Quirrell, Quidditch, and Illusions: A Reconsideration

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

I know everyone say, “Dem two short planks, dey’re as fick as [Terri]” Terry Pratchett, Jingo

Well, at least, they should be saying that.


What, from Snape’s point of view, was the point of volunteering to referee Harry’s second Quidditch game?



Severus did not really imagine that he could better protect Harry from Quirrell on a broom flying through the sky with his attention necessarily divided among fourteen children and two lethal missiles (oh, and a game), than with both feet planted on the ground and his attention all on Harry and Quirrell, no. Only a Gryffindor with visions of heroically (and idiotically) interposing his body between the intended victim and a spell would come up with such an idea.

Besides, Snape’s attempted protection was rendered utterly superfluous by Dumbledore’s unexpected appearance on the scene.

So I had applied Luna’s maxim for figuring out the schemes of the smartest Slytherins: sometimes you must at least consider the possibility that what did happen is what they meant to happen.

Applied to Snape’s refereeing, that gave me Quirrell’s assessment:

“Why do you think he wanted to referee your next match? He was trying to make sure I didn’t do it again. Funny, really… he needn’t have bothered. I couldn’t do anything with Dumbledore watching. All the other teachers thought Snape was trying to stop Gryffindor from winning, he did make himself unpopular….”[PS17]

So I deduced, and thought myself bright to do so, that the real point of the exercise had been to firm up Snape’s reputation with the other teachers of being frothing-at-the-mouth unfair where James Potter’s Quidditch-playing lookalike son was concerned.

Bangs head slowly against dem two short planks I are as fick as.

That result was lagniappe.

The point was Quirrell’s “Funny, really….”

Establishing that Quirrell—and Voldemort—bought that Snape and Dumbledore had been working at cross-purposes in protecting Harry.

Rather than, say, closely together.

*

What, after all, had been Snape’s supposed reason for protecting Harry?

Well, what did Severus say when Bellatrix challenged him on that point?

“Have you not understood me? It was only Dumbledore’s protection that was keeping me out of Azkaban! Do you disagree that murdering his favorite student might have turned him against me? … I have done my utmost to have him[Potter] thrown out of Hogwarts, where I believe he scarcely belongs, but kill him, or allow him to be killed in front of me? I would have been a fool to risk it with Dumbledore close at hand.” [HBP 2, emphasis mine]

Snape’s fabled animosity towards Harry is itself his excuse for working hard to protect the child. If anything happened to the boy, he’d be the obvious first suspect. Perfectly valid, absolutely self-interested reason to take a keen interest in the boy’s safety at school—I’ll take the fall if anything happens.

Including with Dumbledore. Dumbledore doesn’t really trust Snape with the boy. Dumbledore believes Snape capable of murdering James Potter’s son. Ergo, Snape dare not. And dare not even stand by when someone else tries.


And the two of them established this as soon as they could manage after Severus tipped. Voldemort’s agent off that he was protecting Harry.


Dumbledore must have been suspicious of Snape’s story that he’d been performing a countercurse at the first match, right? Why else would he show up to keep an eye on the ref? Which incidentally kept the real assassin in check as well.


Funny, really.

Comments

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Haha, brilliant! :)

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

Agreed!

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed, very clever!

[oryx_leucoryx]

During PS Severus was in a good spot if he managed to convey to Quirrell (and Tom) the following:

- That he had no idea that Tom was behind Quirrell (both figuratively and literally)
- That he hated Harry Potter because of his connection to James Potter, or at least that his feelings toward Harry had nothing to do with Lily.
- That despite that, he was preserving Harry's life, but out of self-interest
- That he was interfering with Quirrell's attempts to obtain the Philosophers' Stone - but again, not out of loyalty to Albus but out of self-interest.
- That he has long overcome whatever infatuation he ever had with Lily.

We know he succeeded with some of these (at least #2 and #3) that very year. Some (#1, #4) may have had to wait until GOF. We know the least about #5.

[maidofkent.livejournal.com]

A very clever idea to explain Dumbledore's puzzling appearance at that match.

I'm wondering though if this was something Quirrellmort was intended to take on board straightaway or part of a much longer (and riskier) game. By the time Harry comes face to face (as it were) with Quirrellmort, the latter is certain that Severus was indeed protecting Harry throughout that year, and indeed that the refereeing was part of that protection. While Quirrellmort also tells Harry of Severus' hatred for James (which Tom probably knew about from the moment Severus took the Mark), the hatred and the protection are not explicitly linked. And in the graveyard in GOF, Tom is convinced that Severus has 'left me forever'.

There's also the issue that a double agent who is not fully trusted is no agent at all, and Severus tells Bellatrix that Dumbledore 'has never stopped trusting Severus Snape'.

So Severus would have to have told Tom: 'My lord, he has never stopped trusting in my 'repentance'. Well, there was that slight glitch in the brat's first year. I regret that his resemblance to his father led me to make incautious remarks to Dumbledore, and then, when as I have explained, I saved the brat to repay my hated life debt, Dumbledore became suspicious - hard to tell a curse from a counter-curse, after all. Your lordship will recall him attending that match at which I refereed? I am pleased to say that I was able to regain his trust, and nothing since has disturbed it, but your lordship will understand that I could not risk even the slightest chance of losing it while I could still be of use to your lordship'.

There's also what has always seemed Dumbledore's unnecessary explanation to Harry that Professor Snape saved his life so that he could go back to hating James' memory in peace. Should Tom ever interrogate Harry in person, or make use of that soul link between them, Harry and Severus will turn out to be singing from exactly the same song book. (And the fact that it is not an explanation that will form any bonds between Severus and Harry is of course an added bonus).

[malic-ba.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry if I'm being dense. While it makes a lot of sense that they worked to strengthen that impression as a reason for Severus to protect Harry, I don't understand why it would be more effective if Severus was the ref instead of on the ground. Especially since, as you point out, it would probably be harder to protect Harry from up there, and Dumbledore and/or Voldemort might realise that.

Were they trying to suggest that Severus didn't know who was attacking Harry and was hoping to spot them from the air? Or that he was trying to put up a plausible reason for failing to protect Harry - and being very visible as an alibi when something did happen - which was foiled when Dumbledore turned up?

[maidofkent.livejournal.com]

Quirrellmort knows that Severus is on to him, because after the broom hexing, Severus meets him in the Forest and talks about 'your bit of hocus-pocus'.

Terri believes that Dumbledore and Severus want Quirrellmort to think that, while Severus is actually protecting Harry (to repay the debt to James allegedly), Dumbledore is suspicious of Severus, so that Severus can use that suspicion later as an excuse for not harming Harry at Hogwarts. Therefore, Severus needs to do something which is a very visible act of protection (refereeing rather than just being in the crowd in case) so that Dumbledore can equally obviously over-ride this by coming to the match himself.

It's just occurred to me that Tom was in the Hogwarts staff room for nearly a year under that turban, yet doesn't seem to have used the opportunity to put anyone under Imperious, or to gain any useful information on staff loyalties, family etc.

[oryx_leucoryx]

It's just occurred to me that Tom was in the Hogwarts staff room for nearly a year under that turban, yet doesn't seem to have used the opportunity to put anyone under Imperious, or to gain any useful information on staff loyalties, family etc.

This actually supports my view that Quirrell wasn't a very willing agent of Tom's. I think Tom (especially in his weakened state in PS) needed all his energy to control Quirrell (and use what little was left to curse Harry's broom and other short term efforts).

[malic-ba.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about their talk in the forest.

I understand about wanting to make Dumbledore look suspicious of Severus. That's a really good idea that makes sense. I just don't understand why that's strengthened by Severus being in the air instead of on the ground, when it seems that would make it harder to be protective, not easier. Unless being able to get closer to the target, instead of the source, would help somehow?

(IIRC Severus wasn't a natural flier, either, and seemed uncomfortable on the broom. Or am I just projecting there?)

So I wondered if they were trying to sell that Severus was trying to set himself up an excuse for failure, which was stymied by Dumbledore turning up himself. Pulling strings to get the ref job could even have been sold as what made Dumbledore suspicious.

From Quirrellmort's words, though, he does seem to buy that Severus was the ref in order to strengthen, not weaken, his protection.

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

I think the reason to have Snape in the air is so he is close enough to physically pull Harry onto his own broom if need be. We know Albus was able to slow Harry's fall from a broom in PoA, but not stop it. Harry still ended up unconscious in the infirmary. However, just because Albus can do that from the stands does not necessarily mean Snape can as easily accomplish it - especially without the Elder Wand.

As for Snape comfort level on a broom, it is difficult to tell. The game is extremely short and while he spits when it is over, it is also just after Harry almost ran him down. The only other time we see Snape on a broom is during the 7 Potters chase in DH. While he is not specifically mentioned as inept, he does have difficulty with his aim, ending up slicing off a Weasley ear while also stopping a DE from AKing Remus. That doesn't necessarily mean he isn't good on a broom. After all, Remus is not AK'd, so he did accomplish what he wanted. It's possible that it would have been the same result on the ground.

[maidofkent.livejournal.com]

I just don't understand why that's strengthened by Severus being in the air instead of on the ground, when it seems that would make it harder to be protective, not easier.

I think it's not so much that he's going to be in the air, which does make protection harder, unless Hwyla's idea is correct, but the fact that it draws Quirrellmort's attention to the protectiveness, If Severus just attended the match and kept an eye on Harry, the protection aspect wouldn't be obvious. By creating a stir in the staffroom, and then being very visible up on the broom, Severus is sending a very deliberate message. Therefore, Dumbledore coming along to the match is intended to make it equally obvious that Severus is not trusted.

So I wondered if they were trying to sell that Severus was trying to set himself up an excuse for failure


That would be a good idea, but I think is stymied by Severus' earlier words in the forest, and as you say, Quirrelmort does seem to know that Severus was being protective.

As to the broom, as well as the 7 Potters and the match, there's the memory Harry sees of the boy and the bucking broom and Lupin's comment that Severus was jealous of James' Quiddich skills. Although that's obviously misleading, it wouldn't have worked if Severus was himself a good player. Severus also learns to fly unaided. So all in all, I think we're meant to get the impression that he's not a natural on a broom.

[malic-ba.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes. That makes sense. Thanks!

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

I am now wondering whether developing a way to fly without a broom was triggered by watching Harry come close to being bucked off? Or perhaps even by Harry's fall from when the dementors surrounded the quidditch pitch?

There is nothing to indicate that Lily continued 'flying' without a broom once she got to Hogwarts. I cannot imagine people believing it 'dark' for Voldy to fly unaided if they had been used to watching Lily do it throughout her Hogwarts career. But I can see Snape inventing it based on his memories of her, especially after a reminder that even a spectacular flier (Harry) can find himself in the air with either a malfunctioning/cursed broom or none at all.

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

Or even after almost being knocked off his own broom (by Harry) while serving as referee!