50 Fun Facts About Lord Voldemort

What is Voldemort's birth name?

The letters of Tom Marvolo Riddle rearrange into the phrase I am Lord Voldemort, a trick translators had to rebuild in other languages.

Which is the only Harry Potter novel in which Voldemort is merely mentioned?

He is heard when Harry passes out near a Dementor, and Trelawney's prophecy foretells his return, but he never appears in person or as a manifestation.

Which Hogwarts founder is Voldemort descended from?

The line runs through his mother's family, the Gaunts, who inherited both the founder's Parseltongue and his locket.

What does the French phrase behind the name Voldemort mean?

Rowling calls the name an invented word derived from vol de mort, which can also be read as theft of death.

What is the name of Voldemort's followers?

The group is dedicated to ridding the wizarding world of Muggles and installing their leader as supreme ruler.

In the first book, on whose body does Voldemort hitch a ride?

He latches onto the back of the stuttering Defence teacher's head, hidden under a turban, in his attempt to steal the Philosopher's Stone.

Which object in Chamber of Secrets contains a memory of the teenage Tom Riddle?

Ginny Weasley pours out her fears to the sympathetic Tom inside it, and Dumbledore later reveals it was a Horcrux.

What school role did Tom Riddle hold at Hogwarts?

Outwardly a model student, he took sadistic pleasure in using his powers to harm and control his classmates.

Which creature does Riddle's memory unleash from the Chamber of Secrets?

The serpent petrifies several students before Harry destroys both it and the diary manifestation.

Who was the servant Trelawney prophesied would rejoin the Dark Lord?

For twelve years he had hidden as Ron's pet rat Scabbers, which is why the prophecy speaks of a servant chained.

Disguised as which professor did Barty Crouch Jr rig the Triwizard Tournament?

The Triwizard Cup was turned into a Portkey so Harry would land in the Little Hangleton graveyard under Dumbledore's nose.

In which village graveyard does Voldemort regain his body in Goblet of Fire?

It is where the Riddle family is buried, opposite the valley shanty where the Gaunts once lived.

Which gardener overheard Voldemort's plan and was killed for it?

He is the first victim of the fourth book, killed in the Riddle House before the story reaches Hogwarts.

Why do Harry's and Voldemort's wands lock together in the graveyard duel?

The phenomenon is later named Priori Incantatem, and it forces ghostly echoes of recent victims out of the Dark Lord's wand.

Which Death Eater escapes capture at the Department of Mysteries?

Voldemort had engineered her breakout from Azkaban earlier in the same book.

What stops Voldemort from possessing Harry at the end of Order of the Phoenix?

He finds Harry too full of the one thing he despises as weakness, and disapparates just as the Minister for Magic arrives.

Who was Voldemort's mother?

She died within an hour of giving birth in a Muggle orphanage, having sold Slytherin's locket to survive on the streets of London.

Under the influence of what was Voldemort conceived, according to Rowling?

Rowling said the coerced union symbolically explains his inability to understand love, though she thinks Merope raising him would have changed everything.

Which Ministry official does Voldemort murder in Half-Blood Prince?

The head of Magical Law Enforcement is killed as he begins targeting members of the Order of the Phoenix.

How do Voldemort's forces get into Hogwarts in Half-Blood Prince?

Draco Malfoy's repair job on the cabinets bypasses the castle's protective enchantments entirely.

Whom does Voldemort install as puppet Minister for Magic in Deathly Hallows?

The new Minister is under the Imperius Curse, and the regime starts arresting Muggle-borns for stealing magic.

Whose wand does Voldemort borrow to attack Harry during the escape from Privet Drive?

He wants to avoid Priori Incantatem, but the borrowed wand fails anyway and he sets out for the Elder Wand.

Which imprisoned dark wizard does Voldemort kill at Nurmengard?

The visit is part of his hunt for the Elder Wand, which he finally steals from Dumbledore's tomb.

Which Horcrux do Harry and friends steal from the Lestranges' Gringotts vault?

News of the heist is what tips Voldemort off that his Horcruxes are being hunted and destroyed.

Why does Voldemort have Nagini kill Snape?

His logic is that Snape killed Dumbledore, but the wand had in fact passed to Draco, who disarmed Dumbledore first.

Who destroys Voldemort's final Horcrux, his snake?

It happens during the battle sparked when Hagrid is forced to carry Harry's apparently lifeless body back to the castle.

Who is forced to carry Harry's apparently dead body out of the Forbidden Forest?

Voldemort parades the body back to the castle as a trophy, which only reignites the fighting.

Which spell does Harry cast against Voldemort's Killing Curse in their final duel?

The Elder Wand refuses to kill its true master and the Killing Curse rebounds, ending a wizard with no Horcruxes left.

Which three teachers fight Voldemort simultaneously in the Great Hall?

Harry interrupts the three-on-one duel to reveal himself and explain the Elder Wand's true allegiance.

On what date was the future Dark Lord born?

A New Year's Eve birth in a Muggle orphanage, after which his mother died and he grew up alone.

What wood is Voldemort's wand made of?

Rowling chose a tree whose sap is poisonous and which symbolises death, a deliberate contrast with Harry's holly.

According to Rowling, what would Voldemort's Boggart be?

His pathological fear of death, which he regards as a shameful human weakness, is the trait Rowling returns to most.

Besides Dumbledore, what is Voldemort the only wizard known to be able to do?

He is also counted among the greatest Legilimens in the world and, in the final book, flies unsupported to the amazement of onlookers.

Which wizard was Voldemort said to fear alone?

Dumbledore, for his part, called Riddle probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts had ever seen.

What ability passed from Voldemort to Harry through the soul fragment?

Harry loses the skill once the fragment inside him is destroyed in the Forbidden Forest.

What is the name of Voldemort's maternal grandfather?

He was the last family patriarch and served a short Azkaban term for assaulting a Ministry official, dying soon after his release.

For which murders was Morfin Gaunt wrongly convicted?

Dumbledore extracted the true memory from Morfin in Azkaban, but Morfin died before he could be released.

What heirloom did the destitute Merope sell in London?

It was the family's most treasured item and she got only a small sum for it; decades later her son turned it into a Horcrux.

Who provided the voice and facial source for Voldemort's face on Quirrell's head in the first film?

The CG alteration was heavy enough that nobody noticed the same actor was playing Quirrell too.

Who played Voldemort in the Godric's Hollow flashback of the first film, face never shown?

It is the scene where the Dark Lord arrives at James and Lily Potter's home on the night of the attack.

Who played the 16-year-old Tom Riddle in Chamber of Secrets?

By the time Half-Blood Prince was filmed he was 29, so the adolescent Riddle went to another actor.

Which actor first played Voldemort in his full physical form?

He said he had two weeks to shoot the graveyard showdown and admitted he skipped to his own scene when reading the novel.

Why did the films give Voldemort blue irises rather than red?

The producer worried that red eyes would not let the evil show or fill the audience with fear, so the cat-like pupils were dropped too.

How was Voldemort's missing nose achieved in the films?

His real nose went uncovered on set; the forked tongue seen in Goblet of Fire was dropped for later films.

Who played the child Tom Riddle in Half-Blood Prince?

He is Ralph Fiennes's nephew, which made the family resemblance to the adult Dark Lord easy.

Who played the teenage Riddle in Half-Blood Prince after a last-minute recast?

Longley had been scheduled for the part, but renegotiations at the eleventh hour handed it over.

In Cursed Child, who is revealed to be the mother of Voldemort's daughter Delphi?

Delphi later poses as Cedric Diggory's cousin to lure Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy into stealing a Time-Turner.

Who voices Voldemort in The Lego Batman Movie?

Fiennes is in the film too, but as the voice of Alfred Pennyworth rather than the Dark Lord.

In which year did Voldemort appear on a Royal Mail postage stamp?

He was one of eight British magical figures honoured, alongside characters from Narnia, Discworld and Arthurian legend.

Who defeated the inflatable Voldemort at the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony?

The nannies descended on umbrellas to see off Voldemort, the Queen of Hearts, Captain Hook and Cruella de Vil.