Centaur spears can block many spells, but no one tries to block if they see that the spell is a certain shade of green. For this purpose it is useful to know some green stunning hexes.
At no point does Quirrell say “I just used such a spell on this centaur”. I’m not ruling out that he killed the thing, and made an inferius in front of Harry. That would explain the unusually (?) sharp sense of doom that Harry felt when he “revived” it.
Also a possibility: memory charming a centaur is a lot harder, since they’re only passingly similar to humans, so Quirrel had to draw more heavily on his magic, which in turn resulted in a sharper sense of doom.
Wow, it’s amazing how obvious the Inferius seems now that you’ve said it.
I was reading another comment elsewhere on the page which claimed there must be some magical explanation for how Harry’s managed to miss that Quirrell=Voldemort. And my first thought was, “yeah, he sat there with his wand on the centaur for a long time instead of just saying ‘Innervate’ and then ‘Obliviate’ and Harry still believed him”. That actually seemed to me like an extraordinary thing that needed explaining.
But, then I remembered: I didn’t think of it. I read this chapter days ago, I’ve been talking about it, theorizing, and *I didn’t see it. And now it seems so obvious that I look for a supernatural explanation for why Harry didn’t see it?
EDIT: As I brought up elsewhere, another reason Quirrell would be drawing heavily on his magic is to read Firenze’s mind everything he knows about the future.
I’m actually not sure how bright Harry’s supposed to be.
He’s not stupid, obviously. But, from a Watsonian perspective, he’s leaning very heavily on rationality skills and an unusual reading list for an 11-year-old, Hermione seems to have him beat in some respects as far as raw intelligence goes, and being the smartest person in a class of a hundred and change isn’t that great an achievement in the scheme of things.
From a Doylist perspective, making Harry get a lot of mileage out of raw intelligence would undermine the message Eliezer’s presumably trying to preach.
An increase in the sense of doom? What if Quirrel can possess many bodies at once. He created Voldi to have a villain to fight back in the olden days and then retired Voldi when he got sick of it. He periodically takes over other people’s bodies for his own ends, sometimes even when he’s not in his ‘zombie mode’. Perhaps the variability in the sense of doom is correlated with his extra-body activities. When he takes over the body of a dead centaur, you get an increase in the sense of doom. The fact that he’s not in ‘zombie mode’ at the same time as possessing the centaur might makes things even worse.
This would mean of course that Voldimort isn’t Quirrel—Quirrel is Voldimort. Quirrel isn’t out and out evil the way Voldi is. He simply invented a larger than life character so that he can play the good guy. Being possessed of normal human emotions, his fondness for Harry could be real.
I don’t think inferii are possessed by their creators. Pretty sure they’re just zombies that do the summoners’ bidding. I always thought the sense of doom was related to how strongly Quirrel was drawing on his power.
Quirrel isn’t out and out evil the way Voldi is. He simply invented a larger than life character so that he can play the good guy.
Whether Voldemort’s persona was or wasn’t real, the suffering caused by him was real.
If I would for some reason decide to pretend that I’m Voldemort, and I would kill many people (shooting them by gun while pretending to cast Avada Kedavra), finding out this all was a disguise would prove that I’m not Voldemort, and that Voldemort’s professed beliefs don’t have to be my actual beliefs… but I would be a horrible person anyway.
Then he would rule the world the day he decided to rule the world (which he did at one point, at least extending to magical Britain). A single Quirrell is among the most powerful wizards in the world. A team of Quirrells would have no meaningful opposition, even before he took advantage of the hive-mind benefits of instant coordination and reaction.
Being possessed of normal human emotions, his fondness for Harry could be real.
That would imply that all the words and actions that portray him as a sociopath are an act for Harry’s benefit. What would his motivation be in doing this?
At no point does Quirrell say “I just used such a spell on this centaur”. I’m not ruling out that he killed the thing, and made an inferius in front of Harry. That would explain the unusually (?) sharp sense of doom that Harry felt when he “revived” it.
Also a possibility: memory charming a centaur is a lot harder, since they’re only passingly similar to humans, so Quirrel had to draw more heavily on his magic, which in turn resulted in a sharper sense of doom.
Wow, it’s amazing how obvious the Inferius seems now that you’ve said it.
I was reading another comment elsewhere on the page which claimed there must be some magical explanation for how Harry’s managed to miss that Quirrell=Voldemort. And my first thought was, “yeah, he sat there with his wand on the centaur for a long time instead of just saying ‘Innervate’ and then ‘Obliviate’ and Harry still believed him”. That actually seemed to me like an extraordinary thing that needed explaining.
But, then I remembered: I didn’t think of it. I read this chapter days ago, I’ve been talking about it, theorizing, and *I didn’t see it. And now it seems so obvious that I look for a supernatural explanation for why Harry didn’t see it?
EDIT: As I brought up elsewhere, another reason Quirrell would be drawing heavily on his magic is to read Firenze’s mind everything he knows about the future.
But you’re forgetting that Harry is smarter than you! :-P
I’m actually not sure how bright Harry’s supposed to be.
He’s not stupid, obviously. But, from a Watsonian perspective, he’s leaning very heavily on rationality skills and an unusual reading list for an 11-year-old, Hermione seems to have him beat in some respects as far as raw intelligence goes, and being the smartest person in a class of a hundred and change isn’t that great an achievement in the scheme of things.
From a Doylist perspective, making Harry get a lot of mileage out of raw intelligence would undermine the message Eliezer’s presumably trying to preach.
This doesn’t matter very much, though, since we know Quirrell would not hesitate to utter a direct lie if it served his purposes.
That’s true. Quirrell has played the “mislead without lying” game in the past though, hence I’m not ruling it out.
An increase in the sense of doom? What if Quirrel can possess many bodies at once. He created Voldi to have a villain to fight back in the olden days and then retired Voldi when he got sick of it. He periodically takes over other people’s bodies for his own ends, sometimes even when he’s not in his ‘zombie mode’. Perhaps the variability in the sense of doom is correlated with his extra-body activities. When he takes over the body of a dead centaur, you get an increase in the sense of doom. The fact that he’s not in ‘zombie mode’ at the same time as possessing the centaur might makes things even worse.
This would mean of course that Voldimort isn’t Quirrel—Quirrel is Voldimort. Quirrel isn’t out and out evil the way Voldi is. He simply invented a larger than life character so that he can play the good guy. Being possessed of normal human emotions, his fondness for Harry could be real.
I don’t think inferii are possessed by their creators. Pretty sure they’re just zombies that do the summoners’ bidding. I always thought the sense of doom was related to how strongly Quirrel was drawing on his power.
Whether Voldemort’s persona was or wasn’t real, the suffering caused by him was real.
If I would for some reason decide to pretend that I’m Voldemort, and I would kill many people (shooting them by gun while pretending to cast Avada Kedavra), finding out this all was a disguise would prove that I’m not Voldemort, and that Voldemort’s professed beliefs don’t have to be my actual beliefs… but I would be a horrible person anyway.
It depends on what your reason for adopting the persona in the first place was.
Then he would rule the world the day he decided to rule the world (which he did at one point, at least extending to magical Britain). A single Quirrell is among the most powerful wizards in the world. A team of Quirrells would have no meaningful opposition, even before he took advantage of the hive-mind benefits of instant coordination and reaction.
That would imply that all the words and actions that portray him as a sociopath are an act for Harry’s benefit. What would his motivation be in doing this?