Summary

• Young Tom Riddle's early life was a dark mystery that hinted at his descent into evil, starting with his twisted family history.
• Before becoming Lord Voldemort, Tom Riddle assembled a group of Slytherin allies at Hogwarts, laying the groundwork for the Death Eaters.
• Despite his charming facade, Tom Riddle engaged in dark acts such as torturing orphans and committing teenage serial murders.

One of the most impressive things about the Harry Potter villain Voldemort is how effortlessly he became one of the Big Bads of pop culture, but many fans still wonder why Tom Riddle turned evil in the first place. In a landscape dominated by imposing characters such as Darth Vader, Voldemort managed to hold his own among fans. It helped that he looked just as scary as he acted, with a reptilian face that d that his blood ran very cold. Over the course of the series, his villainous plan takes shape as he returns from near death to wreak absolute havoc on the Wizarding World once more.

However, as much as the evil of Lord Voldemort is seen and felt throughout the story, his early life when he went by the name Tom Riddle is fascinating. The last name is appropriate, too, as his childhood and teenage years showed him to be a mysterious riddle that no one could fully unravel before it was too late. Throughout the eight Harry Potter movies, young Tom Riddle was shown only a handful of times, meaning there were many details and facts that the movies left out when exploring why Tom Riddle turned evil.

25 The Death Eaters Weren't The First Group Of Dark Wizards Formed By Voldemort

Voldemort's First Group Of Followers Went By A Different Name

The Death Eaters were Voldemort's loyal followers and personal army, and responsible for many of the atrocities of both the First and Second Wizarding War's (though the Dark Lord definitely enjoyed committing unspeakable acts with his own hands too). While the exact timeline in of specific years has always been a little hazy with events that took place before the events of Harry Potter, it's widely accepted that the group took on the Death Eaters name in 1970.

It's not known why Voldemort chose to semi-disband and then rename the group, though it is known that many of the Knights went on to become Death Eaters.

However, it's been confirmed by J.K. Rowling in interviews that the Death Eaters weren't the first group of acolytes of Voldemort. Prior to the Death Eaters, Voldemort was at the head of a group he named the Knights of Walpurgis (Walpurgis being the name of a Christian Saint celebrated in previous centuries in for ridding the country of pests, plagues, and — ironically — witches). It's not known why Voldemort chose to semi-disband and then rename the group, though it is known that many of the Knights went on to become Death Eaters.

24 Voldemort Created The Spells To Summon The Dark Mark

The Magic Behind The Wizarding World's Most Feared Symbol Was The Dark Lord's Own Creation

The Dark Mark is one of the most well known, and widely feared, symbols in the Wizarding World. It's the brand given to every single one of Voldemort's Death Eaters, and would appear in the sky whenever they'd carry out an atrocity such as a massacre or an assassination. While it's a given that the design was created by Voldemort himself, a lesser-known aspect of the Dark Mark is that the magic used in its various incarnations was also created by the Dark Lord.

How spells are created has always been an ambiguous part of the lore of Harry Potter. The only notable example is the sectumsempra curse, which was created by Severus Snape while still at Hogwarts (as revealed during Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince). However, the teenage Snape creating his own curse didn't signify that creating spells was easy, it just proved that Snape was an incredibly gifted wizard.

It's always seemed that creating spells from scratch is incredibly difficult. If it weren't, many witches and wizards would simply rely on their own incantations rather than learning the same spells taught at Hogwarts. This is what makes this particular Voldemort fact so fascinating.

The magic that enables, for example, him to summon his Death Eaters through their Dark Mark tattoos is a spell he himself created, as is the spell used to launch the Dark Mark into the sky. While there's plenty to prove just how capable a wizard Voldemort was, the fact he is also responsible for the magic that ties his Death Eaters together adds another layer to his legacy as an incredibly talented (albeit evil) wizard.

It's insinutated by Hermione that one of the spells utilized in the creation of the Dark Mark was the Protean Charm.

23 Tom Riddle Applied To Be A Hogwarts Teacher (Multiple Times)

Voldemort Was Constantly Trying To Find A Way Back To Hogwarts

One of the key parallels between the lives of Harry Potter and Voldemort is just how significant Hogwarts was to them. For both, Hogwarts represented an escape from the torment that their lives in the Muggle world were. It's not an understatement to say that Voldemort was obsessed with Hogwarts, and it's one of the key reasons he chose it as the location for his final battle against the last remnants of resistance during the Second Wizarding War.

However, one fact not widely discussed in the books or movies is that Voldemort applied to be a Hogwarts professor at least twice during his adult life. This is why there's a curse on the Defense Against the Dark Arts position. This was the post Tom Riddle first applied for, and after being rejected by then-heaster Professor Dippet (on the advice of Albust Dumbledore), he ensured nobody would be able to hold the position again.

This was only the first time that Voldemort applied for the position, however. He later returned after over two decades to re-apply, confident that the curse would have created enough desparation for him to be hastily approved. However, Dumbledore was wise to Voldemort's intentions to use Hogwarts as a recruiting ground, and so he was swiftly rejected once more. What Dumbledore may not have known was Voldemort's other goal in taking up residence at Hogwarts as a professor - it was the perfect opportunity to hide one of his Horcruxes, the diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw.

22 Bellatrix LeStrange Was Personally Trained By Voldemort

Voldemort Groomed His Most Loyal Follower In Many Ways

Next to Voldemort himself, Bellatrix LeStrange is perhaps the most memorable (and sinister) antagonist in the Harry Potter franchise. Bellatrix is utterly devoted to the Dark Lord, and it was revealed during Harry Potter and the Cursed Child that the pair even had a romantic relationship, with Bellatrix giving birth to Voldemort's daughter, Nagini. However, one aspect of their relationship that hasn't been explored in much detail is just how Bellatrix became so enamored with the Dark Lord, nor why he seems to reciprocate many of these feelings (especially when he seems to see the rest of the Death Eaters as little more than disposable pawns).

It hasn't been revealed exactly when Bellatrix and Voldemort first met, though it can be assumed that it was through Bellatrix's husband, Rudolphus Strange (who was also a known Death Eater, and the pair were presumably still married when Bellatrix bore Voldemort's child). One aspect that has been confirmed over the years is that Bellatrix's impressive mastery of the Dark Arts stems from her being personally trained by Voldemort.

This may seem like a small detail, but it's also one more aspect of their history that proves the Dark Lord treated Bellatrix differently from his other followers, and that she represents a peculiar deviation from his normally singularly-focused mindset. Voldemort was driven by his quest for power, to the point that everything else, including human relationships (perhaps, even, especially human relationships) fell to the wayside. Tom Riddle went to great lengths to dehumanize himself in many ways, so the fact he clearly took a specific interest in Bellatrix is something of a juxtaposition in his wider history.

21 Tom Riddle Took On The Name Voldemort While Still At Hogwarts

The Dark Lord Had Already Started Shedding His Human Identity As A Teen

It's no secret that Tom Riddle came up with the name Voldemort while he was still at Hogwarts. It was one of the key reveals in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the story that first introduced Tom Riddle and Voldemort's identity before becoming the most feared Dark Wizard of all time. However, while it's revealed through his diary that he created his new name based on the fact "Tom Marvolo Riddle" has the same letters as "I Am Lord Voldemort", it's not quite clear whether he'd already adopted the name outside his diaries.

Like many aspects of the Dark Lords life, more details of Tom Riddle becoming Voldemort have emerged through interviews and tie-in media. It's now known that Tom Riddle had indeed started using the name Voldemort while still at Hogwarts. However, it was a name known only to his closest group of friends (although "friends" is a loose term — in reality, Riddle's relationship with those in his social circle wasn't too dissimilar from his relationship to the Death Eaters, and many of the Knights of Walpurgis were already acolytes of the Dark Lord before they knew he had intentions of seizing power).

Voldemort didn't denounce his identity as Tom Riddle and take up his new name completely until he was an adult and had left Hogwarts. However, it is fascinating to know just how prolonged a transition it was. It shows that Voldemort's journey started incredibly early on in his life, and that his desire to conquer death and become the most powerful dark wizard who ever lived wasn't an idea that came ot him later in life.

20 Tom Riddle Was Born In 1926

Voldemort Was In His 70s By The End Of Harry Potter

The Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them movies showed the Wizarding World in the 1920s. However, Newt Scamander's adventures — even those that included Dumbledore — weren't the most important events in the Harry Potter franchise during this decade. Voldemort, the chief antagonist and greatest Dark Wizard who ever lived, was born in 1926. The Harry Potter books and movies are vague when it comes to specific years, but Harry's story begins in the early 1990s (something made more confusing by the presence of London landmarks like the Millennium Bridge appearing in the movies, despite the fact they didn't exist yet).

The fact he was born in the late 1920s also creates some interesting thematic parallels.

The Battle of Hogwarts takes place in 1998, with Voldemort dying aged 71. The fact he was born in the late 1920s also creates some interesting thematic parallels. It's clear that Voldemort and his ideology were inspired on a creative level by Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party when J.K. Rowling was writing the Harry Potter books. While Voldemort had no interest in the Muggle world beyond wiping it out, he grew up in a Muggle orphanage during Hitler's rise to power, and it's entirely possible this had some influence on him when it came to his own ambitions.

19 He Made His First Horcrux Aged 16

Tom Riddle Had Already Split His Soul Before Leaving Hogwarts

A key way that Voldemort became so powerful was the creation of Horcruxes. He made 7 in total, though inadvertently created an 8th later in life when he tried to kill Harry Potter, since Harry became a Horcrux. Tom Riddle learned of Horcruxes in 1943 when he was in his sixth year at Hogwarts, discovering their potential both through his own research and by interrogating Professor Slughorn. Horcruxe's are an incredibly dark and powerful magic, which makes the fact Voldemort managed to create his first at age 16 considerably impressive.

Creating his first Horcrux at such a young age is also a chilling revelation, since each one made split off a small part of his soul — which is a reason Voldermort's appearance is so inhuman by the time he reaches adulthood. Tom Riddle's first Horcrux was the diary seen in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and his second — a ring — was also created while he was still a student. Given the implied effects creating a Horcrux has on the body and mind of a witch or wizard, it's amazing nobody at Hogwarts noticed any changes in him.

18 He Opened The Chamber Of Secrets In His Fifth Year

Voldemort's First Notorious Act Came Before His OWL's Were Complete

The fifth year at Hogwarts seems to be a significant one for many of the important characters in Harry Potter. It's the year that Harry first ed the Order of the Phoenix and established Dumbledore's Army. It's also the year that his father, James Potter, and his friends Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew finally managed to become Animagi, so they could better understand their werewolf friend Remus Lupin. The 5th year was also an important one for Tom Riddle, as this is the year he opened the Chamber of Secrets.

Thankfully, Voldemort's first truly dark act only managed to claim one victim — Myrtle Warren, who went on to become the Hogwarts ghost known as Moaning Myrtle.

Despite the fact that few beyond Harry, Dumbledore, and those that they told know Tom Riddle/Voldemort was behind it, the Chamber of Secrets being opened in the 1940s was one of the darkest and most significant events in the history of Hogwarts. While the students in his year should have been studying for their Ordinary Wizarding Level exams, they were instead terrified of the Basilisk roaming free at Hogwarts. Thankfully, Voldemort's first truly dark act only managed to claim one victim — Myrtle Warren, who went on to become the Hogwarts ghost known as Moaning Myrtle.

17 He Discovered He Was A Parselmouth At A Young Age

Tom Riddle's Story Mirrors Harry Potter's In A Key Way

Their 5th year at Hogwarts being unintentionally significant isn't the only parallel between Harry Potter and Tom Riddle's lives. There are also some idiosyncrasies in their pre-Hogwarts lives too. They both grew up as orphans, for example, and both had a less-than-positive experience living in the Muggle world due to mistreatment at the hands of their caregivers. It's widely known that Harry Potter is a Parselmouth — meaning he can talk to snakes — because of his encounter with Voldemort. However, another similarity is that both Harry and Tom Riddle discovered this skill before they learned they were wizards.

The scene where Harry learns he can speak to snakes is one of the funniest in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, though it's not until his second year that he learns this is actually quite a big deal in the Wizarding World, and not everyone can speak to snakes. When Dumbledore first encounters young Tom Riddle to inform him that he's a Wizard, Riddle asks if that's the reason he can speak to snakes. This both shows that, like Harry, speaking Parseltongue was one of the first magical abilities of Voldemort's to manifest.

16 He Thought His Father Was A Wizard

Voldemort Always Misunderstood His Upbringing

Tom Riddle was always prejudiced and bigoted when it came to Muggles and their inferiority compared to witches and wizards. However, a less-known Voldemort fact is that he was also somewhat sexist in his teenage years too. When he first arrived at Hogwarts, Tom Riddle spent many years researching his heritage to learn who his parents were. A key fact is that he was utterly convinced his magical abilities came from his father.

Voldemort was, of course, disgusted when he learned that his mother had fallen in love with a Muggle (never mind the fact that this also meant he wasn't a pure-blooded wizard).

It was only when he began digging into his past and realized that there was no Marvolo Riddle to ever attend Hogwarts that he realized his magical abilities were inherited from his mother. Voldemort was, of course, disgusted when he learned that his mother had fallen in love with a Muggle (never mind the fact that this also meant he wasn't a pure-blooded wizard). While the presumption that his magical talents were paternally inherited was far from the worst of Voldemort's crimes, it does say a lot about who he was as a person and how skewed his views on the world were.