harry potter - Was Voldemort able to make a Patronus?

Inspired by this question, I'm wondering if Voldemort can cast a Patronus.

It seems to be a basic spell of protection which he would have needed to have at some point (with all of the dark things he sought out and dealt with) and yet he had split his soul many times which might effect his ability to make one.

Answer

No.

Voldemort doesn't understand the power of love, and as well as this I don't think he understands happiness. He fought against the world to make it his, to win and succeed. He never wanted to be content, and only took joy in dark terrible things.

We know this from one of Dumbledore's descriptions of Voldemort

Your mother died to save you. 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.

If he is unable to realise how love was an ingredient in powerful magic, how could he understand the use of happiness either? He would have defended himself by force.

A second point: Like Snape, Voldemort grew up a very unhappy child, and from what I remember did not find happiness at Hogwarts either, merely satisfaction and justification of his thoughts and beliefs, that he was different but only because he was better than others. That's not happiness.

Comments

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

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star wars - Why don't rebels take Stormtroopers' armor?

Admittedly, the armor of the stormtroopers is not the best, but it's better than nothing. Why don't the rebels strip the armor from dead stormtroopers to use with their best soldiers? I'd really like to understand why they don't do this.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

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