FF: Harry's Dream of the Turban

[marinafrants <rusalka@ix.netcom.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 48681

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dicentra63 <dicentra at x>" 
<dicentra at x> wrote:
> Upon rereading the first book again, something jumped out at me.  
The
> dream that Harry has right after the Sorting is interesting.  
(It's at
> the end of "The Sorting Hat.")  He dreams that Quirrell's turban 
is on
> his head, and it's telling him to transfer back into Slytherin 
because
> it's his "destiny."
> 
> Was that Harry's mind messing with him, or was there another factor
> involved?  I've dreamed up this little ficlet to demonstrate who 
might
> have been behind that dream and why.
> 

<snip ficlet>

> 
> IIRC, Voldemort never tries to persuade Harry to join him (except 
in
> TMTMNBN)--he's just hell-bent on killing him.  But that dream 
seems to
> me to be an attempt by someone to influence him.  And since 
Voldemort
> was at the Sorting, maybe he did it.
> 
> --Dicentra, with apologies to JKR

Well, I can easily imagine Voldemort wanting to influence Harry to 
his side -- it would be quite a coup for him, a huge moral victory. 
And it does seem that Vapormort had some ability to influence 
people's minds to some extent-- that's how he got Quirrel in the 
first place, right? -- so it stands to reason that Turban Voldy 
could do it too. I have two questions about this scenario, though.  
First, how would Voldemort know Harry's a Parselmouth?  Nobody else 
knew until Harry talked to a snake in public.  Of course, since 
Harry's Parselmouth ability supposedly comes from Voldemort himself, 
it's possible they have some sort of connection that enables 
Voldemort to tell...

The second question is, what exactly was Voldemort hoping to 
accomplish with that dream?  The dream-turban tells Harry he must 
switch to Slytherin house.  But Harry's already been sorted, and 
it's not like first-years can switch houses at their whim.  If the 
message was metaphorical, encouraging Harry to side with the Heir of 
Slytherin in his future, then it seems like a roundabout way of 
doing it -- eleven-year-old boys aren't much good at deciphering 
symbolism and metaphor; if you want them to do something, you have 
to tell them straight out.  So what exactly was Voldemort trying to 
get Harry to do, so early in the game?

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com