This scenario is the only explanation I can think of for why Voldemort is prioritizing Hermione’s body over his own, giving Harry all his options back, advertising his moment of weakness, and generally behaving like a second-rate Hollywood villain. Confidence: 25%.
So, Voldemort has two approaches to the “prevent Harry from destroying the universe” plan. First is killing Harry, second is turning Harry away from destructive paths.
He might reasonably be uncertain of how the first plan will work. Harry is Tom Riddle, and that means killing Harry might just put him in the Horcrux system, and now Good Tom and Bad Tom are having a psychic battle instead of a physical or a magical one. Given that Bad Tom has the upper hand in physical and magical battles, being reluctant to fight a psychic battle instead seems appropriately cautious.
The second plan involves niceness, which Voldemort is not very practiced at. It does have the upside of having another sane individual to play chess with, and with Hermione keeping Harry from doing anything too crazy the stars are safe (indeed, safer, because now there’s a second Riddle working to improve things). But, more importantly, because Voldemort hasn’t tried this one much before, he doesn’t know how and when to expect it to go wrong. So he makes rookie mistakes.
This would explain mistakes particular to being nice, like fortifying Hermione’s body first, but it does not explain more general errors like letting Harry keep his wand and pouch.
it does not explain more general errors like letting Harry keep his wand and pouch.
“Hey, long term ally! I’m going to make your friend immortal because I’m a guy that’s profitable to work with! But first strip naked and give me your wand.”
In an alternate universe that no longer exists. (That is, Ch. 109 is different now.) I do agree that a retcon is involved makes that less probable.
But in the intervening minutes I’ve thought of a better explanation: Voldemort is thinking about a new and difficult subject, and that’s consuming enough of his attention that he is making general errors.
Overall, the plausibility relative to the alternate theories—that Voldemort is pretending to lose—is indeed low. But given the fearsomeness of an intelligent Dark Lord, basically the only hope that Harry has is somehow surprising Voldemort, and this surprise seems more plausible than a partial transfiguration surprise.
So, Voldemort has two approaches to the “prevent Harry from destroying the universe” plan. First is killing Harry, second is turning Harry away from destructive paths.
He might reasonably be uncertain of how the first plan will work. Harry is Tom Riddle, and that means killing Harry might just put him in the Horcrux system, and now Good Tom and Bad Tom are having a psychic battle instead of a physical or a magical one. Given that Bad Tom has the upper hand in physical and magical battles, being reluctant to fight a psychic battle instead seems appropriately cautious.
The second plan involves niceness, which Voldemort is not very practiced at. It does have the upside of having another sane individual to play chess with, and with Hermione keeping Harry from doing anything too crazy the stars are safe (indeed, safer, because now there’s a second Riddle working to improve things). But, more importantly, because Voldemort hasn’t tried this one much before, he doesn’t know how and when to expect it to go wrong. So he makes rookie mistakes.
This would explain mistakes particular to being nice, like fortifying Hermione’s body first, but it does not explain more general errors like letting Harry keep his wand and pouch.
“Hey, long term ally! I’m going to make your friend immortal because I’m a guy that’s profitable to work with! But first strip naked and give me your wand.”
He already did that. After he absorbed the lesson about being nice. So I still don’t see how being nice explains away these errors.
In an alternate universe that no longer exists. (That is, Ch. 109 is different now.) I do agree that a retcon is involved makes that less probable.
But in the intervening minutes I’ve thought of a better explanation: Voldemort is thinking about a new and difficult subject, and that’s consuming enough of his attention that he is making general errors.
Overall, the plausibility relative to the alternate theories—that Voldemort is pretending to lose—is indeed low. But given the fearsomeness of an intelligent Dark Lord, basically the only hope that Harry has is somehow surprising Voldemort, and this surprise seems more plausible than a partial transfiguration surprise.