Tom Marvolo Riddle
Appears 45 times in the books
- Born:
- 31 December 1926
The orphan who became Lord Voldemort. This entry is the schoolboy and the diary: brilliant, already murderous, sorted into Slytherin in 1938. The diary Horcrux opens the Chamber again in 1993 and is destroyed by Harry.
Same person, later entry: Lord Voldemort
Appears in
On the timeline
- 1926-12-31
Tom Marvolo Riddle is born
Merope Gaunt gives birth in a Muggle orphanage on New Year’s Eve and dies shortly after. The child is named for his father and his grandfather. - 1938
Dumbledore fetches Tom, who is sorted into Slytherin
Dumbledore visits the orphanage and brings Tom to Hogwarts. The Hat places him in Slytherin. He already frightens the other children. - 1943-06-13
The Chamber opens; Myrtle dies; the diary becomes a Horcrux
In his fifth year Tom opens the Chamber. The basilisk kills Myrtle Warren. He frames Hagrid, and after the murder he makes his first Horcrux, the diary. - 1942–1943
“I am Lord Voldemort”
Tom rearranges the letters of Tom Marvolo Riddle. The diary shows he was already using the name at school. The day he coined it is not given. - Summer 1943
The Riddle murders and the ring Horcrux
In the summer between his fifth and sixth years Tom finds the Gaunts, kills his father and grandparents, frames Morfin, and takes the ring. He makes it a second Horcrux. - 1945
Riddle leaves school and Dippet refuses him
Tom graduates, leaves the diary at the school, and asks Armando Dippet for the Defence post. Dippet says he is too young. Dippet, not Dumbledore, is headmaster. - Late 1940s
Hepzibah Smith is murdered
While working at Borgin and Burkes, Tom flatters Hepzibah Smith, kills her, and takes Slytherin’s locket and Hufflepuff’s cup. Both become Horcruxes. Her house-elf is blamed. - Mid to late 1940s
Borgin and Burkes, and the search for the diadem
Tom works in the Knockturn Alley shop, hunts founder relics, and will turn Ravenclaw’s diadem into a Horcrux after a murder abroad. He does not become headmaster of anything. - Mid to late 1950s
Dumbledore refuses the Defence post
Tom returns, already changed, and asks again to teach Defence. Dumbledore refuses. On that visit the diadem Horcrux is hidden in the Room of Requirement. - 1992–1993
Second year: the Chamber of Secrets
Ginny, Colin, and Luna’s year arrives. Lockhart teaches nothing useful. The diary possesses Ginny. Harry destroys it with a basilisk fang.