Ship Manifesto: Voldemort/Nott Sr.
Jun. 7th, 2021 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
phantomtomatoOriginally posted on tumblr, reposted here for archival purposes.
Who the hell is Nott Sr.?
You would be forgiven for not recognizing the character, and his name may be more familiar to you because of his son (Theodore Nott, who is the same age as Harry Potter) or his family’s inclusion in and role as the creators of the Sacred 28 (Cantankerus Nott wrote The Pure-Blood Directory, which coined this classification). Nott Sr. isn’t even given a first name in canon, so it takes some doing to dig into what his character might be like.
Nott shows up in three places relevant to his relationship with Voldemort:
Fandom also assumes that Nott was a contemporary of Tom Riddle at Hogwarts and likely one of his earliest supporters.
The traits I see in Nott Sr. are his decades-long loyalty to Voldemort, his probable knowledge that Voldemort is Tom Riddle, the half-blood orphan he knew from school, and Voldemort’s probable tolerance for Nott, given that Nott is still alive and active within the Death Eaters through the canon timeline. And that is what I want to highlight: we don’t have enough information to confirm the ages and tenure of the entire Death Eater membership, but it seems as though Nott has been close to Voldemort for most or all of that time. Importantly, he retains his cover as an upstanding member of society until the end of OotP. He retains his sanity and his loyalty.
Really, that’s all I need as a basis for the ship. There are few confirmed contemporaries of Tom Riddle and we know almost nothing about those men. Truthfully, Nott Sr. might as well have been Avery or Rosier or Lestrange, any number of surname-only men who were confirmed to exist in either the Slug Club of the 1940s or the second Hogwarts interview. The Abraxas Malfoy/Voldemort ship was built on less, as Abraxas was not even confirmed to have been a Death Eater or to have known Lord Voldemort! Nott offers us a confirmed connection and a willingness to wield his wand in support of Voldemort, all while likely knowing that Voldemort is a half-blood.
That’s the heart of the matter and why Nottmort interests me: Nott provides an opportunity to write a partner for Voldemort who is sympathetic to him and accepts his heritage, his identity.
Voldemort’s character is typically written in one of three ways in fanfiction:
To better understand the implementations of options 2 and 3, we need to take a look at Voldemort’s most common ships. According to phantomstatistician on tumblr, roughly 65% of Voldemort shipfic on FFN since 2013 features Harry Potter, with Bellatrix making up an additional 24%, Hermione 6%, and Snape 3%, after which no character exceeds one percentage point. The relative prevalence on AO3 is slightly different, with Harry again taking the lead at over 8k fics, but Hermione being the next-most-common ship at over 1.4k fics, Bellatrix clocking in just shy of 900 fics, and Severus at slightly over 400. AO3 also offers us about 600 stories shipping Voldemort with an original character.
What this leaves us with is a broad understanding that most Voldemort shipfic pairs him with a good-aligned character. Though dark versions of Harry and Hermione certainly exist in their genres, it should come as no surprise that both typically retain their opposition to Voldemort’s platform. Even many dark versions of the two characters, though open to violence or questionable uses of magic, continue to disagree with the doctrine of blood purity or the Death Eater organization. They may ally themselves with Voldemort, ultimately building a romantic and/or sexual relationship with him, but these stories often include the good-aligned character actively campaigning against Voldemort’s canon decisions, often with the benefit of time travel to aid their knowledge. A common plot involves Harry or Hermione traveling back to the 1940s and attempting to disrupt Tom Riddle’s earliest horcruxes, resulting in Tom’s fascination with the other person leading to a romance. When the disruption is unsuccessful, we head down path 2 from above and see a psychopathic Tom grow into Voldemort; when it is successful, we head down path 3 and watch Tom redeem himself before he can become Voldemort. The journey is more complex when the characters remain in the canon timeline of the second war and the age gap is still in play, but the overwhelming constant of the good-aligned character, even when dark, disagreeing with and attempting to change Voldemort is the same.
So we return to the question of “Why Nott?” Nott isn’t a good-aligned character. He supports Voldemort in canon, so we can use him to tell a story that does not hinge on Voldemort changing his fundamental nature or being made to feel ashamed of his past. Unlike Bellatrix or Severus, the other Death Eater-aligned character options who might be able to accept Voldemort’s history of murder and power-grabbing, Nott can be assumed to have known Voldemort for decades and to know his heritage, meaning we can write his support as unqualified, not based solely on the flamboyant Lord Voldemort persona. Nott cuts down on the number of power differentials in the relationship, as compared to Bellatrix and Severus, as he is likely the same age as Voldemort. In other words, he’s the closest we can get to picking a peer for Voldemort.
I use the word peer intentionally. Plenty of Hermione and Harry works investigate the idea of what it means for a character to be Voldemort’s equal, and they generally arrive at the conclusion that an equal must rival Voldemort in sheer power or intelligence or both. I find this difficult to accept given that canonically, Voldemort is only matched by perhaps Albus Dumbledore on those counts. Interpretations of Harry or Hermione that boost their intelligence or raw magical power to match that of Voldemort are prevalent, and they don’t interest me. For me, peer has broader connotations than equal: it implies someone who is of the same age and life experience as Voldemort, rather than of the same power or intelligence.
I like the idea of Voldemort respecting and, yes, loving someone who is not as powerful or as intelligent as he is. Not that I write Nott as stupid and weak—again, I’ve selected him to minimize power imbalances in the relationship—but Voldemort’s draw is his unique position within magical society, as a half-blood heir of Slytherin, as a genius and great wizard capable of terrible things, as a poor orphan aiming to dominate wealthy wizards with storied ancestries. I don’t want to challenge that, I want to allow him his peak and provide him with an emotional arc that enables him to find support and trust in someone who sees and values him for everything that he is: mixed blood and poor background and towering intelligence and raw strength. I want a man to match Voldemort who accepts his history of murder and understands it is not his place to either judge or forgive him for it. I want Voldemort to respect his partner, to feel able to demonstrate some degree of openness born of years of mutual friendship, so that his partner’s opinions become part of a larger discussion about what choices Voldemort will make but will not relegate the partner to serving as Voldemort’s missing moral compass.
Ultimately, I define a happy ending for Voldemort’s character as one in which he finds a way to be content with himself. This isn’t the space for me to dig into the depths of my characterization for him, but in short, I’m compelled by a vision of Voldemort in which his canon actions are contextualized as a form of self-harm, and he is dissatisfied both with his own life and the magical world writ large. Providing him with contentment involves giving him the tools to respect and form meaningful relationships with other people, something he notably lacks in canon, and helping him manage, reduce, or eliminate his endless need for more. The most satisfying version of this self-actualization process, for me, is the one in which Voldemort is not required to change himself and repent for past actions, which necessitates a partner who is able to accept them. I dislike reinforcing potentially-unhealthy power imbalances inherent in Voldemort pairings, so I required a contemporary of Tom Riddle. I like the idea of building upon a shared history and trust that predates the Voldemort persona. I want to give Voldemort the best shot possible at being in a healthy, supportive, and loving relationship, and I’ve arrived at Nott: the man whose canon presence is so thin that he doesn’t have a first name, and whose fandom presence is so weak that there is no baggage associated with it.
As I am currently the sole proprietor of this ship and this is very much a personal essay, allow me to take some space to briefly describe my three Nottmort stories.
Is this an incredibly stupid ship on which to hang my hat, as a fanfiction author? Yes, absolutely. I’m having fun with it, though, in ways that I hope I’ve communicated would not be possible with any of the well-established canon characters.
Who the hell is Nott Sr.?
You would be forgiven for not recognizing the character, and his name may be more familiar to you because of his son (Theodore Nott, who is the same age as Harry Potter) or his family’s inclusion in and role as the creators of the Sacred 28 (Cantankerus Nott wrote The Pure-Blood Directory, which coined this classification). Nott Sr. isn’t even given a first name in canon, so it takes some doing to dig into what his character might be like.
Nott shows up in three places relevant to his relationship with Voldemort:
- He is one of the friends who waits for Tom at the Hog’s Head tavern when Tom attends his second Hogwarts job interview with Albus Dumbledore.
- He is one of the loyal Death Eaters who apparates to the graveyard in Little Hangleton at the end of GoF. He was not imprisoned following the First Wizarding War.
- He is one of the Death Eaters who is present at the Department of Mysteries at the end of OotP. He is arrested and sent to Azkaban following this incident.
Fandom also assumes that Nott was a contemporary of Tom Riddle at Hogwarts and likely one of his earliest supporters.
The traits I see in Nott Sr. are his decades-long loyalty to Voldemort, his probable knowledge that Voldemort is Tom Riddle, the half-blood orphan he knew from school, and Voldemort’s probable tolerance for Nott, given that Nott is still alive and active within the Death Eaters through the canon timeline. And that is what I want to highlight: we don’t have enough information to confirm the ages and tenure of the entire Death Eater membership, but it seems as though Nott has been close to Voldemort for most or all of that time. Importantly, he retains his cover as an upstanding member of society until the end of OotP. He retains his sanity and his loyalty.
Really, that’s all I need as a basis for the ship. There are few confirmed contemporaries of Tom Riddle and we know almost nothing about those men. Truthfully, Nott Sr. might as well have been Avery or Rosier or Lestrange, any number of surname-only men who were confirmed to exist in either the Slug Club of the 1940s or the second Hogwarts interview. The Abraxas Malfoy/Voldemort ship was built on less, as Abraxas was not even confirmed to have been a Death Eater or to have known Lord Voldemort! Nott offers us a confirmed connection and a willingness to wield his wand in support of Voldemort, all while likely knowing that Voldemort is a half-blood.
That’s the heart of the matter and why Nottmort interests me: Nott provides an opportunity to write a partner for Voldemort who is sympathetic to him and accepts his heritage, his identity.
Voldemort’s character is typically written in one of three ways in fanfiction:
- Flat villain: Voldemort is the antagonist, and his personality or lack thereof is largely unimportant as he serves primarily to challenge the protagonist. I will ignore this option for the rest of the discussion.
- Psychopath, possessive, manipulative: Voldemort is the protagonist and he is a bad man. His romantic partnerships in this option are often elaborate mind games with unhappy or open endings, and it is often heavily implied that he is incapable of feeling love. This is typically used when Voldemort remains committed to becoming a god-king, whether or not he is successful.
- Redeemed Slytherin: Voldemort is the protagonist and he learns to not be such a bad man. This version can often feel love, though he likely needs help expressing that, sometimes to the extreme degree of not even recognizing gestures of affection. He likely retains some degree of sarcasm and self-interest by the end of the story, but likely at the level of any Slytherin characterization. This is often used when Voldemort gives up his quest for power or pursues power through legal means (e.g. becoming minister).
To better understand the implementations of options 2 and 3, we need to take a look at Voldemort’s most common ships. According to phantomstatistician on tumblr, roughly 65% of Voldemort shipfic on FFN since 2013 features Harry Potter, with Bellatrix making up an additional 24%, Hermione 6%, and Snape 3%, after which no character exceeds one percentage point. The relative prevalence on AO3 is slightly different, with Harry again taking the lead at over 8k fics, but Hermione being the next-most-common ship at over 1.4k fics, Bellatrix clocking in just shy of 900 fics, and Severus at slightly over 400. AO3 also offers us about 600 stories shipping Voldemort with an original character.
What this leaves us with is a broad understanding that most Voldemort shipfic pairs him with a good-aligned character. Though dark versions of Harry and Hermione certainly exist in their genres, it should come as no surprise that both typically retain their opposition to Voldemort’s platform. Even many dark versions of the two characters, though open to violence or questionable uses of magic, continue to disagree with the doctrine of blood purity or the Death Eater organization. They may ally themselves with Voldemort, ultimately building a romantic and/or sexual relationship with him, but these stories often include the good-aligned character actively campaigning against Voldemort’s canon decisions, often with the benefit of time travel to aid their knowledge. A common plot involves Harry or Hermione traveling back to the 1940s and attempting to disrupt Tom Riddle’s earliest horcruxes, resulting in Tom’s fascination with the other person leading to a romance. When the disruption is unsuccessful, we head down path 2 from above and see a psychopathic Tom grow into Voldemort; when it is successful, we head down path 3 and watch Tom redeem himself before he can become Voldemort. The journey is more complex when the characters remain in the canon timeline of the second war and the age gap is still in play, but the overwhelming constant of the good-aligned character, even when dark, disagreeing with and attempting to change Voldemort is the same.
So we return to the question of “Why Nott?” Nott isn’t a good-aligned character. He supports Voldemort in canon, so we can use him to tell a story that does not hinge on Voldemort changing his fundamental nature or being made to feel ashamed of his past. Unlike Bellatrix or Severus, the other Death Eater-aligned character options who might be able to accept Voldemort’s history of murder and power-grabbing, Nott can be assumed to have known Voldemort for decades and to know his heritage, meaning we can write his support as unqualified, not based solely on the flamboyant Lord Voldemort persona. Nott cuts down on the number of power differentials in the relationship, as compared to Bellatrix and Severus, as he is likely the same age as Voldemort. In other words, he’s the closest we can get to picking a peer for Voldemort.
I use the word peer intentionally. Plenty of Hermione and Harry works investigate the idea of what it means for a character to be Voldemort’s equal, and they generally arrive at the conclusion that an equal must rival Voldemort in sheer power or intelligence or both. I find this difficult to accept given that canonically, Voldemort is only matched by perhaps Albus Dumbledore on those counts. Interpretations of Harry or Hermione that boost their intelligence or raw magical power to match that of Voldemort are prevalent, and they don’t interest me. For me, peer has broader connotations than equal: it implies someone who is of the same age and life experience as Voldemort, rather than of the same power or intelligence.
I like the idea of Voldemort respecting and, yes, loving someone who is not as powerful or as intelligent as he is. Not that I write Nott as stupid and weak—again, I’ve selected him to minimize power imbalances in the relationship—but Voldemort’s draw is his unique position within magical society, as a half-blood heir of Slytherin, as a genius and great wizard capable of terrible things, as a poor orphan aiming to dominate wealthy wizards with storied ancestries. I don’t want to challenge that, I want to allow him his peak and provide him with an emotional arc that enables him to find support and trust in someone who sees and values him for everything that he is: mixed blood and poor background and towering intelligence and raw strength. I want a man to match Voldemort who accepts his history of murder and understands it is not his place to either judge or forgive him for it. I want Voldemort to respect his partner, to feel able to demonstrate some degree of openness born of years of mutual friendship, so that his partner’s opinions become part of a larger discussion about what choices Voldemort will make but will not relegate the partner to serving as Voldemort’s missing moral compass.
Ultimately, I define a happy ending for Voldemort’s character as one in which he finds a way to be content with himself. This isn’t the space for me to dig into the depths of my characterization for him, but in short, I’m compelled by a vision of Voldemort in which his canon actions are contextualized as a form of self-harm, and he is dissatisfied both with his own life and the magical world writ large. Providing him with contentment involves giving him the tools to respect and form meaningful relationships with other people, something he notably lacks in canon, and helping him manage, reduce, or eliminate his endless need for more. The most satisfying version of this self-actualization process, for me, is the one in which Voldemort is not required to change himself and repent for past actions, which necessitates a partner who is able to accept them. I dislike reinforcing potentially-unhealthy power imbalances inherent in Voldemort pairings, so I required a contemporary of Tom Riddle. I like the idea of building upon a shared history and trust that predates the Voldemort persona. I want to give Voldemort the best shot possible at being in a healthy, supportive, and loving relationship, and I’ve arrived at Nott: the man whose canon presence is so thin that he doesn’t have a first name, and whose fandom presence is so weak that there is no baggage associated with it.
As I am currently the sole proprietor of this ship and this is very much a personal essay, allow me to take some space to briefly describe my three Nottmort stories.
- Waterlogged: This set the stage, but was not originally intended to be an example of the ship. Nott’s initial role in the story was to provide a friend and confidant for Tom outside of his tumultuous romance with Hermione; Nott demanded to be something much more than a friend. It established my understanding of Nott as unquestionably loyal to Tom and fully accepting of his Muggle side, as this Tom reconciles with his father and Nott spends more than a little time with the Riddles.
- Busy Seeing Red: This allowed me to explore Nott as more than a foil to another romantic partner, and I found him incredibly satisfying in the role of primary love interest. Nott and Voldemort spend most of this short fic in an argument with each other, and Voldemort’s quest to end that argument is the space in which he comes to understand that the path of violence and blood purity is not what he wants. This established Nott as a man who accepts even the darker parts of Voldemort’s life with love and respect.
- Made of Clay (ongoing): This is my magnum opus for the pairing, the longest story by far and the one in which their relationship is fully centered in the narrative. Nott’s role here is to push Voldemort to realize the ways in which Voldemort has already changed as a result of retiring from the role of Lord Voldemort, head of the Death Eaters. Nott continues to demonstrate his full and complete loyalty and to accept Voldemort’s wildly terrible life choices, and all of this in the context of both men having young sons dependent on them.
Is this an incredibly stupid ship on which to hang my hat, as a fanfiction author? Yes, absolutely. I’m having fun with it, though, in ways that I hope I’ve communicated would not be possible with any of the well-established canon characters.
