Voldemort -- Needing some insight

[themostepotente]

I've started writing Lord Voldemort, and I was wondering how the Deatheaters would address him, particularly Lucius and Severus.

'My Lord' came to mind. I can't see them addressing him by name. Too disrespectful.

Also -- approximately when did Voldemort start taking on a snake-like appearance? Anotherwords, when did he start looking oh, not so humanish? I know I'm not wording this as best as I could, but give me a fuckin' break, eh? It's 3 am here.

What is the best approximation for the year that Tom Riddle was born?

maeglinyedi -- since you write quite a bit of Voldemort, might you lend your expertise?

Anyone is welcome to add their two cents by the way .

--P

Comments

[melpemone.livejournal.com]

Well, I think My Lord works. That's what I use. Bellatrix addresses him as "Master", too, so you could keep that in mind.

And as far as I'm aware, he didn't start getting snaky until his resurrection in GoF. I don't think there's any indication he looked less than human when he attacked the Potters, and he was an incorporeal ghostie between then and GoF.

Hope that helps!

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does -- thank you!

And 'Master.' *facepalms* No, that wasn't too obvious :P

How are you doing by the way? I have not spoken to you in ages.

I saw your submission for merry_smutmas :-)

[melpemone.livejournal.com]

Hehehe, actually, 'Master' didn't occur to me either until I re-read the Department of Mysteries scene, so don't feel too bad. :)

And yeah, it's been ages, hasn't it? I'm doing really well - insanely busy, but I thrive, no matter how vociferous my complaining. ::grin:: Lots to write, and there's a tiny part of me throwing a fit that I signed up for merry_smutmas, no matter how often I remind myself that I have half of October and all of November free. :)

I suspect my merry_smutmas submission comes off as a little picky. ::wince:: I learned last year to be *really* specific when it comes to who and what I'll write, but now I might be hard to place. I'll have to let gmth know that I'm a lot more open to possibilities than that looks. :)

So, how are you? And what are you writing? Is it DE-centric? Oh, I hope so. :D

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

So, how are you? And what are you writing? Is it DE-centric? Oh, I hope so. :D

I'm very good, thanks! Insanely busy also.

It's Snape/Voldemort for the pornish_pixies fantasy fest. This should be very interesting :-)

--P

[melpemone.livejournal.com]

::squeaks:: Yay! Oh, I can't wait, that should be brilliant :D

[juice817.livejournal.com]

From GoF - p 555-556 UK adult edition paperback

"The thing Wormtail had been carrying had the shape of a crouched human child, except that Harry had never seen anything less like a child. It was hairless and scaly-looking, a dark, raw, reddish black. Its arms and legs were thin and feeble, and it's face -- no child alive ever had a face like that -- was flat and snake-like, with gleaming red eyes."

Wormtail fed him Nagini's milk which somehow caused the snake-like appearance, and the resurrection in the graveyard actually made him look more human.

[juice817.livejournal.com]

and...

after the ritual -

"The thin man stepped out of the cauldron, staring at Harry... and Harry stared back into the face that had haunted his nightmares for three years. Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes, and a nose that was a s flat as a snake's with slits for nostrils..."

p 558

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the input, Juice :-)

[subtle-science.livejournal.com]

Not to disagree with the other comments gratutiously, but...

From PS/SS:  Harry would have screamed, but he couldn't make a sound. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was a face, the most terrible face Harry had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake.

From CoS: "Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle. I taught him myself, fifty years ago, at Hogwarts. He disappeared after leaving the school ... traveled far and wide ... sank so deeply into the Dark Arts, consorted with the very worst of our kind, underwent so many dangerous, magical transformations, that when he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was barely recognizable. Hardly anyone connected Lord Voldemort with the clever, handsome boy who was once Head Boy here."

So apparently Voldemort was grotesque and snaky-looking at least by the time he went after the Potters, and possibly for the entire time during his first rise to power.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

This was a HUGE help, Dovie -- thank you!

[subtle-science.livejournal.com]

Any time.  :-)

[raendrop.livejournal.com]

I think the snake look is a side effect of his efforts to achieve immortality.

[subtle-science.livejournal.com]

I do, too.  It's merely a question of when he started those experiments he speaks about in GoF.  Were these what Dumbledore talked about before he re-emerged as Lord Voldemort, or did he do more along those lines as he gathered followers?  Personally, I tend to go with the former (for fanfic reasons, mostly).

[raendrop.livejournal.com]

Well, I seem to recall that part of the reason the ricocheted Killing Curse didn't kill him was that he'd been working on ways to avoid death.

[subtle-science.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's almost exactly what he said.  But he doesn't address when he started working toward immortality, just when he stopped (because of no longer having a body and all).  ;-)

[noblerot.livejournal.com]

As dovielr points out, Voldie was getting his snake on for a while before GoF. But I'll bet he emerged from that cauldron looking worse than before. A fic I'd love someone to write (*eyeballs themostepotente): Tom/Voldemort's physical transformation over the years, as witnessed by a longtime follower (Lucius, maybe, beginning in childhood?). It must have been rather weird to see... Tom was so fine, and Voldie is so... *cough*... well, so Fiennes. But still unnaturally serpentine.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

*chuckles* Hmm, that's totally doable -- the Tom/Voldemort physical transformation.

[femmequixotic]

'My Lord' came to mind. I can't see them addressing him by name. Too disrespectful.

Far too disrespectful. Voldie'd have a fit. *grin*

Plus in OotP in the Occlumency chapter, I think, Snape freaks out any time Harry uses the name Voldemort.

I've had this problem crop up recently in a fic I'm working on. I've gotten around it by using the 'my Lord/Master" to Voldie's face and then "the Dark Lord" or "his Lordship" when they're discussing him to one another...

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

I've had this problem crop up recently in a fic I'm working on. I've gotten around it by using the 'my Lord/Master" to Voldie's face and then "the Dark Lord" or "his Lordship" when they're discussing him to one another...

Y'know -- that sounds just perfect.

Plus I could totally see Lucius saying 'My Lord and Master.'

Thanks, Femme!

[kleio-the-muse.livejournal.com]

I really haven't got much to add (I also vote for 'Master', sounds about right), but I just wanted to say YAY! that you're writing Snape/Voldemort - I can't wait!:)

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Taking a break from all that Snack -- but stick around, 'cos I will be back :-)

Yeah, I hope I do okay with this pairing.

Thanks for the advice and encouragement. *smiles*

[rosefyre.livejournal.com]

Well, the Chamber of Secrets was in 1942/43. According to CoS, that was Riddle's fifth year (page 180 in my copy, when the diary is talking to Harry). Therefore, he probably turned 15 in 1942, which means he was probably born in 1927, though he could've been born in late 1926 as well. I would say that he was born sometime between September 1926 and September 1927...and I always see him as born in winter, before the end of the school year, but that's just me. *nods*

Hope that helped.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

I think I had his date of bith estimated at around that time. I just needed a second opinion :-)

Thanks!

[rosefyre.livejournal.com]

No problem. *nods*

[maeglinyedi.livejournal.com]

Oops...I didn't see your post before now. So my apologies for this late comment.

How his followers address him...in OotP, both Peter and Lucius address Voldemort as both 'master' and 'my Lord'. The other Death Eaters use those same titles. We never see Snape address Voldemort in canon, but we can assume he uses 'master' and 'my Lord' as well. So...you can never go wrong with either one of those words.

And I agree...I don't think any of his Death Eaters would address him with simply 'Voldemort'. Now, 'Tom', however, might be a possibility in a certain setting, if there's a lot of trust between Voldemort and a specific Death Eater, but it would require heaps of backstory to make it work.

As for Voldemort's appearance. We know from GoF that he looks snake-like after he returns. However, we don't have solid evidence that he also looked like this during the first war. All Dumbledore says about Voldemort's looks during that time is that no one recognized him, but that could mean anything...perhaps it's just because he aged (obviously) since last anyone saw him as Tom Riddle, or perhaps he did have a snake-like appearance already. So, methinks you can go either way with that when you write him during the first war.

As for the year he was born, that's 1927. I've calculated it time and again, and I keep coming back to 1927. (Some argue it could have been late 1926, but that doesn't correspond with the information we have on him, namely that he got his diary the Christmas after he opened the CoS, and in his diary he states that he is 16 years old).

Hope this helps. :-)

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

It did, Maeglin -- immensely. Thank you!

Everything you mentioned confirmed my ideals, and that's encouraging when you are writing a character you don't normally.