Chapter 17: The Man With Two Faces
In chapter seventeen of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Quirrelldemort reveals himself as our baddie, and Volume One of Wait, But Snape Was Trying to Protect Me? is disbelievingly read by Harry.
(Please be advised that this is a reread and I will be discussing book and movie spoilers.)
Quirrelldemort does the most insulting thing of all, and doesn’t compliment Harry on his ability to get past the traps, but perhaps he’s thinking it.
Quirrelldemort does a standard Evil Basil Exposition
and explains how all the sneaky shit Snape did was all out of a really, really, REALLY grudging attempt to save Harry’s life. We find out Dumbledore did one of his most genius moves of all, and set up the Mirror of Erised as the last obstacle to get beyond. Quirrell explains he met Voldemort in his travels and when he fails to retrieve the stone, Voldemort keeps a closer watch on him, leaving me with more questions.
Was Voldemort not possessing Quirrell to begin with? Does that mean Quirrell was acting on his orders of his own free will? Or is Quirrell a victim in all of this? And most importantly, was he wearing that highly stylish turban before Quirrelldemort happened?
Harry, because he’s a selfless amazing hero, gains the stone when he looks in the Mirror and wants nothing more then to get the stone to keep it safe, and not to use it. Quirrelldemort removes his turban, turns around, and we get Lord Voldemort’s head, who tries to convince Harry (badly) to join him and rule the galaxy as father and son.
I mean, join him in drinking unicorn’s blood and hating Hermione and her kind or whatever.
Harry finds out the terrible facts that his father died first fighting, and his mother died needlessly protecting him. But no more needs to be said then that, right Dumbledore?
Harry uses his brain (I know, I’m sure Hermione fainted when she heard this too) and tries to run off, and Quirrelldemort grabs him and experiences pain. While book Harry holds on to Quirrell until he passes out (and Dumbledore pries them apart, or something) movie Harry straight up murders Quirrell dead.
Harry comes to, and Dumbledore tells him he pulled Quirrell off of Harry (and did what with him? WHAT?) and that the stone will shortly be destroyed for safety.
Dumbledore and Harry have a discussion about Voldemort in which its revealed Voldemort left Quirrell to die (again, this is really glossed over? What exactly happened to Quirrell?) and Dumbledore dances around some hard answers to Harry’s questions. He does tell us Lily Potter’s love made it so Voldemort can’t touch Harry, and that he, Dumbledore, gave Harry the cloak and that James Potter once saved Snape’s life, and that’s why Snape spent all year protecting Harry, and that only a person who wants to find the stone and not use it could see it.
We end this touching scene with one of my favorite Dumbledore wacky moments
Hermione and Ron visit and we all ponder with them the lunacy of Dumbledore potentially nudging Harry to deal with Voldemort himself, as a first year student.
Hagrid comes in, apologetic and tearful and blames himself for Harry almost dying and LV almost getting the stone, and my boy Harry shouts Voldemort’s name like a boss, reassures Hagrid it’s not his fault, and receives one of the greatest presents of all time, a photo book of his parents that Hagrid made after writing all of Harry’s parent’s friends proving once again that even though he talks about things he shouldn’t even more than me, Hagrid is the absolute best.
The end of year feast commences and while I still love how Neville, Ron, Harry, and Hermione win the cup with their heroics,
I can definitely acknowledge that yanking the cup away from the entirety of Slytherin House is in retrospect, rather shitty. Yes Malfoy and his cronies and Snape suck badly, but does every Slytherin? But hey, you could look at it as Dumbledore righting the wrong of Minerva McGonagall losing her freaking mind and taking 150 points from Harry, Hermione and Neville for being out of bed and the surely hundreds of ridiculous points Snape takes per year from the Gryffindors just because.
Percy brags about Ron to the prefects #JusticeForPercy we learn a half answer to my earlier question about the hordes of people bursting through Platform 9 and 3/4 but it still doesn’t explain how people enter without suspicion on the beginning of school train.
We end our book with Harry grinning that the Dursley’s don’t know he can’t practice magic over the summer, and I end the novel prouder then ever of Sassy!Harry.
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Okay for real, what happened to Quirrell after Voldemort left his body?
How innocent was Quirrell, or was he completely complicit?
How did you first react to the shocker that Snape was trying to protect Harry because of James Potter?
Would you eat Bertie Bott’s beans?
Should Dumbledore have taken the cup from Slytherin? Was there a better way to handle it?
The photobook of Harry’s parents, the greatest gift of all time?
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