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Voldemort could feel no love due to the fact that his (witch) mother conceived him when his (muggle) father was under the influence of a powerful love potion. The love potion cannot create actual love, only infatuation, something that was addressed by J.K. Rowling when she said something along the lines of;

"this would be the result of such a loveless/evil union".

Is there any evidence to suggest that the love potion (or anything else about the manner of his conception) made him preternaturally powerful at magic or augmented his intelligence, handsomeness or otherwise any other skill or capability?

Full quote here:

Ravleen: How much does the fact that voldemort was conceived under a love potion have to do with his nonability to understand love is it more symbolic

J.K. Rowling: It was a symbolic way of showing that he came from a loveless union – but of course, everything would have changed if Merope had survived and raised him herself and loved him.

J.K. Rowling: The enchantment under which Tom Riddle fathered Voldemort is important because it shows coercion, and there can’t be many more prejudicial ways to enter the world than as the result of such a union.

Himarm
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Adam Miller
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  • So um... one critical difference between voldemort and harry is that Harry's mom is good a loving for the right reasons. And Voldemort's is not. – Adam Miller Feb 25 '15 at 19:02
  • He couldn't feel love because his conception didn't result from real love? Talk about unfortunate implications... – KSmarts Feb 25 '15 at 19:35
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    i mean, really this just means voldemort is a child of rape, your argument is that all children of rape are damaged. the biggest issue with his birth is probably that his mother is the result of 100s of years of inbreeding, which has probably left her with damaged genetics resulting in a child with genetic defects, we know that her father and brother were both mentally insane, and she doesn't seem to be quite right in the head either. – Himarm Feb 25 '15 at 19:37
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    WHAAT? Erm, no I didn't say that. You guys are convoluting and misinterpreting what I'm asking. J.K. Rowling wrote the book dude, And she's the one who set precedence by saying that Voldemort couldn't feel love because he was conceived under a love potion. Clearly the potion is required to dupe someone into it; it's not like normal relationships might have someone conceived but the parents not be madly in love you know. – Adam Miller Feb 25 '15 at 19:38
  • give us the full quote, because your quote is essentially saying that rape is evil, not that voldemort is evil, the rest of the quotes context is lost to us. link it or include the whole quote to prove she was saying voldemort is unable to love because of his parents. – Himarm Feb 25 '15 at 19:41
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    http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2007/7/30/j-k-rowling-web-chat-transcript/ – Adam Miller Feb 25 '15 at 19:44
  • basically shes saying that because of the coercion he lost the chance to have a normal life where he was loved, not that the love potion itself altered him personally, just the after effects it had on his future life, growing up essentially abandoned in an orphanage. – Himarm Feb 25 '15 at 19:58
  • Related: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/q/41094/21267 – Möoz Feb 25 '15 at 19:59
  • Yeah I know that, but doesn't it sort of fall in line with the love thing? The potion makes him personally unable to love, but just think if you were to meet someone who didn't have an evil disposition but that had all those talents. It sort of enhances the irony of the situation... – Adam Miller Feb 25 '15 at 20:00

1 Answers1

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No

The quote you provided:

J.K. Rowling: It was a symbolic way of showing that he came from a loveless union – but of course, everything would have changed if Merope had survived and raised him herself and loved him.

J.K. Rowling: The enchantment under which Tom Riddle fathered Voldemort is important because it shows coercion, and there can’t be many more prejudicial ways to enter the world than as the result of such a union.

The implication, based on my emphasized parts, is that Voldemort's inability to love was due to the fact that his father had no love for him, and his mother wasn't there to provide him love. Had he been raised by a loving parent, everything would have been different for him, Tom Riddle.

There's no implication that the circumstances of the union of his parents had any effect on his magical abilities. However, it should be readily obvious that Voldemort's sociopathic ways enabled him to pursue darker and deadlier arts than any other dark wizards, because he had no regard for the lives of others.

Darchey: Did voldemort ever love a girl

J.K. Rowling: No, he loved only power, and himself. He valued people whom he could use to advance his own objectives.

Community
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  • While I agree with your conclusion, I don't agree with Rowling's reasoning that Voldemort was so terrible because he didn't have any loving parents. We see plenty of wizards that have loving, though 'evil', families go bad (Malfoys, Blacks), and wizards with loveless childhoods end up good (Harry Potter). Is every child dropped off at an orphanage destined to become dark wizards? – ssell Feb 25 '15 at 21:30
  • Everything would have changed in Voldemort's case, had he loving parents. I don't believe J.K. is making commentary about Dark Wizards (or people in general). To think otherwise would be a Hasty Generalization, IMO. –  Feb 26 '15 at 01:29
  • @ssell we don't necessarily know how loving these family's are, looking at the malfoys they have very bad personalities traits, the mother "loves" her son however the way i which they show their love may not be very good, draco appears to be a spoiled brat, who views himself as better then everyone else, his father seems to berate him for an mistake, which can cause a stressful childhood,ect. he could have been raised essentially by a maid for all we know, and it would be extremely likely considering their wealth. essentially draco had the worst type of active parents. while voldemort had none – Himarm Feb 26 '15 at 15:16