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drnickbone comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 24, chapter 95 - Less Wrong Discussion

6 Post author: palladias 18 July 2013 02:23AM

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Comment author: drnickbone 19 July 2013 01:55:51PM *  3 points [-]

Best guess is that Harry is a horcrux. He can't be killed, except with very powerful magic (Avada Kedavra or equivalent), and Quirrell can't use magic against him. Further, his last attempt at killing Harry was a total disaster. Chapter 65:

"Casst Killing Cursse? " Harry hissed in incredulity. "At me? Again? Ssecond time? Nobody will believe Dark Lord could posssibly be that sstupid -"

"You and I are only two people in country who would notice that," hissed the snake. "Trusst me on thiss, boy."

This does cast some light on how Voldemort got blown up in the first place. The fatal interaction of magic stems from Harry being a horcrux; but Harry's only a horcrux because Voldemort made him one. Further, the horcruxing most likely happened because of the weird interaction of magic which caused Voldie to blow up (and his soul-explosion, or whatever, then anchored itself to the infant Harry). It looks like there was some sort of trick with a Time Turner involved in Godric's Hollow to set this up. I suspect Dumbledore...

P.S. If Quirrell gets really desperate, he could of course try to persuade someone else to do the AK on Harry. Will be amazing if he can persuade Dumbledore to do it...

Comment author: jkaufman 21 July 2013 04:42:01AM 3 points [-]

Your quote could be just making fun of canon though.

Comment author: gwern 21 July 2013 02:28:57PM 1 point [-]

Specifically, the final book where Voldemort goes for not just AK #2 but also AK #3 as well.

Comment author: drnickbone 21 July 2013 05:10:55PM *  1 point [-]

"Goblet of Fire" contains AK#2 as far as I remember. "Deathly Hallows" actually contains AK#3 and AK#4.... You would think that after three failed attempts, Voldemort might have got the hint. HPMoR Voldemort would of course update after one failed attempt and not try again.

Allowing for alternatives to AK, I think there are only two possible explanations for why Voldie doesn't just kill Harry at this point:

  1. He values Harry alive so much that he is willing to risk ending the universe.
  2. He can't kill Harry.
Comment author: Kindly 21 July 2013 09:24:26PM 6 points [-]

Of course, every time the AK fails in canon, it is for a different reason (unless you count "plot armor"), making the true correct conclusion more difficult to see.