Comment author: Velorien 04 March 2015 01:34:18PM 5 points [-]

That assumes a great deal of control over the design of the network. We don't know what steps Voldemort followed to design the Horcrux 2.0 ritual, but I don't think it implausible that the final result was the best he could do with the knowledge available, rather than the best an intelligent programmer could do with full control over the system's hardware and code.

Comment author: Jost 04 March 2015 03:38:12PM 1 point [-]

I agree.

Also, the added complexity of distributed computations (Username’s suggestion) versus distributed real-time backups (the Horcrux 2.0) is enormous! Even for teams of extremely smart developers in 2015, distributed computing is not a simple problem. For one single “developer” in ~1990, like Voldemort (who has no like-minded individuals to discuss this with and has absolutely no background in computer science), this is near-impossible unless Magic has a built-in API that makes this extremely easy (which is unlikely, given what we know about the APIs for horcruxes, ghosts, etc.)

Comment author: avichapman 04 March 2015 01:59:26AM 0 points [-]

If she does, she'll have to do it with only one arm.

Comment author: Jost 04 March 2015 01:29:24PM 3 points [-]

At least she won’t be unarmed.

Comment author: Bound_up 04 March 2015 05:23:53AM 7 points [-]

There is an artifact that might suffice, the Pensieve. Voldemort might have prepared such an artifact with all his memories, and had Bellatrix and/or others ready to restore them to him by it if necessary.

But I grant the extreme difficulty Voldemort is likely to have having been transfigured into a ring. If necessary, Harry can always do with the ring what Voldemort did with the Horcruxes and ensure it is lost forever.

Comment author: Jost 04 March 2015 09:26:30AM 2 points [-]

Harry can always do with the ring what Voldemort did with the Horcruxes and ensure it is lost forever.

He can’t, unless he wants to visit one of the suggested hiding places several times a day:

"Sustaining a Transfiguration is a constant drain on your magic which scales with the size of the target form. And you would need to recontact the target every few hours

(McGonagall, chapter 15)

Comment author: Transfuturist 03 March 2015 11:34:01PM *  3 points [-]

Quirrel was his fiance, not his parent.

Comment author: Jost 04 March 2015 09:18:38AM 4 points [-]

They were as close to being soul mates as two humans can possibly be.

Comment author: jkadlubo 04 March 2015 07:06:12AM 0 points [-]

I would say that the whole thing took about 3 hours (maybe more if the walk to the cemetery took a lot of time), so now that Harry used his last hour, he's about 3 hours before his past self gets the note. He has to occupy that time, and what better way than to try to free Dumbledore?

I don't mind him not succeeding - I already have my "as good as possible" ending.

Comment author: Jost 04 March 2015 09:15:53AM 0 points [-]

so now that Harry used his last hour, he's about 3 hours before his past self gets the note.

In that case, the big explosion would happen about 2 hours before his past self gets the note, which would make the timeline inconsistent, since no such disturbance of the Quidditch match occurred while past!Harry was there.

Given that constraint, everything that happened since Harry time-turned five hours back must have taken at least five hours.

Comment author: vericrat 03 March 2015 09:28:47PM 40 points [-]

"I wonder how difficult it would be to just make a list of all the top blood purists and kill them.

They'd tried exactly that during the French Revolution, more or less - make a list of all the enemies of Progress and remove everything above the neck..." -Harry's internal monologue, HPMOR Chapter 7

"Amusing, but that was not your first fleeting thought before you substituted something safer, less damaging. No, what you remembered was how you considered lining up all the blood purists and guillotining them. And now you are telling yourself you were not serious, but you were. If you could do it this very moment and no one would ever know, you would." -The Sorting Hat, HPMOR Chapter 10

Well...well I guess it wasn't technically a guillotine. And Harry didn't make a list himself. But Harry did do it, and set it up so no one would ever know.

Comment author: Jost 03 March 2015 10:01:12PM 5 points [-]

This is bloody brilliant foreshadowing!

Comment author: Subbak 03 March 2015 09:10:04PM 5 points [-]

Without any hesitation despite his wounds the Dark Lord jerked down and right through the air.

Something that could indicate trying to dodge, or consciousness leaving the body. It's not unreasonable for Voldie to think "I've lost here, no matter what I do this body will be unusable in the near future, in case he has a plan to incapacitate me without triggering my Horcrux wards I'd better go someplace else".

All in all I'd assign a high subjective probability to Voldie's spirit being intact. Voldemort is a thorough planner, so total Oblivation is something he must have foreseen. And even if he did not, he is also known for not taking risks even when other people would be certain their precautions were enough. For example, he went through the trouble of resurrecting Hermione AND having Harry swear an Unbreakable Vow before attempting to kill him. Therefore, seeing something in his plan going terribly awry, there is a very high probability Voldemort would just retreat to a safe haven like the Horcrux Network.

Comment author: Jost 03 March 2015 09:58:35PM 4 points [-]

We don’t know enough details about how the Horcrux Network and the Special Connection between V and H work, but …

"OBLIVIATE!"

And it all poured out of Harry into the spell.

Harry fell over on his side, dropping his wand, gritted screams coming from his throat, his hands going helplessly to his scar, even as the sudden blast of pain in his head began to fade. Only dimly did his eyes see that the air was filled with glowing snowflakes, drifting motes of silver light like tiny specks of Patronus Charm.

… this is highly unusual for an obliviation, so I think it is very likely that V has not left his body.

Comment author: polymathwannabe 03 March 2015 08:54:43PM 0 points [-]

Hypothesis: this has already happened. Voldemort has an implanted memory of exactly how he failed to kill baby Harry.

Comment author: Jost 03 March 2015 09:48:41PM 1 point [-]

Could you elaborate on that? (Who implanted that memory? Why? What observations would that hypothesis explain, that are not explained well (or at all) by our current assumptions?)

Comment author: Vaniver 03 March 2015 07:03:28PM 2 points [-]

I am glad to see that Stuporfy did the trick, and I did not see the Obliviate coming. My private (i.e. I would have posted it if I had more time/attention for HPMOR over the last two days and had vetted it) way to solve the Voldemort Problem would have been to time-turn him the violent way by shattering Harry's Time-Turner on him; but looking into it now it turns out I misremembered the scene of canon I was thinking of. (The shelf containing the Time-Turners gets bumped, and they all fall off, turning them- causing them to go back in time and fall again; I thought I remembered someone getting trapped in it. Perhaps that was an embellishment in the movie?)

I am not sure Harry has thought through what will happen to Voldemort. Will he be imprisoned? Killed? It seems like getting the person most likely to imprison him someplace other than Azkaban to be first on the scene is a better idea than just causing an explosion to attract interest.

But now Hermione gets to be The Girl Who Lived Again.

Comment author: Jost 03 March 2015 07:33:33PM 6 points [-]

If I understand him correctly, H intends to keep V transformed until H is powerful enough to transform V’s body back to a healthy state (and make that permanent with the Stone).

Imprisonment is a possibility after that, but depending on your views on the relation between identity and memories, this might not be appropriate after the obliviation.

Comment author: gattsuru 03 March 2015 07:00:09PM 2 points [-]

Interesting. I wonder ifHarry just killed Sirius. I suppose that's not exactly the most important thing from a shut-up-and-multiply perspective, but it might also explain an additional reason why Harry avoids looking (and finding information about) something he may change later with the use of a time turner.

Also, no reference to a certain pack of cards yet.

Comment author: Jost 03 March 2015 07:20:25PM 1 point [-]

Wasn’t that resolved in chapter 79?

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