How Is Voldemort A Hero

“ ‘See, there was this wizard who went…bad. As bad as you could go...His name was…’ Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.” (Rowling 54.) Imagine a villain so terrifying that people are afraid to speak his name. Imagine a villain who kills ruthlessly without batting an eye. Imagine a villain who cares as little about his allies as his enemies. This villain is Voldemort, referred to as You-Know-Who, from J.K. Rowling’s bestselling fantasy series Harry Potter. The series is about a young hero, Harry, who is suddenly thrown into a world of magic only to discover that he’s famous for thwarting Voldemort as an infant. At first, Harry is enchanted with his magical school, Hogwarts, but as Voldemort rises to power for a second time, the wizarding

Starting when Voldemort was still a student going by the name Tom Riddle, he was shown to be sadistic and cruel. As an eleven-year-old boy, Tom Riddle casually mentions using his magical powers to hurt other children. (Rowling 271.) Later, at Hogwarts, Tom was responsible for the death of a young girl, who later became the ghost Moaning Myrtle. In The Half-Blood Prince, it is revealed that a teenaged Voldemort murdered three innocent Muggles, including his own grandparents. (Rowling 367.) During his rise to power, Voldemort immersed himself in the Dark Arts and his unrelenting pursuit of immortality. He killed Harry’s parents, murdered unsuspecting Muggles, and turned Hogwarts into a nightmarish den of dark magic. Before his death in 1997, Voldemort was directly or indirectly responsible for thousands, if not tens of thousands, of deaths of both magical and non-magical

Even a decade after his apparent demise, people still refused to utter his name. They danced around saying the name “Voldemort” by using euphemisms like “You-Know-Who” and “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.” Even Voldemort’s followers called him “The Dark Lord.” The Death Eaters, Voldemort’s loyal and blood-hungry minions, were perhaps equally as terrifying to the general wizarding populace. The Death Eaters murdered with little abandon and tortured people to the point of insanity. And yet, the Death Eaters were just as scared of their leader as everyone else. Voldemort was proven to care little of his followers, killing Death Eaters easily, often for little reason. Lucius Malfoy, a high-ranking Death Eater, trembled and stammered in the mere presence of Voldemort. (Rowling