"It stood on a hill overlooking the village, some of its windows boarded, tiles missing from its roof, and ivy spreading unchecked over its face. Once a fine-looking manor, and easily the largest and grandest building for miles around, the Riddle House was now damp, derelict, and unoccupied" (GF1).
Though few wizards realize it, the Riddle House holds an important place in wizarding history. Located on a hill overlooking Little Hangleton, it was the home of Voldemort’s grandparents, and the place where his father, Tom Riddle, lived both before and after Voldemort’s birth at the end of 1926.
The summer after Tom Marvolo Riddle’s fifth year at Hogwarts (c. 1943), he discovered that his mother’s family – the Gaunts – lived in a house across town; upon arriving there he learned of his father and grandparents and murdered them in their drawing room. Their bodies were soon discovered by the family maid. Frank Bryce was originally implicated in the crime by Muggle police (GF1) while wizarding authorities blamed Morfin Gaunt (HBP17)., though of course both were innocent.
Ownership of the house changed hands several times in the following years, but nobody stayed for long as they all agreed it had “a nasty feeling about it,” and we don’t know who owns it now, though the Muggles in town believe the owner is a wealthy man who keeps it “for tax reasons.” Whether the owner is a Muggle, a Death Eater, or Voldemort himself, it has been sitting abandoned for years; the inside now has a “smell of decay” and a layer of “dust that lay thick upon the stone” (GF1).
In the summer of 1994, Voldemort returned to the house with Wormtail and Nagini to use it as a makeshift headquarters. The night they entered the house, Frank Bryce saw light on inside and came to investigate; it was then that Voldemort murdered him (GF1). Voldemort probably remained there for some time but we don’t know for sure. When he regained his body the following year, it was in the nearby town graveyard (GF32).
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Tags: deaths