Here was the original thread proposing this as a solution to the prophecy and here is the comment by Eliezer Yudkowsky confirming to be influenced by that thread.
What’s not clear about this is whether it’s intended to be Q’s joke as well as Eliezer’s. (I forget: how much is he supposed to know about the prophecy?) And, if it’s Q’s, whether he means it as a message for Harry (he surely must realise that Harry might know all about the prophecy) or for others like Dumbledore.
[EDITED to add: In Rowling’s version of the story, V. doesn’t know exactly what the prophecy said, at least not at this point in the story. I forget exactly how much he does know about it. His attempts to find out the exact wording are a plot point later on in the series.]
he surely must realise that Harry might know all about the prophecy
He knows that Harry knows about the prophecy.
The Defense Professor didn’t seem to notice, but only spoke on. “Has the Headmaster has told you anything—even a hint—about Professor Trelawney’s prophecy?”
“Huh? ” Harry said automatically, converting his own sudden shock into the best dissembling he could manage. It probably was at the wrong level to fool Professor Quirrell but Harry certainly couldn’t take time to think before replying—wait, but how on Earth would Professor Quirrell know about that—“Professor Trelawney made a prophecy?”
“You were there to hear its beginning,” Professor Quirrell said, frowning. “You called out to the entire school that the prophecy could not be about you, since you were not coming here, you were already here.”
HE IS COMING. THE ONE WHO WILL TEAR APART THE VERY -
And that was as far as Professor Trelawney had gotten before Dumbledore had grabbed her and vanished.
“Oh, that prophecy,” Harry said. “Sorry! It went clear out of my mind.”
Harry thought he’d put too much force into the end statement, and was 80%-expecting Professor Quirrell to say, Aha, now Mr. Potter, what is this mysterious other prophecy you went to such lengths to deny -
He has very good reason to suspect that Harry knows something about the prophecy. He doesn’t know that Harry knows the actual wording. He may not know the actual wording himself, though I’d have thought HPMOR!Quirrell would have found a way to find it out.
He already heard it from Snape, and can reasonably expect that after Voldemort’s supposed return Dumbledore&co. would share it with Harry. It doesn’t sound like Snape was thrown out partway through the prophecy the way he was in canon.
OH MY GOD. THAT WAS IT. THAT WAS VOLDEMORT’S PLAN. RATIONAL!VOLDEMORT DIDN’T TRY TO KILL HARRY IN GODRIC’S HOLLOW. HE WAITED ELEVEN YEARS TO GIVE HARRY A GRADE IN SCHOOL SO THAT ANY ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT WOULD BE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROPHECY.
Various theories have Q trying to build up Harry as appearing to be the savior of the magical world.
Q tends to have the smug psychotic smiles when he is putting something over on someone. Harry thinks he has a Hallmark moment, while Q is just gloating over the “Mission Accomplished” sign in his head.
Maybe that’s a red herring, and the true explanation was given in the previous chapter:
The Dark Lord is Harry. The power he does not know and which will destroy him at the end is:
“Indifference,” Harry whispered aloud, the secret of a spell he would never be able to cast
Unlike Quirrell, Harry considers the rest of humans to be his equals. At some moment he will need their help to change the laws of physics, but they will all ignore him. Later Harry will grow old and die. Or someone will kill him for some trivial reason. There will be no one else like him in this universe, so finally the entropy will tear the stars apart.
Batman is a murderer no less than the Joker, for all the lives the Joker took that Batman could’ve saved by killing him. ch. 85
“It’s not fair to the innocent bystanders to play at being Batman if you can’t actually protect everyone under that code.” ch. 91
Harry had no intention of saying it out loud, of course, but now that he’d failed decisively to prevent any deaths during his quest, he had no further intention of being restrained by the law or even the code of Batman.ch. 97.
Even in the world of comic books, the only reason a superhero like Batman even looks successful is that the comic-book readers only notice when Important Named Characters die, not when the Joker shoots some random nameless bystander to show off his villainy.
Confirmation the prophecy isn’t about Neville:
AND THE DARK LORD WILL MARK HIM AS HIS EQUAL
As was first proposed on /r/rational (and EY has confirmed that he got the idea from that proposal)
Link(s)?
Here was the original thread proposing this as a solution to the prophecy and here is the comment by Eliezer Yudkowsky confirming to be influenced by that thread.
What’s not clear about this is whether it’s intended to be Q’s joke as well as Eliezer’s. (I forget: how much is he supposed to know about the prophecy?) And, if it’s Q’s, whether he means it as a message for Harry (he surely must realise that Harry might know all about the prophecy) or for others like Dumbledore.
[EDITED to add: In Rowling’s version of the story, V. doesn’t know exactly what the prophecy said, at least not at this point in the story. I forget exactly how much he does know about it. His attempts to find out the exact wording are a plot point later on in the series.]
He knows that Harry knows about the prophecy.
He has very good reason to suspect that Harry knows something about the prophecy. He doesn’t know that Harry knows the actual wording. He may not know the actual wording himself, though I’d have thought HPMOR!Quirrell would have found a way to find it out.
He already heard it from Snape, and can reasonably expect that after Voldemort’s supposed return Dumbledore&co. would share it with Harry. It doesn’t sound like Snape was thrown out partway through the prophecy the way he was in canon.
Good point.
I saw that and laughed irl.
There’s probably no significance to a dead girl getting a grade for a class she did not complete. Probably.
OH MY GOD. THAT WAS IT. THAT WAS VOLDEMORT’S PLAN. RATIONAL!VOLDEMORT DIDN’T TRY TO KILL HARRY IN GODRIC’S HOLLOW. HE WAITED ELEVEN YEARS TO GIVE HARRY A GRADE IN SCHOOL SO THAT ANY ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT WOULD BE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROPHECY.
Yes.
Various theories have Q trying to build up Harry as appearing to be the savior of the magical world.
Q tends to have the smug psychotic smiles when he is putting something over on someone. Harry thinks he has a Hallmark moment, while Q is just gloating over the “Mission Accomplished” sign in his head.
Maybe that’s a red herring, and the true explanation was given in the previous chapter:
The Dark Lord is Harry. The power he does not know and which will destroy him at the end is:
Unlike Quirrell, Harry considers the rest of humans to be his equals. At some moment he will need their help to change the laws of physics, but they will all ignore him. Later Harry will grow old and die. Or someone will kill him for some trivial reason. There will be no one else like him in this universe, so finally the entropy will tear the stars apart.
(Just kidding.)
Except Ron, whom he considers unworthy of existence.
Ron’s an NPC in Harry’s mind. The Joker Oath he took a few chapters back was aimed at people like Ron.
Joker Oath? remind me?
Batman is a murderer no less than the Joker, for all the lives the Joker took that Batman could’ve saved by killing him. ch. 85
“It’s not fair to the innocent bystanders to play at being Batman if you can’t actually protect everyone under that code.” ch. 91
Harry had no intention of saying it out loud, of course, but now that he’d failed decisively to prevent any deaths during his quest, he had no further intention of being restrained by the law or even the code of Batman.ch. 97.
More immediately relevant:
Even in the world of comic books, the only reason a superhero like Batman even looks successful is that the comic-book readers only notice when Important Named Characters die, not when the Joker shoots some random nameless bystander to show off his villainy.
Joachim has the relevant bits. I came up with an new term for it, though, because I don’t know of a better way to refer to it.
I did not pick up on that. That’s brilliant.