Lord Voldemort

Lord Voldemort (born December 31, 1926) is the fictional arch-villain of the Harry Potter series. He is an evil wizard bent on securing unmatched power and achieving immortality through the practice of Dark Magic. Voldemort has appeared in all the novels except for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban so far. Voldemort is widely considered one of the most forceful and powerful villain figures in modern children's literature.

He is so feared by magical people that most refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than say his name out loud. His followers, the Death Eaters, do not use his name either, but instead refer to him as "the Dark Lord". Voldemort is considered one of the most powerful wizards alive. It has been said that the only wizard he fears is Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Lord Voldemort was born Tom Marvolo Riddle on New Year's Eve 1926 to Tom Riddle Sr. and Merope Riddle, née Gaunt. Through his mother, he is the last descendant of the famous ancient wizard Salazar Slytherin. Through his father, he is a descendant of the squires of Little Hangleton.

Riddle was abandoned by his father, and his mother died shortly after his birth, so he was raised at Mrs. Cole's orphanage in London. When he turned eleven, Dumbledore invited him to study at Hogwarts. Even as a child, he had developed some control over his abilities, a sign of his immense potential as a wizard. By the time that Dumbledore met him, he could move things with his mind, make animals do his bidding, talk to snakes, cause people pain, and, in his own words, "make bad things happen to people who annoyed him". However, he also displayed cruelty, a disregard for others, a need for absolute and total control, and a lack of moral judgement. In his first meeting with Dumbledore, Riddle is seen to be a sharply intelligent and calculating boy who keeps a cold, smoothly expressionless face that keeps others from guessing what he's thinking. He is also sure that he was born to be different, and detests the name "Tom", which he deems to be too common. Within a few short years of arriving at Hogwarts, Riddle began using a new name, a name he knew witches and wizards would one day fear to speak: Lord Voldemort.

While a student at Hogwarts, Riddle was generally successful in concealing his true motives. He was a gifted and exceptional student, making prefect and eventually Head Boy, although Dumbledore never forgot what Riddle confessed to him, thus never fully trusted him. He quickly gathered a group of followers, among whom he began using the name "Lord Voldemort" — an anagram of his full name, Tom Marvolo Riddle, is "I am Lord Voldemort." After leaving Hogwarts, Riddle chose to abandon his original name and use his adopted name openly. While Riddle was at Hogwarts, he surrounded himself with a group of fellow Slytherin students whom he referred to as friends, but for whom he felt little or no compassion. Many of these people became Death Eaters, including Avery and Rodolphus Lestrange. During Riddle's fifth year at Hogwarts, he opened the Chamber of Secrets and killed Myrtle, a Muggle-born student. Only Dumbledore ever suspected him, as Riddle had exercised his considerable charm over most of the other staff, including Potions master Horace Slughorn. Instead, fellow student Rubeus Hagrid was blamed for the incident and was expelled.

After completing his education, Voldemort sought to become a teacher at Hogwarts. Dumbledore speculated that this was in order to obtain an object belonging to Godric Gryffindor or Rowena Ravenclaw. He was turned down by then-headmaster Dippet on account of his youth. Instead, he temporarily took a job at Borgin and Burkes, but left upon acquiring, by theft and murder, Salazar Slytherin's locket and a goblet bearing the Hufflepuff badger, probably to use as Horcruxes. He then disappeared. Ten years later, he returned to Hogwarts to ask for the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, but was turned down again by Dumbledore because he had proven untrustworthy. At this time, it is noted, Voldemort was appearing much less human, and asked to be called by his assumed title rather than his given name, which Dumbledore did not do. Voldemort was again turned away from the position. Enraged, he placed a hex on the Defence Against the Dark Arts job, and since then, no teacher has ever been able to keep the job longer than a year.

Little more is known about Riddle until he rose to power as Lord Voldemort in the 1970s. Grindelwald was vanquished while Riddle was 18 so it is possible that the two met beforehand. There have only been hints at the full horror of his attempt at control. It would seem that when Voldemort first appeared, he started his campaign with the idea of "purifying" the Wizarding race by purging Muggle-born people (notably despite, or perhaps partly because of, his own 'half-blood' heritage), which appealed to the old Wizarding families. It was during this time that he briefly resurfaced to contact Dumbledore, now the Hogwarts Headmaster, asking again to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts.

Little is known about Voldemort's actions before the 1970s, although there is much speculation as to how his goals came to be. It is thought that Voldemort may have met with Grindelwald before his death, which may be a factor which led to his initial desire to cleanse the Magical Realm of non Pure Bloods, such as Muggle-borns. this was also said to be the time at which Voldemort had shown "his true colours"; which subsequently led to him losing support from some of the old magical families, presumably those who were of Muggle relation.

During his rise to power, Voldemort, who was still known in the majority as Tom Riddle, applied to teach the Defence Against the Dark Arts class at Hogwarts. Initially, he was not granted the position on the grounds of his age; however, he was denied later on by Dumbledore (in his new role as headmaster), as he feared that Voldemort would use the position to his own ends. Dumbledore guessed, and rightly so, that a wizard with Voldemort's abilities would not repeatedly apply for a teaching job unless he had ulterior motives. Voldemort did indeed have ulterior motives and they were predictably of a sinister and horrifying nature; Dumbledore guessed this, and refused to grant Voldemort a teaching position.

After being rejected from Hogwarts, Voldemort's plans became much more ambitious; having his spies, which were either Death Eaters, or people under the effect of the Imperius Curse, infiltrate places of significance, particularly the Ministry of Magic. At this time, much fear and suspicion spread in the wizarding world; many people being questioned as to whether they were under the Imperius Curse, or purposely doing Voldemort's bidding.

Fear also spread from the fact that many of Voldemort's Death Eaters became infamous for using the Unforgivable Curses against those who stood against them, as well as through the Dark Mark, Morsmorde, used to "mark" a site after committing a murder. This mark was also something which Voldemort used, along with often, brutal punishments to ensure that the Death Eaters remained faithful to him.

Death Eaters also made particular use of the Imperius Curse to manipulate innocents into doing Voldemort's bidding. Many of these victims were set free after it was discovered they were under the influence of the curse. However, Lucius Malfoy was highly suspected of serving Voldemort of his own free will.

However, until early 1980, despite several attempts by both the Ministry of Magic, and the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort appeared to be on the verge of victory, having infiltrated many magical organizations with his spies, as well as through the torture and murder of Aurors and members of the Order of the Phoenix. It was not until his encounter with James and Lily Potter that he fell from this position of power.

In early 1980, Sybill Trelawney, great-great-granddaughter of a famous and gifted seer, Cassandra Trelawney, entered a trance in the presence of Dumbledore and uttered a prophecy:

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ..."

Two boys were found to fit the description of the prophecy: Neville Longbottom (born July 30) and Harry Potter (born July 31). Severus Snape was caught evesdropping while Trelawney was giving the prophecy by Aberforth Dumbledore (Albus Dumbledore's brother who is bartender at The Hogs's Head pub in Hogsmeade), so Snape only heard the first few lines, and thus missed key details when he informed Voldemort about his coming foe. Voldemort determined Harry was the most likely of the two infants to be a threat, and thus "marked him as his equal"; even though Neville was the pure-blood of the two (and thus presumably the "better" wizard). By choosing Harry, Voldemort established and confirmed that Harry was to be the one to whom the prophecy referred.

On October 31st, 1981, Voldemort arrived at the home of Lily and James Potter, prominent members of the Order of the Phoenix who had thrice defied him (as stated as a condition of the prophecy), in Godric's Hollow. The Potters knew Voldemort was searching for them, and had gone into hiding by means of the Fidelius Charm, a very powerful enchantment that hides a secret inside a single, living soul. Voldemort would never be able to find them even if stared through their living room window - unless the person chosen to protect their secret, or Secret-Keeper, divulged their location. The Potters were betrayed by their Secret-Keeper, Peter Pettigrew. James Potter was killed in the confrontation, and Lily sacrificed her own life to save her son. This act of love granted Harry an unexplained charm of protection, which foiled Voldemort's attempt to use Avada Kedavra, the killing curse, on the baby.

In addition to ridding himself of a dangerous foe, Voldemort intended to create a sixth Horcrux through Harry's murder. Due to the protection spell however, the killing curse backfired on Voldemort, and the one-year-old Harry became the first and only known survivor of the Avada Kedavra curse, with only a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead. Voldemort was reduced to a barely-alive shell of his former being, and then fled and virtually disappeared for over a decade. He only survived the backfiring of the killing curse because he had previously split his soul into six pieces, five of which were imbued into Horcruxes, which enabled Voldemort to defy death. He later created the desired sixth Horcrux (which Dumbledore believed to be the snake Nagini) through the murder of Frank Bryce. Dumbledore also believed Voldemort had wanted to work at Hogwarts to find more Horcruzxes in which to encase fragments of his soul.

The protective charm bestowed on Harry by his mother's sacrifice - importantly, a sacrifice she chose to make but need not have made - afforded him a lingering protection against direct attacks by Voldemort. This charm was kept active as long as he had a home among Lily's blood relatives and only until he came of age (at seventeen). For this reason, Albus Dumbledore took the rescued baby Harry and left him in the indifferent and even neglectful care of his aunt and uncle, the Muggles Vernon and Petunia Dursley.

The news of Voldemort's downfall spread fast through the wizarding community. Without his personal power to back them up, many of his supporters defected or gave themselves up. A few attempted to find him, but were unsuccessful and were caught and sent to Azkaban. The atmosphere of terror that had held sway so long over the wizarding community (not just in Britain, but all over the world - Voldemort had international followers such as Antonin Dolohov as well) was lifted. Overnight, Harry became a celebrity, popularly called "The Boy Who Lived."

Voldemort led a shadow of life in a forest, where even continued existence was a struggle for him. His only remaining power was the ability to occupy the bodies of others, and he frequently possessed snakes. Animal bodies made it difficult for him to perform magic, a crucial obstacle to regaining his strength and restoring his physical form.

Then, in the early 1990s, Professor Quirinus Quirrell, teacher of Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, encountered Voldemort in the forests of Transylvania during his travels. Whether tempted by promises of power or overcome by trickery, Quirrell submitted to the Dark Lord's service and allowed Voldemort to possess him. He travelled to London and attempted, with the help of his new master, to steal the Philosopher's Stone (called the Sorcerer's Stone in the American version of the book), which would have allowed Voldemort to regain his former power and to become immortal. Voldemort planned on drinking from the Elixir of Life enough to restore him to a body, in which he would continue to rely on his Horcruxes. Finding that the stone had been moved from Gringotts to Hogwarts, Voldemort/Quirrell set about finding ways to break through the many layers of security now around the Philosopher's Stone. Voldemort's plans were, however, thwarted by Harry, now a first-year student at Hogwarts, and Voldemort was forced to flee his host's body, as Harry's touch reduced his host's body to ashes.

Voldemort returned to hiding, angry that his Death Eaters had forsaken him, ashamed that he had been defeated by an 11-year-old boy, and afraid that he would not be able to find another wizard to possess. He remained in hiding for two years in Albania. In this interim, Death Eater Lucius Malfoy sent one of Voldemort's horcruxes – the diary kept by the young Tom Riddle – into Hogwarts by passing it secretly into the possession of student Ginny Weasley. By means of this sinister diary, the memory of Riddle managed to manipulate Ginny into opening the Chamber of Secrets once again, nearly killing a number of students. Riddle then tried to drain Ginny's life-force to allow himself to regain physical form outside the book. Harry, however, defeated him once again. It is not known what would have happened had Ginny been destroyed by this past version of Tom Riddle, but author J. K. Rowling has noted it would strengthen the present-day Voldemort. Lucius Malfoy was not aware that the diary was a horcrux and had no idea that it contained a piece of Voldemort's soul - he simply intended to get rid of a Dark item by planting it on Arthur Weasley's daughter.

Luckily for Voldemort, a series of incidents forced Peter Pettigrew, who had betrayed Harry's parents to Voldemort, to leave hiding and to go in search of Voldemort. While seeking his one-time master, he kidnapped Bertha Jorkins, from whom Voldemort learned enough to formulate a plan to create a primitive body for himself, rudimentary but still corporeal, allowing him to perform magic. He then used an ancient ritual of Dark Magic to recreate the body he had before his curse rebounded at the beginning of the first book. Harry's blood formed a part of this process of rebirth, preventing the effect which caused Voldemort to almost die when he first tried to kill Harry. Many Harry Potter fans suspect that this will eventually prove to be Voldemort's undoing; when Harry was telling Dumbledore about how Voldemort had removed the charm over Harry, Dumbledore had in his eyes a look of triumph, seeming to know something no one else does. After being reborn, Voldemort summoned the Death Eaters back to him, and attempted to kill Harry — but Harry escaped the Dark Lord yet again (see below).

At first, the British Ministry of Magic refused to believe that Lord Voldemort had risen again. The Minister for Magic (Minister of Magic in American Editions), Cornelius Fudge, began a process of discrediting both Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore by playing upon their ambiguities; Fudge professing that Dumbledore was somewhat confused and senile, and that Harry Potter was attention seeking and psychologically unstable.

Despite this fact, Dumbledore reformed the once disbanded Order of the Phoenix, setting up headquarters in Sirius Black's family home at Number 12, Grimmauld Place, London. Upon the reform, Dumbledore also sent envoys in an attempt to coerce giants, and other non-human magical beings away from the persuasion of joining Voldemort. Unfortunately, envoys failed to coerce the giants, Dementors or werewolves, who had already allied with Voldemort.

Meanwhile, Lucius Malfoy, having returned to Voldemort's service, sought to gain influence within the Ministry, encouraging Fudge to believe that the real threat to his authority came from a powerful Dumbledore, not a resurgent Voldemort. Away from the gaze of the Ministry, Voldemort was waiting and plotting carefully. Only a handful of wizards – the Death Eaters and the members of the Order of the Phoenix – knew or believed he had returned - allowing him a free hand in his schemes against both the ministry, the order, and most importantly, Harry Potter.

After engineering a plot to secure the break-out of some of the Death Eaters from Azkaban, Voldemort embarked on a scheme to kill Harry and retrieve the record of Trelawney's prophecy regarding Harry and Voldemort, stored in the Ministry's Department of Mysteries. His plot failed, and the only copy of the prophecy was destroyed. All but one of the Death Eaters sent to retrieve it fell into the hands of the Order of the Phoenix after a running battle inside the Ministry building.

There followed a wizarding duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort, until finally Voldemort vanished, taking Lestrange with him. He was seen by the Minister for Magic, however, who finally accepted that Voldemort was back. This led to a return of the earlier fear and suspicion among the wizarding community, which was fueled by Voldemort's continuing attacks and schemes as he regained strength.

Voldemort's next step was to engineer an attack on his most formidable enemy, Dumbledore himself. This was attempted by the machinations of Draco Malfoy, who had managed to arrange an access point into Hogwarts for the Death Eaters by means of two enchanted cabinets, the use of which bypassed the extensive enchantments placed around the school to prevent unauthorized access. However, despite the fact that this allowed death eaters the chance they needed to seige hogwarts, Severus Snape was in fact the one to deal the fatal Avada Kedavra curse to Dumbledore, after Draco Malfoy was unable to do it himself.

Voldemort is described as having very pale skin, no nose at all with snake-like slits for nostrils, red eyes and cat-like slits for pupils, a skeletally thin body, and long, thin hands with unnaturally long fingers. In the first movie, he had red eyes and a normal nose. However, in the fourth movie, he had snakelike slits for nostrils, and his eyes were green rather than red. There is no proof in the books that he is bald. Rather that idea has been brought about by the movies and his characterization in the Harry Potter fandom. Earlier in life, Voldemort was a handsome man with black hair, before his appearance began to transform from his experiments in the Dark Arts. There is a slight resemblance, possibly significant, to Harry Potter. Tom Riddle and Harry Potter were both half blood orphans raised in somewhat grim conditions until they were admitted into Hogwarts. There is also a physical resemblance: both have black hair and are (at the age of sixteen at any rate) tall. Tom Riddle is pasty skinned, and although it is never explicitly mentioned, it is probable that Harry is slightly pale skinned as well. They also both have thin faces (although Tom Riddle is extremely handsome), and both feel more at home at Hogwarts than anywhere else in the world. In fact, Dumbledore once noted that Voldemort probably had more feeling for Hogwarts than he ever had for any other person, place or thing. Voldemort's remarkable transformations after graduating school, however, mark the fact that in many ways he and Harry seem to be flip sides of the same coin - although Voldemort is in many ways far more ingenious. The transformation into his monstrous state was caused in most part by the division of his soul by advanced dark magic so that he could create Horcruxes.

One of Voldemort's defining characteristics are his "pure-blood" tendencies. Voldemort looks down upon Muggles and non-pure-blood wizards and witches. Despite the fact that Voldemort is a non-pure-blood wizard himself, he still shows classist hatred towards those of such inclination; even hating his own name (which ultimately led to him using a pseudonym based on an anagram of his given name) - something which is thought to match the classic profile of antisocial personality disorder; callous and cruel, disregarding the rights of others and only seeking self-gratification. Despite this fact, the books suggest that later on within the Harry potter series, Voldemort focuses his hatred solely on Harry Potter, sidelining his blood-hatred which seemed to have originated in part from his father's abandonment of his mother.

In his arrogance, he has also displayed a tendency to forget seemingly minor and insignificant details, which has led to his undoing on several occasions. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, he states that he had forgotten the ancient magic which protected Harry, after his mother had died to save him; in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets he forgets that the tears of the phoenix have healing powers. The Harry Potter Lexicon suggests that the glint in Dumbledore's eye in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire when Harry tells him that Voldemort has some of his blood in him refers to Dumbledore's knowledge that this is something else Voldemort has forgotten about.

After much speculation J. K. Rowling, author of Harry Potter, revealed that Voldemort's greatest fear is "ignominious death," and that his boggart would be his own corpse. What Voldemort desires most is to be all-powerful and eternal – which is what he would see if he were ever to look in the Mirror of Erised. Dumbledore also stated in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that Voldemort secretly fears both corpses and darkness, though, "it is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more," (Chapter 26).

Voldemort is a Parselmouth; something he inherited from Salazar Slytherin (it seems that most of his Gaunt ancestors have inherited this highly unusual trait) and passed on to Harry Potter through the backfired curse that forged a lifelong physical connection between them. He is also known as the greatest Legilimens and Occlumens in the world - being able to read minds, as well as shield his own from penetration.

He is also attributed as being one of few people able to create and comprehend Horcruxes, to such an extent that he attempts to gain immortality through them. - similar to those used by the mythical creatures known as liches, although the liches' phylacteries require neither the user to "split" his/her soul, nor does it require a portion of said practicioner's soul to remain in his/her body.

Voldemort's magic wand is made from yew, a wood associated with immortality and which produces a poisonous sap, is thirteen and a half inches long,has the feather of a phoenix at its core, and in the movie, what appears to be a bone handle. The wand's manufacturer, Mr Ollivander, got this feather from Dumbledore's pet phoenix, Fawkes. Unusually enough, Fawkes gave one more feather to be used in a wand: this wand belongs to Harry. Because the two wands have a core coming from the same source, they cannot work properly when used against each other. If they are nevertheless forced to battle, what will happen is Priori Incantatem or the "reverse spell effect," where each wand will try to force the other to regurgitate shadows of the spells it has cast in reverse chronological order. All of this played an important part in Harry's escape from Voldemort at the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The wand connection is yet another symbolic connection between Harry and Voldemort; their minds are also connected. in The Goblet of Fire Harry first discovered that he could access Voldemort's thoughts and emotions, and from then on whenever Voldemort was extremely angry or in pain, Harry's scar would burn painfully. Similarly, Voldemort also discovered their connection in The Order of the Phoenix and used it to attempt to possess Harry and use him as a spy. It seems that, in many ways, Harry's and Voldemort's lives are tied to each other's.

The name - "Voldemort"

Voldemort's given name was Tom Marvolo Riddle. In the second book he explains that the appellation "Lord Voldemort" is derived from an anagram of his name:

• TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE "I AM LORD VOLDEMORT"

Ironically, his name, Tom Marvolo Riddle, is also itself a riddle.

Like a number of other names in the Harry Potter novels, "Voldemort" seems to have French origins. Indeed, Vol de mort can mean, rather appropriately, either "flight of death" or "theft of death". The word de can also translate as "from", giving "flight from death". Given Voldemort's fear of death and quest for immortality, this meaning is also appropriate.

J.K. Rowling personally uses a French pronunciation for his name, i.e. Vol-de-mor (with a silent t).

In translated versions of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Voldemort's original name is changed to accommodate the anagram. In the Polish edition, however, translator Andrzej Polkowski decided not to make any changes, presumably because of the difficulty of translating the anagram into a meaningful sentence. In the Portuguese edition (as distinct from the Brazilian edition), the name was similarly left untranslated.