Skip to main content

harry potter - What’s with the second troll in Philosopher’s Stone?


I am basing this on the assumption that trolls in the Potterverse require at least somewhat regular eating. They are said to have a fondness for human flesh, and presumably creatures of that size don’t just exist on nothing.


When Harry and Hermione get past McGonagall’s protection of the Philosopher’s Stone (the chess set), they are met with Quirrell’s protection, a giant troll (thankfully knocked out).


So if we’re assuming that the troll has been in this dungeon-like place for the entire school year, ever since the Stone was moved there—then who has been feeding it?


The obvious answer would be Quirrell himself, since it was his protection—but that doesn’t add up, for at least three reasons:




  1. Quirrell had to do the whole hooded-stranger-with-a-dragon’s-egg tap-and-dance to figure out how to get past Fluffy, so obviously he wouldn’t have been regularly getting past him to feed the troll.





  2. When Quirrell does get to his troll on his way to the Stone, he injures the flying key charmed by Flitwick—if he’d been down there to feed the troll regularly, he would surely either have bent that key completely out of shape by now, or had a way to get to it more easily and safely.




  3. Quirrell is terrified of trolls, if you base your belief on his reaction to the troll on Halloween, where the mere presence of one in the dungeons is enough to send him fleeing to the Great Hall and faint from, ostensibly, fear. Not the kind of person you’d set to feed a troll in a distant, underground location.




Then again, one may wonder why Quirrell’s (faked) fear of trolls, including the theatrical faint in the Great Hall at Halloween, appears to be accepted by the staff (excluding Snape) to begin with. Presumably at least some of the staff—or at the very least Dumbledore himself—are aware that Quirrell has a ‘gift’ with trolls, and indeed managed to get one even bigger than the Halloween one into this dungeon-like place under the school. This must have happened long before Halloween, and it makes little sense to believe that he has enough bravado with trolls to get one into the protection rooms, but not enough to deal with one in the school dungeons. Either he’s scared witless of them, or he’s good with them.


Is there anything in the Potterverse (even non-canonical) that gives any indication of this?



Answer




Regarding the first part of the question, the book "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" notes that trolls are not obligate human carnivores, indeed, they'll eat much anything as long as it's fresh meat;



Trolls eat raw flesh and are not fussy in their prey, which ranges from wild animals to humans.



Under the circumstance, it's reasonable to assume that the Hogwarts Kitchen Elves are providing Quirrell (or even the troll directly) with a ready supply of uncooked meat.




As to why it was believable that Quirrell would be scared of a "troll in the dungeon" can also be found in the same text:



Notable for its equally prodigious strength and stupidity, the troll is often violent and unpredictable.




Hagrid notes that Quirrell has become very jumpy since his return and is even scared of things of which he should be intimately familiar



‘Is he always that nervous?’ ‘Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin’ outta books but then he took a year off ter get some first-hand experience … They say he met vampires in the Black Forest and there was a nasty bit o’ trouble with a hag – never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject – now, where’s me umbrella?’



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...