Skip to main content

It’s been almost 20 years since J.K. Rowling’s magical Wizarding World made its big-screen debut. Though Potter fans across the globe had become enamored with the British author’s books, in 2001, Daniel Radcliffe put on Harry Potter’s glasses for the first time in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

For the next 10 years, we would watch Radcliffe shine on the big screen as Harry through all eight Harry Potter films, covering all seven of Rowling’s sprawling books.

In recent years since Harry Potter has come to an end, Rowling and the actors have revealed behind-the-scenes clues about the movies, and little details about the narratives that Potter Heads may have missed. Now, Radcliffe is coming clean about how Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Quirinus Quirrell, slept with Lord Voldemort living on the back of his skull.

We should’ve known that Professor Quirrell was a bad guy

When Harry Potter first spotted Quirrell at the Leaky Cauldron in the Sorcerer’s Stone, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was flustered and upset. He refused even to shake Harry’s hand. At the time, Harry’s friend, Hagrid, Hogwart’s groundkeeper, just said that Quirrell was a nervous person. This doesn’t make sense considering the subject that Quirrell taught.

Later at Hogwarts, to create a diversion, Quirrell lures a troll into the school and then faints with alarm in the Great Hall. Even if the students didn’t understand why this didn’t add up, the teachers should have caught on to it, the only person who did was Potions Master, Severus Snape.

Also, when we’re first introduced to Quirrell, he has a stutter indicating his nervousness. However, as soon as Harry realizes that he has evil intentions, it vanishes. That stammer was just Volermort taunting him and competing with his thoughts.

Still, the most obvious indicator was that Harry’s scar burned every time he looked at Quirrell because he was looking into the face of pure evil.

Professor Quirrell’s name had evil indications

There were several times when Quirrell nearly outs himself for the evil person that he is. Once, Harry overhears a conversation that the professor is having with Voldemort. He hears Quirrell sobbing, “No – no – not again, please… All right – all right…” At the time, Harry assumed that Quirrell was being harassed by Professor Snape.

However, the biggest clue that Quirrell was up to no good was his name. As we know, Rowling stuffed her universe full of clues. Nothing in the Wizarding World was done by accident. Quirrell’s name is very similar to “squirrel.” However, his first name, Quirinus references a half-forgotten Roman god closely associated with violence and war.

Related

‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2: Everything We Know So Far

Professor Quirrell had an interesting sleeping arrangement with Voldemort

In the hilarious 2009 YouTube parody, A Very Potter Musical, Quirrell and Voldemort argued over how they would sleep. It’s been a major question for Potterheads since then. Now, Radcliffe has reunited with Quirrell actor Ian Hart for the upcoming prison-break thriller Escape from Pretoria. He had decided to share his opinion on the matter.

“I would say that the only practical thing to do there would be to sleep on your side, unless Voldemort doesn’t need air, which I’m not sure,” he told HuffPost. “As long as there’s breath coming into the body, he’s probably asleep on his front because it would still circulate around the whole thing. I’m guessing back-of-the-head Voldemort could survive off front-of-the-head Ian Hart’s air supply.”

.

Best in Entertainment