Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Morfin Gaunt
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
| Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter - Character | |
| Morfin Gaunt | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| Hair color | |
| Eye color | |
| Related Family | Marvolo Gaunt, Merope Gaunt, Salazar Slytherin, Lord Voldemort |
| Loyalty | Marvolo Gaunt |
Contents |
[edit] Overview
Son of Marvolo Gaunt and uncle of Lord Voldemort.
[edit] Role in the Books
[edit] Half-Blood Prince
Morfin enters our story by swinging down out of a tree and telling a Ministry wizard, Bob Ogden, that he is not welcome. Ogden does not understand, as Morfin has chosen to speak in Parseltongue. He is described as having hair so thickly matted with dirt that it could be any color, very few teeth, and small, dark eyes that pointed in different directions. When Ogden says he has business with the Gaunts, Morfin assaults him magically. His father, Marvolo Gaunt, then steps out of the shack and orders Morfin to go indoors.
Inside, Morfin initially takes little part in the proceedings, spending his time playing with and talking to a snake that he is holding. When Ogden explains that Morfin is being summoned to a hearing for having Jinxed a Muggle, Marvolo seems unconcerned; after all, it was only a Muggle, so no harm done. When told that Morfin has broken Wizarding law, Marvolo falls back on the pride of his ancestry. Their discussion is interrupted by the sound of horses approaching; it turns out that one of the horses is ridden by Tom Riddle, the Muggle that Morfin had jinxed when he found out that his sister Merope was sweet on him, leaning out the window hoping for a glimpse of him. This revelation sparks an angry outburst from Marvolo, who attacks Merope; Ogden leaps to her defence but then has to run from Morfin.
When the Ministry return to arrest Morfin, he resists, and is arrested both for the use of magic on a Muggle, and for resisting Ministry wizards, tried, and sentenced to three years in Azkaban. When he returns from prison, he finds the house empty; Merope had run off with her Muggle and subsequently died in London, and Marvolo had died shortly after leaving Azkaban.
Tom Marvolo Riddle, Merope's son by Tom Riddle, visited the shack some twelve years later. Morfin initially thought he was the Muggle Tom Riddle. Tom had gotten details of the family history from Morfin, then Stunned him, stole the ring of the Peverells, which had been one of Marvolo's prized possessions, and used Morfin's wand to murder the muggle Tom Riddle, his father; then modified Morfin's memory so he remembered actually killing Tom Riddle. Morfin was sent to Azkaban for the murder of the Riddles and died there shortly afterwards.
[edit] Strengths
[edit] Weaknesses
Morfin is not a stable person; apparently as a result of in-breeding, he does not have the mental capacity to manage leading a normal life, and spends it all nailing snakes to his door and wallowing in his hatred for Muggles (non-magical people). He does assist his father in his on-going abuse of his sister Merope.
