Tom Riddle

**Tom Marvolo Riddle** , also known as **Lord Voldemort**, **Dark Lord** and **You-Know-Who**, is a character in the *Harry Potter book series*.

Voldemort is a very powerful Dark wizard who craves power and immortality. He is the archenemy of Harry Potter who sought control of the Ministry of Magic. He created several Horcruxes along with two wizarding wars. He is killed at the Battle of Hogwarts.

## Biography

### Education

In September 1938, Tom began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was in sorted into Slytherin, a House founded by Tom's ancestor Salazar Slytherin. Tom wanted to find his biological family and he began searching for information around the school. He thought Merope had to be the Muggle parent because she failed use magic to avoid dying in childbirth. He focused on finding Tom Snr. instead but he found nothing and had to concede that his father was the Muggle.

In the fifth-year, Tom was a Prefect.

#### Opening the Chamber of Secrets

Tom began searching for Merope's family by using his middle name Marvolo for his grandfather. He found out that she was a Gaunt and that they were descended from Salazar Slytherin. He knew about the legend of the Chamber of Secrets and deduced that he was the Heir of Slytherin. He began searching for it and he eventually succeeded in finding it during the 1942-1943 school year.

Tom tamed the serpent in the Chamber of Secrets and used it to try and carry out Slytherin's "noble work" to purge the school of Muggle-born students. Eventually, a student was killed and Headteacher Professor Dippet was going to have to close the school down. Fearing going back to the orphanage, Tom asked Dippet if he could stay at the school. He was denied and Tom knew that the Chamber had to be closed.

He knew that Dumbledore suspected him so he framed Rubeus Hagrid and an Acromantula called Aragog, and because Dippet held Tom in high favour, he thought he was telling the truth. He expelled Hagrid and told Tom he could never tell anyone the reason. He was given a Special Award for Services to the School for the trouble. He was surprised framing Hagrid worked because he considered the half-giant too unintelligent to every do that.

Dumbledore kept a "close eye" on Tom from then on. He knew he could not open the Chamber again when he was attending the school. He later used the student's death to preserve a part of his soul into a diary in the hope that a future student would take it to the school and complete the work.

#### Later years

In August 1944, Tom tracked down his father in Little Hangleton. He visited the Riddle House where he killed his father and grandparents. The gardener, Frank Bryce saw Tom near the house but the police couldn't find a trace of him. While in the Muggle world, Frank was considered responsible for the killings, Tom framed his uncle, Morfin Gaunt.

Tom wanted to use his father's name less and less. He was ashamed to have a Muggle father and was upset he had abandoned him, so he adopted a new name. It was an anagram of his original name, rearranging the letters to spell Voldemort. He had developed an intimate circle of friends at school and he told them his new name. These so-called "friends" were eventually the first Death Eaters. They were effectively his servants.

During the final year at Hogwarts, Tom was Head Boy and achieved top grades in every examination. He was given the Medal for Magical Merit.

### Gaining power

"*I have experimented; I have pushed the boundaries of magic further, perhaps, than they have ever been pushed —*"
— Tom of the time he spent away[src]

Tom was now falling deeper and deeper into the Dark Arts and for the next ten years, he went into hiding and began travelling. He was pushing the boundaries of magic and experimenting using Dark magic. He undertook many dangerous transformations and he became less and less handsome. By the time he resurfaced, he was unrecognisable and very few connected the former Tom to who he was now.

### First Wizarding War

The only place that was deemed very safe was Hogwarts because of Dumbledore. Voldemort's fear of him kept him away from the school. Dumbledore founded the Order of Phoenix to combat Voldemort and many powerful members would defy Voldemort several times. However the efforts dkd not keep Voldemort from gaining power and the war went on for eleven long years by which point, he was at the height of power. Even long after the war had ended, many in the wizarding world had a fear of even saying the name Voldemort.

#### Downfall

Voldemort had a spy in the Order of the Phoenix, Peter Pettigrew who was keeping him informed of James and Lily's whereabouts. They soon put their confidence in Peter and chose him to be their Secret Keeper. Less than seven days later, Peter told him they were hiding in Godric's Hollow.

Before confronting the Potters, he and Lucius Malfoy had planned to eventually reopen the Chamber of Secrets using Tom Riddle's Diary. It was left in Lucius's care when Tom went missing.

Voldemort promised Snape that he would not kill Lily and would offer her a chance to step aside. Voldemort went to the house and fought and killed a wandless James. He found Lily standing near Harry and he gave her a chance to step aside, but she wouldn't and started begging for Harry's life. He gave her a second chance but she kept begging for Harry to be spared. She told him to kill her instead, and he eventually gave up trying to encourage her not to. He laughed at her and killed her.

Because he gave Lily a chance to live, she had sacrificed her life for Harry and an ancient force born of love protected Harry from the Killing Curse. The Killing Curse bounced off Harry and hit Voldemort instead. He disappeared.

Voldemort was now half-dead, bodiless and powerless. He fled to a forest in Albania to hide. The world did not know what happened to him. A few people thought he was dead, a few thought he was waiting until he was strong again, and a few even worked out he was likely half-dead.

### Philosopher's Stone

In the summer of 1991, Voldemort was found by Quirinus Quirrell who had hoped that joining him would gain him power. Instead, Voldemort knew he was vulnerable and possessed him, latching to Quirrell's body when he found out that he worked at Hogwarts. They hatched a plan to find and steal the Philosopher's Stone because he knew it could grant him a body again. Dumbledore suspected that Voldemort might one day try to steal it, and he put it in Gringotts. He then put defences in Hogwarts for the Stone to kept there instead.

Voldemort hatched a plan to break into Gringotts but he and Quirrell were too late because Rubeus Hagrid had taken the Stone to Hogwarts that same day. He learned from Quirrell that it was taken there, and that it had many defences that Quirrell had to get around if they were to be successful. During their first attempt to get around Fluffy, Quirrell put a troll in the school and then raced to the third-floor corridor. Snape suspected Quirrell and beat him to the corridor, blocking him off and scaring Quirrell away.

Quirrell and Voldemort's first tried to kill Harry that year at the first Quidditch game, but Snape and Hermione Granger intervened. At the next game, Quirrell and Voldemort were scared off from trying to jinx Harry again because Snape was supervising the match. Dumbledore was spectating just in case they had to help Harry. Snape spoke to Quirrell in the Forbidden Forest. He wanted to know how close he had gotten to the Stone and frighten him into giving up. Voldemort heard the conversation.

Voldemort knew that Snape was once loyal, but he had no idea whether he had stayed loyal. He was too afraid in such a bad state to tell Snape that he and Quirrell had joined forces in case he gave him up to Dumbledore. Snape probably knew that Quirrell and Voldemort had joined forces, and he was careful about the words he used when confronting Quirrell to stop him from getting the Stone, because Voldemort would not have trusted him enough in the future if he suspected the truth. Snape would later persuade Voldemort that he simply saw pathetic and unworthy Quirrell attempting the get the Stone and that was why he got in the way, and that he would not have done that if he knew the truth.

In spring, Quirrell and Voldemort manipulated Hagrid into telling them how to get past Fluffy. They had to put him to sleep using music. Voldemort had asked Quirrell by then to go into the Forbidden Forest and drink the blood of unicorns. The price of doing that was a cursed half-life. He had to be desperate if he was willing to kill unicorns and drink their blood. Quirrell's body was suffering under the pressure of possession, and he needed him to drink the blood to keep living. Harry was serving detention searching for a missing unicorn in the Forest, and found them. They attempted to kill him, but Firenze intervened and they fled.

In June 1992, Quirrell and Voldemort finally managed to get past Fluffy and get through the underground chambers. However, Quirrell had no understanding of how to get the Stone from the Mirror of Erised. Dumbledore had enchanted it to give it to a viewer who simply wanted to possess it and not use it. Harry joined them and the mirror gave the Stone to him because he did not want to use it.

Voldemort observed that Harry was the key and Quirrell asked him what he saw in the mirror. Voldemort knew that Harry's answer was a lie. Quirrell took off the turban and Harry saw Voldemort's face was sticking out the back of Quirrell's head. Voldemort taunted Harry in the hope of persuading him to give up the Stone, but that failed.

He then asked Quirrell to seize him but because of the protection Lily's death gave to Harry, it hurt Quirrell to touch him. Harry noticed and purposely grabbed Quirrell. Eventually, Harry passed out and Dumbledore arrived in time to drag Quirrell off Harry. Quirrell was dying and Voldemort abandoned him. Dumbledore had the Stone destroyed.

### Return

In August 1992, Lucius Malfoy decided to use the diary Tom gave him to reopen the Chamber of Secrets. He used it for a personal reason, hoping to ruin Arthur Weasley's career if the diary possessed Ginevra Weasley into opening the Chamber again. The diary siphoned her life force and gained a physical body. The soul in the diary was curious to hear of his future connection to Harry Potter. Harry eventually found the Chamber, killed the Basilisk and stabbed the diary. He had destroyed Tom's first Horcrux, eliminated the diary's version of Tom and it was proof to Dumbledore that he had created Horcruxes. Tom found out what Lucius had done two years later and he was very upset at the carelessness.

The following June, Peter Pettigrew escaped capture and travelled to Albania to track down Voldemort. Tired from travelling, Pettigrew decided to eat at an inn near the forest in which Voldemort was hiding. He was found there by Bertha Jorkins who was on holiday. He lured her into the forest where he overpowered her and gave her to Voldemort. He tortured her for information, discovering she had a powerful Memory Charm already placed on her.

He broke through the charm to learn that his loyal Death Eater, Barty Crouch Junior was alive and his father was imprisoning his son at his home. He also learned that Hogwarts was hosting the Triwizard Tournament and that ex-Auror Alastor Moody was teaching there. Using these pieces of information, he created a plan to restore his body with a Dark potion for which he needed three key ingredients: a bone from his father, the blood of his hated enemy and the flesh of a servant willingly given. Bertha's body was damaged beyond repair by the spells he cast on her, and he murdered her once she served her purpose. At one point after her murder, he used it to turn Nagini into his last, and what he thought was his sixth, Horcrux.

In August, Voldemort had created a potion to generate a rudimentary body. It was a small, feeble body about the size of a baby. To sustain the little health it provided, he had to drink the potion every few hours. He also could not walk. For this reason, he kept Pettigrew around to carry and care for him even though he knew he was there out of cowardice.

They took up residence in Riddle House where their presence was noticed by Frank Bryce. He stood outside the door while they talked about their plans. They were interrupted by the arrival of Nagini, who told him Frank was standing outside the door. Voldemort invited him into the room where he tried to stand up to the Dark Lord. Frank was then murdered with the Killing Curse.

## Appearance

Tom had jet-black hair when he was a teenager.

When he inhabited a rudimentary body, he was ugly, slimy, blind and nearly indescribable. He was hairless and scaly-looking with dark, raw reddish black skin. He had thin and feeble arms and legs, with a flat, snake-like face and gleaming red eyes. He looked so horrific that those who saw it recoiled in disgust.

## Notes and sources

1. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, Chapter 6
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*, Chapter 13
3. ↑ The Leaky Cauldron and MuggleNet interview Joanne Kathleen Rowling: Part Two
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*, Chapter 17
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 *Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire*, Chapter 1
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*, Chapter 18
7. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, Chapter 4
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, Chapter 19
9. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, Chapter 10
10. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, Chapter 9
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, Chapter 17
12. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, Chapter 5
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, Chapter 11
14. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, Chapter 13
15. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*, Chapter 1
16. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, Chapter 15
17. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*, Chapter 23