Chapter 10: The Hour of Gaunt

Harry excels in Potions by following the Half-Blood Prince’s annotations, drawing Slughorn’s praise and Hermione’s resentment. After avoiding Trelawney in the corridors, Harry meets Dumbledore, who postpones Snape’s detention and begins their first lesson focused on Voldemort’s past via the Pensieve.

Dumbledore and Harry enter Bob Ogden’s memory to a ramshackle cottage near Little Hangleton. Ogden is attacked by Morfin Gaunt, then confronts Marvolo Gaunt inside, where Merope Gaunt cowers. Marvolo boasts of his Peverell-engraved ring and Slytherin’s locket while abusing Merope. Ogden summons Morfin to a Ministry hearing for hexing a Muggle.

As Tom Riddle Sr. and his girlfriend pass outside, Morfin mocks Merope’s fixation on the Muggle. Marvolo strangles Merope for loving a “filthy” Muggle until Ogden intervenes; Morfin attacks and Ogden flees. Dumbledore ends the memory.

Back in the office, Dumbledore explains that Marvolo is Voldemort’s grandfather, Morfin his uncle, and Merope his mother; the Muggle was Tom Riddle Sr., Voldemort’s father. After Marvolo and Morfin’s imprisonment, Merope likely used a love potion to elope with Riddle. When she stopped dosing him, he abandoned her; she later gave birth to Voldemort and died, leaving the child to an orphanage.

Dumbledore stresses the importance of this history to the prophecy and permits Harry to tell Ron and Hermione in confidence. Harry notices an ugly gold ring with a cracked black stone; Dumbledore confirms it is Marvolo’s ring, recently acquired around the time he injured his hand, but withholds the story of how.