InsaneJournal

General Information

Name: Merope Gaunt
Nicknames: "Fuckin' Squib", May, Bint and a bunch of other names that are not exactly nice.
Age: 17
Birthday: May 31, 1908
Gender: Female

Appearance

Height: Fairly short, 5'2"
Eyes: A dim and faded shade of green in her left eye and a peculiar shade of blue in the right. Clearly interbreeding is a factor to this, giving her a very ghastly appearance.
Build: Just as her surname; Gaunt, she's thin from lack of nutrition and holds the type of body that wasn't made to hold a child. She has a small chest, short torso and somewhat long legs and stickly arms with tiny hips.

Hair: Dull, dank and usually unkept black hair. It's usually in her face or hangs there as she has never done anything to it more than comb it. It might look different depending on if Morfin or Marvolo decided to cut her hair unevenly.
Face & Complexion: Her face is rather heavy and somewhat long with oddly shaped eyes and a sharp, slightly turned-up nose with a thin bridge. Merope's cheeks are at a normal height and sullen looking. She spends nearly all her time in the dark and thus is nearly blanch looking in the face, as if she lives by the limitations of her fear.
Defining Marks: She has many scars that cover her body, most of them on her back, legs and arms. She also has an elongated scar from her
Manner of Speech: Soft, submissive and harmonic. The sound of someone who never raised their voice and it has the ability to sometimes calm, but she hardly speaks and it's hardly ever experienced. She has a accent similar to her father's words like "My" are shortened to "M'(word)", probably sounds a little hard to understand if she's not speaking clearly.
Manner of Movement: She's clumsy, never watches where she's going and has the cringing tendency of someone who lived with unremitting dread. Merope also slouches quite a bit and cowers making her seem very small and insignificant.

Magic

House: Marvolo never allowed them to attend schools with mudbloods even though he, himself, attended. Although, she would asked to be in Slytherin due to probably being beat for being in anything else.
Blood: Pureblooded, descended from Salazar Slytherin.
Special Abilities: Parselmouth, she speaks it more than English. That's why her accent is so bad.
Best Subjects: Potions and Dark Arts, which were the only things that she ever observed. She's also do well in Herbology, she works in the garden at home.
Worst Subjects: She has never transfigured anything or tried a charm before, I'm sure she would be competent but she just never learned.
Wand: Blood Wood(Holds a red tint to it), 9" with a AshWinder Ash core; Her mother's wand. It doesn't work well with her and she frequently botches spells.

Special Magical Items: It's not special, but she did own the Slytherin Locket. It's not very special, but she keeps it close to her heart. The only other thing she owns is her and Tom's wedding bands, she keeps them hidden inside the large, heavy locket. However, it does have many hexes and charms so that it is uniquely Slytherin's

Health

Eyesight: Somewhat poor, she can't see very well when bright lights are around her. She's so used to dark and dank settings with very little light that she can only see well when there is a low lighting.
Hearing: Excellent. Merope is very observant to the sounds around her, she can tell how someone is feeling through their body movements, steps and facial expressions. The only way to truly deceive her is to cloud her mind with things like affection, pain or love and then she becomes oblivious to the things around her.
Physical Health: Poor. She suffers from "Broken-Heart" syndrome. Her body in in "Fight or Flee" mod all the time, when she becomes stressed she feel an adrenaline rush that makes her want to escape but without she never does. This type of problem in her body causes heart failure from being disappointed/emotionally hurt. While she did die from it, it's likely that it will cause her alot of anguish. She doesn't have much physical strength or endurance for things like running, lifting and extreme hard labor.
General Dexterity: While she may be fast at moving away, she's very clumsy from being so nervous and frequently abused. Once she starts moving it's hard for her to stop unless she's at a "safe" place. Although many of her stumbles and fumbles are out of fear or forgetfulness rather than actual clumsiness, and it was better when she was living with Tom.
Handicaps: None.
Special Abilities (non-magical): Sewing, Cooking, Cleaning

Psychology

Intelligence: Clever, very clever. However, her cleverness never was allowed to grow and achieve better things. So, she's inquisitive without being annoying and is adamant to learn things if others let her or she's alone. Her ability to grow as a person was stunted by a hand, belt or harsh hexing.
Phobias/Fears: Merope doesn't have fear really, she has things that trigger certain behaviors. She doesn't like to be grabbed, pulled, beaten or shouted at. It makes her nervous, jittery and extremely submissive. Things that remind her of Morfin or Marvolo tend to make her extremely anxious or unsocial, such as the kitchen, burning food, dead snakes or lives ones for that matter. She used to like snakes until Morfin let them bite her and would ONLY cure her when he saw that she was suffering and could possibly die.
Mental Health: Incredibly Poor, she suffered from Post traumatic stress disorder and a "Broken heart", she centers her life around the horrible circumstances of her life and relives them in her head constantly. She only causes more damage to herself because she's so used to never talking to anyone or "letting her feelings out". She feels that everyone is at a party and she wasn't invited,liked or even thought about so she often feels like a spectator to everything around her without being allowed to be involved. She's ALWAYS been confronted with her fears but has never been able to come out of her shell and get back at them, she's too defeated to even try. She's very suspicious of people around her and believe they do not really like her at all, this is due to the only relationship she ever had going sour. She believes that deception was the only way to get someone to love an ugly creature like herself. Merope also passive-aggressive and might lash out, even if it meant getting herself hurt to get a small bit of revenge but it depends on if it's worth it.

The ONLY time where this was lessened was when she was with Tom, the potion made him want to listen to her and love her unconditionally, even though all it did was make him obsessed with her. She grew up adamantly abused by her brother and her father, this was normal in her everyday life, expected and deserved or so she thought; she had no other contact with the exception of Tom Riddle and Bob Ogden.

Merope is a battlefield of insecurities, complexes and difficulties. You have to experience her for yourself.
Intolerances: She hates being abused in any form, she also speaks like a muggle-hater but she believed that Tom Riddle was so beautiful that he had to have magic in him at some point. She's never met anyone else and wouldn't really understand how to feel unless the person stated what their blood status was.
Extrovert/Introvert: Highly Introverted, she's like the kid in the back of class who never made a friend and almost ALWAYS failed class from lack of being social and asking for help. She despises crowds, public places and anything where she can feel stared at or observed. She KNOWS that her appearance causes stares and she doesn't like it, she freezes in place and reflects on a horrid time in her life which makes her unable to move without gentle coaxing. She has NO idea how to enjoy life, Tom was her only enjoyment. She frequently hummed songs she heard from snakes and these symptoms seemed to be mostly gone.

Personality

Goals/Dreams: When she was little she wanted to marry a pureblooded boy and escape her life. When that was nixed, she wanted Tom Riddle. By the time she was pregnant and Tom left, she just wanted to hold her baby and raise him.
Quirks/Habits Scroll up to mental health for most of these. She also tries to hide herself, gets lost on purpose to avoid people, winces or cringes when someone is angry. Merope also turns completely submissive whenever she is touched, she's doesn't know the meaning of "No" and pushing someone away. She maybe be hesitant in her actions but she doesn't understand how to hesitate from undesirable behavior. She believes they'll take whatever they want anyways, she's not a strong or threatening person.
Likes: Outside, trees, reading and anything that can be done alone.
Dislikes: Her house, her brother, her father, cooking and doing things for others. I guess she hates these things because they were always forced upon her. Merope would suffer severe consequences in the forms of harsh abuse, both physical and mental.
Summary:
Merope is very complicated to explain, she's the ultimate opposite of what her son was but there are very many similarties between them; she likes to hides things that she's working on, she's not a team player and she's very determined when she needs to be. The girl is a prime example of how abuse and sadness can ruin a person, stunt their development and even take away their magic to make them so defeated they wouldn't even save their own life. Ever since her life began, she was throw around, beaten, insulted and shouted at whenever she did anything that didn't 100% please her family which was very hard on her. Merope was treated so poorly that she was convinced that this was how people, or rather women, should be treated by men. After so many years, she developed Stockholm Syndrome that went alone with PTSD; she couldn't leave her family as she'd grown too loyal and loved them reguardless of how they treated her and she found herself reexperiencing things, inability to talk about it and unable to fall or stay asleep. Merope is a very unhealthy person both mentally and physically; she always had a weak heart and is missing important parts of her emotional vocabulary due to feeling only unhappiness until she met Tom.

There was very little that could manage to keep her happy for longer than a moment, that exception was being alone in the forest, talking to little snakes who wanted to have a friend, looking at herself wearing the locket, affection or being around Tom. Through her life she never managed to hold a real relationship with anyone, thus she yearns for reassurance and acceptance constantly, frequently trying her best to make people like her but she is so skittish that some find it very annoying. Merope reacts badly to certain types of behaviour from others, such as: grabbing, quick movements, hidden hands, angered faces or forceful movements cause her to sink further down. She makes it her goal to try hard to make people feel like she's worthy to know, to love and to be around by doing things they don't ask or helping when they appear to need to reguardless of how she might feel about it; she's very selfless in that way. Some might say she's manipulative or deceptive sometimes, but she's really not smart enought to really come up with something like that unless it means very much to her; she'd never go out of her way to hurt someone if she could help it. The situation with Tom was her getting sick of her life, wanting Tom and seeing him as a way out of her life. Someone as fragile as Merope couldn't exist alone for too long without being overwhelmed by her own sadness; she would take bad company to no company.

When people come to know her, they find her to be unbelievably sweet, soft and kind with no hint of malice. But, she's been known to be a bit jealous or posessive in her own way when she feels like she isn't living up to someone standards but she smashes the feelings, hides it away and never mentions it but if pushed to the breaking point, she will say exactly what she's thinking. It's her naivity talking, she doesn't argue because that's not her way but she will say how she's feeling at the time so someone knows. Being naive is a way that she can talk in a way that some might find unacceptable as she was raised in a racist home; she's been known to refer to people as mudblood, blood-traitors and the like because of how she was raised but the only exception to this is Tom. Sadly, public places often frightened or made her anxious unless she was there for a certain reason- get in and get out.

Her submissivness comes off very slavish to people, it's been known to be an favoured quality amongst men. Merope cowers immediately to those that are domineering or angry, she might be inclined to slide onto the floor from a wall to further show obediance and submissiveness. This ability was learned from being at home, she often was hurt less if she didn't back mouth(which she's never done to this day.), went along with their demmands or didn't complain about things she was asked. It went along with the very rare quality she has; courage, some might believes that lying down to people like that is a bad things but it's not all that bad. Merope has the rare quality to handle violent, out of control people by using her keen observation skills and submissive ways to keep herself or others from getting hurt.

I'll wrap but by mentioning the bit about the locket. Merope's locket was something that meant very much to her, it was her hope, her beacon, the dream in the distance. When she gave it up, it was the last nail in the fragile glass of her life and she lost to abilty to care about herself or how she felt any longer, nobody cared about her and she cared about nobody except her son. Although, her locket opens up the sensation of belonging and being noticed for who she is; Slytherin's Heiress, she knew that someone would eventually want to take her if she was close enough to them and loved them relentlessly. In finishing, she can still dream, still hope for life to get better but without it, she's nothing at all. It would take a miracle to bring her out of that state.


Strengths: Contrary to what many people believe, Merope is a rather talented witch. She is very skilled in the Dark Arts and Potions. In addition, Merope has strong household skills like cooking and sewing. Merope is also intelligent, though most see her as the exact opposite. Merope would be considered something like Narcissa, but worse. She was a "at-home-witch", usually treated poorly in the ways similar to a house-elf. She did everything for her family that required actual labor, as wells as non-labour magic. She spent most of her nights self-teaching herself through Marvolo's school books and practising magic on her own. Although she isn't good at reading or writing, she tries very hard and often spends LONG hours trying to understand something that is normally easy.

She also has the uncanny ability to be around incredibly violent people and distract or amuse them. Her submissiveness goes along pretty well with extremely violent or mean characters because she'll take whatever they have to give.
Weaknesses: Merope has more weaknesses than strengths. She cannot perform magic whenever she is upset or nervous, she has problems speaking in public, and she has issues with speaking up. Merope does not take care of her well-being; if she is ill, has a problem, or otherwise, she is unlikely to even utter a word or complain. Because Merope was heavily abused by her family, she became unable to perform proper magic while others watch. She is the ultimate passive person, she just doesn't react to any sort of fighting. She allows herself to be pushed and whatever else, because she fears that saying "no" will do nothing to help her. She is also a bit illiterate.

She's easily controlled by a loving hand, affectionate touch or a Pseudo-Tom Riddle. She often becomes clouded by these things and in unable to think about anything else, she can often be found submitting herself to those who come off as Tom Riddle would. She tends to be the prey of unfortunate events due to these tiny things, she opens herself to men like Tom willingly and would probably be used by him in an effort to cure a large wound she has. While she's easily manipulated, there are not many that would try to get near her due to the obvious appearance issues and her unsocial tendencies.

Family

Parents: Medusa Gaunt, a first cousin of Marvolo, married him due to his seemingly charming ways. She was one of those Gaunts that were equally vicious as the men and she was committed to surviving in her house hold of brothers. She had the same trait of only being able to bare two children and none more. She was actually very beautiful, which is saying something for a Gaunt.

Marvolo was a strict, loud-mouthed, argument and abusive man who wasn't that bad until he lost his sister at age twelve. He couldn't control his temper unless he was around Medusa, who looked so very similar to his sister. Marvolo ended up charming her into marrying him, which she preferred to her brothers who ended up dying of natural causes anyways.
Siblings: Morfin, a cruel, layabout sociopath. He cares nothing for anyone but himself, he adores his father and despises his sister. He finds fun in torturing her and forcing her to submit to him, he even became intensely attracted to her and almost had intercourse with her a few times. After all, why do the work when you can get something you want for free?
Spouse/Serious Lover: Tom Riddle, she adored him and held a love for him that could never be experienced by another.
Children: Tom Marvolo Riddle. The son of a muggle and a severely inbred pureblooded witch.
Family History: The Gaunt family is an ancient, pureblooded family that with each generation seemed to kill the family off from it's social status. Not to mention the people in the family were usually overbearing, heartless, cruel men and severely backward, submissive and improper women who never managed to have more than two child without dying. The family is full of gene problems and it's known that they hardly married outside of the family due to argumentative, harsh worded fathers making up stories about other bloods being tainted and full of "demons". At least the men; the women either become twice as vicious as the men to survive or fade into the background, downtrodden vessels of Slytherin's blood, forced to bear the children of their cousins or brothers or fathers, for to a Gaunt, nobody is worthy but a Gaunt.
Best Friends: She's never had a real friend.