What Is Voldemort's Patronus? Can He Cast One? - Harry Potter Theory

Hey everyone,

Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory, in this video I’m going to be addressing a question that was requested in the comment section quite a bit, and that is: Was Voldemort able to produce a Patronus?

This is a good question, because even though Voldemort was immensely powerful, he wasn’t necessarily able to perform every type of magic. In order to delve in to this further, I’m first going to explain what a Patronus is. In essence, a Patronus is the result of a witch or wizard casting the Patronus charm. There are two types of patronus charms, corporeal and incorporeal. The more basic form of the spell is the incorporeal patronus, which assumes no animal form and simply resembles a burst of white vapour or smoke. The more advanced form of the spell is the conjuring of a corporeal patronus. The ability to successfully cast a corporeal patronus is considered an impressive feat in the wizarding community. The corporeal patronus assumes the form of the witch or wizards ‘spirit animal’, and varies extensively from witch to witch or wizard to wizard. Harry’s is a stag, Ron’s is a jack russel terrier, and Hermione’s is an otter, etc. While casting spells that create your very own spirit animal is probably fun, there is a purpose, and that purpose is to ward off dementors or lethifolds- dark creatures that feed on human happiness and incite a feeling of despair in anyone that gets close to them. They are among the foulest creatures around, and represent nothing but darkness, depression and decay. The patronus charm is the ONLY known way of dealing with a dementor, and so it’s a gravely important thing for a witch or wizard to know. The patronus represents everything that a Dementor doesn’t: hope, happiness, survival and purity. As the patronus itself does not feel despair or hopelessness, as a human might, the dementors can’t hurt it and are repelled by its presence.

Which brings me to Voldemort. Surely a wizard as powerful as him with seemingly endless magical capabilities was able to conjure a Patronus. Surely The Dark Lord himself would have been able to handle a couple of Dementors. This is where you may be surprised. The successful casting of a patronus is not only reliant on magic ability, but also love, and happiness- things that he has no concept of.

Voldemort is just as dark and evil as a dementor, and so it makes sense that he would not be able to produce something that could combat them. Voldemort’s only joy came from doing terrible things. He was never happy, even in childhood, and never got to experience true love or happiness- leaving him with no concept of either.

This is perfectly depicted in a quote from Dumbledore in a discussion with Harry:

“If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn't realize that love as powerful as your mother's for you leaves its own mark.”

When JK Rowling was asked if Snape was the only death eater who could successfully produce a Patronus, she responded:

“Yes, because a Patronus is used against things that the Death Eaters generally generate, or fight alongside. They would not need Patronuses.”

Voldemort, and other dark witches and wizards, saw no use for the spell because they were entirely desensitized to dark creatures and dark things. The spell was simply not something that made any sense for them to use or learn. It would not help them.

So, dark wizards see no use for casting a patronus, but..What happens if they actually try to do it. What happens if they try to cast the spell? There is actually a tale of a dark wizard called Raczidian that attempted this very thing. In the tale, it is stated that Raczidian hastily tried to cast the spell, failing to remember that ‘only the pure of heart can produce a patronus’. He was the first wizard in history to try it, and while he was an accomplished wizard, it did not end well for him. After casting the spell, it is stated that ‘maggots shot out of his wand’ which ‘quickly devoured him as they engulfed his body’. Ouch.

So, it’s pretty safe to say that Voldemort couldn’t and wouldn’t ever have been able to produce a patronus. But, if he DID somehow cast a Patronus, if he could somehow understand love, even if only briefly, then what form would his Patronus take?

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[kenthoge]

Voldemort’s Patronus would definitely be a basilisk.

[nathanbrite]

I know Voldemort can't feel love, but he definitely has felt happiness after his many accomplishments. Harry's scar burned in ootp after Voldemort was really happy about something

[NightRunner]

Plot twist: Voldemort's Patronus is Voldemort himself, lol but smaller like Dr. Evil's Mini Me. Running around going "Harry Potter must DIE!" in a chipmunk voice.

[ravenwhite]

He does not posess hapiness the way Harry and the others do. If he could, it would be a serpent.

[darthknightwingphoenix]

"Only those with a pure heart can cast a patronus." And yet, Dolores Umbridge was capable of casting a patronus in the 7th book. In fact, it glowed really brightly when she was doing heinous things like sentencing muggle borns to Azkaban. So yeah, I believe that JK Rowling is blowing smoke when she says that you need to be pure of heart for a patronus. My guess is that OF COURSE death eaters can use a patronus, it's just that the dementors have allied with them and thus restrain themselves from feeding on them similar to how they were restraining themselves from feeding on students when they were stationed at Hogwarts in the 3rd book. Thus, the death eaters don't really have a need for patronus charms, because the dementors are working with Voldemort and feeding on his enemies rather than his allies. I'm also pretty sure that Voldemort does have a patronus, because he's shown happiness before - when there was a mass breakout from Azkaban in the 6th book, for example. His happiness was derived from events which granted him greater power, or saw others suffering/being humiliated in manners that he found amusing. So I'm sure that he could create a patronus, most likely a snake. As for what triggers it, there are several possibilities: his thoughts of being the most powerful wizard in the world, or his memories of killing his father, or maybe even his memories of his time at Hogwarts - discovering his being descended from Salazar Slytherin, opening the chamber of secrets, or just the wonder of entering the wizarding world for the first time. And I'm sure that he has had need of his patronus before, because he has plenty that makes him depressed - thoughts of his father being a muggle, of mediocrity, of not being powerful enough, of his time as a barely-alive wraith when no one came to find him. He's got plenty of bad memories that a dementor could bring to the forefront.

[marysia_klara]

A witch or wizards patronus takes the shape of the patronus of the witch or wizard they love. For example: when Tonks loved Remus her patronus took the form of a warewoolf, this is why snape cast a patronus in dumbledores office, to show he loved lily and he loved her still. His patronus took the shape of a deer.

[lxbcdrf]

If it wasn't for J.K. interview I'd say that another Death Eater being capable of a patronus would be Lucius.

[makinley.s]

Question: What would Voldemort and Bellatrix's boggarts be?
Edit: For all of you saying Voldemorts would be his own corpse or something along the lines of that, now that I think about it that is probably it. But with Bellatrix, would it be Voldemorts Corpse because she is afraid of him not needing her anymore? I'm really not sure

[eddie]

I imagine the basilisk slithering through the school like
" so hungry, must eat, damn it - I looked at him, food no good now"

[nonutemperor]

Patronus charm requires a happy thought

Voldemort: Thinks of sex with bellatrix... Expecto Patronum!

[Timinator]

Is there really love needed to cast a patronus spell? I always assumed that it needs "only" the most happy moment in life. That means, even an evil person (like Umbridge) can sometimes cast a patronus charm. For example, maybe Voldemort could use the happy moment of him obtaining the Elder Wand.

[khubaibhuss]

He's making videos so fast I can hardly catch up on missed ones

[mlml]

Video idea most powerful order members

[zacklevine]

video idea: every characters patronus and the theoroy of every unkown characters

[aaronmatthews]

This guy is very talented in making 10 minute videos out of a 1 minute question

[wafflingmean]

I like to think this is the one kind of spell Voldemort was afraid to try. Or perhaps he did, and after his initial failure, he decided it was best not to push it. Given his extensive research into dark magic, he likely was aware of the demise of Raczidian, a dark wizard who attempted a patronus only for it to turn into a swarm of maggots that killed him. A patronus comes from within the caster. Voldemort was a narcissist. After creating Horcruxes, it's like the only thing he thought would be able to kill him (aside from Dumbledore) would be an uncontrolled aberrant manifestation of his own power.

[weichen]

Harry: I know magic you don’t!!!
Voldy: I⃠M⃠P⃠O⃠S⃠S⃠I⃠B⃠L⃠E⃠
Harry: 𝗖𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘂𝘀
Voldy:𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱

[Jay-vpkk]

Love is only circumstantially related to the charm. It is happiness, a happy memory, that is required (For many people that certainly comes in the form of love, but love is not the only type of happiness). I am fairly certain it is never mentioned Voldemort can not feel happiness at all, else what would motivate him to do anything - surely he must take some pleasures in order to be driven to any sort of action, and thus theoretically he should be able to produce a Patronus charm in my opinion. I'm not sure where this "pure of heart" thing comes from, I don't remember it from the books so I'm guessing it's another J.K "add on" but frankly I don't consider things outside the books cannon with how liberally J.K abuses adding information to post rationalize things. If it was in the books then obviously I am mistaken.
But even in the main books J.K plays fast and extremely loose with the rules of magic in Harry Potter however so who the hell really knows.

[MinecraftKON]

What if Harry did not obey Dumbledore to hide under stairs, but instead stayed with him, when Draco was confronting Dumbledore?

[geniusiq.]

I think he can do it cause u don’t need love but need happy memories
I think he had never done it before Cause he never needed it and hated everything about it, the love the happiness