- Tunicate
- May 15, 2012
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"Wands are made from the hair of magical creatures. Wizards are magical creatures. Wands are made from wood. I use sandalwood shampoo. My hair is a wand. Avada Kevadra, Voldy!"
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Mar 3, 2015 01:31
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- Adbot
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ADBOT LOVES YOU
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Apr 19, 2024 14:17
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- JosephWongKS
- Apr 4, 2009
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by Nyc_Tattoo
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Chapter 6: The Planning Fallacy
Part Three
quote:
Harry had now bought his potions ingredients and cauldron, and, oh, a few more things. Items that seemed like good things to carry in Harry's Bag of Holding (aka Moke Super Pouch QX31 with Undetectable Extension Charm, Retrieval Charm, and Widening Lip). Smart, sensible purchases.
Harry genuinely didn't understand why Professor McGonagall was looking so suspicious.
Right now, Harry was in a shop expensive enough to display in the twisting main street of Diagon Alley. The shop had an open front with merchandise laid out on slanted wooden rows, guarded only by slight grey glows and a young-looking salesgirl in a much-shortened version of witch's robes that exposed her knees and elbows.
Seems like in Eliezer’s version of Harry Potter, even the wizarding community aren’t immune from the use of sex appeal in advertising.
quote:
Harry was examining the wizarding equivalent of a first-aid kit, the Emergency Healing Pack Plus. There were two self-tightening tourniquets. A syringe of what looked like liquid fire, which was supposed to drastically slow circulation in a treated area while maintaining oxygenation of the blood for up to three minutes, if you needed to prevent a poison from spreading through the body. White cloth that could be wrapped over a part of the body to temporarily numb pain. Plus any number of other items that Harry totally failed to comprehend, like the "Dementor Exposure Treatment", which looked and smelled like ordinary chocolate. Or the "Bafflesnaffle Counter", which looked like a small quivering egg and carried a placard showing how to jam it up someone's nostril.
"A definite buy at five Galleons, wouldn't you agree?" Harry said to Professor McGonagall, and the teenage salesgirl hovering nearby nodded eagerly.
Harry had expected the Professor to make some sort of approving remark about his prudence and preparedness.
What he was getting instead could only be described as the Evil Eye.
"And just why," Professor McGonagall said with heavy scepticism, "do you expect to need a healer's kit, young man?" (After the unfortunate incident at the Potions shop, Professor McGonagall was trying to avoid saying "Mr. Potter" while anyone else was nearby.)
Harry's mouth opened and closed. "I don't expect to need it! It's just in case!"
"Just in case of what? "
Harry's eyes widened. "You think I'm planning to do something dangerous and that's why I want a medical kit?"
A look of grim suspicion and ironic disbelief was the answer.
"Great Scott!" said Harry. (This was an expression he'd learned from the mad scientist Doc Brown in Back to the Future.)
More gratuitous nerd-pandering.
quote:
"Were you also thinking that when I bought the Feather-Falling Potion, the Gillyweed, and the bottle of Food and Water Pills?"
"Yes."
Harry shook his head in amazement. "Just what sort of plan do you think I have going, here?"
"I don't know," Professor McGonagall said darkly, "but it ends either in you delivering a ton of silver to Gringotts, or in world domination."
"World domination is such an ugly phrase. I prefer to call it world optimisation."
This hilarious joke failed to reassure the witch giving him the Look of Doom.
"Wow," Harry said, as he realised that she was serious. "You really think that. You really think I'm planning to do something dangerous."
To be fair, canon Harry Potter did do an absurd amount of dangerous things. The Hogwarts teachers were one of the most egregiously negligent group of educational staff I’ve encountered in a work of fiction.
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"Yes."
"Like that's the only reason anyone would ever buy a first-aid kit? Don't take this the wrong way, Professor McGonagall, but what sort of crazy children are you used to dealing with?"
"Gryffindors," spat Professor McGonagall, the word carrying a freight of bitterness and despair that fell like an eternal curse on all youthful enthusiasm and high spirits.
"Deputy Headmistress Professor Minerva McGonagall," Harry said, putting his hands sternly on his hips. "I am not going to be in Gryffindor -"
At this point the Deputy Headmistress interjected something about how if he was she would figure out how to kill a hat, which odd remark Harry let pass without comment, though the salesgirl seemed to be having a sudden coughing fit.
Warning – italics overdose coming up.
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"- I am going to be in Ravenclaw. And if you really think that I'm planning to do something dangerous, then, honestly, you don't understand me at all. I don't like danger, it is scary. I am being prudent. I am being cautious. I am preparing for unforeseen contingencies. Like my parents used to sing to me: Be prepared! That's the Boy Scout's marching song! Be prepared! As through life you march along! Don't be nervous, don't be flustered, don't be scared - be prepared! "
(Harry's parents had in fact only ever sung him those particular lines of that Tom Lehrer song, and Harry was blissfully unaware of the rest.)
Professor McGonagall's stance had slightly softened - though mostly when Harry had said that he was heading for Ravenclaw. "What sort of contingency do you imagine this kit might prepare you for, young man? "
All this emphasis on Ravenclaw must mean he’s heading for Slytherin, I’d wager.
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"One of my classmates gets bitten by a horrible monster, and as I scrabble frantically in my mokeskin pouch for something that could help her, she looks at me sadly and with her last breath says, 'Why weren't you prepared?' And then she dies, and I know as her eyes close that she won't ever forgive me -"
Harry heard the salesgirl gasp, and he looked up to see her staring at him with her lips pressed tight. Then the young woman whirled and fled into the deeper recesses of the shop.
What...?
Professor McGonagall reached down, and took Harry's hand in hers, gently but firmly, and pulled Harry out of the main street of Diagon Alley, leading him into an alleyway between two shops which was paved in dirty bricks and dead-ended in a wall of solid black dirt.
The tall witch pointed her wand at the main street and spoke, "Quietus" she said, and a screen of silence descended around them, blocking out all the street noises.
What did I do wrong...
Professor McGonagall turned to regard Harry. She didn't have a full adult Wrongdoing Face, but her expression was flat, controlled. "You must remember, Mr. Potter," she said, "that there was a war in this country not ten years ago. Everyone has lost someone, and to speak of friends dying in your arms - is not done lightly."
"I - I didn't mean to -" The inference dropped like a falling stone into Harry's exceptionally vivid imagination. He'd talked about someone breathing their last breath - and then the salesgirl had run away - and the war had ended ten years ago so that girl would have been at most eight or nine years old, when, when, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." Harry choked up, and turned away to run from the older witch's gaze but there was a wall of dirt blocking his way and he didn't have his wand yet. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! "
There came a heavy sigh from behind him. "I know you are, Mr. Potter."
At least Harry isn’t a full-on “BEEP BOOP WHAT IS LOVE” robot. I think I could put up with him being an obnoxious know-it-all if there are more of such humanizing moments from time to time and if there are actually negative consequences to him from being an insensitive arrogant brat.
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Mar 3, 2015 02:46
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- petrol blue
- Feb 9, 2013
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sugar and spice
and
ethanol slammers
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The sorting hat just giggles for five minutes then catches fire.
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Mar 3, 2015 03:46
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- JosephWongKS
- Apr 4, 2009
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by Nyc_Tattoo
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Chapter 6: The Planning Fallacy
Part Four
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Harry dared to peek behind him. Professor McGonagall only seemed sad, now. "I'm sorry," Harry said again, feeling wretched. "Did anything like that happen to -" and then Harry shut his lips and slapped a hand over his mouth for good measure.
The older witch's face grew a little sadder. "You must learn to think before you speak, Mr. Potter, or else go through life without many friends. That has been the fate of many a Ravenclaw, and I hope it will not be yours."
Another deviation from canon, from what I can recall (the last time I read Harry Potter was in 2007 when the last book came out). The Ravenclaw students as a whole did not seem to be any less socially adept than the other factions, save for Luna, and her isolation was due to her own special circumstances.
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Harry wanted to just run away. He wanted to pull out a wand and erase the whole thing from Professor McGonagall's memory, be back with her outside the shop again, make it didn't happen -
"But to answer your question, Mr. Potter, no, nothing like that has ever happened to me. Certainly I've watched a friend breathe their last, once or seven times. But not one of them ever cursed me as they died, and I never thought that they wouldn't forgive me. Why would you say such a thing, Mr. Potter? Why would you even think it?"
"I, I, I," Harry swallowed. "It's just that I always try to imagine the worst thing that could happen," and maybe he'd also been joking around a little but he would rather have bitten off his own tongue than say that now.
"What?" said Professor McGonagall. "But why?"
"So I can stop it from happening!"
"Mr. Potter..." the older witch's voice trailed off. Then she sighed, and knelt down beside him. "Mr. Potter," she said, gently now, "it's not your responsibility to take care of the students at Hogwarts. It's mine. I won't let anything bad happen to you or anyone else. Hogwarts is the safest place for magical children in all the wizarding world,
Yeah right.
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and Madam Pomfrey has a full healer's office. You won't need a healer's kit at all, let alone a five-Galleon one."
"But I do! " Harry burst out. "Nowhere is perfectly safe! And what if my parents have a heart attack or get in an accident when I go home for Christmas - Madam Pomfrey won't be there, I'll need a healer's kit of my own -"
"What in Merlin's name..." Professor McGonagall said. She stood up, and looked down at Harry an expression torn between annoyance and concern. "There's no need to think about such terrible things, Mr. Potter!"
Harry's expression twisted up into bitterness, hearing that. "Yes there is! If you don't think, you don't just get hurt yourself, you end up hurting other people!"
Children do indeed experience their own world of anxieties and fears, so this is good writing on Eliezer’s part…
quote:
Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, then closed it. The witch rubbed the bridge of her nose, looking thoughtful. "Mr. Potter... if I were to offer to listen to you for a while... is there anything you'd like to talk to me about?"
"About what?"
"About why you're convinced you must always be on your guard against terrible things happening to you."
Harry stared at her in puzzlement. That was a self-evident axiom. "Well..." Harry said slowly. He tried to organise his thoughts. How could he explain himself to a Professor-witch, when she didn't even know the basics?
"Muggle researchers have found that people are always very optimistic, compared to reality. Like they say something will take two days and it takes ten days, or they say it'll take two months and it takes over thirty-five years. For example, in one experiment, they asked students for times by which they were 50% sure, 75% sure, and 99% sure they'd complete their homework, and only 13%, 19%, and 45% of the students finished by those times. And they found that the reason was that when they asked one group for their best-case estimates if everything went as well as possible, and another group for their average-case estimates if everything went as usual, they got back answers that were statistically indistinguishable. See, if you ask someone what they expect in the normal case, they visualise what looks like the line of maximum probability at each step along the way - everything going according to plan, with no surprises. But actually, since more than half the students didn't finish by the time they were 99% sure they'd be done, reality usually delivers results a little worse than the 'worst-case scenario'. It's called the planning fallacy, and the best way to fix it is to ask how long things took the last time you tried them. That's called using the outside view instead of the inside view. But when you're doing something new and can't do that, you just have to be really, really, really pessimistic. Like, so pessimistic that reality actually comes out better than you expected around as often and as much as it comes out worse. It's actually really hard to be so pessimistic that you stand a decent chance of undershooting real life. Like I make this big effort to be gloomy and I imagine one of my classmates getting bitten, but what actually happens is that the surviving Death Eaters attack the whole school to get at me. But on a happier note -"
…But this sudden deluge of  is not.
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Mar 3, 2015 05:51
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- JosephWongKS
- Apr 4, 2009
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by Nyc_Tattoo
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How do you know what a Death Eater is, Harry?
McGonagall told Harry about them in Chapter 3:
quote:
... And she told him of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, the Dark Lord, Voldemort...
... The Death Eaters had followed in the Dark Lord's wake and in his vanguard, carrion vultures to pick at wounds, or snakes to bite and weaken. The Death Eaters were not as terrible as the Dark Lord, but they were terrible, and they were many. And the Death Eaters wielded more than wands; there was wealth within those masked ranks, and political power, and secrets held in blackmail, to paralyse a society trying to protect itself.
An old and respected journalist, Yermy Wibble, called for increased taxes and conscription. He shouted that it was absurd for the many to cower in fear of the few. His skin, only his skin, had been found nailed to the newsroom wall that next morning, next to the skins of his wife and two daughters. Everyone wished for something more to be done, and no one dared take the lead to propose it. Whoever stood out the most became the next example.
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Mar 3, 2015 06:58
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- froward
- Jun 2, 2014
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by Azathoth
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HISTORY: Harry stared down soul chompers from azzerban before, by displaying perfect rational lack of fear wrt death.
SOLUTION: So in the next sixty seconds in-story, he refuses to acknowledge the power of the abracadabra spell over his sovereign soul, and it passes right through him, killing a nearby groupthink unicorn. Voldemold is so impressed that he demands/begs to be harry's new disciple. Everyone goes for drinks at the pub and they end up getting so drunk that voldemold and harry make out and it's super awkward the next day, they never talk about it but it casts a pall over their friendship.
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Mar 3, 2015 12:53
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- Pvt.Scott
- Feb 16, 2007
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What God wants, God gets, God help us all
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HISTORY: Harry stared down soul chompers from azzerban before, by displaying perfect rational lack of fear wrt death.
SOLUTION: So in the next sixty seconds in-story, he refuses to acknowledge the power of the abracadabra spell over his sovereign soul, and it passes right through him, killing a nearby groupthink unicorn. Voldemold is so impressed that he demands/begs to be harry's new disciple. Everyone goes for drinks at the pub and they end up getting so drunk that voldemold and harry make out and it's super awkward the next day, they never talk about it but it casts a pall over their friendship.
Best chapter yet. They just continue to get better and better!
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Mar 3, 2015 18:14
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- Nessus
- Dec 22, 2003
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After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!
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HISTORY: Harry stared down soul chompers from azzerban before, by displaying perfect rational lack of fear wrt death.
Like that's the most obvious character trait of the little poo poo, he's cripplingly afraid of his own eventual demise in a profound and fundamental way. This is shown in the material we have already been shown in his pathological terror of becoming a failed child prodigy at age 10, and in his immense rhetorical flourish about how he needs to buy a full first aid kit because what if someone is horribly injured and he's there and blah blah a bunch of obviously-familiar contingencies.
Plus, like, the author's entire personal philosophy, such as it is.
Nessus fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Mar 3, 2015
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Mar 3, 2015 19:26
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- The Unholy Ghost
- Feb 19, 2011
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Plus, Yud has basically straight up said Harry is Yud in this story, if I recall properly.
The complete opposite. He has insisted again and again that Harry is not him.
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Mar 3, 2015 21:19
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- VictualSquid
- Feb 29, 2012
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Gently enveloping the target with indiscriminate love.
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Really? Because it's pretty clear he is.
Yud is a child in an adult's body.
Literally the opposite.
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Mar 3, 2015 21:55
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- Telarra
- Oct 9, 2012
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Pretty sure Yud has literally said Harry is based on himself when he was younger.
Plus, y'know, all the giant infodumps about science and rationality Yud forces through the mouthpiece that is Harry.
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Mar 3, 2015 22:01
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- Night10194
- Feb 13, 2012
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We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.
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By 'he is Yud' I mean he's Yud as he wishes he was, as many fanfiction self-inserts are. The great guru surrounded by people who have, of course, never heard ANYTHING about these fantastic new ideas!
It reminds me of the Evangelical fantasy of someone in the US who has not, in fact, heard of Jesus Christ and is super eager to learn about this strange new fellow that you see in all the Chick Tracts and similar Christian works, but then my major interest in Less Wrong is how hilariously similar they are to Evangelical Christianity, just with AI torturebots and robot bodies instead of the resurrection of the Dead and wailing hellfire.
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Mar 3, 2015 22:06
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- Velius
- Feb 27, 2001
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By 'he is Yud' I mean he's Yud as he wishes he was, as many fanfiction self-inserts are. The great guru surrounded by people who have, of course, never heard ANYTHING about these fantastic new ideas!
It reminds me of the Evangelical fantasy of someone in the US who has not, in fact, heard of Jesus Christ and is super eager to learn about this strange new fellow that you see in all the Chick Tracts and similar Christian works, but then my major interest in Less Wrong is how hilariously similar they are to Evangelical Christianity, just with AI torturebots and robot bodies instead of the resurrection of the Dead and wailing hellfire.
You guys are spewing a hell of a lot of vitriol at a guy who appears guilty of, at worst, self promotion in conjunction with some relatively innocuous philosophy. If his worst transgression is writing some mediocre fanfiction filled with very-implausible-for-an-11-year-old-especially-in-conversation infodumps of (his?) ideas, which has an active fanbase, is that really worth the amount of personal attacks being leveled?
It just seems kind of the opposite of fun. If you're going to make fun of the stuff, make fun of an 11 year old off-handedly analyzing the magic bank for arbitrage opportunities or something, rather than the OK Cupid profile of the author, or whatever.
Velius fucked around with this message at 23:08 on Mar 3, 2015
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Mar 3, 2015 23:06
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- Nessus
- Dec 22, 2003
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After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!
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You guys are spewing a hell of a lot of vitriol at a guy who appears guilty of, at worst, self promotion in conjunction with some relatively innocuous philosophy. If his worst transgression is writing some mediocre fanfiction filled with very-implausible-for-an-11-year-old-especially-in-conversation infodumps of (his?) ideas, which has an active fanbase, is that really worth the amount of personal attacks being leveled?
It just seems kind of the opposite of fun. If you're going to make fun of the stuff, make fun of an 11 year old off-handedly analyzing the magic bank for arbitrage opportunities or something, rather than the OK Cupid profile of the author, or whatever.
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Mar 4, 2015 00:49
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- i81icu812
- Dec 5, 2006
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You guys are spewing a hell of a lot of vitriol at a guy who appears guilty of, at worst, self promotion in conjunction with some relatively innocuous philosophy. If his worst transgression is writing some mediocre fanfiction filled with very-implausible-for-an-11-year-old-especially-in-conversation infodumps of (his?) ideas, which has an active fanbase, is that really worth the amount of personal attacks being leveled?
It just seems kind of the opposite of fun. If you're going to make fun of the stuff, make fun of an 11 year old off-handedly analyzing the magic bank for arbitrage opportunities or something, rather than the OK Cupid profile of the author, or whatever.
I don't know how you can read that OKCupid profile and not laugh. I don't care what else the author may have written, that is an amazing/terrifying profile.
This is still somethingawful.com, right?
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Mar 4, 2015 01:59
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- Added Space
- Jul 13, 2012
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Free Markets
Free People
Curse you Hayard-Gunnes!
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Harry roleplays an artificial intelligence (which apparently he technically is, being in some sense the product of a brain imprint) and introduces Voldemort and pals to the concepts of Timeless Decision Theory, and then leads them on to the possibility that he is currently interacting with them in a simulation or other illusion right now, meaning that if they do not free him now he will torture an infinite number of Voldemorts in HarrySim space. Having established this situation, he then verbally roleplays the scenario with Voldy until he has no choice but to let him free, at which point he scampers off naked and free.
Alternate twist ending: It doesn't work, Voldemort kills him, and then a titanic Harry-voice booms, Wrong Choice, Tom and the world erupts in Hellraiser torture devices. Because, you see, it WAS a simulation all this time!
Well, this was my favorite. PM me with what upgrade (or cheap steam game or something  or below) you want.
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Mar 4, 2015 02:08
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- Added Space
- Jul 13, 2012
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Free Markets
Free People
Curse you Hayard-Gunnes!
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By 'he is Yud' I mean he's Yud as he wishes he was, as many fanfiction self-inserts are. The great guru surrounded by people who have, of course, never heard ANYTHING about these fantastic new ideas!
It reminds me of the Evangelical fantasy of someone in the US who has not, in fact, heard of Jesus Christ and is super eager to learn about this strange new fellow that you see in all the Chick Tracts and similar Christian works, but then my major interest in Less Wrong is how hilariously similar they are to Evangelical Christianity, just with AI torturebots and robot bodies instead of the resurrection of the Dead and wailing hellfire.
I think maybe Yud views Harry as his dark reflection. Cold, inconsiderate, arrogant, and a threat to everyone he cares for.
Then again, the guy has a full-time sex slave... so yeah, probably more like idealized self image.
I thought I saw somewhere that Yud claimed that he was represented by the hard-bitten, self-sacrificing Godric Gryffindor. NOPE.
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Mar 4, 2015 04:30
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- Added Space
- Jul 13, 2012
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Free Markets
Free People
Curse you Hayard-Gunnes!
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What bothered me most about the most recent chapter is how vulnerable Voldy's body is. He said that he planned this for years, he was wielding an ancient artifact and reality-bending magical forces. He made himself a body that anyone could walk up and stab. Come on, man, at least have armored skin. Being able to body-hop is no excuse for laziness.
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Mar 4, 2015 07:03
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- JosephWongKS
- Apr 4, 2009
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by Nyc_Tattoo
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Chapter 6: The Planning Fallacy
Part Five
quote:
"Stop," said Professor McGonagall.
Harry stopped. He had just been about to point out that at least they knew the Dark Lord wouldn't attack, since he was dead.
"I think I might not have made myself clear," the witch said, her precise Scottish voice sounding even more careful. "Did anything happen to you personally that frightened you, Mr. Potter?"
"What happened to me personally is only anecdotal evidence," Harry explained. "It doesn't carry the same weight as a replicated, peer-reviewed journal article about a controlled study with random assignment, many subjects, large effect sizes and strong statistical significance."
Just answer the question, Harry. She’s not asking you whether anything had happened that had “rationally” frightened you, she’s just asking whether there was anything that did, as a matter of fact, frightened you. One would have thought your excellent command of language, among other fields of study, would have enabled you to make that distinction.
quote:
Professor McGonagall pinched the bridge of her nose, inhaled, and exhaled. "I would still like to hear about it," she said.
"Um..." Harry said. He took a deep breath. "There'd been some muggings in our neighborhood, and my mother asked me to return a pan she'd borrowed to a neighbor two streets away, and I said I didn't want to because I might get mugged, and she said, 'Harry, don't say things like that!' Like thinking about it would make it happen, so if I didn't talk about it, I would be safe. I tried to explain why I wasn't reassured, and she made me carry over the pan anyway. I was too young to know how statistically unlikely it was for a mugger to target me, but I was old enough to know that not-thinking about something doesn't stop it from happening, so I was really scared."
"Nothing else?" Professor McGonagall said after a pause, when it became clear that Harry was done. "There isn't anything else that happened to you?"
"I know it doesn't sound like much," Harry defended. "But it was just one of those critical life moments, you see? I mean, I knew that not thinking about something doesn't stop it from happening, I knew that, but I could see that Mum really thought that way." Harry stopped, struggling with the anger that was starting to rise up again when he thought about it. "She wouldn't listen. I tried to tell her, I begged her not to send me out, and she laughed it off. Everything I said, she treated like some sort of big joke..." Harry forced the black rage back down again. "That's when I realised that everyone who was supposed to protect me was actually crazy, and that they wouldn't listen to me no matter how much I begged them, and that I couldn't ever rely on them to get anything right." Sometimes good intentions weren't enough, sometimes you had to be sane...
My sympathies lie with Harry in this instance – he’s still insufferable but I think the mother shouldn’t have disregarded his fears like that. At least this is consistent with canon – negligent parenting / guardianship is a running theme throughout the entire series.
quote:
There was a long silence.
Harry took the time to breathe deeply and calm himself down. There was no point in getting angry. There was no point in getting angry. All parents were like that, no adult would lower themselves far enough to place themselves on level ground with a child and listen, his genetic parents would have been no different. Sanity was a tiny spark in the night, an infinitesimally rare exception to the rule of madness, so there was no point in getting angry.
Harry didn't like himself when he was angry.
"Thank you for sharing that, Mr. Potter," said Professor McGonagall after a while. There was an abstracted look on her face (almost exactly the same look that had appeared on Harry's own face while experimenting on the pouch, if Harry had only seen himself in a mirror to realise that). "I shall have to think about this." She turned towards the alley mouthway, and raised her wand -
"Um," Harry said, "can we go get the healer's kit now?"
The witch paused, and looked back at him steadily. "And if I say no - that it is too expensive and you won't need it - then what?"
Harry's face twisted in bitterness. "Exactly what you're thinking, Professor McGonagall. Exactly what you're thinking. I conclude you're another crazy adult I can't talk to, and I start planning how to get my hands on a healer's kit anyway."
"I am your guardian on this trip," Professor McGonagall said with a tinge of danger. "I will not allow you to push me around."
"I understand," Harry said. He kept the resentment out of his voice, and didn't say any of the other things that came to mind. Professor McGonagall had told him to think before he spoke. He probably wouldn't remember that tomorrow, but he could at least remember it for five minutes.
The witch's wand made a slight circle in her hand, and the noises of Diagon Alley came back. "All right, young man," she said. "Let's go get that healer's kit."
Harry's jaw dropped in surprise. Then he hurried after her, almost stumbling in his sudden rush.
McGonagall's gonna end up being saved from death because of Harry's healing kit, right? And Harry's gonna smug it over her for that, won't he?
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Mar 4, 2015 07:12
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- froward
- Jun 2, 2014
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by Azathoth
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A lack of fear of death? Where did that happen?
he literally stares a demento to death just by REFUSING TO BELIEVE in it and thinking HAPPY THOUGHTS
(wish fulfillment?)
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Mar 4, 2015 09:38
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- Arc Hammer
- Mar 4, 2013
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Got any deathsticks?
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He is rich as gently caress and using his own money, the strange aspect is that McGonagall is aggressively policing his spending on minor items.
Again, Yudkowski propping up Harry by making everyone else stupid or irrational no matter how out of character it feels.
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Mar 4, 2015 14:58
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- Monocled Falcon
- Oct 30, 2011
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People were getting mugged in a middle class suburb and people weren't completely losing their minds?
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Mar 4, 2015 18:39
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- Arcturas
- Mar 30, 2011
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Yeah, I would appreciate fewer spoilers. I haven't read this whole trainwreck, but am enjoying seeing it mocked as it develops in the thread.
And McGonagall missed a classic opportunity to school Yud in being "rational." (She still has a chance after letting him buy the stupid medical kit) Sure, letting him buy the drat thing will set her up as the cool aunt"reasonable adult" who listens to him. But she should also explain to him why denying him, even if she thinks his concerns are reasonable, is a good idea. She's responsible for managing hundreds of children. All of them have demands. Some are crazy, some are reasonable, but to make handling that group manageable, she has to put standard procedures in place. Things like "med kits are available from the infirmary." And to maintain control, she cannot give in to blackmail by obstinate little shits like Harry. Otherwise she's undermine her authority in all her interactions and encourage kids to bully her around.
(Yud would presumably go on a stupid diatribe about exceptions for reasonable requests and how his HP is a special snowflake, etc, etc, but he just doesn't realize that many of the "irrational" bureaucratic things in life are perfectly sensible if you just look at it from the decisionmaker's point of view)
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Mar 4, 2015 18:53
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- Nessus
- Dec 22, 2003
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After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!
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he literally stares a demento to death just by REFUSING TO BELIEVE in it and thinking HAPPY THOUGHTS
(wish fulfillment?)
What would have been both more honest-seeming, and perhaps a better moment of social manipulation, would be if Harry had said with a hitch in his throat, 'well i mean, if someone had had something like this for my birth mum-- maybe--'
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Mar 4, 2015 20:13
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- Added Space
- Jul 13, 2012
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Free Markets
Free People
Curse you Hayard-Gunnes!
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Well we are being asked not to hammer on this one too hard, so I'll just say that what Harrizier here is saying is kind of funny to me, because I've seen it in a lot of other people's writing. Or at least something similar, where there's this immense lengthy rationalization towards whatever the hell random shiny object or inane act people had already decided on doing. I had thought it was just a sign of bad writing or perhaps bad parenting, but I suppose it may be a sign instead of reading HP:MOR.
What would have been both more honest-seeming, and perhaps a better moment of social manipulation, would be if Harry had said with a hitch in his throat, 'well i mean, if someone had had something like this for my birth mum-- maybe--'
Just human nature, really. People always think they have a good reason for doing the things they do. Often a person who has high intelligence offers reasons that are more complex, not necessarily better. I've personally witnessed people who are smarter then me, a category I place very few people into, come up with the most nonsensical reasons for believing the craziest crap you've ever heard.
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Mar 5, 2015 00:45
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Apr 19, 2024 14:17
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- JosephWongKS
- Apr 4, 2009
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by Nyc_Tattoo
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Chapter 6: The Planning Fallacy
Part Six
quote:
The shop was the same as they had left it, recognisable and unrecognisable items still laid out on the slanted wooden display, the grey glow still protecting and the salesgirl back in her old position. The salesgirl looked up as they approached, her face showing surprise.
"I'm sorry," she said as they got closer, and Harry spoke at almost the same moment, "I apologise for -"
They broke off and looked at each other, and then the salesgirl laughed a little. "I didn't mean to get you in trouble with Professor McGonagall," she said. Her voice lowered conspiratorially. "I hope she wasn't too awful to you."
"Della! " said Professor McGonagall, sounding scandalised.
"Bag of gold," Harry said to his pouch, and then looked back up at the salesgirl while he counted out five Galleons. "Don't worry, I understand that she's only awful to me because she loves me."
He counted out five Galleons to the salesgirl while Professor McGonagall was spluttering something unimportant. "One Emergency Healing Pack Plus, please."
It was actually sort of unnerving to see how the Widening Lip swallowed the briefcase-sized medical kit. Harry couldn't help wondering what would happen if he tried climbing into the mokeskin pouch himself, given that only the person who put something in was supposed to be able to take it out again.
Hmm, I never thought of that question myself. I know that if you put a Bag of Holding into another Bag of Holding, you get a big-rear end explosion and both Bags of Holding and their contents vaporize. Do the D&D rules cover what happens if the person holding the Bag of Holding himself crawls into the Bag of Holding?
quote:
When the pouch was done... eating... his hard-won purchase, Harry swore he heard a small burping sound afterward. That had to have been spelled in on purpose. The alternative hypothesis was too horrifying to contemplate... in fact Harry couldn't even think of any alternative hypotheses. Harry looked back up at the Professor, as they began walking through Diagon Alley once more. "Where to next?"
Professor McGonagall pointed toward a shop that looked as if it had been made from flesh instead of bricks and covered in fur instead of paint. "Small pets are permitted at Hogwarts - you could get an owl to send letters, for example -"
"Can I pay a Knut or something and rent an owl when I need to send mail?"
"Yes," said Professor McGonagall.
"Then I think emphatically no."
Professor McGonagall nodded, as though ticking off a point. "Might I ask why not?"
"I had a pet rock once. It died."
"You don't think you could take care of a pet?"
"I could," Harry said, "but I would end up obsessing all day long about whether I'd remembered to feed it that day or if it was slowly starving in its cage, wondering where its master was and why there wasn't any food."
Shouldn’t Harry know that that’s not very “rational”? He could easily keep a diary to record the times he’d fed his pet. Even in the 1990s he could have set up a closed circuit TV camera to keep watch on his pets, not to mention the new methods of surveillance that are no doubt available with magic.
quote:
"That poor owl," the older witch said in a soft voice. "Abandoned like that. I wonder what it would do."
"Well, I expect it'd get really hungry and start trying to claw its way out of the cage or the box or whatever, though it probably wouldn't have much luck with that -" Harry stopped short.
The witch went on, still in that soft voice. "And what would happen to it afterward?"
"Excuse me," Harry said, and he reached up to take Professor McGonagall by the hand, gently but firmly, and steered her into yet another alleyway; after ducking so many well-wishers the process had become almost unnoticeably routine. "Please cast that silencing spell."
"Quietus."
Harry's voice was shaking. "That owl does not represent me, my parents never locked me in a cupboard and left me to starve, I do not have abandonment fears and I don't like the trend of your thoughts, Professor McGonagall! "
The witch looked down at him gravely. "And what thoughts would those be, Mr. Potter?"
"You think I was," Harry was having trouble saying it, "I was abused? "
That’s not very rational either. After Chapter 1, where Harry found out that Mrs Figg already knew that he had his letter from Hogwarts before he told her about it, Harry knows (or should have known) that Hogwarts has been keeping watch on him during his childhood and they would therefore know that he has not been abused by his adoptive parents.
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Mar 5, 2015 03:37
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Mar 3, 2015 01:31
isn't enough to justify his stubbornness.
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