gwern 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

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (641)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: gwern 17 March 2012 03:32:44PM 0 points [-]

Yes. There are a couple routes he might have learned of it, though:

  • Slytherin's monster, as a high-level creature keyed into the deepest wards, might be expected to know of it or be able to learn of it.
  • If my speculation about the Map's anomaly is right, Voldemort's spirit could have learned of it by directly observing the twins.
  • The Map has been passed down through the ages and sometimes even been in official possession, so it could be mentioned in some obscure book. Possibly it might be a headmaster secret, explaining how Dumbledore learned of it without requiring him to invade their minds.
  • The twins could have been suspiciously - to Quirrel - adept at avoiding professors and obstacles, prompting him to spy on them as one would expect Quirrel to do.
  • The Map could be revealed at a future date; Quirrel's suspiciously good priors have long been speculated as being related to time travel.

None of them seem especially likely, but in aggregate with other strategies I have failed to think of...