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cultureulterior comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 14, chapter 82 - Less Wrong
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Harry didn't give the boa any commands, and both Nagini and the Basilisk are being commanded by someone else (specifically, a Voldemort). In Chamber of Secrets, Malfoy summons a snake, Harry talks to it and tells it to not attack anyone, and IIRC, it does not.
(The original suggestion is still improbable though - Patronuses wouldn't be the ne plus ultra of secure communications if they could be suborned like that, especially in a war against a famous Parseltongue.)
Now that I think about it, why hasn't Harry bought a pet snake yet? Having an animal minion he could command would be extremely useful in any amount of situations, and you'd think he'd make the best of his abilities. If he's worried about remembering to feed it, he can have Hermione be responsible for it.
In fact, a pet snake would be a great gift from professor Quirrel.
Evil image, more work and complexity (Harry is busy - is a animal minion really a marginal gain?), the need to run it by Dumbledore to get a vault withdrawal (large healthy snakes in the real world are expensive, AFAIK) and the lingering issue of creating sentience?
Because the pet rock turned out so well.
Because getting a pet snake is going to be interpreted as either a sign of Slytherin(which will hardly play well in Ravenclaw) or, if the observer is clever, as a sign that he's a Parselmouth, which is something he'd prefer to keep hidden. The image effects may outweigh the uses.
Oh, crap. Malfoy's blue krait is Voldemort's spy in the Malfoy home.
The Malfoy's have a whole bunch of snakes. I think there's a word for a place you keep a bunch of snakes, like an ofidarium or something.
Also, they know that Voldemort was a Parseltongue. Lucius would at least be aware of these spies. I think he would, anyway... do we know that the Death Eaters know that Voldemort was a Parsletonue in this fic?
Also, what kind of snake is Quirrell's animagus form? Should we have compared descriptions?
Not sure if joking.
Thanks!
That is exactly the passage I didn't find.
Besides the reasons already mentioned, the standard Hogwarts letter in canon had restrictions on what kinds of animals were allowed as pets -- owls (like Harry has), cats (like Hermione gets in PoA), and toads (like Neville's). All three are stereotypical wizardy/witchy beasts.
The Weasley rat is not explained in canon but can be assumed to have been granted as an exception. A snake would probably not be given such an exception, as it might be used to scare other children.
Or perhaps snakes are disallowed because then the Gryffindors would ask to be allowed pet lions.
And you wouldn't want an explicit rule against pet lions, because then the Gryffindors would definitely have secret pet lions.
...Lions are cats.
Hmm.
I read a crackfic once where this loophole allowed Calvin to bring Hobbes to Hogwarts. (Hobbes is, of course, a magical creature that Muggles perceive as a stuffed toy.)
...if it is not ( http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2134884/1/Calvin_and_Hobbes_go_to_Hogwarts ), then I would like a link to that fic, please.
I was talking about this one.
I am simultaneously dismayed and impressed that you two could be talking about two different such fanfics.
IIRC, Harry thought through similar issues with respect to having a pet owl in the early chapters and rejected it on ethical grounds. Perhaps he is generalizing that to all pets.
If so, though, I don't think he's correct to do so. A pet that is (assuming Parselmouth works this way) only social when it's with me and not when I'm absent has a very different set of ethical costs than one that is social even when I'm absent.