Essay: From Orphan to Overlord

From Orphan to Overlord

JKR likes us to believe that Lord Voldemort is an evil, at times one-dimensional, villain. But JKR herself admitted that Voldemort wasn't born evil. With the facts and clues that she gives us, we can trace Tom Riddle's steps and figure out some of his motivations for becoming a Dark Lord.

First, let's look at some facts. Lord Voldemort was born in 1927, as Tom Marvolo Riddle. His father, a Muggle, had left his mother, a witch, before he was born, and his mother died shortly after giving birth to him.

So Tom grew up in a Muggle orphanage. This happened in a time when the economy was down in Britain. The whole of Europe was stuck between two World Wars, and there was an overall economic depression. Orphans were of little importance to anyone during those days, as is illustrated by the Child Migrants among other things. (British government shipped orphans overseas as cheap labor, from 1618 until as late as 1967.)

What little funding orphanages got either came from the church, the state, or both. But it was barely enough to feed and clothe all the children, and offer them some sort of basic schooling. These kids knew no luxury whatsoever, and often competed amongst themselves for more food. Children are cruel, and children in an orphanage during those days particularly learned that it was everyone for themselves.

This is the climate Tom grew up in. No proper guidance from adults, physical punishments (which were still common in those days), and strong competition amongst the children. And considering that Tom is a wizard, and must have had magical accidents like all wizarding kids have, there's a good chance the other children must have thought of him as a freak.

Yes, that makes a nice parallel with Harry.

And then one day, young Tom, who has learned to take what he can get because otherwise someone else will take it from him, gets a letter from a certain wizarding school. And he learns that he isn't a freak at all, but a young wizard who is expected to attend a school especially for wizards.

I imagine the boy must have been ecstatic, besides confused, of course.

When we look at how little Harry Potter knew of the wizarding world when he started at Hogwarts, we can assume that Tom Riddle wouldn't have known a great deal more by the time he boarded the Hogwarts Express. Perhaps one of the teachers had taken him for a trip to Diagon Alley, to help him get his school supplies, so Tom would have gotten a glimpse of wizarding life, but it couldn't have been much.

And then little Tom Riddle is sorted into Slytherin.

Imagine an eleven-year-old boy with little to no knowledge of the House of Slytherin introducing himself as having grown up in a Muggle orphanage. And possibly even knowing, and telling, that his father is a Muggle.

Yes, once again Tom is treated as a freak by his fellow, pure-blooded Slytherin students. And everything Tom has learned in the Muggle orphanage is proven true once again. Everyone for themselves and take what you can take. I don't believe Tom had an easy time those first couple of years at Hogwarts, especially since none of the adults would have cared much for his situation, as is shown throughout the HP books. Adults simply don't look after the students, even when the students could use a little support.

Now, I think the first taste of power Tom ever got, didn't happen at Hogwarts. No, I believe that the first time Tom realized he could be stronger than anyone else, was during one of the holidays he was forced to spend at the orphanage. Imagine Tom looking at all the Muggle orphans, and thinking: I can hurt you all with a single hex.

And that thought, that realization, is the first taste of real power Tom ever got. And it was a very distinctive taste: power over Muggles.

Since Tom had always learned to take what was there to take, he must have cherished that realization. I don't think he did anything with it yet, since that could have gotten him expelled from Hogwarts, but he knew. And that was enough.

Sometime during his first couple of years at Hogwarts, Tom learned that he was the heir of Salazar Slytherin. And this knowledge turned the tables for him in Slytherin House. One way or the other, he convinced his fellow Slytherins that he belonged in their House, and maybe even earned a bit of respect from them.

What really drove Tom down the path that would result in the creation of Lord Voldemort, is his discovery of the Chamber of Secrets. Tom, as any teenager, would have been looking for ways to test the world around him. He discovered (perhaps by accident at an earlier age already) that he could speak parsel-tongue, and that he could control a basilisk. He discovered that through that basilisk he held power over others: the entire student-body and staff of Hogwarts.

But more importantly, he discovered that he could get away with it.

He set the basilisk after Muggle-borns, and was able to frame a fellow student for the death of an innocent girl. Now, that's real power to have for a teenage boy.

And that was the moment Tom Riddle decided to become Lord Voldemort. Not because he hated Muggles or Muggle-born wizards.

But because he could.

It's a simple matter of adding things up. He learned he had power over Muggles. He heard about how purebloods are so much better than anyone else from his fellow Slytherin students. He learned that he himself was the heir to a powerful wizard who was famous for preaching about pureblood superiority. And he learned that he could get away with murder.

Take what you can take.

While I believe Tom disliked Muggles, I don't think he hated them. Yes, his experiences at the orphanage and with his Muggle father wouldn't have been too positive, but that's not the reason he decided to go after muggle-born and half-blood wizards.

It was a matter of learning that he had the power to do it. And for a child who grew up without any power whatsoever, that must have been an instant addiction.

I believe he wrote his famous diary at the time he decided to take that path and create a new identity for himself. As a living memory of who he had been and of what he had become.

And creating a new identity for himself only made sense. After all, how serious would people take a half-blood preaching about pureblood superiority. So he made a neat little anagram, and by the time he left Hogwarts, he cut all his ties with his old identity.

So he murdered his father. I believe he had several motivations for that. First, revenge. Plain and simple. His father had left him and his mother. In the eyes of a seventeen-year-old he deserved to pay for that. And Tom had gotten away with murder once before, so why shouldn't he be able to get away with it again.

But cutting his ties with his old identity and perhaps his father's wealth are also possible motivations for Tom to do what he did.

And then he disappeared for decades. This is one of the most important facts that show that Voldemort is anything but rash. He likes to take his time for things. He knows how important it is to prepare things properly.

If he'd been rash, he would have forced himself onto the wizarding world right after he left Hogwarts. But Tom had seen failure already, and knew he would have to plan carefully.

And he had seen it with Grindelwald. The Dark Wizard Dumbledore defeated. And a very valuable lesson for Tom, I imagine.

I believe he spent the time between his disappearance and his appearance as Lord Voldemort familiarizing himself with all aspects of the wizarding world, learning Dark Magic, and forming a solid plan to get the power he was after.

When he reappeared as Lord Voldemort, I believe he didn't go about cursing the trousers off people and forcing them to join him. Tom was very good at playing people. This is shown in the fact that he was a model student, a prefect and a Head Boy, and fooled the entire staff of Hogwarts into believing he was only a poor but brilliant student. Only Dumbledore may have suspected things weren't all what they seemed to be, but even Dumbledore did not know what was really going on in Tom's mind at that time.

Lord Voldemort was probably the perfect politician. He talked people into seeing things the way he saw them, and lured them into his service. He forced their loyalty by placing his Mark on them. Once you were in, there was no way out but death. A brilliant scheme, which gained him a lot of followers.

And had it not been for that nasty little boy named Harry Potter, Voldemort might have just won during the first war. In OotP it is said that Voldemort outnumbered the Order two to one, and Order members were dropping like flies.

So we have a boy who literally worked himself up to become perhaps the most powerful wizard in the world. Voldemort knew he could lose that power just as easy as he had gotten it, and he would do anything to keep it. He had been a fighter all his life, never knew any better. So when he heard of that prophecy, and that there might be a child who could defeat him, I believe Voldemort panicked. Or at least, didn't think things through as carefully as he should have.

He was at his strongest, and the success he'd already had perhaps blinded him for his own weaknesses. He knew one thing, though: that child had to die. So when he finally had young Harry Potter at wand point, there was only one thing on his mind, and it wasn't the fact that perhaps the mother's sacrifice could do him in.

Of course, Voldemort learned his lesson.

After he came back, Voldemort was again anything but rash. Arrogant, yes. Rash, no. He took a full year to try to get his hands on the prophecy. He used his time to set things up perfectly so Harry Potter would go down to the Ministry himself and retrieve the prophecy for him. He used Harry's weakest point, Harry's love for his godfather, against him.

But Voldemort once again underestimated Harry Potter. And I'm glad that he did, otherwise he would have won, and there wouldn't be a book six and seven for us to enjoy.