Lord Voldemort

Lord Voldemort (born December 31, 1926) is the fictional archvillain of the Harry Potter series. He is an evil wizard bent on controlling the world and achieving immortality through the practice of Dark Magic. 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 saying his name out loud. He is also referred to as the "Dark Lord", although generally only by his followers, the Death Eaters. His name means Flight from death in French (vol de mort). (This could also be translated as "Theft of Death.")

Lord Voldemort was born Tom Marvolo Riddle (in the English version of the book; see below for information on other editions) on New Year's Eve 1926 to father Tom Riddle Sr. and mother Merope (née Gaunt) Riddle. Through his mother, he was the last descendent of Salazar Slytherin.

Riddle was abandoned by his father, and his mother died shortly after his birth, so he was raised in an orphanage. He was discovered by Albus Dumbledore, who 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 Riddle, he could move things with his mind, make animals do what he wanted, talk to snakes, "make bad things happen to people who annoy" him, and even make people feel pain. However, he also displayed cruelty, a disregard for others, a tendency to abuse his magical abilities, and a lack of moral judgement.

While a student at Hogwarts, Riddle was generally successful in concealing his motives and was a talented student. He began using the name Lord Voldemort among some of his followers, and would later go on to abandon his real name and use his adopted name openly. While Riddle was at Hogwarts, he amassed a group of people from Slytherin house whom Riddle called friends but had no compassion for. Many of these people became Death Eaters, including Rodolphus Lestrange, and Avery. During Riddle's fifth year at Hogwarts, he opened the Chamber of Secrets and killed Myrtle, a muggleborn girl. Dumbledore was the only one who suspected him, as Riddle had a talent for charming the right people, such as teacher Horace Slughorn.

After completing his education, Voldemort sought to gain employment as a teacher at Hogwarts. Dumbledore speculates that this was in order to find an object belonging to Godric Gryffindor or Rowena Ravenclaw. He was turned down by headmaster Dippet on account of his age. He was turned down later by Dumbledore because he had proven untrustworthy. Instead, he temporarily took a job with Borgin and Burkes, but quit upon acquiring (by theft and murder) Slytherin's locket and a goblet bearing the Hufflepuff badger, probably to use as Horcruxes. He then disappeared and was not seen again for many years.


His rise to power

Little more is known about Riddle until he rose to power as Lord Voldemort in the 1970s. The full horror of his attempt at control has only been hinted at. It would seem when Voldemort first appeared, he started his campaign with the idea of "purifying" the Wizarding race of Muggleborns, which appealed to the old Wizarding families. He briefly resurfaced to contact Dumbledore, requesting to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts. He was turned down. At some time he "showed his true colours," which apparently caused him to lose the support of some of the old families. The Ministry of Magic — led largely by Barty Crouch — worked against Voldemort, along with the Order of the Phoenix, led by Dumbledore, then headmaster of Hogwarts. Dumbledore is said to be the only person whom Voldemort ever feared, and Hogwarts was one of the few safe places during that dangerous time.

During this time, the wizarding world was embroiled with suspicion and fear. One could never be sure who was on Voldemort's side and who wasn't. Voldemort and his followers used curses which could cause excruciating pain, instant death, or allow a person to control another person. This third curse was the subject of much controversy, as many of the people who worked for Voldemort later claimed that his followers had been using this curse on them. Some of these people were later set free, and at least one (Lucius Malfoy) has been confirmed to have been acting of his own free will.

Voldemort had his own group of trusted aides: the Death Eaters, over whom he maintained control by continuous, and often brutal, punishment. The Death Eaters would employ the Dark Mark, a green skull (mors mordre) with a snake coming out of its mouth, as their symbol. This would be used to terrorise people – by causing it to appear above a house where they had killed people, for instance.

Despite the efforts of the Ministry and Dumbledore, Voldemort appeared to be winning, having infiltrated many of their organizations with his spies. The wizarding community was in shock and fear, and mutual suspicion was tearing it apart.

Then, in early 1980, Sibyll Trelawney, great-great-grand-daughter 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 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 fit the description within the prophecy: Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter. A Death Eater named Severus Snape overheard the prophecy being recited and informed Voldemort; He only managed to hear the first few lines, however, thus missing out the part about "marking as equal." Voldemort believed Harry the most likely of the two to be a risk to him, even though Neville was a pure-blood (and thus, according to Voldemort's creed, the better wizard) and so went to kill the child, thus "marking him as equal" and confirming that Harry was the one referred to in the prophecy.

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore reveals further truths relating to the prophecy. He tells Harry that by attempting to kill him (giving him his scar in the process) Voldemort began the chain of events that would eventually lead to fulfillment of the prophecy (much as in Oedipus Rex).


His downfall

On October 31, 1981, Voldemort arrived at the home of James and Lily Potter, prominent members of the Order of the Phoenix, in Godric's Hollow. He killed James, and then tried to kill Harry. Lily tried to stop Voldemort from killing her son but was killed herself. Finally, Voldemort used Avada Kedavra, the killing curse which is also known as an unforgivable curse, on Harry — a curse with no known counter-curse, no way of stopping it, and no known survivor.

But one-year-old Harry survived, with only a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead. The spell somehow backfired on Voldemort, reducing him to a barely-alive shell of his former self. He remained alive in six separate pieces; six split parts of his soul, five of which were preserved in Horcruxes, and a seventh part which had been in his body. He ran out into the night, and wasn't heard from again for ten years. He didn't have his sixth Horcrux yet, as he was planning to use Harry's murder to create it. (He wanted to have his soul split into seven parts)

Harry survived because of his mother's sacrifice for him, an ancient kind of magic which imbued him with a lingering protection against direct attacks by Voldemort, especially when in a place his mother's blood relatives (i.e. the Dursleys) live. This protection also saved his life from Professor Quirrell later on.

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. Overnight, Harry became a celebrity for being "The Boy Who Lived." Many Death Eaters were captured and sent to Azkaban prison.


The years of exile

Voldemort settled in a forest, where even existence was a continuous struggle for him. His only remaining power was the ability to possess the bodies of others, and he frequently possessed snakes. Animal bodies made it hard for him to do any actual magic, crucial to regaining his body and strength.

Then, in the early 1990s, Voldemort found Hogwarts' Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrell, passing through the forest. Seduced by thoughts of power and glory, Quirrell agreed to serve Voldemort. He took Voldemort to London and attempted, with the help of his new master, to steal the Philosopher's Stone, which would have allowed Voldemort to not only regain his former power, but to become immortal. His plans were thwarted by Harry, as recounted in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Voldemort returned to his hiding place, angry that his Death Eaters had forsaken him, and afraid that he would not be able to find another wizard to possess. He spent the next two years in hiding. In this interim, Death Eater Lucius Malfoy attempted to send the memory (and, unbeknownst to Malfoy, part of the soul) of Voldemort stored in his diary into Hogwarts, by giving it to Ginny Weasley. This horcrux of Voldemort 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 out of her to allow himself to come into being outside the book. Harry defeated him once again as recounted in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It is not known what would have happened had Ginny been terminated by Voldemort, but J. K. Rowling has noted it would strengthen the present-day Voldemort.

Luckily for Voldemort, a series of incidents detailed in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban forced Peter Pettigrew, who had betrayed Harry's parents to Voldemort, to leave hiding and to go in search of Voldemort. While searching for his one-time master, he kidnapped Bertha Jorkins, from whose mind Voldemort learned enough to formulate the plan he executed in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. In the course of this plan, Voldemort first created a primitive body for himself, extremely rudimentary but still enough to allow him to perform magic by himself. 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, as the blood which now courses through Voldemort is Harry's own. 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 Characteristics).


The Second War

At first, the Ministry of Magic refused to believe that Lord Voldemort had risen again. The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, began a process of defaming Dumbledore and Harry (the only non-Death Eater witness to the ceremony). Dumbledore was accused of being senile, and was removed from several important posts. Harry, on the other hand, was accused of making the whole thing up for attention. Meanwhile, Lucius Malfoy managed to gain large influence within the Ministry through heavy donations.

In opposition to Voldemort, Dumbledore reformed the Order of the Phoenix, and set it up in Sirius Black's old home — Number 12, Grimmauld Place, London. He also sent envoys to the giants and other non-human magical beings whom Voldemort might try to lure onto his side.

Meanwhile, Voldemort was waiting and plotting carefully. Only a handful of wizards (the members of the Order and his own Death Eaters) knew or believed he was back, allowing him a free hand in his schemes. He managed to coerce the giants, dementors and werewolves to support him.

Towards the latter half of the book — after engineering a plot to spring some of the Death Eaters from Azkaban — Voldemort embarked on a scheme to kill Harry and retrieve the record of the 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 he sent to execute his plan fell into the hands of the Order of the Phoenix.

Just as the Order appeared to be winning, however, Sirius Black fell into a strange doorway in the Department of Mysteries, and apparently died. This doorway was supposedly created so that the Ministry could study death. Overcome with anger and grief, Harry chased down Bellatrix Lestrange, the Death Eater responsible for Sirius's death. In his rage, Harry used the cruciatus curse (a spell of the most intense physical pain) on her, but it only lasted a split-second, as Harry was not very familiar with it (as it is one of the three unforgivable curses). Lestrange was saved by Lord Voldemort, however, who appeared and tried to kill Harry, who in turn was saved by Dumbledore.

This led to a wizarding duel, in which Voldemort and Dumbledore battled each other, until finally Voldemort vanished, taking Lestrange with him. He was seen by the Minister of Magic, however, who finally accepted that Voldemort was back. At the end of the book, the Ministry of Magic is preparing to take him on once again.


Characteristics

Voldemort is described as having chalk-white skin, no hair, red eyes and cat-like slits for pupils, and long, thin hands with unnaturally long fingers. Earlier in life Voldemort was a handsome man with black hair, before his appearance began to transform from his experiments with dark magic. In fact, he did not look dissimilar to Harry Potter. The transformation into this monstrous state was caused in most part by the division of his soul so that he could create Horcruxes.

One of Voldemort's defining characteristics are his classist "pure-blood" tendencies. He looks down upon Muggles (non-magical humans) — a hatred which seems to have begun with his muggle father's bad treatment of his mother. He hates non-pure-bloods, despite the fact he is one himself.

In many ways, Voldemort matches the classic profile of antisocial personality disorder.

Voldemort does not want to be just an ordinary person. He wanted to be someone special. In fact, he was capable of consciously controlling his wandless magic at a very young age. That explains why he hated his name; other than the fact that it links him to his father who never wanted him, the name "Tom" is a common name and was not "special" to him. That was why he gave himself another name, one which others would fear in the future, Lord Voldemort.

Voldemort bears a certain physical resemblance to Ian McDiarmid's Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars films although, as Darth Vader is "more machine than man," Voldemort appears to be "more magic than man." When first describing him to Harry, Hagrid noted that Voldemort might no longer be human enough to die:

"Some say he died. Codswallop in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die."
Rubeus Hagrid (to Harry Potter, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone)

Voldemort is also a Parselmouth: a wizard who can talk to snakes in their own language, Parseltongue. This is an ability he inherited from his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin (of whom he is the last living descendant), and which he unwittingly passed to Harry when he tried to kill him.

Voldemort also has a tendency to forget seemingly minor 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 from him, after his mother had died to protect 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 the Goblet of Fire when Harry tells him that Voldemort has some of his blood in him reveals another of Voldemort's memory-slips.

Many of these characteristics are shared by Harry, probably as a result of the failed curse which gave him his scar.

Voldemort's magic wand is made from yew wood (a wood associated with immortality and that gives poisonous sap), is thirteen and a half inches long, and has the feather of a phoenix at its core. The feather is from Dumbledore's pet phoenix, Fawkes. Unusually enough, Fawkes gave one more feather to be used in a wand; this wand belonging to Harry Potter. 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 Potter's escape from Voldemort at the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and it might also be significant in the final book of the series.

After much speculation JK Rowling revealed that Voldemort's greatest fear is "ignominious death", this his boggart would be his corpse, to see "himself dead". What Voldemort desires most is to see himself all-powerful and eternal - which is what he would see if he were ever to look in the Mirror of Erised.


Voldemort's name

Voldemort's real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle (appropriate since his name is indeed a riddle); in the second book he explains that Lord Voldemort is derived from an anagram of his name:

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE → I AM LORD VOLDEMORT

As many other names in the Harry Potter novels, "Voldemort" seems to have French origins. Indeed, "Vol de mort" means (rather appropriately) either "Flight of death" or "Theft of death" (as the word "vol" has two meanings in French). The word "de" can also translate into English "from", leading to the meaning "Flight from Death". Given Voldemort's fear and attempts to escape death, this meaning is also appropriate.

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