Welcome to Harry Potter Theory. Today, we'll be discussing the rise and fall of the once extraordinarily wealthy House of Gaunt.

The Gaunt family lineage descended from two very famous wizards of old--Salazar Slytherin and Cadmus Peverell. The former, of course, being one of the four founding members of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and the latter being the middle of the three fabled brothers who faced Death and came away with the Deathly Hallows.

Although I can't comment too much on the affluence of the Peverell family, Salazar Slytherin was decidedly wealthy due to his ability to found a school as large and well-renowned as Hogwarts--not to mention his solo construction of the Chamber of Secrets. This leads me to believe that the House of Gaunt must have built its empire on the wealth of their Slytherin ancestor.

While it's unknown exactly how much wealth the Gaunts had, we do know that they once had copious amounts of gold and an abundance of incredibly valuable family heirlooms, including Salazar Slytherin's wand, the signet ring passed down by Cadmus Peverell--which ended up having the Resurrection Stone concealed within it--and Salazar Slytherin's gold locket which was inlaid with glittering green stones in the shape of an S.

But, with all this money and such a vast collection of valuable objects, how did they go from being super rich to absolutely destitute by the 1900s? Well, here are three things that I believe majorly contributed to their downfall...

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