The kids watched the first Harry Potter movie this morning, The Sorcerer’s Stone. While watching the end, it occurred to me there’s a bit of a plot hole created by the circumstances of the first movie.
I’ll assume if you’ve read this far, you’re somewhat familiar with the Harry Potter-verse and I’ll get right to it.
At the end of the story, Harry Potter is convinced that Professor Snape is the culprit behind all the mysterious happenings at the school and is, in fact, trying to help Voldemort return to power. This turns out to be spectacularly wrong, as the villain is in fact Professor Quirrell, working in league with Voldemort. During the final confrontation between Quirrell/ Voldemort and Harry, it is revealed that Professor Snape was, in fact, consistently thwarting Quirrell’s plans behind the scenes. It was Snape whom thwarted Quirrell during the Moutain Troll episode, and we’re also allowed to see through Harry’s spying eye’s a clandestine exchange between Quirrell and Snape where Snape challenges Quirrell and his motives. In short, Snape seemed to know what was going on with Quirrell and wasn’t helping Quirrell/Voldemort to succeed.
Now, given that Quirrell and Voldemort are joined at the head, it seems logical that Voldemort would also be aware of Snape’s meddling and consistent interruptions of his (Voldemort’s) plans to return to power. Given Snape’s role at the end of the saga, where he poses as Voldemort’s right-hand man presumably with Voldemort’s full trust, these circumstances seem like a pretty big inconsistency. That is, it seems implausible that Voldemort should be unaware of Snape’s double-agent status given what Snape does in the first book. Yet, that is exactly the case.
I recognize the difficulty in keeping details like this straight over the course of 7 books and 10 or so years worth of creating a world and story. It just struck me as interesting inconsistency in the story. One that I couldn’t think of a plausible explanation for.
For instance- perhaps Voldemort suffers from some sort of amnesia after he returns to corporeal form, one might argue. But that seems pretty selective given everything that he clearly does remember, including all of his Deatheaters, Harry himself, the Elder wand and so forth.
Another argument might be that Snape is skilled at blocking Voldemort’s mind reading powers. I’d agree- but Voldemort shouldn’t have to read Snape’s mind. He simply has to assess Snape’s actions as they pertain to Professor Quirrell.
There are other possibilities I can come up with, but I don’t consider any of them convincing explanations. I think it’s just one of those plot holes that any epic tale, even LOTR has them, picks up along the way. Anyone else agree with my assessment, or am I off base entirely?