The fact that Quirrel sometimes reverts to zombie mode suggests that Voldemort is teleoperating that body. Perhaps he has more than one body for that purpose, and simply used a different body for the breakin, rather than polyjuicing the first one. It would be odd that both bodies could assume snake-form, but I see no reason in principle why that magic wouldn’t be transferrable.
If that’s what happened, then the Quirrel body might still be alive somewhere. Voldemort might be alive (in which case he would return to Quirrel’s body, and pin the blame on Harry), or temporarily dead, in which case Quirrel’s vacant body might turn up somewhere.
Re: Voldemort teleoperating Quirrell… if there’s a quick summary somewhere of why this is a plausible explanation for Q’s occasional zombie mode, I’d love a pointer.
Re: remote-snakeform… if that’s what’s going on, it would be better writing to introduce the possibility of remote animagusing somewhere along the line. Lacking any such introduction (or have I just missed it?) it seems a far simpler explanation that Harry’s current companion and Harry’s DODA instructor share a body, and that body is a snake animagus. (cf hooves, horses, zebras)
The fact that Quirrel sometimes reverts to zombie mode suggests that Voldemort is teleoperating that body. Perhaps he has more than one body for that purpose, and simply used a different body for the breakin, rather than polyjuicing the first one. It would be odd that both bodies could assume snake-form, but I see no reason in principle why that magic wouldn’t be transferrable.
If that’s what happened, then the Quirrel body might still be alive somewhere. Voldemort might be alive (in which case he would return to Quirrel’s body, and pin the blame on Harry), or temporarily dead, in which case Quirrel’s vacant body might turn up somewhere.
This is plausible, and fits with my speculation that Quirrell’s been Dementor-kissed.
On the other hand, Harry still feels a sense of doom when Quirrell is in zombie mode, which suggests that Voldemort isn’t completely gone then.
Re: Voldemort teleoperating Quirrell… if there’s a quick summary somewhere of why this is a plausible explanation for Q’s occasional zombie mode, I’d love a pointer.
Re: remote-snakeform… if that’s what’s going on, it would be better writing to introduce the possibility of remote animagusing somewhere along the line. Lacking any such introduction (or have I just missed it?) it seems a far simpler explanation that Harry’s current companion and Harry’s DODA instructor share a body, and that body is a snake animagus. (cf hooves, horses, zebras)