Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, we’re going
to be discussing the Harry Potter books, the Harry Potter films, and none other than Lord
Voldemort. More specifically- we’re going to be taking a look at Voldemort’s character-
and uncovering a few little known facts about Voldemort that only book-readers will know.
Voldemort’s character, and his journey from Tom Riddle the orphan to the dark lord- is
certainly a riveting one with many layers beneath the surface. Unfortunately, however,
if you only watched the films then you will have only been given a glimpse of Voldemort’s
past. In this video, I’m going to be discussing FIVE aspects of Voldemort’s character that
were left out of the films.
Without further ado, let’s get in to it.
5. HIS Mother Merope Used a Love Potion on his father
Merope Gaunt (later Merope Riddle) was a pure-blood witch and the daughter of Marvolo Gaunt. Merope
grew up in Little Hangleton, and developed an obsession with a muggle that lived nearby,
Tom Riddle sr, who was a handsome and wealthy man. Merope, after years of abuse from her
brother and father, had very suppressed magical capabilities. However, one day her magical
ability manifested itself in the form of a love potion that Merope used on Riddle. Shortly
after he drank the potion, he became infatuated with Merope. Fast forward just a few months
later, the two were married and Merope was pregnant with Tom’s child. This child would
later go on to become Lord Voldemort.
4. – He was strange right from birth
In the Half-Blood Prince it’s first revealed that Voldemort had always been a strange person,
even in early childhood.
Mrs Cole, who was a worker at Wool’s Orphanage where Voldemort was raised, admitted that
Tom exhibited some very unusual behaviours. First of all- he terrified the other children-
and apparently, there were some ‘nasty’ incidents involved.
Second of all, Voldemort didn’t CRY. Even as a newborn lying on his back in a crib,
Voldemort couldn’t shed a tear, and this is a byproduct of how he was conceived. Because
his mother had given his father a love potion, Voldemort lacked the ability to feel emotions
like love. I’m not sure there’s any warning sign quite like a baby that doesn’t cry
or show emotion.
3. He worked at Borgin & Burkes
You might be surprised to hear that even Lord Voldemort once had a job like the rest of
us. Well, the having a job part at least- I’m not sure working at Borgin & Burkes
is particularly relatable for most of us. Anyway, as a young lad and recent Hogwarts
graduate, Tom Riddle, travelled to Knockturn alley where the shop Borgin & Burkes was located.
Borgin and Burkes is an antique shop that has a bit of a dodgy reputation for selling
dark wizarding artefacts and dealing with questionable witches and wizards, so you can
probably see what attracted Voldemort. As it turns out, he only took the job so that
he could find out more about Horcruxes.
2. Voldemort’s Hogwarts job interview
If you didn’t know already, the ‘Defence Against the Dark Arts’ professor role at
Hogwarts is cursed. That’s why no professor seems to be able to keep the role for more
than one school year. I’m not sure if you noticed the trend of a new DADA professor
in each and every book/film.
As it turns out, the reason for this is that Voldemort himself once interviewed for the
position, but was turned down by Dumbledore. Voldemort wasn’t openly evil yet, and to
many he was still just a promising young Hogwarts graduate, but Dumbledore is no slouch, and
knew that Riddle wanted the role for nefarious reasons.
Because he was snubbed by Dumbledore, Riddle/Voldemort cursed the role so that no one would ever
be able to teach DADA for more than 1 year.
1. Harry and Voldemort are Related
That’s right, the arch-rivals with such completely opposite agendas are actually distantly
related. It all starts with the Peverell brothers, the recipients of the three Deathly Hallows.
Ignotus, the youngest brother and recipient of the invisibility cloak, was actually the
relative of none other than Harry Potter. We know that Harry receives the invisibility
cloak as a gift from his father, but what wasn’t originally revealed was that this
same cloak was passed down over generations, starting with Ignotus. And as it turns out,
Voldemort is a distant relative of Cadmus- the brother who chose the resurrection stone.
And that’s it for this video! If you enjoy the content please LIKE the video and SUBSCRIBE
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Until next time
It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live