Has anyone ever tried to figure out why Quirrel (who is possessed by Voldermort) does not have Voldermort’s face sticking out the back of his head? In this story, He is not wearing a turban, but is instead described as “slightly balding”. Why this change from canon? The law of conservation of detail says that this means something. But what?
Another strange point is that Quirrelmort stopped an anti-polyjuice spell that was directed at him in chapter 79, for no apparent reason. Why? Is he for some reason using polyjuice? But I am pretty sure that he is possessing Quirrel, so what need is there to polyjuce into him?
My proposed answer is this:
Voldermort is possessing Quirrel, and to avoid the possibility of being discovered on the back of Quirrel’s head, he is using polyjuce to turn his Quirrel/Voldermort composite body back into a only Quirrel body, without a face on the back of the head. This allows him to throw off a certain amount of suspicion from people like Dumbledore who probably know that when a disembodied spirit posseses someone the possesee gets another face on the back of his head. Quirrel not having anyone on the back of his head is therfore proof to Dumbledore that he is not being possesed by Voldermort.
This is the only way I can think of to reconcile the fact that Quirrel is being possessed by Voldermort with the fact that Quirrelmort did not want to be hit with an anti-polyjuice spell, plus it also explains the departure from cannon about the back of Quirrel’s head, and in addition it shows the high level of intelligence Voldermort has in this story.
There are reasons for avoiding being hit with an anti-polyjuice spell even if you aren’t polyjuiced. (1) The spell would reveal that you aren’t polyjuiced, which might be useful information for your adversaries if you’re masquerading as someone else by other means. (2) If your policy is only to counter such spells when they would have revealed something, then your decision to counter or not is itself revealing. Better to have a general policy of not letting people probe you at all.
(2) is actually counter-productive. Your policy of countering anti-polyjuice spells is associated with your appearance. If you are known to counter such spells, then an adversary polyjuiced as you will have an easier time of getting away with it. But if you act like a normal person, then someone with your appearance countering such a spell would seem suspicious indeed.
In Quirrell’s case, however, Scrimgeour is already fairly certain that Quirrell is actually someone else. Polyjuice is the easiest explanation, and if it were rejected then Scrimgeour would simply try alternatives (e.g. check if Quirrell is a Metamorphmagus). Also, the paragraph above assumes the existence of allies. Quirrell would rather minimize the information anyone has about him, as a matter of course.
Regarding polyjuice. Keep in mind that Quirrell had to spend a while in the hospital wing in bed. He probably would not have had access to his juice. In HP4 you see how often someone polyjuiced has to refill—it is basically all the time.
Well. But he is not supposed to give in. He has to get the next level of interrogators who can deal with this. Imagine a real police person in a similar situation.
Imagine a real police officer dealing with someone who cannot be disarmed.
Perhaps the magical world has a “cannot put Superman in jail” threshold. Under it, they tread lightly. Over it, they pull out all the stops and doing whatever they’re doing to Grindelwald.
Quirrel stopped the polyjuice spell to be intimidating, same as how he was manipulating the lights. Misdirecting the Aurors to polyjuice makes them more worried, and about the wrong thing.
But I think really it doesn’t matter, because the reason in my mind why Voldemort isn’t on Quirrel’s head is because that would be fucking stupid. Plenty of changes from canon are simply people getting smarter, and this is one really obvious one. If his face HAS to be sticking out of whoever’s body he is riding, the back of the head is basically the worst place to put it. It’s way easier to accidentally reveal than say, the back, the stomach, or the side of the leg, and all of those places are covered as a matter of course by wizard’s robes.
Has anyone ever tried to figure out why Quirrel (who is possessed by Voldermort) does not have Voldermort’s face sticking out the back of his head? In this story, He is not wearing a turban, but is instead described as “slightly balding”. Why this change from canon? The law of conservation of detail says that this means something. But what?
Another strange point is that Quirrelmort stopped an anti-polyjuice spell that was directed at him in chapter 79, for no apparent reason. Why? Is he for some reason using polyjuice? But I am pretty sure that he is possessing Quirrel, so what need is there to polyjuce into him?
My proposed answer is this: Voldermort is possessing Quirrel, and to avoid the possibility of being discovered on the back of Quirrel’s head, he is using polyjuce to turn his Quirrel/Voldermort composite body back into a only Quirrel body, without a face on the back of the head. This allows him to throw off a certain amount of suspicion from people like Dumbledore who probably know that when a disembodied spirit posseses someone the possesee gets another face on the back of his head. Quirrel not having anyone on the back of his head is therfore proof to Dumbledore that he is not being possesed by Voldermort.
This is the only way I can think of to reconcile the fact that Quirrel is being possessed by Voldermort with the fact that Quirrelmort did not want to be hit with an anti-polyjuice spell, plus it also explains the departure from cannon about the back of Quirrel’s head, and in addition it shows the high level of intelligence Voldermort has in this story.
There are reasons for avoiding being hit with an anti-polyjuice spell even if you aren’t polyjuiced. (1) The spell would reveal that you aren’t polyjuiced, which might be useful information for your adversaries if you’re masquerading as someone else by other means. (2) If your policy is only to counter such spells when they would have revealed something, then your decision to counter or not is itself revealing. Better to have a general policy of not letting people probe you at all.
(2) is actually counter-productive. Your policy of countering anti-polyjuice spells is associated with your appearance. If you are known to counter such spells, then an adversary polyjuiced as you will have an easier time of getting away with it. But if you act like a normal person, then someone with your appearance countering such a spell would seem suspicious indeed.
In Quirrell’s case, however, Scrimgeour is already fairly certain that Quirrell is actually someone else. Polyjuice is the easiest explanation, and if it were rejected then Scrimgeour would simply try alternatives (e.g. check if Quirrell is a Metamorphmagus). Also, the paragraph above assumes the existence of allies. Quirrell would rather minimize the information anyone has about him, as a matter of course.
Regarding polyjuice. Keep in mind that Quirrell had to spend a while in the hospital wing in bed. He probably would not have had access to his juice. In HP4 you see how often someone polyjuiced has to refill—it is basically all the time.
Right. We, the readers, know that Quirrell is not polyjuiced. But Scrimgeour doesn’t.
I found it weird that he only tried once, and basically ignored Qs counter to the test.
He is afraid to escalate.
Is he not the interrogator in a ministry holding cell? Oh boy.
And Quirrelmort seems to have wandlessly and effortlessly blocked his spell. That’s pretty scary.
Well. But he is not supposed to give in. He has to get the next level of interrogators who can deal with this. Imagine a real police person in a similar situation.
Imagine a real police officer dealing with someone who cannot be disarmed.
Perhaps the magical world has a “cannot put Superman in jail” threshold. Under it, they tread lightly. Over it, they pull out all the stops and doing whatever they’re doing to Grindelwald.
That was more than twenty-four hours ago, you know.
We know this not to be true since Quirrel changed back into his normal appearance when the polyjuice wore off in Azkaban while he was unconscious.
Quirrel stopped the polyjuice spell to be intimidating, same as how he was manipulating the lights. Misdirecting the Aurors to polyjuice makes them more worried, and about the wrong thing.
But I think really it doesn’t matter, because the reason in my mind why Voldemort isn’t on Quirrel’s head is because that would be fucking stupid. Plenty of changes from canon are simply people getting smarter, and this is one really obvious one. If his face HAS to be sticking out of whoever’s body he is riding, the back of the head is basically the worst place to put it. It’s way easier to accidentally reveal than say, the back, the stomach, or the side of the leg, and all of those places are covered as a matter of course by wizard’s robes.