The memory?

The Gaunts

Dumbledore showed Cassandra Ogden's memory of meeting the Gaunts at their house in Little Hangleton, Merope, Riddle, their ****, attack on Ogden, and subsequent arrest.

"What happened to the girl ... Merope?" Cassandra asked.

"She survived. Ogden returned with reinforcements. Morfin and his father attempted to fight, but both were overpowered, removed from the cottage, and subsequently convicted by the Wizengamot. Morfin, who already had a record of Muggle attacks, was sentenced to three years in Azkaban. Marvolo, who had injured several Ministry employees in addition to Ogden, received six months.”

"Marvolo? That's ..."

"You are keeping up nicely. The old man was Voldemort's grandfather." said Dumbledore "He and his children were the last of the Gaunts, an very ancient family noted for a vein of instability and **** that flourished through the generations due to their habit of marrying their own cousins. 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 a 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.”

"So Merope was Voldemort's -"

"Mother, yes and you got a glimpse of Voldemort's father as well."

"The man on a horse that Morfin attacked?"

"Very good, Tom Riddle senior, a quite handsome Muggle for which Merope Gaunt cherished a secret, burning passion."

"How did they end up married?"

"You are forgetting, that Merope was a witch. I do not believe that her magical powers appeared to their best advantage when she was being terrorized by her father. Once Marvolo and Morfin were safely in Azkaban, once she was alone and free for the first time in her life."

"Then she used a love potion." Cassandra thought of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes.

"Correct, I believe the imperius curse could've worked as well. I believe it would've been more romantic to slip him one when offering him a drink of water on a hot day." Dumbledore conjectured. "The squire's son running off with the daughter of the tramp caused quite the scandal."

"Marvolo was shocked by her actions on his return. He was quite weakened, and didn't live to see Morfin return."

“And Merope? She . . . she died, didn’t she? Wasn’t Voldemort brought up in an orphanage?”

"Yes, You see, within a few months of their runaway marriage, Tom Riddle reappeared at the manor house in Little Hangleton without his wife. The rumor flew around the neighborhood that he was talking of being ‘hoodwinked’ and ‘taken in.'"

“What went wrong?” asked Cassandra. “Why did the love potion stop working?”

“Again, this is guesswork,” said Dumbledore, “but I believe that Merope, who was deeply in love with her husband, could not bear to continue enslaving him by magical means. I believe that she made the choice to stop giving him the potion. Perhaps, besotted as she was, she had convinced herself that he would by now have fallen in love with her in return. Perhaps she thought he would stay for the baby’s sake. If so, she was wrong on both counts. He left her, never saw her again, and never troubled to discover what became of his son.”

They exited the memory to a deep night sky.

“I think that will do for tonight, Ms. Black. I do hope this is informative. Please run along to your dorm now." Dumbledore told her.

"Sir" Cassandra said. "That Ring - " She pointed at the one on his charred hand.

"Yes?" Dumbledore asked.

"Isn’t it the same ring Marvolo Gaunt showed Ogden?”

“The very same.”

“But how come — ? Have you always had it?”

“No, I acquired it very recently,” said Dumbledore.

“That would be around the time you injured your hand, then, sir?”

“Around that time, yes, Cassandra.”

“Sir, how exactly — ?”

"Good night Ms. Black."