Name: dirtydeedsdonedirtcheap (Signed) · Date: 10 Sep 2017 06:58 PM · For: Unaffected

Nobody speak to me, nobody look at me,” his mind whispered with every step. Of course, the students seemed as uninterested in his presence as ever.

 

Why is it that this is how I head to work every morning? Are you sure you aren’t writing about me? Because the moment I get into work and I have to leave my office at any given moment I silently say in my head: No one speak to me. I just don’t like people either. Poor guy, we could have been friends…except we would have never spoken to each other.

 

Wow. I never read a story about Quirrell before. I’m intrigued actually and would love to read more. He seems like such a complex character and yet he sort of reminds me of Severus in a way, just a tad more…ah…open. Even though he dislikes people. I love the way you described him and his pure annoyance with, well, just about everyone. I think you really hit the nail on the head though in the story when he’s teaching. His students are questioning him and you can kind of feel the annoyance and this haughty attitude of his shrink away momentarily because come on, who really cares for Muggle Studies? And then I liked that he kind of questioned to himself, ‘Hey, maybe Voldemort was right…’ which is ironic, especially with the closing sentence because we all know what happens to him, don’t we? I kind of feel bad for Quirrell but at the same time I don’t. He just seems like a body of a person and not an actual person, which makes sense because that’s what he later becomes. Really wonderful read. It was short but gave a good insight into a character no one otherwise gives a second thought about. I kind of wish you would have done a complete character study about him and just fleshed out everything about him so we could get a deeper understand of his character and I enjoyed your writing style so the request is partly selfish on my end.

Author's Response:

Hello Deeds!

 

This is a kind of funky story for me. I’m not especially fond of it, but at the same time it’s the first thing that I wrote after being away from writing for a very long time, so it’s got a kind of special place in my heart for that.

 

I think when I started writing this I just kind of had the idea for the sort of punchline, and as I wrote it Quirrell’s personality expressed itself in ways that I didn’t totally expect, but kind of enjoy. As I wrote it I became very aware that I was channeling myself in some ways and my own issues with anxiety (which was a good reminder of how therapeutic writing can be for me), but Quirrell has a much more sardonic vibe than me, and in him, anxiety brings out a darker shade of the antisocial. (so no, I was writing about me, not you, but it turns out we all have some things in common)

 

I thought of Quirrell as really a very small man, kind of pathetic in his insignificance. And he was small because he made himself small by closing other people out and taking no interest in the larger world around him. I don’t think he grows into any greatness by his eventual association with Voldemort, but rather Voldemort sees his smallness and his apathy and sees he can use him as a shell towards his own ends. I think your comment that “He just seems like a body of a person and not an actual person” is very apt.

 

Thank you very much for the read and comments!

 

Sam.

Name: Margaret (Signed) · Date: 31 Oct 2016 02:58 PM · For: Unaffected

I don't think I've ever before seen a story about Quirrell and he IS one of the more interesting characters IN the series.

And this is a rather seasonal story (if one can consider Halloween a season).

*laughs at Quirrell's apparent lack of interest in the disappearance of a man seeking dictatorship and the cause of 11 years of upheaval and violence*

Following Muggle news makes sense as an assignment for Muggle Studies. But Quirrell doesn't really seem to have much interest in the subject or in Muggles himself. 

Author's Response:

Oh yay, thank you very much for being my very first HPFT review!

I wrote this story when first getting back into fan fic after a couple of years away, so it was fun to repost here, and nice to get a response on it.

Quirrell's tone came as a bit of a surprisse as I was writing, but I actually really enjoyed making him ridiculously detached and apathetic. I see him as a very self serving and kind of pathetic man, and so it was kind of fun to look at him in the smallness of that before he found his cause, so to speak.

Thanks for the review!

Sam.