Whether weak or strong, Voldemort has been a source of moral collapse in the wizarding world. Even in hiding, his loyal followers breed chaos in several ways. The Voldemort camp, and even his ideology, has bred much hostility among witches and wizards. Voldemort has toys with violent threat, a grave detriment for individuals such as Peter Pettigrew (Wormtail), whose lack of principle led him to inform Voldemort of the James and Lily Potter’s whereabouts. Wormtail’s actions demolished his friendship with Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, and instigated their desire to murder---a desire that was thwarted by Harry’s powerful belief that he thought James would have never wanted Lupin and Black to become killers for the sake of Pettigrew.

Children of death eaters, such as Lucius Malfoy’s son, Draco Malfoy, has shown unceasing hatred towards witches and wizards who are of mixed-blood origin, whom he refers to as Mudbloods. He also shows hostility towards their supporters (pure-blooded or otherwise) such as Professor Dumbledore, whom he labels a Mudblood lover, and of course, Harry Potter’s pure-blooded friends such as Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom.

We witness Voldemort-driven chaos at the Quidditch World Cup pandemonium, whilst death eaters poked obscene fun at muggles, and fired the Dark Mark to instigate panic, thus leading to other destructive results such as bad publicity, which in turn stains reputations such as those of Ministry of Magic members, including Arthur Weasley. In his attempt to deliver Harry Potter to Lord Voldemort via the Triwizard Tournament, Barty Crouch, Jr. (posing as a Polyjuice-produced decoy of Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody), secretly places the boy’s name in the Goblet of Fire, in spite of his lack of qualifications. The result is the unnecessary tension and anger of several Hogwarts students and professors towards Harry, including his own best friend, Ron. After Voldemort’s second rise to power, witnessed only by Harry Potter and the death eaters, and believed by only a few of Harry’s allies, the entire magical community within Harry’s sphere becomes divided into believers and significantly more non-believers. Relationships are destroyed, such as Percy Weasley’s departure from his alliance with his own family and a misled perception of Harry as dangerous and deranged. While Percy is not pro-Voldemort, the severe division of the magical community as a result of the Dark Lord’s exploits, has led individuals to believe in what may not necessarily be true (such as Percy’s claims). Individuals become cases of principle versus cowardice, such as the case of Cornelius Fudge, who would not believe that Voldemort had risen once again nor agree to Dumbledore’s invitation to fight the newly-risen Voldemort, or principle that leads to Machiavellian action, such as Percy, which somehow points out his own Slytherin-like value of ambition, something he complains his father, Arthur, severely lacks.

In all these situations, Voldemort’s threat has become a true test of individual principle and the practice of it. Even in the real world, is it necessary for threats, dillemas and pain to exist, so that people may know whether their personal beliefs are built on a strong foundation or universally moral? Morality is already a highly complex subject in itself, and in the writer’s personal opinion, values are better when they are universally targeted at the goodwill of the human being, whilst life is respected and love is upheld, despite differences in race, religion, sex, or in spite of the human-created law to which an individual is subjected. In Rowling’s world, is it the battle of individuals of the “evil” camp versus the “good” camp? Or is it the battle of the good or evil deeds that people do?