The Fall of the House of Longbottom

[cathubodva_raven]

No: HPFGUIDX 40914

Heather wrote:
>I got the sense that it was *sharing*, not
>complete *possession*. When Voldemort shared
>Quirrell's body, he really didn't take over Quirrell's
>entire persona, he just basically tagged along on the
>back of his head.

Heather, you're right about Quirrell, but I was under the impression 
that Voldemort was talking about something completely different.  He 
says: "I sometimes inhabited animals -- snakes, of course, being my 
preference -- but I was little better off inside them than as pure 
spirit, for their bodies were ill adapted to perform magic..." (GoF, 
Bloomsbury ed, pg 567).  Aside from the question of how you're going 
to fit Voldemort's face on a snake, he seems to be saying that once 
he got hold of a body he could make it do whatever he wanted.  He 
doesn't seem to give the impression that he had to 'ask his host' 
anything, or that he could only get a body on time-share.

A little further on, he speaks of Bertha Jorkins: "...her mind and 
body were both damaged beyond repair.  She had now served her 
purpose.  I could not possess her.  I disposed of her." (GoF, 
Bloomsbury ed, pg 569)  Obviously, he considered it, and might have 
gone through with it if her mind and body were in better condition.  
Bertha was a MoM employee, and not a Death Eater, so I doubt she 
would have been as accommodating as Quirrell.  Yes, Voldemort 
tortured her, but torturing someone doesn't make them love you (and I 
don't think he had time to try and make a Patti Hearst of her), so I 
can only assume that Voldemort would have had complete control of her 
mind and body, or else she'd probably have thrown herself under a 
train.  If that were the case, then I'd imagine that as long as the 
body had a hand to hold a wand, and a mouth to speak incantations, he 
could cast whatever spell he liked, no matter how young the body was.

Because he speaks as though he could commandeer bodies (and minds), 
I'd imagined that it was a different spell to the one he used on 
Quirrell.

Cathubodva.