It could indeed be that he isn’t actually lying in parseltongue, as you suggest. I think I’ve come out too strong on that point. But the threat to kill Harry is a bluff. Voldemort has some really compelling reason to not kill Harry.
Right, he’s not lying. Inability to lie in Parseltongue has been established clearly enough that it would be very odd for it to be broken now. Also, in between two Parseltongue statements, he says in English, “Still a fool. If no further matters remained between us, I would already have killed you.” Why would he switch from Parseltongue to English and back to Parseltongue?
Now, let’s look at what exactly he says.
“But you tried to end my true life jusst then, sstupid child. Now cursse iss lifted, and I may kill you any time I wissh.”
“But you tried to end my true life jusst then, sstupid child.” Harry tried to kill Quirrell. This is accurate.
“Now cursse iss lifted...”—there was, at one point, a curse. This curse, at the time Quirrell is speaking, has been lifted, and no longer holds. What curse? It’s not specified. Is he telling the truth about the details of the curse? He didn’t say it in Parseltongue. Did the Riddle curse exist? It was only introduced in this chapter, and as far as I know, it wasn’t foreshadowed at all. Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t. But there was some curse that held at one time and no longer holds.
″...and I may kill you any time I wissh.”—he didn’t say “as a result of the curse’s lifting”, and he didn’t say he’s willing to kill him. He just said that it is technically possible.
It could have to do with the bargain from earlier: “I do not intend to raisse my hand or magic againsst you in future, sso long ass you do not raisse your hand or magic againsst me.”
Why would he switch from Parseltongue to English and back to Parseltongue?
If Voldemort can lie in Parseltongue, then it’s a ruse to conceal that fact. This has the dual effect of causing Harry to accept the literal truth of what VM says in Parseltongue without question, as well as persuading Harry to not even attempt to tell any direct lies to VM in Parseltongue. Those are both strong advantages manufactured from thin air, and VM is clever enough to spin such a deception.
And “snakes can’t lie”, really? That’s a pretty odd inversion of colloquialisms like “speaking with a forked tongue.” Ssuddenly I feel like ssomeone is trying to ssell me a bridge.
Inability to lie in Parseltongue has been established clearly enough that it would be very odd for it to be broken now.
Has it? Harry performed one simple test at a time when Voldemort expected that test to be performed, and we don’t know that the results weren’t influenced by other magic. We haven’t seen it tested with occlumency. We certainly haven’t seen it tested by a perfect occlumens. Even if we had seen those results it wouldn’t be conclusive about what the most powerful wizard alive, who also knows the secrets of Salazar, is capable of.
I think for meta reasons that I’m probably wrong, but based only on in-world evidence I don’t see any reason at all to take Voldemort’s word that Parseltongue is a language of truth.
It could indeed be that he isn’t actually lying in parseltongue, as you suggest. I think I’ve come out too strong on that point. But the threat to kill Harry is a bluff. Voldemort has some really compelling reason to not kill Harry.
Right, he’s not lying. Inability to lie in Parseltongue has been established clearly enough that it would be very odd for it to be broken now. Also, in between two Parseltongue statements, he says in English, “Still a fool. If no further matters remained between us, I would already have killed you.” Why would he switch from Parseltongue to English and back to Parseltongue?
Now, let’s look at what exactly he says.
“But you tried to end my true life jusst then, sstupid child.” Harry tried to kill Quirrell. This is accurate.
“Now cursse iss lifted...”—there was, at one point, a curse. This curse, at the time Quirrell is speaking, has been lifted, and no longer holds. What curse? It’s not specified. Is he telling the truth about the details of the curse? He didn’t say it in Parseltongue. Did the Riddle curse exist? It was only introduced in this chapter, and as far as I know, it wasn’t foreshadowed at all. Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t. But there was some curse that held at one time and no longer holds.
″...and I may kill you any time I wissh.”—he didn’t say “as a result of the curse’s lifting”, and he didn’t say he’s willing to kill him. He just said that it is technically possible.
It could have to do with the bargain from earlier: “I do not intend to raisse my hand or magic againsst you in future, sso long ass you do not raisse your hand or magic againsst me.”
If Voldemort can lie in Parseltongue, then it’s a ruse to conceal that fact. This has the dual effect of causing Harry to accept the literal truth of what VM says in Parseltongue without question, as well as persuading Harry to not even attempt to tell any direct lies to VM in Parseltongue. Those are both strong advantages manufactured from thin air, and VM is clever enough to spin such a deception.
And “snakes can’t lie”, really? That’s a pretty odd inversion of colloquialisms like “speaking with a forked tongue.” Ssuddenly I feel like ssomeone is trying to ssell me a bridge.
Has it? Harry performed one simple test at a time when Voldemort expected that test to be performed, and we don’t know that the results weren’t influenced by other magic. We haven’t seen it tested with occlumency. We certainly haven’t seen it tested by a perfect occlumens. Even if we had seen those results it wouldn’t be conclusive about what the most powerful wizard alive, who also knows the secrets of Salazar, is capable of.
I think for meta reasons that I’m probably wrong, but based only on in-world evidence I don’t see any reason at all to take Voldemort’s word that Parseltongue is a language of truth.