However, Harry knows that Draco’s snake is specifically a Blue Krait, and has seen it before. The probability that Quirrell would end up with a Blue Krait by pure chance is low.
The reference in the text doesn’t state anything more than that it was a snake, not that it was a Blue Krait. We don’t even get to see Harry’s reaction, be it familiarity or perceiving it as novel.
The snake is described as “gleaming soft white” and “silver”, which fits with the description of a patronus. And as it doesn’t match the description of Quirrelmort’s animagus snake “bright green and intricately banded in white and blue”, it is clearly not Quirrelmort’s animagus form.
While I assign a much higher probability that we just saw Drako’s patronus, we can’t rule out the possibility that it was someone else’s patronus, including Quirrelmort, even though I see those odds as being exceptionally low.
Sorry, I thought you were implying that Harry might be deceived by Quirrell pretending to be Draco, not that you were making a comment on what we can predict about the next chapter.
Just because Harry saw the snake Patronus doesn’t mean he recognizes the species. He probably could recognize the same Patronus, but maybe not; Harry paid more attention to it than a regular snake, but if I saw a snake once, and then saw another snake three months later, I don’t think I’d be sure they were the same even if I did have reason to think they were.
True. Then again, Harry knew when he taught Draco that one of the uses of a Patronus is to carry unfakeable messages, for which you need to know exactly what the other person’s Patronus looks like. Also, it’s the snake on Lucius’s cane, which we know he paid attention to. If he recognised Draco’s snake as that snake, it would set it firmly enough in his mind that he might recognise it when he saw it again.
However, Harry knows that Draco’s snake is specifically a Blue Krait, and has seen it before. The probability that Quirrell would end up with a Blue Krait by pure chance is low.
The reference in the text doesn’t state anything more than that it was a snake, not that it was a Blue Krait. We don’t even get to see Harry’s reaction, be it familiarity or perceiving it as novel.
The snake is described as “gleaming soft white” and “silver”, which fits with the description of a patronus. And as it doesn’t match the description of Quirrelmort’s animagus snake “bright green and intricately banded in white and blue”, it is clearly not Quirrelmort’s animagus form.
While I assign a much higher probability that we just saw Drako’s patronus, we can’t rule out the possibility that it was someone else’s patronus, including Quirrelmort, even though I see those odds as being exceptionally low.
Sorry, I thought you were implying that Harry might be deceived by Quirrell pretending to be Draco, not that you were making a comment on what we can predict about the next chapter.
The chance that Quirrell would do anything by pure chance is low.
Just because Harry saw the snake Patronus doesn’t mean he recognizes the species. He probably could recognize the same Patronus, but maybe not; Harry paid more attention to it than a regular snake, but if I saw a snake once, and then saw another snake three months later, I don’t think I’d be sure they were the same even if I did have reason to think they were.
True. Then again, Harry knew when he taught Draco that one of the uses of a Patronus is to carry unfakeable messages, for which you need to know exactly what the other person’s Patronus looks like. Also, it’s the snake on Lucius’s cane, which we know he paid attention to. If he recognised Draco’s snake as that snake, it would set it firmly enough in his mind that he might recognise it when he saw it again.
File under “more evidence needed”.