LORD VOLDEMORT, THE GREAT PRINCE OF DARKNESS

Tom Marvolo Riddle, later known as Lord Voldemort, was a half-blood wizard considered to have been the most powerful and dangerous dark wizard of all time. 

The only child and son of wealthy Muggle gentleman Tom and Merope Riddle, née Gaunt, via the coercive use of a Love Potion, 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.

 

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 the 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. 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.

Voldemort was considered by many to be the most evil wizard in hundreds and hundreds of years. His nature far exceeded that of any common evildoer and Dumbledore stated that he went beyond normal evil in the extent of his crimes.

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Hagrid claimed that while all Dark Wizards go bad, Voldemort went worse than worse. Indeed, Voldemort speedily developed into a power-obsessed megalomaniac of the worst kind and the worst of any known Dark Wizard, even Gellert Grindelwald. These anti social traits were seen in his childhood, from stealing, to disturbing incidences with other orphans. Dumbledore stated that the young 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.

He was highly intelligent, as evidenced by his top performance at Hogwarts and his tremendous magical achievements, but his interests were narrowly focused on the usefulness of people, objects, and powers to his goals. 

His inability to see the larger picture and inattention to events, powers and human traits that were not immediately useful to him was a serious flaw that led to most of his setbacks and ultimately his downfall.

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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; the ability to speak Parseltongue; and the attainment of immortality, a process begun upon the creation of his first Horcrux at the age of 16.

 

Splitting his own spirit into a total of eight fragments, Lord Voldemort created seven Horcruxes; one unintentionally and without his knowledge, Harry Potter.

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 wizards and 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 by installing a puppet Minister.

 
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 14 years a shell, less than the meanest ghost, but alive. He was finally killed by his own backfiring curse after Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter, following Dumbledore's death, succeeded in destroying all of his Horcruxes.

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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. Unknown to most however, Lord Voldemort's legacy and blood would live on through his daughter Delphini, whom he conceived with his loyal follower Bellatrix Lestrange. Delphini was conceived sometime after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries and before Voldemort's death at the hands of Harry Potter.

Tom Marvolo Riddle was born on 31 December, 1926 at Wool's Orphanage in London. His pure-blood mother, Merope Gaunt staggered to the door of the orphanage, had Tom born in there, and died shortly after his birth.  

Tom Riddle grew up in a 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. It is unknown whether or not the orphanage staff relayed this to Tom before his first encounter with Dumbledore.

Despite his ignorance of his mother's true background, Tom did have some grasp on his abilities beyond that of normal magical children of his same age, however, and an unusually high degree of control over them. Tom could move objects with his mind and cause them to travel floating wherever he wished, manipulate animals and creatures as he wished, speak Parseltongue, and use his power to inflict harm on other orphans. 

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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 orphans, Dennis Bishop and Amy Benson, into a cave, where he performed an act so horrifying that the two orphans were traumatised into silence. 

Young Tom Riddle also stole from other orphans and hid their things in his cupboard like trophies. Albus Dumbledore later stopped him from this hobby. 

 

Dumbledore ordered Tom to return the stolen items to their rightful owners and apologise for his sins, and that he had the means to determine whether or not Tom fulfilled Dumbledore's orders. Dumbledore also strictly warned Riddle to stop his misbehaviour as Hogwarts had an honour code whereupon lying, cheating and stealing were not tolerated. 

om was educated at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was Sorted into Slytherin House, a nod to his ancestor Salazar Slytherin himself. During summer breaks, he was forced to return to the Muggle orphanage, which he despised and dreaded more than any other place on earth.

Upon arriving at Hogwarts, Tom became obsessed with his heritage and began researching it with an insatiable hunger. While researching his heritage, Riddle focused solely on who his father was, thinking him to be the magical parent, as he felt his mother could not have been a witch if she had died. 

He searched for his father's name in the school trophy room, in the records of Hogwarts prefects and in records of wizarding history, but found nothing to suggest his father had even attended Hogwarts. He was eventually forced to accept that his father was the Muggle parent, and that his mother was the magical one. It was around this time that Tom Marvolo Riddle gave himself the alias Lord Voldemort, to spare himself of the reminder of his filthy Muggle father.

After graduating, Tom immediately approached Armando Dippet and asked him for a chance to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts, and to remain at Hogwarts, for reasons that he did not confide with the then-headmaster, Hogwarts being his true home at heart, using the influential position as a teacher to recruit students into his future army, and to continue to penetrate the castle's magical secrets. Dippet rejected this offer, deeming the boy too young, but invited Tom to reapply in a few years, if he was still interested in the post, something that Dumbledore heavily advised against.

After his death, Voldemort's body was moved to a separate chamber away from the Great Hall. It is unknown what happened to it afterwards, but it can be assumed that his body was disposed of. Meanwhile Voldemort's mutilated soul was trapped in Limbo for eternity, as the soul is meant to stay whole and intact. Because of the destruction done to his soul he was unable to move on or return to the land of the living as a ghost. After his confirmed death, the wizarding world at large seemed to be able to speak his name without any more fear. 

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Avada Kedavra!

Lord Voldemort