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UnclGhost comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapters 105-107 - Less Wrong Discussion

6 Post author: b_sen 17 February 2015 01:17AM

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Comment author: Axel 18 February 2015 12:29:17AM *  3 points [-]

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.

  • You have two parents, four grandparents, eight grandparents, etc.
  • A generation is 20-25 years (depending on how young people have children)
  • Salazar Slytherin lived one thousand years ago.

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 foolproof way to make Harry believe certain claims. It seems to me that the whole "snakes can't lie" thing would have been revealed when Quirell was trying to convince Harry he didn't want to kill Bahry in Azkaban. In fact, that would have shortened that particular discussion considerably, in a situation where time was essential.
It has already been established that ventriloquism and silencing charms exist and that Quirell can do silent and wandless spell casting, so the "two plus two" test could easily have been faked.

Comment author: UnclGhost 18 February 2015 01:27:17AM *  23 points [-]

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 or boy-child friend think I am sstupid," Harry snapped back. He'd been planning a more temporizing response than that, but somehow the words had just slipped out.

It would have helped Quirrell convince Harry in Azkaban, but it's possible he thought it would be more useful for Harry not to know yet how much information his unwittingly-true answers were giving Quirrell.

Comment author: imuli 19 February 2015 01:26:46AM *  5 points [-]

And might possibly have prompted Harry to insist on hearing about Bellatrix in Parselmouth.

Comment author: ChristianKl 19 February 2015 11:33:03AM 2 points [-]

Quirrell didn't reveal that he's a Parselmouth but instead went through the road of transforming in a snake that might not be bound by the Parselmouth truth saying bind.

Comment author: tim 20 February 2015 06:37:35AM 0 points [-]

Ssnake Animaguss not ssame as Parsselmouth. Would be huge flaw in sscheme.

I think this is strong evidence for Quirrell being bound by the same rules in animagus form. Discounted because he could have very easily been lying there.

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