What was known about Quirrell's death and Tom's status in PS?

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Lynn_waterfall, in an exchange we were having below in the spork of GoF 36, assumed that Fudge thought that Harry had said, back at the end of book one, that Voldemort was dead but somehow not completely dead.

But what Harry actually knew was that Voldemort, riding the back of Quirrell's head, said that he was, "Mere shadow and vapor... I have form only when I can share another's body... but there have have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds.... Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks... and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own."

Now, we readers, being logical, might infer that the once-a-normal-living-human Voldemort, who is now "shadow and vapor... [without] a body of [his] own" might be legally classed as "dead but not as gone as we might wish."

A) Did Harry ever work that out? and

B) Did he ever communicate that to others? To anyone?

WE all know that Harry faced a dead Voldemort possessing his living servant Quirrell in an attempt to secure the Philosopher's Stone and kill Harry.

And we know that everyone in Hogwarts (and therefore, all their relatives at the Ministry) know that SOMETHING happened down there. See the congratulatory sweets by Harry's bedside.

But as oryx points out, in OotP only Neville seemed quite sure that the incident involved "the Sorcerous Stone".

What was "known" by the rest of the WW?

The only facts we know Twinkles probably could not have hidden were: Quirrell's death (or at least disappearance), and the destruction/disappearance of the Philosopher's Stone, leading eventually to the Flamel's deaths of old age.

Does everyone/anyone but US even know these two incidents were connected? That Quirrel died in attempting to steal the Stone? And is it generally known that Quirrell was the Dark Lord's agent in that attempt (Severus's alibi to Bellatrix--which presumably is the same as he gave Riddle--was that Snape had never known that), much less physically possessed by him?

And among those who know that Quirrell was physically possessed--would they have any reason to assume that the Dark Lord had been discorporate himself when he took Quirrel over?

Tom had previously possessed animals/humans while retaining control of his own body--was this known?


Final question: when Tommy abandoned Quirinus's dying body, did Quirrell's head restore itself to normal? Or did Albus show everyone a corpse with Lord V on the back or his head?

Comments

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

"Quirrell trying to find Voldemort to defeat him once and for all to prove himself I could probably see, but wanting to learn magic from him? When he supposedly still believed in evil and so probably thought Voldemort was an evil person doing evil magic? There's better ways to learn advanced magic to impress people, so I'm not sold on that (unless someone can come up with a convincing explanation)."

Going to look for Voldemort to learn magic would indeed be an odd thing for someone who believes in good and evil to do (sort of like looking for Hitler to get tips on running a country, if such a thing were still possible) -- *if* he knew that it were Voldemort. But if whatever rumours he'd heard just mentioned a strange and powerful spirit in the forest, without indicating its real identity, then it's possible that an intellectually curious person eager to become more powerful might go and seek it out.

(On a side note, there seems to be a surprising amount happening in Albania is these books. Helena originally fled there a thousand years ago, IIRC, her diadem was hidden there, and Tom stayed there while he was incorporeal. Any idea what's up with that?)

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

Albania's tourist board has more influence than Albus and Voldemort combined. They were puppeteering Grindelwald in a grand plan to make Albania the cultural centre of the magical world.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

ROFL! You win an internet.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

swythyv here on LJ did an excellent presentation on this at Aeternitas in April. I only caught the end, but apparently some sites in Albania have long, long associations with powerful magic and such. I'd ask her if you really want good material on this.