Harry Potter: 10 Most Powerful Slytherin Students
2. Voldemort
A story is only as good as its villain, and Voldemort is a blueprint for how to create a terrifying/iconic big bad. When you think of a Dark Lord, you'll conjure up images of a select few characters, and this guy is easily one of them.
This awful wizard began life as Tom Riddle and transformed himself into a demonic force of evil. But, he didn't manage this through simple politics or hard work; no, he employed his massive amounts of power to do it.
In many ways, Voldemort embodies the term. He used his influence and fear to gather a considerable army, created a squad of Death Eaters and effectively threw the world into chaos. It goes without saying that his manipulation skills led to him gaining massive amounts of influence, but his ability to control others also came from his dark reputation.
Overall, Voldemort was painfully strong. Like Horace Slughorn, he was a master Occlumens. Like Dolores Umbridge, he could turn a whole group of people against one, and he easily outdid characters like Bellatrix and Barty Crouch Jr. in pure magical strength. To top it all off, his use of Horcruxes even turned him (essentially) immortal.
It's hard to find anyone better than that. Except maybe one...