It seems highly likely that Harry has time turned to hide Hermione’s body and possible accomplish other objectives to which we are not yet privy. Evidence for this being that Harry now knows about the map when he did not before, and that he reacts to Hermione’s body going missing with no emotional response whatsoever. He broadly speculates on the likely suspects for body snatching, but if he cared (which, for resurrection purposes, he surely would), then he would be far more animated: after all, he has previously.
There are some interesting wriggles in this though, in that we tend to get Harry’s point of view, so we follow him when he travels back in time. There are a couple of exceptions, so this could be to increase the mystery from the reader’s point of view. Worth noting that we don’t see any thoughts from Harry indicating that he has made this journey, however. This could be explained by him voluntarily obliviating himself to be immune to legilmens based attacks? Or simply us not seeing his thoughts.
We have also learned that we’re near the end of the fic, with one and a half arcs to go! This is intriguing stuff, and strongly implies to me that Harry is going to have to tap into ultimate power some time soon to tie up loose plot threads. Primarily among these being Voldemort’s motivation of course! We as readers can guess, provided that we can take Quirrel=Voldemort for granted, which I think the text has given us strong indicators towards thus far. He seems to want to unite all of magical Britain/ the magical world into a unit strong enough to subjugate mankind and thus prevent scientific destruction. His original plan appeared to be to unite everyone round David Monroe as an opponent to Voldemort. When that didn’t work (not clear why.. did the death eaters get out of control, or Monroe wasn’t charismatic enough?) he decided to fake his death/accidentally got destroyed by Harry (this is, as yet, unclear), and then chose to make Harry the dark hero. It is possible/likely that Harry is either horcruxy or just Voldemort.
One revelation I would really like to see is why characters just don’t seem to consider that Quirrel is a suspect. With the exception of Moody, who really only suggests it as a precaution, it really seems like theres nothing Quirrel can do which make people think that he’s behind the bad stuff. Now to be fair its obviously clear that Quirrel doesn’t want to kill Harry, he has demonstrated that on multiple occasions, but the unseen villain has never attempted to kill Harry!
I agree about Voldemort’s motivation. As to why it didn’t work, I I think Quirrell has been rather explicit that wizards were sheeple:
“Dueling?” said the Defense Professor. From behind it wasn’t visible if the pale face was smiling. “That is nothing, Lord Greengrass, to what my students have learned. They have learned not to hesitate in the face of ambushes and greater foes. They have learned to adapt when combat conditions change and change again. They have learned to protect their allies, to protect more those who are more valuable, to abandon pieces which cannot be rescued. They have learned that to survive they must follow orders. Some have even learned a little creativity. Oh, no, Lord Greengrass, these wizards will not hide in their manors and wait to be protected, when the next threat comes. They will know that they know how to fight.”
My tentative hypothesis is that Voldemort/Monroe realized that his original strategy to unite Wizarding Britain by presenting them with a common enemy wasn’t working, so he set up the events in Godric’s Hollow to make it appear that Voldemort had died (in an absolutely ridiculous and implausible way, that everyone except him and HJPEV would immediately believe). Then he could proceed to try something else.
It’s commonly said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. It would probably be better here to say the definition of irrationality is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Quirrell, unlike almost everyone else in the story except HJPEV and maybe Amelia Bones and Moody, is rational.
I suspect Harry’s memories of that night are faked. I don’t have any good hypotheses for what really happened though. I’m toying with the possibility that Voldemort didn’t actually kill Harry’s parents, and possibly they aren’t even dead. There are 2 or 3 clues that could point to that, but I don’t think they’re strong enough to overcome the prior implausibility. More likely Voldemort did kill James and Lily, and then did something to Harry, Horcruxed him most likely, but deliberately, not accidentally. How does anyone know, in canon or HPMoR, that Voldemort cast Avada Kedavra on Harry? All we have is the burned body. No one except an infant saw it happen.
Note that there is also no explanation why Avada Kedavra of all things would produce a burned body. That particular bit of description (“burned husk”, “burned to a crisp” etc.) has been repeated often enough to be strong foreshadowing, and burning is a great way to make a corpse unidentifiable, especially if dental records for the supposed victim are unavailable and/or no-one has ever heard of such a form of forensics.
Note also that Harry has no memory of Voldemort actually casting the Killing Curse on him. His memory apparently cuts out right after his mother’s death.
why Avada Kedavra of all things would produce a burned body.
How about Fiendfyre? Does that leave anything behind? I mean, it cut through Hogwarts.
Hey, when was Draco’s mother killed? He should be about the same age as Harry, and yet Harry’s Mum died when he was like a year old, and the war pretty much ended right then. So Narcissa’s burning could not have been long before (well, I guess it could be a few months; but that still leaves Draco a baby; if he were that much older than Harry to have had time to know her, he’d be a second year now).
New idea: going on the “Dumbledore faked Godric’s Hollow” theory, what if “Voldemort’s” body that gets found is the unrecognizable, burned body of Narcissa Malfoy?
How about Fiendfyre? Does that leave anything behind? I mean, it cut through Hogwarts.
I can’t answer that question (though my instinct is to say “no”), but I will point out that Hogwarts isn’t particularly indestructible. Haven’t we at least seen one of the trolls damage the walls with ordinary brute force? Or am I misremembering?
The troll grasped its fallen club in its remaining hand, and gave a huge bellow, smashing the club into the floor and sending marble chips flying.
Also
In one narrow circle the marble tiles were scorched and shattered by some explosive spell that only the most prodigious of first-year witches could have cast, with the last of her strength.
It seems highly likely that Harry has time turned to hide Hermione’s body and possible accomplish other objectives to which we are not yet privy. Evidence for this being that Harry now knows about the map when he did not before, and that he reacts to Hermione’s body going missing with no emotional response whatsoever. He broadly speculates on the likely suspects for body snatching, but if he cared (which, for resurrection purposes, he surely would), then he would be far more animated: after all, he has previously.
There are some interesting wriggles in this though, in that we tend to get Harry’s point of view, so we follow him when he travels back in time. There are a couple of exceptions, so this could be to increase the mystery from the reader’s point of view. Worth noting that we don’t see any thoughts from Harry indicating that he has made this journey, however. This could be explained by him voluntarily obliviating himself to be immune to legilmens based attacks? Or simply us not seeing his thoughts.
We have also learned that we’re near the end of the fic, with one and a half arcs to go! This is intriguing stuff, and strongly implies to me that Harry is going to have to tap into ultimate power some time soon to tie up loose plot threads. Primarily among these being Voldemort’s motivation of course! We as readers can guess, provided that we can take Quirrel=Voldemort for granted, which I think the text has given us strong indicators towards thus far. He seems to want to unite all of magical Britain/ the magical world into a unit strong enough to subjugate mankind and thus prevent scientific destruction. His original plan appeared to be to unite everyone round David Monroe as an opponent to Voldemort. When that didn’t work (not clear why.. did the death eaters get out of control, or Monroe wasn’t charismatic enough?) he decided to fake his death/accidentally got destroyed by Harry (this is, as yet, unclear), and then chose to make Harry the dark hero. It is possible/likely that Harry is either horcruxy or just Voldemort.
One revelation I would really like to see is why characters just don’t seem to consider that Quirrel is a suspect. With the exception of Moody, who really only suggests it as a precaution, it really seems like theres nothing Quirrel can do which make people think that he’s behind the bad stuff. Now to be fair its obviously clear that Quirrel doesn’t want to kill Harry, he has demonstrated that on multiple occasions, but the unseen villain has never attempted to kill Harry!
I agree about Voldemort’s motivation. As to why it didn’t work, I I think Quirrell has been rather explicit that wizards were sheeple:
My tentative hypothesis is that Voldemort/Monroe realized that his original strategy to unite Wizarding Britain by presenting them with a common enemy wasn’t working, so he set up the events in Godric’s Hollow to make it appear that Voldemort had died (in an absolutely ridiculous and implausible way, that everyone except him and HJPEV would immediately believe). Then he could proceed to try something else.
It’s commonly said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. It would probably be better here to say the definition of irrationality is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Quirrell, unlike almost everyone else in the story except HJPEV and maybe Amelia Bones and Moody, is rational.
I suspect Harry’s memories of that night are faked. I don’t have any good hypotheses for what really happened though. I’m toying with the possibility that Voldemort didn’t actually kill Harry’s parents, and possibly they aren’t even dead. There are 2 or 3 clues that could point to that, but I don’t think they’re strong enough to overcome the prior implausibility. More likely Voldemort did kill James and Lily, and then did something to Harry, Horcruxed him most likely, but deliberately, not accidentally. How does anyone know, in canon or HPMoR, that Voldemort cast Avada Kedavra on Harry? All we have is the burned body. No one except an infant saw it happen.
Note that there is also no explanation why Avada Kedavra of all things would produce a burned body. That particular bit of description (“burned husk”, “burned to a crisp” etc.) has been repeated often enough to be strong foreshadowing, and burning is a great way to make a corpse unidentifiable, especially if dental records for the supposed victim are unavailable and/or no-one has ever heard of such a form of forensics.
Note also that Harry has no memory of Voldemort actually casting the Killing Curse on him. His memory apparently cuts out right after his mother’s death.
How about Fiendfyre? Does that leave anything behind? I mean, it cut through Hogwarts.
Hey, when was Draco’s mother killed? He should be about the same age as Harry, and yet Harry’s Mum died when he was like a year old, and the war pretty much ended right then. So Narcissa’s burning could not have been long before (well, I guess it could be a few months; but that still leaves Draco a baby; if he were that much older than Harry to have had time to know her, he’d be a second year now).
New idea: going on the “Dumbledore faked Godric’s Hollow” theory, what if “Voldemort’s” body that gets found is the unrecognizable, burned body of Narcissa Malfoy?
I can’t answer that question (though my instinct is to say “no”), but I will point out that Hogwarts isn’t particularly indestructible. Haven’t we at least seen one of the trolls damage the walls with ordinary brute force? Or am I misremembering?
We did see that:
Also