And as long as we’re trying to find magical exploits, I wonder what Harry would do if he got his hands on some Felix Felicis.
For instance, if he locked himself in a room with only a weegie board (or scrabble tiles), would it be forced to spell out whatever information he needed to know? Would it only answer his direct questions, or could it just start warning him about all of Quirrell and Dumbledore and Lucius’ plans and how to beat them?
Kennard claimed he learned the name “Ouija” from using the board and that it was an ancient Egyptian word meaning “good luck.” When Fuld took over production of the boards, he popularized the more widely accepted etymology, that the name came from a combination of the French and German words for “yes”.
I got the impression that Felix Felicis had extraordinary or possibly perfect knowledge of the current state of the world and the drinker’s utility function, was thus able to calculate the best course of action over the period of time the drinker would be under its influence for, and hijacked the drinker’s System 1 (and possibly motor control) until it was out of xyr system.
If it DOES hijack the user’s motor control, which there is SOME evidence for, then it probably would work with a Ouija board (but scrabble tiles come in specific, limited sets—might not work right), but then what does it mean that Harry didn’t use one in canon when his goal was to find out about the horcruxes? If it were that easy, the potion should have made canon Harry use something similar to find the number of horcruxes and their locations, and probably the curses on them, too.
So I think it doesn’t do that. And I don’t know how much good it could do him in a locked room with a Ouija board if it can’t do that. I think the best thing there is to shout “Hey, Hermione, the experiment’s a failure! Let me out!”
Indeed; one wonders why Harry didn’t accidentally break a horcrux that day, or why there weren’t more enemy casualties in the Battle of the Astronomy Tower.
Harry accidentally breaking a horcrux would have been so phenomenally difficult… AND, the FF had to time everything right to happen to meet Slughorn AND happen to brush against Ginny at just the right time, and then he spent the whole time after that at Hagrid’s. The nearest horcrux was in the Room of Requirement; the nearest horcrux-destroyer was in Dumbledore’s office. And which is more valuable, one horcrux or knowing how many there are?
And as long as we’re trying to find magical exploits, I wonder what Harry would do if he got his hands on some Felix Felicis.
For instance, if he locked himself in a room with only a weegie board (or scrabble tiles), would it be forced to spell out whatever information he needed to know? Would it only answer his direct questions, or could it just start warning him about all of Quirrell and Dumbledore and Lucius’ plans and how to beat them?
Ouija.
Dammit, English Language, stop fucking with us.
English?
I got the impression that Felix Felicis had extraordinary or possibly perfect knowledge of the current state of the world and the drinker’s utility function, was thus able to calculate the best course of action over the period of time the drinker would be under its influence for, and hijacked the drinker’s System 1 (and possibly motor control) until it was out of xyr system.
If it DOES hijack the user’s motor control, which there is SOME evidence for, then it probably would work with a Ouija board (but scrabble tiles come in specific, limited sets—might not work right), but then what does it mean that Harry didn’t use one in canon when his goal was to find out about the horcruxes? If it were that easy, the potion should have made canon Harry use something similar to find the number of horcruxes and their locations, and probably the curses on them, too.
So I think it doesn’t do that. And I don’t know how much good it could do him in a locked room with a Ouija board if it can’t do that. I think the best thing there is to shout “Hey, Hermione, the experiment’s a failure! Let me out!”
Indeed; one wonders why Harry didn’t accidentally break a horcrux that day, or why there weren’t more enemy casualties in the Battle of the Astronomy Tower.
Harry accidentally breaking a horcrux would have been so phenomenally difficult… AND, the FF had to time everything right to happen to meet Slughorn AND happen to brush against Ginny at just the right time, and then he spent the whole time after that at Hagrid’s. The nearest horcrux was in the Room of Requirement; the nearest horcrux-destroyer was in Dumbledore’s office. And which is more valuable, one horcrux or knowing how many there are?