Merope Gaunt

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Merope Gaunt was Voldemort's mother. Her married name was Merope Riddle.

Biography

Merope Gaunt was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin, possibly a Parselmouth, a native of Little Hangleton, and not too skilled at magic due to the extreme emotional abuse she suffered from her father and brother. She fell in love with the Muggle Tom Riddle, Sr., despite her family's considerable prejudice against Muggles. After her father and brother were incarcerated, she and Tom Riddle Sr. eloped together to London. For unknown reasons, Riddle soon abandoned his wife and moved back in with his parents, raving about having been tricked. Merope was left alone, penniless and pregnant, in London. Around Christmas, she finally approached Caractacus Burke in order to sell her only valuable possession, a locket that once belonged to Salazar Slytherin, for a paltry ten Galleons. On New Years Eve, she wandered into a Muggle orphanage where she gave birth to a baby boy. Merope died within an hour of birth, having named the child Tom Marvolo Riddle and expressing the wish that he would look like his father.

Speculation

In order to better understand Lord Voldemort's background, Albus Dumbledore collected evidence on Merope's life. He conjectured that, in order to get Tom to marry her, Merope had given Tom a love potion, but after becoming pregnant, stopped giving him the potion. He also gave the impression that after being abandoned by her husband, Merope gave up using magic, and that she would not have died in childbirth if she had used her magic to save her life.

On the other hand, Lord Voldemort's version of the story is that Riddle Sr. abandoned Merope because she was a witch. It is unknown how he may have come by this information or how accurate it may be compared to Dumbledore's version, but Voldemort's possible sources include Tom Riddle, Sr. himself. As a child, Voldemort deplored his mother for succumbing to death, but by the time of his rebirth many years later, his impression of her had softened considerably, perhaps shaped by learning what Riddle, Sr. had done to her, knowledge of what she had endured to bring him into the world, and by the fact that she was Slytherin's descendant.

Word Origins: Merope means "bee-eater" and also translates to "eloquent" and "mortal." Meropia is a condition of partial blindess. Additionally in Greek Mythology, Merope was a member of the Pleiades sisters (nymphs) and was shamed eternally for marrying a mortal (Sisyphus). Since her parents were angered they made her star, Merope, weakest in the Pleiades constellation. Compare this to Merope Gaunt, a witch shamed for marrying a Muggle.