In light of all the talk about heroic responsibility, my first thought was that if he really, really wanted Harry kept away from those books, he’d steal them or something. (This specific method isn’t a very good one because it would raise suspicion, but there has to be a better way to keep them from Harry than going through Macgonnagle.) And maybe he was hoping that Harry would notice the increased wards and try to go there because of it, but that seems like he might be assuming too much.
Such was warding the books rather than the entire Restricted Section. However, Quirrel seems to want to keep Harry away from quite a bit of knowledge: not just particular books, but the entire Restricted Section; not just random spell creation bits, but the entire field of spell creation. This suggests to me that there no single book that is problematic, but any book dealing with the topic at all beyond the fake “usual evasions”. If that’s the case, then he can’t do much else—what is he going to do, abscond with an entire wing of the library?
In light of all the talk about heroic responsibility, my first thought was that if he really, really wanted Harry kept away from those books, he’d steal them or something. (This specific method isn’t a very good one because it would raise suspicion, but there has to be a better way to keep them from Harry than going through Macgonnagle.) And maybe he was hoping that Harry would notice the increased wards and try to go there because of it, but that seems like he might be assuming too much.
Such was warding the books rather than the entire Restricted Section. However, Quirrel seems to want to keep Harry away from quite a bit of knowledge: not just particular books, but the entire Restricted Section; not just random spell creation bits, but the entire field of spell creation. This suggests to me that there no single book that is problematic, but any book dealing with the topic at all beyond the fake “usual evasions”. If that’s the case, then he can’t do much else—what is he going to do, abscond with an entire wing of the library?
Note that warding books A, B, and C leaks more bits of information than warding all restricted books.
That’s a good point too.