As we know, Harry’s idea of double memory-charm has not been presented to the Wizengamot, which is a good thing; not only is it low status, as Harry realized, it’s also unlikely to work, as Snape pointed out. Also, that’s not what happened.
Hermione has been told the right lie, to lead her through the right emotions—a growing suspicion towards Draco, mainly—and then she was Obliviated, and told the same lie over again, went through the same emotions again, and again. If the sense of disorientation isn’t a problem, she could have been looped through just the final, triggering sentence. Comulative effects had left her with the reoccuring thoughts and nagging doubts, the obsession we were told about. Even the idea of confronting Draco at the next battle, or keeping her doubts to herself could have been planted this way.
Hopefully it will be seen as a typical Voldemort-like cleverness by enough of the Wizengamot for the rest to work. In fact, redirecting Lucius’s anger towards the real perpetrator should be doable, and most of his faction (politics!) would be eager to accept Harry’s suggestion that Dumbledore was foolish enough to let an agent of the Dark Lord teach at Hogwarts—I doubt it would be a good idea to reveal the truth too early.
Quirrell, who, I think, is still held within the Ministry, will be brought for questioning, and revealed to be Voldemort. Whether it will be his power or the Bystander Effect (the title of the next trigger warning page) that holds the Wizengamot back long enough, I don’t know. Actually, a single threat could make most of them hesitate long enough… Than, just as planned, he tries to kill Harry, explodes, then it’s cheers and Butterbeers all ’round.
Harry will choose to cooperate with this plan because he will see it’s aim wasn’t to kill his friends—Draco could have been left for dead, and wasn’t—and because he doesn’t have five days to think of anything else.
It would be a serious change in the story and, with Quirrell gone, he couldn’t fulfill his promise of both Slytherin and Ravenclaw winning the House Cup—but these things would not motivate Voldemort to pass on this opportunity, I think.
Alternatively it could have been a way to determine the right memory charm to achieve the desired effect without using legilimency
The Potions Master was frowning thoughtfully, eyes intent. “The reaction to a False Memory Charm is hard to predict in advance, Mr. Potter, without Legilimency. The subjects do not always act as expected, when they first remember the false memories. It would have been a risky ploy. But I suppose that is one way Professor Quirrell could have done it.”.
Like how in the GHD iteration we saw, she revealed that she was susceptible to believing that Snape is a Death Eater, and that it’d be hard to convince her that Harry would betray her.
And, in fact, she was led to believe bad things about Snape, but not Harry:
She has been thinking of how Mr. Malfoy might be in league with Professor Snape, how he might be planning to harm her and harm Harry—imagining it for hours every day
As we know, Harry’s idea of double memory-charm has not been presented to the Wizengamot, which is a good thing; not only is it low status, as Harry realized, it’s also unlikely to work, as Snape pointed out. Also, that’s not what happened.
Hermione has been told the right lie, to lead her through the right emotions—a growing suspicion towards Draco, mainly—and then she was Obliviated, and told the same lie over again, went through the same emotions again, and again. If the sense of disorientation isn’t a problem, she could have been looped through just the final, triggering sentence. Comulative effects had left her with the reoccuring thoughts and nagging doubts, the obsession we were told about. Even the idea of confronting Draco at the next battle, or keeping her doubts to herself could have been planted this way.
Hopefully it will be seen as a typical Voldemort-like cleverness by enough of the Wizengamot for the rest to work. In fact, redirecting Lucius’s anger towards the real perpetrator should be doable, and most of his faction (politics!) would be eager to accept Harry’s suggestion that Dumbledore was foolish enough to let an agent of the Dark Lord teach at Hogwarts—I doubt it would be a good idea to reveal the truth too early.
Quirrell, who, I think, is still held within the Ministry, will be brought for questioning, and revealed to be Voldemort. Whether it will be his power or the Bystander Effect (the title of the next trigger warning page) that holds the Wizengamot back long enough, I don’t know. Actually, a single threat could make most of them hesitate long enough… Than, just as planned, he tries to kill Harry, explodes, then it’s cheers and Butterbeers all ’round.
Harry will choose to cooperate with this plan because he will see it’s aim wasn’t to kill his friends—Draco could have been left for dead, and wasn’t—and because he doesn’t have five days to think of anything else.
It would be a serious change in the story and, with Quirrell gone, he couldn’t fulfill his promise of both Slytherin and Ravenclaw winning the House Cup—but these things would not motivate Voldemort to pass on this opportunity, I think.
Your explanation of the Groundhog Day attack is the only one I’ve seen so far that makes sense.
Alternatively it could have been a way to determine the right memory charm to achieve the desired effect without using legilimency
The Potions Master was frowning thoughtfully, eyes intent. “The reaction to a False Memory Charm is hard to predict in advance, Mr. Potter, without Legilimency. The subjects do not always act as expected, when they first remember the false memories. It would have been a risky ploy. But I suppose that is one way Professor Quirrell could have done it.”.
Like how in the GHD iteration we saw, she revealed that she was susceptible to believing that Snape is a Death Eater, and that it’d be hard to convince her that Harry would betray her. And, in fact, she was led to believe bad things about Snape, but not Harry:
(Dumbledore in Ch79)
You don’t buy the trial-and-error argument?