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pjeby comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 5 - Less Wrong
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I'm guessing that Eliezer forgot to tells us about the errand in the earlier narrative.
If it turns out they did it before they left, there will be a clue in the narrative now, as Eliezer will already have used his timer turner to update the text by now. ;-)
[Edit: ...and, it turns out I'm wrong. Also, disappointed in Eliezer. This does indeed lower my credence for future cliffhangers turning out awesomely, as it's way too much of a deus ex machina here.]
I disagree. The existence of a Slytherin girl's time-turner was all but spelled out before, which qualifies it as not-DeM. It was difficult to remember (I didn't, until Eliezer pointed it out) because it was a minor passage from many, many chapters in advance, but that only makes it even less of an Ass Pull.
If anything is wrong with that resolution, I think it's that Snape didn't think of that possibility despite being Head of House Slytherin and a master schemer.
It's not that, it's that the entire timeline of events is inadequately spelled out (we're NEVER told what time it is, throughout the TSPE arc), and no mention was made of advance preparations to defeat time turner tests, or even that HP had to go run an errand that Q thought would be important later. (So that we would remember it and be curious what it was for.)
IOW, I was fine with him using someone else's time turner; it's the order of revelation of events that's problematic.
I thought that would be impossible. Otherwise you can just chain them, and travel further than 6 hours, or more than 6hours over a day.
The Test McGonagall administers seems ridiculously stupid. She should be aware of ways to counter act it. It seems odd that there is no way to simple find out how much a time turner has left or even where/when it was used by looking at it, or using the <retrievelogfile> spell.
I expect that you can chain them, but you still can't travel (or even send information) more than 6 hours back in time. That restriction is part of the nature of time, not a limitation of time turners, and a chain of time turners can't break it any more than an individual time turner can, even if you were to turn it 7 times.
That's my interpretation, anyway.
A minor flaw: The Slytherin girl who likes to get there first with gossip (in chapters 41 & 46) is named Millicent Bulstrode. But in Chapter 62, her name is Margaret Bulstrode.
Millicent is a 1st year girl, normally there is no reason to hand out time-turners to 1st years (no conflicting elective classes) and it would probably have been more difficult to directly include a 3rd or higher year in the foreshadowing. Presumably Margaret (4th year) is Millicent's elder sister and told her the gossip in secret.
What was the passage?
The bit with the Slitherin girls in chapter 46.
Ah. From http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/46/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality :
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