Summary
- Voldemort, originally known as Tom Riddle, had a dark and troubled past that shaped him into the ultimate villain in Harry Potter's life.
- Through private lessons with Professor Dumbledore, Harry learned about the many mysteries and moments in Voldemort's life that led to their rivalry and his quest for immortality.
- Tom Riddle's journey included a conception using a love potion, being born in an orphanage, discovering his family history, framing others for his crimes, and seeking out Horcruxes to achieve his goal of immortality.
Voldemort before Harry Potter was a young wizard named Tom Riddle. Before the start of the series, Tom became Lord Voldemort and set the Boy Who Lived story in motion. Throughout Harry's years at Hogwarts, he learned of the many mysterious moments in Voldemort's life that led them to become rivals. Everything from the moment the Dark Lord was born to his final actions before his downfall was of the utmost importance in Harry's mission to defeat Voldemort, though much of this history was left out of the Harry Potter movies.
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Professor Dumbledore began offering Harry private lessons in his office. Through silvery memories extracted from various people unfortunate enough to cross Voldemort's path, the teacher and pupil began to put together the Dak Lord's story. This allowed them to understand better how he had survived without his body and why Harry Potter was the Chosen One to defeat him. Altogether, the details of Voldemort before Harry Petter's entire story played out.to show how the young wizard became the ultimate villain.
Voldemort Is Conceived Using A Love Potion - Circa 1925
Voldemort's mother, Merope Gaunt, was abused and neglected by her father, Marvolo Gaunt. Despite living in squalor, he had been incredibly proud and believed his family superior in Harry Potter's wizarding world because of their Slytherin and Peverell ancestry. Marvolo's family lived near a Muggle community, where his son, Morfin, enjoyed terrorizing the residents with his magic.
Marvolo's prejudice against Muggles (which was typical for pure-bloods in Harry Potter) made it all the more devastating for him when Merope used a love potion on a local Muggle, enticing him to marry her. The two ran away together, but when Merope became pregnant, she stopped giving her husband the love potion, hoping he had fallen in love with her. Instead, he fled. This really played into why Voldemort before Harry Potter hated Muggles, and he went out of his way to erase his half-blood past from public knowledge.
Baby Tom Riddle Is Born In An Orphanage - 1926
After Tom Riddle Sr, whose name Voldemort inherited before changing, left Merope, she had nowhere to go. She turned up one day at Borgin and Burkes, where she pawned the only thing of worth that she had, Slytherin's locket (which would become a Horcrux in Harry Potter). Having no idea the item was priceless, she accepted a measly amount of gold, which ran out quickly. She lived on the street until her labor began, and she begged for help at a London orphanage.
Merope gave birth to a son and requested that he be named Tom Marvolo Riddle. Almost immediately after the baby was born, Merope passed away. She had stopped using magic after her husband left her, and Dumbledore guessed in Harry Potter that she no longer wished to be a witch. Had she used her powers, Merope could have lived and cared for her son. However, as Dumbledore pointed out in his lessons with Harry before the end of The Half-Blood Prince, she did not possess the bravery of a mother like Lily Potter.
Dumbledore Invites Tom Riddle To Hogwarts - 1937
When Harry saw Tom Riddle's orphanage within Dumbledore's memory in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, he noted the kids looked clean and well enough cared for, but it didn't look like a happy environment to be raised in. This certainly seemed to be the case for Voldemort before Harry Potter, who reportedly spent most of his time tormenting the other orphans. The boy had extraordinary control over his magic for such a young age and used it to cover up his crimes against the children. While at the orphanage, Tom Riddle stole from other orphans, taking what little they owned. Voldemort knew and told Tom this could not happen at Hogwarts.
Tom Riddle also attacked and tortured animals in the orphanage, including hanging another orphan's rabbit from the rafters. Even more terrifying was the moment that Tom Riddle took two orphans who lived with him to the cave from The Half-Blood Prince. There was little known about what happened in that cave or what Tom did to them, but it was so terrifying that they never spoke about it again and refused to share what happened to them.
Dumbledore shared in Harry Potter that knowing some of this concerned him, but he was determined not to judge too quickly. Tom Riddle was troubled, but going to Hogwarts might have been what young Voldemort needed. Dumbledore told Tom he was a wizard, and the boy reacted with shocking fervor, exclaiming that he had always known he was special. Dumbledore later suspected that Tom Riddle revealed more of himself to his new professor than he had been comfortable with, and he never fully trusted Dumbledore again.
Tom Riddle Questions Horace Slughorn About Horcruxes - 1937–1944
When Tom Riddle came to Hogwarts, the disturbing behavior that Dumbledore had seen at the orphanage was gone. The teachers reported the boy to be bright and extremely pleasant. While everyone was fooled (except Dumbledore), Tom took advantage of the teachers' trust and researched ways to gain more power or, more precisely, achieve immortality.
One teacher, in particular, was helpful with this quest, the same Slughorn that gave his memory in Harry Potter during Harry and Dumbledore's search for Voldemort's backstory. Riddle had already used the library's resources to learn about Horcruxes, but he wondered if his tie to immortality could be strengthened by splitting his soul into seven pieces. By talking to Slughorn, he knew that this was, theoretically, possible, though risky. From there, Tom laid the groundwork for becoming Lord Voldemort.
Tom Riddle Discovers His Family History And Opens Slytherin's Chamber - 1937–1944
Long before Harry Potter revealed Slytherin's heir, Tom Riddle discovered his secret family lineage by researching his ability to talk to snakes. He used his genius to hunt down the Chamber of Secrets and take control of the Basilisk. This began his mission to finish Slytherin's work and eliminate Muggle-borns from Hogwarts.
This was when Voldemort performed his first murder. Using Slytherin's monster, he killed the Muggle-born girl, Myrtle Warren, and used her death to create his first Horcrux, the diary. After Myrtle's death, as revealed during Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' ending, Riddle realized that any more incidents could result in the closing of the school and, therefore, the loss of his home and kingdom. So, he framed Rubeus Hagrid and never opened the Chamber again.
Tom Riddle Frames Morfin Gaunt For Tom Riddle Sr's Murder - 1943
After discovering his ancestry, it wouldn't have taken the young Tom Riddle long to find the Gaunts, just as Dumbledore did in Harry Potter. When he discovered the run-down shack, he was disappointed to find Marvolo's son, Morfin, living in filth. He had likely hoped to find family worthy of him. Still, the trip wasn't wasted since Morfin told his nephew where Tom Riddle Sr could be found.
As seen in Morfin's memory in Harry Potter, Riddle attacked his uncle and stole his wand. Voldemort used it to personally kill Tom Riddle Sr and his grandparents before leaving it with Morfin's unconscious and therefore wiping his memory. So, when the Ministry of Magic turned up, they assumed it had been Morfin. Riddle stole his uncle's family heirloom, the Peverell ring, and used his father's murder to make his second Horcrux.
Tom Riddle Questions The Grey Lady About Ravenclaw's Diadem - 1943–1944
Sometime before Tom Riddle left Hogwarts, he became interested in the mystery of Ravenclaw's lost diadem. He needed more items to make into his six Horcruxes and had begun to value Hogwarts Founders' items. Like Harry did in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Riddle realized that if he wanted to find something that had been lost for so long, he would need to talk to a ghost.
The Grey Lady, whose real name was Helena Ravenclaw in Harry Potter, was charmed by Tom Riddle and revealed to him that she had stolen the diadem from her mother and hid it in an old tree in an Albanian forest before she was murdered. Near the end of his school career, Riddle traveled to Albania, located the diadem, and murdered a local to make his third Horcrux.
Tom Riddle Begins Working At Borgin And Burkes And Finds New Horcrux Items - Circa 1944–1955
Despite his many talents and assurances from teachers that he could be the Minister for Magic one day, Tom Riddle surprised everyone by getting a job at Borgin and Burkes, the dark shop seen in Harry Potter. While working there, he traveled to wizarding houses and appraised magical items for potential purchase. This was how he found the items that would become his next two Harry Potter Horcruxes in Slytherin's Locket and Hufflepuff's Cup. Voldemort murdered the older woman who had owned these items, Hepzibah Smith, and framed her elderly house-elf for the crime.
One of the worst things that happened involved Voldemort before Harry Potter was at this moment. While working at Borgin and Burkes, Tom Riddle actually became friends with Hepzibah. He did his best to win her over with his charm and when he saw she had the locket of Salazar Slytherin, he betrayed her and showed he cared about no one above his own goals. He used the murder to turn one of the items into a Horcrux and found a homeless man to kill for the other. By the time he had left his position at the wizarding shop, Tom Riddle had completed five of his six Horcruxes. From here, he began to gain the followers known in Harry Potter.
Tom Riddle Seeks A Job At Hogwarts And Calls Himself Voldemort - Circa 1965
About a decade after killing Hepzibah Smith, Tom Riddle arranged a meeting with Albus Dumbledore, now headmaster, to inquire about teaching at the school. Dumbledore stated in Harry Potter that he had already begun to hear rumors about what had been happening to Voldemort's body and had no intention of allowing him to teach. Still, he agreed to meet him to gauge his former student's transformation. Voldemort's body had undergone drastic changes in Harry Potter since the memory of Hepzibah.
His cheeks had sunken, his nose had flattened, and there was an unmistakable scarlet gleam in his eye. When Dumbledore turned the newly dubbed Voldemort down, the Dark Lord cursed the Defense Against The Dark Arts position since that was the only job he ever really wanted in his life. Then, before leaving, he hid Ravenclaw's diadem in the Room of Requirement. It was this curse that also allowed him into Hogwarts by possessing Professor Quirrell.
Voldemort Hears About Trelawney's Prophecy - 1980
After his interview with Dumbledore, Voldemort's rise to power proved that the headmaster's instincts had been correct. Around 1970, the first Wizarding War began, and Voldemort seemed indestructible to Harry Potter's Order of the Phoenix. Still, the Dark Lord feared that someone would rise to challenge him, and these fears seemed confirmed after Severus Snape repeated to him the famous prophecy from Harry Potter.
It told of a boy who would be born at the end of July, possessing a power that the Dark Lord knew not. This provided Voldemort with what he saw as the perfect opportunity. He had been waiting for a significant murder to create his sixth and final Horcrux, and taking down the last threat to his power would provide just that. So, he began to plan his attack in the year leading to the start of Harry Potter.
Voldemort Attacks The Potter Family - 1981
On Halloween 1981, Voldemort arrived at Godric's Hallow. He had enticed James and Lily's Secret Keeper, Peter Pettigrew, to his side, so when he arrived at their residence, there was nothing to stop him from entering. Severus Snape had begged Voldemort to spare Lily, so he tried to convince her to step aside. She did not, and her sacrifice became an essential plot point of Harry Potter. This was the last important moment for Voldemort before Harry Potter. Lily's refusal to defend or save herself resulted in a protection spell in Harry Potter that caused the Dark Lord's Killing Curse to rebound and destroy his body. His soul remained, but the curse caused it to sever.
The extra piece entered Harry's body, where it stayed for 16 years until Voldemort himself destroyed it, though Harry survived the Deathly Hallows encounter. After he lost his body, Voldemort's central soul escaped to Albania, where he found a snake named Nagini. He used the murder of Bertha Jorkins to turn her into what he believed to be his sixth Horcrux. However, that wouldn't be until the years after Harry Potter's real story began. The events before set the Boy Who Lived Up for his victory in Harry Potter, proving that no matter how much Voldemort fought for power and immortality, he was never destined to keep it.