Harry Potter 06 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

wonderingly.
    ‘That’s right,’ said Dumbledore, smiling in approval. ‘I am glad to see you’re keeping up.’
    ‘That old man was –?’
    ‘Voldemort’s grandfather, yes,’ said Dumbledore. ‘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. Lack of sense coupled with a great liking for grandeur meant that the family gold was squandered several generations before Marvolo was born. He, as you saw, was left in squalor and poverty, with a very nasty temper, a fantastic amount of arrogance and pride, and a couple of family heirlooms that he treasured just as much as his son, and rather more than his daughter.’
    ‘So Merope,’ said Harry, leaning forwards in his chair and staring at Dumbledore, ‘so Merope was … sir, does that mean she was … Voldemort’s mother ?’
    ‘It does,’ said Dumbledore. ‘And it so happens that we also had a glimpse of Voldemort’s father. I wonder whether you noticed?’
    ‘The Muggle Morfin attacked? The man on the horse?’
    ‘Very good indeed,’ said Dumbledore, beaming. ‘Yes, that was Tom Riddle Senior, the handsome Muggle who used to go riding past the Gaunt cottage and for whom Merope Gaunt cherished a secret, burning passion.’
    ‘And they ended up married?’ Harry said in disbelief, unable to imagine two people less likely to fall in love.
    ‘I think you are forgetting,’ said Dumbledore, ‘that Merope was a witch. I do not believe that her magical powers appeared to their best advantage when she was being terrorised by her father. Once Marvolo and Morfin were safely in Azkaban, once she was alone and free for the first time in her life, then, I am sure, she was able to give full rein to her abilities and to plot her escape from the desperate life she had led for eighteen years.
    ‘Can you not think of any measure Merope could have taken to make Tom Riddle forget his Muggle companion, and fall in love with her instead?’
    ‘The Imperius Curse?’ Harry suggested. ‘Or a love potion?’
    ‘Very good. Personally, I am inclined to think that she used a love potion. I am sure it would have seemed more romantic to her and I do not think it would have been very difficult, some hot day, when Riddle was riding alone, to persuade him to take a drink of water. In any case, within a few months of the scene we have just witnessed, the village of Little Hangleton enjoyed a tremendous scandal. You can imagine the gossip it caused when the squire’s son ran off with the tramp’s daughter Merope.
    ‘But the villagers’ shock was nothing to Marvolo’s. He returned from Azkaban, expecting to find his daughter dutifully awaiting his return with a hot meal ready on his table. Instead, he found a clear inch of dust and her note of farewell, explaining what she had done.
    ‘From all that I have been able to discover, he never mentioned her name or existence from that time forth. The shock of her desertion may have contributed to his early death – or perhaps he had simply never learned to feed himself. Azkaban had greatly weakened Marvolo and he did not live to see Morfin return to the cottage.’
    ‘And Merope? She … she died, didn’t she? Wasn’t Voldemort brought up in an orphanage?’
    ‘Yes, indeed,’ said Dumbledore. ‘We must do a certain amount of guessing here, although I do not think it is difficult to deduce what happened. You see, within a few months of their runaway marriage, Tom Riddle reappeared at the manor house in Little Hangleton without his wife. The rumour flew around the neighbourhood that he was talking of being “hoodwinked” and “taken in”. What he meant, I am sure, is that he had been under an enchantment that had now lifted, though I daresay he did not dare use those precise words for fear of being thought insane. When they heard what he was saying, however, the villagers guessed that Merope had lied to Tom Riddle, pretending that she was going to have his baby, and that he had married her for this reason.’
    ‘But she did have his baby.’
    ‘Yes, but not until a year after they were married. Tom Riddle left her while she was still pregnant.’
    ‘What went wrong?’ asked Harry. ‘Why did the love potion stop working?’
    ‘Again, this is guesswork,’ said Dumbledore, ‘but I believe that Merope, who was deeply in