House of Gaunt

> Before my birth, my aunt Artemia was the last Parselmouth alive. Common ability in mainly the males of our family, rare in females. In fact, once the ability skips two generations, it will not resurface in that branch again.
>
> Reign Gaunt on the Gaunts's ability to speak Parseltongue

The **House of Gaunt** was a pure-blood family, and one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. They had a tendency of marrying their cousins to keep their blood pure and to retain the traits of their ancestor, most notably the ability to speak Parseltongue.

In the 1920s, the Gaunts lived just outside of Little Hangleton, a small village in northern England. They were very wealthy and prominent once, having descended from many powerful witches and wizards, most notably Salazar Slytherin and Cadmus Peverell. However, their liking for grandeur in tandem with little sensibility when it came to indulgences meant the family gold was squandered long before the last of the lineage was born.

In 1923, following the wedding of Morfin Gaunt and Rosella Flint, the Gaunts rose in status, having the Flint family's manor renamed "Gaunt Manor" and becoming the Gaunts official family home. The Flint family's money made the family wealthy once more.

## History

### Early history

> Lack of sense coupled with a great liking for grandeur meant that the family gold was squandered several generations before Marvolo was born. He, as you saw, was left in squalor and poverty, with very nasty temper, a fantastic amount of arrogance and pride, and a couple of family heirlooms that he treasured just as much as his son, and rather more than his daughter.
>
> Mindset of the Gaunt family

The House of Gaunt was once a prominent, wealthy family in the wizarding world, and originated from many powerfully magical wizards and witches.

The family motto "ᚨᛚᚹᚨᚤᛋ ᛁᚾ ᛈᛟᚹᛖᚱ" means "*Always in Power*". This reflects on the powerful members of the family, and their great liking for grandeur.

In the 1600s, Gormlaith Gaunt slew her sister Rionach and her husband William Sayre for betraying the family's belief in Pure-blood supremacy and lending aid to neighbouring Muggles. She did this by setting their cottage on fire. Gormlaith then took their child, her niece Isolt Sayre and imprisoned her for twelve years, in the hope that she could raise her in the family pure-blood traditions. Isolt ultimately fled to the new world and helped found Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with her Muggle husband James Steward.

Around 1634, Gormlaith found out a headteacher at a new school of magic in the New World was nicknamed "Morrigan". She remembered her niece was named this by her father because of their lineage to Morrigan herself. When she also heard the school was named Ilvermorny, she knew it was Isolt because it was the name of the same cottage Isolt was born in and Gormlaith set fire to. She was also upset to hear Isolt had married a Muggle and opened the school up to anyone with magic and not a select few of pure-bloods. She concocted a plan and set out to the New World in order to exact revenge on her niece. Her plans were going well, as she had managed to back the Steward family into room and was preparing to murder James and the couple's daughters, when Isolt screamed the name William. A friend of Isolt's, a pukwudgie (by the name of William), appeared behind Gormlaith and shot her through the heart with an arrow, killing her instantly.

The Gaunts, being direct descendants of Salazar Slytherin, also knew about the Chamber of Secrets, and Corvinus Gaunt was instrumental in keeping the entrance to the Chamber a secret. In the 1700s, there was a proposal to install an elaborate plumbing system at Hogwarts Castle. This, of course, threatened the secrecy around the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, which, at the time, still had its original appearance — a concealed trapdoor and a series of magical tunnels — and which was located on the site where a girls' bathroom would be set up.

Corvinus Gaunt was, at the time, a student at Hogwarts and knew where the entrance to the Chamber was and how to open it. Corvinus was responsible for secretly protecting the entrance, having concealed it behind plumbing fixtures and a sink (which today are part of Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom), so that those who knew how could still access the Chamber.

### 20th century

By the early twentieth century, the Gaunts had been reduced to poverty, possessing only a few old heirlooms and living in a small, run-down shack. Additionally, generations of inbreeding had made them violent and unstable. Marvolo Gaunt was often abusive toward his daughter Merope, whose emotional trauma made it difficult for her to use magic, making others believe she was a Squib. Her brother Morfin spoke in Parseltongue more than English and frequently terrorised Muggles, eventually leading to his imprisonment in Azkaban.

The Gaunts were restored to their wealthy status when Morfin married Rosella Flint. The Flint family's manor became the Gaunt Manor, and three of four of the Flint family's vaults were given to the Gaunt family. Morfin and Rosella had two children, a son Decius and a daughter Artemia Gaunt.

Merope went against her family's beliefs and married the muggle Tom Riddle Snr via coercion. She gave birth to their only child, who would become the notorious Dark Wizard, Lord Voldemort. Marvolo, returning from a six-month term in Azkaban, died due to either shock at Merope's betrayal or never learning to feed himself, while never again mentioning his daughter's existence. Morfin, returning from his three-year sentence, then succeeded Marvolo as the patriarch of the family.

Instead of returning to the Gaunt family Manor, Morfin returned to the Gaunt Shack and lived in solitude for thirteen years, with very poor care of his hygiene and household, causing both his appearance and the shack to deteriorate drastically. He was later sentenced to a life in Azkaban when his nephew, Voldemort, came to visit to learn about his heritage, who then used Morfin as a scapegoat for the murder of the Riddle family. With an implanted memory, Morfin easily confessed to a crime he did not commit, and was incarcerated up until his death in 1946. By the time evidence of Morfin's innocence arose, his health had already weakened to the point that he died before the Ministry could release him, and his body was buried at the Azkaban burial ground.

Upon Morfin's incarceration, his son Decius became the patriarch of the family. Decius married fellow Slytherin student Medea Macmillan in the summer of 1947. Decius and Medea's first child Penelope Medea Gaunt was born 27 October, 1950. The two had five more children: Rhiannon Selene, Inara Elaine, twins Decius Adonis and Damian Amadeus, and Reign Isolde Gaunt.

By the late 1990s, the male line continued through Amadeus Gaunt. The female line, continued through the Yaxley, Cavalier, Bulstrode, Riddle, Lestrange, Black, Travers, Avery, Turner, and Berkshire families.

## Family traits

Up until the 20th century, every single member of the Gaunt family was Pure–blood. They were also the last known descendants of Salazar Slytherin, as well as descendants of the Peverells, famed ancestors in whom they took great pride.

As stated above, the Gaunts inherited their ancestor's ability to speak Parseltongue. Although this ability was more common in the males of the family, there were cases where the females inherited the ability instead of the males (like in the case of Decius and his sister Artemia). If this ability skips two generations, it will not resurface again in that branch of the family (as proven with Reign and her siblings).

Like other Pure-blood families, the Gaunts were supreme advocates of blood purity and were often inbred in order to maintain "purity." However, by the early twentieth century, mentally unstable members of the family had squandered the family's fortune and cost it much of its prestige among elite Pure-blood circles (although the family later rose in status during the 1920s). The family's habit of keeping themselves pure allowed them to become one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight.

## Family tree

* **Irmina Gaunt** (1866 - 1916)
* **Marvolo Gaunt** (1870 - 1925)
	+ **Morfin Gaunt** (1900 - 1954)
		- **Decius Gaunt I** (1926 - 1996)
			* **Cyrene Gaunt** (1950 - 1998)
			* **Eirene Gaunt** (b. 1952)
			* **Indira Gaunt** (b. 1955)
			* **Decius Gaunt II** (b. 1958)
				+ **Alexandria Gaunt** (b. 1977)
			* **Damon Gaunt** (b. 1958)
				+ **Amadeus Gaunt** (b. 1976)
				+ **Alida Gaunt** (1981 - 1998)
			* **Asteria Gaunt** (b. 1960)
		- **Artemia Gaunt** (1930 - 1997)
	+ **Merope Gaunt** (1907 - 1926)
* **Gardenia Gaunt** (1875 - 1888)
* **Isidora Gaunt** (1878 - 1932)

## Heirlooms

Once a very wealthy family, the Gaunt family had squandered much of their gold early due to the Gaunt family's love for grandeur and mental instability, leaving them with very little inheritances for the later generations.

Gormlaith Gaunt possessed Salazar Slytherin's wand and used it to torture muggles and entrap her niece Isolt Sayre. Isolt stole the wand when she fled to the New World in 1620. It was deactivated by a spell from Gormlaith when she hunted down her niece around 1634 and was eventually buried at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry where it grew into a unique snakewood tree whose leaves had magical properties.

Marvolo Gaunt was in possession of a signet ring passed on from his Peverell ancestors. This ring was eventually turned into a Horcrux by Voldemort and destroyed by Dumbledore with the Sword of Gryffindor. It also contained the Resurrection Stone, one of the legendary Deathly Hallows, something Voldemort had no knowledge of. The Stone itself was lost in the Forbidden Forest when Harry Potter dropped it as he went to confront Voldemort. It was later found by Reign Black and kept in her family once more.

The Gaunts also held onto Salazar Slytherin's locket for many generations. However, Merope later sold it to Borgin and Burkes in order to support herself while she was pregnant. It later came into the possession of Hepzibah Smith, whom a teenage Tom Marvolo Riddle killed and stole the locket from (or, in Riddle's opinion, retrieved what was rightfully his). He also turned this heirloom of his mother's family into a Horcrux. Much later, it was stolen from its hiding place by Regulus Black and later destroyed by Ron Weasley with the Sword of Gryffindor.

## Etymology

The word *gaunt* is defined as "haggard, drawn and emaciated" and "bleak, desolate."