I’m a fan of this.
Astazha
Warning Lucius would risk paradox, particularly since Mr. Counsel was probably Lucius.
“I might think more kindly of such neglect, if you had pursued my agenda by other means… Mr. Counsel. Yet I return to find—what? A country conquered in my name?” The high voice climbed higher. “No! I find you playing ordinary politics in the Wizengamot! I find your brothers still abandoned in Azkaban! It is a disappointment to me… I confess myself disappointed… You thought I was gone, the Dark Mark dead, and you forsook my purpose. Is that right, Mr. Counsel?”
I was thinking the same thing. If I were Harry I would call Moody and McGonagall to the headmistress’ office and spill everything. As a side-note, I think Moody would rather appreciate Voldemort being taken down by stuporfy.
Snape isn’t, because he can’t apparate from Hogwarts. Amusingly, Snape may interpret his exclusion from the mass sacrifice as a deliberate “kindness” from the Dark Lord.
I missed when writing this that there was the curse preventing V from killing H. But he still could have just let the centaur kill him. If the curse also stopped him from allowing the death of H then he still could have tried to get the Unbreakable Vow from Harry before making shit hit the fan.
I’m with everyone else on the wand thing. It would have been simple enough to have him drop it. One narrative explanation for getting the wand back into Harry’s hand would have been V asking for a demonstration of PT after Harry told him of it. Another would be to throw away the simplest timeline thing and let time-turned Harry come to the rescue with that solution, wand, cloak, etc. in hand. Though I don’t know why V left him an hour on the time-turner either.
But:
My real confusion starts way before all of this. You have the idiot-child of prophesied destruction, and what you do not do is back him into a corner where he may decide to do something desperate. Making Harry feel threatened was a big risk to take with that prophecy.
V transforms into a super scary villain, putting Harry under massive duress, the exact kind of thing that would possibly cause him to destroy the world through time paradox or some other unknown power. It would have made more sense to bind him with an unbreakable vow long before then, to maintain the pretense of friendship throughout. So he guessed you’re Voldemort, fine. Come clean, acknowledge what your plan to rule Britain was, and that you have been planning to place Harry as the ruler this time. Have that discussion. Come clean about the existence of a prophecy. Tell him you intend to resurrect Hermione. That you need to know what secret power he has so you can help him avoid the inadvertent destruction of the entire universe. Remind him of the centaur prophecy. Get him on your side that he is a serious risk to everyone. Brief the Death Eaters ahead of time, have a few that Harry doesn’t know present out of uniform for a fake ritual of divination that supposedly requires him to be completely nude and holding no objects. At the agreed upon time in the ritual they all just AK him and Harry dies with his eyes wide going “Wait, WHAT?” and thinking you were his friend until the last.
V broadcasts his betrayal so far in advance, and that seems downright unsafe given what is at stake and what a giant question mark this boy is. You underestimate a 1st year, sure. But you don’t underestimate a 1st year who is prophesied to destroy the stars and you, who you know has unknown powers.
I’m not hating though, EY. You’re writing the story, not me. I know it’s taken a lot of effort and I’ve enjoyed it immensely and I thank you for taking all of this time to write what has essentially been a free novel for all of us to consume and form a community around. I don’t usually even think that hard about the fiction I read, but your story invites me to do so. It’s been a great experience and I look forward to the finish.
Voldemort had the ability fly free from his body. The last sentence you quote is Harry thinking that he mustn’t allow that to happen, not that V doesn’t have the capability. If V goes free then he must be defeated again; Harry is avoiding that outcome.
So… Quirrel told McGonagal that he was David Munroe, and it was implied with Madam Bones. It looks like David Munroe was killed in a battle with Voldemort, ending that noble and most ancient line, which has now been avenged by Hermione destroying Voldemort with her magic Girl-Who-Lived powers.
Are we going to get the Noble House of Granger? Does the House of Potter lose its noble status since David Munroe was apparently not previously dead to be avenged by Harry? Will they both be noble because the Wizengamot doesn’t know what to do with the ambiguity?
I didn’t meant to retract the whole thing. Sorry, I’m new to the site and there doesn’t appear to be an undo.
Ah yes, thanks.
Imagine the the myths that will come up around this. “Man, if you try to use magic to kill a kid magic will fuck you up, I don’t care who you are.”
But it was transfigured by Harry’s magic. There does not appear to have been a resonance from it, though, which surprised me.
His irrational certainty is explained by the buried memories of Tom Riddle. I imagine Dumbledore steered him towards Hermione.
Agreed. This result wasn’t my first guess about the nature of it. I’d assumed that it probably affected V most strongly regardless.
There’s a parallel between Dumbledore and Reddit’s approach to the Ch. 113 solution: put a plethora of plots into motion, you only need one to work out.
This sounds less safe because you’d need to wake him up to torture him into insanity. If you wanted the multiple layers you could torture the obliviated version into insanity, but I think I prefer the transfiguration. I’d even consider making it permanent with the Stone of Transfiguration, but this would result in a lot of lost knowledge and it’s also possible that the horcrux network would consider it a death.
ETA: I rather liked the wand-in-a-dementor-pit idea.
They all showed up when the Dark Mark was called, only one of them has a transfigured mask replica, and no Death Eaters are likely to be allies to Harry since Voldemort can apparently just will them into seven smoldering pieces at any time.
Ch. 28:
Harry’s knuckles had gone white on his wand by the time he stopped trying to Transfigure the air in front of his wand into a paperclip. It wouldn’t have been safe to Transfigure the paperclip into gas, of course, but Harry didn’t see any reason why it would be unsafe the other way around. It just wasn’t supposed to be possible. But why not? Air was as real a substance as anything else...
Well, maybe that limitation did make sense. Air was disorganized, all the molecules constantly changing their relation to each other. Maybe you couldn’t impose a new form on substance unless the substance was staying still long enough for you to master it, even though the atoms in solids were also constantly vibrating all the time...
This isn’t conclusive, though. That failed attempt is before he sorts out partial transfiguration. However:
Harry may only use capabilities the story has already mentioned; he cannot develop wordless wandless Legilimency in the next 60 seconds. Of course, Harry may find more clever ways to use abilities he has already been established to have.
It would need to be fairly clear, I think, that Harry was re-purposing an old technique and not doing something new.
- Mar 1, 2015, 5:47 AM; 1 point) 's comment on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 113 by (
Ch. 107