Caractacus Burke

And this leaves Merope in quite a state.

Young, pregnant, and alone, she must resort to any means necessary to survive, and ends up selling one of her family's priceless heirlooms, Slytherin's locket, to a Caractacus Burke for a mere 10 Galleons.

I'm your brother.

10 Galleons, despite its nearly priceless nature, a deal Burke would later describe as the best deal they ever made.

I'm gonna call it Underground of America.

How does that sound? This sounds better, if you ask me." If you're keeping track of the Horcrux deaths, by the way, Hepzibah's death is used for the creation of the cup, which is quite fitting, as she was a descendant of Hufflepuff herself.

And while the official canon describes the death of a Muggle tramp for the locket, we here at Super Carlin Brothers disagree, and propose that it was, in fact, Caractacus Burke, the very person who swindled the locket and Tom's birthright away from his mother.

You'll note that going forward in the story, you'll only ever hear from Borgin rather than Burke, and if Burke was the true victim, it much more closely entangles his significance to the locket.