I don’t think Rita Skeeter is good evidence. It would not do for Quirrell to have Harry notice an unexpected, strange burst of magic when he’s trying to quietly kill someone; Quirrell would have found a way to suppress it, if it had existed. (It’s also possible that her Animagi transformation suppressed the effect.) The absence of the burst of magic in Harry’s parents’ deaths, on the other hand, has led me to an inverse suspicion to yours...
Yes, I think so. Q has just been telling Harry at length how awful she is and how H has done a good thing by having her career ruined, and a chapter or two before Q said to her something like “I cannot deny myself the pleasure of simply crushing you”.
I don’t think Rita Skeeter is good evidence. It would not do for Quirrell to have Harry notice an unexpected, strange burst of magic when he’s trying to quietly kill someone; Quirrell would have found a way to suppress it, if it had existed. (It’s also possible that her Animagi transformation suppressed the effect.) The absence of the burst of magic in Harry’s parents’ deaths, on the other hand, has led me to an inverse suspicion to yours...
Am I naive in that I thought it was ambiguous as to whether Rita’s death was intentional?
Yes, I think so. Q has just been telling Harry at length how awful she is and how H has done a good thing by having her career ruined, and a chapter or two before Q said to her something like “I cannot deny myself the pleasure of simply crushing you”.