Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

[Cain]

We can use a quantum gun to travel to alternate Universes.

Or an egg.

[LMNO]

We can use a quantum gun to travel to alternate Universes.

YARGANARGANARG
 /

Or an egg.

ANARGANARGANARGANAG.
  /

[Lord Cataplanga]

"Cedric Diggory!" said Hannah. "He's the Captain of our Quidditch Team, and general of an army, and he's taking all the electives and getting better grades than anyone, and I hear he learns dueling from professional tutors during the summers, and he once beat two seventh-year students, and even some teachers call him the Super Hufflepuff, and Professor Sprout says we should all emu, uh, emudate him or something like that, and -"

So there are three students with time-turners in Hogwarts, that we know of.

That's it, it's official now, they've ratified it in Parliament, everyone in the wizarding world is completely stupid.

[Jasper]

Nice eye, I hadn't caught that.  Yeah, seems so.

[Lord Cataplanga]

Bump for new chapter.

It has been a long time, but at least the burning chicken incident is finally explained.

[Jasper]

This chapter makes me want to compile a list of Chaos Legion-esque slogans.

[LMNO]

Am I the only one who has grown disappointed that the story has become, well, more plot-driven?  I was drawn into this fanfic because of the skewering of HP magics, and the afformentioned "Methods of Rationality" in regards to problem solving.  I stuck around for the Battle School strategies, but now... it's all about heroism, and what makes a hero, and what makes an epic narrative.  And it kind of bores me.

[Jasper]

I felt the same way, myself.  The later stuff isn't as charming.  The Stanford Prison Experiment chapters should have been a lot less overwrought, and it's brought down the tone.

[Cain]

This sequence hasn't done much for me either, but I don't mind the plot driven aspects of the story so much.  A lot of it does strike me as somewhat needless character development only loosely related to the plot, though.  I think a new sequence is coming up soonish, based on one of his notes, so maybe we will see a return to form then.

[*GrumpButt*]

The last book was a huge disappointment.

[Kai]

New chapter up. Finally.

And I'd agree with Cain. The "hero" arc doesn't interest me all that much. I want to get back to SCIENCE! Maybe after the first year is over? I guess the showdown with Quirrelmort before the Mirror of Erised is coming pretty soon.

[Cain]

This particular chapter wasn't too bad, though that was mostly due to Draco stealing the limelight.  I mean, between

"You want to know my plot?" said Draco. "Here's my plot. I'm not going to do anything and then the next time people think I'm plotting something, they won't be sure."

and

What are you really doing?

Draco stared at the parchment he'd unwrapped from the owl's leg. His hands trembled, as he held up the parchment to the light of his fireplace. Five words, carved in black ink, shouldn't have been scarier than death.

There wasn't very much time to think. Father knew exactly how long it took for a message to go from Malfoy Manor to Hogwarts and back again; he would know if Draco delayed to compose a careful lie.

But Draco still waited until his hand stopped trembling, before he wrote his reply, the only answer he'd thought of that Father might accept.

I am preparing for the next war.

he really stole the show.

But yeah, where the fuck has Quirrell been for the last six chapters?

[Jasper]

I did not dislike this!  In fact, I rather enjoyed it.  I think he just needed a rest.  I'd kill to be able to write as volumetrically as him, nevermind as skillfully.

[Cain]

I think some of this latest set of chapters has had something to do with the New York Lesswrong group.

Going by this post anyway http://lesswrong.com/lw/5c0/epistle_to_the_new_york_less_wrongians/

And if anyone is making the group less Fun or scaring off new members, and yes this includes being a creep who offends potential heroine recruits, give them an instant ultimatum or just fire them on the spot

Sounds like IRL shit and someone getting a narrative-led beatdown for their actions.

[Kai]

"There are hundreds of useful rituals which could be performed if men had so much sense; I could name twenty without stopping to draw breath. But in any case, Mr. Potter, the thing about such rituals - whether or not you choose to term them Dark - is that they are shaped to be magically efficacious, not to appear impressive when performed. I suppose there is a certain tendency for the more powerful rituals to require more dreadful sacrifices. Even so, the most terrible ritual known to me demands only a rope which has hanged a man and a sword which has slain a woman; and that for a ritual which promised to summon Death itself - though what is truly meant by that I do not know and do not care to discover, since it was also said that the counterspell to dismiss Death had been lost. The most dread chant I have encountered does not sound even a hundredth as fearsome as the chant you composed for Miss Davis. Those among the bullies who had a passing familiarity with Dark rituals - and I am certain that there were some - must have been terrified beyond the capacity of words to describe. If there existed a true ritual which appeared that impressive, Mr. Potter, it would melt the Earth."

"Um," said Harry.

Professor Quirrell's lips twisted further. "Ah, but the truly amusing thing was this. You see, Mr. Potter, the chant of every ritual names that which is to be sacrificed, and that which is to be gained. The chant which you gave to Miss Davis spoke, first, of a darkness beyond darkness, buried beneath the flow of time, whose voice echoes in the emptiness, which knows the gate, and is the gate. And the second thing spoken of, Mr. Potter, was the manifestation of your own presence. And always, in each element of the ritual, first is named that which is sacrificed, and then is said the use commanded of it."

"I... see," said Harry, as he trod through the halls of Hogwarts after Professor Quirrell, following him toward the Defense Professor's office. "So my chant, the way I wrote it, implies that the Outer God, Yog-Sothoth -"

"Was permanently sacrificed to empower a ritual which but briefly manifested your presence," said Professor Quirrell. "I suppose we will discover tomorrow whether anyone took that seriously, when we read the newspapers and see whether all the magical nations of the world are banding together in a desperate effort to seal off your incursion into our reality."