PS/SS Ch. 17 summary

[katzefan at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 29443

The person waiting for Harry is Prof. Quirrell. He is no longer 
stuttering. He tells Harry that he (Quirrell), not Snape, was trying 
to get Harry's broomstick to toss him off during the Quidditch 
match, and that Snape was in fact muttering a counter-curse to 
save Harry. He also tells Harry that he let the troll in at 
Halloween. He binds Harry with ropes from his wand.

Quirrell then looks into the Mirror of Erised and sees himself 
presenting the Philosopher's Stone to Voldemort. Harry wants to 
keep Quirrell busy so he can't focus on the mirror too much. He 
says he thought he heard Quirrell sobbing a few days earlier and 
he thought Snape was threatening Quirrell. For the first time he 
sees fear in Quirrell's face, as the teacher admits he finds it hard 
to follow Voldemort's orders sometimes and that he has made 
many mistakes so Voldemort has had 'to be very hard on me.'

Quirrell wonders if he should break the mirror to get at the Stone. 
Harry wants to look in the Mirror too, but can't get near enough as 
he is still bound. Suddenly, a second voice seems to come from 
Quirrell, saying 'Use the boy.' Quirrell unties Harry, who comes 
over and looks into the mirror. Harry sees his reflection wink at 
him, then pull a blood-red Stone out of its pants pocket. At the 
same time, he feels something heavy drop into his pants pocket. 
Knowing he must lie, he says he sees himself shaking hands 
with Dumbledore after winning the house cup for Gryffindor. 
Harry begins to walk away, when the second voice speaks 
again: 'He lies.' Then it says 'Let me speak to him - face to face.' 
Quirrell begins unwinding his turban. He turns his back on Harry, 
who sees an inhuman face where the back of Quirrell's head 
should be. It's Voldemort, with very snake-like features.

Voldemort tries reasoning with Harry for the Stone, then tells him 
he'll die if he doesn't give it up. He says Harry's mother 'needn't 
have died' but she died to protect him -- but if he doesn't turn over 
the Stone, she'll have died in vain. Harry tries to run, and 
Voldemort orders Quirrell to seize him. But Quirrell can't hold 
Harry - his hands are badly burned just from being in contact 
with Harry.

Voldemort then orders Quirrell to kill Harry, and just as Quirrell 
raises his wand, Harry reaches up and grabs Quirrell's face, 
causing it to burn and blister. He realizes Quirrell can't touch him 
without terrible pain, and his only hope is to keep Quirrell in 
enough pain that he can't perform any magic. Harry's scar  hurts 
very badly, but he continues to hang onto Quirrell. Suddenly he 
feels Quirrell's arm pulled from his grasp, and he passes out.

When he comes to, he's in the Hogwarts hospital. A nearby table 
is loaded with candies. Albus Dumbledore is watching him and 
smiling. Harry tries to explain that Quirrell has the Stone and 
Dumbledore, after getting him to calm down, explains Quirrell 
did not get the Stone - that he had arrived just in time to pull 
Quirrell off Harry and that the Stone has been destroyed.

Harry is shocked. This means Nicolas Flamel will die. 
Dumbledore says it may seem incredible they are willing to do 
this, but for Flamel and his wife, it is like going to bed after a
very, very long day.

Harry asks if You-Know-Who has other ways of returning. 
Dumbledore admonishes him to call Voldemort by his real 
name, because 'fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.' 
He says Voldemort is not truly alive, and therefore cannot be 
killed, but if people are willing to continue to fight him, he may 
never be able to come back. He also tells Harry that Voldemort 
left Quirrell to die.

Harry asks why Voldemort wanted to kill him. Dumbledore says 
he can't tell him that yet, but in future, he will know.

He also tells Harry his mother's willingness to die for him 
sprang from a powerful enough love that it left its own mark, 
though not one that can be seen. Their evil natures made it 
impossible for Voldemort - and Quirrell - to touch anything 
marked with such a profound love.

He tells Harry that the invisibility cloak belonged to James Potter, 
and had been left in Dumbledore's care. He gave it to Harry.

Even more startling is the news that Snape and James Potter 
did know each other, and detested each other, not unlike Harry 
and Draco. But James at one point saved Snape's life. This put 
Snape in James's debt, which he couldn't stand. Dumbledore 
says Snape worked hard to keep Harry safe this year so the debt 
would be quits and 'he could go back to hating your father's 
memory in peace....' He says the reason Harry was able to get 
the Stone because only someone who wanted to find it but not 
use it could get it.

Later Ron and Hermione visit Harry. He relates his story and they 
tell him how they were running to the owlery when they met 
Dumbledore in the entrance hall. He said 'Harry's gone after him, 
hasn't he?' and rushed off to the third floor. Ron wonders if 
Dumbledore orchestrated things so Harry would ultimately 
confront Quirrell - and Voldemort. Hermione is shocked, saying it 
could have gotten Harry killed. Harry thinks Dumbledore knows 
'more or less' everything that goes on at Hogwarts,  knew the 
three were going to figure out the riddle and taught them enough 
to help them get through it. He thinks Dumbledore 'thought I had 
the right to face Voldemort if I could....'

The next day a distressed and repentent Hagrid visits Harry. In 
tears, he blames himself, saying Harry could have died. Harry 
says this was Voldemort; he'd have found a way. Hagrid tells him 
not to say the name, and Harry shouts 'VOLDEMORT!' Hagrid is 
so shocked he stops crying. He turns down an offer of Chocolate 
Frogs, and says he has a present for Harry. It's an album full of 
wizard photographs of Harry's father and mother.

At the end-of-year feast that night, Slytherin is ahead for the 
house cup. Gryffindor is in last place. But Dumbledore says he 
has a few additional points to give out. He awards 50 points to 
Ron 'for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in 
many years.' Hermione get 50 points 'for the use of cool logic in 
the face of fire.' Harry gets 60 points for 'pure nerve and 
outstanding courage.' This brings Gryffindor even with Slytherin. 
The tie-breaker is 10 points to Neville Longbottom because of 
his courage in standing up not to enemies, but to his friends, 
when he tried to prevent them from leaving the common room.

The exam results come out. Harry and Ron have passed with 
respectable grades. Hermione is top of the class. They're given 
notes warning them not to use magic over the holidays, and they 
board the Hogwarts Express. When they go their separate ways 
at King's Cross Station, Vernon Dursley is waiting to pick Harry 
up. He's curt to the point of rudeness when Mrs. Weasley tries to 
talk to him. Hermione, shocked, tells Harry she hopes he has a 
good holiday. He says he's going to. 'THEY don't know we're enot 
allowed to use magic at home. I'm going to have a lot of fun with 
Dudley this summer.'


Questions

1) Were you expecting Quirrell?

2) Voldemort seems to be pretty clueless when it comes to 
dealing with Harry. He allows Quirrell to unbind Harry. He 
repeatedly orders Quirrell to grab the boy, even after it's obvious 
Quirrell can't hang onto him. Then when he does order Quirrell to 
kill, Quirrell is still close enough that Harry can counter-attack. 
Why doesn't Voldemort order Quirrell to back away to a safe 
distance and blast Harry, either with a killing spell or another 
binding spell?

3) Do you agree with Dumbledore that, given the opportunity, 
human beings have a knack for choosing 'precisely those things 
which are worst for them'?

4) Why do you think Voldemort wanted to kill Harry in particular? 
Why won't Dumbledore tell Harry, now, what the reason is?  

5) Do you think Dumbledore knew what was going on all along, 
and worked from behind the scenes to give the trio the 
information they needed to solve the riddle? Do you think he 
believed Harry had 'the right to face Voldemort if I could' despite 
the risks?

6) Were you disappointed with Harry when he said he intends to 
'have a lot of fun with Dudley this summer' because the Dursleys 
don't know he can't use magic over the holidays? Or did you have 
a sneaking sympathy with Harry's new ability to 'get back' at 
Dudley for some of the misery Dudley caused him?