The
dark wizard known as "Lord Voldemort" was born in 1928 in an orphanage
in London. His mother, a witch, and, according to Voldemort, a descendent of Salazar
Slytherin, had fallen in love with Tom Riddle, a Muggle. Tom Riddle lived in a
fine-looking manor that stood on a hill overlooking the village of Little
Hangleton. The manor house was one of the largest and grandest buildings for
miles around. When Voldemort's mother told her husband that she was a witch, he
abandoned her, returning to his parents' home. As Lord Voldemort told the
story, his father "didn't like magic." Voldemort's mother died just
after giving birth to him, living just long enough to name him Tom Riddle,
after his father and Marvolo, after his grandfather. He was raised in a Muggle
orphanage.

For
the first eleven years of his life, Tom was raised in a clean but grim Muggle orphanage
in London. As he got older, he began to steal things and appeared to cause
"nasty" things to happen to the other children and to pets around the
orphanage.

Once
at Hogwarts, Tom was sorted into Slytherin House and swiftly
became known as an unusually brilliant student. A handsome boy, he was much
admired by everyone, with the exception of the Transfiguration professor, Albus
Dumbledore. During the holidays, Tom had to return to the Muggle orphanage he
despised.

Secretly,
Tom was obsessed with his Slytherin heritage and with finding the ways he might
cheat death. He found the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets in his
sixth year and released Slytherin’s basilisk within it, killing a student named Myrtle.
Slytherin had built the chamber deep in Hogwarts castle and kept it hidden from
the other founders. He sealed it so that only his own true heir would be able
to unseal the chamber and unleash the horror within to purge the school of
"all who were unworthy to study magic." During this time Tom had
begun using a new name among his most intimate friends at Hogwarts.
Contemptuous of the name of his "foul, common Muggle" father, he made
an anagram of Tom Marvolo Riddle. The rearranged letters spelled "I AM
LORD VOLDEMORT." It was a name he hoped "wizards everywhere would one
day fear to speak," when he became the "greatest sorcerer in the
world."

On
June 13, 1943, Tom staged the capture of another student, Rubeus Hagrid,
and tricked Headmaster Armando Dippet into believing Hagrid and his
giant spider Aragog were responsible for the attacks. Tom received an
engraved trophy for special services to the school, but he realized that
Albus Dumbledore was keeping an "annoyingly close watch" on him and
it was not safe to open the Chamber of Secrets again while he was still at
school. Tom preserved himself in the pages of a diary with the hope
that he would one day be able to lead another in his footsteps and "finish
Salazar Slytherin's noble work."