Voldemort's Lies and Deceptions (WAS Re: CoS chapters 17-18 post DH look)

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 181316


> Alla:
> Any possible instances of Lordy lying later in the books, besides 
> whether Slytherins joined him or not?

Zgirnius:
Tom/Voldemort lies and deceives people all of the time, for a variety 
of reasons. To escape punishment, to get people to do what he wants, 
to further his aims, to hurt people. An attempt at a chronological 
listing follows.

Tom already lied and deceived people as a young boy. Mrs. Cole cites 
two examples, and there were doubtless others. She, of course, does 
not know Tom lied to her, but we can be pretty sure he was behind Amy 
Benson and Dennis Bishop's trauma, and the rabbit hung on the rafters.

In relation to the opening of the Chamber, he lied and engaged in 
deception. He claimed to Armando Dippet not to know anything about 
the events, for a specific example. He falsely accused Hagrid. And he 
fostered the (false)  impression that he was concerned about these 
dreadful events.

He lied to Horace Slughorn when he claimed not to fully understand 
Horcruxes, in particular, how to make them. His true goal appears to 
have been to get an evaluation of his new idea of six as the ideal 
number to have.  He also claims the discussion was hypothetical, 
something else I do not believe.

I would consider the false memories Riddle planted in the mind of his 
uncle Morfin, that he had murdered the Riddles, another lie. As is 
the memory he implanted in Hokey's mind, causing her to think she had 
accidentally poisoned her mistress.

Since Dumbledore did not take Tom up on his offer and grant him the 
DADA teaching job, this is somewhat hypothetical, but when Tom 
said "I place myself and my talents at your disposal. I am yours to 
command," at his job interview, I somehow don't think he meant it.

I also think Voldemort used deception as a tool in recruiting. This 
might not have involved telling specific lies (and whether or not it 
did, we do not have a canon scene of Voldemort recruiting a Death 
Eater). But someone like Regulus becoming a Death Eater and then 
being shocked by Voldemort's callousness, suggests deception 
occurred. In this same vein, there seems to be reason to believe some 
Death Eaters (Bella, e. g.) believed him to be Pureblood. Peter 
probably thought good things would happen for him if he stuck with 
Voldemort.

Voldemort does talk about how he met and came to control Quirrell. He 
described him (in GoF, the graveyard scene)  as young, foolish, and 
*gullible*. Presumably, to know Quirrell was gullible, Voldemort must 
have deceived him in some way. 

Voldemort lies to Harry in PS/SS: "you'll meet the same end as your 
parents.... They died begging me for mercy..."  Lily arguably, for 
Harry's sake (though this is at least misleading, she was actually 
offering herself!), but certainly not James.

Voldemort (as Diary!Tom) is also quite deceptive in CoS. A sample of 
his BS, addressed at Harry:

> CoS:
> "In my fifth year, the Chamber was opened and the monster attacked 
several students, finally killing one. I caught the person who'd 
opened the Chamber and he was expelled. But the Headmaster, Professor 
Dippet, ashamed that such a thing had happened at Hogwarts, forbade 
me to tell the truth. A story was given out that the girl had died in 
a freak accident. They gave me a nice, shiny, engraved trophy for my 
trouble and warned me to keep my mouth shut. But I knew it could 
happen again. The monster lived on, and the one who had the power to 
release it was not imprisoned."

zgirnius:
The flat-out lie, of course, was that the person who opened the 
Chamber was expelled, and Tom caught him. There's also the use of the 
word "truth" to describe a false story he was not allowed to tell, 
and the subtle implication that Tom was a boy who worried about these 
terrible things, and tried to prevent them. 

I also think it is likely that Tom lied to Ginny as the diary, though 
we have no acccount of their conversations. "I would never hurt you, 
Ginny..." e. g. He certainly deceived her into believing the boy in 
the diary was a friend, when he was anything but.

In OotP, while it was not spoken, the vision Voldemort sent to Harry, 
of Sirius in the DoM, was a lie. Within it, he lies to Sirius: "Take 
it for me . . . lift it down, now . . . I cannot touch it . . . but 
you can . . ." In fact, it is Sirius who could not touch it and 
Voldemort who could (and Harry - as the subjects of the Prophecy).

He also lies to the defenders of Hogwarts, after Harry's seeming 
death, when he says of Harry, "He was killed while trying to sneak 
out of the castle grounds, killed while trying to save himself-"