drethelin comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 18, chapter 87 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Alsadius 22 December 2012 07:55AM

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Comment author: drethelin 19 March 2013 09:21:37PM 1 point [-]

Re: Bellatrix. In canon Quirrel is a temporary stopping place for Voldemort's spirit until he can incarnate in a new body. One of the ways to do this is a ritual that requires the parts mentioned in HPMOR, eg a servant, an enemy, an ancestor etc. Bellatrix is his best servant.

Comment author: victordrake 19 March 2013 11:04:27PM 0 points [-]

But, if his plan is that his soul be sent to another world, he does not need his body back, does he?

Comment author: Nornagest 19 March 2013 11:49:34PM *  0 points [-]

Maybe. He'd have to be content to spend an indefinite but probably very long span of time as whatever goes into a Horcrux in this continuity, without any well-defined hope of resurrection.

It's a cool idea, but Quirrell's not the type to send his soul (for lack of a better word) to another planet just because it's a cool idea. Unfortunately we don't know much about how well a Horcrux can perceive or influence its surroundings, which is somewhat important in this context. He might be trying to cast a light into the future, cryonics-style, but that seems like a long shot by my measure of Quirrell; he knows something of Muggle science but he's probably not hip to obscure, relatively recent ideas.

He's using the Pioneer probe as the ultimate safe deposit box. I don't think we have enough evidence to say he's looking for anything more dramatic than that.

Comment author: victordrake 25 March 2013 12:25:29AM 0 points [-]

Actually, it has occurred to me that maybe he doesn't need his body back, because he never lost it. He's not wearing a turban to cover two-facedness, and Harry's "recovered" memory from his infancy may have been the result of a false memory charm. In this continuity, can we really be sure that Quirrel is a separate person that Voldie is using, or maybe he is just Voldie in disguise?

Comment author: Qiaochu_Yuan 19 March 2013 09:23:57PM 0 points [-]

Also in canon, the servant chosen was Pettigrew. HPMoR is at least feinting towards Bellatrix as a much more obvious choice at least partially as a commentary on how Pettigrew's a dumb choice.

Comment author: drethelin 19 March 2013 09:27:39PM 0 points [-]

to be fair, in canon breaking out of Azkaban involved secret animagus status (Until Voldie was back in life and able to control dementors). In HPMOR it involved Harry's special abilities, cloak of true invisibility, etc. etc. Pettigrew still seems like a dumb choice but