The A to Z of Harry Potter
V is for Voldemort
“Tom Marvolo Riddle, later known as Lord Voldemort, was born in 1926 and was the most powerful dark wizard in history. Born and raised in a Muggle orphanage, Riddle later attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, sorted into the Slytherin House.

To the school, Riddle was a respectable and very smart student; when in reality he was cruel, sadistic and power hungry. When leaving Hogwarts with Outstanding in his OWLs and NEWTs, Riddle briefly worked at Borgin and Burkes, before disappearing from the public eye completely.

Embracing the seductive Dark Arts, the now Lord Voldemort raised an army of Death Eaters, and began a campaign of terror never seen before in Britain.

After hearing half of a prophecy referring to a single being powerful enough to destroy him, Voldemort set out to kill the young Harry Potter, to whom he believed the prophecy regarded. After murdering Harry’s parents, Voldemort turned his wand against the boy. However, due to Lily Potter’s loving sacrifice, the curse rebounded and destroyed the body of Voldemort himself.

Over the next thirteen years, Voldemort lay low in Albania, where he began to plot his bloody conquest of the wizarding world anew. When he finally regained his body, he finally took control of the Ministry of Magic. 

Despite his hold over the entire country, Voldemort was not satisfied, as he had not yet removed the danger the prophecy had presented to him all those years ago. Once he learned of Potter’s location, Voldemort launched a full scale attack on Hogwarts School, staff and pupils, along with the parents of some of the students, members of the Order of the Phoenix and villagers of Hogsmeade Village. 

As the battle progressed, the Death Eaters were pushed into the Great Hall, where Harry Potter and Voldemort engaged in one final battle to the death, and because all of his Horcruxes were destroyed, Tom Marvolo Riddle was killed once and for all.

Riddle’s mutilated soul remains in constant limbo, neither able to pass on, or return as a ghost.”