Why did Quirrell allow the unicorn corpses to be found? Why didn’t he dispose of the corpse by making it disappear, instead of trying to pass it off as a predator? Would anyone notice if a unicorn vanished without leaving a corpse? ( I suppose they might, since they’re medically valuable, but since unicorns are known not to have predators the predated corpse is hardly a good cover, as we saw. Vanishing the corpse would have made it take longer to notice.)
Anyway, this is one of the few times we see Quirrell’s plot clearly failing without anyone actually acting to thwart him. Is it plausible that he was actually unable to kill and drink a unicorn without anyone immediately noticing?
The alternative is that Quirrell does want people to know that unicorns get attacked.
If you want to make a magical reanimation ritual, a species that helps people on the verge of death seems to be a path to go. This whole interaction gave Harry information about unicorns.
This bothered me too. To fanwank something, perhaps when near death and desparately in need of unicorn pony blood Quirrell’s mental capacity is reduced.
Ah, that’s possible too. I was more implying that since such a mistake is implausible, it must have been intentional on Quirrell’s part- for example, perhaps it was a purposefully orchestrated plot to kill Draco. (actually, now that I thought of that, it seems obvious that this is exactly what it was)
How does he arrange for Draco to go to a Silver Slytherin meeting at exactly the right time to get caught by Filch, and then for Filch to give Draco that precise detention? That’s a lot of Imperiuses or other manipulation.
He just needs to know about SS meeting beforehand and tip off Filch about it without linking the tip to his ID. Only one hard manipulation here, which is to suggest a specific detention.
If he wanted to kill Draco, why not just AK him without being seen in the middle of the forest, and not reveal that the unicorn-eater is Draco’s murderer? Revealing that gives the heroes a place to actually strike back against the student-killer, which is the unicorn population.
1) Dunno, but I’m guessing it’s for the same reason why he didn’t just AK Hermione instead of using a troll? We haven’t been told the full extent of magic useful for forensics in this story—for example, in canon there is a spell that allows you to check which spells have been recently cast, so if you find an AK’ed corpse it would be fairly simple to check everyone’s wands for recently cast AK to narrow down suspects. (Not that there aren’t other ways to discreetly kill, but my main point is that we as audience aren’t aware of the constraints involved.)
2) Hogwarts ward doesn’t operate outside of Hogwarts, and the ward pointed fingers at Quirrell for Hermione’s death (presumably he possessed the troll or something). It wouldn’t do for that to happen repeatedly—how many times can one use the “framing” defense? Doing it in the forest avoids the wards, the dead unicorns were a pretext for getting Draco out to the forest, and the unicorn killer identity creates a possible extra suspect,
Or, are you saying that it allows the heroes to fight back by simply relocating the unicorns? That’s true...which means that Quirrell doesn’t think he will desperately need additional unicorn blood in the future.
Dunno, but I’m guessing it’s for the same reason why he didn’t just AK Hermione instead of using a troll? We haven’t been told the full extent of magic useful for forensics in this story
An AK’ed corpse in particular should be pretty easy to diagnose; the total lack of any other apparent causes of death should give it away.
However, there’s nothing in particular to prevent feeding the corpse to any of the various horrible creatures in the Forbidden Forest.
Hmm, is the Forbidden Forest within Hogwarts wards? Because I thought the reason he didn’t kill Hermione himself was so that Harry wouldn’t take it seriously when the wards said that “the defense professor” killed her.
If the wards do extend to the forest, Tracy can say she saw a dark thing which was not Quirrell kill Draco. If the wards don’t extend to the forest, killing him in the forest doesn’t alert the wards. The first is a motive against discreet killings, the second is a motive against doing it inside hogwarts.
And if he’s going to leave a corpse, he could at least do it silently.
Remember that Tracey ran towards the sound of a unicorn being attacked?
That’s what makes me sure that Quirrell wanted to get caught. There’s just no reason for him to skip the silencing spell, otherwise. (Unless he’s hiding from someone that can detect the use of magic?)
I don’t know how he got Tracey to approach, though.
Why did Quirrell allow the unicorn corpses to be found? Why didn’t he dispose of the corpse by making it disappear, instead of trying to pass it off as a predator? Would anyone notice if a unicorn vanished without leaving a corpse? ( I suppose they might, since they’re medically valuable, but since unicorns are known not to have predators the predated corpse is hardly a good cover, as we saw. Vanishing the corpse would have made it take longer to notice.)
Anyway, this is one of the few times we see Quirrell’s plot clearly failing without anyone actually acting to thwart him. Is it plausible that he was actually unable to kill and drink a unicorn without anyone immediately noticing?
The alternative is that Quirrell does want people to know that unicorns get attacked.
If you want to make a magical reanimation ritual, a species that helps people on the verge of death seems to be a path to go. This whole interaction gave Harry information about unicorns.
Hagrid would have noticed. Hagrid named each individual unicorn in the forest, and if one disappeared, he’d definitely go to Dumbledore about it.
Doesn’t work. Hagrid says explicitly in the chapter that he’s had almost no interaction with the unicorns.
He did notice when one died… No interaction does not mean being unaware of their existence (or lack thereof.)
Specific proof is that he knew Alicorn was dead before they found the body.
He can know that the unicorns live in a place, see the signs of their passing, without actually going up to them and interacting with them.
Right? How could he, he’s not a young virgin (probably).
Since school children were being used to investigate the dead unicorn it seems that passing it off as a predator worked fairly well.
This bothered me too. To fanwank something, perhaps when near death and desparately in need of unicorn pony blood Quirrell’s mental capacity is reduced.
Ah, that’s possible too. I was more implying that since such a mistake is implausible, it must have been intentional on Quirrell’s part- for example, perhaps it was a purposefully orchestrated plot to kill Draco. (actually, now that I thought of that, it seems obvious that this is exactly what it was)
How does he arrange for Draco to go to a Silver Slytherin meeting at exactly the right time to get caught by Filch, and then for Filch to give Draco that precise detention? That’s a lot of Imperiuses or other manipulation.
He did it with hermione, no?
He just needs to know about SS meeting beforehand and tip off Filch about it without linking the tip to his ID. Only one hard manipulation here, which is to suggest a specific detention.
And that could probably be done with appropriate False Memory Charm.
He’s got to have a time turner.
If he wanted to kill Draco, why not just AK him without being seen in the middle of the forest, and not reveal that the unicorn-eater is Draco’s murderer? Revealing that gives the heroes a place to actually strike back against the student-killer, which is the unicorn population.
1) Dunno, but I’m guessing it’s for the same reason why he didn’t just AK Hermione instead of using a troll? We haven’t been told the full extent of magic useful for forensics in this story—for example, in canon there is a spell that allows you to check which spells have been recently cast, so if you find an AK’ed corpse it would be fairly simple to check everyone’s wands for recently cast AK to narrow down suspects. (Not that there aren’t other ways to discreetly kill, but my main point is that we as audience aren’t aware of the constraints involved.)
2) Hogwarts ward doesn’t operate outside of Hogwarts, and the ward pointed fingers at Quirrell for Hermione’s death (presumably he possessed the troll or something). It wouldn’t do for that to happen repeatedly—how many times can one use the “framing” defense? Doing it in the forest avoids the wards, the dead unicorns were a pretext for getting Draco out to the forest, and the unicorn killer identity creates a possible extra suspect,
Or, are you saying that it allows the heroes to fight back by simply relocating the unicorns? That’s true...which means that Quirrell doesn’t think he will desperately need additional unicorn blood in the future.
An AK’ed corpse in particular should be pretty easy to diagnose; the total lack of any other apparent causes of death should give it away.
However, there’s nothing in particular to prevent feeding the corpse to any of the various horrible creatures in the Forbidden Forest.
Hmm, is the Forbidden Forest within Hogwarts wards? Because I thought the reason he didn’t kill Hermione himself was so that Harry wouldn’t take it seriously when the wards said that “the defense professor” killed her.
If the wards do extend to the forest, Tracy can say she saw a dark thing which was not Quirrell kill Draco. If the wards don’t extend to the forest, killing him in the forest doesn’t alert the wards. The first is a motive against discreet killings, the second is a motive against doing it inside hogwarts.
And if he’s going to leave a corpse, he could at least do it silently.
Remember that Tracey ran towards the sound of a unicorn being attacked?
That’s what makes me sure that Quirrell wanted to get caught. There’s just no reason for him to skip the silencing spell, otherwise. (Unless he’s hiding from someone that can detect the use of magic?)
I don’t know how he got Tracey to approach, though.