Tom Riddle's wand was 13 1/2" in length. The wand was made from yew with a phoenix feather core. It was manufactured by Ollivander and was the "brother" or "twin" of the wand of Harry Potter, as their wands share cores. It was with this wand that Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort, murdered James and Lily Potter and many others, including Muggle Frank Bryce and Ministry of Magic ex-employee Bertha Jorkins. Peter Pettigrew used this wand to kill Cedric Diggory in 1995 as well.
History
The wand chooses the wizard
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Tom Riddle, around the time he bought his wand.
In 1938, the eleven-year-old Tom Marvolo Riddle travelled to Diagon Alley. Riddle entered Ollivander's shop and, as was the case with most young witches and wizards, tried several different wands to find one to his liking. Ollivander finally handed Riddle a wand thirteen and one half inches long, made of yew and with a core composed of a Phoenix feather.
Weapon of the Dark Lord
Voldemort pointing his wand
Over the course of his years at Hogwarts, Riddle's personality became darker and darker in secret, while to the outside world he appeared to be a model pupil. Inside, however, he was cruel, greedy and murderous, with a disregard for anyone but himself and seeing all others as either obstacles to be overcome or tools to be manipulated. The ends to which Riddle put his wand were less than noble and at times violent in his school years. Although Riddle rose to stardom in the eyes of much of the Hogwarts staff, he was never fully trusted by Albus Dumbledore due to their first encounter at Riddle's orphanage, where he accidentally let his true persona show in Dumbledore's presence.
The grave of Riddle's dead father, Tom Sr..
In the summer of 1943, Riddle used his wand to enact a plot of revenge against his father, Tom Riddle Sr., who had abandoned Riddle's mother, Merope Gaunt, along with himself many years before and fled back to the village of Little Hangleton to live in his family's home, the Riddle House. Riddle came to the village and met his uncle, Morfin Gaunt, who told him the full story of Tom Riddle Sr. and his sister Merope Gaunt. This story enraged Riddle, who then used his wand to stun his uncle and take his wand from him in turn. Riddle then proceeded to the Riddle House and murdered his father and his muggle grandparents, Thomas and Mary Riddle, with the Killing Curse using Morfin's wand. Riddle then returned to the Gaunt Shack and replaced Morfin's wand on his person and used his own wand to modify Morfin's memory to make him confess to killing the Riddles so there would be no further investigation into the murders by the Ministry of Magic. Riddle then stole Marvolo Gaunt's Ring from Morfin's hand and fled Little Hangleton, having committed the first of what would become many murders throughout the remainder of his life.
Shortly after this, Riddle created the name of Lord Voldemort from an anagram of the letters of his true name to spare himself the memory of his "filthy muggle father." Obsessed with immortality, he began studying Horcruxes from books in the restricted section of the Hogwarts Library and used his wand to create one using his childhood diary through the use of his earlier indirect murder of fellow student Myrtle by means of the Basilisk of the Chamber of Secrets. He later questioned Potions Master Horace Slughorn about what would become of the wizard who made more than one Horcrux, inadvertently revealing his desire to make his soul a seven-part soul. Riddle continued to perfect his use of the Ollivander wand throughout his school career, eventually graduating from Hogwarts in 1945.
Following his graduation from Hogwarts, the newly-minted Lord Voldemort began to more openly put his wand to evil ends, using it to perform powerful dark sorcery and to murder others for the creation of new Horcruxes to insure his shield against death. After disappearing for a solid decade, Voldemort returned to request the Defence Against the Dark Arts post at Hogwarts from the new Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, who turned him down upon realizing his true intentions in seeking the job. Riddle used his wand at that time to place a curse on the job, causing its occupant to suffer some misfortune that would drive them from the job in a year or less.
After his failure to ascertain the Hogwarts post he sought, he declared open war on the wizarding world, intending to rule the world forever to make his ultimate dream a reality. He frequently employed the three Unforgivable Curses through the use of his wand, not hesitating in using the Killing Curse on those who opposed or annoyed him. Over the course of the First Wizarding War, the wand had become a weapon of murderous intent and a tool of dark magic at the hands of its master, who sank deeper and deeper into the Dark Arts until there was very little left of the boy who had originally purchased it that fateful day in Diagon Alley so many decades before.
Loss in Godric's Hollow
Voldemort murders Lily Potter.
In 1980, at the height of his power during his reign of terror, Lord Voldemort learned from one of his Death Eaters, Severus Snape, that a prophecy had just been made concerning the coming birth of a child who would bring about his destruction from newly-appointed Professor of Divination, Sybill Trelawney. Voldemort panicked at this and sprang into action, despite the fact that Snape had not heard the entire prophecy. He targeted Harry Potter some months later, and the Potter Family was forced to go into hiding in the village of Godric's Hollow. Though their location was concealed by means of the Fidelius Charm, they were betrayed by their Secret-Keeper, Peter Pettigrew, who sold their secret to Lord Voldemort to win the Dark Lord's favour. So on Halloween night in 1981, Voldemort proceeded to Godric's Hollow shortly after Pettigrew's revelation and made his way to the home of the Potters. Once there, he quickly dispatched James Potter using his wand and proceeded upstairs to finish off his newborn nemesis. Lily Potter refused to step aside despite Voldemort's offer to let her live, and he again used his wand to kill her as well.
This triggered a powerful means of protection for Harry that Voldemort could not easily penetrate henceforth. He then turned his wand on the infant Harry Potter, who was in his crib a few feet away. Voldemort attempted to use his wand to fatally curse Harry, but the Killing Curse backfired, rebounding upon Voldemort and ripping him from his body. At that moment, part of Voldemort's unstable soul fragmented and attached itself to the infant Harry Potter (accidentally making Harry Potter his unintentional seventh Horcrux) while the remaining part of Voldemort's maimed soul fled the scene. Upon his curse rebounding upon himself, Voldemort's wand was blasted from his body and landed not far away from his body in the ruin of the Potter home. After Rubeus Hagrid rescued the infant Harry from the wreckage of the house later that evening, Peter Pettigrew returned to the house and discovered the Dark Lord's wand in the wreckage[1], taking it with him as he fled the scene in order to prevent the wand from falling into the Ministry's hands and possibly exposing him as a traitor since all wands have a record of the spells they have cast and can be examined by those trained to do so. He would keep this wand in an undisclosed location for twelve long years afterwards, until the time when he could locate its true owner once again.
The wand and the wizard reunited
Peter Pettigrew holding Voldemort's wand.
In June of 1994 many years later, Peter Pettigrew was forced out of hiding in his Animagus form of a rat by his former friends, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. The pair were of a mind to kill Pettigrew for his betrayal of the Potters as well as his subsequent framing of Black for all crimes that Pettigrew himself had committed, resulting in Black's incarceration in the wizarding prison Azkaban for twelve years. However, Harry Potter intervened on Pettigrew's behalf and persuaded Black and Lupin to turn him over to the Dementors of Azkaban rather than kill him, so they could clear Black's name. This created a life debt between Pettigrew and Harry, which would be a great help one day years later. However, when Lupin unexpectedly assumed his werewolf form, Pettigrew was able to escape in the confusion and transformed into a rat, escaping to find Lord Voldemort and help him return to power. Pettigrew recovered Lord Voldemort's wand and went in search of its master, finding the Dark Lord in Albania. There, he helped the Dark Lord create a rudimentary body so he could travel and perform magic. It was then that Voldemort was reunited with his wand after his fall in Godric's Hollow. Shortly after this, Pettigrew met and overpowered Ministry of Magic employee Bertha Jorkins and brought her to Lord Voldemort, who extracted information about the upcoming Triwizard Tournament from her before using his wand to murder her. He then used his wand to turn his serpent familiar, Nagini, into another Horcrux using Jorkins' murder as the tool.
While he was finally able to use a wand again, he could not perform the extraordinary magic he had done with a proper body. On the night of the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament, Harry Potter entered the Triwizard Maze in search of the Triwizard Cup, the tournament having been grossly manipulated by Lord Voldemort through his servant Barty Crouch, Jr. to have Harry get to the cup first and be teleported to the Little Hangleton Graveyard. However, due to his sense of fair play and in the spirit of sportsmanship, Harry insisted that fellow Hogwarts student Cedric Diggory take the cup with him to tie for first place. When they touched the cup together, they were teleported to the Little Hangleton Graveyard, as had been planned by Voldemort and his minions. Almost immediately upon their arrival, Voldemort ordered Pettigrew to use his wand to kill Cedric Diggory, an order which Pettigrew obeyed without question. Pettigrew then tied Harry Potter to the tombstone of Tom Riddle Sr. and performed the gruesome ritual of recreating Lord Voldemort's body by means of adding three ingredients to the potion designed by Voldemort himself: bone of the father, flesh of the servant, and blood of the enemy. Lord Voldemort then emerged from the flaming cauldron set up near the Riddle Grave, fully restored to power. The wand was then returned to the hand of its master by Peter Pettigrew on Lord Voldemort's command.
Last act
Wormtail returning the wand to Voldemort
For the majority of the Second Wizarding War, the wand has served its master in many crimes and dark arts, including duels with Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore. However, prior to the chase of the seven Potters, Voldemort was given advice by a kidnapped Ollivander of the Priori Incantatem effect between his own wand and Harry Potter's wand. Voldemort then took Lucius Malfoy's wand to prevent that from happening, but Harry's wand inadvertently destroyed Lucius's wand.
Under further torturing Ollivander, Voldemort discovered a wand of unparalleled power; the Elder Wand, of which Voldemort desired to overcome the Priori Incantatem. However, as he heard of the wand's legendary powers, Voldemort no longer desired to possess it just to defeat Harry, but to own it permanently to immortalize his status as the most powerful wizard in the world.
After extensive search and torture upon Gregorovitch and Gellert Grindelwald, former owners of the Elder Wand, Voldemort discovered it had fallen into the possession of Albus Dumbledore. Voldemort therefore set off to Hogwarts, where Dumbledore was placed to rest, and used his own wand to perform its last act: to break into Dumbledore's tomb, in order to steal the Elder Wand. After acquiring the strongest wand in history, Voldemort no longer needed his old yew wand, which had been with him for almost sixty years. What he did with it is unknown, but he may have threw it away or set it aside in storage.
Behind the scenes
- The film adaptation of Voldemort's wand shows it with a bone handle. No such handle is mentioned in the books.
- It is, of course, entirely possible Voldemort added this particular embellishment later in the wand's life. Dumbledore clearly states the Tom Riddle went through many dangerous magical transformations to become Lord Voldemort, and it follows that his wand would have been affected in some way by this. Also, Mr. Ollivander does not seem the type to add bone handles to his wands; he revels in knowing the details of his wands, but only ever mentions the type of wood used, its length and the style of core.
- Furthermore, Tom Riddle's wand is briefly glimpsed in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets where it is made from some dark wood, rather than yew, and does not appear to be bone-like or bone-handled.
- In the film adaptation Voldemort's wand is curved whereas Noble Collection makes the wand to be straight.
Appearances
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film) (First appearance) (Appears in flashback(s))
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film) (Appears in flashback(s))
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (video game)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (video game)