JKR’s giant mistake?

Fri Aug 6 03:14:49 UTC 2004

No: HPFGUIDX 109098

Well, not THAT giant (sorry, couldn't resist borrowing Rita's 
headline). Not on the scale of the Priori Incantatem's order, 
perhaps, but I suspect another significant mistake in GoF, and maybe 
in PoA as well. Either that, or we have a rather curious finding. But 
let me start at the beginning.

Other than LV himself, only five characters in canon pronounce 
Voldemort's name regularly: DD, Harry, Lupin, Sirius and Hermione 
(who has only started in OotP). Two other characters pronounces it 
with great reluctance: McGonagall, when challenged to do so by DD, 
pronounces it several times in SS/PS, Ch. 1, but reverts to "You-Know-
Who" for the rest of the series. Hagrid utters it once, when he has 
to explain to Harry who killed his parents (SS/PS, Ch. 4). JKR 
usually makes sure to highlight it when we find out for the first 
time one of the characters above does use the V-word:
-------------------------------------------
Dumbledore (SS/PS, Ch. 1):

"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call 
him by his name? All this `You-Know-Who' nonsense – for eleven years 
I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: 
Voldemort." Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was 
unsticking two sherbet lemons, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so 
confusing if we keep saying `You-Know-Who'. I have never seen any 
reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."
-------------------------------------------
Harry (SS/PS, Ch. 6):

"
 and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a 
wizard or about my parents or Voldemort –"
Ron gasped.
"What?" said Harry.
"You said You-Know-Who's name!" said Ron, sounding both shocked and 
impressed. "I'd have thought you, of all people –"
--------------------------------------------
Lupin (PoA, Ch. 8):

"Well," said Lupin, frowning slightly, "I assumed that if the Boggart 
faced you, it would assume the shape of Lord Voldemort."
Harry stared. Not only was this the last answer he'd expected, but 
Lupin had said Voldemort's name. The only person Harry had ever heard 
say the name aloud (apart from himself) was Professor Dumbledore.
--------------------------------------------
Sirius (PoA, Ch. 10):

Black started to laugh, a horrible, mirthless laugh that filled the 
whole room. 
"Voldemort, teach me tricks?" he said.
Pettigrew flinched as though Black had brandished a whip at him.
"What, scared to hear your old master's name?" said Black. 
---------------------------------------------
Hermione (OotP, Ch. 15):

He looked helplessly at Hermione, whose face was stricken.
"Harry," she said timidly, "don't you see? This . . . this is exactly 
why we need you . . . we need to know what it's r-really like . . . 
facing him . . . facing V-Voldemort."
It was the first time she had ever said Voldemort's name and it was 
this, more than anything else, that calmed Harry. 
--------------------------------------------

Other wizards and witches almost never fail to shudder and/or protest 
whenever one of the characters above utters the name. Snape and 
Bellatrix are especially horrified when Harry pronounces it. So it's 
no wonder that Valky (#104274) recently came up with a nice theory 
about LV's magic power growing from this collective fear in the WW 
(the post that started me really thinking about the subject). Even if 
this theory is not technically true, I'm personally sure that 
saying/not saying the V-word is a strong metaphor in HP for people's 
courage to challenge a regime of terror. 

But here several members (for example, Pippin in #104465) were quick 
to point out that saying "Voldemort" is not that simple a touchstone 
for knowing who the Really Good Guys are, because Crouch!Moody does 
utter it in GoF:

-----------------------------
(GoF, Ch. 35, pp. 673-674 US):
Moody helped tip the stuff down Harry's throat; he coughed, a peppery 
taste burning his throat. Moody's office came into sharper focus, and 
so did Moody himself. He looked as white as Fudge had looked, and 
both eyes were fixed unblinkingly upon Harry's face.
"Voldemort's back, Harry? You're sure he's back? How did he do it?"
"He took stuff from his father's grave, and from Wormtail, and me," 
said Harry.
-------------------------------

Now, I always had the strong suspicion that Crouch!Moody using the V-
word here is simply an editing mistake. To see why, let's look at the 
dialog between Harry and Crouch Jr here. Note that Crouch Jr is 
using "the Dark Lord" both before and after that single "Voldemort", 
while Harry is using "Voldemort". Unlike the cases I cited above, JKR 
does not highlight Crouch Jr's single use of "Voldemort" in any way. 
I emphasized the words "Voldemort" and "Dark Lord" in capital letters 
so you can see the pattern better:  

------------------------------------------------------
Crouch Jr:  "What happened. Harry?" 

Harry:  "Cup was a Portkey. Took me and Cedric to a graveyard
 and 
VOLDEMORT was there
 Lord VOLDEMORT 

Crouch Jr:  "The DARK LORD was there? What happened then?"

Harry:  "Killed Cedric
 they killed Cedric
"

Crouch Jr:  "And then?"

Harry:  "Made a potion
 got his body back
"

Crouch Jr:  "The DARK LORD got his body back? He's returned?"

Harry:  "And the Death Eaters came
 and then we dueled
"

Crouch Jr:  "You dueled with the DARK LORD?"

Harry:  "Got away
 my wand
 did something funny
 I saw my mum and 
dad
 they came out of his wand
"

Crouch Jr:  "In here. Harry
 in here, and sit down
 You'll be all 
right now
drink this
 Drink it
 you'll feel better
 come on, now. 
Harry, I need to know exactly what happened
"

	<Crouch helps Harry drink something>

Crouch Jr:  "VOLDEMORT's (<---exception!!!) back, Harry? You're sure 
he's back? How did he do it?"

Harry:  "He took stuff from his father's grave, and from Wormtail, 
and me,"	

Crouch Jr:  "What did the DARK LORD take from you?"

Harry:  "Blood," 

Crouch Jr:  "And the Death Eaters? They returned?"

Harry:  "Yes. Loads of them
"

Crouch Jr:  "How did he treat them?" Did he forgive them?"

Harry:  "There's a Death Eater at Hogwarts! There's a Death Eater 
here - they put my name in the Goblet of Fire, they made sure I got 
through to the end -"

Crouch Jr:  "I know who the Death Eater is," he said quietly.

Harry:  "Karkaroff? Where is he? Have you got him? Is he locked up?"

Crouch Jr:  "Karkaroff? Karkaroff fled tonight, when he felt the Dark 
Mark burn upon his arm. He betrayed too many faithful supporters of 
the DARK LORD to wish to meet them
 but I doubt he will get far. The 
DARK LORD has ways of tracking his enemies."

<Snip a large part of the dialog, in which Crouch refers to LV only 
as "he" and once as "my master">

Crouch Jr:  "The DARK LORD didn't manage to kill you. Potter, and he 
so wanted to. Imagine how he will reward me when he finds I have done 
it for him. I gave you to him - the thing he needed above all to 
regenerate - and then I killed you for him. I will be honored beyond 
all other Death Eaters. I will be his dearest, his closest supporter

closer than a son
"

Crouch Jr:	"The DARK LORD and I have much in common. Both of us, 
for instance, had very disappointing fathers
very disappointing 
indeed. Both of us suffered the indignity, Harry, of being named 
after those fathers. And both of us had the pleasure
the very great 
pleasure
 of killing our fathers to ensure the continued rise of the 
Dark Order!"

Harry: "You're mad," Harry said - he couldn't stop himself- "you're 
mad!"

Crouch Jr: "Mad, am I? We'll see! We'll see who's mad, now that the 
DARK LORD has returned, with me at his side! He is back, Harry 
Potter, you did not conquer him - and now - I conquer you!"
---------------------------------------

At this point DD stuns Crouch. In the following Veritaserum 
confession, Crouch refers to LV always as "my master". You can see 
how this single "Voldemort" doesn't seem to belong in there, among 
all the "Dark Lord"s, and it is not highlighted in any way.

So I scanned through GoF again, to see how Crouch Jr refers to LV in 
all the other chapters. Well, very conveniently he doesn't refer to 
LV at all in other chapters, but I did stumble upon another highly 
suspicious "Voldemort", uttered not by Crouch Jr but by his father, 
Crouch Sr (it's in the family, I guess). This is in the Pensieve 
scene, during Bagman's trial:

------------------------------------------------
(GoF Ch. 30, p. 592 US): 

"Ludovic Bagman, you were caught passing information to Lord 
Voldemort's supporters," said Mr. Crouch. "For this, I suggest a term 
of imprisonment in Azkaban lasting no less than -"
But there was an angry outcry from the surrounding benches. Several 
of the witches and wizards around the walls stood up, shaking their 
heads, and even their fists, at Mr. Crouch.
"But I've told you, I had no idea!" Bagman called earnestly over the 
crowd's babble, his round blue eyes widening.
-----------------------------------------------  

This case is even more absurd, IMO, than Crouch Jr's case. There are 
many Wizards present, and they indeed protest, but NOT over Crouch 
using the V-word. They protest over Crouch trying to convict the 
popular Quidditch beater Bagman. Crouch refers to LV twice again in 
the Pensieve scene, during the trial of Bellatrix et al., and in both 
cases he calls him "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named". A bit funny since he 
had just named him.

At this point I became really suspicious. Not suspicious enough to 
post, however, especially since just recently I myself chided another 
list member for assuming that a piece of canon she didn't like was 
JKR's mistake (erm... sorry Potioncat. Just goes to show that the 
best of us must sometimes eat our words ;-) ). so I went to search 
all the other books. It turned out that Quirrell mentions the V-word 
twice: 
-------------------------------
(SS/PS, Ch. 17, pp. 290-291):

All Harry could think of doing was to keep Quirrell talking and stop 
him concentrating on the Mirror.
"I saw you and Snape in the Forest –" he blurted out.
"Yes," said Quirrell idly, walking around the Mirror to look at the 
back. "He was on to me by that time, trying to find out how far I'd 
got. He suspected me all along. Tried to frighten me – as though he 
could, when I had Lord Voldemort on my side 
"

<slightly later>

"He is with me wherever I go," said Quirrell quietly. "I met him when 
I travelled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of 
ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how 
wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and 
those too weak to seek it
--------------------------------

However, since Quirrell at that time is possessed by Voldy, I guess 
this is not much stranger than Voldy himself saying his own name, 
which he does many times with great relish.

In CoS I didn't find any "Voldemort" that is not uttered by Harry, DD 
or Tom Riddle. But then I arrived at PoA, and what did I find there? 
Peter Pettigrew, at the Shack, says Voldemort's name ONCE:

------------------------------------
(PoA, Ch. 19, p. 369 US):
"I must admit, Peter, I have difficulty in understanding why an 
innocent man would want to spend twelve years as a rat," said Lupin 
evenly.

"Innocent, but scared!" squealed Pettigrew. "If Voldemort's 
supporters were after me, it was because I put one of their best men 
in Azkaban — the spy, Sirius Black!"
------------------------------------

This is IMO the most suspicious "Voldemort". This is only one page 
after Pettigrew himself flinches from Sirius saying the V-word (as 
cited in the beginning of this post). In all other cases in the 
Shack, Pettifrew refers to LV twice as "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" and 
once as "the Dark Lord". That single "Voldemort" is not highlighted 
in any way.

But what caps it all for me is this: Pettigrew, Crouch Sr and Crouch 
Jr actually DON'T use the word "Voldemort".

No, they don't. All three of them use "Voldemort's".

Pettigrew: "If Voldemort's supporters were after me"

Crouch Sr: "you were caught passing information to Lord Voldemort's 
supporters".

Crouch Jr: ""Voldemort's back, Harry?"

Now, I'm sure you can build a very interesting theory on this amazing 
coincidence, but I have a horrible suspicion that the explanation is 
rather mundane: JKR or one of her editors run a computerized search 
over all occurrences of the word "Voldemort" in the manuscripts, when 
editing them, to make sure this word is not spoken by any character 
who shouldn't speak it. Unfortunately they have the option "find 
whole words only" checked, and so they miss the "Voldemort's" cases. 

Hyperbole? JKR gives this excuse for the mistake of the incorrect 
Priori Incantatem order in her website: 

"Lily first, then James. That's how it appears in my original 
manuscript but we were under enormous pressure to edit it very fast 
and my American editor thought that was the wrong way around, and he 
is so good at catching small errors I changed it without thinking, 
then realised it had been right in the first place. We were all very 
sleep-deprived at the time."

Of course, I might have missed other interesting Voldemorts in the 
books. Also, the books I have are the US hardcovers. I'd be very 
interested to know if the three "Voldemort's" above exist in all 
other editions, especially the more recent. If even one of them was 
corrected, this means that all three of them were probably mistakes. 
However, even if they were not corrected yet, I still tend towards 
the mistake explanation, unless someone can come up with a nice 
theory (reminds you of the Priori Incantatem story again?)

And finally, I resubmit for your consideration the old hypothesis: 
Wizards who pronounce the word "Voldemort" are either Voldemort 
himself, or possessed by him, or are really brave guys.

Neri
(who squirms when thinking about some of his own recent embarrassing 
mistakes. It was that darn spell checker again, I swear!)