Thomas Riddle

 Thomas Riddle

Background information

Full name

Tom Marvolo Riddle (birth name)

Nickname(s)

• Tommy (some bullies when he was a child in the orphanage)

• Tom, My Lord (Abraxas only)

• Husband (only Hermione) 

• Mr. Riddle (non-family members)

Date of Birth

Dec 31, 1926, Wool's Orphanage

Blood status

Half-Blood

Also known as

• Lord Voldemort (self-proclaimed title and chosen name; erased future)

• You-Know-Who (erased future)

• The Dark Lord (erased future)

• Heir of Slytherin

• Rian O’Grady (former disguised name in the 1960s start)

• Thomas "Tom" Riddle (conceals his Muggle grandfather's name)

Status

• Alive (altered future)

• Departed (in the erased original timeline)

Nationality

British

Physical information

Species

Human (half-witch)

Gender

Female

Family information

Children

• Thomas "Tommy" Riddle II (eldest son of Hermione)

• Elizabeth "Lizzie" Riddle (younger daughter of Hermione)

Parents

• Merope Gaunt-Riddle † (mother)

• Tom Riddle Senior † (father)

Uncles

Morfin Gaunt † (maternal uncle)

Grandparents

• Thomas Riddle † (paternal grandfather)

• Mary Riddle † (paternal grandmother)

• Unnamed Maternal Grandmother † (pure-blood)

• Marvolo Gaunt † (maternal grandfather)

Great-uncles/aunts

• Ominis Gaunt † (great-uncle)

• Unnamed great-uncle †

• Unnamed great-uncle †

• Unnamed great-uncle †

• Unnamed great-aunt †

Ancestors

• Salazar Slytherin † (distant)

• Cadmus Peverell † (distant)

• Corvinus Gaunt † (distant)

Descendants

• James Potter (distant cousin)

• Harry Potter (distant cousin in the erased original timeline)

Pets

Nagini (snake, erased timeline)

Relationships

Allies

• Hermione Granger (he trusted her; she was like a mother figure to him in an orphanage; yet, she was soon something more than his guardian or mother figure)

• Abraxas Malfoy † (died of dragon pox; was his loyal supporter)

• Tom Riddle's gang (during his time at Hogwarts)

• Prof. Horace Slughorn (used him only to inform him about Horcruxes)

• Augustus Rookwood (who was on his side during the court day)

Romances

Hermione Granger-Riddle (wife by a ritual bond that can't be broken)

Minions

• His gang at Hogwarts (once)

• Knights of Walburgis a.k.a. Death Eaters (erased from existence)

• Abraxas Malfoy † (his trusted follower)

Enemies

• Harry Potter (a boy who was his mortal opponent in the original timeline, but he was erased because Lily wed Severus in the altered timeline)

• Prof. Albus Dumbledore † (despises him in Hogwarts years; yet, he slips down in the Astronomy Tower)

• British Ministry of Magic

• Mary and Thomas Riddle † (he despised his Muggle grandparents, and he slew them)

• Tom Riddle Senior † (he despised him for ditching her pregnant mother, and he slew him for that)

• Morfin and Marvolo Gaunt † (hated them because they tormented and mauled her mom)

• Muggles and Muggle-borns

• Mrs. Cole (disliked her)

• Billy Stubbs (childhood rival; a boy with whom he got into a conflict)

• Dennis Bishop (childhood rival)

• Amy Benson (childhood rival)

• Other Wool's orphans (childhood rivals; he robbed and hid their items like medals)

Magical information

Boggart

His own corpse

Powers/skills

• Magic Mystery
• Dark Magic (ability to cast dark charms, hexes, and spells)
• Dueling (ability to perform a duel)
• Parselmouth (ability to speak snakes)
• Potions (ability to brew potions)
• Charms (ability to cast spells)
• Pyrokinesis (ability to cast fire with hands or mind)
• Apparition (ability to teleport everywhere)
• Control of Underage Magic (ability to perform magic at a young age)
• Occlumency and Legilimency (the ability to shield his mind to protect it from others and also read their minds)
• Flying (the ability to fly everywhere)
• Transfiguration
• Spell creation
• Inferi Creation and Control
• Possession
• Wandless Magic (ability to cast spells without a wand)
• Wand Versatility
• Charisma
• Acting
• Leadership skills
• Salesmanship
• Teaching Skills
• Intellectual Genius

Wand

13½", Yew, phoenix feather core

Alignment

Natural

Patronus

Serpent

Affiliation

Occupation

• Founder and supreme leader of the Death Eaters (formerly in 1950-1969)

• Unofficial Minister for Magic (shortly; controlled by a tool minister in an erased future)

• Shop Assistant at Borgin and Burke's (once)

• Hogwarts student (once)

School

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (1938 - 1945)

Residences

• Voldemort's flat, Diagon Alley (nowadays)

• Malfoy Mansion (erased future only)

• Slytherin Dungeon (during the school year; once)

• Wool's Orphanage (once)

House

Slytherin

Loyalty

• Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (once)

• Slytherin

• Slug Club

• Tom Riddle's gang

• Knights of Walburgis (erased in the late 1960s)

• Slytherin family

• Riddle-Granger family

Tom Riddle was a half-blood wizard born in 1926 to a pure-blood wizard, Merope Gaunt, and a rich Muggle named Tom Riddle Senior.

Biography

Early life (1926–1938)

Mrs Cole: "He scares the other children."

Albus Dumbledore: "You mean he is a bully?"

Mrs Cole: "I think he must be, but it's very hard to catch him at it. There have been incidents... Nasty things... Billy Stubbs's rabbit... well, Tom said he didn't do it, and I don't see how he could have done it, but even so, it didn't hang itself from the rafters, did it?"

— Mrs Cole informs Albus Dumbledore of Tom Riddle's life at Wool's Orphanage

Tom Marvolo Riddle was born on 31 December 1926 at Wool's Orphanage in London. His mother, Merope, staggered to the door of the orphanage, gave birth to Tom there, and died shortly after. Riddle grew up in the dingy orphanage, unaware of his wizarding heritage. Since the Muggle orphanage staff knew nothing about his mother, they were unaware of his magical background; only Hermione was aware of it when she arrived. Instead, they believed Merope was a circus worker, as Mrs Cole told Dumbledore shortly before his first meeting with Riddle.

Despite his ignorance of his mother's true background, Riddle had some grasp of his abilities beyond those of normal magical children of his age and an unusually high degree of control over them. He could move objects with his mind and cause them to float wherever he wished, manipulate animals and creatures as he wished, speak Parseltongue, and use his power to inflict harm on others. After getting into a fight with fellow orphan Billy Stubbs, he used his powers to hang the boy's rabbit from the rafters. On one occasion, he took two other orphans, Dennis Bishop and Amy Benson, into a cave, where he performed an act, likely with his powers, so horrifying that the two orphans were traumatized into silence. Afterward, he may have told them, in some way, not to tell anyone what happened in the cave. Riddle also stole from other orphans and hid their things in his cupboard like trophies.

Encountering his new custodian (Hermione Granger)

Mrs.Cole: "Tom! This is your new caretaker. Hermione Granger."

Hermione Granger: "Hello, Tom!"

— Tom Riddle encounters Hermione for the first time.

Tom meets Hermione for the first time when she starts to work as his caretaker because others do not like him, and Hermione is the only one who does. Tom senses the nearest connection with her and sees her as a trustworthy person.

Hogwarts years (1938 - 1945)

Riddle was educated at Hogwarts from 1938 to 1945 and was sorted into Slytherin House, a nod to his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin. During summer breaks, he was forced to return to the Muggle orphanage, which he despised and dreaded more than any other place on Earth; however, he was glad when one person waited for him, and it was her caretaker, Hermione, who cared for and took care of him all the time. Riddle thought it was a mothering love that he had never felt before; however, he felt something else from her, something he couldn't explain.

Riddle was described the way he was seen as 'poor, but brilliant, parentless, but so brave, a school prefect, a model student'. Due to his exceptional acting abilities and handsome looks, he was able to convince virtually all of the Hogwarts staff and instructors that his kinder façade was his true personality. The sole exception to this was Dumbledore, who, though not necessarily suspicious of Riddle, never forgot about his misdeeds at the orphanage, nor his unsettling behavior during their first meeting. In turn, Riddle realized that he had been careless in showing Dumbledore his true character upon their first meeting, and never attempted to win him over as he had with his other instructors. In time, he came to fear and despise Dumbledore.

Over time, Riddle gathered to himself a gang of Slytherin thugs, a motley composition of 'the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking some shared glory, and the thuggish gravitating toward a leader who could show them more refined forms of cruelty, ' most of whom would become his followers. Riddle claimed they were his friends and made it appear so in public, but in truth, they amounted to little more than servants, and he cared almost nothing for them. He often manipulated them into committing petty crimes and other misdeeds, but none of these incidents were reliably traced back to the group.

Lord Voldemort

In the 1960s, while aiding the muggle-borns under the Rian O’Grady identity, he began courting the increasingly angered and fearful purebloods under the identity of Lord Voldemort, a powerful and mysterious wizard who’d mastered arcane lore and an heir of Slytherin who’d come to England to form the Knights of Walpurgis, a paramilitary group meant to combat the threat the mud blood and blood traitors pose to the old ways by force. In 1969, Three Broomsticks, Hogsmade. He meets a woman named Hermione Granger, who is Muggle-born and travels from the future to the past. In his glamorous form, Voldemort is sure he can impress her and is a lucky guy.

Erased Knights of Walpurgis

In the 1970s-1990s, the Knights, as the future Death Eaters, were erased by Hermione Granger, who travels to the future with Voldemort, where future Death Eaters were erased from history, and nobody knows the name Lord Voldemort anymore. 

Relationships

Family:

Parents, grandparents, and uncles

Tom Riddle grew up in a Muggle orphanage, not knowing any members of his family. His mother, Merope Gaunt, died shortly after giving birth, never attempting to save herself through magical or other means. His father's feelings toward him are unknown, as he fled then-pregnant Merope after she stopped drugging him with a love potion, and didn't track down the whereabouts of their child thereafter. The two met face-to-face in 1943 when Riddle killed his father and paternal grandparents. Riddle was disgusted by his Muggle relatives and took on the alias 'Lord Voldemort' partly out of a desire to be rid of his 'filthy Muggle father's name'. Tom Riddle Jr. viewed his father as abandoning his mother for being a witch. Whether this was due to a lack of information or Riddle's prejudice against Muggles is unknown.

Despite the maternal side of his family being direct descendants of the great Salazar Slytherin, Tom was unimpressed when he found his deranged uncle Morfin living in squalor at the Gaunt Shack and was not above framing Morfin for murder and stealing his maternal grandfather's prized heirloom ring. Even as a child, he showed contempt for his mother and for the weakness of mortality when he assumed Merope must have been a Muggle if she had been unable to survive. Ironically, it is very possible that Voldemort's more sociopathic and violent tendencies throughout his life could be a result of the 'vein of instability' caused by centuries of inbreeding due to the Gaunts' narcissistic attitudes towards their Slytherin lineage. Later on in his life, however, Riddle showed visible, if concealed, rage when Hepzibah Smith unknowingly slandered his mother, indicating that his discovery that she was the source of his magical heritage might have led him to care about Merope's memory at the very least.

Considering Voldemort's loathing towards his heritage and true name, coupled with the rather dysfunctional dynamics of the Gaunt and Riddle families, it raises questions about why Merope chose to name him after his father and maternal grandfather. One possibility is that Merope, even after the abuse she had suffered at the hands of her father and husband, still held enough affection for them to name her only son after them. Alternatively, as Merope was on her deathbed while giving birth to the younger Riddle, she was likely reflecting on her life. Considering her Gaunt childhood of abuse, poverty, and isolation, she likely had very few, if any, friends to sosocializeith before her marriage to the elder Tom Riddle, leaving Marvolo and Morfin as the only men in her life, and 'Tom' and 'Marvolo' as the few male names that she could think of.

Despite Voldemort's detestation and disappointment with his immediate family, he used their residences for his own benefit without such locations being a reminder of how much he hated them, hiding his precious ring Horcrux under the Gaunt Shack and residing in the Riddle House while awaiting his revival ceremony.

Salazar Slytherin

The only pride Voldemort ever took in his family was that he inherited the blood of the famous Salazar Slytherin from his mother, which he consistently flaunted at every opportunity possible, proudly addressing himself as the 'Heir of Salazar Slytherin', while regarding Slytherin as his 'noble ancestor'.

Outside family

Enemies:

Albus Dumbledore

Tom Riddle met Albus Dumbledore at the age of eleven when the Professor came to invite him to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Although initially suspicious of Dumbledore, he was at least somewhat impressed by Dumbledore's demonstration of magic. Tom was pleased to discover that he was a wizard, as it confirmed the suspicions he had long had about being 'special'. The boy disturbed Dumbledore, however, when he admitted to being able to hurt people who displeased him and being able to talk to snakes. Even as Tom became an extremely popular student among his peers and Professors at Hogwarts, Dumbledore remained wary of him and kept a very close watch on him.

Riddle (then known as Voldemort) returned to Hogwarts years after graduating to request the Defense Against the Dark Arts position from Dumbledore, who had become the school's Headmaster. Suspecting that Voldemort's true intentions were far more sinister than he let on, Dumbledore refused him the position; the result of Dumbledore's refusal was not only that the position of DADA professor became "cursed", but it also affirmed Dumbledore's complete refusal to bend to Voldemort's will.

Voldemort: "But nothing I have seen in the world has supported your famous pronouncements that love is more powerful than my kind of magic, Dumbledore."

Albus Dumbledore: "Perhaps you have been looking in the wrong places..."

Voldemort: "Well, then, what better place to start my fresh research than here, at Hogwarts? Will you let me return? Will you let me share my knowledge with your students?"

— Voldemort to Albus Dumbledore requesting the Defense Against the Dark Arts post

Voldemort despised Dumbledore, not only due to the latter's continued opposition but also because Dumbledore's belief in the triumphant power of love was something that both confused and disgusted Voldemort. Dumbledore was thought to be the only person Voldemort ever feared, and one of the few people Voldemort was unable to intimidate, due to Dumbledore being the only wizard whose powers and skills could rival Voldemort's.

Allies:

Abraxas Malfoy

Abraxas was his former classmate at Hogwarts, but also a trustworthy follower in the Knights of Walburgis when Tom became Voldemort in the 1960s; however, in the late 1960s, Voldemort married a woman whom she met and got her pregnant overnight.