Voldemort is the only person in the world with an obvious motive for wanting to break Bellatrix out of Azkaban, and is who everyone else thinks is responsible
What motive would Harry expect Voldemort to have? As far as I can recall, he doesn’t know about the components required for the spell to revive someone kept from death by horcruxes, and Bellatrix is not a very capable servant for the time being, and he doesn’t believe Voldemort cared about her in any case. Quirrell, on the other hand, has already claimed a selfish motive that he personally has for freeing Bellatrix that would not apply to Voldemort.
Keep in mind that for Harry, the potential hypothesis space is huge. Quirrell might secretly be Rudolph Wizencamp in disguise. Don’t know who Rudolph Wizencamp is? Well, neither does Harry, he’s only lived in the wizarding world for a few months after all. We can reason by dramatic convention and conservation of detail, but for Harry, the list of all possibilities raised by the facts about the wizarding world that he’s aware of is far from exhaustive.
Dumbledore told Harry in the “Today your war has begun” speech that Bellatrix was one of three things Voldemort needed to return as strong as he was before.
The flesh of his servant, willingly given; the blood of his foe, forcibly taken; and the bone of his ancestor, unknowingly bequeathed. Voldemort is a perfectionist—” Albus glanced at Severus, who nodded agreement, “—and he would certainly seek the most powerful combination: the flesh of Bellatrix Black, the blood of Harry Potter, and the bone of his father.
Though personally I think Albus Dumbledore’s blood (if he could obtain it) and Salazar Slytherin’s bone (if he could find such) would be a more interesting combination; as it differs from canon in all three elements.
I have alarm bells going off in my head and I feel like I read something suggesting that Quirrell took Harry’s blood at some point in time. Or that Harry bled in his presence. Or something. This could be a fake memory though because it’s very vague.
Earlier in this very same chapter, Harry tells Quirrell that he can’t imagine Quirrell hurting someone unless he means to. (This was in context of their discussion of the Gryffindor who cast a dark curse without knowing what it did.)
So we can assume that either Quirrell isn’t as precise as Harry thinks and accidentally hurt Harry, or that he’s exactly as precise as Harry thinks and took the blood on purpose.
Snape tells Moody that the “bone of the father” has to be removed from the original grave during the ritual. It stands to reason that the other two components must be sacrificed during the ritual as well.
I couldn’t decide where to put it! Your post was kinda sorta a furtherance of chaosmosis’s point, and and it could have been a reply to ArisKatsaris below too, and and it was just so confusing!
But personally I doubt it has some deeper significance. Quirrel seemed honestly distracted by the article at that time—and a papercut doesn’t leave much if any blood on the paper… as the paper moves away fast enough that blood doesn’t even have time to flow on it.
I find “a papercut doesn’t leave much if any blood on the paper… as the paper moves away fast enough that blood doesn’t even have time to flow on it” way more convincing than “Quirrel seemed honestly distracted by the article at that time”.
a papercut doesn’t leave much if any blood on the paper… as the paper moves away fast enough that blood doesn’t even have time to flow on it.
It is possible to engineer, though, if you’re manipulating the paper with great telekinetic precision. I accidentally bloodstained a book that way when I was about Harry’s age.
Though it must be said that in canon, it didn’t take much. After cutting Harry’s arm with a dagger, “Wormtail, still panting with pain, rumbled in his pocket for a glass vial and held it to Harry’s cut, so that a dribble of blood fell into it.”
I also don’t remember anything specific about Harry bleeding in any chapter, but an opportunity to take it unawares would have been just before chapter 60, when Harry was sleeping in Quirrel’s presence.
A potential problem with Quirrel doing this is that the ritual’s requirements seem to distinguish between “forcibly” and “unknowingly”. It’s possible that he’ll have to do it by directly forcing Harry to give up his blood, not by deceiving or tricking him, or even letting him lie unconscious while he’s pulling it out.
I was referring to a question of objective fact, not a prediction or speculation. Saying that Harry bled in Quirrell’s presence in no way assumes that Harry is Voldemort’s foe. Your comment wasn’t relevant to mine.
Nitpick: You’re not wording it exactly right. In canon it said “bone of the father” and “blood of the enemy”—not “bone of the ancestor” nor “blood of sworn enemy”.
We can also remember that harry was asked by Lesath Lestrange, which gives you an obvious other option for someone who would want to break her out. Having a child who loves her is going to change his view of the evilness of breaking her out.
What motive would Harry expect Voldemort to have? As far as I can recall, he doesn’t know about the components required for the spell to revive someone kept from death by horcruxes, and Bellatrix is not a very capable servant for the time being, and he doesn’t believe Voldemort cared about her in any case. Quirrell, on the other hand, has already claimed a selfish motive that he personally has for freeing Bellatrix that would not apply to Voldemort.
Keep in mind that for Harry, the potential hypothesis space is huge. Quirrell might secretly be Rudolph Wizencamp in disguise. Don’t know who Rudolph Wizencamp is? Well, neither does Harry, he’s only lived in the wizarding world for a few months after all. We can reason by dramatic convention and conservation of detail, but for Harry, the list of all possibilities raised by the facts about the wizarding world that he’s aware of is far from exhaustive.
Dumbledore told Harry in the “Today your war has begun” speech that Bellatrix was one of three things Voldemort needed to return as strong as he was before.
What were the other two things?
See chapter 61:
Though personally I think Albus Dumbledore’s blood (if he could obtain it) and Salazar Slytherin’s bone (if he could find such) would be a more interesting combination; as it differs from canon in all three elements.
I have alarm bells going off in my head and I feel like I read something suggesting that Quirrell took Harry’s blood at some point in time. Or that Harry bled in his presence. Or something. This could be a fake memory though because it’s very vague.
Was it this bit?
Earlier in this very same chapter, Harry tells Quirrell that he can’t imagine Quirrell hurting someone unless he means to. (This was in context of their discussion of the Gryffindor who cast a dark curse without knowing what it did.)
So we can assume that either Quirrell isn’t as precise as Harry thinks and accidentally hurt Harry, or that he’s exactly as precise as Harry thinks and took the blood on purpose.
Snape tells Moody that the “bone of the father” has to be removed from the original grave during the ritual. It stands to reason that the other two components must be sacrificed during the ritual as well.
This is a good point. (Why is it a reply to me rather than chaosmosis?)
I couldn’t decide where to put it! Your post was kinda sorta a furtherance of chaosmosis’s point, and and it could have been a reply to ArisKatsaris below too, and and it was just so confusing!
Nice catch! Upvoted.
But personally I doubt it has some deeper significance. Quirrel seemed honestly distracted by the article at that time—and a papercut doesn’t leave much if any blood on the paper… as the paper moves away fast enough that blood doesn’t even have time to flow on it.
I find “a papercut doesn’t leave much if any blood on the paper… as the paper moves away fast enough that blood doesn’t even have time to flow on it” way more convincing than “Quirrel seemed honestly distracted by the article at that time”.
It is possible to engineer, though, if you’re manipulating the paper with great telekinetic precision. I accidentally bloodstained a book that way when I was about Harry’s age.
Though it must be said that in canon, it didn’t take much. After cutting Harry’s arm with a dagger, “Wormtail, still panting with pain, rumbled in his pocket for a glass vial and held it to Harry’s cut, so that a dribble of blood fell into it.”
That was it.
I also don’t remember anything specific about Harry bleeding in any chapter, but an opportunity to take it unawares would have been just before chapter 60, when Harry was sleeping in Quirrel’s presence.
A potential problem with Quirrel doing this is that the ritual’s requirements seem to distinguish between “forcibly” and “unknowingly”. It’s possible that he’ll have to do it by directly forcing Harry to give up his blood, not by deceiving or tricking him, or even letting him lie unconscious while he’s pulling it out.
Harry has also fallen asleep around Quirrel since then, in the warehouse after the prison break.
This assumes that Harry is V’s foe, not an obvious assumption in this fanfic.
I was referring to a question of objective fact, not a prediction or speculation. Saying that Harry bled in Quirrell’s presence in no way assumes that Harry is Voldemort’s foe. Your comment wasn’t relevant to mine.
Neg karma, anyone care to explain why?
Bone of ancestor, blood of sworn enemy (assuming Bellatrix will fulfil the ‘flesh of servant’ role; it seems very likely.)
That is how it went in canon, anyway, although Voldemort used Peter Pettigrew as the servant there.
Nitpick: You’re not wording it exactly right. In canon it said “bone of the father” and “blood of the enemy”—not “bone of the ancestor” nor “blood of sworn enemy”.
Right.
Good point about Bellatrix not being a very capable servant. Hmmm...
We can also remember that harry was asked by Lesath Lestrange, which gives you an obvious other option for someone who would want to break her out. Having a child who loves her is going to change his view of the evilness of breaking her out.