The Gaunt Cottage

The Gaunt house, the dilapidated cottage that once housed the last of the Gaunt family, was located in Little Hangleton. In the early 1920s, Little Hangleton was a remote village nestled in a valley between two steep hills. One of these hills bore the Riddle House, a handsome mansion with extensive grounds. Directly across from the immaculately kept Riddle property sat the decrepit Gaunt Cottage.

The cottage could be reached by a narrow, hedge-rimed lane that curved to the right just before entering the village of Little Hangleton. After the turn, the already narrow country lane turned into an even more narrow dirt path, bordered on either side by high, wild hedgerows. The path, which sloped steadily downhill, was crooked, rocky, and littered with potholes. As the path continued, the trees, hedges, and underbrush surrounding it became darker and denser until at last opening into a copse. The copse itself was surrounded by a variety of old trees that cast deep, dark shadows all around. Set amongst them, half-hidden from sight amongst the tangle of trunks, sat the decaying Gaunt Cottage [HBP10].

The ramshackle hut was truly a sight to behold. The walls were mossy "and so many tiles had fallen off the roof that the rafters were visible in places" [HBP10]. The windows were tiny and thick with filth. On the front door was nailed the body of a dead snake. The inside of the cottage, which was comprised of three rooms, was no better than the outside. The main room, which served as both kitchen and living room, was in a state of ghastly disrepair. Although moss-covered outside, inside the cottage the stone walls were covered in dirt. The main room contained a battered wooden table, a filthy armchair, and a grimy black stove with a shelf full of squalid-looking pots and pans hanging above it. Two doors led off of this main room, presumably to bedrooms of the three equally unkempt members of the Gaunt family; Marvolo, Morfin, and Merope.

This was the state of the place when Bob Ogden, at the time an employee in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, called on the family in 1925 or 1926, concerning an incident in which Morfin attacked a Muggle. The Muggle in question just happened to be Tom Riddle, the man who went on to father - and abandon - Lord Voldemort. Merope Gaunt, Morfin's sister, was in love with Riddle, thus provoking Morfin's attack when he realized his sister harbored feelings for a Muggle. Despite the haggard, desolate appearance of the family and their home, the Gaunts were actually the last remaining direct descendants of Salazar Slytherin. A fanatical, pure-blood wizard family, Marvolo and Morfin had no use for half-bloods or Muggle-borns, and even less for Muggles. Despite their own fetid surroundings, Marvolo and Morfin were possessed of an arrogant, pure-blood pride that was apparently a common trait in the Gaunt family. Once well to do, a "lack of sense coupled with a great liking of grandeur meant that the family gold was squandered several generations before Marvolo was born" [HBP10]. Nevertheless, Marvolo and his son retained the stubborn pride that usually accompanies great wealth and stature, even though the only items of worth the Gaunts possessed were a black-stoned ring (the stone of which was, unbeknown to them, the legendary Resurrection Stone), and a heavy gold locket, that had once belonged to Salazar Slytherin. The only member of the Gaunt family who did not despise everything relating to Muggles was Merope.

As filth-ridden as the Gaunt Cottage was at the time of Ogden's visit, it would only get worse as the years went on. Directly after Ogden fled the cottage, Morfin and Marvolo were taken to Azkaban, leaving Merope home alone. She deserted the cottage a short while later, eloping with Tom Riddle. Marvolo returned home to an empty house, and before Morfin was released from Azkaban, Marvolo died. The cottage stood empty and alone for some time, waiting for Morfin's return [HBP10].

Roughly sixteen years after Ogden called on the Gaunts, Tom Marvolo Riddle, Merope's son, went to the cottage looking for his grandfather. What he found, instead, was the most derelict hovel imaginable - far worse even than it was at the time of Ogden's visit. The ceiling was thick with cobwebs and the floor was covered in an impenetrable layer of dirt and grime. The battered wooden table was littered with mouldy, rotting food and dirty pots. Amidst the refuse was Morfin, the only surviving member of the Gaunt family. Tom learned about his grandfather's death and father's lineage from Morfin before rendering the man unconscious. Tom then killed his father and paternal grandparents, framing Morfin for the murders, and took Morfin's black-stoned ring - the one that housed the Resurrection Stone [HBP17].

After Morfin was taken to Azkaban for the murder of the Riddle family, the Gaunt Cottage was left uninhabited and fell completely to pieces. Voldemort himself returned to the ruins twice more before his death. The timing of his first visit is unknown, but it was at this point that he hid the Peverell ring in the wreckage. By this point, Voldemort had turned the ring into a Horcrux, hiding a piece of his soul within the Resurrection Stone, although he, too, had no idea of its real identity. He wanted to put the ring in a location no one was likely to disturb, and decided the vestiges of the Gaunt Cottage would be a good place. Voldemort then cast many protective spells and enchantments over the debris of the shack where his ancestors had lived, hoping to protect the fragment of his soul locked within the ring [HBP23].

During the summer of 1996, Dumbledore located the ruins of the Gaunt Cottage. He was able to break the enchantments protecting the Horcrux - though not without significant personal damage - and retrieve the ring. Dumbledore destroyed the fragment of Voldemort's soul hidden within it, an action that caused the Resurrection Stone to crack, although this damage didn't affect its properties [DH34]. The also, rather unwisely, put the ring on, and act that led to his own death [DH33].

Voldemort's second and final visit to the shack came shortly before his death, when he finally realised that Harry was seeking and destroying his Horcruxes. He checked the location of each of them, with his anger and frustration growing greater by the minute as he discovered them gone [HBP29]. The Cottage was the first place he visited before moving on the the Cave, and finally to Hogwarts, where the final battle began. Voldemort's death means that, in all probability, nobody has been near the cottage again ever since, and it has simply continue its long process of decay.