Little Hangleton

Little Hangleton is a small village in northern England in which the most prominent family was the Riddles. The village is near the larger community of Great Hangleton and is about 200 miles away from Little Whinging. The pure-blood wizarding family, the Gaunts, lived just outside Little Hangleton in a shack.

The Riddle House
The Riddle House was the home of the snobbishly unpopular Riddle family in the early twentieth century, and the largest house in town. Lord Voldemort killed his father, paternal grandfather, and grandmother in the house in 1943, and framed his maternal uncle Morfin Gaunt for the crime. After the murder of the Riddles, the house changed hands many times. By 1994 it was said in the village that the wealthy man who owned it neither lived there nor put it to any use owning it for ambigious 'tax reasons'. The only permanent resident during that time period was Frank Bryce, the Riddles' gardener.

In the summer of 1994, after Peter Pettigrew escaped from Hogwarts and found Voldemort, the two wizards returned to the Riddle house to plan for Voldemort's return to power. While in the house, they planned to have the Triwizard Cup turned into a Portkey to the local churchyard, and set into motion a plan which would end with Harry Potter captured. When Frank Bryce, the gardener, discovered Pettigrew and Voldemort in the home, Voldemort murdered him.

The Gaunt shack
On the outskirts of Little Hangleton lived the Gaunts, the last direct descendants of Salazar Slytherin. Years of inbreeding made the family violent and unstable, and left them in poverty. There were frequently many snakes about the property, as the Gaunts were all Parselmouths, like their ancestor. The townspeople gossiped about the Gaunts and thought they were mad, while the Gaunts in turn considered the Muggles who lived nearby beneath them. Marvolo Gaunt died alone in the shack, after he and his son Morfin were briefly imprisoned in Azkaban, and his daughter Merope married Tom Riddle Sr. and left for London. The Gaunt shack was also the hiding place of Marvolo Gaunt's Ring, which Voldemort took from his uncle and turned into a Horcrux after he murdered his paternal relatives.

The graveyard
The local cemetery of Little Hangleton was the burial place for various members of the Riddle family. It was also the site of Lord Voldemort's rebirth. The Triwizard Cup, turned into a Portkey by disguised Death Eater Barty Crouch Jr, transported Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory there in June of 1995. Peter Pettigrew killed Cedric on Voldemort's orders, and then Harry's blood was used as part of a Dark ritual to reconstitute a body for Voldemort. The Dark Lord then called his servants to him with Pettigrew's Dark Mark, thus reviving the Death Eaters, and engaged in a duel with Harry. Because of Priori Incantatem, Harry managed to escape Voldemort and return to Hogwarts with Cedric's body.

The ritual which Voldemort and Pettigrew performed in the Little Hangleton graveyard would also play a role in Voldemort's ultimate fall from power. By taking in some of Harry's blood -- blood which carried the magical protection from his mother, who sacrificed herself for him when he was an infant -- Voldemort anchored Harry's life to his own. This would allow Harry to survive the Killing Curse Voldemort struck him with during the Battle of Hogwarts in 1998, destroying the Horcrux within Harry and setting the stage for their final duel.

The Hanged Man
The Hanged Man is a local pub, in which many townspeople gossiped about the Riddle murders. Since the Riddles were slain with the Killing Curse, the Muggle authorities could not determine the cause of death, and many people suspected that Frank Bryce had killed them.

Frank Bryce's cottage
This cottage, bordering the Little Hangleton graveyard, was the permanent residence of Frank Bryce. It was here in when he saw lights from the Riddle House in 1994, minutes before his death.

Known residents

 * Frank Bryce
 * Dot
 * Rod Freddy
 * The Gaunts
 * The Riddles
 * The Riddles' cook
 * The Riddles' maid
 * The local barman

Etymology
Hangleton derives from "hangle", an iron pothook and "-ton", a suffix meaning "town" and which is thus often used in the names of municipalities.

Behind the scenes

 * Harry Potter only ever physically visited Little Hangleton during the Return of Tom Riddle; however, he went there in memories presented to him by Albus Dumbledore quite a few times.
 * In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Little Hangleton always seems to have cloudy weather, mainly a dark, shadowy landscape. It is possible that it was made to add in with the murderous history that occured in the village.
 * Little Whinging is in the far northwestern corner of Surrey (since Harry had travelled there by way of Paddington Station). A circle drawn of 200 miles would point out to the ocean, but the line crosses some parts of Wales, York, Cornwall and Middleborough, indicating that Little Hangleton is located somewhere in the midsection of England, though it is truly unknown to where the village is located.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
 * Harry Potter: A Pop-Up Book
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Building the Magical World
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Characters of the Magical World
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 
 * Harry Potter LEGO Sets

Notes and references
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