From BookJive
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| Name: | Lord Voldemort | |||
| Description: | He was described as "tall and skeletally thin", with a face "whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was as flat as a snake’s with slits for nostrils". His "hands were like large, pale spiders; his long white fingers caressed | |||
Lord Voldemort (born Tom Marvolo Riddle on 31 December 1926) is a fictional character and the archvillain of the Harry Potter book series written by J. K. Rowling. He first appeared in the bestseller Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (1997) as the archenemy of protagonist Harry Potter. Throughout the series, he is consistently depicted as a Dark wizard bent on securing unmatched power and immortality; he also harbours a genocidal hatred of non-magical humans. In all books, his name is so feared that many wizards refuse to say it, causing most of the characters to refer him only as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." Even his followers will not call him by his name, and refer to him as "The Dark Lord". With the exception of the third installment, Voldemort has appeared in every Harry Potter book, either in person or in some manifestation.
In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
In this book, Rowling introduces him as the Dark Lord who murders the parents of protagonist Harry Potter. However, when his mother Lily Potter sacrifices herself, attempting to save her son, this act of love grants Harry an unprecedented charm of protection which Voldemort has not expected; as a result, his Killing Curse backfires and disembodies him. The backfired curse leaves the characteristic lightning bolt-shaped scar on Harry's forehead, and creates a link between their minds which allows Harry to detect Voldemort's presence and "see" his thoughts throughout the course of the first five books. Throughout the novel, Rowling establishes that most wizards are unwilling to say Voldemort's name, instead using euphemisms such as You-Know-Who and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Also, the Dark Lord never appears in person, but Rowling drops several hints which indicate that Voldemort is nearby; at the climax, it is revealed he has possessed the body of his minion, Hogwarts teacher Professor Quirrell. Prior to Harry's arrival at Hogwarts, Quirrell had encountered Voldemort in Albania. The Dark Lord was barely surviving by taking possession of the bodies of other creatures, frequently possessing those of snakes and sustaining himself by occasionally consuming unicorn blood. Quirrell eventually agrees to serve the Dark Lord. Via Quirrell's long expository dialogue, Rowling further informs the reader that Voldemort had learned about Nicolas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone, a magical stone capable of producing gold and the so-called Elixir of Life, a substance which could restore Voldemort's body and give him a measure of immortality. It is stored at first in a bank vault at the fictional Gringotts by Albus Dumbledore, who then has it brought to Hogwarts. When Quirrell fails to retrieve it from Gringotts, Voldemort punishes him by possessing him, and traveling with him to Hogwarts, from where Voldemort intends to attempt to steal the stone again. However, Voldemort's plans are thwarted by Harry Potter. The Dark Lord pitilessly abandons Quirrell, as a result of which Quirrell dies.
In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
In the second book, Rowling introduces the character of Tom Marvolo Riddle, a manifestation residing inside a magical diary found by Ginny Weasley. In this book, Ginny is written as a shy girl with an unreciprocated crush on Harry Potter. Feeling anxious and lonely, she begins writing into the diary, sharing her deepest fears with the sympathetic Tom. However, at the climax of the story, it is revealed that Tom Marvolo Riddle is an anagram of "I am Lord Voldemort", and Tom is indeed the magical manifestation of the Dark Lord himself. This is why Lord Voldemort and Tom Marvolo Riddle's names are different in foreign translations. Riddle states he has grown strong on her fears and eventually possessed Ginny. He then used her as a pawn to unlock the Chamber of Secrets, from where a basilisk was set free which petrified several Hogwarts students. However, Harry defeats both the Riddle from the diary and the basilisk.
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
In the third book, Voldemort does not make an appearance, either in person or in the form of a magical manifestation. He is heard when Harry passes out from a Dementor. However, Rowling causes the usually fraudulent Divination professor, Sybill Trelawney, to genuinely prophesy:
The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these 12 years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever before. Tonight... before midnight... the servant... will set out... to rejoin... his master....
Towards the end of the book, the servant is revealed to be Peter Pettigrew, who, since the fall of Lord Voldemort, has been hiding as Ron Weasley's pet rat, Scabbers.
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
In this fourth installment of the series, Voldemort appears at the start and the climax of the book. Rowling lets many seemingly unrelated plot elements fall into order. It is revealed that Voldemort's minion Barty Crouch Jr, disguised as Hogwarts professor Mad-Eye Moody, has manipulated the events of the Triwizard Tournament. Voldemort's goal is to teleport reluctant participant Harry Potter to the Little Hangleton graveyard, where the Riddle family is buried. Harry is captured and, after Pettigrew uses Harry's blood, to fulfil a gruesome magical ritual, Voldemort regains his body and is restored to his full power.
It was revealed that, while in Albania, Pettigrew had captured the Ministry of Magic official Bertha Jorkins, who was tortured for information about the Ministry. After they learned that Barty Crouch Jr, a faithful Death Eater, had been smuggled out of Azkaban and was privately confined at his father's house, they killed her. With Pettigrew's help, Voldemort created a small, rudimentary body, corporeal enough to travel and perform magic, and formulated a plan to restore his own body by capturing Harry. A portion of the plan had been overheard by Frank Bryce, a gardener, whom Voldemort then killed. Voldemort then completes his plan and returns to life in his full body as a result of the ritual with Harry's blood. He then summons his Death Eaters to the graveyard to witness the death of Harry Potter as he challenges Harry to a duel. However, when Voldemort duels Harry, their wands become magically locked together due to the twin Phoenix feather cores of the wands. Because of a phenomenon later revealed as Priori Incantatem, ghost-like manifestations of Voldemort's most recent victims (including Harry's parents) then appear and distract Voldemort, allowing Harry just enough time to escape via Portkey with the body of fellow-student, Cedric Diggory, who was murdered by Peter Pettigrew on Voldemort's orders.
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
In the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort appears at the climax, having again carefully plotted against Harry. In this book, Harry goes through extreme emotional stress, and according to Rowling, it was necessary to prove that Harry is emotionally vulnerable and thus human, in contrast to his nemesis Voldemort, who is emotionally invulnerable and thus inhuman:
"Harry is a very human hero, and this is, obviously, there’s a contrast, between him, as a very human hero, and Voldemort, who has deliberately dehumanised himself. […] and Harry, therefore, did have to reach a point where he did almost break down."
In this book, Voldemort makes liberal use of the Ministry of Magic's refusal to believe that he has returned. Voldemort engineers a plot to free Bellatrix Lestrange and some other Death Eaters from Azkaban and then embarks on a scheme to retrieve the full record of a prophecy regarding Harry and himself which is stored in the Department of Mysteries. He sends a group of Death Eaters to retrieve the prophecy, where they are met by the Order of the Phoenix. All but Bellatrix are captured, and Voldemort engages in a ferocious duel with Dumbledore. Voldemort attempts to possess Harry Potter but finds that he cannot; Harry is too full of that which Voldemort finds detestable: love. Sensing that Dumbledore could win, Voldemort disapparates, but not before the Minister for Magic sees him in person, making his return to life public knowledge.
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
In a series of flashbacks, using the pensieve as a plot device, she established that Voldemort is the son of the witch Merope Gaunt and Tom Riddle Sr. However, Riddle abandons Merope before Tom Riddle Jr.'s birth, soon after which, Merope dies. Riddle never comes to find his son.After living in an orphanage, young Tom is picked up by Albus Dumbledore, who takes him to Hogwarts. Riddle establishes himself as a brilliant and ruthless student, who is outwardly a model pupil, but in reality a killer who murders his father and grandparents. Rowling also wrote that Riddle soon is obsessed by Horcruxes, wanting to split his soul to become immortal. Outside the books, Rowling has revealed that Voldemort's greatest fear is "ignominious death," and that his boggart would be his own corpse. What he desires most is to be all-powerful and to live forever – which is what he would see if he were ever to look in the Mirror of Erised. Dumbledore also states that Voldemort secretly possesses an extreme fear of death and dying (necrophobia). Dumbledore has also stated that "it is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more" and that Voldemort fails to understand that there are worse ways to destroy a man than by simply killing him. In the main plot of the book, Voldemort's next step is to engineer an assault on Hogwarts, and to attack Dumbledore himself. This is accomplished by Draco Malfoy, who manages to arrange transportation into Hogwarts by means of a pair of so-called Vanishing Cabinets, which bypass the extensive protective enchantments placed around the school. The cabinets allow Voldemort's Death Eaters to enter Hogwarts, yet it is Severus Snape who uses the Killing Curse against Dumbledore when Draco is unable to do so himself. With Dumbledore dead, the scales of battle seem to have tipped in Voldemort's favour, with Harry now out to avenge the deaths of his parents, his godfather Sirius, his friend Cedric, and finally his mentor Dumbledore.
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
In the final book, Voldemort furthers his quest for ultimate power. He disposes of the Minister for Magic and replaces him with Pius Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius Curse. Establishing a totalitarian police state, he has Muggle-borns persecuted and arrested for "stealing magic" from the "pure blood" wizards. After failing to kill Harry with Lucius Malfoy's borrowed wand (to avoid the effect of Priori Incantatem), he goes on a murderous search for the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand ever created, seeing it as the weapon he needs to overcome Harry's wand and make him truly invincible. He goes on a quest that takes him out of the country to Gregorovitch's wand shop, where he kills the old wandmaker. His journey also takes him to Nurmengard, the prison where Gellert Grindelwald is kept. He kills Grindelwald as well. He finally locates the Elder Wand and steals it from Dumbledore's tomb.
Later, he finds out that Harry and his friends are stealing and destroying his Horcruxes. After offering the occupants of the castle mercy if they give up Harry, he assembles a large army and launches an invasion of Hogwarts, where Harry is searching for Ravenclaw's Lost Diadem, one of the Horcruxes. Voldemort murders Snape believing it would make him the true master of the Elder Wand, since Snape killed Dumbledore. He then calls an hour's armistice, in exchange for Harry Potter. When Harry willingly walks into Voldemort's camp in the forest, Voldemort strikes him down with the Elder Wand.
However, the use of Harry's blood to resurrect Voldemort's body proves to be a major setback: while Harry's blood runs in Voldemort's veins, Harry cannot be killed as his mother's protection lives on now in Voldemort too. Instead, Voldemort himself destroys the part of his own soul that resides in Harry’s body and whilst his soul lives in Harry, the two are bonded. Voldemort forces Hagrid to carry the apparently lifeless body of Harry back to the castle as a trophy, sparking another battle. In the battle, Voldemort overpowers Minerva McGonagall, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Horace Slughorn. Harry then reveals himself and explains to Voldemort that Draco became the true master of the Elder Wand when he disarmed Dumbledore; Harry, in turn, won the wand's allegiance when he took Draco's wand. Voldemort nonetheless casts the Killing Curse with the Elder Wand while Harry uses a Disarming Charm with Draco's, but the Elder Wand refuses to kill its master and the spell rebounds on Voldemort, who, in the absence of his remaining Horcruxes, is destroyed once and for all.
Rowling stated that after his death, Voldemort is forced to exist in the stunted infant-like form that Harry sees in the King's Cross-like Limbo after his confrontation with Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. Rowling also mentioned that, despite his extreme fear of death, he is unable to become a ghost.
