Why Lord Voldemort should not get all he blame for his actions . . . .

Sympathy For The Magical Man without it

    The Dark Lord. You-know-who. He-who-must-not-be-named. All belonging to one wizard who prided in calling himself "Lord" Voldemort. This man single handedly managed to scare the wits out of the majority of the wizarding world - so much so, that the very mention of "Voldemort" left listeners flinching and jumping a mile high. He is - was - the epitome of pure evil. 

    Tom Marvolo Riddle (31 December 1926 – 2 May 1998), later known as Lord Voldemort, was an English half-blood wizard considered to have been the most powerful and dangerous Dark Sorcerer of all time. He was amongst the greatest ones to have ever lived, often considered to be the second most powerful wizard in history, his only superior being Albus Dumbledore.

    Believing in the sacred and lucky numeral 7, Lord Voldemort was always obsessed with splitting his soul into those many parts. In magical terms, making horcruxes. However, he had the knowledge of the illegality of his prospects and plans, but made no effort in trying to stop the disturbing flow thoughts that involved murder - technically, classified by wizarding racism. In his process to make himself immortal, he brutally murdered innocents and tortured many.

    But despite his unforgiving and merciless actions, can he be blamed for all the havoc he caused? Here are a few reasons why I think Thomas Marvolo Riddle Jr. shouldn’t get all the blame for his actions - 

1. He was born into - and away from - a family of Slytherins :-

    Slytherins are known for being ambitious, shrewd, cunning, strong leaders with vision, and achievement oriented. They also have highly developed senses of self-preservation. This means that Slytherins tend to think before leaping, weighing all the different possibilities of the action that is to be committed, before deciding upon what exactly is to be done.

    It is no mistake that all evil comes from this house, as strong, determined leaders like Voldemort and Gellert Grindelwald had had personalities that included the traits in their strongest forms - which, unfortunately, turned out to be too much for a good purpose.
    The Gaunts were a well-known Slytherin family in the early 1900’s, who were direct descendents of Salazar Slytherin himself. Being pure-bloods and strong believers in the “purity of witches and wizards”, they detested half-bloods and loathed muggle-borns - who they frequently called Mudbloods. However, generations of inbreeding left the Gaunts violent, mentally unstable, and poverty-stricken.

    Voldemort’s mother, Merope Gaunt, was an unfortunate soul. Being a woman - sexism was quite common back then, even in the wizarding world - she was thought to be less and stupid, which repeatedly earned her beatings from her father, Marvolo, and brother - Morfin. 

    One day, she found herself admiring a handsome, muggle boy - Tom Riddle - who passed by her house on a regular basis. She managed to sneak in a love potion into his food when he wasn’t looking - and wasn’t aware of her existence. Some theorize that she also used the imperius curse on him. Of course, he fell in “love” with her.

    Sometime later, her brother and father were arrested for their inappropriate use of magic against muggles, and were sent to Azkaban. Merope eloped with Riddle Sr.

    But little did he know, that his love was being caused by magic. After Merope come to know that she was pregnant, she thought about the “gentleness” of Tom’s nature and desperately wanted to know if he would still stay with her if she stopped making him consume the love potion. It was a regretful decision on her part. He left his ugly wife in disgust without caring about the baby.  

    Such afflicted trauma, such horrible actions pertaining to male dominance in society, and such strong prejudice going around for centuries in the Gaunt family, made sure of the fact that descendants would be a Slytherin. Which provided the chance for Voldemort to be one.

2. He was conceived because of a love potion

    The source of his corporality - his parents - had had no real love or compassion between them. Or at least not from the other side. Even though Merope was hopelessly in love with her husband; Tom Riddle Sr. only reciprocated his “feelings” through a forced medium of magic. This lead to his progeny - in his wife at the time - to experience the same. Except, there was no forced medium. Lord Voldemort had naturally neglected all types of care thereafter - and despite having a good amount of knowledge about human nature, compassion always perplexed and angered him.

      2.5.   He inherited the overthinking, stubbornness, differentiating things from his mother’s side. This came together to form a very unsurprising sense of racism against muggle-borns (mudbloods), and moderate tolerance for half-bloods.

3. He was practically abandoned at birth

    It is not well hinted in the Harry Potter series, whether or not Voldemort was pained by the fact that his “filthy, muggle” father abandoned his birth mother. However, this idea seems unrealistic, given that Voldemort was completely devoid of empathy and compassion. Nevertheless, one thing is clear, and that is the fact the Voldemort hardened emotionally in his childhood. 

    Right after Merope stumbled into Wool's orphanage in pain due to the need to deliver the baby, she gave birth to her boy. An hour later, she asked the nurses to name him Thomas Marvolo Riddle, after his father and maternal grandfather. And within the next hour, she died. 

    As a child - a very smart one, Thomas detested other children, and everyone else - including then nurses - reciprocated the feeling, though in a subtle and discreet manner.

    Knowing that he wasn't particularly liked, Tom Riddle Jr. resorted to bullying and stealing to defend and feel less inconsequential about himself.

    These particular and happenings led to Voldemort feeling better and in control of his surroundings. He was fond of the fact that he knew things others didn’t.

4. He was denied the position of teaching Defence against the Dark Arts.

    It is often found surprising that Tom worked at Bogin and Burkes - an enigmatic and suspicious antique store - right after passing out of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, given that he was possibly the smartest in his year and passed with flying colors. And everyone in the wizarding world found it even more surprising when they later came to know of the fact that he wanted to teach Defence against the Dark Arts!

    Tom visited Albus Dumbldore’s (the headmaster) office the day he went to inquire about joining the staff. By then, he was already going by the name, Voldemort - which in Latin means “flight of death” and in French means “steal death”.

    "You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father’s name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother’s side? I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Harry. I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"

—Tom Riddle's transformation into Lord Voldemort

    Unsurprisingly, the only reason Voldemort wanted to teach the subject, was because he willed to exert his influence on the students of Hogwarts so as to get them to be inclined towards the Dark Arts, as he believed that, “There is no good and evil, there is only power... and those too weak to seek it.”

    However, trusting his instincts, Dumbledore very politely yet firmly declined Voldemort’s request as internally he felt that Tom Riddle wouldn’t do his job the way it was supposed to be done.

    Feeling rejected and irate, Voldemort hexed the job and said that no teacher in the position of Defence against the Dark Arts would last for more than a year.

    This being his last resort at trying to gain Dumbledore’s trust, Lord Voldemort disappeared for the next few years collecting witches and wizards to support him.

    In conclusion, even though Lord Voldemort was the most evil wizard to ever exist, the start of it all was something even he couldn’t control. Nevertheless, he will always be one of our favourite and most complicated villains that will ever be.

    As for this toad-like meanine…..

                                                                                   

         ...she deserves every bit of Azkaban.