In a 1999 interview, Rowling said Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter, and she

intentionally did not flesh out Voldemort's backstory at first. "The basic idea [was that Harry] didn't
know he was a wizard ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how
that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. ... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard
for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried
to kill Harry—he tried to curse him. ... Harry has to find out, before we find out. And—so—but for
some mysterious reason the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt shaped
scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever
since."[5]
In the second book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite
being a half-blood himself. In a 2000 interview with the BBC, Rowling described Voldemort as a self-
hating bully: "Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their
own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy
the other and that's what Voldemort does."[6] In the same year, Rowling became more precise about
Voldemort. She began to link him to real-life tyrants, describing him as "a raging psychopath, devoid
of the normal human responses to other people's suffering".[7] In 2004, though, Rowling said that she
did not base Voldemort on any real person.[8] In 2006, Rowling told an interviewer that Voldemort at
his core has a human fear: the fear of death. She said: "Voldemort's fear is death, ignominious
death. I mean, he regards death itself as ignominious. He thinks that it's a shameful human
weakness, as you know. His worst fear is death."[9]
Throughout the series, Rowling establishes that Voldemort is so feared in the wizarding world that it
is considered dangerous even to speak his name. Most characters in the novels refer to him as
"You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than say his name aloud. In Harry Potter
and the Deathly Hallows, a "taboo" spell is placed upon the name, such that Voldemort or his
followers may trace anyone who utters it. By this means, his followers eventually find and capture
Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In the second book, Rowling reveals
that I am Lord Voldemort is an anagram of the character's birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle.
According to the author, Voldemort's name is an invented word.[10] Some literary analysts have
considered possible meanings in the name: Philip Nel believes that Voldemort is derived from the
French for "flight of death",[11] and in a 2002 paper, Nilsen and Nilsen suggest that readers get a
"creepy feeling" from the name Voldemort, because of the French word "mort" ("death") within it and
that word's association with cognate English words derived from the Latin mors.[12]

Appearances
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Voldemort on the back of Professor Quirrell's head in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Voldemort makes his debut in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. In this story, Rowling
introduces him as the Dark Lord who murdered Harry's parents, James and Lily, but as a result of
his mother's love and willingness to sacrifice herself for him, baby Harry survives when Voldemort
tries to murder him with a Killing Curse. Voldemort is disembodied, and Harry carries a mysterious
scar on his forehead as a result. In the book, Voldemort unsuccessfully tries to regain his dissolved
body by stealing the titular Philosopher's Stone. To achieve his objective, Voldemort uses Professor
Quirrell's aid by latching onto the back of the latter's head. However, at the climax of the book, Harry
manages to prevent Voldemort from stealing the stone.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

In the second instalment, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling introduces Tom
Marvolo Riddle, a manifestation of a teenage Voldemort that resides inside a magical diary found
by Ginny Weasley. In this book, Ginny is written as a shy girl with a crush on Harry. Feeling anxious
and lonely, she begins to write into the diary and shares her deepest fears with the sympathetic
Tom. However, at the climax of the story, when Riddle rearranges the letters in his name to write "I
am Lord Voldemort", Riddle is revealed as a magical manifestation of the boy who would later grow
up to become the Dark Lord. Riddle states he has grown strong on Ginny's fears and
eventually possesses her, using her as a pawn to unlock the Chamber of Secrets, whence
a basilisk is set free and petrifies several Hogwarts students. Harry defeats the manifestation of
Riddle from the diary and the basilisk.[3] In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Albus
Dumbledore reveals to Harry that the diary was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Voldemort does not appear in the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, either in
person or as a magical manifestation. He is, however, heard when Harry passes out from the harsh
effects of a Dementor. Towards the end of the story Sybill Trelawney, the Divination professor,
makes a rare genuine prophecy: "The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his
followers. His servant has been chained these twelve 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..."[13] Though it is initially implied that the prophecy refers to Sirius Black, the
book's ostensible antagonist, the servant is eventually revealed to be Peter Pettigrew, who, for the
12 years since Voldemort's fall, has been disguised as Ron's pet rat, Scabbers.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

In the fourth instalment of the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 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 in Harry's favour. Voldemort's goal
is to teleport Harry under Dumbledore's watch as a reluctant participant to the Little
Hangleton graveyard, where the Riddle family is buried.[14] 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.[15] For the first time in the series, Rowling describes his appearance: "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".[14] Rowling writes that his "hands were like large, pale spiders; his long
white fingers caressed his own chest, his arms, his face; the red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a
cat's, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness".[14] 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.[16] 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 creates 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.[16] 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 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 Pettigrew
on Voldemort's orders.[17]

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Voldemort appears at the climax of the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, having
again plotted against Harry.[18] 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."[19] In this book, Voldemort makes liberal
use of the Ministry of Magic's refusal to believe that he has returned.[17] Voldemort engineers a plot to
free Bellatrix Lestrange and other Death Eaters from Azkaban and then embarks on a scheme to
retrieve the full record of a prophecy stored in the Department of Mysteries regarding Harry and
himself. He sends a group of Death Eaters to retrieve the prophecy, where the Order of the
Phoenix meets them. All but Bellatrix are captured, and Voldemort engages in a ferocious duel with
Dumbledore. When Dumbledore gets the upper hand, Voldemort attempts to possess Harry but
finds that he cannot; Harry is too full of that which Voldemort finds incomprehensible, and which he
detests as weakness: 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 the
next book.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Voldemort does not appear in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, although his presence and
actions are felt: he once again declares war, and begins to rise to power once more. He
murders Amelia Bones of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and begins to target
members of the Order of the Phoenix, including Emmeline Vance.
Rowling uses several chapters as exposition to establish Voldemort's backstory. In a series of
flashbacks, using the pensieve as a plot device, she reveals that Voldemort was the son of the
witch Merope Gaunt and a Muggle called Tom Riddle. Riddle abandoned Merope before their child's
birth, soon after which Merope died.[20] After living in an orphanage, young Riddle met Dumbledore,
who told him he was a wizard and arranged for him to attend Hogwarts.[21] Riddle was outwardly a
model student, but was in reality a psychopath who took sadistic pleasure in using his powers to
harm and control people. He eventually murdered his father and grandparents as revenge for
abandoning him.[22] The book also discusses Riddle's hatred of "Muggles", his obsession
with Horcruxes, and his desire to split his soul to achieve immortality.[23] Rowling stated Voldemort's
conception under the influence of a love potion symbolises the prejudicial circumstances under
which he was brought into the world.[24]
In the main plot of the book, Voldemort's next step is to engineer an assault on Hogwarts, and to
attack Dumbledore. This is accomplished by Draco Malfoy, who arranges transportation of Death
Eaters into Hogwarts by a pair of Vanishing Cabinets, which bypass the extensive protective
enchantments placed around the school.[25] The cabinets allow Voldemort's Death Eaters to enter
Hogwarts, where battle commences and Dumbledore is cornered. Hogwarts professor (and re-
doubled agent) Severus Snape uses the Killing Curse against Dumbledore when Draco could not
force himself to do so.[25]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Further information: Deathly Hallows (objects)
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, 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.[26] Establishing a totalitarian police state, he has Muggle-borns persecuted and arrested for
"stealing magic" from the "pure blood" wizards.[26] After failing to kill Harry with Draco's father Lucius
Malfoy's borrowed wand (to avoid the effect of Priori Incantatem),[27] 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.[28] His journey also takes
him to Nurmengard, the prison where Gellert Grindelwald is kept, and he kills Grindelwald as well.
He finally locates the Elder Wand and steals it from Dumbledore's tomb.
Later, Voldemort finds out that Harry and his friends are hunting and destroying his Horcruxes when
informed of their heist on the Lestranges' vault at Gringotts in search for Hufflepuff's Cup.[29] After
offering the occupants of Hogwarts mercy if they give up Harry, he assembles a large army and
launches an invasion of the castle, where Harry is searching for Ravenclaw's Diadem.[30] Voldemort
orders his pet snake Nagini to execute Snape, believing it would make him the true master of the
Elder Wand, since Snape killed Dumbledore.[31] He then calls an hour's armistice, in exchange for
Harry.[32] When Harry willingly walks into Voldemort's camp in the Forbidden Forest, Voldemort
strikes him down with the Elder Wand.[32] 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 destroys the part
of his own soul that resides in Harry's body. Voldemort forces Rubeus Hagrid to carry Harry's
apparently lifeless body back to the castle as a trophy, sparking another battle during which Nagini,
his last Horcrux, is destroyed by Neville Longbottom. The battle then moves into the Great Hall,
where Voldemort fights Minerva McGonagall, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Horace
Slughorn simultaneously. 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. Refusing to believe this, Voldemort 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, with all of his Horcruxes destroyed, finally
dies. His body is laid in a different chamber from all the others who died battling him.[33]
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 cannot become a ghost.[34]