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

[terri_testing]

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

Comments

[sunnyskywalker]

Very good questions! Quirrell's death could probably have been passed off as one of Voldemort's casualties during the break-in, since he was one of the teachers assigned to create a trap for the stone (might have seen something funny and gone to investigate, or just been patrolling the corridors on the wrong night, and alas! with his poor broken nerves, he was no match even for the weakened Voldemort). Or he was nervous all year because Voldemort was still threatening enough that Quirrell had to help sneak him bodily onto the grounds and was unable to tell anyone. Or, as you say, an embodied Voldemort still managed to possess him, which if it was known to be one of Voldemort's core skills (and wouldn't that have made VoldWarI so much more terrifying? not only do you have to worry about Imperius, but possession by You-Know-Who himself! which would make the events of CoS that much more terrifying for the elder Weasleys, who would remember that horror), might seem possible even for a weakened Voldemort. Hm. Even if the Ministry knew or suspected Voldemort was involved, though, it must not have been shared with many people if Snape could plausibly deny he had been told. And maybe they thought Quirrell alone was the dark wizard responsible, and... one of the traps killed him? Harry is a dark wizard disintegrater?

All I can guess is that Fudge and maybe other top Ministry officials knew that some dark wizard tried to steal the stone and Quirrell somehow got killed in the process, perhaps as random collateral damage and perhaps as the culprit or accomplice of... someone. Fudge doesn't mention the stone in PoA when he worries about how quickly Voldemort might rise again if he had a loyal servant, and you'd think that "remember the recent close call with the stone! ack, not again!" would be on his mind if he knew. But maybe it was too top secret to discuss in a pub with Rosmerta there, while the story of Sirius was already well known.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Back to the original discussion: So you think people in general knew Voldemort was at the school somehow? Of course Dobby knows Harry managed to escape from Voldemort again. Is that what the students thought Harry got his points for?

[sunnyskywalker]

I really don't know. I think they knew some dark wizard was involved, and given recent history might have suspected a former DE at the very least. Probably it wasn't generally known that Voldemort was involved, or you'd think we'd have heard more about it (someone trying to defend Harry in CoS by bringing it up, say). Of course people in this series tend to have conveniently selective memories, so who knows. But maybe (some of?) the faculty and Ministry higher-ups knew or suspected.

Unless Dumbledore told them (or implied in that convenient "I'm not technically lying, it's true from a certain point of view" way) all that Quirrell alone was responsible. Which is entirely possible. Although even then some people might suspect otherwise, if they're all so sure that Voldemort is out there waiting to rise again.

Voldemort's known interests

[terri_testing]

As far as we know, Tom had made no attempts in his earlier (living) life to steal the stone. (I know, absence of evidence....) Dumbledore postulated that tom wouldn't have wanted to be dependent on a single item outside himself which could (demonstrably) be lost, stolen, or destroyed.

Tom himself told Harry that "once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a [new] body of my own...."

I.e., that what he accomplished 3 years later in Gof with a Dark ritual involving significant bone, flesh, blood, and Baby!mort, could have been done quickly, easily, and without a "seed body," had he had only had the Elixir of Life.

But reconstituting a body only became a concern once Tom was bodiless; before then he chugged along in his own preferred body, protected from true death by the Horcruxes.

So maybe it's well known (among those who follow such things) that Lord Voldemort's quest for immortality had, in the past, somehow displayed an utter indifference to the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life.