"Yes, of course you have the right to remain silent! But since you don't want to answer, I have no choice but to make irresponsible guesses based on my own thoughts..."
"For example - does the surname 'Taung' bear some resemblance to 'Gaunt'?"
When Maka expressed this guess in a calm tone, Old Taon's eyes flickered slightly. But even though this "coincidence" was too much, he still stubbornly kept silent, as if he had no intention of admitting it.
"Don't you think?" Maka looked at his cheating look and couldn't help but shook her head slightly, "Then... you might as well let me guess a little more!"
After a short pause, he suddenly continued:
"Morfin Gaunt, more than sixty years ago, the last male descendant of the Gaunt family, and also the last male descendant of Salazar Slytherin - relevant records show that this was written by Morfin himself The contents of his notes were also his public declaration to the magical society at that time."
Since Salazar Slytherin only had one daughter, and this daughter married into the Gaunt family, Salazar's bloodline was only passed down indirectly through the Gaunt family.
Perhaps it was precisely because of the dilution of blood passed down through the maternal line, and in order to prevent Salazar's bloodline from becoming further thinned, that this led to the almost pathological "inbreeding" tradition of the Gaunt family. Almost every generation of family heads will choose to have offspring with blood relatives in the family, so that the "pure" descendants of the Gunter family often have rather strange physical or psychological defects.
Just like the Morfin Gaunt mentioned by Maka, he is known to be neurotic and violent, and has had several "glorious" deeds of attacking Ministry of Magic officials and law enforcement officers.
"But as far as I know," Maka continued, "At that time, in addition to Morfin Gunter, the Gaunt family had an older sister and a younger sister. The older sister married a Muggle and gave birth to a child. Tom Riddle was Voldemort who later made waves in the British wizarding world."
"But besides that, what about Morfin's sister?"
At this point, he spread his hands.
"Although Morfin himself has never mentioned it to the outside world once, according to a certain 'unique' tradition of the Gaunt family, he should have married his sister, right? And I have reason to think that the couple should have a relationship. A child."
As soon as he finished speaking, Maka looked at Old Tawen's indifferent profile and said meaningfully:
"Oh, counting the years, their child should be about the same age as your father, right?"
Listening to Maka's inferences and the last obvious temptation, Old Taon finally couldn't bear it anymore. I saw him throw the last bite of the sandwich into his mouth, then turned his head, stared at Maka and said impatiently:
"Around the same age as my father? So what?"
"Well, it's nothing! As I said just now, I was just making a random guess!" Maka shrugged, "Or did I happen to guess it right?"
As soon as he said these words, Lao Tawen immediately opened his mouth a few more times, but at the end he suddenly calmed down again. Seeing him turn away again, Maka closed her lips again, and couldn't help but said:
"If you don't say anything, then I can just assume that you confirm my statement! However, there is one thing I don't quite understand—"
He waved his hand and signaled:
"Look! You said earlier that you stayed away from the wizarding world incognito to avoid Voldemort. Now it seems that this should be a fact. But when you mention it to others, others often only think of the last time Voldemort provoked The Wizarding War, and you will not correct this misunderstanding of others."
A really good lie is always mixed with a part of the truth - in the beginning, Maka was deceived by this guy with half truths and half lies, so much so that she didn't even know that she had gone astray.
"However," Maka then turned around, "You should know that Tom Riddle is no longer around. So, why do you insist on changing your name?"
"In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with the surname 'Gaunt'. It can even bring more benefits to you and Enns, right?"
"Please note, Mr. MacLean - all this is just your conjecture, and I haven't admitted it yet!" Old Taon waved his hand and said, "What about the Gaunt family, what about Salazar Slytherin?" ... It has nothing to do with me. Ever since I was a child, my surname has always been 'Tawen', do you understand?"
"Is that so?" Maka nodded, "Well, I believe you, what you said should be the truth. After all, after Voldemort personally killed his father's family of three, he blamed his uncle Morfin Gaunt. - He modified Morfin's memory so that Morfin confessed to his crime, and then spent the rest of his life in Azkaban."
"Voldemort thought he had done everything perfectly, but he didn't expect that he would miss Morfin's wife, who has never been disclosed to the public... Yes, he didn't even know that he had an aunt and a nephew!"
Based on these contents, you can actually imagine:
After Morfin was sentenced and imprisoned in Azkaban, his sister... his wife probably didn't know yet. She might just think that her violent husband really killed someone - after all, Morfin had never had any good impression of the Riddle family.
After that, Voldemort, who was still Tom Riddle at the time, graduated from Hogwarts and traveled around the world. During this period, the mother and son continued to live as low-key as before, and through some coincidences, they learned the truth about how Tom Riddle had framed her husband.
At that time, Tom Riddle returned as Voldemort, and soon set off a bloody storm in the British wizarding world.
In that case, Gunter and his son chose to avoid it.
Because they immediately realized that Voldemort probably killed his Muggle father's family because he didn't want people to know about his mixed blood.
So if Voldemort knew that Morfin still had a mother and son left in the world, the most likely possibility would be to come to them personally and seal their mouths with death!
So far, Maka is actually understandable. Even after the incident, the old man still insisted on living in anonymity, because in the Muggle world, he had probably been disconnected from the magical world, and he may not even know that Voldemort once died from the killing curse that he rebounded.
Just... what now
Old Talon had already sent Enns to Hogwarts, and he already knew that both Voldemort and Grindelwald died in the front courtyard of Hogwarts.
To this day, he has not changed back to the surname "Gaunt", so what is he doing
"Mr. Tavon," Maka thought for a moment, then suddenly seemed to realize something, and raised her eyebrows, "could it be that... you also know about Voldemort's Horcruxes?"
There seems to be only one thing that makes the old Taon still reluctant to change back to his original name, and that is that he actually knows that Voldemort is not really dead.
Sure enough, when Maka suddenly mentioned this, his face filled with impatience finally showed a hint of seriousness.
When Maka saw it, she suddenly felt enlightened.
"It seems that you are indeed worried about this," he nodded slightly. "Indeed, as long as Voldemort is not truly dead, you will never be able to settle down. Because no one knows which day he will suddenly resurrect. Then come back and make waves in the world."
"...In fact," Maka said nonchalantly, "It is true that Voldemort is not dead yet. But what you can rest assured is that even if he is still barely 'alive', it is no longer possible for him to appear in front of you again. —Because I can tell you very clearly that his Horcrux and even his own remnant soul are already in my hands."
"It's all in your hands?"
This time, Lao Tawen was really shocked.
"are you serious?"
"Yes, of course I am serious," Maka said, "So I think there is no need for you to cling to the surname 'Tawen' anymore... Oh, if you really like this surname, then I seem to also I can’t control it.”
"Tsk," Lao Tawen was stunned for a moment, and finally came back to his senses, "Okay, okay, I understand - but the question is, why did you come to me to ask these questions? McClain, what is your purpose? ?”