Quirrell will be killed by Harry at the end -- but this is all a part of the plan.
Suppose that Quirrell is not the original Riddle, but is just another Riddle's copy. If Quirrell and Harry are both copies of the original Riddle, the original Riddle had no reason to prefer Quirrell's life to Harry's life.
The story about a good hero saving the world by defeating a horrible villain: he did not have to fake it. He could make it real, by letting two of his own copies fight against each other. Realistic hero Harry will be better than a fake hero; he will be more authentic; there will be no risk of discovering his secret in the future.
Just like Harry had a magically induced blind spot in his mind, also Quirrell can be manipulated. (Memory changes, imperius, unbreakable oath... there are many options.) This is why Quirrell does not kill Harry, why he teaches him things, any why he is making him angry at the end. This all is Quirrell's purpose; he is just a tool to prepare Harry for the role of king of the world. Quirrell is not optimizing for Quirrell; he is optimizing for Riddle.
So, this is what I imagine: First Riddle created his copy, Quirrell. Maybe with a specific purpose, maybe just ...
Of course! Why did no one realise this! When horcruxes are basically copying yourelf like an upload (cf. the work of Robin Hanson) then all of the standard theories apply; when you have many tasks to do, run copies of yourself to do them. What other Hansonian techniques could the horcruxes be used for?
I mean, Tom Riddle should be having an excellent life, whilst he's made a copy of himself to figure out how to run the world. Then that copy could be responsible setting up the above plan, and made two more copies.
This reminds me how it's said that Quirrell is inspired by Hanson. Not just his cynical explanations of human behaviour, but also his economics of copying minds. Neat.
...Huh. Unless I've been Obliviated, the summary for HPMoR on fanfiction.net used to show "Hermione G., Harry P." on its character list. Now it says "Hermione G., Tom R. Jr." instead.
EY really doesn't miss anything, does he?
Professor Quirrell then turned back to where the Potions Master lay sprawled, bent over and placed his wand on Professor Snape's forehead. "Alienis nervus mobile lignum."
The Defense Professor stepped back, and began to move his left fingers in the air as though manipulating a puppet on strings.
Professor Snape pushed himself up from the ground by smooth motions, and stood once more before the corridor door.
From Chapter 88: Time Pressure, Part 1, before anyone knows about the troll yet:
"You know," Harry said, as he turned his head away to stare at the ceiling illusion of a clear blue sky, "that still creeps me out sometimes."
"What does?" said Fred or George.
The powerful and enigmatic Defense Professor was 'resting' or whatever-the-heck-was-wrong-with-him, his hands making fumbling, hesitant grabs at a chicken-leg that seemed to be eluding him on the plate.
Are there any other times that Quirrell is described making similar gestures? (Note that another time he apparently controls someone else--the centaur in Chapter 101--he doesn't do this, but that may be due to the centaur actually being dead as some have speculated.) [Edit for Ch. 106: Confirmed; the centaur and Fluffy became Infieri.]
I just realized why some spells were causing Harry dread, apprehension, and anxiety in chapter 104. It's not because Professor Sprout is controlled by Professor Quirrell (which she is), since other spells of hers fail to trigger the effect and yet one of Tonk's spells does. It's because Quirell is using metamagic to influence the outcome of the battle! He empower's Sprout's brown bolt so that it tears through Professor Snape's shield, and he quickens her stunner so that Snape can't dodge. Then he empowers Tonk's spell to ensure that she will take out Sprout.
In retrospect, this makes perfect sense. There are too many people involved, and combat is inherently chaotic; there is simply no way Quirrell can predict exactly how the fight will go. But he can be there, using gentle nudges to actively steer it towards the small region in outcome-space that ranks high in his utility function, and hope that Harry Potter is too distracted by the battle to notice (which he was; his deduction that Quirrell is behind the plot never once mentions this fact). As a bonus, this explains how Sprout can defeat Snape, when normally we wouldn't expect her to stand a chance.
The entire point of that whole battle is to encourage Harry to commit his hidden resources (Lesath under the Cloak). The whole brawl is basically a show put on for Harry's benefit. Since Quirrell controls the time of Harry's coming to the scene, he could easily take out Snape himself and move him out of the way earlier. He didn't need to bring Sprout or manipulate others to come.
Since Quirrell neglected to ask Harry in Parseltongue whether he still has hidden resources Quirrell doesn't know about, it's still just about possible that Cedric Diggory, Time-Turned, is following them under the second Cloak. I hope he does.
I cannot be truly killed by any power known to me.
Prophecy, much? The power he knows not? I mean, that's a gimme but...
My interpretation of that was extremely different: that Harry got riddled when he was a baby, in Godric's Hollow.
In canon, Ginny reads the diary a lot and this enables Riddle to take her over when he wants to. When he does, she's basically a puppet: it's (fully aware) Riddle scrawling on walls and summoning basilisks, and Ginny's completely unaware of it; afterwards, Ginny is basically her normal self again, with no memory of what Riddle did while operating her body.
There's no sign in HPMOR of anything like that happening to Harry. The Harry whom QQ addresses as "Tom Riddle" has (so far as we can tell) psychological continuity with the Harry we've been following through the previous hundred-plus chapters. There's no sign of "absences" like Ginny had. After being addressed as "Tom Riddle" (and, again, with no indication of any personality changes or anything) Harry resolves explicitly that he is going to do whatever he can to stop QQ. So if we are supposed to understand that the diary had some major effect on Harry, it has to have done it in a way that doesn't "mirror canon" much at all.
What I think is being described here is something more li...
I love how so many people are acting as though their pet hypotheses have already been confirmed (both here and on Reddit), despite the fact that the only evidence we've got at this point for most of those hypotheses is Quirrell's word. I don't know about anyone else, but this seems to me like a golden opportunity for EY to pull some sort of epic subversion of expectations and then lecture all of us about confirmation bias or overconfidence or something.
Harry made some serious mistakes in chapter 105.
First, the parseltongue honesty-binding could just be Quirrell's (selective!) wandless magic--I mean, he just forged a note "from yourself" (and why do you even MAKE a self-recognition ("I am a potato") policy if you just forget all about it once you're in a life-stakes intrigue) so you need a lot of extra suspicions going forward. But assuming it's real... there are crucial questions Harry can now profitably ask, with his help conditional on getting immediate Parseltongue answers, along the lines of:
"Why did you set up this elaborate ruse instead of just asking me? Most of what you're saying right now sounds like something I would've probably agreed to if you were open about it, but no, you had to pretend you were dying and kill my friend, so it sure seems like you're planning nefarious things I'd rather not aid even at the cost of my life and the hostages' lives... does my CURRENT utility function actually prefer your planned results to the death of me and the hostages?"
(This isn't the perfect phrasing; for one thing Quirrell doesn't necessarily know Harry's utility function to high accuracy, for anothe...
I agree that Harry's actions weren't even close to optimal in that situation, but you have to cut him some slack; after all, he just found out that he was a fork of Lord Voldemort, that his best friend had been killed by his trusted mentor, and, oh, let's not forget that that mentor also happens to be Lord Voldemort. He'd have been hard-pressed to be thinking completely clearly after a series of revelations like that. (Mind you, all of these revelations sans the last one came from Quirrell himself, who's hardly the most trustworthy character out there, but the shock and emotional impact is real nonetheless.)
Certainly, and in the actual situation, I would have done worse than he actually did. But, this kind of armchair analysis is extremely enjoyable, and a good way to improve your in situ skills.
Quirrell sometimes makes the mistake of pushing people too much. Perhaps as a consequence of too much cynicism. Harry would probably help Quirrell just because he cares about him... but Quirrell does not understand the concept of "care" and thinks it is only a role that Harry feels obliged to play, which he does not trust as a sufficient motivation to overcome obstacles. So he add further motivation; things that seem sufficiently motivating in his model of Harry.
The spell in progress that may kill hundreds of students that the stone can fix — sounds like something transfigured into a gas.
If the snitch is both the trigger and the epicenter of this spell in progress, then this would explain how the three wishes will be granted by "a single plot". The game is played/watched by mostly Slytherin/Ravenclaw students, so mostly Slytherin/Ravenclaw students would die. I can see a school like Hogwarts then giving both these houses the House Cup as a way to deal with the trauma for surviving students and honor the lost children. So that's all three wishes: both houses win the House Cup, and the snitch is removed from Qudditch, all using "a single plot".
(from Iron_Nightingale on r/hpmor)
The snitch will explode exactly at the moment when Slytherins and Ravenclaws have the same number of points, higher than the remaining houses. It will kill all students, thus freezing the house points.
This is what happens when you waste your wish on winning a stupid competition.
The Defense Professor sent Harry the forged message after 11:04pm, but early enough that Harry was able to arrive at 6:49 with 1 hour left on his time turner. The time-turner has been confiscated, but this is still a big security hole.
Example possibility: Harry and Quirrel arrive at the mirror, and time-turned Harry is already there with Dumbledore, Moody, Madam Bones and a dementor, which had not been detected by present Harry because patronus 2.0 is out and shielding everyone from it. Quirrel can't apparate away in Hogwarts, patronus 2.0 stops any AK, and Dumbledore & friends can hold Voldemort off long enough for the dementor to start sucking face with Voldemort, who is particularly vulnerable. Harry retrieves his time-turner and goes back an hour to message Dumbledore via patronus and set this ambush up. Asking Harry to state whether he has betrayed him is of limited use here, since the betrayal can happen in the future but impact the present.
Why has The Defense Professor deliberately preserved an hour on Harry's time-turner? It must be significant to his plan.
That's been bothering me ever since chapter 104 came out. It doesn't seem likely that Quirrel would have just missed that, so I see a couple possibilities:
1) Part of Quirrel's plan somehow requires Harry to use the time turner once, so by having Harry go back five hours he limits Harry's use of it as much as possible.
2) It's a trap. Leaving via time turner is an excellent escape mechanism, and Quirrel knows that Harry has a tendency to overuse it for that purpose. So if Harry does manage to do something unexpected, Quirrel's hoping he'll go for the time turner--only to find that it doesn't work.
Why doesn't it work? Because Quirrel wrote the note at 12:04, went back via his own time turner, and handed the note to the anonymous Hufflepuff*. Thus, if Harry were to activate his time turner for the sixth time at 7:00, it would fail in some fashion ("for you couldn't send information further back in time than six hours, not through any chain of Time-Turners" -- chapter 61).
This is a pretty narrow window, though. Quirrel would have to anticipate that Harry might immediately go back from 11:04 to 6:04 once he got the message, so Quirrel wouldn't have written the note any...
Why are they having a normal conversation and occasionally switching to Parseltongue to confirm the more important bits? Why not conduct the entire conversation in Parseltongue? Seems like the best way to ensure full cooperation leading to superior outcomes for both parties. Harry has already sneaked one lie past Quirrell, and he has no idea how much of what Quirrell said is true outside of the parts he deliberately chose to speak in Parseltongue.
Parseltongue is a low-information-density language - it lacks a lot of technical terms, colloquial phrases, and the like. Communication is much faster in English.
Quirrell models himself as more intelligent than Harry, and has had far more time to plan, so he expects to win in any even contest. Being able to lie grants both parties great flexibility of options, which he expects to make better use of than Harry.
[EDIT: the Dark Lord of the Matrix have fixed this.]
There's a glitch in the Matrix:
A blank-eyed Professor Sprout had now risen from the ground, had picked up Harry's wand and was wrapping it in a shimmering cloth.
Then Harry does some bargaining, and then...
After that, Professor Sprout picked up Harry's wand, and wrapped it in shimmering cloth; then she placed it on the floor, and pointed her own wand at Harry.
Observations:
Speculation:
If Parseltongue depended only on the actual truth of the world, Voldemort would have won already, because you can then pull single bits of arbitrary information out of the aether one at a time.
Why does Quirrel need Harry's help to obtain the Stone? What can Harry do that can't be done by Quirrel, Sprout, Snape (who is now controlled by Quirrel), the other students present (who want to get the Stone but not to use it, bypassing the Mirror), Harry's Cloak and Time-Turner (now in Quirrel's possession), and every other resource Quirrel could have prepared (e.g. Bellatrix)?
Finally, why did Quirrel have to bargain for Harry's help, instead of having Sprout or Snape use Imperius on him?
I haven't seen any theory that explains this, but surely such a major plot point should have been hinted in advance.
ETA: Harry agrees with my interpretation that we're missing something:
Harry knew that this was too good an offer to make to someone at whom you were pointing a gun. Unless you desperately needed their help to get the Philosopher's Stone out of the magic mirror.
I think we've got Dumbledore to thank for this one, honestly.
CanonVoldemort went to every effort to kill Dumbledore, but it seems clear that RationalistVoldemort could have murdered him at leisure. He keeps Dumbledore around as a sort of Batman to his Joker. It puts the story where he taught him not to respond to hostage taking in perspective.
Despite his disdain, Voldemort has to recognize that Dumbledore's madness is occasionally an advantage. Since he elects not to kill Dumbledore, he has to compensate for it. I'd argue that he actually enjoys it on some level.
Thus, while all logic has Voldemort dead long ago (for all the reasons Harry/Quirrel discuss) Dumbledore leaps to the conclusion that Voldemort is alive and behind everything. That is, he leaps to the correct conclusion, for no reason.
Similarly, given a belief in the existence of Voldemort somewhere in the world, any other wizard would be searching diligently and inventively. Dumbledore, by contrast, sets up a trap that couldn't be more obvious if it was a box propped up by a stick. Quirrel openly mocks it earlier in the tale.
Its a trap that should never work, and yet, here we are, with Lord Volodemort entering the t...
The Gormenghast books are more or less about a castle full of what I'd call anti-rationalists. They are entirely ruled by customs passed down from prehistory, and are generally incapable of change or improvement.
Enter Steerpike, villain of the piece and scullery boy. He is, I guess I 'd call it awake, and strives to improve his lot rather than being content with what his birth dooms him to. He is resisted at every turn by the denizen's bloody minded traditionalism (Spoilers: at one point he murders the 90 year old Master of Rituals, hoping to take his place, only for his 70 year old apprentice to come creeping out of the Room of Abiding where he has been waiting for this moment his entire life.)
Steerpike ultimately descends into terrorism out of more or less pure frustration. There's an incident where his evil works are discovered, but he feels relief more than anything else, since he no longer has to pretend to swallow their dogmas. I see shades of him in Voldemort's expressed deep loathing of the ordinary folks. I think he's delighted to have Harry to talk to, despite being his enemy.
I just made a mental connection - probably a stupid one. The pouch's capacity was recently expanded and Cedric has yet to make an appearence...
Quirrell's Parseltongue statements could use a close reading.
I cannot be truly killed by any power known to me.
This could just mean that the Pioneer horcrux prevents him from being "truly killed".
And your girl-child friend sshall be revived by me, to true life and health
This seems quite explicit. Quirrell thinks that he can bring Hermione back to life.
Harry: You already have an idea for what you want from me. What is it?
Quirrell: Your help in obtaining the Philosopher's Stone.
(Not in Parseltongue.) Quirrell later asks Harry in Parseltongue to promise to help get the Stone, but he never says in Parseltongue that help getting the Stone is what he actually wants from Harry.
I do not intend to raisse my hand or magic againsst you in future, sso long ass you do not raisse your hand or magic againsst me.
Does this rule out Quirrell transferring his soul into Harry's body (wiping out Harry's identity and reuniting with the Tom Riddle groundwork that he laid in Harry's mind)? Because without this line, that would be my leading hypothesis for what Quirrell actually wants Harry for.
I thought it was worth revisiting Quirrell's past uses of Parseltongue. Most are nothing noteworthy, but there are a few interesting ones in Chapter 58.
I did not sseek to sslay the protector man!
Quirrell was telling the truth about not trying to kill Bahry.
Obvioussly you will ssee persson pretending to be healer on arrival!
While this could be literally true, or only true in the context of the hypothetical scenario suggested by Harry, it is worth noting that Quirrell never says in Parseltongue that the healer waiting for Bellatrix is real.
plan iss for you to rule country, obvioussly
This one sounds important now that we know it is definitely true (or at least was at the time).
If Voldemort (or whatever created both Voldemort and Harry) consideres Potter the same person as himself, then "I do not intend to raisse my hand or magic againsst you in future, sso long ass you do not raisse your hand or magic againsst me." is a tautology and always true.
Voldemort is the last known Parselmouth, so it would be highly suspicious for Quirrell to also be one.
On the contrary.
Voldemort can only be defeated by The Power He Knows: Nott!
Notice that Theodore Nott is right outside. He was (oddly) traveling with the Meddling Kids Squad.
It's odd in the sense that he hasn't been especially prominent in the story so far. All the others were involved in the bullying storyline, or are Draco.
Therefore, by the principle of conservation of nonsense, Theodore Nott must actually be polyjuiced Dumbledore.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but there seem to be two separate challenges on the Potions room parchment: a simple one consistent with canon and the skills and abilities of the target audience, and a complex one requiring an hour or so of careful and precise work. Looks like Harry and Quirrelmort focus exclusively on the long formula, ignoring the puzzle.
On rereading the relevant part of Ch. 107, it appears that Harry has an idea he doesn't want to share shortly after the broomstick conversation. On a close reading, it appears that he manages to avoid the topic...
Seems a bit strange that Quirrell didn't ask Harry to confirm in Parseltongue that Harry didn't have any contingency measures beyond those Quirrell already knows about (Lesath under the cloak). In the last chapter's discussion there were theories that Cedric Diggory might be around, time-turned with Harry. Even if not, why wouldn't Q make sure H doesn't have anyone else around to help or set up any other measures? Harry's promise "shall call for no help" isn't enough, if things are already set in motion for someone to help him.
-
There's a theory going around about how it was Amelia Bones who killed Narcissa Malfoy, based on nothing more than the stray thought 'Someone would burn for this.' What she said to Dumbledore during Hermione's trial ('You know the answer you must give, Albus. It will not change for agonizing over it.') seems to be taken as further evidence.
sigh
Of course it was Voldemort who did it!
I think what most of you fail to realize is, the whole thing happened after Voldemort heard the prophecy from Snape. Dumbledore predictably ignored the blackmail, and would not h...
I think much of what we are being told about Parseltongue is a lie.
What we've been told: Parseltongue is the language of snakes. Because snakes cannot lie, Parselmouths also cannot lie in Parseltongue. Salazar Slytherin invoked the Parselmouth Curse on himself and his descendants to take advantage of this last fact by using it as a trust engine.
However, snakes have no spoken language. This is a fact established by Muggle science. So what is Parseltongue, really?
Parseltongue has four confirmed functions.
What kind of impressed me about "The Truth, part 1" was the reveal.
Consider: In most mystery novels, the reveal scene(s) is where the detective explains what the reader has been struggling to figure out since the start of the story. It provides a powerful "ah-ha!" moment if done right.
Here, everything Harry figures out is stuff the reader most likely already knew, thanks to meta-knowledge. We're watching him figure out what we'd been hoping he'd figure out for dozens of chapters. By all rights, it shouldn't provide that ah-ha feeling.
And yet... it does. I think the stream of consciousness really sells it. It helped me feel like I was inside Harry's head, living through that realization.
One of the ongoing patterns in HPMoR is how certain spells require people to believe certain things or to be in certain emotional states. Harry can perform partial transfiguration because he actually believes in timeless physics. Harry can cast Patronus 2.0 because of his beliefs about life and death. Avada Kedavara requires hate (or indifference).
I see no references to the conversation between McGonigal and Quirrell. "Professor Quirrell made a sharp gesture, as though to indicate a concept for which he had no words." McGonigal reacts. That there...
I think Quirrell wants to teach Harry to give up.
First he does it explicitly, during the lesson. Okay, that is not really giving up; it's rather "pretending to lose, so you survive and have your revenge later". But even that is difficult for Harry. So maybe learning this lesson is just a first approximation towards really giving up?
"The boy cannot be allowed to continue in this state of mind. He will become dangerous. ... It is my professional judgment ... that the boy could join the ranks of those whose rituals are inscribed upon the tombstones of countries."
And recently it seems like Quirrell is taking his time to break Harry psychologically, demonstrating his advantage by overpowered attacks, reminding him about all the hostages he can kill.
The sadness and horror that Harry had pushed down flared up again, and his dark side had no stored patterns for handling the emotions. Why, Professor Quirrell, why are you like this...
Professor Quirrell smiled. "That reminds me. Have you betrayed me yet?"
It seems as if Quirrell wants Harry to betray him. And then he would kill the hostages. And then he would tell Harry: "It's all your fault."
Whi...
We have a bunch of Parseltongue statements from earlier in the fic. Who wants to go back and see if any of them were lies?
Fwiw, I am not convinced that Quirrel is definitely telling the truth there. For one, "Sslytherin not sstupid. Ssnake Animaguss not ssame as Parsselmouth. Would be huge flaw in sscheme."
I cannot be truly killed by any power known to me, and lossing Sstone will not sstop me from returning, nor sspare you or yourss my wrath. Any impetuous act you are contemplating cannot win the game for you, boy.
The last sentence was not said in parseltongue. Could it be that Quirrell used English because it is a lie, and he believes that there is something that Harry could do to win?
The last line of 107 says:
Those of you who have outstanding disputes regarding the Defense Professor's secrets should bet now, or forever hold your peace.
Anybody care to guess what secrets will be revealed in the next chapter?
Realization: when Harry first encountered the dementor and saw his parents' murder, he noted that the neutral patterns of the memory shouldn't have even existed. Maybe that's because it's a false memory? I note this now because it removes constraints from what V might have actually done that day.
Maybe that's because it's a false memory?
It is very likely. Also from Chapter 3, when McGonagall told Harry about his parents' murder:
And somewhere in the back of his mind was a small, small note of confusion, a sense of something wrong about that story; and it should have been a part of Harry's art to notice that tiny note, but he was distracted. For it is a sad rule that whenever you are most in need of your art as a rationalist, that is when you are most likely to forget it.
Did I understand correctly, that the parchment contained 2 alternate instructions for dealing with the room enchanted by Snape ? One side of the parchment contained a comparatively short puzzle, similar to the canon HP, while the other side contained incredibly long and laborious recipe ? When a child or young student is given 2 alternate version of homework, one short and entertaing, while other a boring and laborious pain in the ass, which one do they normally choose ? Voldermort, however, does not believe in simple solutions, he tends to do overkills al...
When Salazar Slytherin invoked the Parselmouth curse upon himself and all his children, his true plan was to ensure his descendants could trust one another's words, whatever plots they wove against outsiders.
In short, today either every wizard in Britain is a descendant of Salazar Slytherin or none is. It seems awfully convenient for Quirell to suddenly have a fool...
Iirc, in canon, the Gaunt family (Voldemort's family) was the last living set of descendants of Salazar Slytherin, and they were very inbred by the time of the books, so it appears that JKR at least provided some workaround for this.
As for the reliability of Parseltongue, there's some precedent for it apparently serving as truth-enforcement. Chapter 49:
"I am not regisstered," hissed the snake. The dark pits of its eyes stared at Harry. "Animaguss musst be regisstered. Penalty is two yearss imprissonment. Will you keep my ssecret, boy? "
"Yess," hissed Harry. "Would never break promisse."
The snake seemed to hold still, as though in shock, and then began to sway again.
[...]
"You ssay nothing, to no one. Give no ssign of expectancy, none. Undersstand?"
Harry nodded.
"Ansswer in sspeech."
"Yess."
"Will do as I ssaid?"
"Yess."
Professor Quirrell is known for his aversion to unnecessarily redundant conversation, so it seems likely here that he wants to be sure Harry is telling the truth. Later, in Chapter 66:
..."Lessson I learned is not to try plotss that would make girl-child friend think I am evil
.. I have a theory about that.
What is the number one piece of advice we give people about relationships? The one rule which is regarded as the key to success and happiness in romance?
Its honest communication.
Salazar's decendants can have a perfect, magically enforced, version of that. And all they have to do is marry their cousin. The family wasn't obsessed with blood purity at all, it is simply that after growing up in a household where harmony was routinely established via this glorious gift of Salazar, the very idea of intimacy with anyone that this could not be shared with was usually repugnant.
That's why Quirrel calls it a curse. It lead the entire clan down a path of inbreeding! Unintentional consequences are unintentional.
That's not how inbreeding works, though... If one of your parents' family (in Voldie's case, his mother) has been inbred for generations but the other parents has a completely different gene pool, then you should be fine. Inbreeding just makes it more likely that you have two of the same recessive allelle (which is bad in many situations), but Voldie only got one of each from his mother.
WMG time:
Quirrell is dying because he's Tranfigured himself. (I don't know why at this point.)
Quirrel seems on the road to get the Philosopher's Stone. It's certainly possible that he will fail or Harry ( / time-turned Cedric Diggory) will manage to swipe it at the last minute. But with around 80k words left to go, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of story left if Harry gets the stone in the next couple of chapters.
I draw your attention to a few quotes concerning the Philosopher's Stone:
...His strongest road to life is the Philosopher’s Stone, which Flamel assures me that not even Voldemort could create on his own; by that road he would rise gre
I am confused about how Philosopher's stone could help with reviving Hermione. Does QQ mean to permanently transfigure her dead body into a living Hermione? But then, would it not mean that Harry could do it now, albeit temporarily? And, he wouldn't even need a body. He could then just temporarily transfigure any object into a living Hermione. Also, now that I think of it, he could transfigure himself a Feynman and a couple of Einsteins...
Hypothesis:
Quirrel will restore Hermione to life. He will also gain access to a Hermione template that he can use on inanimate matter to create more of her to threaten Harry with the torture of.
This doesn't even require him to have the stone. It would work perfectly well with temporary copies too.
There are three possibilities here:
1) It takes longer to clone someone than the transfigureation lasts, so by the time you have cloned their feet, their head has detransfigured. (This assumes that humans are so complex that you have to concentrate on one part of them at a time, like Harry's pencil.) In this case, cloning is useless.
2) It takes longer to clone someone than the transfigureation lasts, but the time-limit starts once the transfigureation is complete. In this case, cloning minions is still useful for increasing numbers before a battle, or for suicide missions, but the dark lord would also have to work out that the body needs to be kept cold (otherwise parts of it would die while you are transfiguring other parts) and then warmed and brought to life with a defibrillator. Its quite possible no-one would ever have thought of this, and had the skill and moral flexibility to implement it.
3) It takes less time to clone someone than the transfigureation lasts. In this case, the earth would quickly be overrun by self-replicating minions.
Realization: Not only is it suspicious that Harry finally makes the Quirrell=Voldemort connection almost immediately after Snape hits him with an anti-Confundus spell but the fact that Quirrell hasn't obliviated Harry yet is positive proof that he intends Harry to know that Q=V for the time being. For what purpose?
Given EY's noticeable penchant for echoing canon, I have a general guess as to what Quirrell's plans for the schoolmaster are...
Harry's commitment is quite weaksauce, and it was surprising that he wasn't called on it:
I sshall help you obtain the Sstone (...) sshall not do anything I think will annoy you to no good end. Sshall call no help if I expect them to be killed by you or for hosstagess to die.
So he's free to call help as long as he expects to win the ensuing encounter. After which he could hand the Stone to a subdued Quirrell for just a moment, technically fulfilling that clause as well. Also, the "to no good end" qualifier? "Winning against Voldemort" certainly would count as a good end, cancelling that part as well.
Parseltongue doesn't produce binding promises. There no need to technically fulfill clauses. It doesn't function as a commitment device. It just makes someone talk frankly about his own intentions.
Harry can't provide any stronger commitment and is indeed sorry about his inability to provide a stronger commitment.
Prediction: the philosopher's stone is the resurrection stone. QQ said Flamel wasn't the true creator, and two stones with resurrectiony powers runs afoul of Occam. V can still do his best to make a true Hermione, but it'll really be his model of her.
What could Harry use to get out of this pickle?
[META]
EDIT: based on Alsadius' comment about thread creation for MOR chapters, let's also use this thread for chapter 107 (and future chapters until this nears 500 comments) unless someone objects to doing so.
I guess I kind of object? Not out of any principle or logic, but I just feel like this thread has kind of been stagnating and not really encouraging new top-level replies because they're crushed under all the highly upvoted posts and don't get as much attention.
Especially since everything is changing so fast in this final arc, I like the idea o...
Adding to my previous prediction comment:
Predictions:
Harry attempted to obtain a useful object (such as Snape’s wand) when he knocked Snape over in Chapter 106. 75%
The ritual which promises to summon Death itself (Chapter 74) summons a Dementor. 80%
The lost counterspell to dismiss whatever is summoned by the ritual involving "a rope which has hanged a man and a sword which has slain a woman" (Chapter 74) is the True Patronus Charm. 80%
Harry’s mental development has been significantly influenced by his body’s descent from the Potter line. This in...
Did Harry ever give serious thought to whether his strong desire to never be responsible for a death actually makes sense when he's going to have to deal with violent situations?
If Mr. Hat and Cloak turns out not to be Flamel, then Flamel is..... Hagrid? Filtch? Dumbledore? Ron? Unseen? If Hagrid had appeared in any scene not required by canon symmetry or Quirell's fake Parseltongue explanation then I would suspect him more. Dumbledore's fear of being a dark wizard would make sense, but he seems too young and had a family.
I just had another thought in relation to Harry's second transfigured object. I had thought as Quirrel did that Harry's second transfigured object was Hermione's body. (Though Harry successfullly fooled Quirrel into thinking the second object was the steel ring. It wan't, but we know he has something because of the mention of 'the other one' in Chapter 104.)
But just after Hermione's body dissappeared, they throroughly searched Harry's person and stuff for transfigured objects and finite incantatem-ed the lot. Perhaps Harry's second transfigured object is not Hermione, but something aquired more recently? I'm thinking of Cedric. Can a living body be transformed into something solid like a rock without deleterious effects?
Ch 107
the standard counter-Charm for a boggart is, of course, Fiendfyre
Why not Avada Kedavra, which is the usual countercharm for anything with a brain?
Because, if you get within sight to aim, it will scare you and you will flinch away.
Beneath the trapdoor was a gigantic plant, something like an enormous dieffenbachia with wide leaves emerging from the central stem like a spiral staircase, but darker-colored than a normal dieffenbacchia, and with tendril-like vines emerging from the central stem and hanging down.
Misspelling of dieffenbachia.
There are two prophecies at work here that I don't understand, which even now have to be vital to the ending
I really don't get why Quirrel is doing this knowing the prophecy of the stars.
I dislike this - the existing thread is only at 140 comments, and should be used for at least today's chapter. There's probably going to be another posted Wednesday, at this rate.
Given that the only thing Harry seemed to manage to keep a secret from Quirrel is what he really transfigured Hermione into, I suspect Harry might have to win by using the trick he did with the Troll, but with Hermione instead of a rock.
I feel the need to point out that the first three rooms can be beaten very quickly in the manner that a first-year might (assuming that flying over the chessboard is ok) and yet Quirrel only slows down for the room which takes an hour. It would only have taken a moment to summon the snitch-key, and since they don't have a perfect read on Snape, if the potions room might have been trappeded, then so might have the other rooms.
Does anyone else get the feeling that these "payoff" chapters are less exciting to read than the "mystery" chapters were? This isn't meant to take a stab at Eliezer, I've noticed that in many written works. Ra and Fine Structure were also more fun when they were mysterious. Worm and Pact somehow manage to avoid that, maybe because they don't rely so heavily on mystery, and have fight scenes and character drama to compensate.
"That is your condition for helping me to obtain the Stone?" said Professor Quirrell. Harry nodded, unable to form words.
Does that mean that Voldemort is freed from his previous offer to resurrect Hermione? Voldemort specifically says "That is your condition" which Harry agreed to. If so, Harry is going to be kicking himself later.
So. you know how Dumbledore thinks that Fred and George are kinda/sorta the heirs of Gryffindor?
I give them 90% odds of at least showing up.
Hat and Cloak is Salazar's creature. He (it?) was put in the Chamber to be a counter to the second thing Merlin did when he laid the Interdict in force, namely biasing holders of time-displaced information toward simpler (non-catastrophic) loops - my best guess is, by creating random change in subject's mind which randoms into thoughts leading to paradox-free behavior; from this side of the 4th wall it can look like 'being stupid for the sake of plot'. (to clarify: the random thought is an extra degree of freedom by which the situation can be paradox-free ...
If I were Snape, I would use a gas. Something which becomes hazardous after a certain time. Or merely change the nitrogen/oxygen balance after a certain time.
The gun jabbed slightly forward, causing prickles of sweat to appear on Harry's forehead. "Drop your wand. Now."
Harry dropped it.
That's a mistake. The response should be to transfigure air into a very thin net of carbon nanotube that's invisible and that can be between him an Quirrell's gun. Transfiguration doesn't seem to need speaking if I remember right.
What happens if he just bolts and tries to use the Time-Turner as soon as possible? He gets shot, obviously, or at least shot at; but wizards seem hard to kill by mundane means, bullet wounds usually aren't immediately fatal, and fast-moving targets in close quarters are hard to hit. I think he has a good chance of survival, maybe better than if he does what the legendary dark wizard wants.
On the other hand, if future Harry suddenly appeared, Time-Turned, in the forbidden corridor with serious wounds from Muggle weapons, I can't see that doing anything other than causing a massive stink. The fact that present him and the rest of the students got to the forbidden corridor without encountering a stink may count as evidence that it wouldn't work.
Two new short chapters! Since the next one is coming tomorrow and we know it'll be short, let's use one thread for both.
This is a new thread to discuss Eliezer Yudkowsky’s Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality and anything related to it. This thread is intended for discussing chapter 105 (and chapter 106, once it comes out tomorrow). EDIT: based on Alsadius' comment about thread creation for MOR chapters, let's also use this thread for chapter 107 (and future chapters until this nears 500 comments) unless someone objects to doing so. Given that this is the final arc we're talking about, thread titles should be updated to indicate chapters covered.
There is a site dedicated to the story at hpmor.com, which is now the place to go to find the authors notes and all sorts of other goodies. AdeleneDawner has kept an archive of Author’s Notes. (This goes up to the notes for chapter 76, and is now not updating. The authors notes from chapter 77 onwards are on hpmor.com.)
Spoiler Warning: this thread is full of spoilers. With few exceptions, spoilers for MOR and canon are fair game to post, without warning or rot13. More specifically: