HPMOR is making me rethink human nature—because of how people react to it. This is a story full of cunning disguises, and readers seem reluctant to see past those disguises. RL rkcerffrq chmmyrzrag ng ubj many readers took forever to decide Quirrell = Voldemort; I think I now know why.
I suggest that humans are instinctive “observation consequentialists.” That is, we think someone is competent and good if the observed results of their actions are benign. We weigh what we observe much more strongly than what we merely deduce. If we personally see their actions work out well, we’ll put aside a great deal of indirect evidence for their incompetence or vileness.
In HPMOR, Quirrell’s directly observed actions are mostly associated with Harry getting to be more of what he thinks he wants. Even rescuing Bellatrix amounts to Harry getting to save a broken lovelorn creature in terms of what we directly observe. To believe Quirrell evil we have to bring in all kinds of expected consequences to weigh against those immediate positive observations.
Does the resistance to saying Quirrell=Voldemort maybe reflect a broader unwillingness to overlook what we directly witness in favor of abstract deduction? If it does, this implies some interesting predictions about human behavior:
if you can be kind and moderate in your personal behavior, you can get away with incredible amounts of institutionally-mediated violence and extremism, especially to anyone who feels like they “know” you. Hypothesis: the most dangerous people are those who can give us the illusion of “knowing” them while they command an institution whose internal operations we don’t see.
More generally, an institution “wired” to do us harm can get away with it much longer than an individual doing it personally and directly. Faceless corporate evil, faceless societal evil, and faceless government evil are much more deadly than our emotional impulses realize. Hypothesis: we are biased to confuse the institutions with our attitude toward their leaders, or to refuse to act against the institutions because of the outward manners of their leaders.
if this ‘observation consequentialism’ bias is heuristic, then maybe it evolved as an anti-gossip function. In that case we should expect that people are too quick to believe outrageous things about people they can’t observe. Hypothesis: the further away someone is from your understanding, the less likely you are to think of them as mostly a typical human being, and the quicker you are to believe them a saint, a monster, or something similarly exciting.
And, alas for EY, hypothesis: telling a story about cunning disguises, in which the protagonist of the story does not see through those disguises, is almost always going to lead to lots of readers also not seeing through those disguises.
Hypothesis:
Quirrellmort intends to upload his mind into Harry’s body soon, as soon as Harry is Dark enough. Voldemort will become the Boy-Who-Lived. And Quirrellmort wants or needs this to happen within the next few months.
Evidence:
If Quirrellmort were only after the Philosopher’s Stone and training Harry for a long career, he’d keep his own cover intact as long as he could. Instead, over the last few story months, Quirrellmort has cheerfully all but ruined his cover in favor of giving Harry chances to turn Dark.
Quirrellmort got the Dementor brought to Hogwarts, waited until the last moment to observe Harry’s wand by the Dementor’s cage, gave wrong advice about how to help Harry recover from the Dementor-induced personality change, and persuaded the other wizards to let Harry face the Dementor again.
Quirrellmort took Harry to Azkaban soon after seeing Patronus 2.0, leading to more Dementor contact and the recovery of Bellatrix, Quirrellmort’s preferred assistant for critical tasks (like, say, ritual magic to download yourself into your Horcrux’s body).
Quirrellmort (as H&C) set up Hermione for Draco’s attempted murder, thus both cutting off Harry from the person who’s his best influence against being Dark, and motivating Harry to embrace his Dark side more in order to rescue or avenge Hermione.
The first stunt made Dumbledore suspect a plot, the second showed that Voldemort had returned, the third that Voldemort was in Hogwarts. But it’s all been worth it to Quirrellmort to hurry up Dark!Harry. Why?
Perhaps because Quirrellmort is running out of time in his current body.
On the day he killed Rita Skeeter, she observed Quirrellmort had his hair falling out.
Harry has noticed Quirrell looking visibly older.
The curse on the Defense against the Dark Arts position demands a terrible conclusion to his year—or at least the appearance of one.
And if Quirrellmort doesn’t intend to be around as Quirrell much longer, what does he intend? We have clues.
We know from the prophecy that Quirrellmort and Harry can destroy each other’s spirits.
Quirrellmort has said that Harry’s sense of doom between them is precisely of Harry’s doom.
We suspect from canon combined with “Dark Harry” moments that Harry is an accidental Horcrux containing a partial copy of Voldemort’s mental circuitry, and possibly some of his power too.
Quirrellmort suggested a plan where Harry would be seen to fight the returned Voldemort and defeat him.
The obvious answer is that Quirrellmort intends just the plan he told Harry: Harry will indeed be seen to fight Voldemort and “defeat” him. And “Quirrell” will die, probably having been revealed to be Voldemort. But Quirrellmort… will have downloaded himself into Harry’s mind, and so will win the duel he seems to lose.
Just as before, a single clash of spells between Voldemort and Harry Potter will lead to the destruction of “Voldemort”(Quirrell.) And “Harry” will walk away triumphant. But “Harry” won’t be Harry any more.
If Quirrellmort’s plan succeeds, Harry as we know him will cease to exist. Voldemort will go on in triumph—as Harry Potter, the boy who destroyed Voldemort twice over. Harry will be the beloved hero of magical Britain—and Voldemort inside.
I suggest Quirrellmort’s top priority is to turn Harry fully Dark before the end of the year, so he can safely download into Harry.