Quirrell Corner (was: Sending Voldie through the Veil)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 162150

CV:
> > 
> > Actually, I only recently began to understand the abuse metaphor
espoused in Quirrell. When I fully began to see Quirrell's symptoms as
representing a tortured person in the grip of another, I began to
wonder why nobody, including myself, feels sympathy for this guy. How
can we be so cold? Maybe Quirrell's duplicitous act is so effective 
that we don't have the time to get to see the pain that lies beneath 
the surface. But then, isn't that the way with abuse victims? They can
so perfectly mask the pain that other people are completely fooled.
> 
> Marianne:
> And you've sold me on this. When I read your first post I felt a 
> pang of remorse because I had tossed Quirrell on the dung-heap of 
> despised characters without really stopping to think of his 
> situation. Really, how can one not cut the guy some slack once you 
> think about being under Voldemort's control to the point of having 
> his face sticking out the back of your head?  The more I think about 
> that, the more creeped out I get.
> 
> Maybe I would have paid more attention to him had he stuck around 
> for more than one book. Instead, he's gone and each succeeding book 
> gave me more events and characters to think/worry about.

Carol responds:
Setting aside my own DADA curse theory as it relates to Quirrell, I'm
not so sure that JKR intends us to see Quirrell as a victim. (then,
again, she may not intend for us to like Snape, so her intentions
don't always correspond with reader's reactions. <smile>)

However, it appears that Quirrell was originally gullible and easily
seduced by LV's lie that "there is no good and evil, only power and
those too weak to seek it," which BTW sounds like a line that would
appeal to Wormtail as well. It's also clear that Quirrell was working
for Voldemort, trying to steal the stone from the vault in Gringotts,
for example, before Voldemort was actually possessing him. He wasn't
wearing a turban when Harry originally encountered him in the Leaky
Cauldron, and he could shake hands with Harry at that point (either
because he was not yet evil or because it's only Voldemort who can't
touch Harry because of the blood protection--I'm not sure which).

Later Dumbledore says that Quirrell, driven by greed and hatred, could
not touch Harry. Also, Quirrell was apparently willing to kill a
unicorn and drink its blood for his master, and he certainly tried to
kill Harry (on his own, I think--it was a stupid move that could have
ruined the plan to steal the stone if it had succeeded and Quirrell
had been caught) before he drank the unicorn blood, which presumably
corrupted him beyond redemption (or maybe simply killing his first
unicorn did that). Unlike Wormtail, who serves Voldemort more from
fear than loyalty (unless his gratitude for the silver hand provides a
new motive, as it seems to in GoF). Quirrell seems like a devoted
servant, afraid of his master's displeasure when he's weak or
incompetent, but nevertheless willing and even eager to please him. He
seems to have *allowed* Voldemort to get inside his head; JKR says
that Snape would never wear a turban; IOW, he would not have consented
to be possessed and inhabited, even if he's ESE (which I doubt).
Quirrell seems to have willingly submitted to this humiliating and
revolting form of domination, in part through fear but in part because
he regarded himself as a servant and Voldemort as his master. Maybe
Voldemort knew what he wanted to know, the Darkest of the Dark Arts,
and how better to learn them than with your master inside your mind?

> CV:
> > One wonders how Voldy communicates with people when he is in his
gaseous form. Can he talk when he is smoke? Or does he possess people
in order to talk to them?
> 
> Marianne:
> And some prefer not to wonder about such things because they lead to 
> nightmares<g>. I'd vote for possession. It's so much neater. The 
> person can't try to outrun you and, once you're "inside" you can 
> control them.  Now I'm wondering how Vapor-mort travels. Does he 
> linger in the air waiting for some unsuspecting human to wander by?  
> Would a severe storm blow him across the country?

Carol:
I've wondered before, and never received a response, how Quirrell
found LV in the first place and how he got Vapor!mort back to England.
I've suggested that Voldemort was possessing Nagini when Quirrell
brought him into England, maybe with some special permit for
transporting magical animals, more likely smuggling her in illegally.
But how Quirrell communicated with Voldemort is a more difficult
question. Maybe he could speak to him in ordinary English from an
animal's body, and Quirrell, who had gone abroad to study Vampires and
other Dark creautres, would have been fascinated by the talking snake
or rat or whatever.

In Wormtail's case, we know how he found Voldemort. His little rat
friends told him where to find the monster that possessed and
destroyed small creatures. He, too, must have been able to talk with
Vapor!mort while LV was possessing an animal. Or he might have been
able to talk with the animal itself. Unlike Quirrell, he would have
understood animal language. An Animagus dog can understand a
half-kneazle cat, so Wormtail could probably understand other animals,
even possibly snakes, in his animal form. As for how Vapor!mort
traveled in this instance, maybe he didn't. It seems that Wormtail
(whom I agree is not the incompetent wizard he's viewed as being)
conjured up the potion to create LV's fetal form. Nagini was obviously
around at that point, as her venom was a potion ingredient, and
Wormtail, like Quirrell, must have killed a unicorn, as unicorn blood
was another ingredient. (He didn't drink the blood, though, so he's
not living a half-life.)

Carol, who thinks that Quirrell succumbed to the lure of Voldemort
through his own weakness (with the help of the DADA curse)


> <snip> 
> > Marianne:
> > 
> > As we all anxiously await for a 
> > > supposedly dead character to reappear in Book 7, perhaps it 
> won't 
> > be 
> > > Emmeline Vance or Caradoc Dearborn or Amelia Bones or Regulus 
> > Black. 
> > > Perhpas it will be Quirrell.
> > 
> > CV:
> > 
> > Yay! (Are we anxiously awaiting a supposedly dead character to 
> > reappear? I know *I* am, but has there been other indications to 
> that 
> > effect, or is this just speculation?)
> 
> Marianne:
> Oh, it's rampant speculation.  Ever since DD tried to convince Draco 
> that he could be hidden while the world thought he was dead, there 
> had been pondering about whether some character who we were told had 
> died might really be alive.  And then, of course, there was that 
> mention long ago about the Draught of Living Death.  It's about time 
> for that to make an appearance. 
> 
> CV:
> > There is a theory that has been floating around for a long time 
> that 
> > basically states that each task in the dungeon represents one book 
> in 
> > the series. In that case, the final book should be something like 
> > Harry Potter and Nobody Expects Quirrell. Right?
> 
> Marianne:
> Sure, why not? Quirrell's "death" was the perfect opportunity for DD 
> to pull a fast one.  Who else was around to witness what might have 
> happened? Let's make a Purple Turban pledge - Quirrell will return 
> in Book 7!
> 
> Marianne
>