The Erised Trap

Mrs. X and I have been spending the last few months rereading the various Harry Potter books in preparation for the 7th book being released in July. I’ve also been reading a series of essays over on Red Hen. Most are interesting, although the author does have some serious issues about what to what to expect out of Rowling’s work. Of course, anyone who is going to write in that volume about a series is probably a bit over the top. But there have been some interesting points made in various essays.

One of the most interesting is the argument made over the labyrinth in Sorcerer’s Stone. Mrs. X has been quite vocal about her annoyance that the series of obstacles guarding the sorcerer’s stone were too easy and that the teachers could have done a much better job than put up some tasks that three first year’s could have gotten through. However, it has been argued that the point of the various obstacles was actually not to stop Voldemort but to merely delay him.

Dumbledore’s method of hiding the stone in the mirror was all the protection the stone really needed. Quirrell/Voldemort had no way of getting to the stone in the mirror so all the other tasks were quite meaningless. What’s more, Dumbledore could have simply put the stone in the mirror and set it up in his office if he was really interested in keeping the stone out of Voldemort’s hands. Voldemort would never have been able to get the stone and getting into Dumbledore’s office would have been even harder than getting through the third floor corridor. So why the elaborate defenses?

The answer is rather simple. The labyrinth was a trap. The majority of the tasks were not difficult, but they were time consuming. Catching a flying key would have taken time (presumably the keys would have been immune to Accio), the chess match would have taken a lot of time, and even the logic puzzle would have required some time to sort out. Fluffy and the Devil’s Snare wouldn’t have taken a lot of time, but they were also the first tasks and Voldemort would have been suspicious if the entrance tasks weren’t dangerous. Quirrell’s troll obviously is something he knew he could get past quickly and doesn’t factor into the equation.

Dumbledore would have known that when he was taken away from Hogwarts and Voldemort went down into the labyrinth, he could return and find Voldemort and Quirrell still trying to get the stone out of the mirror. There Dumbledore could have neutralized Quirrell and tried to find some way of trapping Voldemort in an object or some other sort of prison. Once done, Dumbledore could have destroyed Voldemort’s horcruxes at his leisure and then dealt with Voldemort as he saw fit.

The trap probably had evolved over the course of the summer. Quirrell had probably been hired as the DADA teacher during the ’89-‘90 term and then left to get some practical experience (and keeping with the curse on the job). When he came back at the end of the ’90-’91 term he was already putting on his twitch performance to disguise any idiosyncrasies in his behavior. Voldemort had not taken physical possession of Quirrell yet (he wasn’t wearing his turban until the start of the ’91-’92 term) but his mind had already been bent to Voldemort’s will. Dumbledore knew that Quirrell had been wandering in Voldemort’s rumored territory and was probably able to scan Quirrell’s mind and get a bead on things.

Dumbledore quickly hatched a daring plan. He contacted his friend Flamel and convinced him to give up the stone as bait. Dumbledore then made an announcement to his staff about hearing rumors of a danger to the stone and had offered to keep it at Hogwarts for safekeeping. Dumbledore probably went to individual teachers and asked for a specific guardian in their specialty. Once Hagrid arrived with the stone, the trap was set. Voldemort jumped at the opportunity, but decided to make a grab for the stone before it was in place.

Something that gets overlooked is the fact the Quirrell was already at Diagon Alley before Hagrid arrived. He also met Hagrid in the pub and could probably guess that he was there to collect the stone. Quirrell might have been fighting back against Voldemort’s power by delaying just long enough to know that his attempt on the vault would be too late. It would seem that after this, Voldemort took no more chances and directly possessed Quirrell. This also was a dangerous gambit since Voldemort’s possession would have drained Quirrell’s life and forced Voldemort to supplement with unicorn blood within 6 months of taking control of Quirrell.

The only other question is given that Quirrell was dying on him, why did Voldemort wait until June to make a grab for the stone? Voldemort was always very cautious and never makes a move if he can make others do it for him. He floated a test balloon of the castle’s defenses over Halloween by letting a troll into the building, but then ran into Snape and Fluffy. Voldemort then waited for the dust to settle and see if Snape blew the whistle on him. When he didn’t, Voldemort set about tricking Hagrid to get past Fluffy. Voldemort probably could have gotten past the dog without Hagrid’s information, but he was determined to be as unobtrusive as possible. At the same time he was trying to get the information from Hagrid, Voldemort was probably also trying to get information on the other obstacles from the other teachers.

Voldemort had the information from Hagrid and probably the other teachers by spring, but he waited even longer. Voldemort was cautious, but he also had been unable to gather what obstacle that Dumbledore himself had put in the labyrinth. Finally, he decided that he couldn’t wait any longer as term was about it end and decided to go for it. Dumbledore was lured out of the castle and Quirrell went down into the labyrinth.

But Dumbledore made one small mistake. He underestimated Harry and co.’s determination to muddle in. Some have suggested that Voldemort waited to go down until Harry decided to go down the trapdoor to stop Snape so that he could use him to get the stone. However, if this were the case, I think we would have seen Quirrell offer Harry more hints about what he knew and tried to nudge him down the trapdoor sooner (much as Barty Crouch Jr. did in GoF). Instead, Harry goes down of his own accord and nearly screws everything by pulling the stone out of the mirror.

I suspect that Dumbledore had two other little tricks that would have aided him in trapping Voldemort that are implied in the text. First, he had some sort of warning system in place if the stone actually came out of the mirror. Dumbledore mentioned that he suddenly felt that he was needed back at Hogwarts. This probably coincided with Harry getting the stone out of the mirror.

Second, Dumbledore might have set up an apparition tunnel into the mirror chamber. Dumbledore arrived in the chamber in time to pull Quirrell off of Harry and Harry heard Dumbledore’s voice before he passed out. If Dumbledore’s intention was to trap Voldemort and deal with him in the mirror room, it makes sense that he would have set up a method to bypass the other tasks. House elves seem to be able to ignore the anti-apparition spells that are placed on Hogwarts and Dumbledore consistently lifts the restriction in the great hall during apparition lessons. Given this kind of flexibility, it makes sense that Dumbledore might have created a spot where you could apparate into the mirror room, but only from one other point in the castle (like his office).

Thus, when Dumbledore got his warning about the stone at the ministry, he immediately apparated to gates of Hogwarts and then ran inside. He then ran to his office and apparated from the point he had designated, to the window point in the mirror room, arriving in time to pull Quirrell off Harry.

The only other fly in the ointment regarding this is why Dumbledore showed Harry how the mirror works if it wasn’t to remove the stone. Dumbledore probably had two objectives. He did want Harry to know how the mirror works so that he could have recovered the stone for Dumbledore if necessary. Dumbledore might have been unable to retrieve the stone due to his desire to destroy the stone and he would have needed a third party to get it out of the mirror.

But I think the main reason that Harry was shown the mirror was to test him. Dumbledore hoped that Harry was not coming to Hogwarts with the attitudes of Tom Riddle, but he couldn’t be sure. Only by observing his reaction to the mirror and what he saw could Dumbledore judge Harry’s character. Rather than showing him power and then keeping it a secret as Tom Riddle would have seen and done, Harry saw his family and immediately ran off to show Ron.

Harry passed the test with flying colors, but also was now equipped with the information that almost allowed Voldemort to acquire the stone. Thanks to Harry’s involvement, Voldemort escaped and Dumbledore stepped hard into the trap he had hoped to avoid as mentioned in Order of the Phoenix: helping and hoping that Harry could have a normal life.