, he is ready to leave but spots a ring in Dumbledore's office that he recognized from the memory they watched. It had belonged to Marvolo Gaunt.

Previous chapter | Index to chapters | Back to blog | Next chapter