Some theories of how the wards could (a) not detect Hermione was wounded and (b) claim that the Defense Professor killed Hermione.
Wounding wards:
Wards were tampered with
Hermione’s battle was fake. Hermione was not wounded during battle. When Hermione appeared to die, the Defense Professor killed another witch.
Dumbledore says “If Voldemort wishes us to distrust a truth told by the wards, then Voldemort has not fully mastered the wards. And in that case the wards had to believe that some Professor’s hand was at work, or they would have cried out at Miss Granger’s injury, and not only upon her death.”. Perhaps this means that any teacher can circumvent this ward
Defense Professor killer ward:
Wards were tampered with
See wounding ward theory 2.
The Mountain Troll was the killer. To identify the Defense Professor to the wards, Dumbledore drew a circle and said that that “he who stood within was the Defense Professor”. Quirrell arranged for the Mountain Troll to be in the circle. This explanation might require polyjuice, transfiguration of live organisms, or Quirrell to be female.
A previous Defense Professor, thought to be dead, was the killer.
Mountain Trolls are considered weapons, as Dumbledore said. “it was no stray creature, but a weapon pure and aimed.” The wards blamed the aimer of the Troll, not the Troll itself.
The Troll was a witch. The troll’s death triggered the wards.
EDIT Added Defense Professor killer explanation 5 and 6.
Oh, another hypothesis, based on something I’d forgotten: Slytherin’s Monster was supposed to be keyed into the wards at a higher level than the Headmaster himself. And in this version, it had knowledge it transmitted to Voldemort. What if that included knowledge of how to hack the wards? And then Quirrellmort decided to make the wards register himself as the killer, as a purloined-letter type deal?
This explanation might require polyjuice, transfiguration of live organisms, or Quirrell to be female.
I don’t get this. How does Quirrell being female explain anything? The only explanation I can think of is Quirrell being pregnant with a mountain troll, and that just raises more questions.
If Quirrell were female, “he who stands within” would refer to someone else, since “he” is masculin.
That’s pretty unlikely, though, since he’s apparently keyed into the wards as a professor, so far as anyone can tell.
(Quirrell keeping a troll shrunken/in hammerspace on his person at all times is my favorite explanation at present, even though it sounds like it should have a silliness penalty. He did mention the Hungarian Horntail in the same lecture where he mentioned the troll, and this particular theory would give more credence to the idea that he has one of those hidden somewhere as well.)
Dumbledore drew a circle and said that that “he who stood within was the Defense Professor”
Quirrellmort is “the quote undying unquote Baba Yaga, yes, I see some of you are still shuddering at the sound of her name even though she’s been dead for six hundred years.”
Quirrell heard about Minerva’s decision to support more heroism. He realized that Harry changed his original plan (to make all teachers obstacles to Harry, except Quirrell himself), but adapted quickly. He asked Minerva to do something heroic together, as teachers—to travel to the past and try saving Hermione.
In the past, he changed Minerva to Hermione, telling her that now the attack will come to Minerva and she can better defend against it, or do something very clever. Without Minerva’s knowledge, he changed Hermione into a troll, and somehow made her believe that the enemy’s plan is the following: while the real Hermione cannot be found, the false Hermione will try to kill Harry. Or something like that.
Now the troll (Hermione) heroically followed and attacked the false Hermione (Minerva) and tried to kill her. The sun didn’t hurt the troll, because it was not a real troll. Harry came and killed the troll (Hermione), which made the wards report that a student was killed. The dying false Hermione (Minerva) tried to do the right thing and explain Harry that it was not his fault.
Quirrell is now waiting for the moment when Harry tries to revive Hermione and realizes that the body/brain that he saved actually belongs to Minerva from the future. Then Harry will realize that he killed Hermione, and specifically destroyed her brain by explosion. That should turn Harry to the dark side.
In the Star Wars universe, maybe, where being betrayed by somebody automatically makes you join them (as does, reportedly, killing them). But Harry is more rational than Anakin.
Some theories of how the wards could (a) not detect Hermione was wounded and (b) claim that the Defense Professor killed Hermione.
Wounding wards:
Wards were tampered with
Hermione’s battle was fake. Hermione was not wounded during battle. When Hermione appeared to die, the Defense Professor killed another witch.
Dumbledore says “If Voldemort wishes us to distrust a truth told by the wards, then Voldemort has not fully mastered the wards. And in that case the wards had to believe that some Professor’s hand was at work, or they would have cried out at Miss Granger’s injury, and not only upon her death.”. Perhaps this means that any teacher can circumvent this ward
Defense Professor killer ward:
Wards were tampered with
See wounding ward theory 2.
The Mountain Troll was the killer. To identify the Defense Professor to the wards, Dumbledore drew a circle and said that that “he who stood within was the Defense Professor”. Quirrell arranged for the Mountain Troll to be in the circle. This explanation might require polyjuice, transfiguration of live organisms, or Quirrell to be female.
A previous Defense Professor, thought to be dead, was the killer.
Mountain Trolls are considered weapons, as Dumbledore said. “it was no stray creature, but a weapon pure and aimed.” The wards blamed the aimer of the Troll, not the Troll itself.
The Troll was a witch. The troll’s death triggered the wards.
EDIT Added Defense Professor killer explanation 5 and 6.
Oh, another hypothesis, based on something I’d forgotten: Slytherin’s Monster was supposed to be keyed into the wards at a higher level than the Headmaster himself. And in this version, it had knowledge it transmitted to Voldemort. What if that included knowledge of how to hack the wards? And then Quirrellmort decided to make the wards register himself as the killer, as a purloined-letter type deal?
I don’t get this. How does Quirrell being female explain anything? The only explanation I can think of is Quirrell being pregnant with a mountain troll, and that just raises more questions.
If Quirrell were female, “he who stands within” would refer to someone else, since “he” is masculin.
That’s pretty unlikely, though, since he’s apparently keyed into the wards as a professor, so far as anyone can tell.
(Quirrell keeping a troll shrunken/in hammerspace on his person at all times is my favorite explanation at present, even though it sounds like it should have a silliness penalty. He did mention the Hungarian Horntail in the same lecture where he mentioned the troll, and this particular theory would give more credence to the idea that he has one of those hidden somewhere as well.)
Oh, that makes sense. I missed the pronoun.
Quirrellmort is “the quote undying unquote Baba Yaga, yes, I see some of you are still shuddering at the sound of her name even though she’s been dead for six hundred years.”
Oh good, I thought I was the only person who suspected Baba Yaga. It was she I alluded to when writing
Not that she is my first suspect for this escapade.
Defense Professor killer ward explanation 5 is the one I thought of, reading the chapter, but I like explanation 3 too.
Wow. Imagine if Quirrel had transformed Hermione into the troll and the troll into a Hermione copy.
Ugh.
Then Harry would’ve been the killer.
And, due to his ‘connection’, the wards could’ve actually mistaken him for Quirrel.
A troll is unlikely to have any last words at all. Specifically not “not your fault.”
Also a troll is unlikely to die with the feeling of a thousand books.
I think this is a very low likelihood guess.
If not Hermoine, the only possible person to have died was McGonagall.
That being said, Hermoine’s dead. No tricks.
Yep, totally true. I didn’t assign it any significant probability, I just thought it was scary.
Actually, it was all like this:
Quirrell heard about Minerva’s decision to support more heroism. He realized that Harry changed his original plan (to make all teachers obstacles to Harry, except Quirrell himself), but adapted quickly. He asked Minerva to do something heroic together, as teachers—to travel to the past and try saving Hermione.
In the past, he changed Minerva to Hermione, telling her that now the attack will come to Minerva and she can better defend against it, or do something very clever. Without Minerva’s knowledge, he changed Hermione into a troll, and somehow made her believe that the enemy’s plan is the following: while the real Hermione cannot be found, the false Hermione will try to kill Harry. Or something like that.
Now the troll (Hermione) heroically followed and attacked the false Hermione (Minerva) and tried to kill her. The sun didn’t hurt the troll, because it was not a real troll. Harry came and killed the troll (Hermione), which made the wards report that a student was killed. The dying false Hermione (Minerva) tried to do the right thing and explain Harry that it was not his fault.
Quirrell is now waiting for the moment when Harry tries to revive Hermione and realizes that the body/brain that he saved actually belongs to Minerva from the future. Then Harry will realize that he killed Hermione, and specifically destroyed her brain by explosion. That should turn Harry to the dark side.
Problems:
1 - The troll regenerated.
2 - The troll was identified as a professor, not as a student.
Plus, if troll-Hermione wanted to kill a fake-Hermione I doubt she would start by eating her legs.
In the Star Wars universe, maybe, where being betrayed by somebody automatically makes you join them (as does, reportedly, killing them). But Harry is more rational than Anakin.