07/25/06 -- Kitteh says Voldy Sucks ^^;;

In the latest installment of the Harry Potter series, it is revealed to the audience that Lord Voldemort is just as human as everyone else. He has fears, weaknesses, and makes critical mistakes in judgement of others. He often scares others with his own fears (just like Batman ^^), such as death and his use of Inferi in the cave at the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Long before the HBP (Half-Blood Prince), Voldemort let the world know his passion for eternal life. In fact it started when he was in Hogwarts at the age of 16, but for now, let's go in order by the books. I'll start with Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone (book number 1). In it, he wanted to obtain the Sorceror's Stone so that he could make a potion called the Elixir of Life (which grants the drinker immortality so long as he drinks it everyday). This was out first hint about Voldemort. Also, in the SS (Sorceror's Stone), we find that Voldemort doesn't like having to lean on a crutch, he'd rather stand on his own. We know this not only because he ditched the plan for the Sorceror's Stone because it would have been a crutch, but because of how he obviously hated being forced to hide under Quirrel's turban. Voldemort didn't know it, but he left us all with one of his secrets -- fear of death and extreme dislike of having to be cared for.

In the Chamber of Secrets (book number 2), through his diary, Voldemort leaves us another clue about how he really is -- manipulative and clever. Using his given name, Tom Marvolo Riddle, to fool anyone who happened to get their hands on his diary, the very essence of the 16 year old Voldemort gives 11 year old Ginny and 12 year old Harry a false sense of trust to get what he wants out of both children. In this case, two people of their own mind suddenly became his puppets. This is something I'll come back to later on. Though he's clever, he reveals alot of his own history that had never been uttered before and was extremely confident and proud. So much that he was defeated by a 12 year old boy, a bird, a hat, and a tooth from his OWN monster.

Voldemort doesn't appear in book 3 himself, but he does return in book four, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. In this book, the most we find out is that he's become ruthless enough (as if he wasn't before) to murder his only living relatives (though, in his defense, they never would have claimed him anyway) and we find out his reason for hating muggles like he does. The family that disowned him and his mother (who died after giving birth to him) was a family of muggles. We also find another instance in which the Dark wizards like to use puppets. By inflicting the Imperius Curse, any Dark wizard could become a puppeteer of any person they saw fit and the person wouldn't be able to do anything about it (unless they were trained to RESIST the Imperius Curse).
On another note, he chose to duel young Harry, feeling as if he had the upper hand already and he couldn't be stopped or avoided and yet again Harry managed to escape with his life and full knowledge of Voldemort's return.

In book number 5, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort steps out of the darkness at the Ministry of Magic (which must have looked REALLY bad for the Ministry in the morning...). It may have been because he felt as if the job wouldn't get done because his minions were being terribly stupid. Maybe, he just felt like going out for a bit of fresh air and death. Either way, it was another bold move. One that got him recognized and let everyone know that he was back. Yet again, he neither acheived his goal of hearing the entire prophecy nor killing Harry. All in all, in this book, the score was Voldy: 0, Good Guys: 3 in this book. (Unless he wanted to be found, but since when do people who aren't ready to come back to power yet so willing to be found out and fought against rather than win by stealth and his clever mind)

Here, in the HBP, J.K. Rowling spells out Voldemort's fears (death), weaknesses (like how he enjoys collecting trophies), and his manipulative nature (such as how he proded Slughorn into telling him about Horcruxes) for the first time. Here, we see his use of puppets come out as well. As mentioned before, in the end, his small army of Inferi came after Harry. Inferi are nothing more than animated corpses that even Snape refers to as "puppets". This reveals that Voldy has a Batman thing goin' and intends to make you fear what he himself fears -- death and darkness.

"There is nothing to be feared from a body, Harry, any more than there is to be feared from the darkness. Lord Voldemort, who secretly fears both, disagrees. But once again, he reveals his own lack of wisdom. It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more." --Albus Dumbledore (pg 566 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)

When Dumbledore says "both" he doesn't say the first of the two directly. He means that Voldemort fears death and darkness, which is why he chose to use DEAD bodies to give everybody a spook or two. I know this is a lazy closing, but I'm tired and that's all I have...I'll point out somethin' else when I find it.

spoilers for book 7 after the war

>.>
That's all the love I get? Dang ._.