Relation to Harry Potter[]
Hi - I removed a lot of information recently and I wanted to put a note here in case anyone thinks there's been a vandalism. There was a lot of information that pertained mainly to Marvolo Gaunt and his criminal acts and that really belongs in the entry about Marvolo Gaunt himself, rather than his daughter. I took it out, but added back information about the etymology of Merope's name.Mafalda Hopkirk 22:30, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
Question - Could someone please remind me how Merope and Harry are related? It lists him as a distant cousin.Mafalda Hopkirk 22:31, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
- Nevermind, I have since learned about the black tree =D By the way, thanks CubsFan, for fixing that link, it confuses me sometimes the way that works. I can never remember if the link name goes before or after the bar. Mafalda Hopkirk 12:08, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
Mafalda, there were three Peverell brothers - Tom Riddle is descended from the one with the ring and Harry is descended from the one with the cloak. (Vaudree (talk) 07:53, October 25, 2015 (UTC))
Love[]
Someone wrote "Merope was one of the few members of her family who could feel true and unconditional love, as displayed by her love for Tom Riddle, Sr., a Muggle man, despite her family's traditional beliefs about Muggles." However, it was equally possible that Merope was attracted to Tom because of the ways he differed from her family: she was abused by pureblood wizards, he was a muggle, she lived in poverty, he was rich, her family was ugly, he was handsome. Merope wanted to escape her life and her family so it would make sense that she would gravitate towards someone who, in very superficial ways, seemed to be the opposite of her father and brother - rather than towards a muggle villager of modest looks and means or even magical Mr Ogden from the Ministry. Secondly, it may be significant that Merope gave birth at a muggle orphanage, rather than St Mungos, pretty much guaranteeing that her baby would be raised in the muggle world as a muggle. Finally, and this is just an observation rather than a suggested edit, you'd think that it would have been protocol for the orphanage, if they had a name, to look up all the Riddles within 300 miles (ie a day's drive) of the place. (Vaudree (talk) 07:53, October 25, 2015 (UTC))
Half-Blood Prince (film) appearance?[]
It says Merope was only mentioned as "Voldemort's mother", however only in a deleted scene. But I'm pretty sure she was mentioned another time (I don't even remember that deleted scene...), after Harry and Dumbledore watch the real Slughorn memory, they talk about Voldemort's Horcruxes. Dumbledore says, "... very dark, very powerful. But until tonight, I had no idea just how powerful." And then Harry says, "And the ring?", to which Dumbledore replies, "Belonged to Voldemort's mother." Was this scene deleted? Because it's in the movie on my DVD, and it would be a rather stupid move considering that's just about the ONLY scene where Horcruxes are really discussed. AlastorMoody 17:39, August 29, 2011 (UTC)
Squib[]
I doubt that Marvolo thought that his daughter was a squib. I think that he called her a squib because it was the very worst thing that he could call her - the way he used the term would be like how misogynist (or very angry) muggles use the C word - the same way in a sentence with the same emphasis. Marvolo could not insult her the way he did strangers by calling into question her blood status without calling into question his own - so it was basically the only insult he had left. JKR's editor could not let her use the C word - so she used squib in place of it.
Question - there was no mention of Merope having a "stick" with her when she died after giving birth to Tom. What happened to Merope's wand?
There are vague hints that Tom Riddle did not have very nice things to say when he came to - about Merope for sure and possibly about magic or reporting her to authorities (ie the obvious things one would do), though we can't know one way or the other what he said. Tom felt like he was duped and was very distrustful of all others after that point. He went to the bar and listened to the gossip before he married Merope but would refuse a cup of tea from people after.
We don't know why Merope stopped doing magic - whether she couldn't do magic or refused to do magic. There is a lot of speculation that she was very poor at magic, but for a witch who likely never attended school, she was able to make one tricky potion. (Vaudree (talk) 09:25, November 22, 2015 (UTC))