«You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father’s name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother’s side? I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Harry. I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!«—Tom Riddle’s transformation into Lord Voldemort
Tom Marvolo Riddle (31 December, 1926 – 2 May, 1998), later known as Lord Voldemort or alternatively as You-Know-Who, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, or the Dark Lord, was a half-bloodwizard considered to have been the most powerful and dangerous Dark Wizard of all time.[ The only child and son of 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.
Riddle began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1938 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 between the years of 1942 and 1998, 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, Riddle 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, installing a puppet Minister, Pius Thicknesse, who was controlled with the Imperius Curse.
Voldemort was ripped from his body in 1981 after attempting to kill Harry and, though unable to die, was not able to regain a permanent and physical body until 1995, thus spending the intervening fourteen 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.
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 in 1996 and before Voldemort’s death at the hands of Harry in 1998.
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.
Family lineage
By Harry Potter‘s time, Tom’s family on his mother Merope‘s side were the last known members of the House of Gaunt. The Gaunts were an ancient, and formerly wealthy, wizarding family, noted for producing individuals with violent and unstable personalities due to generations of inbreeding.
Previous, named members of the Gaunt family — Tom’s distant relatives — included Corvinus Gaunt, Tom’s maternal ancestor, and a Parselmouth who hid the Chamber of Secrets entrance in a girls’ restroom at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; Rionach Gaunt, the mother of Ilvermorny founder Isolt Sayre; and Gormlaith Gaunt, the sister of Rionach; maternal aunt of Sayre; maternal great-aunt of Rionach Steward and Martha Steward; and, it is believed, the «last of the Irish branch of the Gaunt family».
Because of the Gaunt family’s liking for grandeur, along with little sensibility at their indulgences, the family gold was gambled away and gone long before the last known heirs of the lineage were born. Likewise, a tendency to «marry their own cousins» to «keep their bloodline pure», following the beliefs of their ancestor Salazar Slytherin, caused the heirs to the Gaunt name to suffer the ill-effects of generations of inbreeding and incest.
In North America, in what would later become the state of Massachusetts in the United States, the descendants of the Irish branch of the Gaunt family, through the Sayr’s line, was thought to have died out sometime in the 17th or 18th century. Rionach Steward, Sayre’s Half-blood daughter and the Defence Against the Dark Artsteacher at Ilvermony, was also rumoured to have inherited the ability to speak Parseltongue from her mother. Unwilling to further Slytherin’s bloodline, since she viewed him as a Dark wizard, Rionach never married or had children, and she later died without heirs.
However, Rionach was unaware that another branch of the Gaunt family was still present, alive and well, across the ocean in England. It was from this line of Gaunts from which, centuries later, another Half-blood descendant, Tom Marvolo Riddle, would be born.
Rionach’s sister Martha, unlike her sibling, married a No-maj (Muggle) friend of the nearby Pocumtuc Native American tribe. Born a Squib, without any magical powers, Martha felt ostracised within the growing American wizarding community, despite being the child of an important family. In the end, due to the emotional pain caused by being unable to perform magic, and the stigma of being the the only Squib to grow up at Ilvermorny, Martha decided to live her life henceforth as a Muggle.[
Tom’s maternal grandfather, Marvolo Gaunt, and his maternal uncle, Morfin Gaunt, claimed to be the last known male, Pure-blood descendants of Slytherin by the early 20th century. As such, they regarded themselves as «royalty» for their ancestry, despite their poverty; squalor; lack of education; and mental and physical disorders from centuries of familial inbreeding.
Tom’s father, Tom Riddle Snr., was a wealthy Muggle living in the village of Little Hangleton, near the Gaunt shack, who was forced into a relationship with Merope Gaunt through probable use of either the Imperius Curseor a Love Potion.[ After some time, it is speculated by Albus Dumbledore that Merope discontinued her use of either the curse or love potions on Tom, in the hopes that he had really fallen in love with her, or would at least stay for their child’s sake. To Merope’s great sorrow, Tom Snr fled from her after he came to his senses and regained his free will and never wanted to see her again.
Early life (1926-1938)
«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 regarding the things he can do
Tom Marvolo Riddle was born on 31 December, 1926 at Wool’s Orphanage in London. His mother Merope staggered to the door of the orphanage, had Tom born there, and died shortly after his birth. 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 Dumbledore shortly before his first meeting with Riddle. It is unknown whether or not the staff relayed this to Riddle before his first encounter with Dumbledore.
Despite his ignorance of his mother’s true background, Riddle did have some grasp on his abilities beyond that of normal magical children of his same age, and an unusually high degree of control over them. He could move objects with his mind and cause them to float wherever he wished, manipulate animals and creatures as he wished, speak Parseltongue, and use his power to inflict harm on other orphans. 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. Riddle also stole from other orphans and hid their things in his cupboard like trophies. Dumbledore stopped Riddle from this hobby and ordered him to return the stolen items and apologise. He also warned Riddle to stop his misbehaviour, as Hogwarts had an honour code whereupon lying, cheating and stealing were not tolerated.
Discovery of being a wizard
Harry Potter: «Did you know, sir? Then…?«Albus Dumbledore: «Did I know that I had just met the most dangerous Dark wizard of all-time? No.«— A memory of Dumbledore meeting Tom Riddle for the first time
When Riddle was eleven, 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 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 Dumbledore demonstrated his power by using a Flame-Freezing Charm on Riddle’s cupboard and revealed that Hogwarts was a school for people with magic, whereupon Riddle realised his abilities were. Tom also mentioned his proficiency for parseltongue in this same meeting, asking if it was a common gift amongst wizards, to which Dumbledore gave no reply.
At a very early age, it was clear that 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).
Riddle was not surprised upon being informed by Dumbledore that he was a wizard — he was, in fact, eager to believe that he had special gifts that no one else had. Riddle also showed an eminent fear of death, considering it a human weakness. 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 Dumbledore said he did not know offhand.
Riddle’s abuse of his wizarding powers alarmed Albus. He resolved to keep a close eye on him, something he should have done in any case, seeing as he was «alone and friendless». Dumbledore also warned 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. Riddle’s demeanour changed after Dumbledore reprimanded him; he became more guarded and shielded his reactions. Dumbledore provided Riddle with enough information to find Diagon Alley and Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. He also provided Riddle with a stipend from school funds so that he could purchase his books and equipment. Travelling on his own to Diagon Alley, 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; Voldemort was very pleased with it until the wand failed him during his confrontation with Harry Potter in the Little Hangleton graveyard.
Tea Break with Potter 