“Wait a moment,” you say. “Time Pressure, Part 3? Harry already lost his race against the clock. Why would Chap. 90 be called ‘Time Pressures’?”
Because Harry’s race against the clock to save Hermione’s life has only just begun, and he has slightly less than six hours left. Eliezer mentioned that one of his most significant purposes of Chap. 86 was to update characters’ states of knowledge before the next arc. If you recall, in that chapter, Harry learned the word “horcrux.” And in Chap. 87, Harry learned of the philosopher’s stone.
So what will Harry do? Get the shell removed from his time turner, or obtain a time turner from someone else. Learn about the Horcrux ritual as quickly as possible, travel back in time, get Hermione to create a horcrux, and erase her memory of doing so thus that her death plays out just as before. Then start working on the stone to restore Hermione to life. (He could also take the “bone of the father, flesh of the servant, blood of the enemy” route, but positively identifying Hermione’s enemy could be difficult. Lucius Malfoy and Company, who were tricked into antagonizing Hermione, might not count for purposes of the ritual.)
The hard part, of course, will be getting Hermione to kill, but Harry can probably find someone in a hospital who has only days to live and convince Hermione that creating a horcrux is a net ethical positive.
Without Hermione’s death, murder would have been a line Harry was unwilling to cross. I think that whoever is behind this plot really wants Harry to cross the Moral Event Horizon and/or create the stone (the second possibility is less likely though, since Hermione was already working on the stone, but that fact could have been unknown to the plotter).
Edit: As of Chapter 101, this prediction has probably been proven wrong, unless Harry’s memory of executing this plan has been erased (not completely impossible; there’s a moment when he becomes momentarily disoriented.) But I think this would make a totally awesome piece of recursive fanfiction. After HPMoR is finished, I might write this.
While I consider this unlikely, it would help explain the scene with Hermione’s soul seemingly leaving her body. As far as I remember the characters who deaths seems we saw in canon didn’t have this effect and having a Horocrux would differentiate Hermione from them.
I’m not capable of reasoning about time loops in my sleep-deprived state, but would it be possible for Hermione to create her Horcrux by killing herself?
Yes: Consider the following loop: Hermione A goes and kills future Hermione B (who already has a horcrux). Hermione A is then killed by the troll, but has a horcrux (possibly with a mind wipe before so she doesn’t know about it). Hermione is then A is then resurrected to be sent back in time to become Hermione B. Then Hermione B is resurrected.
However, we know that messing with time is bad and we know that magic with souls is powerful, so this combination looks potentially very dangerous.
More generally, if resurrection doesn’t require additional sacrifices and doesn’t use up a horcrux, people who don’t have horcruxes could make them by murdering other people (by arrangement) who already have one (and then resurrecting them). Eventually, everyone is alive and has a horcrux.
I’m not completely sure this will work in general. It seems that magic works partially off of intent. One may need to actually believe that one is murdering the person in a permanent way. However, even that could be handled with memory charms.
80% probability that Hermione will make a horcrux; a mere 30% probability that everything will happen exactly as I specified above. It is a very specific prediction, after all.
...And a 90% probability that the plan will occur to Harry whether or not he pulls it off.
Perhaps Harry will do something with his personal copy of Hermione and a hack of Merlin’s computer.
Just hours before:
“Of course there is!” Harry said. The boy suddenly looked a bit more vulnerable. “You mean there isn’t a copy of me living in your head?”
There was, she realized; and not only that, it talked in Harry’s exact voice.
Given Voldemort’s novel formatting of his brain, Harry’s apparently already got the hardware to contain or access one extra soul, how much more would he need for another?
Prediction for Chapter 90: Time Pressure, Part 3:
“Wait a moment,” you say. “Time Pressure, Part 3? Harry already lost his race against the clock. Why would Chap. 90 be called ‘Time Pressures’?”
Because Harry’s race against the clock to save Hermione’s life has only just begun, and he has slightly less than six hours left. Eliezer mentioned that one of his most significant purposes of Chap. 86 was to update characters’ states of knowledge before the next arc. If you recall, in that chapter, Harry learned the word “horcrux.” And in Chap. 87, Harry learned of the philosopher’s stone.
So what will Harry do? Get the shell removed from his time turner, or obtain a time turner from someone else. Learn about the Horcrux ritual as quickly as possible, travel back in time, get Hermione to create a horcrux, and erase her memory of doing so thus that her death plays out just as before. Then start working on the stone to restore Hermione to life. (He could also take the “bone of the father, flesh of the servant, blood of the enemy” route, but positively identifying Hermione’s enemy could be difficult. Lucius Malfoy and Company, who were tricked into antagonizing Hermione, might not count for purposes of the ritual.)
The hard part, of course, will be getting Hermione to kill, but Harry can probably find someone in a hospital who has only days to live and convince Hermione that creating a horcrux is a net ethical positive.
Without Hermione’s death, murder would have been a line Harry was unwilling to cross. I think that whoever is behind this plot really wants Harry to cross the Moral Event Horizon and/or create the stone (the second possibility is less likely though, since Hermione was already working on the stone, but that fact could have been unknown to the plotter).
Edit: As of Chapter 101, this prediction has probably been proven wrong, unless Harry’s memory of executing this plan has been erased (not completely impossible; there’s a moment when he becomes momentarily disoriented.) But I think this would make a totally awesome piece of recursive fanfiction. After HPMoR is finished, I might write this.
While I consider this unlikely, it would help explain the scene with Hermione’s soul seemingly leaving her body. As far as I remember the characters who deaths seems we saw in canon didn’t have this effect and having a Horocrux would differentiate Hermione from them.
I’m not capable of reasoning about time loops in my sleep-deprived state, but would it be possible for Hermione to create her Horcrux by killing herself?
Yes: Consider the following loop: Hermione A goes and kills future Hermione B (who already has a horcrux). Hermione A is then killed by the troll, but has a horcrux (possibly with a mind wipe before so she doesn’t know about it). Hermione is then A is then resurrected to be sent back in time to become Hermione B. Then Hermione B is resurrected.
However, we know that messing with time is bad and we know that magic with souls is powerful, so this combination looks potentially very dangerous.
More generally, if resurrection doesn’t require additional sacrifices and doesn’t use up a horcrux, people who don’t have horcruxes could make them by murdering other people (by arrangement) who already have one (and then resurrecting them). Eventually, everyone is alive and has a horcrux.
I’m not completely sure this will work in general. It seems that magic works partially off of intent. One may need to actually believe that one is murdering the person in a permanent way. However, even that could be handled with memory charms.
Predicted with what probability?
80% probability that Hermione will make a horcrux; a mere 30% probability that everything will happen exactly as I specified above. It is a very specific prediction, after all.
...And a 90% probability that the plan will occur to Harry whether or not he pulls it off.
I can’t see either Harry or Hermione going along with a Horcrux ritual. Just too evil and out of character for both of them.
Given the title and some other hints in the story, I think use of a time turner is inevitable; but whatever Harry does it won’t involve a Horcrux.
Not out of character for Harry; in fact, it would be perfectly in character for him. But Hermione would never go for it.
I thought that horcruxing required mens rhea.
Mens rea, and yes.
Perhaps Harry will do something with his personal copy of Hermione and a hack of Merlin’s computer.
Just hours before:
Given Voldemort’s novel formatting of his brain, Harry’s apparently already got the hardware to contain or access one extra soul, how much more would he need for another?