ajuc comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 10 - Less Wrong

11 Post author: Oscar_Cunningham 07 March 2012 04:46PM

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Comment author: ajuc 16 March 2012 06:25:33AM *  1 point [-]

Did anybody bothered to check previous spells on Hermione, Snape, and Quirrell wands? EDIT: Ok, we''re told Quirrell cast tens of spells since 06:33, still - they should check just to be sure.

Now it seems Harry should just kidnapp Hermione and hide here somewhere(And give her cloak to hide her from tracking spels).

"Professor Quirrell had cast tracking Charms because he had learned of a person with a motive to harm Mr. Malfoy. Professor Quirrell had refused to identify this person." hmm, why hadn't they used veritaserum on Quirrell to ask him who had the motive? Seems like usefull thing to know after murder attempt..

Also - Quirrell said he found out about Draco at 06:33 - just half an hour too late to use Time Turner and check what happened or to stop Hermione in the first place. Funny coincidence.

Comment author: Nominull 16 March 2012 07:02:17AM 4 points [-]

Quirrell is, as an Occlumens, immune to veritaserum. Just like Harry.

Comment author: MarkusRamikin 17 March 2012 01:58:44PM 0 points [-]

I'm a little embarassed to ask this, but could someone please point me to where exactly in the story it's explained about Occlumency beating Veritaserum? I'm trying to find it, I think I managed to search out every instance of the word Veritaserum, and I only keep running into sentences that sound like it should already be obvious to the reader.

Comment author: pedanterrific 17 March 2012 04:16:54PM 1 point [-]

I can't for the life of me find anything earlier than Chapter 47's offhanded-seeming

And Father couldn't testify under Veritaserum because he was an Occlumens, he couldn't even get Dumbledore put on trial, [...]

which comes right before

"I was trained by Mr. Bester. Professor Quirrell set it up. Look, Draco, I'll take one drop of Veritaserum if you can get it, I'm just warning you that I'm an Occlumens. Not a perfect Occlumens, but Mr. Bester said I was putting up a complete block, and I could probably beat Veritaserum."

I know the Occlumency > Veritaserum thing is canon, but it seems like it wasn't actually explained or foreshadowed in this fic until it became plot-relevant, which seems a little sloppy.

Comment author: MarkusRamikin 18 March 2012 06:37:24AM 0 points [-]

Hm... I can't find it in canon, either. HP Wiki cites Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as the source, but I've scanned for all instances of verita and occlu and still no luck. Curses!

Comment author: MartinB 16 March 2012 08:18:43AM 2 points [-]

Quirrells suspect is Dumbledore, as has been clearly stated. He probably did not do it. Quirrell basically acted on a hunch and the Aurors do not really care about that.