Application of lessons / Quirrell plot hole?

[Grey Wolf]

No: HPFGUIDX 45117

Barb P wrote:
> Ironically, one of the skills necessary for Harry to get to the Stone
> was Hermione's logic, which isn't taught at Hogwarts at all (which
> means that Quirrell was at least as logical as Snape and Hermione, as
> he also got past it). <snip>

I have to point out that the person I think resolved the potion puzzle 
was not Quirrel, but Voldemort. Although many of the listees feel that 
Voldemort is only a stupid evil overlord, I think he is very 
intelligent indeed, perfectly capable of planing and plotting, and 
*more than a match for Dumbledore* (canon-point). He was definetely 
intelligent enough to almost win the last time (until his almost-fatal 
error of trying to kill a baby, which wasn't predictable for anyone, 
much less for him), so he's probably quite a logical thinker too. After 
all, he grew up in the muggle world, so I'd asume he got at least a 
brief view of muggle logic.

> And, since one of Quirrell's specialties was supposed to be dealing
> with trolls (and Dumbledore knows this, as Quirrell contributed the
> troll to help guard the Stone), one has to wonder why Quirrell wasn't
> immediately suspect for letting the troll in, especially as he didn't
> do anything in particular to deal with it, as one would expect the
> resident troll-expert to do.  I can't remember whether this possible 
> plot hole has been mentioned before...
>  
> --Barb

You're making a big suposition there, Barb. There is no reason to 
believe anyone apart from Quirrel himself knew his proficiency with 
trolls. Let's examine Quirrel more closely: Before leaving for Albania 
(and his encounter with Voldemort), Quirrel had been a good DADA 
teacher from a theorical point of view. Hagrid (IIRC) mentions that his 
biggest problem was that he had no real practical experience with dark 
creatures of any kind, that he knew this, and that it was the main 
reason for going off to the Albanian forest to learn from first hand 
experiences.

He later came back and he had (seemenly) turned into that handful of 
nerves, "scared of his own students" pose everyone takes for real. At 
that point, I don't think no-one would have thought him capable of 
confronting a house-elf, much less a full-grown troll. He still, of 
course, had his theorical knowledge of such creatures and would have 
lectured, difidently, Dumbledore if he had asked about his choice of 
guardian. At that point, Quirrell, who had had ample time to learn how 
to deal with trolls in Albania and was sure he could handle one, 
suggests a troll. And Dumbledore gets someone to bring him a big troll 
to guard the stone. 

As you can see, there is no reason for Quirrell to get involved. In 
fact, a few coments on the line "I think the creature I would most 
definetely would not want to fight is a troll" would have helped with 
both the situation and to instill in everyone's minds that he was as 
useless as a paper shield against the troll. And of course, if this was 
the case, no-one would suspect him of having fetched the troll for 
Halloween, not "poor stuttering professor Quirrell".

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf, who hadn't mentioned MAGIC DISHWASHER in this post, but 
which is no lenger the case