Lord Voldemort Character development How did Voldemort's character begin? Rowling said Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter (the protagonist of the novels), and she intentionally did not flesh out Voldemort's backstory at first. Why did rowling do that? The basic idea [was that Harry] didn't know he was a wizard ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position How else is voldemorts character developed? When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then And then what did he do? and then he tried to kill Harry--he tried to curse him. ... Harry has to find out, before we find out. And--so--but for some mysterious reason the curse Can you tell me more about the curse? for some mysterious reason the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, what happens to the evil wizard? In the second book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself.
does anything else happen with voldemort in later books?
Besides trying to kill Harry, does anything else happen with Voldemort in later books?
In a 2001 interview, Rowling said Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter (the protagonist of the novels), and she intentionally did not flesh out Voldemort's backstory at first. "The basic idea [was that Harry] didn't know he was a wizard ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. ... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry--he tried to curse him. ... Harry has to find out, before we find out. And--so--but for some mysterious reason the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since."  In the second book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself. In a 2000 interview with the BBC, Rowling described Voldemort as a self-hating bully: "Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy the other and that's what Voldemort does." In the same year, Rowling became more precise about Voldemort. She began to link him to real-life tyrants, describing him as "a raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering". In 2004, though, Rowling said that she did not base Voldemort on any real person. In 2006, Rowling told an interviewer that Voldemort at his core has a human fear: the fear of death. She said: "Voldemort's fear is death, ignominious death. I mean, he regards death itself as ignominious. He thinks that it's a shameful human weakness, as you know. His worst fear is death."  Throughout the series, Rowling establishes that Voldemort is so feared in the wizarding world that it is considered dangerous even to speak his name. Most characters in the novels refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than say his name aloud. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a "taboo" spell is placed upon the name, such that Voldemort or his followers may trace anyone who utters it. By this means, his followers eventually find and capture Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In the second book, Rowling reveals that I am Lord Voldemort is an anagram of the character's birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. According to the author, Voldemort's name is an invented word. Some literary analysts have considered possible meanings in the name: Philip Nel states that Voldemort is derived from the French for "flight of death", and in a 2002 paper, Nilsen and Nilsen suggest that readers get a "creepy feeling" from the name Voldemort, because of the French word "mort" ("death") within it and that word's association with cognate English words derived from the Latin mors. CANNOTANSWER
Rowling described Voldemort as a self-hating bully: "Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects,
Lord Voldemort (,  in the films) is a sobriquet for Tom Marvolo Riddle, a character and the main antagonist in J. K. Rowling's series of Harry Potter novels. The character first appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was published in 1997, and returned either in person or in flashbacks in each book and its film adaptation in the series except the third, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, in which he is only mentioned.

Voldemort is the archenemy of Harry Potter, who according to a prophecy has "the power to vanquish the Dark Lord". He attempts to murder the boy, but instead kills his parents, Lily and James Potter, and leaves Harry with a scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. Nearly every witch or wizard dares not utter his name and refers to him instead with such monikers as "You-Know-Who", "He Who Must Not Be Named", or "the Dark Lord". Voldemort's obsession with blood purity signifies his aim to rid the wizarding world of Muggle (non-magical) heritage and to conquer both worlds, Muggle and wizarding, to achieve pure-blood dominance. Through his mother's family, he is the last descendant of the wizard Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is the leader of the Death Eaters, a group of evil wizards and witches dedicated to ridding the Wizarding World of Muggles and establishing Voldemort as its supreme ruler.

Character development 
In a 1999 interview, Rowling said Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter, and she intentionally did not flesh out Voldemort's backstory at first. "The basic idea [was that Harry] didn't know he was a wizard ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. ... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry—he tried to curse him. ... Harry has to find out, before we find out. And—so—but for some mysterious reason the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since."

In the second book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself. In a 2000 interview with the BBC, Rowling described Voldemort as a self-hating bully: "Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy the other and that's what Voldemort does." In the same year, Rowling became more precise about Voldemort. She began to link him to real-life tyrants, describing him as "a raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering". In 2004, though, Rowling said that she did not base Voldemort on any real person. In 2006, Rowling told an interviewer that Voldemort at his core has a human fear: the fear of death. She said: "Voldemort's fear is death, ignominious death. I mean, he regards death itself as ignominious. He thinks that it's a shameful human weakness, as you know. His worst fear is death."

Throughout the series, Rowling establishes that Voldemort is so feared in the wizarding world that it is considered dangerous even to speak his name. Most characters in the novels refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than say his name aloud. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a "taboo" spell is placed upon the name, such that Voldemort or his followers may trace anyone who utters it. By this means, his followers eventually find and capture Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In the second book, Rowling reveals that I am Lord Voldemort is an anagram of the character's birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. According to the author, Voldemort's name is an invented word. The name Voldemort is derived from the French vol de mort which means "flight of death" or "theft of death".

Appearances

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 

Voldemort makes his debut in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. In this story, Rowling introduces him as the Dark Lord who tried to kill Harry Potter because the boy was prophesied to destroy him. Voldemort murdered Harry's parents, James and Lily, but as a result of his mother's love and willingness to sacrifice herself for him, baby Harry survived when Voldemort tried to murder him with a Killing Curse. Voldemort was disembodied, and Harry was left with a mysterious, lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead as a result.

In the book, Voldemort unsuccessfully tries to regain his dissolved body by stealing the titular Philosopher's Stone. To achieve his objective, Voldemort uses Professor Quirrell's aid by latching onto the back of the latter's head. However, at the climax of the book, Harry manages to prevent Voldemort from stealing the stone.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 
In the second instalment, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling introduces Tom Marvolo Riddle, a manifestation of a teenage Voldemort that resides inside a magical diary found by Ginny Weasley. In this book, Ginny is written as a shy girl with a crush on Harry. Feeling anxious and lonely, she begins to write into the diary and shares her deepest fears with the sympathetic Tom. However, at the climax of the story, when Riddle rearranges the letters in his name to write "I am Lord Voldemort", Riddle is revealed as a magical manifestation of the boy who would later grow up to become the Dark Lord. Riddle states he has grown strong on Ginny's fears and eventually possesses her, using her as a pawn to unlock the Chamber of Secrets, whence a basilisk is set free and petrifies several Hogwarts students. Harry defeats the manifestation of Riddle from the diary and the basilisk. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Albus Dumbledore reveals to Harry that the diary was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 
Voldemort does not appear in the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, either in person or as a magical manifestation. He is, however, heard when Harry passes out from the harsh effects of a Dementor. Towards the end of the story, Sybill Trelawney, the Divination professor, makes a rare genuine prophecy: "The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever before. Tonight... before midnight... the servant... will set out... to rejoin... his master..." Though it is initially implied that the prophecy refers to Sirius Black, the book's ostensible antagonist, the servant is eventually revealed to be Peter Pettigrew, who, for the 12 years since Voldemort's fall, has been disguised as Ron's pet rat, Scabbers.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 
In the fourth instalment of the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort reappears at the start and the climax of the book. Rowling lets many seemingly unrelated plot elements fall into order. It is revealed that Voldemort's minion Barty Crouch Jr, disguised as Hogwarts professor Mad-Eye Moody, has manipulated the events of the Triwizard Tournament in Harry's favour. Voldemort's goal is to teleport Harry under Dumbledore's watch as a reluctant participant to the Little Hangleton graveyard, where the Riddle family is buried. Harry is captured and, after Pettigrew uses Harry's blood to fulfil a gruesome magical ritual, Voldemort regains his body and is restored to his full power. For the first time in the series, Rowling describes his appearance: "tall and skeletally thin", with a face "whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was as flat as a snake's with slits for nostrils". Rowling writes that his "hands were like large, pale spiders; his long white fingers caressed his own chest, his arms, his face; the red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cat's, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness". It was revealed that, while in Albania, Pettigrew had captured the Ministry of Magic official Bertha Jorkins, who was tortured for information about the Ministry. After they learned that Barty Crouch Jr, a faithful Death Eater, had been smuggled out of Azkaban and was privately confined at his father's house, they killed her. With Pettigrew's help, Voldemort creates a small, rudimentary body, corporeal enough to travel and perform magic, and formulated a plan to restore his own body by capturing Harry. A portion of the plan had been overheard by Frank Bryce, a gardener, whom Voldemort then killed. Voldemort then completes his plan and returns to life in his full body as a result of the ritual with Harry's blood. He then summons his Death Eaters to the graveyard to witness the death of Harry as he challenges Harry to a duel. However, when Voldemort duels Harry, their wands become magically locked together due to the twin Phoenix feather cores of the wands. Because of a phenomenon later revealed as Priori Incantatem, ghost-like manifestations of Voldemort's most recent victims (including Harry's parents) then appear and distract Voldemort, allowing Harry just enough time to escape via Portkey with the body of fellow-student, Cedric Diggory, who was murdered by Pettigrew on Voldemort's orders.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 
Voldemort appears at the climax of the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, having again plotted against Harry. In this book, Harry goes through extreme emotional stress, and according to Rowling, it was necessary to prove that Harry is emotionally vulnerable and thus human, in contrast to his nemesis Voldemort, who is emotionally invulnerable and thus inhuman: "[Harry is] a very human hero, and this is, obviously, there's a contrast, between him, as a very human hero, and Voldemort, who has deliberately dehumanised himself. […] and Harry, therefore, did have to reach a point where he did almost break down." In this book, Voldemort makes liberal use of the Ministry of Magic's refusal to believe that he has returned. Voldemort engineers a plot to free Bellatrix Lestrange and other Death Eaters from Azkaban and then embarks on a scheme to retrieve the full record of a prophecy stored in the Department of Mysteries regarding Harry and himself. He sends a group of Death Eaters to retrieve the prophecy, where the Order of the Phoenix meets them. All but Bellatrix are captured, and Voldemort engages in a ferocious duel with Dumbledore. When Dumbledore gets the upper hand, Voldemort attempts to possess Harry but finds that he cannot; Harry is too full of that which Voldemort finds incomprehensible, and which he detests as weakness: love. Sensing that Dumbledore could win, Voldemort disapparates, but not before the Minister for Magic sees him in person, making his return to life public knowledge in the next book.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 
Voldemort does not appear in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, although his presence and actions are felt: he once again declares war, and begins to rise to power once more. He murders Amelia Bones of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and begins to target members of the Order of the Phoenix, including Emmeline Vance.

Rowling uses several chapters as exposition to establish Voldemort's backstory. In a series of flashbacks, using the pensieve as a plot device, she reveals that Voldemort was the son of the witch Merope Gaunt and a Muggle called Tom Riddle. Riddle abandoned Merope before their child's birth, soon after which Merope died. After living in an orphanage, young Riddle met Dumbledore, who told him he was a wizard and arranged for him to attend Hogwarts. Riddle was outwardly a model student, but was in reality a psychopath who took sadistic pleasure in using his powers to harm and control people. He eventually murdered his father and grandparents as revenge for abandoning him. The book also discusses Riddle's hatred of Muggles, his obsession with Horcruxes, and his desire to split his soul to achieve immortality. Rowling stated Voldemort's conception under the influence of a love potion symbolises the coercive circumstances under which he was brought into the world.

In the main plot of the book, Voldemort's next step is to engineer an assault on Hogwarts, and to kill Dumbledore. This is accomplished by Draco Malfoy, who arranges transportation of Death Eaters into Hogwarts by a pair of Vanishing Cabinets, which bypass the extensive protective enchantments placed around the school. The cabinets allow Voldemort's Death Eaters to enter Hogwarts, where battle commences and Dumbledore is cornered. Hogwarts professor (and re-doubled agent) Severus Snape uses the Killing Curse against Dumbledore when Draco could not force himself to do so.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort furthers his quest for ultimate power. He disposes of the Minister for Magic and replaces him with Pius Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius Curse. Establishing a totalitarian police state, he has Muggle-borns persecuted and arrested for "stealing magic" from the "pure blood" wizards. After failing to kill Harry with Draco's father Lucius Malfoy's borrowed wand (to avoid the effect of Priori Incantatem), he goes on a murderous search for the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand ever created, seeing it as the weapon he needs to overcome Harry's wand and make him truly invincible. He goes on a quest that takes him out of the country to Gregorovitch's wand shop, where he kills the old wandmaker. His journey also takes him to Nurmengard, the prison where Gellert Grindelwald is kept, and he kills Grindelwald as well. He finally locates the Elder Wand and steals it from Dumbledore's tomb.

Later, Voldemort finds out that Harry and his friends are hunting and destroying his Horcruxes when informed of their heist on the Lestranges' vault at Gringotts in search for Hufflepuff's Cup. After offering the occupants of Hogwarts mercy if they give up Harry, he assembles a large army and launches an invasion of the castle, where Harry is searching for Ravenclaw's Diadem. Voldemort orders his pet snake Nagini to execute Snape, believing it would make him the true master of the Elder Wand, since Snape killed Dumbledore. He then calls an hour's armistice, in exchange for Harry. When Harry willingly walks into Voldemort's camp in the Forbidden Forest, Voldemort strikes him down with the Elder Wand. However, the use of Harry's blood to resurrect Voldemort's body proves to be a major setback: while Harry's blood runs in Voldemort's veins, Harry cannot be killed as his mother's protection lives on now in Voldemort too. Instead, Voldemort destroys the part of his own soul that resides in Harry's body. Voldemort forces Rubeus Hagrid to carry Harry's apparently lifeless body back to the castle as a trophy, sparking another battle during which Nagini, his last Horcrux, is destroyed by Neville Longbottom. The battle then moves into the Great Hall, where Voldemort fights Minerva McGonagall, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Horace Slughorn simultaneously. Harry then reveals himself and explains to Voldemort that Draco became the true master of the Elder Wand when he disarmed Dumbledore; Harry, in turn, won the wand's allegiance when he took Draco's wand. Refusing to believe this, Voldemort casts the Killing Curse with the Elder Wand while Harry uses a Disarming Charm with Draco's, but the Elder Wand refuses to kill its master and the spell rebounds on Voldemort who, with all of his Horcruxes destroyed, finally dies. His body is laid in a different chamber from all the others who died battling him.

Rowling stated that after his death, Voldemort is forced to exist in the stunted infant-like form that Harry sees in the King's Cross-like Limbo after his confrontation with Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. Rowling also mentioned that, despite his extreme fear of death, he cannot become a ghost.

Appearances in other material

In Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, it is revealed that Bellatrix gave birth to Voldemort's daughter Delphi in Malfoy Manor before the Battle of Hogwarts. Twenty-two years later, Delphi poses as Cedric's cousin and manipulates Harry and Ginny's second son Albus Severus Potter and his friend, Draco and Astoria Greengrass's son Scorpius Malfoy, into stealing a prototype Time Turner with which she hopes to resurrect her father. Using the Time Turner, Scorpius accidentally creates an alternative timeline where Voldemort killed Harry at the battle and now rules the wizarding world. In an attempt to achieve this future, Delphi travels to Godric's Hollow on the night Voldemort killed Harry's parents, hoping to avert the prophecy that led to her father's downfall. After receiving a message from his son, Harry, together with Ron, Hermione and Draco (who by now has become friends with Harry after they join forces to save their respective sons) transfigures himself into Voldemort so that he can distract Delphi, allowing them to overpower her. The real Voldemort kills Harry's parents as prophesied, and Delphi is sent to Azkaban.

Portrayals within films 

Voldemort appears in every Harry Potter film, with the exception of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Several actors have portrayed him in his varying incarnations and ages.

In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Voldemort's manifestation is as a face on the back of Quirrell's head, an effect achieved by computer generated imagery. Ian Hart, the actor who played Quirrell in the same film, provided the voice and the facial source for this character. Voldemort also appears in a scene in the Forbidden Forest where he is seen drinking the blood of a unicorn. As Voldemort's face was altered enough by CG work, and Hart's voice was affected enough, there was no confusion by Hart's playing of the two roles. In that film, he was also shown in a flashback sequence when he arrived at the home of James and Lily Potter to kill them. In this scene Voldemort is played by Richard Bremmer, though his face is never seen. His next appearance would be in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as the 16-year-old Tom Marvolo Riddle (portrayed by Christian Coulson).

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort is initially only heard, possessing the scratchy, weak voice heard in the first film. By the film's climax, however, he appears in his physical form for the first time, played by Ralph Fiennes. As in the book, Voldemort is shown clad in dark black robes, being tall and emaciated, with no hair and yellowish teeth; his wand has a white tone and the handle appears to be made of bone; his finger nails are long and pale blue while his toe nails appear to be infected. Unlike in the book, his pupils are not cat-like and his eyes are blue, because producer David Heyman felt that his evil would not be able to be seen and would not fill the audience with fear (his eyes do briefly take on a snake-like appearance when he opens them after turning human, but quickly turn normal). As in the book, the film version of Voldemort has snake-like slit nostrils with the flesh of his nose significantly pressed back. Ralph Fiennes' nose was not covered in makeup on the set, but was digitally removed in post-production. In this first appearance, Voldemort also has a forked tongue, but this element was removed for the subsequent films.

Fiennes stated that he had two weeks to shoot the climactic showdown scene where he is gloating over a terrified Harry, played by Daniel Radcliffe. Fiennes said with a chuckle: "I have no doubt children will be afraid of me now if they weren't before." In preparation, he read the novel Goblet of Fire, but jokingly conceded: "I was only interested in my scene, and I had to go through thousands and thousands of other scenes which I did, dutifully, until I got to my scene and I read it many, many, many, many, many times and that was my research." Fiennes reprised his role as Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2.

Fiennes's nephew, Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, portrayed Tom Riddle as a child in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. By the time filming arrived Christian Coulson was 29, and not considered suitable to return as the adolescent Riddle. Thomas James Longley was originally scheduled to take over the role, but last minute renegotiations saw Frank Dillane cast instead.

Characterisation

Outward appearance 
After he regains his body in the fourth book, Rowling describes Voldemort as having pale skin, a chalk-white, skull-like face, snake-like slits for nostrils, red eyes and cat-like slits for pupils, a skeletally thin body and long, thin hands with unnaturally long fingers. As mentioned in the first chapter of the seventh book, he also has no hair or lips. Earlier in life, as seen through flashbacks contained in the second and sixth books, Tom Marvolo Riddle was handsome and tall with pale skin, jet black hair, and dark brown eyes. He could charm many people with his looks. The transformation into his monstrous state is believed to have been the result of creating his Horcruxes and becoming less human as he continued to divide his soul. In the films, Voldemort's eyes are blue with round pupils.

Personality 
Rowling described Voldemort as "the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years". She elaborated that he is a "raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering", and whose only ambition in life is to become all-powerful and immortal. He is also a sadist who hurts and murders people—especially Muggles—for his own amusement. He has no conscience, feels no remorse or empathy, and does not recognise the worth and humanity of anybody except himself.
He feels no need for human companionship or friendship, and cannot comprehend love or affection for another. He believes he is superior to everyone around him, to the point that he frequently refers to himself in the third person as "Lord Voldemort". Rowling also stated that Voldemort is "incredibly power hungry. Racist, really", and that if Voldemort were to look into the Mirror of Erised, in which one sees one's greatest desire, he would see "Himself, all-powerful and eternal. That's what he wants."

Rowling also stated that Voldemort's conception by influence of Amortentia—a love potion administered by his mother, a witch named Merope Gaunt, to the Muggle Tom Riddle—is related to his inability to understand love; it is "a symbolic way of showing that he came from a loveless union—but of course, everything would have changed if Merope had survived and raised him herself and loved him. The enchantment under which Tom Riddle fathered Voldemort is important because it shows coercion, and there can't be many more prejudicial ways to enter the world than as the result of such a union".

Like most archetypical villains, Voldemort's arrogance leads to his downfall. He also suffers from a pathological fear of death, which he regards as a shameful and ignominious human weakness. According to Rowling, his Boggart would be his own corpse. Rowling also said that the difference between Harry and Voldemort is that Harry accepts mortality, and thus Harry is, in the end, stronger than his nemesis.

Magical abilities and skills 

Rowling establishes Voldemort throughout the series as an extremely powerful, intelligent, and ruthless dark wizard, described as the greatest and most powerful Dark Wizard of all time. He is known as one of the greatest Legilimens in the world and a highly accomplished Occlumens; he can read minds and shield his own from penetration. Besides Dumbledore, he is also the only wizard ever known to be able to apparate silently. Voldemort was also said to fear one wizard alone, Dumbledore.

In the final book, Voldemort flies unsupported, something that amazes those who see it. Voldemort, like his ancestral family, the Gaunts, is a Parselmouth, meaning he can converse with serpents. This skill was inherited from his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin. The Gaunt family speak Parseltongue among themselves. This highly unusual trait may be preserved through inbreeding, a practice employed by the Gaunt Family to maintain their blood's purity. When Voldemort attempts to kill Harry his ability to speak Parseltongue is passed to Harry through the small bit of the former's soul. After that bit of soul is destroyed, Harry loses this ability. In a flashback in the sixth novel, Voldemort boasts to Dumbledore during a job interview that he has "pushed the boundaries of magic farther than they had ever before". Dumbledore states that Voldemort's knowledge of magic is more extensive than any wizard alive and that even Dumbledore's most powerful protective spells and charms would likely be insufficient if Voldemort returned to full power. Dumbledore also said that Voldemort was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen. Although Voldemort remains highly accomplished and prodigious in skill, he is enormously lacking and highly inept in the most powerful magic, love. This inability to love and trust others proves to be Voldemort's greatest weakness in the series. Voldemort initially voices scepticism that his own magic might not be the most powerful, but upon returning to power, he admits to his Death Eaters that he had overlooked the ancient and powerful magic which Lily Potter invoked and that would protect Harry from harm.

On her website, Rowling wrote that Voldemort's wand is made of yew, whose sap is poisonous and which symbolises death. It forms a deliberate contrast to Harry's wand, which is made of holly, which she chose because holly is alleged to repel evil.

Rowling establishes in the books that Voldemort is magically connected to Harry via Harry's forehead scar. He disembodies himself when his Killing Curse targeting Harry rebounds on him, leaving the scar on Harry's forehead. In the books, and to a lesser extent in the films, Harry's scar serves as an indicator of Voldemort's presence: it burns when the Dark Lord is near or when Voldemort is feeling murderous or exultant. According to Rowling, by attacking Harry when he was a baby Voldemort gave him "tools [that] no other wizard possessed—the scar and the ability it conferred, a magical window into Voldemort's mind".

Family 

Notes: The names 'Thomas' and 'Mary' Riddle are taken from the films. The Potter Family is not shown.

Riddle family 
The Riddle family, an old gentry family, consisted of Thomas and Mary Riddle and their son, Tom Riddle, Esq. They owned over half of the valley that the town of Little Hangleton lay in, and Thomas was the most prominent inhabitant of that town. They lived in a large house with fine gardens, but were unpopular amongst the local residents due to their snobbish attitudes. Tom, the only child of Thomas and Mary, was known as a playboy, his main interests being womanizing and horse-riding.

Rowling revealed in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that young Merope Gaunt fell in love with Riddle, peering at him through the windows and bushes at every opportunity. Merope's brother Morfin disapproved of his sister's affection for Tom and hexed him as he rode by, covering him in hives. This breach of wizarding law, and the ensuing violent struggle with Ministry of Magic officials, led to Marvolo and Morfin being imprisoned in Azkaban. As surmised by Dumbledore, once Merope was alone and no longer dominated by her father, she could make her move for Tom. She offered him a drink laced with a love potion, and he became infatuated with her; they soon eloped and, within three months of the marriage, Merope became pregnant. Merope decided to stop giving Tom the love potion, having come to the belief such enchantment of a man was tantamount to slavery. She also revealed her witch status to Tom, believing either that he had fallen in love with her on his own or he would at least stay for their unborn child. She was wrong, and Tom quickly left his pregnant wife and went home to his parents, claiming to have been "hoodwinked" and tricked into marrying Merope. Tom Marvolo Riddle, their son, was born on 31 December 1926 Merope died in childbirth, leaving the baby to grow up alone in an orphanage.

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, it is revealed that Voldemort murdered his father and grandparents, leaving himself the only surviving member of the Riddle family.

House of Gaunt 
Most of the exposition of the House of Gaunts background occurs in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, through the medium of Dumbledore's Pensieve. The Gaunts were once a powerful and influential family, and are the last known descendants of Salazar Slytherin. However, a vein of mental instability and violence within the family, reinforced through cousin marriages intended to preserve the pureblood line, had reduced them to poverty and squalor, as shown in the Pensieve's "memory" that Harry and Dumbledore witnessed. Like Salazar Slytherin, the Gaunts spoke Parseltongue. At the time of the story, the Gaunts' only material asset is a ramshackle shanty in Little Hangleton, that stood in a thicket in a valley opposite the Riddle House. Like the Riddles, the Gaunts were also unpopular with the local residents, with a reputation for being vulgar and intimidating.

Marvolo Gaunt was the last family patriarch. He was sentenced to a short term in Azkaban for his and his son's assault upon a Ministry of Magic official; this affected his health and he died soon after returning home. His signet ring passed to his son, Morfin Gaunt, who was convicted of assaulting a Muggle, and later died in Azkaban, convicted this time as a party to the murder of Tom Riddle Jr. and Riddle's parents.

Dumbledore discovers the real culprit while visiting Morfin in Azkaban to gather information about Voldemort. After Dumbledore successfully extracts Morfin's memory of his encounter with his nephew, he tries to use the evidence to have Morfin released, but Morfin dies before the decision can be made. The House of Gaunt ended with Morfin's death.

Merope Gaunt () was the daughter of Marvolo, and sister of Morfin. Harry's first impression of her was that she looked "like the most defeated person he had ever seen". She married Tom Riddle Jr and became pregnant within three months of the wedding. It is suggested that she tricked her husband into loving her by using a love potion, but when she became pregnant, she chose to stop administering the potion. It is implied that Merope had grown tired of living the lie and thought that her husband might have grown to love her, or that he might have stayed for the sake of their unborn child; however, he left her. Desperate, Merope wandered through the streets of London. The only thing she had left was the heavy gold locket that had once belonged to Salazar Slytherin, one of her family's most treasured items, which she sold for a small amount. When she was due to give birth, she stumbled into a Muggle orphanage, where she gave birth to her only son. She died within the next hour.

Gormlaith Gaunt was a 17th-century descendant of Salazar Slytherin, and like Salazar, a Parselmouth. Her wand was that which once belonged to Salazar himself. Educated at Hogwarts, Gormlaith lived in Ireland in the early 1600s. In about 1608, Gormlaith killed her estranged unnamed sister, and her sister's husband, William Sayre (a descendant of the Irish witch Morrigan), and kidnapped their five-year-old daughter, Isolt Sayre, raising her in the neighbouring valley of Coomcallee, or "Hag's Glen", because she felt that her parents' association with Muggles would badly influence Isolt. Fanatical and cruel, Gormlaith used Dark magic to isolate Isolt from others, forbade her a wand, and did not allow her to attend Hogwarts as she herself had, disgusted that it was now filled with Muggle-borns. After twelve years with Gormlaith, Isolt stole Gormlaith's wand and fled to the Colonies and settled in Massachusetts, where she founded the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When Gormlaith learned of the school, she pursued her niece in Massachusetts, where she was killed by Isolt's friend, William the Pukwudgie, with a venom-tipped arrow.

The Gaunts, including Voldemort, are distantly related to Harry because they are descendants of the Peverell brothers.

Reception 
Several people have drawn a parallel between Voldemort and some politicians. Rowling has said that Voldemort was "a sort of" Adolf Hitler, and that there is some parallel with Nazism in her books. Rowling also compared Voldemort to Joseph Stalin. Alfonso Cuarón, director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban compared Voldemort to George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein, who he said "...have selfish interests and are very much in love with power. Also, a disregard for the environment. A love for manipulating people." Andrew Slack and the Harry Potter Alliance compare media consolidation in the US to Voldemort's regime in Deathly Hallows and its control over the Daily Prophet and other media saying that "Once Voldemort took over every form of media in the wizarding world, Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix formed an independent media movement called 'Potterwatch'. Now the HP Alliance and Wizard Rock have come together to fight for a Potterwatch movement in the real world to fight back against Big VoldeMedia from further pushing out local and foreign news, minority representation, and the right to a Free Press." Julia Turner of Slate Magazine also noted similarities between the events of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and the War on Terror. She said that Voldemort commits acts of terrorism such as destroying bridges, murdering innocents, and forcing children to kill their elders.

Voldemort has also been compared with other characters within fiction, for example Sauron from The Lord of the Rings; they are, during the time when the main plot takes place, seeking to recover their lost power after having been considered dead or at least no longer a threat, and are also so feared that they are sometimes unnamed.

IGN listed Voldemort as their seventh favourite Harry Potter character, calling him "truly frightening".

In popular culture 
Several campaigns have used Voldemort to compare his evil to the influence of politicians, large media and corporations. "Lord Voldemort" is a nickname sometimes used for Peter Mandelson. Voldemort is also a recurring theme among wizard rock bands. Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock! is the second album from Harry and the Potters, and the character is mentioned in songs such as "The Dark Lord Lament" and "Flesh, Blood, and Bone".

Voldemort has been parodied in various venues. In The Simpsons 13th season's premiere, "Treehouse of Horror XII", Montgomery Burns appears as "Lord Montymort". A parody of Voldemort appears in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy as "Lord Moldybutt", an enemy of Nigel Planter (a parody of Harry). Voldemort also appears in the Potter Puppet Pals sketches by Neil Cicierega. One of the episodes including him was the seventeenth most viewed video of all time as of 2008 and the winner for "Best Comedy" of the year 2007 at YouTube.

"Continuing the Magic", an article in the 21 May 2007 issue of Time, includes mock book covers designed by author Lon Tweeten, laced with pop culture references. One of them, the "Dark Lord of the Dance", shows Voldemort teaming up with Harry on Broadway. In the MAD Magazine parodies of the films, the character is called Lord Druckermort, a backwards reference to the magazine's longtime caricaturist Mort Drucker. In Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1969, a young Tom Marvolo Riddle (introduced as "Tom", whose middle name is a "marvel" and last name is a "conundrum") appears, and becomes the new avatar of Oliver Haddo at the story's conclusion. In A Very Potter Musical, Voldemort is played by actor Joe Walker.

In a segment celebrating British children's literature at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in London, an inflatable Voldemort appeared alongside other villains, The Queen of Hearts, Captain Hook, and Cruella de Vil, to haunt children's dreams, before the arrival of a group of over thirty Mary Poppins who descended with their umbrellas to defeat them.

During the 2016 United States elections, Daniel Radcliffe was asked by Sky News journalist Craig Dillon if he would compare Donald Trump to Lord Voldemort; Radcliffe responded, "Trump is worse".

Voldemort appears in The Lego Batman Movie as one of the prisoners in the Phantom Zone that Joker recruits to take over Gotham City. Though Ralph Fiennes is featured in this movie as the voice of the British butler Alfred Pennyworth, he does not reprise his role as Voldemort. Instead, Voldemort is voiced by Eddie Izzard.

Outside of the Harry Potter video games, Voldemort is also a playable character in Lego Dimensions, with archive audio of Fiennes' portrayal in the films used for his voiceovers.

A 2018 Italian fan film titled Voldemort: Origins of the Heir depicts the story of Tom Riddle's rise to power.

Voldemort appears in Space Jam: A New Legacy, in the crowd for the game between the Tune Squad and the Goon Squad.

An upcoming French fan-made short-film titled The House of Gaunt - Lord Voldemort Origins explores the origin story of Voldemort and The Gaunt family.

Notes

References

External links 

 Lord Voldemort at Harry Potter Lexicon

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Voldemort is a distributed data store that was designed as a key-value store used by LinkedIn for highly-scalable storage. It is named after the fictional Harry Potter villain Lord Voldemort.

Overview
Voldemort does not try to satisfy arbitrary relations and the ACID properties, but rather is a big, distributed, persistent hash table.
A 2012 study comparing systems for storing application performance management  data reported that Voldemort, Apache Cassandra, and HBase all offered linear scalability in most cases, with Voldemort having the lowest latency and Cassandra having the highest throughput.

In the parlance of Eric Brewer's CAP theorem, Voldemort is an AP type system.

Voldemort's creator and primary corporate contributor, LinkedIn, has migrated all of their systems off of Voldemort as of approximately August 2018, with no replacement sponsor .

Properties
Voldemort uses in-memory caching to eliminate a separate caching tier. It has a storage layer that is possible to emulate. Voldemort reads and writes scale horizontally. The API decides data replication and placement and accommodates a wide range of application-specific strategies.

The Voldemort distributed data store supports pluggable placement strategies for distribution across data centers. Data is automatically replicated across servers. Data is partitioned meaning a single server contains only a portion of the total data. Each data node is independent to avoid central point of failure. Pluggable serialization allows rich keys and values including lists and tuples with named fields, as well as the integration with common serialisation frameworks such as Avro, Java Serialization, Protocol Buffers, and Thrift. Server failures are handled transparently. Data items are versioned, which maximizes data integrity.

See also

 Distributed data store
 NoSQL
 Riak
 Redis

References

External links
 Project Voldemort - A distributed database
 Project Voldemort Real Time Discussions

Distributed data stores
LinkedIn software
NoSQL
Microsoft free software
Software using the Apache license
2009 software The Death Eaters are characters featured in the Harry Potter series of novels and films. They are a terrorist group of wizards and witches, led by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort, who seek to purify the wizarding community by eliminating wizards and witches born to non-magical parents. They attempt to create a new order within the Ministry of Magic by spreading fear through the wizarding community and murdering those who speak out against them. Their primary opposition is the Order of the Phoenix.

Death Eaters recognise one another by the Dark Mark, a sigil branded on each of their left forearms that allows Voldemort to summon any of them instantly. Their typical attire includes black hooded robes and masks. The Death Eaters as a group first appeared in the novel Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, although individual members of the group, such as Severus Snape, Lucius Malfoy, and Peter Pettigrew had appeared in earlier books in the series. The group had also been mentioned indirectly in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, when followers of Voldemort were mentioned. They were mentioned the first time directly in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Synopsis

Pre-Harry Potter 
The Death Eaters first existed over 11 years before the events of the books, torturing and murdering Muggles (people without magical abilities), as well as anyone who opposed them, including wizards who support Muggles (such as the Weasley family). Around 10 years after the Death Eaters first surfaced, a Seer named Sybill Trelawney made a prophecy about a boy who would have the power to defeat Voldemort forever. The prophecy could have referred to two different boys, Harry Potter or Neville Longbottom; however, Voldemort chose Harry as said in the prophecy, that "the Dark Lord would mark him as his equal". As Voldemort was a half-blood, he chose his "equal", Harry, whose mother was a Muggle-born witch, instead of Neville, who came from a long line of pure-blooded wizards. Acting on information from James and Lily Potter's Secret-Keeper Peter Pettigrew, Voldemort attempted to complete the prophecy and kill his infant rival. Due to Harry's mother's sacrifice to save her son, Voldemort's deadly curse rebounded off Harry and disembodied Voldemort.

With Voldemort vanquished after failing to kill Harry Potter, the Death Eaters largely disbanded and vanished. The Ministry rounded many of them up and imprisoned them in the Wizarding prison Azkaban,  but some eluded justice by claiming they were bewitched by the Imperius Curse (it is implied that Lucius Malfoy did so) or by turning in other Death Eaters, as Igor Karkaroff did; Harry witnesses Karkaroff's testimony against former Death Eaters in Albus Dumbledore's Pensieve during the course of the series. It appears that very few Death Eaters stood for their fallen master and proudly went to Azkaban for him (like Bellatrix Lestrange), since, in the sixth book, Snape states that if Voldemort had refused to welcome back all those who turned their backs on him when he fell, then he would have very few followers. The Lestranges are the only Death Eaters known to have willingly sacrificed their freedom for Voldemort. Voldemort takes notice of this and claims that they will be rewarded above all others for their great loyalty. Snape's position as a Death Eater is unique – during the books he convinces all (with the exception of Dumbledore) that he is working for whichever side requires it at that time. This is due to his skill at Occlumency allowing him to disguise his true motive – a love for Lily Potter – from Voldemort.

Re-emergence 
Early in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire a group of Death Eaters rallied after the Quidditch World Cup. They gathered to form a large spectacle and disturbance which spread instant chaos and fear amongst the wizarding community. Their appearance alone created hysteria, and their numbers grew while they tortured Muggles and Muggle-borns on site. It concluded when the Dark Mark was produced in the sky by Barty Crouch Jr, frightening Death Eaters and Ministry officials alike.
Voldemort, having regained his full strength at the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, summoned his followers to him by touching Peter Pettigrew's Dark Mark. Except for Severus Snape (who was staying at Hogwarts to "maintain his cover") and those dead, imprisoned, or afraid to return, the majority returned to his service as Voldemort began his second attempt to claim all power.

Voldemort states at his rebirth, "And here we have six missing Death Eaters...three dead in my service. One, too cowardly to return...he will pay. One, who I believe has left me forever...he will be killed, of course...and one, who remains my most faithful servant, and who has already reentered my service."
Based on mentions and later happenings in the books, it can be deduced that the one "too cowardly to return" is Igor Karkaroff. The one "who I believe has left me forever" is Severus Snape, who returns two hours later to explain his absence and convince Voldemort that he is a spy for him. The "most faithful servant" is Barty Crouch Jr., who has already been in place at Hogwarts working for Voldemort. The three dead include Evan Rosier, Wilkes and Regulus Black.

The Minister for Magic (Cornelius Fudge) deluded himself into believing that Voldemort could not have come back and that it was all a lie cooked up by Dumbledore, who Fudge believed had designs on his political office. The Death Eaters use this tactical advantage throughout Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to maintain their secrecy. Because of the Ministry's refusal to remove the Dementors from Azkaban, which Dumbledore advised immediately following Voldemort's return, the Death Eaters recruited the Dementors to their cause and made similar progress with the giants; the Dementors' revolt against the Ministry of Magic also allowed the Death Eaters to bolster their ranks with the mass break-out of several imprisoned Death Eaters, including Bellatrix Lestrange.

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort sent a group of Death Eaters, led by Lucius Malfoy, into the Department of Mysteries, where he expected them to secure a prophecy of vital importance to him: having originally attacked Harry Potter based upon a partial recounting of it, he now wanted to hear the full version to better, or even fully, understand the connection between Harry and himself.  The raid on the Department failed, however; Harry Potter and his friends delayed the Death Eaters and kept the prophecy out of their hands, finally destroying it, and were eventually aided by Albus Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore captured all of the Death Eaters except for Bellatrix, sending Voldemort and her fleeing after a fierce duel with the former, and ending the Death Eaters' enjoyed secrecy.  Lucius, who had been important both to the Death Eaters and within the Ministry, was captured and imprisoned.  However, the Death Eaters regrouped, assassinating and kidnapping important wizards, killing Muggles, and in general spreading terror and chaos through the Wizarding world.  Soon after Lucius' capture, his son Draco Malfoy is given the task of killing Albus Dumbledore, although this task is eventually performed by Severus Snape.

Towards the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the Death Eaters attacked Hogwarts for the first time, leading to the death of Albus Dumbledore and injuries to several of the school's defenders.  A second, more deadly attack near the conclusion of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows resulted in over 50 deaths, including Voldemort, who died when the Killing Curse he threw at Harry rebounded on him.  Voldemort's death signalled the end of all Death Eaters.

Ideology 
Voldemort's Death Eaters practise illegal and dangerous spells known as dark magic. They follow a racist ideology that places pure-blooded wizards at the top of a racial hierarchy, above all other magical or non-magical people and entities. They believe wizards are, as a genealogy book within the story phrases it, "Nature's Nobility"; other magical creatures and the non-magical are inferior and should be subjugated. Within the wizarding community, only those who are born to wizard parents are worthy of magical power, despite the fact that parentage does not in fact determine who possess such powers. They categorise wizards according to blood purity; "pure bloods" (those with only wizards as parents) out-rank "half-bloods" (mixed parentage) and "mudbloods", a derogatory name for those born to non-magical parents (Muggles). Death Eaters have also attacked pure-bloods who oppose them. Examples of this are pure-blooded members of the Order of the Phoenix such as Sirius Black, the Prewett brothers, who were murdered because of their loyalties, and the entire Weasley family. Such people are often called "blood traitors" by those who subscribe to Death Eater ideologies.

In reality, the idea of blood purity is a misnomer – Voldemort himself is a half-blood – and it is unlikely that all of them could be pure-bloods, as very few, if any, such people could exist given the small gene pool. In Half-Blood Prince, Rowling depicts the Gaunts as a family who are obsessed with their ancestry and driven to inbreeding to preserve its integrity. Rowling has stated on her website that there are no true pure-blood families left but that those who call themselves such simply strike Muggles, Squibs, and half-bloods from their family records. On the other hand, "in rare circumstances" a Muggle-born wizard can become a Death Eater. They are also not above recruiting creatures they deem inferior, as proven by werewolf Fenrir Greyback and the giant clan from continental Europe, as long as they help further the larger Death Eater agenda.

The Death Eaters seek complete power and control over the entire Wizarding world, wishing to restrict leadership to a small band of pure-bloods. The Death Eaters not only seek the restoration of pure-blood rule over the Wizarding community, but also the eventual subjugation of the Muggle community under Wizarding rule.  During their control over the Ministry of Magic, they severely persecuted Muggle-born wizards, sending them to Azkaban for life or feeding them to Dementors.

Death Eaters and their crimes 

The following characters are Death Eaters identified by name during the series, and the crimes they committed.

Notable Death Eaters

Alecto and Amycus Carrow 
Alecto and Amycus Carrow are siblings who participate in the assault on Hogwarts at the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Amycus is described as being squat and lumpy, with a lopsided leer and a wheezy giggle; Alecto is described as a "stocky little woman" and shares her brother's squatness and laugh. It is said that after Voldemort's first downfall, they believed that he was gone forever.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Alecto and Amycus become "teachers" at Hogwarts, severely disciplining students who oppose Voldemort. Amycus teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts, but as Neville Longbottom puts it, it becomes just "The Dark Arts" in which students are forced to perform the Cruciatus Curse against students who have been assigned to detention. Alecto teaches Muggle Studies, which becomes a compulsory subject, and teaches students that Muggles are like animals. Right before the Battle of Hogwarts, Alecto waits in Ravenclaw Tower on Voldemort's orders, preparing to capture Harry, but is stunned by Luna Lovegood after touching her Dark Mark to summon Voldemort. Amycus, after seeing what happened, tries to conspire with Minerva McGonagall who helped him into the room to offer some Ravenclaw students as sacrifices to Voldemort while planning to use the lie that Ravenclaws had ambushed Alecto and forced her to press her Dark Mark. McGonagall refuses and argues with Amycus, who spits in her face. Enraged at this, Harry casts the Cruciatus Curse, with such power that Amycus passes out. Later, McGonagall places the Imperius Curse on him, then binds him with his sister and places him inside a net.

Ralph Ineson plays Amycus, and Suzie Toase appears as Alecto in the films, wherein they are reduced to non-speaking roles. In the second part of the final film, Snape deflects a spell from McGonagall which hits the Carrows, possibly to protect the students from their abuses and to show his allegiance to Dumbledore.

Barty Crouch Jr

Bartemius "Barty" Crouch, Junior was captured with Bellatrix Lestrange and Rodolphus Lestrange, who tortured Frank and Alice Longbottom, parents of Neville Longbottom, into insanity. His father, Barty Crouch Sr., who headed the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the time, sentenced him to life imprisonment in Azkaban. However, he later rescues his son as a favour to his dying wife. When they visit him in Azkaban, Mrs. Crouch used Polyjuice Potion to switch appearances with her son, enabling him to escape while she remains in his place. When she dies, she is buried under his identity. Crouch Jr. is nursed back to health by Winky, the family's house-elf.

To prevent him from returning to Voldemort's service, Crouch Sr. controls his son with the Imperius Curse and keeps him hidden under an invisibility cloak. When Bertha Jorkins discovers the truth, the news reaches Voldemort, who rescues Crouch Jr. and puts Crouch Sr. under the Imperius Curse. Crouch Jr. then imprisons Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, a famous auror, and using Polyjuice Potion, assumes Moody's appearance and position to infiltrate Hogwarts as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Despite not being a real teacher, Crouch Jr. does a fair job and the class learns vast amounts from him, including valuable knowledge related to the three "unforgivable curses". Crouch Sr. escapes and, exhausted and delirious from the Imperius Curse, reaches Hogwarts to tell Dumbledore about Voldemort's return; but his loyal Death-Eater son murders him on the castle grounds, transfigures the body into a bone, and buries the bone in freshly turned earth in front of Hagrid's cabin.

The revived Triwizard Tournament is held at Hogwarts, and Voldemort tasks Crouch Jr. with making sure Harry wins. To do so, he puts Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire, bewitches Viktor Krum to attack Cedric Diggory in the maze, and stuns Fleur Delacour. When Harry and Cedric simultaneously touch the Triwizard Cup, which is a portkey, it transports them to the graveyard in Little Hangleton, home of the Riddle family. There, after killing Cedric, Death Eater Peter Pettigrew uses Harry's blood in a ritual that re-embodies Voldemort. The Dark Lord attempts to kill Harry, but with the help of the ghost-echoes from Voldemort's wand, Harry escapes via the Portkey.

When Harry reappears at Hogwarts, the still-disguised Crouch Jr. hopes to succeed where his master failed; but Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall foil his plot. Under the effects of Veritaserum, he recounts his plan to them. Although he is closely guarded so he can later repeat his testimony, a Dementor acting as bodyguard to Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge attacks Crouch and sucks out his soul before anyone can stop it. Crouch lives bereft of his memories or sense of self.

He is played by David Tennant in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Antonin Dolohov 
Antonin Dolohov has a long, pale, and twisted face, with a name that suggests he is of Slavic descent. He is confirmed in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to be one of Voldemort's first Death Eaters, being present at the Hog's Head when Voldemort comes to Hogwarts to request a teaching position and hide the diadem Horcrux, c. 1956. This makes him at least sixty years old at the time of the battle in the Department of Mysteries. Dolohov is one of the five Death Eaters who murder Gideon and Fabian Prewett (Molly Weasley's brothers). He also tortures many Muggles and opponents of Voldemort during the first war. Dolohov is imprisoned in Azkaban but escapes during the mass break-out.

He participates in the battle of the Department of Mysteries, where he causes injury to Hermione, but is imprisoned again, and returns to Azkaban prison. He escapes once more some time before the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. He tracks Harry, Ron, and Hermione to a Muggle cafe after they use Voldemort's name (which had recently been made taboo). He and his companion Rowle are stunned, and have their memories erased by Hermione and then are punished by Voldemort. Dolohov participates in the Battle of Hogwarts, killing Remus Lupin, whom Aberforth Dumbledore last sees fighting with him. He is also seen dueling with Dean Thomas until Parvati Patil uses the Body-bind Curse on him. Dolohov and Yaxley are later sent to look for Harry, and they mistakenly thought the boy would not give himself up. When the battle recommences, Professor Flitwick finally defeats him.

He is portrayed by Arben Bajraktaraj in the film adaptations of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.

Fenrir Greyback 
Fenrir Greyback is a werewolf who is involved with the Death Eaters. He works alongside Lord Voldemort because Lord Voldemort promises fairness to werewolves around the country. He does not carry the Dark Mark as he is not a Death Eater. He is known as the most savage werewolf ever to live and is greatly feared throughout the wizarding world. He positions himself close to his victims when the moon is almost full. To fulfil his agenda of creating as many werewolves as possible, Greyback has infected scores of people including the young Remus Lupin, when Lupin's father had angered Greyback. Greyback is known for targeting young children. Unlike most werewolves, Greyback thirsts for blood even in his human form. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Greyback first appears on the night of Dumbledore's death, when he attacks Harry and badly scars Bill Weasley. Although Greyback does not transmit his lycanthropy because he was in human form at the time, Bill is subsequently shown to display a preference for very rare meat.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Greyback leads a Snatcher gang – Dark wizards looking for Muggle-borns and "Undesirables" in exchange for gold. When Harry accidentally uses Voldemort's name after it has been made taboo, Greyback is alerted and his gang attacks their camp. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are kidnapped by the Snatchers and are taken to Malfoy Manor. Bellatrix Lestrange promises Hermione to Greyback in return for his services, but the prisoners fight their way out and escape, Greyback being hit by a triple Stunning Spell. Greyback is the main werewolf within the pack that agrees to aid Voldemort in the Battle of Hogwarts. During the battle, Hermione, using a blasting curse, prevents Greyback from attacking injured Lavender Brown, and a crystal ball thrown by Professor Trelawney stuns him. He rejoins the battle in time for the Death Eaters' last stand, when Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom combine forces to take him down by magic.

Dave Legeno portrayed Greyback in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. He reprised the role in both parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Igor Karkaroff 
Igor Karkaroff (Cyrillic: Игорь Каркаров) is the Headmaster at Durmstrang Institute, one of the three schools (together with Hogwarts and Beauxbatons Academy) that enter the Triwizard Tournament. As Headmaster, Karkaroff is also one of the judges. He is described as a neat, fussy-looking man with an oily voice and manner who sports a small grey goatee. While unctuously pleasant most of the time, he is capable of violent rage. He is also described as "a man with yellowish teeth whose smile does not reach his cold stare". Karkaroff is angered and threatens to withdraw from the tournament when Harry is selected as a fourth champion and second representative for Hogwarts. Although he is talked down and agrees to stay, he nevertheless shows evident favouritism towards the Durmstrang champion, Bulgarian Quidditch player Viktor Krum.
Sirius Black later identifies Karkaroff as a former Death Eater. Karkaroff was captured by Auror Alastor Moody and imprisoned in Azkaban. Karkaroff later told the Ministry of Magic that he had seen the error of his ways, and "named names", putting many people in Azkaban in exchange for his freedom. Karkaroff is thus also hated by the Death Eaters. Karkaroff's history gives him a connection with Snape, also a former Death Eater. Karkaroff interrupts a Potions lesson demanding to talk to Snape, and shows him his Dark Mark reappearing. He also apparently has an unpleasant history with Alastor Moody, and tries to avoid him unsuccessfully for the entirety of the tournament, not knowing that it is Barty Crouch Jr. in disguise. At the end of the novel, following Voldemort's return, Karkaroff goes into hiding, leaving behind his student charges at Durmstrang. In the sixth novel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Remus Lupin states that Karkaroff was found dead in a shack with the Dark Mark hovering over it, an indication that he was killed by other Death Eaters. Lupin also expresses surprise that Karkaroff managed to live even a year after deserting Voldemort and that no one else has been known to avoid capture quite as long.

Predrag Bjelac appeared as Karkaroff in the film adaptation of Goblet of Fire.

Bellatrix Lestrange 

Bellatrix Lestrange (née Black) is the first female Death Eater introduced in the books. Aunt of Draco Malfoy and Nyphadora Tonks. She was introduced in Harry Potter and the Order Of The Phoenix. She is  the most faithful member of Voldemort's inner circle. She is described as being highly attractive yet emaciated due to her time in Azkaban. Bellatrix is portrayed as paranoid, insane, sadistic, and fanatically devoted to Voldemort, seeing service to him as the noblest duty for any true wizard or witch. Bellatrix takes an obvious pleasure in acts of torture and cruelty, as demonstrated when she kills her cousin, Sirius Black and niece Nymphadora Tonks, and tortures Hermione and Griphook at Malfoy manor. She is a witch of prodigious ability, as demonstrated by her many victories in duels against other characters, and as noted by Harry in the final book.

Draco Malfoy 
 Draco Malfoy is the pure blooded son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy. He was a notorious bully to Harry Potter and his friends because Hermione has Muggle parents, Draco was also assigned to kill Dumbledore, but his heart told him otherwise and Snape had to do it for him. Draco, like his family, is part of Slytherin house.

Lucius Malfoy
Lucius Malfoy is a Death Eater, head of a wealthy pure-blood wizarding family. He lives with his wife Narcissa Malfoy (née Black) and their son Draco at the Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire. Lucius was a school governor of Hogwarts before being sacked, and has very close connections at the Ministry of Magic. To maintain his reputation and influence, he makes donations to the Ministry, to charity, and to St Mungo's Hospital. He was educated at Hogwarts, where he was a prefect in Slytherin House.

He debuts as the main antagonist in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, in which just before Draco and Harry's second year at Hogwarts, Lucius plants Tom Riddle's diary in Ginny Weasley's potions cauldron while she is shopping for school supplies at Flourish & Blotts, in a plot to use her to reopen the Chamber of Secrets, which would lead to attacks on Muggle-born students.

Lucius knows the diary is cleverly enchanted, but is not aware that it is a horcrux containing a part of Voldemort's soul. He is careless with it and punished by Voldemort himself. Lucius intends to use the opening of the Chamber of Secrets by Ginny to discredit her father, Arthur Weasley, and Dumbledore. Lucius' plans are ultimately thwarted with the help of the Malfoys' house-elf Dobby, and Harry, but not before the Chamber is opened and Lucius uses the ensuing terror (and threats to attack their families) to influence the school's Board of Governors to discredit and dismiss Dumbledore as Headmaster.

Subsequently, Harry tricks Lucius into setting Dobby free. Upon this, Lucius attempts to attack Harry with his wand but Dobby disarms him before he can do any harm. Lucius is ultimately stripped of his title as a Hogwarts school governor. Despite his sacking, he still maintains strong ties with the Ministry of Magic.

Lucius next appears in the beginning of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire during the Quidditch World Cup, sharing prime seats in the Top Box with Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge. Later in that book, when Voldemort rises again and summons his Death Eaters, Malfoy rejoins him and asserts that he had done everything he could to help his master, who however remains unimpressed. Harry reports Malfoy's declarations to Minister Fudge, who refuses to believe him. Thus, the wealthy Malfoy continues to maintain strong ties with the Ministry.

During the climax of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Malfoy is the leader of the Death Eaters who are sent to retrieve the prophecy from Harry in the Hall of Prophecy. Lucius tries several ways to get the prophecy from Harry without breaking it, but the boy and his friends manage to escape from the Hall. Malfoy finally meets him in the Death Chamber, where Harry is about to give it to Malfoy when the Order of the Phoenix breaks into the Ministry and begins to duel with the Death Eaters. Dumbledore himself arrives at the end of the battle and Malfoy is captured and sent to Azkaban.

By the final book, Voldemort has given Malfoy his freedom, though he looks significantly the worse for wear, having lost Voldemort's favour. Voldemort treats him with great contempt by hijacking his house for Headquarters, and is forcing his son to do dark deeds against his nature, sparking sympathy for the notorious family for the first time in the series. Voldemort borrows Lucius' wand which is accidentally destroyed by Harry Potter. Later in the book, Lucius, along with his wife and sister-in-law, accidentally allow Harry and his friends to escape from Malfoy Manor. Voldemort punishes them severely, eventually putting them under house arrest.

Despite his long-standing position as a Death Eater and Voldemort's advocate of pure-blood supremacy, Lucius decides his love for his family is more important than his involvement in the war. During the Battle of Hogwarts, he pleads with Voldemort to let him onto the battlefield to locate his son. He and the rest of his family are reunited at the end of the book. Following Voldemort's death, Lucius, Narcissa, and Draco all manage to "weasel their way out" of being sent to Azkaban due to Narcissa's aiding Harry in the Forbidden Forest.

Lucius's ultimate fate after Deathly Hallows is unknown, but actor Jason Isaacs stated in an interview with Syfy Wire that he believes Lucius would not feel like a member of wizarding society again after Voldemort's fall, as society would shun him. Isaacs also states that Lucius would become a shell of his former self, lose the respect of his wife and son, protect himself with his money, and drink himself into an early death.

According to Forbes magazine, in 2006, Lucius Malfoy was number 12 on their Forbes Fictional 15 list.

In the film series, Lucius is portrayed by Jason Isaacs as an adult. Scenes with Tony Coburn as a teenage Lucius were cut from the final movie.

Peter Pettigrew 
Peter Pettigrew, (a.k.a Wormtail), is the only Death Eater known to have been in a House other than Slytherin (Gryffindor) while at Hogwarts. There, he was a close friend of Sirius Black, James Potter, and Remus Lupin, although he was the least intelligent and least talented of the group. With Sirius and James' help, Pettigrew becomes an Animagus, with the ability to transform at will into a rat. After leaving Hogwarts, Pettigrew joins forces with Voldemort, and in exchange for his own life becomes Voldemort's spy within the Order of the Phoenix, of which Pettigrew is a member. When the Potters know that their son, Harry, is Voldemort's target, Sirius suggests to them to use Pettigrew as Secret-Keeper because he does not believe Voldemort would ever suspect a "weak, talentless thing" like Pettigrew. Pettigrew betrays the secret to Voldemort, an act that leads to James and Lily's death (and, ironically, Voldemort's near-destruction). Sirius seeks revenge on Pettigrew, but during the confrontation, Pettigrew publicly accuses Sirius of the Potters' deaths, murders twelve Muggles, and cuts off his own index finger before transforming into a rat, thereby framing Sirius for the betrayal of the Potters, as well as for his own murder and that of the bystanders. Despite having done these above treacherous acts, Pettigrew genuinely felt remorse to a certain extent for his betrayal. Pettigrew is (seemingly posthumously) awarded the Order of Merlin, and hides during the next twelve years. Wanting to keep an eye on the wizarding world, he masquerades as a rat, first as Percy Weasley's pet, and then as Ron Weasley's. In this form (named "Scabbers" by the family), he is missing a toe from one paw due to the finger he cut off.

Although Pettigrew appears in the first two books in the form of Scabbers, his identity is not revealed until Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, in which he is the main antagonist. When a photograph of the Weasley family appears in the Daily Prophet newspaper, Sirius recognises Pettigrew's Animagus form and escapes from Azkaban to track him down. The two confront each other in the Shrieking Shack, where Lupin and Black compel Scabbers to resume his human form. Pettigrew confesses his treachery, claiming to have committed it only to save his own life. With Sirius and Lupin about to take their revenge, Harry begs Sirius to turn Pettigrew over to the Ministry of Magic instead, to prove Sirius' innocence. Pettigrew escapes while being led out of the Shack when Lupin transforms into a werewolf. Harry's actions result in Pettigrew owing him a life debt, and Pettigrew had in fact shown gratitude to Harry for sparing his life. This would be the reason behind Pettigrew (fruitlessly) trying to convince Voldemort to use the blood of another wizard when Voldemort wanted to use Harry's blood to restore his corporeal form in the next book.

Pettigrew returns to the service of Voldemort, seeking him out in the forests of Albania and helping him to return to a feeble baby's body. He abducts a Ministry of Magic employee named Bertha Jorkins, who is able to provide Voldemort with valuable information. Pettigrew (almost always referred to as "Wormtail" hereafter) assists Barty Crouch Jr. in overpowering Mad-Eye Moody, setting up the events in the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. In the climactic confrontation in that book, Pettigrew murders Cedric Diggory on Voldemort's orders, and brews the complex potion to regenerate Voldemort, severing his hand as one of the ingredients. Upon his return to corporeal form, Voldemort replaces Pettigrew's missing hand with a silver one that possesses five intact fingers and great strength. Despite his actions, Pettigrew's fortunes remain low; in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Snape treats him as a servant, and in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows he is tasked with keeping watch over prisoners in the cellar of Malfoy Manor. While Harry and Ron are being kept there, Pettigrew checks on the prisoners and is attacked. Pettigrew begins strangling Harry with the silver hand, but when reminded by Harry that he once saved his life, Pettigrew hesitates for a moment. The silver hand turns against him and strangles him to death as punishment for his moment of pity.

Pettigrew is portrayed by Timothy Spall as an adult, and by Charles Hughes as a teenager in the films. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, Pettigrew is not strangled to death by his own silver hand in Malfoy Manor as in the book; he is instead struck by Dobby and collapses. It is unknown whether he was simply stunned or killed. He only appears in a flashback in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.

Severus Snape 

Severus Snape is characterised as a person of considerable complexity, whose coldly sarcastic and controlled exterior conceals deep emotions and anguish. In the first novel of the series, Snape is a teacher who is hostile from the start toward Harry and is built up to be the primary antagonist until the final chapters. As the series progresses, Snape's portrayal evolves from that of a malicious and partisan teacher to that of a complex, pivotal character of moral ambiguity, whose true loyalties are not revealed until the end. Snape is, as revealed in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, actually a spy in Voldemort's ranks for Dumbledore.

Corban Yaxley 
Corban Yaxley is the brutal-faced Death Eater who is present in the battle in which Snape killed Dumbledore. He is one of the more prominent Death Eaters, and one of Voldemort's spies in the Ministry of Magic. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Yaxley is invited to Malfoy Manor to witness the murder of Charity Burbage, and argues with Snape about the correct date of Harry's departure from the Dursleys', but John Dawlish, an Auror who is tricked by an Order member, gives him incorrect information. Yaxley announces to an impressed assemblage of Death Eaters that he has placed the Imperius Curse upon Pius Thicknesse, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He uses Thicknesse to Imperius the other major department heads and they allow Voldemort to murder Rufus Scrimgeour; thus Thicknesse becomes Minister for Magic.

When Harry, Ron, and Hermione, disguised as ministry officials, enter the Ministry to find Slytherin's locket, it is revealed that Yaxley has become Head of Magical Law Enforcement. He also assists Dolores Umbridge in leading the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, and the two seem to have a good relationship, together humiliating the Muggle-borns. Both are immobilised by Harry, but Yaxley recovers and grabs Hermione while she is Apparating her friends to safety. Yaxley arrives with them at Grimmauld Place, allowing him to reveal their headquarters to the Death Eaters, but not to the location that the trio subsequently Apparate to.

He participates in the Battle of Hogwarts, where he duels with Professor Flitwick and is later seen among those who wait with Voldemort for Harry Potter to come to him, mistakenly believing that Harry would not come within the allotted time. When the battle resumes, he is defeated by George Weasley and Lee Jordan.

Peter Mullan plays Yaxley in the film adaptation of Deathly Hallows.

In popular culture 

Mexican heavy metal band Velvet Darkness released the song "Death Eaters" in 2015 as part of their debut EP Delusion. It was later rerecorded in 2018 as bonus track for their debut LP Nothing But Glory, and a music video for the song was released in 2019 with a live recording of it.

References

External links 

 The Harry Potter Lexicon item on Death Eaters
 How to pronounce Bellatrix's name at the official Scholastic website
 PotterCast #40: Bag of 'trix – A podcast debating Bellatrix's role in the series
 When Harry Met Osama. Terrorism comes to Hogwarts.

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