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| Tom Riddle (adult) |
It is the story of Tom Riddle, an English half-blood wizard considered to have been the most powerful and dangerous Dark Wizard of all time. He is also known as Lord Voldemort.
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Tom Marvolo Riddle, later known as Lord Voldemort or, alternatively as You-Know-Who, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, or the Dark Lord, is an English half-blood wizard considered to have been the most powerful and dangerous Dark Wizard of all time.
He was amongst the greatest wizards to have ever lived, often considered to be the second most powerful wizard in history, his only superior being Albus Dumbledore.
The only child and son of Tom and Merope Riddle via the coercive use of a love potion, Tom Riddle was raised in the Muggle-run Wool's Orphanage after his father abandoned his new family on the streets of London when the potion's influence was lifted, and his mother died moments after giving birth to and naming him after his father and maternal grandfather, Marvolo Gaunt.
Tom Riddle began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was sorted into Slytherin house. Some of his early activities included the opening of Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets and the use of its monster to attack Muggle-born students; several months' service as a purchasing agent for the Dark artefacts shop Borgin and Burkes; use of the ability to speak Parseltongue; and the attainment of immortality, a process begun upon the creation of his first Horcrux at the age of sixteen.
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| Tom Riddle (teenager) |
Abandoning his Muggle name, he became the self-proclaimed Lord Voldemort, which was an anagram of his birth name. He commanded a veritable army of Dark creatures, committed numerous murders personally and through his followers, and on one occasion nearly succeeded and on a later occasion did succeed in taking over the Ministry of Magic, installing a puppet Minister, Pius Thicknesse, who was controlled with the Imperius Curse.
Voldemort was ripped from his body after attempting to kill Harry Potter and, though unable to die, was not able to regain a permanent and physical body, thus spending the intervening fourteen years a shell, less than the meanest ghost, but alive.
Unknown to most, however, Voldemort's legacy and bloodline would live on through his daughter Delphini, whom he conceived with his loyal follower Bellatrix Lestrange; sometime after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries.
More information: Wizarding World I & II
Tom Riddle's broken and mutilated soul was then trapped in Limbo for eternity, unable to move on to the afterlife or even return as a disembodied spirit.
Tom Marvolo Riddle was born at Wool's Orphanage in London. His mother Merope staggered to the door of the orphanage, gave birth to Tom there, and died shortly after. Riddle grew up in the dingy orphanage, completely unaware of his wizarding heritage.
Since the Muggle orphanage staff did not know anything about his mother, they did not know about his magical background. Instead, they believed that Merope was a circus worker, as Mrs Cole told Albus Dumbledore shortly before his first meeting with Tom Riddle. It is unknown whether or not the staff relayed this to TomRiddle before his first encounter with Albus Dumbledore.
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| Tom Riddle (child) & Albus Dumbledore |
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| Tom Riddle (teenager) |
After getting into a fight with fellow orphan Billy Stubbs, he used his powers to hang the boy's rabbit from the rafters. On one occasion, he took two other orphans, Dennis Bishop and Amy Benson, into a cave, where he performed an act so horrifying that the two orphans were traumatised into silence. Afterwards, he may have told them, in some means, not to tell anyone what happened in the cave. Tom Riddle also stole from other orphans and hid their things in his cupboard like trophies.
When Tom Riddle was eleven, Albus Dumbledore, who at the time was the Transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts, talked to Mrs Cole, who informed him of how unusual the boy was, sharing tales of his extraordinary influence over the other children.
When Albus Dumbledore was at last introduced to the boy, Riddle at first believed him to be a doctor or psychiatrist of some sort, come to take him to an asylum because of what the staff had seen. He was convinced after Albus Dumbledore demonstrated his power by using a Flame-Freezing Charm on Tom Riddle's cupboard and revealed that Hogwarts was a school for people with magic, whereupon Riddle realised that was what his abilities were.
More information: Wizarding World I & II
Tom Riddle also mentioned his proficiency for Parseltongue in this same meeting, asking if it was a common gift amongst wizards, to which Albus Dumbledore gave no reply. Albus Dumbledore also admonished Tom Riddle for stealing from others and made him return the items with his apologies. He also warned Tom Riddle to stop his misbehaviour, as Hogwarts had an honour code whereupon lying, cheating and stealing were not tolerated.
At a very early age, it was clear that Tom Riddle displayed a desire to be different and set apart from others, as it was hinted when he mentioned his dislike of his own name, because it was such a common name.
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| Albus Dumbledore & Tom Riddle (child) |
He claimed that his mother could not have been a witch, because if she was magical, then she would have been able to avoid dying, and thought his father was a wizard. He asked if his father was an alumnus of Hogwarts, to which Albus Dumbledore said he did not know offhand.
Tom Riddle's abuse of his wizarding powers alarmed Albus Dumbledore. He resolved to keep a close eye on him, something he should have done in any case, seeing as he was alone and friendless.
Albus Dumbledore also warned Tom Riddle that at Hogwarts he would be introduced to the laws that controlled the usage of magic in the wizarding world, and that law-breakers were punished with severity not by Hogwarts but the Ministry of Magic. Tom Riddle's demeanour changed after Dumbledore reprimanded him; he became more guarded and shielded his reactions.
More information: Screen Rant I & II
Albus Dumbledore provided Tom Riddle with enough information to find Diagon Alley and Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. He also provided Tom Riddle with a stipend from school funds so that he could purchase his books and equipment. Travelling on his own to Diagon Alley, Tom Riddle bought some second-hand robes and spell books for himself, along with his wand -thirteen-and-a-half inches, yew, phoenix feather core- at Ollivander's.
Garrick Ollivander later said that the wand was very powerful; Lord Voldemort was very pleased with it until the wand failed him during his confrontation with Harry Potter in the Little Hangleton graveyard.
Ten years into the war, when Lord Voldemort was at the height of his dominion, a prophecy was given by Sybill Trelawney to Albus Dumbledore which predicted the fall of the Dark Lord. This prophecy was given in the Hog's Head Inn during an interview for the position of Professor of Divination. This prophecy was overheard by Death Eater and informant Severus Snape.
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| Tom Riddle (adult) |
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| Quirus Quirrel & Lord Voldemort |
Trelawney's description of the night's events was a bit different however, as she stated that after feeling ill, Aberforth burst into the room with Snape in tow, whom he had caught eavesdropping at the door. This is in contrast with Albus Dumbledore's description of events. However, this may be due to the fact that Albus Dumbledore had wished to conceal the identity of the spy from Harry, and told him a simplified version of the events. In any case, Lord Voldemort received only the first part of the prophecy. Feeling threatened, he sprang into action to prevent the fulfilment of the prophecy.
There were, at the time, two babies to whom the prophecy could have referred -Harry Potter, the half-blood son of James and Lily Potter; and Neville Longbottom, the pure-blood son of Frank and Alice Longbottom. Both families had sought to thwart Lord Voldemort three times, and both families were members of the Order of the Phoenix. Both children in question were born at the end of the seventh month, July.
Lord Voldemort chose to target Harry Potter instead of Neville Longbottom; Albus Dumbledore suspected this was because Harry Potter shared a similar family heritage with Lord Voldemort, both of them being half-bloods.
More information: Screen Rant I & II
During his childhood and early adulthood, Tom Marvolo Riddle was tall and handsome, with pale skin, jet black hair, and dark eyes. When Harry saw him in a memory in the Pensieve, he saw that there was no trace of the Gaunt family in his face, and that he was his father in miniature: tall for eleven years old, dark-haired and pale.
Tom Riddle's good looks continued to increase as he grew older, and he cunningly used them to charm many of the teachers at Hogwarts. While in Wool's Orphanage, he wore the standard grey tunic as with all the other children, and switched over to the Hogwarts uniform when he attended the school, gaining the Prefect and Head Boy badges when he attained those positions. When he worked in Borgin and Burkes, he wore a simple black suit.
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| Peter Pettigrew & Lord Voldemort |
Rubeus Hagrid claimed that while all Dark Wizards go bad, Lord Voldemort went worse than worse. Indeed, Lord Voldemort speedily developed into a power-obsessed megalomaniac of the worst kind and the worst of any known Dark Wizard, being considered by all to be far more evil than even Gellert Grindelwald.
He was unable and unwilling to express remorse or empathy for the countless crimes he had committed. This was a stark contrast to Grindelwald, who proved to display genuine remorse for his crimes and even before his fall, pity for those abused for their magic and even if only a little, care for his followers, all which Lord Voldemort completely lacked.
These anti social traits were seen in his childhood, from stealing, to disturbing incidences with other orphans. Albus Dumbledore stated that the young Tom Riddle had a certain disregard for rules. In adult life, he performed the darkest of magic and had no regard for human life. He was a prolific killer, killing so many he created an army of Inferi.
More information: Screen Rant I & II
He was more concerned about eliminating threats to his planned eternal domination of the world than ensuring pure-blood supremacy: as demonstrated by his efforts to destroy Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter, the Order of the Phoenix and any other opposition to his rule. He even went so far as to cast a taboo on his own name, knowing that the only people who'd dared to speak it were those with the will to oppose him.
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| Lord Voldemort |
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| Lord Voldemort |
Furthermore, due to his immense evil and lack of a human soul, he was completely unable to cast the Patronus Charm, an incredibly powerful and benevolent protective charm that is a manifestation of positive energy and happiness, none of which Lord Voldemort possessed.
Lord Voldemort was the most powerful, skilled and dangerous dark wizard of all time. He was amongst the greatest wizards to have ever lived, often considered to be the second most powerful wizard in history, his only superior being Albus Dumbledore.
Lord Voldemort was extremely talented even while still a student of Hogwarts, with Albus Dumbledore himself saying Lord Voldemort was the most brilliant student to have ever attended Hogwarts.
As an adult, Lord Voldemort became a tremendously powerful and accomplished wizard of nearly unrivalled skill, admired and feared by even the most powerful wizards and witches. Combined with his utter megalomania, Lord Voldemort was regarded as the most powerful and most dangerous Dark Wizard of all time, being the only dark wizard to surpass Gellert Grindelwald.
More information: Screen Rant I & II
Tom is diminutive of Thomas, loaned from Aramaic and meaning twin. This choice can be explained by the fact that, to gain immortality, Tom Riddle divided, twinned in a way, his soul into different pieces so as to survive. Also, τόμος (tomos) is Ancient Greek for slice or piece, which could link his name to the Horcruxes.
His maternal grandfather's name Marvolo suggests marvelous, from Latin mirabilis: consisting of from mirari to wonder at, from root adjective mirus wonderful and suffix -bilis, denoting capacity.
A riddle is a form of word puzzle designed to test someone's ingenuity in arriving at its solution. Riddles were used as a way to both puzzle the audience and teach them to understand poetic language.
J. K. Rowling has never quite explained the origins of the name Voldemort but there are some possible theories. The most accurate etymology of Voldemort would be the French sentence Vol de mort which literally means flight of death, accurate considering the murder sprees he committed and his invention of a spell to achieve unsupported flight. The Catalan expression vol de mort, also means flight of death or, since Vol may also be from the Latin root volo (I will, wish, want), may mean death wish.
J. K. Rowling has said in an interview that the T in Voldemort is silent. This may be to the fact that the word mort in Catalan and French, meaning death, has a silent T.
In 2015, J.K. Rowling again confirmed in an interview that her preferred pronunciation of the name was with a silent T, though she noted ...but I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who pronounces it that way.
More information: Screen Rant
I can make things move without touching them.
I can make animals do what I want without training them.
I can make bad things happen to people who are mean to me.
I can make them hurt if I want to... I can speak to snakes too.
They find me, they whisper to me.
Tom Riddle
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