Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

[Jasper]

Especially given how hard a time he'll have dragging the real Voldemort out into the light.  Even if he does manage to defeat him somehow, there likely won't be any evidence that it was legitimate.  There'll just be a dead professor and tons of red flags that all suggest that Harry is Voldemort.
 

[Cain]

Voldemort gets his body back, slits Quirrell's throat and put's the dagger in Harry's hands, metaphorically or otherwise?

Sounds possible.  A bit depressingly simple, for the actions undertaken so far, but that just means it is well within Lucius Malfoy's 'rule' of Xanatos Gambits.

Of course, we still have yet to find what Voldemort meant by this "Harry ruling Britain" business, especially since Voldemort is going to vanish at the end of the school year, and twelve year old boys are generally, though not always, barred from such offices.

[Cain]

Also, I don't think we've had anything from The Order of the Phoenix appear in the storyline, so far...aside from a couple of mentions of it's previous existence.  Apart from Harry being wangsty and letting Voldemort in his mind, oh, and the teacher who practices torture, I don't really remember much of that book.

But I'm sure something from it will pop up soon.  Books two, three and four have now all figured into the story somewhere.

[Cain]

Oh fuck.  OFUK.

I think I know where Voldemort slipped up, big time.  Anyone else remember that Harry read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich?  And Voldemort wants Harry to rule Britain?  Well, very early on in the book, it mentions how Hitler's history teacher, a certain Dr Poetsch, who was a fanatical German nationalist and anti-Slavic racial theorist, was a huge influence on him.  Harry is bound to draw parallels between that.

Also, can someone with more knowledge of the canon than me check, is Grindlewald still alive, at this point in the series?  I have a suspicion...

[Jasper]

Uh yeah.  He's in Azkaban.  Saw him in the latest movie.

[Cain]

Hmm.

I'm wondering, since Harry, Dumbledore, Draco and Voldemort have all had intelligence upgrades...why not Grindlewald?  I was also thinking "how would Dumbledore know about that dark magic ritual to bring Voldemort's body back", and then I remembered Grindlewald and Dumbledore used to be very close.  And then I remembered Grindlewald probably doesn't like Voldemort or Dumbledore much, and may be the identity of Mr Hat and Cloak.

[Jasper]

THAT

Is an extremely cool idea.  Kudos on that, I never would have thought it.  

ETA:  If Grindelwald is Mr. H&C, then how did Dumbledore come across the elder wand?  Maybe H&C and Dumbledore are still good friends, despite appearances.

[Cain]

Didn't Dumbledore take the Elder Wand from him when he defeated him in 1945?  According to the Harry Potter Wiki, that was when it passed its mastery onto Dumbledore (and there is a story hidden in that as well - how did Dumbledore defeat Grindlewald?  The latter would have had to be without the wand for Dumbledore to win, which meant either Grindlewald was complicit in his own defeat or Dumbledore won through some clever trick)

Also according to the Wiki, he was in his own prison, Nurmengard, not Azkaban.  Which may make his escape more likely, since Gindlewald designed the prison himself.

From today's chapter, this made me LOL

"Mr. Potter is an Occlumens? You gave him an invisibility cloak and he is immune to Veritaserum and he is friends with the Weasley twins? Albus, do you have any idea what you have unleashed upon this school?" Her voice was nearly shrieking, now. "By his seventh year there won't be anything left of Hogwarts but a smoking hole in the ground!"

Albus leaned back in his great cushioned chair, and said, smiling, "Don't forget the Time-Turner."

She did scream then, but quietly.

Severus drawled, "Should I teach him to brew Polyjuice, Headmaster? I ask only for the sake of completeness, in case you are not satisfied with the magnitude of your pet disaster."

"Perhaps next year," said Albus. "My dearest friends, the question before us is whether Harry Potter has spirited Bellatrix Black out of Azkaban, which is more than youthful high spirits even by my tolerant standards."

[Eater of Clowns]

Yeah, I thought the Weasley twins bit was a particularly good arson, murder, and jaywalking.

[Cain]

Or maybe not, given what they did to Rita Skeeter....how the hell did they manage that on 40 galleons?

[Jasper]

I'm pretty sure it involved polyjuice, probably as Dumbledore. 

[Kai]

And then the phoenix changed hands.

[Jasper]

Pretty sure it's just making a gesture at Dumbledore.  I doubt it will stick with Harry.

Besides, he'd spend too much time all blissed out anyway.

[LMNO]

Damn, this is a good story.  That is all.

[Jasper]

Yeah it is.  The latest story arc is a bit heavy for his usual writing, but very good.