As such, spoilers will be present within the article. When the enchantment was lifted, Tom's father abandoned his pregnant wife and returned to Little Hangleton. His mother gave birth to him, before dying an hour later.
Her only wishes were that he'd look like his father , and that he was named Tom after his father, his middle name Marvolo after her father, and that Riddle would be his last name. Tom began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in and was immediately sorted into Slytherin house. During this time, Tom discovered his heritage and adopted pure-blood supremacist ideals. Tom opened the Chamber of Secrets and used its monster , the Basilisk , to attack Muggle-born students, resulting in the death of Myrtle Warren.
He began his quest to attain immortality between the years of and , creating his first Horcrux at the age of sixteen. While attending Hogwarts, Tom Riddle was made a prefect in until his graduation in Tom spent several months as a purchasing agent for the Dark artefacts shop Borgin and Burkes before disappearing. Splitting his own spirit into a total of eight fragments, Tom created an unprecedented seven Horcruxes, with one made later in his life, unintentionally and without his knowledge β Harry Potter.
Tom re-emerged several decades later having abandoned his 'Muggle' name and becoming the self-proclaimed Lord Voldemort, an anagram of his birth name. In the First and Second Wizarding Wars, he commanded a veritable army of wizards and Dark creatures ; committed countless murders and atrocities; and eventually succeeded in taking over the British Ministry of Magic. Voldemort was ripped from his body in after attempting to kill Harry Potter.
Although unable to die , he was unable to regain a permanent and physical body until , thus spending the intervening fourteen years as ' a shell, less than the meanest ghost '. He was finally killed by his own backfired Killing Curse after Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore succeeded in destroying all of his Horcruxes.
