Tom Riddle's wand

Tom Riddle's wand is a wand manufactured by the wandmaker Ollivander. It measures thirteen and a half inches, it is made from yew with a core of phoenix feather. It was with this wand that Tom murdered James Potter, Lilly Potter and many others, including Muggle Frank Bryce and Ministry's ex-employee Bertha Jorkins. Peter Pettigrew used this wand to kill Cedric Diggory in 1995.

The Wand Chooses The Wizard
One day in 1938, the eleven-year-old Tom Marvolo Riddle traveled to Diagon Alley alone with a bagful of wizarding money given to him by then-Hogwarts Transfiguration Professor Albus Dumbledore, who had met with Riddle earlier that very same day to invite him to study at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The one thing Riddle most looked forward to getting most was a magic wand of his own, and he learned that Mr. Ollivander, who owned his own wand shop named Ollivander's, was the most renowned wandmaker in all of Britain. Riddle entered Ollivander's shop and, as was the case with most young witches and wizards, tried several different wands to find one to his liking. Ollivander finally handed Riddle a wand thirteen and one half inches long, made of yew and with a core composed of a Phoenix feather, with a handle made of what appeared to be bone. The wand immediately felt right in Riddle's hand, and he paid for the wand with some of the money given to him by Dumbledore earlier that same day before departing the shop. What Ollivander had not told Riddle however was that there was another wand that was twin to the one he had just purchased, sharing its core of a feather from the same Phoenix, namely the Phoenix owned by Albus Dumbledore himself, Fawkes.

Weapon of the Dark Lord
Over the course of his years at Hogwarts, Riddle's persona became darker and darker in secret, while to the outside world he appeared to be a model pupil. Inside, however, he was cruel, greedy and murderous, with a disregard for anyone but himself and seeing all others as either obstacles to be overcome or tools to be manipulated. The ends to which Riddle put his wand were less than noble and at times violent in his school years. Although Riddle rose to stardom in the eyes of much of the Hogwarts staff, he was never fully trusted by Albus Dumbledore due to their first encounter at Riddle's orphanage, where he accidentally let his true persona show in Dumbledore's presence.

In the summer of 1943, Riddle used his wand to enact a plot of revenge against his father, Tom Riddle Sr., who had abandoned Riddle's mother, Merope Gaunt, along with himself many years before and fled back to the village of Little Hangleton to live in his family's home, the Riddle House. Riddle came to the village and met his uncle, Morfin Gaunt, who told him the full story of Tom Riddle Sr. and his sister Merope Gaunt. This story enraged Riddle, who then used his wand to stun his uncle and take his wand from him in turn. Riddle then proceeded to the Riddle House and murdered his father and his muggle grandparents, Thomas Riddle and Mary Riddle, with the Avada Kedavra Killing Curse using Morfin's wand. Riddle then returned to the Gaunt Shack and replaced Morfin's wand on his person and used his own wand to modify Morfin's memory to make him confess to killing the Riddles so there would be no further investigation into the murders by the Ministry of Magic. Riddle then took Marvolo Gaunt's Ring from Morfin's hand and fled Little Hangleton, having committed the first of what would become many murders throughout the remainder of his life.

Shortly after this, Riddle created the name of Lord Voldemort from an anagram of the letters of his true name to spare himself the memory of his "filthy muggle father." Obsessed with immortality, he began studying Horcruxes from books in the restricted section of the Hogwarts Library and used his wand to create one using his childhood diary through the use of his earlier indirect murder of fellow student Myrtle by means of the Basilisk of the Chamber of Secrets. He later questioned Potions Master Horace Slughorn about what would become of the wizard who made more than one Horcrux, inadvertently revealing his desire to make his soul a seven-part soul. Riddle continued to perfect his use of the Ollivander wand throughout his school career, eventually graduating from Hogwarts in 1945.

Following his graduation from Hogwarts, the newly-minted Lord Voldemort began to more openly put his wand to evil ends, using it to perform powerful dark sorcery and to murder others for the creation of new Horcruxes to insure his shield against death. After disappearing for a solid decade, Voldemort returned to request the Defence Against the Dark Arts post at Hogwarts from the new Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, who turned him down upon realizing his true intentions in seeking the job. Riddle used his wand at that time to place a curse on the job, causing its occupant to suffer some misfortune that would drive them from the job in a year or less.

After his failure to ascertain the Hogwarts post he sought, he declared open war on the wizarding world, intending to rule the world forever to make his ultimate dream a reality. He frequently employed the three Unforgivable Curses through the use of his wand, not hesitating in using the Killing Curse on those who opposed or annoyed him. Over the course of the First Wizarding War, the wand had become a weapon of murderous intent and a tool of dark magic at the hands of its master, who sank deeper and deeper into the Dark Arts until there was very little of the boy left who had originally purchased it that fateful day in Diagon Alley so many decades before.

Loss in Godric's Hollow
In 1980, at the height of his power during his reign of terror, Lord Voldemort learned from one of his Death Eaters, Severus Snape, that a prophecy had just been made concerning the coming birth of a child who would bring about his destruction from newly-appointed Professor of Divination, Sybill Trelawney. Voldemort panicked at this and sprang into action, despite the fact that Snape had not heard the entire prophecy. He targeted Harry Potter some months later, and the Potter Family was forced to go into hiding in the village of Godric's Hollow. Though their location was concealed by means of the Fidelius Charm, they were betrayed by their Secret-Keeper, Peter Pettigrew, who sold their secret to Lord Voldemort to win the Dark Lord's favor. Voldemort proceeded to Godric's Hollow shortly after Pettigrew's revelation and made his way to the home of the Potters. Once there, he quickly dispatched James Potter I using his wand and proceeded upstairs to finish off his newborn nemesis. Lily Potter refused to step aside despite Voldemort's offer to let her live, and he again used his wand to kill her as well. This triggered a powerful means of protection for Harry that Voldemort could not easily penetrate henceforth. He then turned his wand on the infant Harry Potter, who was in his crib a few feet away. Voldemort attempted to use his wand to fatally curse Harry, but the Killing Curse backfired, rebounding upon Voldemort and ripping him from his body. At that moment, part of Voldemort's unstable soul fragmented and attached itself to the infant Harry Potter (accidentally making Harry Potter his sixth unintentional Horcrux) while the remaining part of Voldemort's maimed soul fled the scene. Upon his curse rebounding upon himself, Voldemort's wand was blasted from his body and landed not far away from his body in the ruin of the Potter home. After Rubeus Hagrid rescued the infant Harry from the wreckage of the house later that evening, Peter Pettigrew returned to the house and dicovered the Dark Lord's wand in the wreckage, taking it with him as he fled the scene in order to prevent the wand from falling into the Ministry's hands and possibly exposing him as a traitor. He would keep this wand in an undisclosed location for twelve long years afterward, until the time when he could locate its true owner once again.