Vaniver comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 112 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Gondolinian 25 February 2015 09:00PM

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Comment author: Vaniver 26 February 2015 12:04:04AM *  0 points [-]

which would have had... unpleasant effects on her mental health

I'm not saying that the alternative was good--just that the alternative was better.

there's a pretty sharp limit to how much you can count "going along with a hostage situation at gunpoint" as "meddling."

I am considering primarily the earlier mistakes Harry made with respect to Quirrell.

Comment author: linkhyrule5 26 February 2015 12:18:23AM 2 points [-]

Was it?

I really don't think the alternative was better than the canonical "Harry gets her out of there at a reasonably low cost considering all the myriad ways he has of making tons of money".

I mean, given that his opponent turned out to be Quirrell, maybe, but otherwise...

Which earlier mistakes were these?

Comment author: Vaniver 26 February 2015 02:49:01AM 2 points [-]

Which earlier mistakes were these?

The chief of them is the one that Harry realizes:

The part that was numb with grief and guilt took this opportunity to observe, speaking of obliviousness, that after events at Hogwarts had turned serious, they really really really REALLY should have reconsidered the decision made on First Thursday, at the behest of Professor McGonagall, not to tell Dumbledore about the sense of doom that Harry got around Professor Quirrell. It was true that Harry hadn't been sure who to trust, there was a long stretch where it had seemed plausible that Dumbledore was the bad guy and Professor Quirrell the heroic opposition, but...

Dumbledore would have realised.

Comment author: ChristianKl 26 February 2015 09:50:28AM 0 points [-]

I think Dumbledore did realize the fact that the Defense Professor is Voldemort, so that's no consequential error on Harry's part.

Comment author: Jost 26 February 2015 10:33:49AM 0 points [-]

Did he? The beginning of chapter 110 seems to suggest otherwise:

Dumbledore's grimness had returned and redoubled. "There I am, searching so hard for Voldemort's shade, never noticing that the Defense Professor of Hogwarts is a sickly, half-dead victim possessed by a spirit far more powerful than himself. I would call it senility, if so many others had not missed it as well."

Comment author: ChristianKl 26 February 2015 10:55:42AM 1 point [-]

That's sarcasm.

Comment author: Jost 26 February 2015 01:55:22PM 5 points [-]

That precise wording might carry sarcastic undertones. However, the bewilderment right before that seemed (and still seems, on second reading) genuine to me:

The grimness on Albus Dumbledore's face lasted only an instant before giving way to bewilderment. "Quirinus? What -"

And then there was a pause.

"Well," said Albus Dumbledore. "I do feel stupid."

Comment author: Velorien 26 February 2015 08:09:50PM 2 points [-]

It's also an eerie echo of Lucius Malfoy:

There was a long pause, then. The grey eyes searched him. “Of course...” said Lucius slowly. “I do feel the fool now. This whole time you were just pretending to have no idea what we were talking about.”

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