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Velorien comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, March 2015, chapter 116 - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: Gondolinian 04 March 2015 08:11PM

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Comment author: Velorien 05 March 2015 05:28:38PM 4 points [-]

Hermione is a rule follower. She wouldn't destroy Azkaban if she had a button she could press that would do so.

She also knows exactly what it's like to be an innocent sentenced to Azkaban for a crime they didn't commit, and how easy it is for such a thing to happen. You can't go through an experience like that without re-evaluating some things about how you see the world.

Also she can't kill even one Dementor, or even cast a patronus to prevent one from killing her.

The point of the above post, I believe, is that there is nothing stopping her from learning to cast Patronus 2.0, at which point it's plausible that the infinite unicorn blood would replenish her life-force so killing Dementors wouldn't end up draining it all.

Comment author: MathMage 05 March 2015 07:51:30PM 0 points [-]

It's not entirely clear how Hermione's troll/unicorn stuff interacts with the depletion of life-force necessary to fuel the Patronus. That said, she has a Horcrux, so at the end of the day it doesn't really matter. And if Harry can eventually destroy Azkaban, Hermione certainly can.

Comment author: Astazha 05 March 2015 08:05:55PM 4 points [-]

I'm skeptical. If dementors really do destroy your soul then having a horcrux may not be helpful against them. I'm a fan of taking V's wand down to the pit, in fact.

Comment author: Velorien 06 March 2015 02:24:09PM 0 points [-]

If Dementors really do destroy your soul, how would anyone know?

Comment author: Astazha 06 March 2015 08:34:25PM 1 point [-]

No magic burst at death would be one prediction to check, though not conclusive. You could test it with Horcrux 2.0, though no one has had the opportunity to do that before now. The fact that Voldemort has expressed uncertainty about whether he is capable of surviving dementors, and that he is relying upon escaping from Quirrel's body in time to survive dementors points in the direction of him believing that a dementor might be capable of taking out him and his whole horcrux network in one shot.

None of that is conclusive, but it's all suggestive and supports the popular version of what dementors do.

Comment author: Velorien 06 March 2015 08:55:53PM 2 points [-]

The thing about magic burst is that Dementors drain the target's magic anyway. It's entirely plausible that if a Dementor kills you, it sucks away your magic in the process, or at least enough of it to prevent a magic burst.