If you have read the Half-Blood Prince then you know where this starts, if you haven't you should. Voldemort was at that time called Tom Riddle middle name Marvolo Gaunt after his grandfather. Who past away shortly after his daughter left him for a muggle named Tom Riddle, yes, his name was in fact Tom Riddle. His mother Merope Gaunt, had given Tom (the father) love potion for she loved him and he didn't love her. One day she didn't give him the potion and he left, with the knowledge that she was pregnant. When Merope had Tom (the kid) she was in such a state of despair that she died 5 minutes after. When Tom started getting his magic (cause you start having the effects near our 11th birthday) his orphanage went to a each that was near a cave. Tom knowing he could do things without really doing them, tricked two of the kids from his group to follow him into a cave where he tortured them. (more information to come in Horcruxes)

Tom liked to collect trophies, he had many of them (explained in The Half-Blood Prince). When Dumbledore came he told Tom he was a professor. Tom then answered with: "so they sent you here to fix me then" but Dumbledore explained that he had a school for special children. Tom followed with:"so you think I'm mad then?" Dumbledore said no a school for wizards and witches and you my friend are a wizard. Tom quite unsure of what to believe said to prove it, Dumbledore did by making his closet go up in flames. When Tom walked over he saw the box that he had put in there (filled with "trophies") when he took it out and dumped out the contestants onto his bed Dumbledore said: "stealing is not aloud at Hogwarts, please return these objects to there owners." Before Dumbledore left he said: Oh, and I can talk to snakes too." which means he was a parsel-mouth. Soon after that Tom did in fact go to Hogwarts to learn, more on that in the next chapter.