Harry Potter: 10 Amazing Chapters That Aren’t In The Movies

Voldemort’s backstory is one of the best parts of The Half-Blood Prince, and though we do experience snippets of his past in the movie, there’s a lot more content in the original.

In ‘Lord Voldemort’s Request’, we see Voldemort as a young man during his post-Hogwarts years. During the first memory, Harry and Dumbledore observe Tom Riddle’s time with an old witch called Hepzibah Smith, an antique collector who’s descended from Helga Hufflepuff. The most noteworthy part of this scene is the appearance of Hufflepuff’s Cup and Slytherin’s Locket. Both become Horcruxes later on, so it’s cool to see Voldemort’s first interaction with these items.

The second memory is even more interesting. Several years later, Riddle enters Dumbledore’s office and asks the headmaster if he can return to Hogwarts to teach. Though Dumbledore turns him down in the end, the two wizards address plenty of themes during their conversation, including power, envy, and greatness. There’s also some great tension here – you can really feel Riddle’s internal rage bubbling beneath the surface.

Though both of these memories are pretty short, they’re loaded with great dialogue, and it’s a shame neither of them made it into the movie.