The Final Battle

You have clicked on Voldemort's Wand which represents the final battle at Hogwarts, as well as Voldemort's specific magical abilities. It would be wise to read this section before the Nagini section which discusses Voldemort's fear of death and the conclusion of this website.

Towards the end of Book VII, Voldemort becomes fully aware of his Horcruxes being destroyed by Potter and his friends. Voldemort listed all the locations of the Horcruxes in his mind, unaware that Harry was connected at the time, and unwittingly revealed that his last horcrux, the Diadem, was at Hogwarts. Following these revelations, Voldemort returned to Hogwarts. By the time he got there, the students and faculty had already ousted the Death Eaters teaching there and had begun preparing a defense against him. He rounded up his entire army of Death Eaters, giants, dementors and Acromantula, and commanded that someone must hand over Harry Potter. An hour later, no one had done what he had ordered, so Voldemort commanded his army to fight the Aurors, professors, and students who were still inside.

Voldemort was not present at the battle; he was investigating why the Elder Wand, which he took from Albus, did not work any differently from his old wand. He came to the conclusion that it needed to accept him as a master first, and ordered Nagini to murder Severus Snape, believing this would solve his problems. The Elder Wand, known throughout history as the "Deathstick" and the "Wand of Destiny", is an extremely powerful wand made of elder wood with a core of Thestral tail hair. Supposedly, it is the most powerful wand in existence, and when used by its true master, he or she cannot be defeated in a duel.

Voldemort then called a one-hour armistice, requesting Harry Potter in exchange for peace and no further deaths. Unbeknown to Voldemort, Harry carried within him a seventh Horcrux, himself, which was formed when Voldemort failed to kill him as a baby. Being selfless as always, Harry decides to sneak out to the woods where Voldemort and his followers wait. Believing that it will be his end, he accepts death and gives in, allowing Voldemort to cast his flash of green light almost immediately. Due to Harry being a Horcrux, he does not simply die, but is sent to a sort of Limbo; Voldemort experiences the same phenomena simultaneously. During this time, their bodies remain at the scene, but their souls, if you will are transported to a new atmosphere that resembles Kings Cross Station in London. Here, Harry meets up with Dumbledore and discusses everything with him. All the while, what is left of Voldemort’s soul, a trembling grotesque thing, cowers in fear in a nearby corner.

“He was more afraid than you were that night, Harry. You had accepted, even embraced, the possibility of death, something Lord Voldemort has never been able to do.”
- Albus Dumbledore

Harry makes the crucial choice to return back and face Voldemort for one last time. In doing so, he devises a clever plan. When they awake, both are laying far apart on the ground, so Harry pretends to be dead. Thinking his is victorious after all these years, Voldemort marches into the school with the last of his followers boasting that Harry Potter died by his hands. He continued to boast, even lying, saying how Harry tried to run away to save himself while everyone lay down their lives for him. However, Harry friends knew this was an evil, malicious fallacy because Harry was quite possibly one of the most selfless boys to ever live. After some fighting and with Voldemort distracted, Neville took the Sword of Gryffindor, and quickly cut off the head of Nagini. This was a huge moment because it was Voldemort’s final Horcrux; he had completely become mortal again once his precious snake died.

“Dumbledore’s favorite solution, love, which he claimed conquered death, though love did not stop him falling from the tower and breaking like an old waxwork? Love, which did not prevent me stamping out your Mudblood mother like a cockroach, Potter – and nobody seems to love you enough to run forward this time and take my curse. So what will stop you dying now when I strike?”
- Voldemort (DH, pg. 739)

Moments later, Bellatrix Lestrange, his most devoted Death Eater, is killed by Molly Weasley (“NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!”). Voldemort turned his wand on her in rage, but Harry revealed himself to be alive by casting a Shield Charm to protect her, and the two faced each other in the Great Hall. I believe at this point, part of Voldemort began to panic as all his lifelines were swiftly taken away before his eyes. However, part of him still remained hopeful because he held the Elder Wand in his hands. Harry also gained so much courage at this moment; he was able to refer to Voldemort as “Tom Riddle” right to his face; this mesmerized him and kept him at bay. Harry also had one more trick up his sleeve by knowing one final secret: Harry was the true master of the Elder Wand. He gave Voldemort one last chance, one last chance to try for some remorse; Riddle refused. He was actually shocked by such a demand – no one had ever told him to feel remorse, not even his own subconscious. For as long as Voldemort felt no empathy, he would never be able to die as a man. He casts another Killing Curse at Harry, but the spell rebounds off Harry's disarming spell, killing Voldemort, and leaving Harry victorious.

Magical Abilities

When Voldemort lived, he claimed he had experimented and pushed the boundaries of magic farther than they had ever been pushed. Albus Dumbledore states that Voldemort's knowledge of magic is more extensive than any wizard alive, and that even Dumbledore's most powerful protective spells and charms would not likely be sufficient if Voldemort returned to full power. As stated in previous sections, Young Tom Marvolo Riddle utilized magic without the use of a wand or even knowing the very existence of magic itself. He had a power to communicate with and control animals and inflict harm on those who oppose or annoy him.

Voldemort's Wand alone was very unique. In J.K. Rowling's books, one thing for sure is that the Wand very much is the personality of the witch or wizard; the type of wood and the core both represent a part of them. The wand that chose Tom Riddle was 13 1/2 inches, made of yew, with a phoenix feather core. This wand is the brother of the one belonging to Harry Potter because they both contain tail feathers from the same phoenix, Fawkes. The Yew Tree is full of rich history; it was the Tree of Life, the tree in the Garden of Eden, and in ancient times, both the Druids with their belief in reincarnation, and later Christians with their teaching of the resurrection, regarded it as a natural emblem of everlasting life. In Celtic mythology, the yew is one of the five sacred trees brought from the Otherworld at the division of the land into five parts; Staves of yew were kept in pagan graveyards in Ireland where they were used for measuring corpses and graves. Naturally, a wood representing Immortality is a very wise choice for a man one seeks nothing but immortality! It is also associated with strength, resilience and magical power. In superstition, yew is lucky to touch but unlucky to bring into the home; after all, its leaves and seeds are quite poisonous.

“Three lifetimes of the yew for the world from its beginning to its end.”
- Book of Lismore, (Ireland, 14th Century).

Lord Voldemort along with his mastery of magic in general, was the most powerful practitioner of the Dark Arts in the wizarding world to date. Besides developing dark spells, hexes, charms, and jinx's he has a masterful knowledge of the most unknown and complex magic capable of a dark wizard. Voldemort was a Masterful practitioner of all three of the Unforgivable Curses and had a special affinity for use of the killing curse. Lord Voldemort could enchant objects to travel floating in the air to wherever he wished and move things with his mind. He displayed this ability from even when he was a child in the orphanage. He is also known as one of the greatest Legilimens in the world, allowing him to delve and peer deep into the minds of others, seeing their deepest thoughts. Voldemort could almost always tell when someone was lying, and was able to use Legilimency to place visions in his victims' minds, such as the one he sent to Harry Potter of Sirius Black being tortured. Amazingly, one of the few people who were skilled enough to shield themselves from this, via Occlumency, was Severus Snape.

“It is true, however, that those who have mastered Legilimency are able, under certain conditions, to delve into the minds of their victims and to interpret their findings correctly. The Dark Lord, for instance, almost always knows when somebody is lying to him. Only those skilled at Occlumency are able to shut down those feelings and memories that contradict the lie, and to utter falsehoods in his presence without detection.”
- Severus Snape (OotP, Chapter 24)

Voldemort was also a highly accomplished Occlumens, and could shield his own mind from such penetration. However at one point, he lost control, allowing Harry to see occasionally through his eyes and hear his thoughts. Voldemort could also fly without support, defying the law of magic that states only objects can fly through use of a flying charm. Voldemort first exhibits the ability to fly while in pursuit of Harry Potter over Little Whinging. Furthermore, he has the ability to speak over a vast area, sounding as though he were standing next to them. He does this during the Battle of Hogwarts when he speaks to the school and the surrounding area of Hogsmeade. This spell has been used by other wizards, but never with such powerful results.

Voldemort was also a Parselmouth, a trait he inherited from his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin. It seems that most of his Gaunt ancestors inherited this highly unusual trait; such traits are commonly passed down through families through inbreeding. Most importantly, Voldemort is also the only wizard explicitly mentioned as having created more than one Horcrux, and thus came closer to becoming truly immortal than anyone else. Voldemort transfigured Dumbledore's fire-rope into a black snake during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. He created an artificial, silver forearm and hand for Peter Pettigrew, and creepily transformed the corpse of Bathilda Bagshot's into a disguise for his snake, Nagini.

It's interesting to know the spell Morsmordre, (mors-MOR-druh) which summons the Dark Mark in the sky, was of Voldermort's own creation. He and his followers used it to summon a floating, green skull Dark Mark, usually over the houses of their victims; a snake comes out of the mouth.

"Ron, You-Know-Who and his followers sent the Dark Mark into the air whenever they killed. The terror it inspired...you have no idea, you're too young. Just picture coming home, and finding the Dark Mark hovering over your house, and knowing what you're about to find... Everyone's worst fear... the very worst..."
- Arthur Weasley, Goblet of Fire.

One final incredible but disturbing ability, is Voldemort's Inferi Creation. "Inferus" is Latin for "below" or "low down" and was a name often given to the Roman/Greek God of the Underworld, Hades. Voldemort is the only wizard mentioned to have the ability to create and control Inferi, which are human corpses; though it is implied that other Dark Wizards, such as Gellert Grindelwald, have used or intended to use them at some point. An Inferius is not alive, but a dead body that has been bewitched into a sort of puppet.They cannot think for themselves: they are created only to perform a specific duty assigned by whomever commands them, and as seen in the Inferi guarding Voldemort's Locket Horcrux in his seaside cave, they remain idle until their task can be performed. Inferi are difficult to harm by magic; however, they can be repelled by fire or any other forms of heat or light.

“ The Wandlight had slid over a fresh patch of water and showed him, this time, a dead man lying faceup inches beneath the surface; his open eyes misted as though with cobwebs, his hair and his robes swirling around him like smoke.”
- Half Blood Prince (pp. 565-566)

When defeated, they return to their idle state. The Ministry of Magic feared that Voldemort had murdered enough people to make an entire army of Inferi. Not only would this have been extremely creepy, but as they are dead, they would be very difficult to destroy. When Harry and Dumbledore took the locket Horcrux, the Inferi attacked Harry, and Dumbledore repelled them with a rope of fire Spell. It is also revealed that the Inferi almost killed Kreacher after he drank from the basin in order to help Voldemort hide his Horcruxes; it was, instead, Kreacher's master, Regulus Black (Sirius Black's Brother) who was captured and drowned.