A fate worse than death ALIAS finale vs Book 7

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 153000

Catherine wrote:
>   Well to quote Dumbledore, "Voldemort left Quirrel to die". So I
guess technically, neither Voldemort or Harry killed him outright. But
did Quirrel die because of what Harry did to him, because Voldemort
left his body or a combination of both? 
> Harry certainly had a part in his death. 

Carol responds:
All Harry did was touch Quirrell's face with his hands, which burned
Quirrell because Quirrell was trying to kill him. He did not try to
choke Quirrell or anything like that, and he certainly didn't crumble
him to dust as in the film. In fact, he quickly lost consciousness.
Lily's blood protection prevents Voldemort, via Quirrell, from killing
Harry, but neither it nor Harry kills Quirrell directly. It's unclear
whether the blood protection protects Harry from Quirrell because
Quirrell is trying to kill him or because Quirrell is possessed by
Voldemort or both.

I don't know to what extent Quirrell himself had become evil, but he
had certainly allowed Voldemort inside his head and he had killed a
unicorn and drunk its blood, so I don't think he's *just* the puppet
of Voldemort. (DD says that Quirrell, "full of hatred and greed and
ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort, could not touch [Harry]"
because Harry was "marked" by his mother's love.) Regardless of
Quirrell's motive, he's intent on murdering Harry and Harry, an
eleven-year-old child, fights back in the only way possible, with his
bare hands, accidentally discovering that they have the power to burn
(not kill) Quirrell and taking advantage of that power to fend him
off. Harry is not a murderer or even a soldier in a war here. He's
only a child struggling with a man who's about to kill him. If it
hadn't been for the blood protection and/or the timely appearance of
Dumbledore, who arrives "just in time to pull Quirrell off [Harry]"
(SS Am. ed. 297), Harry would have died. And Quirrell himself dies
like one of the rats or snakes that Vapormort possessed in Albania
when Voldemort leaves Quirrell's body, fleeing "the only one he ever
feared." 

But Quirrell is also a victim of the DADA curse--or jinx, if you will,
but considering what it did to Quirrell and Barty Jr. (the actual
teacher if not the person who was hired, that's one malicious jinx).
I don't know if you were on the list when I posted my infamous DADA
curse post, 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/137961

but I think that the Quirrell portion may be relevant here:

"Carol takes a deep breath and plunges in:
Although SS/PS is admittedly vague about Quirrell's death (unlike the
film, which makes Harry directly responsible), Voldemort indicates in
GoF that Quirrell died when he (Vapormort) left his (Quirrell's) body.
This fate corresponds with that of the animals Vapormort possesses. He
uses up their life and energy keeping himself alive just as a parasite
kills its host. In fact, he is exactly that, a parasite. He has taken
what he can from Quirrell and discards him when he is through.

"However, I'd like to propose a slightly different twist regarding
Quirrell's fate and tie it to that of the other DADA professors. While
Quirrell is killed by the mechanism I've described, he is also, like
all the other DADA professors, a victim of the DADA jinx (which
appears, actually, to be a rather sinister curse considering the grim
fates of the DADA teachers we've seen so far). I would even go so far
as to say that Quirrell is killed either by the will of Voldemort
acting through the DADA curse, or by the curse itself, which seems to
have taken on a life or mind of its own. (Mr. Weasley warns us about
objects that seem able to think for themselves. What about an abstract
entity like a class that destroys everyone who teaches it?)

"We first hear of the jinx in SS/PS when Percy tells the new
Griffindors about it, also correctly informing us that Snape applies
for the DADA course every year (why he would do so knowing that it's
jinxed is another question, which I've explored in message 137706).

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/137706

"Percy's information is confirmed in GoF (Snape applying for the post
every year) and HBP (the jinx on the position is real, not a rumor
spread by students). Moreover, the jinx (or curse) has been placed by
Voldemort himself and has been in place since he applied for the
position a second time (at a point when he had made some but not all
of his Horcruxes). If my math and memory are correct, he's about 35
years old at this time, which would make Snape a child of about three.
(Harry, of course, is about eighteen years in the future.) Professor
Merrythought has, we presume, long since retired and we don't know who
held the position between her retirement, ca. 1945, and the placement
of the jinx, ca. 1963. We also don't know what happened to the victims
of the jinx in the long years between the placement of the jinx and
Harry's arrival at Hogwarts in 1991--except for one.

"Young professor Quirrell teaches DADA for what we must assume is one
year and then gets the wild idea of pursuing vampires and other Dark
creatures in Albania, exactly the place where Vapormort is hiding.
Since we know that the jinx is at work and is real, this desire must
be its manifestation the first time he teaches the course. It draws
him from the seemingly safe haven of Hogwarts right into the not yet
visible arms of Voldemort.

"Quirrell is gone for a year, during which some unknown teacher
bravely or foolishly teaches the course. We don't know what happens to
him or her, but the position is again open when Quirrell reapplies (as
does Snape, but DD for whatever reason, and I've already presented my
views on the subject, chooses Quirrell). This time Quirrell has
brought his own doom with him. Somehow (and this is a question I can't
explore here but am curious about) he has brought Vapormort back to
England with him, perhaps as a deformed infant or concealed inside
Nagini. We don't know and it isn't relevant here.

"It's important to note, however, that Voldemort is *not yet inside
Quirrell's head* when Quirrell is given the position. He looks
perfectly normal, if understandably pale and nervous, when he shakes
hands with Harry in the Leaky Cauldron. He's introduced as Harry's
DADA instructor, so he already has the position. That same day,
probably immediately after Hagrid takes the Sorceror's Stone out of
the vault, Quirrell tries to rob the same vault and is punished for
his failure to steal it by having Voldemort possess him. Next time we
see Quirrell, he is wearing the purple turban to disguise the face in
the back of his head. The DADA jinx has manifested itself though no
one except Snape suspects what Quirrell is concealing. It's only a
matter of time (a three-term school year, of course) before Quirrell
fails his master again and meets his doom. Voldemort and the curse
operate in tandem, whether Voldemort consciously wills it or not, to
bring Quirrell down, to utterly and permanently destroy him. His
loyalty means nothing to Voldemort, who cares no more about his
followers than about his enemies."

Carol, noting that Harry doesn't even know that Quirrell is dead until
Dumbledore tells him that LV left Quirrell to die (SS 298)