======The Gaunt Shack======
=====Location Information=====
  * **Type:** Residence / Hovel
  * **Location:** A wooded coombe overlooking the village of [[Little Hangleton]], [[England]]
  * **Owner/Residents:** The [[House of Gaunt]], most notably [[Marvolo Gaunt]], [[Morfin Gaunt]], and [[Merope Gaunt]].
  * **Key Features:** Extreme squalor, advanced state of decay, a dead snake nailed to the front door, and later, the hiding place for a [[Horcrux]].
=====Description and History=====
The [[Gaunt Shack]] was the dilapidated and isolated home of the last known descendants of [[Salazar Slytherin]], the [[House of Gaunt]]. Located in a thicket of trees off a winding lane near [[Little Hangleton]], the shack was barely visible, surrounded by a tangle of overgrown vegetation. Its walls were thick with moss and several slates were missing from the roof. A dead snake was nailed to the front door, a clear and grim symbol of the family's lineage and their ability to speak [[Parseltongue]].
The interior of the shack consisted of three small rooms and was described as being even more squalid than the outside. The main room was filthy, containing a grimy table, crusty pots, and broken-down furniture. The general atmosphere was one of extreme poverty, filth, and malevolence.
In the summer of 1925, [[Bob Ogden]], an employee from the [[Ministry of Magic]]'s [[Department of Magical Law Enforcement]], visited the shack to deliver a summons to [[Morfin Gaunt]] for attacking a local [[Muggle]], [[Tom Riddle Sr.]]. During this visit, [[Ogden]] witnessed the cruel and arrogant nature of [[Marvolo Gaunt]], who proudly displayed his [[pure-blood]] heritage through [[Marvolo Gaunt's Locket|Slytherin's Locket]] and [[Marvolo Gaunt's Ring|a Peverell ring]], while demeaning his daughter, [[Merope Gaunt]]. After [[Morfin]] and [[Marvolo]] were imprisoned in [[Azkaban]], [[Merope]] was left alone. She used a [[Love Potion]] to ensnare [[Tom Riddle Sr.]] and left the shack, never to return.
Years later, after [[Marvolo]] had died and [[Morfin]] had served his time in [[Azkaban]], he returned to live alone in the decrepit shack. Around 1943, a sixteen-year-old [[Tom Marvolo Riddle]] sought out his maternal family and came to the shack. There, he met his uncle [[Morfin]], from whom he learned about his heritage. [[Voldemort|Tom Riddle]] stunned his uncle, stole [[Marvolo Gaunt's Ring]], and used [[Morfin]]'s wand to murder his [[Muggle]] father and grandparents at the [[Riddle House]]. He then modified [[Morfin]]'s memory, causing him to confess to the murders. [[Morfin]] died in [[Azkaban]], and the shack was left abandoned for decades.
=====Role in the Story=====
The [[Gaunt Shack]] is central to understanding [[Lord Voldemort]]'s origins and motivations. In //[[Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]]//, [[Albus Dumbledore]] shows [[Harry Potter]] [[Bob Ogden]]'s memory of the shack in the [[Pensieve]]. This memory provides [[Harry]] with his first glimpse into [[Voldemort]]'s maternal family, revealing their fanatical [[pure-blood]] ideology, their poverty, and the abusive environment that shaped [[Voldemort]]'s mother, [[Merope Gaunt]].
The shack's primary significance, however, is as the hiding place for one of [[Voldemort]]'s [[Horcrux|Horcruxes]]. After turning [[Marvolo Gaunt's Ring]] into a [[Horcrux]], [[Voldemort]] returned it to the abandoned shack, hiding it in a golden box beneath the floorboards and protecting it with powerful [[enchantment]]s. In the summer of 1996, [[Dumbledore]] and [[Harry]] visited the ruins of the shack to retrieve this [[Horcrux]]. [[Dumbledore]] successfully located and destroyed the [[Horcrux]] within the ring, but not before being afflicted by a deadly curse placed upon it, an event that sealed his eventual fate.
=====Known Areas Within=====
  * **Main Room:** A squalid, combined living and cooking area. It was here that [[Bob Ogden]] confronted the Gaunts and where the family's poverty and cruelty were on full display.
  * **Hidden Compartment:** A small hollow beneath the floorboards of the main room. This is where [[Voldemort]] hid the golden box containing [[Marvolo Gaunt's Ring]] after it had been made into a [[Horcrux]].
=====Behind the Scenes=====
In the film adaptation of //[[Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]]//, the scene depicting [[Bob Ogden]]'s visit to the [[Gaunt Shack]] is omitted. Instead, [[Dumbledore]]'s retrieval of the ring is shown in a brief [[Pensieve]] memory, where he finds the ring's box in a different container and uses his wand to reveal it. The shack's exterior is shown when he and [[Harry]] visit its ruins in the present day (film).