Connecting the dots - how Quirrell fits in (long - part 2)

[constancevigilance]

--- Kneasy wrote:
> Connections.
> I love making connections.
> Joining the dots, seeing the Taj Mahal in a case of chickenpox.
> Tying this to that and that to the other.
> Slotting together bits and pieces like a jig-saw puzzle to make a 
> bigger picture - and besides, it keeps me out of mischief.
> 

Part 2 - what happened in the dungeon?

Let's see what we know:

Quirrell is resisting Voldy because of the physical pain that he is 
in:

"Master, I cannot hold him - my hands - my hands!."

But nonetheless, attempts to kill Harry for the stone.

Harry loses consciousness just as Dumbledore arrives. Voldy leaves.

Then there is missing time and Harry awakens in the hospital to 
learn that the stone has been destroyed.

What happened in the missing time?

Quirrell is near death when Voldy leaves. We are lead to believe he 
died. Voldy tells us in the graveyard a couple of books later that 
Quirrell died. Harry believes Quirrell died. The movie tells us 
Quirrell died. JKR's website even hints that Quirrell died. All 
right already! He's dead. Or is he? Quirrell's story has been 
completely about misdirection up until now. Are we being fooled 
again?

Here is what Dumbledore says about it in the hospital:

(Harry asks if Voldy is gone) "No, Harry, he has not. <snip> He left 
Quirrell to die; he shows just as little mercy to his followers as 
his enemies."

Now, what does Voldy say about what happens to his body hosts in the 
graveyard?

"I sometimes inhabited animals - snakes of course being my 
preference - but I was little better off inside them as pure spirit, 
for their bodies were ill adapted to perform magic .. and my 
possession of them shortened their lives; none of them lasted long."

It seems as if the problem with animals was that animals were too 
dissimilar in form to a wizard parasite. During the length of the 
schoolyear when Voldy was possession Quirrell, there is no mention 
of a gradual degradation of his body. You would think that if he 
were in danger of dying from the possession, there would have been 
some talk of it "Gee, Professor Quirrell is looking rather poorly, 
wouldn't you say?" but nothing. In fact, he resists the taking of 
unicorn blood, so it does not seem as though the possession is 
taking a toll on his body. Nonetheless, he does drink the unicorn 
blood, twice! 

According to Firenze, "The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, 
even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You 
will have a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood 
touches your lips."

"But who'd be that desperate?" [Harry] wondered aloud. "If you're 
going to be cursed forever, death's better, isn't it?"

"It is," Firenze agreed, "unless all you need is to live long enough 
to drink something else - something that will bring you back to full 
strength and power - something that will mean you can never die. Mr. 
Potter, do you know what is hidden in the school at this very 
moment?"

And not only is the Sorcerer's Stone hidden in the school, IT IS 
RIGHT THERE IN THE ROOM WHEN QUIRRELL NEEDS IT THE MOST! Along with 
a wizard who is uniquely gifted in its use. How convenient.

So, Quirrell is an inch from death, being kept alive by the unicorn 
blood. He is no longer possessed. What is the most likely thing to 
have happened next? Dumbledore either finished him off, or he didn't.

I believe that Dumbledore, who is after all an expert in Stone 
magic, used the stone to bring Quirrell back to full strength. This 
caused the destruction of the stone that he told Harry about in the 
hospital.

There is nothing in the books that definitively proves that Quirrell 
died in the dungeon, and in fact, plenty of arguments to the idea 
that Quirrell is alive. But what about that troublesome movie? 
Didn't JKR have veto power over the movie?

Well, maybe. I'm not sure she has as much power as we give her 
credit for. After all, in an collision between a writer's wishes and 
a cool special effect, which one wins? But nevertheless, this too 
can be addressed. Let's see what Voldy says about the powers of the 
Elixir of Life that comes from the Stone (SS, page 295):

".. once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body 
of my own ..."

And then in the graveyard (GoF, p 656):

"There was no hope of stealing the Sorcerer's Stone anymore, for 
Dumbledore would have seen to it that it was destroyed. But I was 
willing to embrace mortal life again, before chasing immortality, I 
set my sights lower... I would settle for my old body back again, 
and my old strength."

Thus, we know that the power of the Sorcerer's Stone is that it 
allows one to create a NEW body. Steve Kloves, create what havoc as 
ye may, turn his body to dust if ye will, Quirrell can yet rise 
again!

OK. There is but one anti-clue remaining, and that lies at on the 
JKRowling web site. On the FAQ page, there is a question:

"Why could Harry see the Thestrals in "Order of the Phoenix"? 
Shouldn't he have been able to see them much earlier, because he saw 
his parents/Quirrell/Cedric die?"

And the answer (edited):

"He didn't see Quirrell's death, either. Harry had passed out before 
Quirrell died and was only told about it by Dumbledore in the last 
chapter."

But, as we know from the Stone, it provides a NEW body! So the old 
Quirrell body could die while Harry was passed out and allow the Q-
man to live on! Dumbledore didn't even say that Quirrell died in the 
dungeon, but JKR made an excuse for him anyway. Misdirect! Misdirect!

I think after Dumbledore brought the dying Quirrell back to health 
using the Stone, they had a talk in the dungeon. Quirrell is now, 
once again, an idealistic young man, brilliant in mind and now 
experienced in Dark Arts practicals. He has the curse of the unicorn 
blood - a cursed eternal life - ahead of him. But can he work off 
some of the bad kharma?

What a great secret weapon is a powerful ally who everone believes 
is dead. What if Quirrell could secret himself out of the castle to 
some place where he could ready an army out of sight? 

Is there a secret way out of the castle? If I were writing a fanfic, 
I would have Quirrell escape from the dungeon through one of 
Myrtle's pipes to the lake, then take a First Year boat through the 
lake to Durmstrang. In fact, I think he has done this before. Which 
brings us to Grindelwald and Part 3.

~ Constance Vigilance