Harry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality

Probably the most bizarre thing from the viewpoint of authorities trying to piece together what happened is that I'm pretty sure all of them think that Hermione Granger was dead (although her corpse HAD disappeared in mysterious circumstances ...). So she's not just The Girl Who Lived, but The Girl Who Came Back (and who now inexplicably has troll-regeneration).

Voldemort commented that only Fiendfyre and the Killing Curse were likely to kill Hermione after giving her both troll regeneration and unicorn life force. That implies she can survive a lot of things, possibly up to and including nuclear weapons (which Voldemort does know about, unlike antimatter). Is she basically Wolverine now, or was he just forgetting to account for really destructive things?

Omake: Hermione becomes the Immortal God-Empress of Mankind.

What it is meant to look like is that Quirrel interrupted some rite involving Hermione, causing a magical backfire, and after the backlash took Voldemort down.. again.. the dark mark, or the backlash, killed his minions. Note that he *didn't* try to disguise the very odd wounds the death-eaters got.

And, as a completely unrelated aspect, "Even though any sane strategic thinking said that Voldemort's body must not die. The soul he'd created for himself had to be anchored in this brain, it mustn't be allowed to float free."

I did not expect Mr. Yudkowsky to call it a soul himself. He basically answered the question I posted here with "it is the same".

I really do hope Hermione figures out what really happened after a fashion. Harry needs someone to talk to, and Hermione needs to acquire some agency again. I mean come on! You can't give her brand new super powers and then never use them.

No one witch should have all that POWER

I have not abandoned my theory that the whole thing is a set-up.

I wonder what the Ministry will do with Voldemort?

As far as the Ministry knows, Voldemort got blown up. Harry's hiding him.

This solution feels...rather inelegant to me, unfortunately. I can't deny it worked, but it feels like too many things went in Harry's favour. And Voldemort himself went down all too easily. It felt like more of a brute-force solution as compared to some of the other impossible problems Harry's tackled before. Is this the "better solution" that Yudkowsky wanted the readers to find, or is this his Normal End?

(Did any of the Death Eaters leave ghosts? Harry really should have checked for that.)

I guess the remainder of the story goes into tackling the last prophecy. (Edit: Last two prophecies, there's also the Peverell one.) I really do wish we had some evidence one way or another whether prophecies in the HPMOR-verse can possibly be thwarted (though given the claimed mechanics of prophecy as well as the fact that Time-Turners and Comed-Tea both work on consistent-time-loop causality, it would seem that prophecies should be unstoppable, Voldemort's beliefs aside). Come to think of it, it would be interesting and alarming if there were to be a sudden stop in the occurrences of prophecies, thanks to the imminent destruction of the world.

Unless maybe some of what just happened wasn't exactly as it seemed, and we're in for another tweeest.

edited 3rd Mar '15 9:01:56 PM by ashnazg

but he needs to learn to wait 6 hours before calling attention to future murder scenes. Oh well, maybe he'll get lucky this time.

Voldemort put up anti time looping wards, so hopefully that won't be an issue.

Anyway, I find it amusing how ch114 ended up combining elements from many of the most popular solutions.

edited 3rd Mar '15 9:34:39 PM by storyyeller

I'm getting a real Type-Moon feeling out of these two chapters. In the end, Harry couldn't save everyone, and having to do what he did, and then have to go further than he would have wanted, there under the moonlight, it gives it a very melancholic feeling. You can see the F/SN and Tsukihime influences there.

In a way, it feels as though Eliezer managed to hold himself back. He allows his hero to shine, he triumphs, but not at all in the way he hoped, and in a way that has scarred him. In the end, even he has limits, has made so, so many errors. I think the same as ashnazg, though - there's still a chance this is the Normal End.

I am still right about Harry's behavior, which we talked about a long while ago. Harry has remained within the code of the Light, ultimately: to care above all for human survival, to uphold his ideals at any cost, even if it means having to be ruthlessly cold, to take the most morally clean action possible. All the story thus far maps out wonderfully to that sort of development, I feel.

Well, WOG says the hypothetical shorter, sadder end was Harry tries to transfigure antimatter and accidentally blows everyone up. Hermione survives, as does presumably Voldemort

edited 3rd Mar '15 11:45:16 PM by storyyeller

@ashnazg I don't think Voldemort thought that prophecies could be averted. But you can ensure that they never get made in the first place, by pre-committing to do everything in your power to stop them. Of course this only works if you actually do go through with it, even after the prophecy really has been made.

Seems like Dumbledore was right after all, the power he knows nor really was partial transfiguration. Not very poetic, but whatever. Unless the power was really being able to think clearly about death, thereby seeing the obvious gaps in Voldemort's defence?

EDIT:What do you mean accidentally? Blowing up everyone present was the entire point of that plan, wasn't it?

edited 4th Mar '15 2:22:47 AM by lendary

It was love. Love in the general sense that Harry loves all living beings. Voldemort set-up defenses in the event that he was killed or subdued but didn't think at all that Harry would attempt to save him. Taking him sorta-alive was not something he warded against.

That plan means Harry failed to survive.

Basically, if people couldn't think of a way for Harry to survive this test, then he wouldn't. I'm only disappointed in the "killed 36 people" part, since I'm partial to the "Code of Batman" that Harry references. Very bittersweet, and because of that, it gets that melancholic feeling that Crinias described.

Wait, didn't Harry just massively disregard teh rules of transfiguration when he transfigured something to be burned/exploded?

Why on earth did he pin it on Hermione? Wouldn't Quirrel have made more sense?

Wonder how he caused the bleeding? Transfigured part of his skin off?

When did he do that?

edited 4th Mar '15 12:30:32 PM by lendary

He made the exploding balloon.

posted that before I read the current chapter though, looks like he realizes.

No, he had the balloon in his pouch. Besides, the rules for not transfiguring things to be burned it because transfigured material is dangerous when it wears off, and burning gets them in the lungs. It's far from impossible.

Pinning it on Quirrel would be difficult seeing as he died instantly via Killing Curse - it would be hard to swallow that he somehow managed to destroy V right before being hit by the curse. And pinning it on Hermione basically makes her Jesus - coming back from the dead to destroy the evil overlord responsible for your death makes for a great story, very poetic and amazing. Wizards would be more likely to believe that.

The lies and acting stuck through my throat. I mean ugh.

Ugh.

Still, nice job ironmanning the argument for the Snitch.

I don't really get why Harry is making up the story, seems like compulsive lying or something.

Is he really going to lie to Hermione about what happened, and does he really expect her not to come clean if he does tell her?

Yes.

She's demonstrated the ability to keep secrets, with the whole science thing.

Of course he has to lie, if anyone knew that he was at the scene they'll consider the possibility that he has the stone. Telling Hermione probably isn't a good idea either, until she learns occlumency at least.

Though I wonder how he plans to circumvent the fact that she has no memories of killing any dark lords whatsoever, and no idea how she might accomplish such a feat. Snape, Mcgonagall and Dumbledore will be suspicious at least, since Hermione wasn't born in July, nor did her parents defy Voldemort thrice. Though I suppose he could claim that Voldemort is still out there to them, just like after Godric's Hollow, then "defeat" him later on. I doubt Dumbledore would fall for that, but Harry doesn't seem to have considered the possibility of mirror shenanigans yet, so he wouldn't worry about him.

they can save dumby?

lendary is assuming Dumbledore comes back, which I think is a mistake. Oh, he could come back, but Harry is operating under the assumption that he's gone for good (or at least the immediate future).

Hermione's memories can be explained as post-death trauma, especially if he manages to explain things to her first. Or maybe he could give her a false memory of some vague sense of power fighting something evil, but she'd probably be pissed when he eventually explains that part.