First, I have to get the emotional reaction out of the way: holycrap!
Now that that’s done, is the last time we’ve heard about the Marauders’ Map when Dumbledore borrowed it to search for Tom Riddle? I don’t remember off hand whether that was after TSPE or in Taboo Tradeoffs.
I’m a little perplexed at how Harry’s medical treatment didn’t seem to work; it sounded like it should have bought several minutes, but the action that followed didn’t seem like it could have taken more than 60 seconds. I’ve only read it the once through, so I could be missing it completely, but the timing felt deliberate. (And all the ticks in 88 seem to emphasize the passage of time, though they could well have just been to emphasize the pressure).
Also, Susan knows how to effectively magic giants? That makes her smarter than Umbridge’s entire team-to-sack-Hagrid in canon. I suppose it pays to have a competent defense professor (even if he is the most likely suspect for all the awful that just happened), and the director of the DMLE as a close relative.
I was pretty shocked at the Troll in the Dungeon line. That seemed like something that wouldn’t be at all likely to happen with a RATIONAL! Voldemort, foreshadowing in Quirrel’s first class aside. Apparently I never bothered to think about a decent motivation for such a plot; using it as a plot to get at the stone didn’t come across as particularly clever in this universe, and I didn’t search beyond that and just dismissed it as a silly idea. Oops. Of course, that brings forward the question of whether or not Harry will have to kill a Hungarian Horntail. I wouldn’t expect it, but I haven’t thought about it for more than a few seconds yet.
Re Marauders’ Map: Quirrell pretty obviously has it. He obliviated the Weasley twins and took it. This is just the smart thing for him to do.
Note how he’s burning straight through to the melee with the troll at the end of Ch. 89 - so he knows exactly where and in what direction Harry and Hermione are. This could also be because of the psychic link, but it also increases the probability he has the map.
Re Marauders’ Map: Quirrell pretty obviously has it. He obliviated the Weasley twins and took it. This is just the smart thing for him to do.
Alternative hypothesis: this is one of several things done by a time traveller creating a consistent time loop. If they had the map, it would have shown Hermione in two places, or else not where she was being attacked. In this scenario, the twins were temporarily obliviated about the map, just so they wouldn’t use it. But they still have the map.
The disappearance of the map is actually one of the few clues that IMO raises the probability that a time loop is already in progress, besides the ELIZA discussion with “Brienne”. Harry also knows that the time turner prohibition can be defeated, with assistance from an adult wizard; his likely next effort (after securing Hermione’s body for possible revival) would be to find another way to circumvent both the use prohibition and Time itself.
But I guess we’ll find out in a few hours. (Squee!)
(Not an actual prediction, but it would be awesome if this somehow turns out to be Hermione deliberately faking her own death to assume a cover identity. Among other things, it would be a compelling answer to the “stuffed in a fridge” trope allegations. Not as powerful—but still more fair to Hermione than the status quo—would be a flashback that shows her heroically taking on the troll in order to protect someone else, rather than just being a victim. She at least deserves her own epic batlle scene, even if the story requires it appear only in flashback.)
You don’t think Dumbledore would’ve obliviated the Weasley twins after using the map to find Voldemort? That would also have been the smart thing for him to do.
Nah, not really. The Marauder’s Map is the obvious thing to try when searching for someone in Hogwarts, he wouldn’t release any information to the Weasleys. And, of course, Dumbledore does trust the Weasleys. It did suggest the Map to Quirrell as a device he’d want to confiscate, but it’s not really in Dumbledore’s nature to think that far ahead.
I guess the question is, how many levels deep is Dumbledore playing? I think it’s possible he’s smart enough to predict that Voldemort would do this, and take the map away from them as a precaution. But not super likely.
But other than that, I don’t see a motivation for Dumbledore to confiscate it; he seems to like that the Weasleys have it. It’s a token of Gryffindorishness, flouting the letter of the law to pull pranks and help out their friends or what have you. And Dumbledore likes that, I think.
Right, but Dumbledore also thinks there’s a war going on. The map seems like too useful a tool for either side to have for Dumbledore to be so cavalier about leaving it in the twins’ hands.
I would understand Dumbledore confiscating the map. But, if he were to confiscate it, he would do only that, not Obliviate the Weasleys such that they’d have no memory of ever possessing such a map. It would seem cruel and pointless to him.
Suppose Dumbledore thinks his enemies aren’t aware that the map exists. If he believes one of his enemies is a Legilimens and is periodically scanning the students’ minds, he might not want to take the risk of them scanning the Weasley twins and discovering the existence of the map. But I admit I’m stretching at this point.
Most likely. What I don’t remember is whether or not Dumbledore ever gave it back to Fred and George; he presumably did if Quirrel stole it, since I doubt he would have had an easy time getting it from Dumbledore unnoticed. And if we didn’t get confirmation that Dumbledore returned it, I suppose this might fuel “Dumbledore did it” theories. Most of my probability mass goes to Quirrel, though.
I’m a little perplexed at how Harry’s medical treatment didn’t seem to work; it sounded like it should have bought several minutes, but the action that followed didn’t seem like it could have taken more than 60 seconds. I’ve only read it the once through, so I could be missing it completely, but the timing felt deliberate. (And all the ticks in 88 seem to emphasize the passage of time, though they could well have just been to emphasize the pressure).
My understanding is that once shock is refractory#Refractory), there is no turning back (in particular, oxygenation at that stage is useless). I’m not familiar enough with the medicine to know if it’s reasonable for her to progress that far that quickly, but my layman’s guess is “probably.”
The description of refractory shock is that the ATP in the body has already decayed and diffused out of the cells. Would someone in that state have any way of speaking? Or do we assume that the Law of Dramatic Death Scenes is written into a magician’s powers?
Would someone in that state have any way of speaking? Or do we assume that the Law of Dramatic Death Scenes is written into a magician’s powers?
The dramatic death scene was my interpretation, but I don’t have much experience with people dying violently (thankfully). I don’t know how realistic dramatic death scenes are or how much wizardly fortitude is worth.
Recalling a video I have seen (forgot the source), the actual damage wouldn’t occur upon hypoxia, but upon re-oxygenation. Lack of oxygen at the cellular level does start a fatal chemical reaction, but the structure of the cells are largely preserved. But when you put oxygen back, everything blows up (or swells up, actually).
Harry may very well have killed Hermione with his oxygen shot. If he froze her before then, it might have worked, but after that… her information might be lost.
One obvious objection: Hermione was still concious enough to say some last words, ruling out advanced brain de-oxygenation. That could be only for the drama, but still.
One obvious consequence: that magic feeling upon death might be linked to plain muggle information-theoretic death somehow. But then, we have horcrucxes and Avada Kedavra… I’m quite confused by HPMOR’s “laws of physics”.
Wizards have souls. - their minds are running on more than just wetware. I am fairly certain of this, because otherwise shape shifting would be instantly fatal.
Wizard’s brain is imaged into magical representation.
Transfiguration then takes place with control by live magical representation of wizards brain. Could this also be connected to how animagi are dementor-resistant?
First, I have to get the emotional reaction out of the way: holycrap!
Now that that’s done, is the last time we’ve heard about the Marauders’ Map when Dumbledore borrowed it to search for Tom Riddle? I don’t remember off hand whether that was after TSPE or in Taboo Tradeoffs.
I’m a little perplexed at how Harry’s medical treatment didn’t seem to work; it sounded like it should have bought several minutes, but the action that followed didn’t seem like it could have taken more than 60 seconds. I’ve only read it the once through, so I could be missing it completely, but the timing felt deliberate. (And all the ticks in 88 seem to emphasize the passage of time, though they could well have just been to emphasize the pressure).
Also, Susan knows how to effectively magic giants? That makes her smarter than Umbridge’s entire team-to-sack-Hagrid in canon. I suppose it pays to have a competent defense professor (even if he is the most likely suspect for all the awful that just happened), and the director of the DMLE as a close relative.
I was pretty shocked at the Troll in the Dungeon line. That seemed like something that wouldn’t be at all likely to happen with a RATIONAL! Voldemort, foreshadowing in Quirrel’s first class aside. Apparently I never bothered to think about a decent motivation for such a plot; using it as a plot to get at the stone didn’t come across as particularly clever in this universe, and I didn’t search beyond that and just dismissed it as a silly idea. Oops. Of course, that brings forward the question of whether or not Harry will have to kill a Hungarian Horntail. I wouldn’t expect it, but I haven’t thought about it for more than a few seconds yet.
Re Marauders’ Map: Quirrell pretty obviously has it. He obliviated the Weasley twins and took it. This is just the smart thing for him to do.
Note how he’s burning straight through to the melee with the troll at the end of Ch. 89 - so he knows exactly where and in what direction Harry and Hermione are. This could also be because of the psychic link, but it also increases the probability he has the map.
Alternative hypothesis: this is one of several things done by a time traveller creating a consistent time loop. If they had the map, it would have shown Hermione in two places, or else not where she was being attacked. In this scenario, the twins were temporarily obliviated about the map, just so they wouldn’t use it. But they still have the map.
The disappearance of the map is actually one of the few clues that IMO raises the probability that a time loop is already in progress, besides the ELIZA discussion with “Brienne”. Harry also knows that the time turner prohibition can be defeated, with assistance from an adult wizard; his likely next effort (after securing Hermione’s body for possible revival) would be to find another way to circumvent both the use prohibition and Time itself.
But I guess we’ll find out in a few hours. (Squee!)
(Not an actual prediction, but it would be awesome if this somehow turns out to be Hermione deliberately faking her own death to assume a cover identity. Among other things, it would be a compelling answer to the “stuffed in a fridge” trope allegations. Not as powerful—but still more fair to Hermione than the status quo—would be a flashback that shows her heroically taking on the troll in order to protect someone else, rather than just being a victim. She at least deserves her own epic batlle scene, even if the story requires it appear only in flashback.)
You don’t think Dumbledore would’ve obliviated the Weasley twins after using the map to find Voldemort? That would also have been the smart thing for him to do.
Nah, not really. The Marauder’s Map is the obvious thing to try when searching for someone in Hogwarts, he wouldn’t release any information to the Weasleys. And, of course, Dumbledore does trust the Weasleys. It did suggest the Map to Quirrell as a device he’d want to confiscate, but it’s not really in Dumbledore’s nature to think that far ahead.
I guess the question is, how many levels deep is Dumbledore playing? I think it’s possible he’s smart enough to predict that Voldemort would do this, and take the map away from them as a precaution. But not super likely.
But other than that, I don’t see a motivation for Dumbledore to confiscate it; he seems to like that the Weasleys have it. It’s a token of Gryffindorishness, flouting the letter of the law to pull pranks and help out their friends or what have you. And Dumbledore likes that, I think.
Right, but Dumbledore also thinks there’s a war going on. The map seems like too useful a tool for either side to have for Dumbledore to be so cavalier about leaving it in the twins’ hands.
I would understand Dumbledore confiscating the map. But, if he were to confiscate it, he would do only that, not Obliviate the Weasleys such that they’d have no memory of ever possessing such a map. It would seem cruel and pointless to him.
Suppose Dumbledore thinks his enemies aren’t aware that the map exists. If he believes one of his enemies is a Legilimens and is periodically scanning the students’ minds, he might not want to take the risk of them scanning the Weasley twins and discovering the existence of the map. But I admit I’m stretching at this point.
If that enemy exists, he already knows.
Upvoted for qualifying the clever argument with the admission that it is a stretch.
That’s a good point. I’m updating slightly in favor of Dumbledore having it, then.
Most likely. What I don’t remember is whether or not Dumbledore ever gave it back to Fred and George; he presumably did if Quirrel stole it, since I doubt he would have had an easy time getting it from Dumbledore unnoticed. And if we didn’t get confirmation that Dumbledore returned it, I suppose this might fuel “Dumbledore did it” theories. Most of my probability mass goes to Quirrel, though.
Yeah, I assume Dumbledore gave it back. He didn’t care that they had it before he borrowed it; why would he suddenly begin to care after?
(OK, I can think of a few reasons, but they’re pretty weak and don’t measure up to “Quirrell took it” in probability mass.)
My understanding is that once shock is refractory#Refractory), there is no turning back (in particular, oxygenation at that stage is useless). I’m not familiar enough with the medicine to know if it’s reasonable for her to progress that far that quickly, but my layman’s guess is “probably.”
The description of refractory shock is that the ATP in the body has already decayed and diffused out of the cells. Would someone in that state have any way of speaking? Or do we assume that the Law of Dramatic Death Scenes is written into a magician’s powers?
The dramatic death scene was my interpretation, but I don’t have much experience with people dying violently (thankfully). I don’t know how realistic dramatic death scenes are or how much wizardly fortitude is worth.
Recalling a video I have seen (forgot the source), the actual damage wouldn’t occur upon hypoxia, but upon re-oxygenation. Lack of oxygen at the cellular level does start a fatal chemical reaction, but the structure of the cells are largely preserved. But when you put oxygen back, everything blows up (or swells up, actually).
Harry may very well have killed Hermione with his oxygen shot. If he froze her before then, it might have worked, but after that… her information might be lost.
One obvious objection: Hermione was still concious enough to say some last words, ruling out advanced brain de-oxygenation. That could be only for the drama, but still.
One obvious consequence: that magic feeling upon death might be linked to plain muggle information-theoretic death somehow. But then, we have horcrucxes and Avada Kedavra… I’m quite confused by HPMOR’s “laws of physics”.
Wizards have souls. - their minds are running on more than just wetware. I am fairly certain of this, because otherwise shape shifting would be instantly fatal.
Or their brains are stored in hammerspace but maintain control of the transfigured body.
Possible analysis of the Animagus xform:
Wizard’s brain is imaged into magical representation. Transfiguration then takes place with control by live magical representation of wizards brain. Could this also be connected to how animagi are dementor-resistant?
Hypothesis: Time-Turned Harry has it.