Tom Riddle, Senior was the Love Interest of Merope Gaunt from the Harry Potter series. He is also the father of Tom Marvolo Riddle, aka Lord Voldemort, the most feared wizard ever and the main antagonist of the series.
Biography[]
Merope Gaunt, the daughter of pure-blooded wizard and descendant of Salazar Slytherin, Marvolo Gaunt, was secretly in love with her Muggle neighbor, Tom Riddle. When her father and brother were sent to Azkban, Merope escaped her terrible home life so she can be with Tom. However, Tom was in love with a Muggle woman named Cecilia and did not noticing Merope or her affections towards him. Determined to have Tom for herself, Merope was said to have given Tom a love potion to make him fall in love with her. Despite this, she had a deep affection for him which she abused by using force to make him fall for her. While he was under the influence of the Love Potion, they married and she got pregnant, giving birth to Tom Marvolo Riddle (who later would become Lord Voldemort).
In the books[]
Goblet of Fire[]
He is first mentioned in this book. The opening chapter starts with Tom Riddle and his parents found dead in their mansion. The police are called, as are the Aurors, (the wizard police) and while the Muggle police are baffled by the unharmed corpses, the Aurors know immediately that it is a wizard's murder. They incarcerate Morfin, a Muggle-hater who lived across from the Riddles. He openly confessed to killing them. However, in reality it was his son, Tom Marvolo Riddle, who killed the Riddles.
Lord Voldemort himself first mentions his father. Until this point is was unknown who Voldemort's family were or if he even had any. Voldemort expresses scorn for his father, saying he abandoned his pregnant wife, and left her to fend for herself. Voldemort says he got revenge by killing his father. But then he says he's growing sentimental and soon the Death Eaters arrive.
Half-Blood Prince[]
Here we discover the love Merope had for Tom Riddle, Senior. She was of the Gaunt family, descended from the great wizard Salazar Slytherin, and Merope was very poor, like her family, but her elitist male relatives derided others, saying because they were descended from Slytherin, they were royal. Merope was downtrodden by her abusive family, and she longed to escape and marry Tom Riddle, Senior, who unfortunately had a crush on Cecilia, another Muggle. Tom Riddle, Senior avoided the Gaunt home because he knew the father and son were mad, but he barely knew of Merope, despite her hanging out the window to gaze at him. Her love for him got stronger, and when Robert Ogden, a Ministry official, came to save Merope and get her abusive father and brother arrested for harming Tom Riddle, Senior and showing no remorse, Merope escaped at last, and she made a Love Potion, finding her magic powers were fully established now she was free of oppression.
Merope made a Love Potion and gave it to Tom Riddle, Senior one day when he was riding past her house. Soon she professed her love for him and he accepted. They eloped and Merope and Tom got married soon after, causing gossip in the community. People said Tom Riddle, Senior had fallen from grace by marrying a tramp's daughter. He then began to have doubts (when in reality the Love Potion had worn off) and he no longer loved her. In fact he was disgusted that she was the tramp's daughter, dumped her, and went back to his parents house.
Unfortunately, this was the same time Merope got pregnant, having made out with Tom Riddle, Senior while having him bewitched. Tom returned and said he'd been "under a spell" and "bewitched." Tom Riddle, Senior, ended up back in the Riddle House, for around seventeen more years before his estranged son Tom Marvolo Riddle killed him, and as for Merope, she went to London, now completely distraught, bereft of magic power, and contemplating death. She got by through selling her artefacts to wizard auctioneers, in one case she sold Slytherin's Locket to Burke, a shady dealer. One day in Winter she was stumbling through a grotty part of London when she came to an orphanage. She was welcomed and sheltered, finally giving birth to Tom Marvolo Riddle. She named him after her one true love, and then she lost her will to live and died soon after.