Gormlaith Gaunt

**Gormlaith Gaunt** (c. 1576 - 1634) was an Irish pure-blood witch. She was the aunt of Isolt Sayre, the founder of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft. Gormlaith attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft, where she was sorted into Slytherin House.

Gormlaith strongly believed in pure-blood supremacy and had an intense hatred for anyone who went against these views. Her hatred went so deep that she murdered her own sister for showing sympathy towards her Muggle neighbors. Gormlaith died in 1634 while trying to enact revenge against Isolt and her family.

## Biography

### Early Life

Gormlaith was born in Ireland. She had one sister named Rionach. At some point, Gormlaith attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and was sorted into Slytherin House.

### Raising Isolt

Gormlaith became estranged from her sister by the time her niece, Isolt Sayre, was born around 1603. Rionach was helpful to her non-magical neighbors by producing cures for them and their livestock. She did not seem to share her family's beliefs in their pure-blood superiority. One day, Gormlaith started a fire at Rionach's house at Ilvermorny Cottage which killed her and her husband, William Sayre. Gormlaith did not allow Isolt to perish because she hoped to put her on the "right path". She believed Rionach's idea of helping non-magical individuals would lead Isolt to marry one, the very idea of which Gormlaith found unacceptable. She then moved her niece to the neighboring valley of Coomcallee.

Gormlaith kept Isolt for twelve years and was very wicked to her niece by making her watch whenever she jinxed any non-magical person or animal which strayed too close to their cottage. She would not let Isolt attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft because she said it was an establishment which taught "mudbloods", nor would she allow Isolt her own wand. This treatment left Isolt feeling alone and thinking her aunt was insane. At some point, Gormlaith began teaching Isolt dark magic until Isolt had learned enough to be able to escape along with Gormlaith's wand. However, Gormlaith was highly skilled at hunting people down and eventually found Isolt living in England. When Isolt escaped a second time and took the Mayflower to the New World, Gormlaith would not find Isolt again for some time.

### Finding Isolt

Some time later, around 1634, Gormlaith found out a headmistress at a new school of magic in the New World was nicknamed "Morrigan". She remembered her niece was named this by her father due to their lineage to Morrigan herself. When she also heard teh school was named Ilvermorny, she knew it was Isolt because it was the name of the cottage Isolt was born in and Gormlaith set fire to. She was also upset to hear Isolt had married a non-magical man and opened the school up to anyone with magical gifts and not just a select few of pure-bloods.

Gormlaith traveled to the New World with the goal to murder Isolt and her husband and steal their young daughters, Martha and Rionach Steward. She wanted to set them on the same path she hoped their mother would have done.

Gormlaith put Isolt and her husband into a deep sleep before she spoke the language of snakes to make Isolt's wand, which originally belonged to Gormlaith, become inactive. When Gormlaith went into Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft, she was unaware of Isolt's adoption of two sons aged sixteen and fourteen who were skilled with their own wands. When she spoke the language of snakes, Gormlaith inadvertently warned Chadwick and Webster Boot of Gormlaith. Chadwick went out to meet and stop her.

### Death

Gormlaith underestimated Chadwick when they began to duel because, even though she was more powerful, he had been taught well by Isolt. Gormlaith was reluctant to kill Chadwick because she saw his talent and hoped that he was pure-blooded. After Webster's arrival, the brothers' power increased and the ensuing duel awoke the newly-born twin daughters of Isolt. The cries of the newborns awoke Isolt and James and broke the enchantment laid on them by Gormlaith.

Gormlaith, Chadwick, and Webster were then joined by Isolt, but the wand she took with her was still inactive and proved to be of no help. Gormlaith then drove them back inside the castle and upstairs to the room where she could hear her great-nieces crying. When Gormlaith managed to break down the door to the room, she found James standing in front of his daughters in order to protect them. When Gormlaith went to kill him, Isolt said the name of her father William which instead called upon the pukwudgie she had befriended several years earlier. The pukwudgie pierced Gormlaith's heart with one of its poisonous arrows tipped with pukwudgie venom which, due to interaction with Gormlaith's own protective magic, reduced her to nothing except dust and a broken wand of which nothing but some of its core remained.

## Personality

Gormlaith was a pure-blood supremacist and dark witch with an unstable temper. She was obsessive, controlling, and homicidal, to the point where she was willing to murder her own sister due to not sharing traditional House of Gaunt beliefs. She was so consumed by her pure-blood fanaticism that she was willing to kill at the slightest provocation, and would be willing to spare only pure-bloods but more than willing to murder or torture anyone else. She was the portrait of a psychopath: possessed of delusions of grandeur, believing that pure-bloods were inherently greater and more powerful entities, enjoying the basic nuances of human torture and murder, taking great pleasure in ending human life, having no sense of remorse, and actually taking pleasure and pride in the murders she committed.

## Relatives

* Salazar Slytherin (*ancestor*) †
* Cadmus Peverell (*ancestor*) †
* Rionach Sayre (*sister*) †
* William Sayre (*brother-in-law*) †
* Isolt Sayre (*niece*) †
* James Steward (*nephew-in-law*) †
* Chadwick Boot (*adoptive great-nephew*) †
* Webster Boot (*adoptive great-nephew*) †
* Rionach Steward (*great-niece*) †
* Martha Steward II (*great-niece*) †
* Gaunt family (*distant relatives*)

## Powers

**Witchcraft:** Gormlaith was incredibly talented in the Dark Arts, having immersed herself into magic aimed largely at bringing pain and death to others, to the extent of it altering her physical appearance. She was noted to have forced her niece to watch as she cursed and jinxed any non-magical person or animal who that strayed too close to their cottage, showing her proficiency with malicious spell-casting. Gormlaith was also a gifted duellist, capable of overcoming the combined efforts of three powerful witches during her attack on Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and even managed to drive the three back into the castle.

**Zoopathy:** Gormlaith was capable of speaking the language of snakes, a trait which she inherited from her ancestor, Salazar Slytherin.

* ***Magic Blocking:*** By speaking a particular phrase in the language of serpents, Gormlaith was capable of deactivating the wand of her niece and preventing her niece from utilizing her wand during their battle. It is unknown if Gormlaith was capable of blocking the wand capabilities of other witches as well.