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wedrifid comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 11 - Less Wrong
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That isn't a scary thought at all. In fact, in the absence of a clever solution it is the best option available.
Sometimes you just have to lose because there is no real option. If it wasn't in a story with Harry as the protagonist it would almost certainly be best to not start a war with the entire power structure to try to save her. Well, not yet.
Let Hermione go. Go research magic. Take over the world. Rescue Hermione. Use advanced magic and an FAI to heal the damage done to Hermione.
The "scary" or "horrible" thought is if he can't do this part. (Which to me looks plausible: if a 12 year-old girl gets sent to Azkaban then she almost certainly can't recover.) The taboo tradeoff would then look like this:
Option A : Rescue Hermione, but with some big utility downside.
Option B: Don't rescue Hermione, ever, but with some big utility upside.
Incidentally, one thing that no-one - I think - has mentioned is whether Muggle law carries any weight at all in this, since what Malfoy and the Wizengamot are voting for is a grotesque form of child abuse (and a huge taboo violation in Muggle society). Can they just ignore the civil law like that and get away with it : what if it led to a breakdown in the edict of secrecy (with Harry helping)? Are Hermione's parents going to be memory-charmed or fobbed off with some random story to shut them up?
Wouldn't this also be a form of taboo tradeoff - Lucius et al following through on Wizard law to avenge a blood debt vs keeping Magical Society secret? Or (from Harry's side) - breaking the edict of secrecy to get Hermione released vs Keeping it for the greater good (e.g. prevention of war).
I kinda doubt wizards in general care overmuch about Muggle law.
But presumably they do care about rampaging Muggles on witch-hunts?
That hasn't happened for about three hundred years. But then, by a mysterious coincidence, neither has torturing little children into insanity to appease the blood lust of the "nobility", something which is likely to get those pitchforks sharpened pretty damned fast.
Secrecy about magic does seem to matter to these folks, otherwise why go to all the effort? Possibly because in an all-out war the wizards risk losing. They have less magic now, the Muggles have much nastier weapons, and not all wizards would fight on the same side. The magical world would be itself deeply divided if torturing a child proved to be the causus belli. Quirrell for one thinks they'd lose (Chapter 34):