Thomas "Tom" Marvolo Riddle aka Lord Voldemort or simply Voldemort is the main antagonist of the literary and cinematographic franchise titled Harry Potter.
Biography[]
Birth[]
“I remember him saying to me: 'I hope he looks like his daddy', and I'm not lying to him. Well, it was understandable that she harbored that hope, because she was no beauty. Then he added that he wanted his name to be Tom, like hers, her father, and Sorvolo, like her father. Yes, I know that she is a very rare name, right? We think maybe the girl came from some circus. And she also said that the boy's last name was Riddle. She shortly after she died without having uttered another word." — Mrs. Cole tells Albus Dumbledore Merope Gaunt's last words
Tom Sorvolo Riddle was born on December 31, 1926, at the Wool Orphanage in London, England. Her pure-blood mother, Merope Gaunt, a direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin, staggered up the stairs of the orphanage and was taken in, an hour later she had a baby and, after another, Merope died but, before she died, the witch, He christened his son with the father's name, Tom Riddle Sr, and his middle name after his grandfather, Sorvolo Gaunt. Tom Riddle Sr. had been a wealthy Muggle who resided in the village of Little Hangleton and who had become lovingly related to Merope Gaunt after the possible influence of a love potion. After a while, possibly Merope withdrew the use of the magic solution from her in hopes that the young man had truly fallen in love with her, or at least stayed for the well-being of her unborn child of hers. However, the Muggle abandoned them, her and her Tom, to later go live in the mansion of her parents.
Childhood[]
"I can move things without touching them. I can make animals do what I want without training them. I can make bad things happen to people who are not good to me. I can hurt them if I want to; and I can also talk to snakes. They look for me, they whisper things to me." — A young Tom Riddle to Albus Dumbledore
Tom Riddle was raised in the Wool Orphanage, growing up completely unaware of his magical heritage. In the orphanage, the caregivers treated the children cold and rigid and the quality of the orphanage was poor, this caused Tom to hate the orphanage. However, he managed to realize certain innate abilities that he possessed and that were alien to his peers of the same age, although, without knowing how to control them properly. Tom could move objects with his mind and make them go where he wanted, manipulate animals and creatures as he wished, speak Parseltongue, and use these skills to hurt other children who insulted or hurt him. He used his powers to torment various companions, including stealing their possessions and keeping them hidden in a closet, and leading young Dennis Bishop and Amy Benson to a cave where he carried out a gruesome act that traumatized the other two. kids. Tom was surprisingly sadistic, and once when he argued with Billy Stubbs, he killed his pet rabbit by hanging him over the ceiling rafters.
When he was eleven years old, Tom was visited by Albus Dumbledore who told him that he was a wizard and informed him that he was selected to study at Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw Tom's sadism and forbid him from stealing at Hogwarts, as he discovered that Tom stole things from others. When Dumbledore offered to accompany Tom to purchase the materials for Hogwarts, Tom, who was self-sufficient, rejected the offer. Days later, he went to Diagon Alley and bought his materials, including his magic wand, which he bought from Garrick Ollivander. The wand measured 34 and a quarter inches long, was made of yew, and had a phoenix feather core, which was of Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix.
Years at Hogwarts[]
Upon arriving at Hogwarts, Tom was instantly selected to go to Slytherin. He immediately stood out as a bright, educated and eager student, which immediately won him the sympathy of the teachers, except for Professor Dumbledore. Tom knew that when he met him at the orphanage, the emotion of the first moment made him reveal more than necessary, so from that moment on he was very cautious with him.
He supposed that, having died, his mother could not be a witch, since she would otherwise have been able to avoid it. So he looked up Tom Riddle Sr. on trophy plaques, Annual Awards records, and wizarding community history books, until he had to accept that his father had never been to Hogwarts. So, he set about looking for his maternal relatives; Knowing that his grandfather was called Sorvolo, he reached out to the Gaunts, and to Salazar Slytherin himself, he discovered that he could speak Parseltongue because of his Slytherin descent.
The Death Eaters[]
Voldemort as Professor Quirrel/The Hooded Figure
Before 1942, Tom learned that his father was a Muggle and abandoned him and his mother. This caused Tom to deeply hate his father and all Muggles, considering them all the same as him. The Lestrange family joined Voldemort, among the family members were the brothers Rodolphus and Rabastan. Bellatrix Black also joined Voldemort and married Rodolphus, adopting the last name Lestrange. Voldemort considered Bellatrix as his most loyal ally and it was true, as Bellatrix could do everything for Voldemort and even fell in love with him. Voldemort was also joined by Bellatrix's sister, Narcissa Black, who married Lucius Malfoy, another Death Eater, because of that, Narcissa adopted the surname Malfoy. Barty Crouch Jr, son of Barty Crouch Sr, also bonded with Voldemort and was very loyal to him, being able to do anything for Voldemort. Voldemort was also joined by Travers, Nott, Avery Jr, Mulciber Jr, Wilkes, Igor Karkarov, Walden Macnair, Crabbe, Goyle and Antonin Dolohov, the latter was very powerful. The Ministry of Magic was no longer trustworthy because Death Eaters had infiltrated it, among them was Death Eater Augustus Rookwood. In 1978, recent Hogwarts graduates Severus Snape, Peter Pettigrew, and Regulus Black joined Voldemort, due to their beliefs.
The First Wizarding World War[]
During the war, Voldemort had to choose a place to hide the Horcruxes from him. He hid the Ring of Gaunt in the ruins of the House of Gaunt, which was unoccupied, since Merope and Sorvolo had died decades ago, and Morfin was arrested. Voldemort placed a protective spell on the ruins and cursed Gaunt's Ring with a curse that caused the person who touched the ring to die within the next 24 hours. Gaunt's ring attached the Resurrection Stone, a Deathly Hallows that the Gaunt family possessed, being a descendant of Cadmus Peverell himself. Voldemort then passed his diary to Malfoy, telling him that he could corrupt a Hogwarts student and force him to open the Chamber of Secrets. Voldemort also passed the Hufflepuff Cup to the Lestranges, telling them it was a valuable item to him, the Lestranges hiding the cup in their Gringotts vault. Finally, Voldemort hid the Slytherin Locket in the cave where he had tormented his fellow orphans years before. He protected the cave with various spells to later test the tests, for this, he called Kreacher, Regulus Black's house elf, and accompanied him to test the tests.
Voldemort made a spell that allowed only one person to enter the cave, although he did not consider minors or magical creatures that were weak to him, such as elves. Voldemort also made a spell that made the person passing the cave cut his hand to release a little blood, all with the aim of weakening the person, and finally he had to drink a potion that tortured him, the cave was surrounded by a lake and in the lake there were inferis. When Voldemort went with Kreacher, he made Kreacher pass the tests and seeing that they were a success, he abandoned Kreacher who was left at the mercy of the inferis, but Kreacher escaped, appearing at 12 Grimmuald Place. There he told everything to Regulus who, enraged, decided to betray Voldemort, going to the cave accompanied by Kreacher, stealing the locket and giving it to Kreacher, put a fake one, and let himself be killed by the inferis, ordering Kreacher to leave and destroy the locket, however, Kreacher can't destroy the locket.
Before the advance of Voldemort, Albus Dumbledore gathered a group of wizards willing to fight to stop the Dark Lord, and founded the Order of the Phoenix, emerging as the axis of resistance against the Death Eaters. Among the members of the Order of the Phoenix were the merchant Mundungus Fletcher, the mighty Auror Alastor Moody, the couple Lilly and James Potter, the young Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, Dumbledore's brother Aberforth, Professor Minerva McGonagall, and the now Ranger Rubeus Hagrid, among other wizards and witches.
After Harold Minchum was fired in 1980 due to his incapacity and incompetence, being replaced by Millicent Bagnold as Minister of Magic, Voldemort killed several members of the Order of the Phoenix, Benjy Fenwick was mutilated by Voldemort, Caradoc Dearborn as well and his body was never found, Dorcas Meadowes was also brutally murdered, the Bones family among which was Edgar Bones was murdered by Voldemort himself. The only survivor being Amelia Bones, Voldemort also murdered the McKinnons, among whom was Marlene, and the brothers Fabian and Gideon Preewet were killed by Death Eaters, among whom was Antonin Dolohov.
Before 1981, the Order of the Phoenix knew that among them there was a traitor, which was actually Peter Pettigrew, who had infiltrated the Order of the Phoenix,
The Prophecy[]
To be added
Description[]
In his early years, Tom Riddle was an extremely handsome boy. He was described as having jet black hair, perfectly carved features, and dark eyes. The novel further elaborated him being virtually identical to his father and devoid of traces of Gaunts in him. As he grew up, his involvement in the Dark Arts gradually deformed his appearance; in the flashback of him requesting a position at Hogwarts, he had become deathly pale, his face waxy and oddly distorted, and the white of his eyes now had a permanently bloody look. Afterwards, he continued to go through many transformations, until he became what he is.
He is tall, and skeletally thin. His face is an almost opaque texture, with deep, dark scarlet red eyes set in slits, like a cat's gleaming in the dark. His nose is as flat as a snake's, leaving small incisions for nostrils, and his fingers are unnaturally long, like a spider's legs. He can usually be seen wearing his black hooded cloak that always covers his face.
In the films, his physical description remained same albeit with some changes; he was given blue eyes so they would "show more emotion" and when manifesting his face on the back of Quirrell's head while inhabiting him, his nose looked like normal instead of slits. Additionally, his restored body is shown to have very apparent veins on the top and back of his bald head (which some viewers misinterpreted as scale-like) and his eyes appeared normal instead of slits (Goblet of Fire film briefly showed him with slit-like eyes upon opening them however).
Personality[]
Considered "the most evil wizard in hundreds and hundreds of years", Voldemort is a psychopath, devoid of compassion and remorse, and single-minded in his pursuit of absolute power, with wizards everywhere afraid to speak his name. He feels nothing for anyone but himself, and considers all others his inferiors. He is also obsessed with achieving immortality, and regards death as a shameful human weakness; in interviews, creator J.K. Rowling has said death is Voldemort's greatest fear. His ultimate ambition is to be all-powerful and live eternally, controlling the world and everyone in it forever.
As a young boy, he took sadistic pleasure in using his powers to bully and abuse other children, and hoarded things that he stole from them as trophies, which would eventually blossom into his conception of the Horcruxes. He exhibited a need for independence that bordered on pathological, preferring to operate in secrecy and solitude whenever possible. Dumbledore remarked that he prefers to use Horcruxes instead of the Elixir of Life generated by the power of the Philosopher’s Stone to attain immortality — he only needs the latter to restore his physical form before resorting to an alternative four years later given he found reliance on the Elixir intolerable.
Despite his independent streak, he does rely on assistance from others if necessary. Voldemort often relies on his Death Eaters and an army of versatile beings to do his bidding, from overtaking the Ministry of Magic to trivial matters that he does not think are worth his time. During his reign of terror, he trusts the conquered Ministry of Magic to his army, assigning two of his Horcruxes to his lieutenant Death Eaters Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy, since both have the necessary resources and skills to ensure their safety. Prior to his return to power, he also relies on the cowardly Peter Pettigrew to take care of his crippled form.
As revealed in Dumbledore and Harry's investigation on his background in The Half-Blood Prince, Voldemort's inability to feel or understand love is related to the coercive relationship between his parents, Merope Gaunt and Tom Riddle Sr.; Merope used a love potion on Tom in order to conceive a child. She died in childbirth, and Tom abandoned the child, leaving him to grow up alone; therefore, Voldemort grew up not knowing how to form emotional bonds. Without the need or desire for human companionship, he came to see other people as objects existing to serve and benefit him, and to be discarded once they outlived their usefulness. The only other living creature that he displays any real affection for is his pet serpent Nagini, even entrusting to her a piece of his soul by turning her into a Horcrux.
In his youth at Hogwarts, he was a model student and manipulated his teachers — except Dumbledore — into giving him whatever he wanted, especially information about Dark Arts such as Horcruxes. He was also a consummate liar, having managed to trick Slughorn to reveal his knowledge about Horcruxes and feigned innocence when confronted by Dumbledore about mistreating his fellow students and, later, opening the Chamber of Secrets. Only two individuals saw through Voldemort at that time: Hepzibah Smith, who saw Voldemort's eyes flash red with avarice when he saw her treasured artifacts; and Dumbledore, who knew from their first meeting that the boy was dangerous.
Voldemort is a racist, despising non-magical humans ("Muggles") and those who are of mixed magical and Muggle heritage — even though he is one of the latter himself. In addition of erecting a statue depicting Muggles being crushed following the takeover of Ministry of Magic, he rebukes the Muggle side of his parentage and welcomes his Death Eaters as his "true family", unleashing the Serpent of Slytherin to continue Salazar's cause in purging Muggle-borns at Hogwarts. Despite his racism, however, Voldemort is willing to accept into his ranks half blood wizards, such as Barty Crouch Jr., whom he sees as useful to him.
In spite of his narcissism, Voldemort can acknowledge his mistakes and displays a degree of calculated humility. He did not hastily announce his return of power as soon as he regained his physical form except to his supporters and with his candor and charm, winning him his followers and sought to make hay of his missteps, openly revealing such unflattering information to his followers and using it to illustrate how he could use his wits to further enhance his powers. He also showed his followers leniency, even though they had not sought to help him after his downfall, realizing he could not afford to mistreat them until returning to full strength. However, as Harry noted, he did not learn from mistakes he made, especially relating to matters he did not value such as love.
While typically presenting a calm, reserved, and sophisticated manner, Voldemort can fly into fits of violent rage when things don't go the way he wants. During his mood swings, he instinctively casts Killing Curse at whomever happens to be there, even his own allies. An instance of this can be seen during his breakdown where he slaughters dozens of Gringotts goblins after learning that the place is infiltrated by Harry Potter and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, who managed to steal one of his Horcruxes (Helga Hufflepuff's Cup) that stored within. Voldemort finds it useful to maintain a system of followers drawn from the Slytherin-centric Wizarding aristocracy, disaffected paupers with long-gone noble origins, and petty criminals.
Yet as immortality and world domination being his main goal as the dreaded Dark Lord, Voldemort treated the fight for pure-blood supremacy and purifying the wizarding race as secondary priorities in his reign. He allowed his followers to set up a pure-blood supremacist regime at the Ministry of Magic to control the government, to compensate them for their service, and to ensure their continued loyalty. He also leaves the matters about wizarding aristocracy in the hands of his followers (matters which he had little to no interest with) while focusing on increasing his own dominion and stamping out opposition, using his Slytherin ancestry and promises to help them achieve their ends. Voldemort also appeals to their shared contempt for Muggles and Muggle-borns.
Voldemort's weaknesses are arrogance, aforementioned fear of death, and total disregard for things that he does not understand, all of which eventually contribute to his downfall. The biggest difference between Harry and Voldemort is that Harry, as the true Master of Death, accepts his mortality, which ultimately makes him the stronger person. Furthermore, due to Voldemort's immense evil and lack of a human soul, he is unable to cast the Patronus Charm, a powerful and benevolent protective charm that is a manifestation of positive energy and happiness, which Voldemort is incapable of feeling. Lastly, Voldemort's obsession with immortality leads to him creating seven Horcruxes, which ironically leaves him unable to achieve his goal of living forever.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Master Wizard/Fallen Wizardkind Physiology: Before even knowing his true nature as a wizardkind (a sub-species of human race distinguished by their ability to use magic and longevity) of half-blood lineage born through a coerced union between his muggle father Tom Riddle Snr and pure-blood wizardkind mother Merope Gaunt as well as magic itself, the young Voldemort could already use his magical power to move objects, manipulate animals, and "make bad things happen to people who annoy", in a much more controlled display of magic than his brethren at that age. As his mentor and future nemesis Dumbledore feared on the very moment he met him, Voldemort eventually grew into the most powerful, skilled and dangerous dark wizard of all time, surpassing Gellert Grindelwald in terms of might and cruelty to the point of anyone who dared to utter his name, even at slightest, would be doomed with misfortune (a belief that only true throughout Second Wizarding World thanks to a devised Dark Arts spell Voldemort and his followers invented with aid of Imperius-ed Ministry of Magic officials which allowed them to track down anyone who have courage to violate such taboo and weaken their magical defenses in process), but nevertheless acknowledged him as the most brilliant student to have ever attended Hogwarts during his early days as Tom Marvolo Riddle prior to his meddling with Dark Arts that changed him to a skeletal, humanoid abomination with serpentine visage he eventually became. Only two individuals in Wizarding World who can match him in the direct confrontation, Dumbledore and The Boy Who Lived himself (the latter applied once Harry disposed all of his Horcruxes and had the former ensured Elder Wand in Voldemort's possession chose him as his true master).
- Magic: Even at a young age, Voldemort proved himself to be a precociously gifted magical prodigy. Even prior to learning his wizardkind heritage and receiving his very first wand, he already displayed an exceptional degree of control over his usage of magic through tormenting his fellow orphans at the orphanage, moving objects with his mind, and controlling animals to do his biddings (snakes in particular via parseltongue). This of course, foreshadows what he could do as the Dark Lord who surpassed Grindelwald and worse, experimenting and pushing the boundaries of magic farther than they had been pushed even by saner dark wizards. Though his sheer magical might and knowledge made him capable of overcoming almost any problems at hand and gave Dumbledore a hard time in ending his reign of terror even in death (thus necessitating assistance from Snape and Harry himself to do so), it must be stressed that Voldemort was not as invulnerable as many believed to be for his inability to understand love, the very concept that empowered Harry as much as the Boy Who Lived capable of and appreciated, became his greatest weak point.
- Wandless and nonverbal magic: Voldemort was also immensely accomplished at both wandless and nonverbal magic, enough so to be capable of using both effortlessly. He could move objects magically without the incantations to do so normally, using his hand to remove the masks from the Death Eaters who returned to him after his rebirth while he scolded them and easily lifting the grounded Harry Potter up by harshly motioning him and later instantly disarming him with a simple wave of his arm during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. He was also capable of pushing a dead giant out of his way with a lazy wave of his hand during the Battle of Hogwarts and also magically moving his cloak to restrain Harry Potter with a mere hand gesture. He was capable of casting spells ranging from simple charms to Dark spells and even the most advanced of magic such as the Unforgivable Curses to their full potency without speaking the incantation.
- Dark Arts: Voldemort was unbelievably talented and phenomenally accomplished in the Dark Arts at all levels, having created seven Horcruxes and placed dangerous magical defenses over them, creating an army of Inferi, full mastery over Unforgivable Curses with Killing Curse as his signature spell, casting a jinx on the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in Hogwarts so no one can maintain it within a year which only lifted after the Dark Lord's demise both in response of being refused the post by Dumbledore and lessen the numbers of opposition that came from such post, brewing dark potions such as Drink of Despair, and even manipulate cursed flame Fiendfyre. Even in his weakened state while inhabiting Quirrell's body and later, rudimentary body prior to his return, he is still able to perform powerful curses on ease.
- Necromancy: As stated previously, Voldemort has demonstrated the ability to create an army of Inferi animated from countless corpses of individuals that he killed, more than Dark Wizards before him.
- Horcrux-supported Immortality: As stated previously, Voldemort has created 7 Horcruxes to attain immortality through placing six of them in his diary via. murdering Myrtle with aid of Serpent of Slytherin, Marvolo Gaunt's Ring via. slaughtering entire Riddle family, Salazar Slytherin's Locket via. killing a muggle tramp, Helga Hufflepuff's Cup via. murdering Hepzibah Smith, Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem via. murder of an Albanian peasant, Nagini's snake form via. murder of Bertha Jorkins. The last one, Harry Potter himself, was created by mistake through his ill-attempt murder on the Chosen One when he was a baby during which Lily's sacrificial protection coupled with how maimed Voldemort's soul had become throughout his bloody campaign until that point resulted a fragment of it entered Harry's lightning bolt-shaped scar. Not only this allowed him to stay alive as long as they all remained intact thus keeping his master soul from leaving the land of the living in the event of destruction of his body, but also allowed him to influence anyone who exposed to their evil magic fueled by his soul fragment as shown through influencing Harry's future wife Ginny via. his diary to continue Salazar's mission to purge muggle blood from Hogwarts with aid of Serpent of Slytherin as well as reviving himself by absorbing her life-force and later, turning the trio against each other via. Salazar Slytherin's Locket. Destroying all Horcruxes was part of the plan to ensure Harry gained a common ground in facing Voldemort as without them, he rendered mortal once again (the other being preventing him from fully mastering the Elder Wand). Voldemort also finds this method of immortality preferable over elixir of life produced by a Philosopher's Stone as the reliance over it deemed unreliable and that he only after both it and the Stone to regain his physical form alone before resorting to dark regeneration potion he ultimately completed through a complicated scheme that involved manipulating Triwizard Tournament into his favor.
- Potion Brewing: Voldemort is exceptional when it comes about magically brewing potion, as demonstrated through Drink of Despair he invented as part of defensive measures to protect Salazar Slytherin's Locket before Regulus Black managed to swap it leading the Locket fell into the hands of Dolores Umbridge prior to its eventual destruction by Ron with the Sword of Godric Gryffindor that already absorbed Serpent of Slytherin's venom, the success in recreating aforementioned dark regeneration potion that restored both his body and power at full might, and brewing rudimentary body potion to create a less than reliable husk for his master soul to inhabit, and even brewed a poison to assassinate Hepzibah Smith.
- Charms: Voldemort had extremely skillful with charms, able to cast Disillusionment Charm so powerful that it hid him from his own eyes, using Summoning Charm to summon Sorting Hat from many floors of Hogwarts he then set aflame while on top of Neville's head in response of his defiance, dispelling Harry's Disarming Charm at the very close range on ease, levitating Charity Burbage during the meeting at Malfoy Manor before executing her for her muggle study he deemed as great affront to his campaign, using charms to manipulate memories of Morfin Gaunt and Hokey among other things.
- Memory Charm: Voldemort is familiar enough with Memory Charm as he was able to extract certain memories of Bertha Jorkins sealed by the spell.
- False memory spell: Voldemort displayed that he can manipulate memories of others he saw as fit, though only instance he did so was when manipulating memories of Morfin Gaunt and Hokey to frame them as mentioned previously.
- Elemental Magic: Voldemort was an immensely accomplished elementalist, particularly in the elements of fire and lightning, most notably through setting Neville and Sorting Hat aflame, conjuring a powerful blast of lightning when stealing Elder Wand from Dumbledore's tomb as well as projecting the same blast to destroy the barrier that casted to protect Hogwarts during Battle at Hogwarts.
- Unsupported Flight: Voldemort was able to magically fly without using broomstick or other form of support, and even taught Severus Snape how to replicate the feat whereas other witches and wizards before him failed. In the first film, he assisted his host Quirinus Quirrell to perform the feat while escaping Firenze.
- Apparition: Voldemort can apparate with pinpoint accuracy from one place to another, even when locked in combat to quickly evade spells and attacks from his foes. He can even apparate without a sound, a feat only he and Dumbledore managed to achieve.
- Dark Cloud Apparition: A movie-exclusive variant of the ability and aforementioned unsupported flight where he flies by transmogrify himself into dark jet of cloud instead of teleporting from one place to another.
- Occlumency and Legilimency: Voldemort has mastered both Occlumency and Legilimency to shield his mind and penetrate the others', displayed great talent in both to the point of capable in performing the feat non-verbally. According to Severus Snape, he can conduct the latter to even control and unhinge the mind of others, creating incredibly realistic visions to drove them mad until he put them out of their misery after "extracting the last exquisite ounce of agony", as well as almost always able to tell someone was lying. Whereas most skillful wizardkind such as Snape, Narcissa, Dumbledore, and Grindelwald typically counter his Legilimency with their mastery over the art of Occlumency, Harry improvised through his sheer ability to feel and be empowered by love that proved excruciatingly painful to the Dark Lord that he blocked their connection via. Occlumency (which only weakens should he extremely angry) and dared not to make another attempt to peer into the mind of the Boy Who Lived.
- Power of Possession: The only ability he retained after the loss of his physical form was the ability to possess a living being, a feat he can perform even after his return to full power. He used this ability to move from bodies of others be it animals or other wizardkind with the side effect being memory loss over what happened during the possession and degrading lifespan, thus explained why he had Quirrell drinking the blood of unicorn to buy themselves more time during their ill-fated quest to claim Nicholas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone. When he possessed the former DADA teacher, Voldemort displayed the ability to manifest his face at the back of the latter's head and even allowed him to function with little control he had on himself. It's unclear whether this ability was exclusive to him since he was the only one who performed the feat.
- Parseltongue: The unmistakable proof of being the descendant of Salazar Slytherin is his ability to speak with and command snakes and other serpentine creatures, a feat he inherited from Marvolo Gaunt and involuntarily passed to Harry Potter by accidentally turned the Boy Who Lived into his seventh and final Horcrux. He deeply favored this power, for it allowed him to command Serpent of Slytherin, a basilisk Salazar trained to obey only him and his true heir.
- Transfiguration: Voldemort displayed unrivaled skill in transfiguration, able to transmogrify Dumbledore's fire-rope into a black snake during their duel and crafting silver objects with great durability such as Wormtail's silver hand out of thin air and snake-themed silver shield to block Dumbledore's spells.
- Defense Against the Dark Arts: Despite his greater interest to Dark Arts over DADA, the fact that Voldemort attempted to apply onto the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in Hogwarts indicated that he gained a sufficiently high score on his O.W.L and N.E.W.T exams for it and the subject was once his favorite subject as the student. Owing to his great knowledge to Dark Arts, it can be summarized that he also learned advanced spells that few knew of thus supporting his claim that he can teach his students said spells had he managed to attain aforementioned teacher position despite his less than noble intentions at that time.
- Spell Creation: Voldemort has invented spells that became Death Eater's trademark abilities, such as Dark Mark summoning (Morsmordre), unsupported flight, and ones devised to support his rudimentary body. Among said spells include defensive charms and curses placed onto his Horcruxes which not easy to break even by Elder Wand-assisted Dumbledore.
- Alchemy: Owing to his attempt to claim Nicholas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone in a bid to regain a new body in place of one he lost, Voldemort had mastered sufficient alchemical skills to be able to properly use a Philosopher's Stone including to achieve such feat, though the extent of this skill was never revealed due to Harry managed to secure the Stone leading to its eventual destruction.
- Physical Aptitude: Despite his current skeletal physique, Voldemort was deceptively in great shape, able to overwhelm Harry with his agility and brute force alone.
- Indomitable Willpower: Voldemort possesses an unbreakable determination to achieve his goals no matter how difficult it seems, which in turn allowed him to be patient throughout long and complicated schemes to do so, displaying unusual endurance and tolerance to boredom, able to take risks such as personally confronting Harry time and time again, and displayed fear to anything but death (which he perceived as a pathetic weakness of human being) and Dumbledore, one of two individuals that can match his evil powers.
- Longevity: Voldemort would have lived a long life like Dumbledore had he not become an immortality-seeking dark wizard who wind up met his downfall and death at the age of 71, the average lifespan of muggles.
- Vein of Instability and Violence: While technically not an actual power, Voldemort's lack of moral and humanity arguably matched only by Harry Potter's ability to love was attributed to genetic defects-induced mental instability that had pervaded the Gaunt bloodline from which he was descended. Dumbledore explained how the Gaunts' pure-blood elitist mindset drove them marrying their own cousins for that sake severely affected their descendants physically and mentally with Voldemort being the worst instance. Although his late mother Merope apparently lacked her father Marvolo's insanity, it ultimately resurfaced within Voldemort in the catastrophic way possible from his moment of childhood to his bloody campaign as the Wizarding World's most terrifying Dark Lord, endowing him more than enough malice to perform aforementioned worsts of Dark Arts among other atrocities. This of course, could've been avoided had Merope chose to raise him herself with love or at least had him adopted and raised in a loving environment, either which that would significantly quell, if not erode "vein of instability and violence" inherited from Marvolo completely, effectively preventing him from killing or becoming the Dark Lord he doomed to become, let alone spending his afterlife as a mangled soul that unable to move on through limbo nor return as a ghost after his death.
Abilities[]
- Dueling Skills: Voldemort possesses an immense, nearly unparalleled dueling skill rivalled only by Dumbledore in terms of raw power as well as the only one in the history of Wizarding World who face off the latter and avoid defeat or capture at the same time. Although Harry managed to match Voldemort as good as Dumbledore did throughout their duels and even defeated the Dark Lord in the end, it must be noted that Harry managed to do so thanks to outside influences (the first duel ended at stalemate due to their wands share the same cores and therefore incapable of harming each other, the second ended with Voldemort retreating because Lucius' wand he used at that time cracked by the excess burst from Harry's Disarming Charm generated by the latter's wand recognizes the Dark Lord as his kin and mortal enemy, and the final one won by Harry because Elder Wand has recognized the Boy Who Lived as its true master through careful planning by Dumbledore and Snape before their respective death). Moreover, he managed to overpower even Minerva McGonagall, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Horace Slughorn (who were masterful duelists themselves) simultaneously despite unable to harm them lethally thanks to Harry's sacrificial protection. Much like Dumbledore, however, his dueling style is an unpredictable one, able to instinctively switch styles in a blink of eye and casts destructive Dark Arts spells in aggressive manner.
- Voldemort's raw power is challenged by existing canon which established that Grindelwald was only "a shade more skillful" even with the Elder Wand than Dumbledore. Voldemort was pushed to the brink by an elderly Dumbledore who showed no desire to kill or even capture Voldemort.
- Wand versatility: Voldemort can use other people's wands as good as with his own with no handicap, having used Morfin's to slaughter Riddle family, able to use Lucius' second wand for a brief of time and even executed Charity Burbage for her Muggle teachings which deemed to be an affront to the belief of Pure-blood supremacists only to break it upon confronting Harry Potter, and even able to use his usual level of magic with Elder Wand despite not fully master it.
- Intimidation: Thanks to his unequalled, if not incalculable capacity for heinous torture and murder people of Wizarding World ever seen, Voldemort commanded an extremely frightening presence that drove even low-level thugs to willingly follow his bidding unquestioningly, instilling immense fear upon courageous people such as Harry himself but not so much with Remus Lupin and Dumbledore, effortlessly keeping his inner circle of Death Eaters in place by fear, and inspired people to believe that mentioning his name alone will trigger misfortune upon the speaker, a fact that only true after the success of making his name a true taboo by the time of Second Wizarding War.
- This is only ever really shown in Great Britain, though some foreign wizards show fear when faced with Voldemort, this is understandable given his appearance and the fact that he targeted Muggles and elderly wizards. Grindelwald, in contrast, sparked a global wave of terror that was known to wizards from many different countries.
- Intellectual genius: Voldemort possessed an incredible, genius intellect cemented by his status as the most brilliant student ever to attend Hogwarts by Dumbledore himself and being the mastermind behind the two most devastating conflicts throughout Wizarding World and even nearly conquered entire Great Britain.
- Charisma: Voldemort displayed remarkable charisma that allows him to manipulate people to do anything he wants and even won the respect of nearly every single one of Hogwarts staff except Dumbledore. As a Dark Lord, he managed to sway scores of followers to join his cause, though Sirius claimed he may resort to blackmail if necessary. Even while losing most of his power from his ill-fated attempt to kill the baby Harry, Voldemort managed to sway Quirrell to share his body with him until he able to claim Philosopher's Stone which unfortunately failed and through the projection of his younger self via. his diary, able to manipulate Ginny before downright possessing her.
- Acting skills: Voldemort proved himself a consummate actor, able to keep up his model student façade before everybody in Hogwarts during his study there except Dumbledore who have suspected his true, sinister nature since the day he met him at the orphanage he raised at.
- Leadership skills: Voldemort's aforementioned intellectual genius, charisma, and acting skills further supplemented his great capacity as a leader, having led a small gang in Hogwarts who responsible for nasty incidents in the magic school that became the precursor of Death Eaters. His leadership style changed from simply a charismatic figure to a downright effective yet ruthless tyrant after becoming the dreaded Dark Lord, but nevertheless managed to nearly topple magic community of Great Britain and later, downright conquering it with less than forty Death Eaters after two Wars.
- Salesmanship skills: A greatly overlooked skill of the Dark Lord is his impressive salesmanship skill during his time at Borgin and Burke's at his late teens supported by his vast magical knowledge and charisma, even though it was partly for reclaiming Hufflepuff's Cup. He was often reserved for rather delicate matters that took subtlety and persuasion which he quickly mastered.
- Teaching skills: Voldemort displayed great capability as a successful instructor, a fact that caused Dumbledore to ensure that the future Dark Lord wouldn't be able to apply at the position of Hogwarts' DADA teacher, knowing he would use it to train his future army instead of teaching anti-Dark Arts techniques the position was meant to be. As a Dark Lord, he taught his followers how to perform Dark Arts he invented himself, mainly Dark Mark summoning (Morsmordre). He even personally taught Bellatrix her signature Dark Arts skills, showing Severus Snape how to achieve unsupported flight like he did, and properly instructing Wormtail how to brew dark potions. Both Hagrid and Quirrell acknowledged Voldemort's teaching capabilities in separate occasions; the latter deliberately sought him to study magic under his tutelage.