Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Professor Quirrell
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
| Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter - Character | |
| Professor Quirrell | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| Hair color | None |
| Eye color | Unknown |
| Related Family | Unknown |
| Loyalty | Lord Voldemort |
Contents |
[edit] Overview
Professor Quirrell is a teacher at Hogwarts, where he teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts on the third floor of the castle, right in the Great Foyer near the Gryffindor tower.
[edit] Notes on his Name
Professor Quirrell is never given a first name in the books, in the film, or in the video game. He does appear in two other places:
- A Wizards of the Coast trading card game based on the series included a card of Quirrell with the first name Quirenus. The Harry Potter Lexicon site states, however, that "these cards are not canon"
- Master Foods produced a line of Chocolate Frog treats with collectable Famous Wizards cards; Quirrel being given the first name Slatero. J. K. Rowling states that she wrote the information on those cards.
[edit] Role in the Books
[edit] Philosopher's Stone
A very timid person, Professor Quirrell first appears in the Leaky Cauldron, where he is pleased to meet Harry; Hagrid comments at the time that he always seems nervous, ever since he took a year's holiday and met up with something he had been teaching about.
At the Arrival Feast, Harry notes that Quirrell looks rather odd, wearing a large purple turban on his head. It is while Professor Quirrell is speaking with Professor Snape that Harry first feels the searing pain in his scar that becomes his companion, on and off, for the nearly all the seven years in this series.
Harry and Ron get into trouble with Filch on the very first day of classes, when they are found trying to get through a locked door, which turns out to be the door to the forbidden third floor corridor. They are saved from being locked in the dungeons by Professor Quirrell, who happens to be passing by.
In Defence Against the Dark Arts, Professor Quirrell says that his strange purple turban was a gift from an African prince for dealing with a troublesome zombie. When Seamus asked excitedly how he had fought the zombie, Quirrell turned all pink and started talking about the weather. (Note: this is the only mention of "zombies" in the series, and thus is highly suspect. The magical construct most closely allied to the Muggle concept of zombies is the Inferius.) There is also a strange smell of garlic that hangs about the classroom; the Weasley twins insist that it is because Quirrell has stuffed his turban full of garlic to ward off vampires.
We don't hear much about his teaching, except that it is not as interesting as Harry and the rest of his class had expected; we do find out that he is concealing something, and that he and Professor Snape may both be looking for something, possibly the mysterious little package that Hagrid removed from Gringotts.
He bursts into the Hallowe'en feast warning that a troll is in the dungeons; Harry and Ron defeat it and save Hermione, thus bonding the three.
At the first Quidditch match of the year, against Slytherin, Harry's broom is jinxed and tries to buck him off. Hermione and Ron believe Snape is casting the jinx. In her haste to reach Snape and set his robes on fire to break his concentration, Hermione knocks over Quirrell.
Harry overhears Quirrell arguing with Snape about where his loyalties lie, and later hears him arguing with someone else about something he does not want to do.
At the conclusion, Harry, Ron, and Hermione pass through a series of chambers to find the Philosopher's Stone. One chamber contains a Troll, who fortunately has been knocked out. Harry alone reaches the final chamber, where he finds Quirrell. Quirrell boasts about his skill with trolls, admitting that he let the one troll into the school at Hallowe'en, and that it was his troll that Harry passed. He also says that Snape had been useful as misdirection, "flapping about like a great bat." Quirrell has been trying to kill Harry all year; Quirrell also jinxed Harry's broom during the Quidditch match against Slytherin, and Snape was attempting to counter the jinx. Quirrell's turban actually conceals Lord Voldemort's face that is attached to Quirrell's head, and Voldemort has been controlling Quirrell all year. Ordered to kill Harry, Quirrell is unable to touch him without getting burned; when Quirrell is preparing a killing curse, Harry grabs his face, causing him so much pain that he is disabled. Harry is also in much pain from his scar, triggered by Voldemort's nearness, and it causes him to pass out.
It is uncertain whether Quirrell actually dies here; it is suggested that he does, but while Professor Dumbledore does explain much of what happened, he never actually states that Quirrell is dead.
[edit] Goblet of Fire
Expounding to the Death Eaters as to what had occurred while he was disembodied, Lord Voldemort describes his stay on the back of Quirrell's head. He mentions that "The servant died when I left his body". Though Voldemort never names Quirrell, referring to him always as his "servant", context makes it certain that this refers to Quirrell.
[edit] Order of the Phoenix
Before the school year starts, Harry, Ron, and Hermione discuss the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. While running down the list of Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers Ron and Harry have known, Fred and George Weasley mention "one died," which could only be Quirrell.
In her first Defence Against the Dark Arts class of the year, Professor Umbridge states that Quirrell was the only Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher that was up to standards for the Ministry. Harry gets into trouble for pointing out that he had Voldemort stuck to the back of his head.
[edit] Half-Blood Prince
To convince Horace Slughorn that Hogwarts is safe from Death Eaters, Harry tells him that Professor Quirrell is the only teacher who has died at Hogwarts. (This is not strictly true, Professor Binns clearly died at the school, though as it was of natural causes it likely would not concern Slughorn either way. It is true that Quirrell's death is the only one Harry knows of that could be attributed to Voldemort or his organization.)
[edit] Strengths
He is carrying Lord Voldemort on the back of his head. As such, he is able to partially utilize Voldemort's powers: for instance, Voldemort is, of course, a Legilimens; he can inspect other wizards' minds and communicate this to Quirrell.
[edit] Weaknesses
Quirrell carries Lord Voldemort on the back of his head. As a result, he must bow to Voldemort's commands, whatever they may be, and is subject to any punishment Voldemort chooses. A relatively weak-willed wizard, Quirrell attempts to attach himself to a powerful being, although that power has instead attached itself to him.
Quirrell is never seen performing magic, so it is uncertain how powerful a wizard he is; he is apparently able to control Trolls, however.
[edit] Relationships with Other Characters
The relationship between Quirrell and Lord Voldemort is rather tighter than any relationship should be.
Quirrell has adopted a stammering, rather bumbling pose to help deflect suspicion from himself, and admits that Snape fluttering about like a great black bat and acting suspicious, was useful to him. Snape and Quirrell seem to be competitive with one another and often seem to be arguing.
Quirrell's quirky manner seems to distance others from him, as well, and so he does not appear to have close relationships with any teachers or students at Hogwarts.
[edit] Analysis
According to Professor Dumbledore, speaking in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher is apparently jinxed; since Voldemort had been turned down for the job, no teacher has lasted more than one year in that post. One question that has been raised is, given that jinx, how could Quirrell have remained in that post for more than a year? According to the author, he had not. In an interview, Rowling stated that Quirrell had requested a transfer to that post, and had been studying the source material so he could teach it, when he encountered Voldemort in Albania.
[edit] Questions
- Why did Quirrell allow Voldemort to share his head?
- What might Quirrell have been like before he met Voldemort?
