Quirrell is trying to alienate Harry from his lifelines by manipulating everyone into being unhelpfully helpful. It’s one of the core emotional triggers for the Harry, and the Defense Professor knows this.
After this chapter I’ve updated heavily in favor of Quirrell being genuinely terrified and trying to run damage control. That means giving him more emotional lifelines.
Admittedly, it also probably means making Harry dependent on an information source Quirrell can trust not to say too much, i.e. himself, but…
That does not seem to jive with the last lines of chapter 89, which are first-person accounts of Quirrell’s feelings.
He’d felt the fury the boy had directed at some annoyance who was likely Dumbledore; followed by an unknown resolution whose unyielding hardness even he found adequate. With any luck, the boy had just discarded his foolish little reluctances.
Unseen by anyone, the Defense Professor’s lips curved up in a thin smile. Despite its little ups and downs, on the whole this had been a surprisingly good day.
EDIT: I also updated in favor of Quirrell being genuinely terrified after chapter 92, but only slightly. The evidence from chapter 89 still dominates in my mind since 89 has an uncensored account of Quirrell’s true feelings.
Note for readability: I did not realize that the prophecy was dialog, said aloud by Trelawney, until I read this comment. I read the prophecy as Quirrell thinking to himself, narrating for the reader why he was happy.
First time I read that, I interpreted it as “it would not be enough to prevent Harry from tearing the world apart”. But there is another possible interpretation : if we consider that Quirrelmort was trying to turn Harry dark, and killing Hermione was part of that plan, then we can interpret it completely to the opposite : the killing Hermione won’t be enough to turn Harry dark.
I don’t give a high probability to the second interpretation, but it does stand on its own feet.
For a rationalist fic, where you’re meant to be able to work things out though, it does seem a bit ‘magical’ if the answer to every “well that’s a bit weird” is “Quirrell probably did it”. It’s fitting the evidence to your theory.
What weird things do we know Quirrell wasn’t behind?
Dumbledore is Santa Clause and sneaks into students’ bedrooms to leave them notes.
Snape was helping SPHEW.
Whoever memory charmed Rita Skeeter (Gilderoy Lockhart?) was almost certainly not Quirrell.
Harry himself was behind the weird events in Chapter 13. In fact, Harry is behind a lot of the weird events in the book, but we don’t always realize that because we see them from his point of view.
Whoever memory charmed Rita Skeeter (Gilderoy Lockhart?) was almost certainly not Quirrell.
What? Why? There was that time that he threatened her in chapter 25. Also, it would explain how he knew that Harry had enlisted the Weasley twins.
There’s a motive, too. At lunch afterward, he made Harry deal with the cognitive dissonance of ruining somebody’s life, yet feeling proud of himself at the same time. If I was Quirrell I would have helped fake the story just to make Harry rationalize destroying Rita Skeeter.
It’s possible that the Weasley twins hired Quirrell and not Lockhart, but I tend to think that Quirrell was genuinely surprised at the newspaper article about Harry’s betrothal and it took him a few minutes to realize it was done with a false memory charm. Quirrell’s smart, but not omniscient.
For any weird thing, you may be able to find someone who thinks that “Quirrell did it”. That doesn’t mean some faction out there believes Quirrell is responsible for every weird thing—different people think Quirrell is responsible for different weird things.
Well, (in chapter 90), McGonagall’s first visit seemed to be of her own accord but then the Defense Professor went in and upon returning said this to her:
And though it is not my own area of expertise, Deputy Headmistress, if there is any way you can imagine to convince the boy to stop sinking further into his grief and madness—any way at all to undo the resolutions he is coming to—then I suggest you resort to it immediately.”
Manipulating and convincing people of things is absolutely Quirrell’s area of expertise and it seems plausible that he realizes that putting immense pressure on McGonagall to do something (because poor old Quirrell sure can’t!) will cause her to make poor decisions regarding whether Harry should be left alone and/or unobstructed in his activities.
Further supported by Snape’s line from when he enters the room at the beginning of chapter 51:
“I also cannot imagine what the Deputy Headmistress is thinking,” said the Potions Master of Hogwarts. “Unless I am meant to serve as a warning of where it will lead you, if you decide to take the blame for her death upon yourself.”
and by the continuing pressure Quirrell exerts on McGonagall at the end of chapter 52:
“That would be worse than pointless. Dumbledore cannot reach the boy. At best he is wise enough to know this and make things no worse. I lack the requisite frame of mind. You are the one who—but I see that you still look for others to save you.”
Again Quirrell cites his own inability to help with the problem and now disqualifies Dumbledore as well. The last part in particular echos Harry’s criticism of her ineffectiveness and I wouldn’t be surprised if Quirrell was somehow aware of their exchange and using McGonagall’s weakened confidence to spur her to action.
So Quirrell seems to be manipulating McGonagall directly and everyone else by extension.
I suspect Quirrell was aware of the exchange, if he can do the same trick as in canon with names:
“No! You-Know-Who killed Hermione!” She was hardly aware of what she was saying, that she hadn’t screened the room against who might be listening. “Not you! No matter what else you could’ve done, it’s not you who killed her, it was Voldemort! If you can’t believe that you’ll go mad, Harry!”
Specific mention of not screening the room, and then saying the V-word out loud.
That is a good point. And in canon, it was a useful thing to do since it was only the Order & Co. who dared say the name, allowing for decent signal to noise.
I’d thought maybe in HP:MoR the order might be showing more caution, but in Multiple Hypothesis Testing Dumbledore uses the word—and with Moody there. I’d expect the HP:MoR versions of Dumbledore and Moody to to avoid it if they thought there was serious risk.
That said, the specific mention of not screening for listeners does still jump out at me like a Hint.
It struck me as a hint as well, but I don’t think it was specifically saying Voldemort’s name that did it. It’s just that she openly states that she believes him to be alive and active, and thus reveals to a surreptitious listener that she—and likely Dumbledore—have this knowledge or are acting under these beliefs. That’s more than enough, given the interest that the murderer and Quirrell (if they are different people) would have in the room at the time.
Quirrell is trying to alienate Harry from his lifelines by manipulating everyone into being unhelpfully helpful. It’s one of the core emotional triggers for the Harry, and the Defense Professor knows this.
After this chapter I’ve updated heavily in favor of Quirrell being genuinely terrified and trying to run damage control. That means giving him more emotional lifelines.
Admittedly, it also probably means making Harry dependent on an information source Quirrell can trust not to say too much, i.e. himself, but…
That does not seem to jive with the last lines of chapter 89, which are first-person accounts of Quirrell’s feelings.
EDIT: I also updated in favor of Quirrell being genuinely terrified after chapter 92, but only slightly. The evidence from chapter 89 still dominates in my mind since 89 has an uncensored account of Quirrell’s true feelings.
And quite specifically, ironically, and counterpointedly placed before the prophecy.
Note for readability: I did not realize that the prophecy was dialog, said aloud by Trelawney, until I read this comment. I read the prophecy as Quirrell thinking to himself, narrating for the reader why he was happy.
From 93:
Woop. There goes that theory :-).
First time I read that, I interpreted it as “it would not be enough to prevent Harry from tearing the world apart”. But there is another possible interpretation : if we consider that Quirrelmort was trying to turn Harry dark, and killing Hermione was part of that plan, then we can interpret it completely to the opposite : the killing Hermione won’t be enough to turn Harry dark.
I don’t give a high probability to the second interpretation, but it does stand on its own feet.
For a rationalist fic, where you’re meant to be able to work things out though, it does seem a bit ‘magical’ if the answer to every “well that’s a bit weird” is “Quirrell probably did it”. It’s fitting the evidence to your theory.
What weird things do we know Quirrell wasn’t behind?
Dumbledore is Santa Clause and sneaks into students’ bedrooms to leave them notes.
Snape was helping SPHEW.
Whoever memory charmed Rita Skeeter (Gilderoy Lockhart?) was almost certainly not Quirrell.
Harry himself was behind the weird events in Chapter 13. In fact, Harry is behind a lot of the weird events in the book, but we don’t always realize that because we see them from his point of view.
The universe is behind Comed-Tea.
Anything else?
What? Why? There was that time that he threatened her in chapter 25. Also, it would explain how he knew that Harry had enlisted the Weasley twins.
There’s a motive, too. At lunch afterward, he made Harry deal with the cognitive dissonance of ruining somebody’s life, yet feeling proud of himself at the same time. If I was Quirrell I would have helped fake the story just to make Harry rationalize destroying Rita Skeeter.
It’s possible that the Weasley twins hired Quirrell and not Lockhart, but I tend to think that Quirrell was genuinely surprised at the newspaper article about Harry’s betrothal and it took him a few minutes to realize it was done with a false memory charm. Quirrell’s smart, but not omniscient.
Good point. Now if only Quirrell wasn’t actually behind 75% of all the weird things happening in the story (as far as we can tell)...
For any weird thing, you may be able to find someone who thinks that “Quirrell did it”. That doesn’t mean some faction out there believes Quirrell is responsible for every weird thing—different people think Quirrell is responsible for different weird things.
It wasn’t done at Quirrel’s suggestion, though, as far as we can tell.
Well, (in chapter 90), McGonagall’s first visit seemed to be of her own accord but then the Defense Professor went in and upon returning said this to her:
Manipulating and convincing people of things is absolutely Quirrell’s area of expertise and it seems plausible that he realizes that putting immense pressure on McGonagall to do something (because poor old Quirrell sure can’t!) will cause her to make poor decisions regarding whether Harry should be left alone and/or unobstructed in his activities.
Further supported by Snape’s line from when he enters the room at the beginning of chapter 51:
and by the continuing pressure Quirrell exerts on McGonagall at the end of chapter 52:
Again Quirrell cites his own inability to help with the problem and now disqualifies Dumbledore as well. The last part in particular echos Harry’s criticism of her ineffectiveness and I wouldn’t be surprised if Quirrell was somehow aware of their exchange and using McGonagall’s weakened confidence to spur her to action.
So Quirrell seems to be manipulating McGonagall directly and everyone else by extension.
I suspect Quirrell was aware of the exchange, if he can do the same trick as in canon with names:
Specific mention of not screening the room, and then saying the V-word out loud.
Are you talking about the Taboo? Because I really got the impression that he couldn’t implement it until he was in charge of the Ministry.
That is a good point. And in canon, it was a useful thing to do since it was only the Order & Co. who dared say the name, allowing for decent signal to noise.
I’d thought maybe in HP:MoR the order might be showing more caution, but in Multiple Hypothesis Testing Dumbledore uses the word—and with Moody there. I’d expect the HP:MoR versions of Dumbledore and Moody to to avoid it if they thought there was serious risk.
That said, the specific mention of not screening for listeners does still jump out at me like a Hint.
It struck me as a hint as well, but I don’t think it was specifically saying Voldemort’s name that did it. It’s just that she openly states that she believes him to be alive and active, and thus reveals to a surreptitious listener that she—and likely Dumbledore—have this knowledge or are acting under these beliefs. That’s more than enough, given the interest that the murderer and Quirrell (if they are different people) would have in the room at the time.