Smudged in the Dark ( About Tom Riddle )
written by Account Terminated
"First — and understand this, Harry, 'cause it's very important — not all wizards are good. Some of them go bad. A few years ago there was one wizard that went as bad as you can go, and his name was V — [sighs] his name was V..." - Hagrid A book to explain the life story of Lord Voldemort whom once people feared to speak out his name. Master of Dark Arts, this book will give you the fine taste of the dark witchcraft and wizardry.
Last Updated
05/31/21
Chapters
7
Reads
2,050
Biography and a short sketch of Riddle
Chapter 1
Tom Marvolo Riddle (31 December, 1926[11] – 2 May, 1998), later and better known as Lord Voldemort, was a half-blood wizard who was considered to have been the most powerful and dangerous Dark wizard of all time. The son of the wealthy Muggle Tom Riddle Senior and the witch Merope Riddle (née Gaunt), he was orphaned and raised in a Muggle orphanage, which remained his permanent residence through his 1938-1945 attendance at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was a member of Slytherin house.
His accomplishments included the opening of Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets and the use of its monster to attack Muggle-born students; several months' service as a purchasing agent for the Dark artefacts shop Borgin and Burkes; the ability to speak Parseltongue; and the attainment of immortality between the years of 1942 and 1998, a process begun upon the creation of his first Horcrux at the age of 16. Splitting his own spirit into a total of eight fragments, Lord Voldemort created seven Horcruxes; one unintentionally and without his knowledge - Harry Potter. Abandoning his 'Muggle' name, he became the self-proclaimed Lord Voldemort, which was an anagram of his birth name. He commanded a veritable army of wizards and Dark creatures, committed numerous murders personally and through his followers, and on one occasion nearly succeeded and on a later occasion did succeed in taking over the Ministry of Magic by installing a puppet Minister.
Voldemort was ripped from his body in 1981, after attempting to kill Harry Potter, and though unable to die, was not able to regain a permanent and physical body until 1995, thus spending the intervening 14 years "a shell, less than the meanest ghost", but alive. He was finally killed by his own backfiring curse after Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter, following Dumbledore's death, succeeded in destroying all of his Horcruxes.
Tom Riddle's broken and mutilated soul was then trapped in Limbo for eternity, unable to move on to the afterlife or even return as a disembodied spirit.
Unknown to most however, Lord Voldemort's legacy and blood would live on through his daughter Delphini, whom he conceived with his loyal follower Bellatrix Lestrange. Delphini was conceived sometime after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries in 1996 and before Voldemort's death at the hands of Harry Potter in 1998.[12]
Contents[show]
Biography
Family lineage
"The Gaunts, a very ancient wizarding family noted for a vein of instability and violence that flourished through the generations due to their habit of marrying their own cousins."
—Description of the House of Gaunt[src]
PR 007 005-e1313269785740
Salazar Slytherin, Voldemort's maternal ancestor
By Harry Potter's time, Tom's family on his mother Merope's side were the last known members of the House of Gaunt. The Gaunts were an ancient, and formerly wealthy, wizarding family, noted for producing individuals with violent and unstable personalities due to generations of inbreeding.
Previous, named members of the Gaunt family - Tom's distant relatives - included Corvinus Gaunt, Tom's maternal ancestor, and a Parselmouth who hid the Chamber of Secrets entrance in a girls' restroom at Hogwarts; Rionach Gaunt, the mother of Ilvermorny founder Isolt Sayre; and Gormlaith Gaunt, the sister of Rionach Gaunt; maternal aunt of Isolt Sayre; maternal great-aunt of Rionach Steward and Martha Steward; and, it is believed, the "last of the Irish branch of the Gaunt family".
Because of the Gaunt family's liking for grandeur, along with little sensibility at their indulgences, the family gold was gambled away and gone long before the last known heirs of the lineage were born. Likewise, a tendency to "marry their own cousins" to "keep their bloodline pure", following the beliefs of their ancestor Salazar Slytherin, caused the heirs to the Gaunt name to suffer the ill-effects of generations of inbreeding and incest.
In North America, in what would later become the state of Massachusetts in the United States, the descendants of the Irish branch of the Gaunt family, through the line of Isolt Sayre, was thought to have died out sometime in the 17th or 18th century. Rionach Steward, Isolt's Half-blood daughter and the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Ilvermony, was also rumoured to have inherited the ability to speak Parseltongue from her mother. Unwilling to further the bloodline of Salazar Slytherin, whom she viewed as a Dark wizard, Rionach never married or had children, and she later died without heirs.
However, Rionach was unaware that another branch of the Gaunt family was still present, alive and well, across the ocean in England. It was from this line of Gaunts from which, centuries later, another Half-blood descendant, Tom Marvolo Riddle, would be born.
Rionach's sister, Martha Steward, unlike her sibling, married a No-maj (Muggle) friend of the nearby Pocumtuc Native American tribe. Born a Squib, without any magical powers, Martha felt ostracised within the growing American wizarding community, despite being the child of an important family. In the end, due to the emotional pain caused by being unable to perform magic, and the stigma of being the the only Squib to grow up at Ilvermorny, Martha decided to live her life henceforth as a No-maj (Muggle).[13]
Tom's maternal grandfather, Marvolo Gaunt, and his maternal uncle, Morfin Gaunt, claimed to be the last known male, Pureblood descendants of Salazar Slytherin by the early 20th century. As such, they regarded themselves as "royalty" for their ancestry, despite their poverty; destitution; lack of education; and mental and physical disorders from centuries of familial inbreeding.
Tom's father, Tom Riddle Snr., was a wealthy Muggle living in the village of Little Hangleton, near the Gaunt shack, who was forced into a relationship with Merope through probable use of a Love Potion.[14] After some time, it is speculated by Albus Dumbledore that Merope discontinued her use of love potions on Tom, in the hopes that he had really fallen in love with her, or would at least stay for their child's sake. To Merope's great sorrow, Tom Snr fled from her after he came to his senses and regained his free will.
His accomplishments included the opening of Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets and the use of its monster to attack Muggle-born students; several months' service as a purchasing agent for the Dark artefacts shop Borgin and Burkes; the ability to speak Parseltongue; and the attainment of immortality between the years of 1942 and 1998, a process begun upon the creation of his first Horcrux at the age of 16. Splitting his own spirit into a total of eight fragments, Lord Voldemort created seven Horcruxes; one unintentionally and without his knowledge - Harry Potter. Abandoning his 'Muggle' name, he became the self-proclaimed Lord Voldemort, which was an anagram of his birth name. He commanded a veritable army of wizards and Dark creatures, committed numerous murders personally and through his followers, and on one occasion nearly succeeded and on a later occasion did succeed in taking over the Ministry of Magic by installing a puppet Minister.
Voldemort was ripped from his body in 1981, after attempting to kill Harry Potter, and though unable to die, was not able to regain a permanent and physical body until 1995, thus spending the intervening 14 years "a shell, less than the meanest ghost", but alive. He was finally killed by his own backfiring curse after Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter, following Dumbledore's death, succeeded in destroying all of his Horcruxes.
Tom Riddle's broken and mutilated soul was then trapped in Limbo for eternity, unable to move on to the afterlife or even return as a disembodied spirit.
Unknown to most however, Lord Voldemort's legacy and blood would live on through his daughter Delphini, whom he conceived with his loyal follower Bellatrix Lestrange. Delphini was conceived sometime after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries in 1996 and before Voldemort's death at the hands of Harry Potter in 1998.[12]
Contents[show]
Biography
Family lineage
"The Gaunts, a very ancient wizarding family noted for a vein of instability and violence that flourished through the generations due to their habit of marrying their own cousins."
—Description of the House of Gaunt[src]
PR 007 005-e1313269785740
Salazar Slytherin, Voldemort's maternal ancestor
By Harry Potter's time, Tom's family on his mother Merope's side were the last known members of the House of Gaunt. The Gaunts were an ancient, and formerly wealthy, wizarding family, noted for producing individuals with violent and unstable personalities due to generations of inbreeding.
Previous, named members of the Gaunt family - Tom's distant relatives - included Corvinus Gaunt, Tom's maternal ancestor, and a Parselmouth who hid the Chamber of Secrets entrance in a girls' restroom at Hogwarts; Rionach Gaunt, the mother of Ilvermorny founder Isolt Sayre; and Gormlaith Gaunt, the sister of Rionach Gaunt; maternal aunt of Isolt Sayre; maternal great-aunt of Rionach Steward and Martha Steward; and, it is believed, the "last of the Irish branch of the Gaunt family".
Because of the Gaunt family's liking for grandeur, along with little sensibility at their indulgences, the family gold was gambled away and gone long before the last known heirs of the lineage were born. Likewise, a tendency to "marry their own cousins" to "keep their bloodline pure", following the beliefs of their ancestor Salazar Slytherin, caused the heirs to the Gaunt name to suffer the ill-effects of generations of inbreeding and incest.
In North America, in what would later become the state of Massachusetts in the United States, the descendants of the Irish branch of the Gaunt family, through the line of Isolt Sayre, was thought to have died out sometime in the 17th or 18th century. Rionach Steward, Isolt's Half-blood daughter and the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Ilvermony, was also rumoured to have inherited the ability to speak Parseltongue from her mother. Unwilling to further the bloodline of Salazar Slytherin, whom she viewed as a Dark wizard, Rionach never married or had children, and she later died without heirs.
However, Rionach was unaware that another branch of the Gaunt family was still present, alive and well, across the ocean in England. It was from this line of Gaunts from which, centuries later, another Half-blood descendant, Tom Marvolo Riddle, would be born.
Rionach's sister, Martha Steward, unlike her sibling, married a No-maj (Muggle) friend of the nearby Pocumtuc Native American tribe. Born a Squib, without any magical powers, Martha felt ostracised within the growing American wizarding community, despite being the child of an important family. In the end, due to the emotional pain caused by being unable to perform magic, and the stigma of being the the only Squib to grow up at Ilvermorny, Martha decided to live her life henceforth as a No-maj (Muggle).[13]
Tom's maternal grandfather, Marvolo Gaunt, and his maternal uncle, Morfin Gaunt, claimed to be the last known male, Pureblood descendants of Salazar Slytherin by the early 20th century. As such, they regarded themselves as "royalty" for their ancestry, despite their poverty; destitution; lack of education; and mental and physical disorders from centuries of familial inbreeding.
Tom's father, Tom Riddle Snr., was a wealthy Muggle living in the village of Little Hangleton, near the Gaunt shack, who was forced into a relationship with Merope through probable use of a Love Potion.[14] After some time, it is speculated by Albus Dumbledore that Merope discontinued her use of love potions on Tom, in the hopes that he had really fallen in love with her, or would at least stay for their child's sake. To Merope's great sorrow, Tom Snr fled from her after he came to his senses and regained his free will.
