The Riddle House and Surrounding Area
The Riddle House was a fine mansion that was allowed to fall
into disrepair after years of neglect. Located on a hill overlooking the village
of Little Hangleton, the Riddle House was once owned by elderly Mr. and Mrs.
Riddle and their grown son Tom. In the days when the Riddles had lived there,
the house was easily the largest and most impressive manor around. The Riddles
employed maids, housekeepers, and a gardener by the name of Frank Bryce to keep
after the grounds. Frank lived in a small, rundown cottage on the grounds of
the Riddle Estate.
The Riddles were highly disliked by the villagers of Little Hangleton because
of their rude, haughty demeanor and wealth. All three were found dead one summer's
morning by their maid as she entered the drawing room. What was surprising about
their deaths was the fact that no one seemed able to explain how or why they
had died. All three looked as if they had just dropped over for no apparent
reason. A murder investigation was held and Frank was arrested for the crime,
although he was later released for lack of evidence. The Riddles were buried
in the Little Hangleton churchyard and Frank returned to his small cottage
where he continued to care for the grounds, even though the villagers believed
him guilty of the murders and continued to discuss them in the village pub,
The Hanged Man, for many years afterwards. Frank remained in his cottage for
the next fifty years, caring as best he could for the grounds under the next
several owners of the estate and trying to keep vandals away. As he grew older
and less able to do his job, the house and grounds began to look more and more
dilapidated. Long unoccupied as the current owner kept the house solely for
tax purposes, by the summer of 1994 the Riddle House had some of its windows
boarded up, tiles were missing from the once-fine roof, and ivy covered the
house's face.
It was during the summer of 1994 that Lord Voldemort and Wormtail took up residence
in the Riddle House for a short time. Voldemort chose this house because
it had belonged to his father and paternal grandparents, the Riddles, whom he
had killed with the Avada Kedavra curse those fifty years previous. Frank noticed
flickering firelight coming from the supposedly-deserted Riddle House one evening
and decided to investigate. Expecting to find village boys playing a prank,
Frank entered the house through the back door, which was almost entirely covered
in ivy. Walking through the cavernous kitchen and up the dust-strewn stone stairs,
Frank emerged onto a small landing, to the right of which there was a passage
ending in a room. It was in this upstairs room of the Riddle House that Frank
accidentally discovered Wormtail and the Dark Lord plotting, among other things,
the murder of Harry Potter. The room was lit only by the firelight Frank had
first noticed from his cottage. Inside the room, he found Nagini, Voldemort's
huge snake, curled up on the threadbare hearth rug and Voldemort sitting in
an ancient, high-backed armchair. Voldemort murdered Frank in the Riddle House,
just as he had murdered the Riddles years beforehand.
It was the same Little Hangleton churchyard where the Riddles are buried that
Harry and Cedric Diggory were transported to the night of the third task of
the Triwizard Tournament. Wormtail killed Cedric with the Avada Kedavra curse
before binding Harry to the marble headstone of Tom Riddle, Voldemort's father.
It was in this cemetery that Wormtail performed the spell that restored Voldemort
to his body and power. Using the bone of his father, the flesh of his servant,
and the blood of his enemy (Tom Riddle, Sr., Wormtail, and Harry, respectively),
Voldemort was restored and called his Death Eaters to him. Many came, Apparating
between the tombstones of the small cemetery. After they were assembled and
Voldemort spoke to them of his resurrection and disappointment in them, he decided
to fight Harry. Harry initially dove behind Tom Riddle, Sr.'s headstone for protection,
but then faced Voldemort to duel. Their wands connected, invoking Priori Incantatem
since the wands shared a core. Harry escaped the cemetery that night by dodging
behind tombstones, many of which were hit and damaged by rebounding spells,
until he could reach the Triwizard Cup and be portkeyed back to Hogwarts.
It is unlikely that Voldemort will use the Riddle House as a hideout again;
its location is undoubtedly known by the Order of the Phoenix, rendering it
an unsafe place to hide. The Riddle House is glimpsed
again, though briefly, in a memory of Bob Ogden's inside Dumbledore's Pensieve.
At the time the memory was created, Voldemort had not yet been born and the
Riddle House was still a "handsome manor house surrounded by a wide expanse
of velvety green lawn" (HBP, page 200). The Riddle House and grounds extended
down through the valley of Little Hangleton, but stopped just short of the Gaunt
Cottage. Merope Gaunt, one of the inhabitants of the Gaunt Cottage, later ran
away with Tom Riddle, and after their brief affair gave birth to Tom Marvolo
Riddle, the boy who became Lord Voldemort.
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