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Locke comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 9 - Less Wrong Discussion

10 Post author: Oscar_Cunningham 09 September 2011 01:29PM

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Comment author: Locke 11 February 2012 04:23:10PM 3 points [-]

It means Harry will never be able to truly forget or move past that horrible day. A part of him will always be there, just as a part of Dumbledore will always be in the black room. I am reminded of Barney's "second that would last forever" from HIMYM.

Comment author: MarkusRamikin 11 February 2012 05:15:03PM *  2 points [-]

I'm pretty sure something more literal was meant. The way the story is written, it sounded like Harry was in danger of dying from exhaustion, expending... something, to fuel his Patronus. And expending irrecoverably, it is stressed, so it's not like he just did the equivalent of a life-or-death sprint which made him really tired.

Comment author: FAWS 11 February 2012 09:06:13PM 1 point [-]

I see no indication that the thing permanently sacrificed was the same thing fueling the Patronus. I think the Patronus burns "life" in the sense of one of the things Dementors also suck out, but that can be regenerated by resting (it was implied that the prisoners in Askaban would partially recover magic and something else if the Dementors didn't keep sucking it out when the true Patronus gave Bella a weeks worth of such regeneration back), and it seems unlikely that such a loss to Patronus radiation would be more permanent than loss to Dementors.

Comment author: Locke 11 February 2012 06:39:16PM 0 points [-]

Hmmm, I see what you mean. "For it wasn't his magic he had expended, it had never been his magic that fueled the Patronus Charm."

I don't think that using the Patronus 2.0 permanently sacrifices anything though. After all, he's perfectly fine after killing the Dementor at Hogwarts, a situation in which none of his "life flowed back into him."

Comment author: pedanterrific 12 February 2012 09:56:30PM 1 point [-]

Are you sure? I read it as referring back to that scene specifically. The exact quote:

Harry felt... well, normal again. Sane-ish. The spell hadn't undone the day and its damage, hadn't made the injuries as if they had never been, but his hurts had been... bandaged, meliorated? It was hard to describe.

Dumbledore was also looking healthier, though not fully restored. The old wizard's head turned for a moment, locked eyes with Professor Quirrell, then looked back to Harry. "Harry," Dumbledore said, "are you about to collapse in exhaustion and possibly die?"

"No, strangely enough," Harry said. "That took something out of me, but a lot less than I thought it would." Or maybe it gave something back, as well as taking... "Honestly, I expected my body to be hitting the ground with a thud about now."

(Bold emphasis mine.)

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