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buybuydandavis 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: buybuydandavis 20 July 2013 09:43:10PM 0 points [-]

Both of them described a dark ritual in terms of what the other gave up, then what the other got.

Per what Lily says, Voldemort gives up killing Harry, in exchange for Lily's life.

Per what Voldemort says, Lily gives up her life, in exchange for Harry's life.

Does this mean there were two different rituals proposed? The same one from two perspectives? I don't think we have enough of the theory of dark rituals to distinguish the two. Did Lily "get it wrong"? Under one possible interpretation, yes, and under another, no.

And then Lily may or may not have balked at the terms, and tried to kill Voldemort, and Voldemort may or may not have tried to kill Harry.

Harry really should have been investigating the details of Voldemort's death a lot more than he has, starting with an interrogation of Dumbledore.

Comment author: Kindly 20 July 2013 10:09:19PM 1 point [-]

Fair enough; I didn't think of the "sacrifice the chance to kill Harry in order to obtain the death of Lily" interpretation. Which I still think is inelegant but I have no good argument against it, so it has a right to exist.