That was the freaking most glorious moment thus far of this entire story. Remarkable how easy it is, to picture a Dementor cowering in helpless terror from an eleven-year-old boy, when you write it.

Could we have Hermione save Harry at some point, please? I very much enjoy this story, but I'm tired of her constantly getting in over her head and needing to be bailed out. Damsels in distress irritate me more than I can possibly describe to you in words.

The sheer Awesomeness of this chapter somewhat compensated for stress of the previous ones. Well done! (0_0)/

How DARE you manipulate my emotions so completely. You bastard. Are we readers your playthings? There are far too many things to be said, to you and assorted characters, at varying decibels. You BASTARD.

(i'm sorry i hope this gets across how much i also love this story? there are just all these people i want to STRANGLE)

OK, it is confusing that House Malfoy owes a debt TO House Potter, yet Harry has to pay?

can't...stop...reading!

By the way, lucky guess. It IS about 5 hours past my bedtime.

W. Kathy's reviews were awesome. I agree with her, Hermione better not be Harry's romantic interest. She really is holding him back. Plus she is annoying as fuck. Harry gives up all his money to save HER, yet she completely ignores him and goes to McGonagall? WTF. Plus Harry's inner Gryffindor is annoying as fuck, and has unrealistic ideals.

Niiice. Story-reasoning is a term I'll have to remember. Or, even better, "the lawless blurs of legends" (very fun to say!).

Harry has demonstrated in this chapter that dementors are at least partially controlled/manipulated by expectations and perceptions. I wonder how long it will take Harry to test what other kinds of magic are controlled primarily by expectations... If he takes into account that his expectations might be influencing magic also, then he should take a second look at his partial transfiguration..

Yeah, that was the kind of rising to the challenge that I expected but the details of which I couldn't possibly imagine. Awesome beyond all words.

Words simply cannot describe how happy I am to see a Harry that isn't filthy rich.

loved it...
keep up the good work

I think Harry should have told the dementor to 'kiss' all the ass holes there! Great chapter!

So, you would say this is why politicians and businessmen can be brilliant at what they do, but stupid about say science?

Poor Hermione! And Harry was awesome, as he usually is in these situations. This is a wonderful fic.

Oh my god. Words fail to describe your brilliance.

This is first time I did ever re-read piece of fiction 4 times within single week. Best chapter so far, although I'm slightly disappointed that Harry didn't actually try to execute his plan with controlling Dementor.

Also, wouldn't such incident turn on first pages of newspapers next day? Its quite unbelievable that noone in Hogwarts talks about Harry's participation in Wizengamot session.

"As we have far exceeded our allotted time, I now, in accordance with the last decision of the survivors of the eighty-eighth Wizengamot, adjourn this session."

What. That - that - even wizards shouldn't have to do that.

No prior incantato during the trial?

Fantastic writing, though. Brilliant re-imagining.

I've barely slept the last 48 hours after discovering this series. It is just feels so inescapably correct. It gives voice to things I believe that I could never coherently state. Thanks.

Harry putting the fear of HIM into the Dementor was pure gold. I love all the stealthy references you throw in to the legends of the wizarding world.

Genius. How do you do it? I can't even begin to comprehend.

Wow.

I've read this entire thing over the course of three days and this fic certainly deserves its accolades. So amazing kudos to the author!

What made me actually write a review for a chapter, though, was a dread thought I suddenly had at the end of this where Harry scares the Dementor. It's a thought that seems pretty obvious (I'm kinda embarrassed I never noticed before), so I imagine it's not unique, but I thought I'd write it down just in case it is.

Magic violates a number of natural laws, a key one being the Conservation of Energy. This is so off-putting that Harry even keeps an eye out for anything in magic that looks like it doesn't follow this violation. Here's the thing, though... what if this violation is just an illusion? What if there's something out there that recycles used magic and energy to top up the Source of Magic?

Naturally, since this means would need to be long lasting. Virtually indestructible, in fact. And you don't want this means to be able to replicate or you get a Grey Goo scenario.

So you need something virtually indestructible, mobile (so it search for recyclables), but doesn't replicate.

The Dementors really fit the bill there.

They drain ambient magic and energy (thus why they're associated with cold - energy is being removed from the local environment to be recycled into magic) and then use that to fill up the Source of Magic (which operates something like a fuel tank that all wizards and magic things in the world pull from). They're artificial constructs by whoever created the Source of Magic, thus have limited intelligence on their own to seek out high concentrations of magic for recycling, are capable of recognizing threats to themselves and act accordingly, and have in-build means of preventing them from eating something important (via Patronii).

Evidence against this is why they disrupt memories as well - why would happy memories also be available as fuel? Unless that's just a side-effect and the real goal is to sap a person's will power so they won't resist the magic being ripped out of them.

Another big problem is I don't know how you'd go about testing this idea. If the Source of Magic really is like a fuel tank, then destroying all the Dementors won't affect magic at all UNTIL it starts running low on fuel, then magic everywhere will begin to fail catastrophically, all at once. You can't test it the other way, either, as magic won't get more powerful if you feed a bunch of stuff to Dementors; it just means there will be more fuel available. Is there any way to test this idea, so it becomes a proper hypothesis?

The question that I feel is missing is, "Does Hermione know how to cast the Blood Cooling Charm?" Ask her under veritaserum to describe how to cast the charm. If she doesn't know how to do it, she didn't do it. Memory doesn't store every movement, sight, and sound we experienced. It stores pointers and highly compressed shorthand like, "and then I cast Blood Cooling". I'm expecting a likely loophole where the planted memory is just such a pointer, without the extra detailed backing of planting the memories that would have grown from learning to cast the spell.

Otherwise, still love the story. Gripping read, every chapter.

There were parts of this chapter/arc I really liked in isolation from the rest of the work. Harry's internal monologue is entertaining as always for example. But they're small things, aspects that could have fit into however the arc came out.

The problem is that it feels like the story as a whole wants to be accelerating to a climax. So when the end of the arc is merely restoring us to something resembling a status quo, its a let down. We're running in place rather than actually progressing.

Its entirely possible that Draco being withdrawn from Hogwarts is a big deal. Ok, it is a big deal, it removes the Draco/Harry interaction and probably curtails Draco's development. But its not a satisfying step forward after how dramatic the lead-up was. Its too small. And it only seems to limit Draco's character development rather than help propel him to something new.

It would have been far more interesting if Harry had pursued his plan with the dementor. Killing most of the Wizengamot would have been a dramatic 'conclusion' to the arc that would have propeled the story toward a climax. It probably sets us up for a tragic ending, which, given Harry's failure to model, or more appropriately, failure to accept the necessary conclusions of an accurate model of human behavior in governance, is inevitably the type of ending the story needs to reach. Either Harry becomes a Dark Lord and displaces the government, or Harry's beliefs and acceptance of heroic responsibility are inconsistent. The heroic tragedy either lies in Harry finally accepting the necessity of being a 'dark' lord, or in *dramatically* trying and failing to become one. Quietly failing may be a tragedy (by which the light surrenders to the darkness because the necessary actions aren't acceptable), but its not an *interesting*, *dramatic*, or *heroic* tragedy.

Basically, the world in which Harry assassinates most of the Wizengamot with their 'pet' dementor is far more interesting then the world in which he and Hermione simply go back to school. Even Harry destroying Azkaban is more interesting. The story seems to have chosen the least interesting conclusion because its the easiest one to empathize with - Harry doesn't have to actually get his hands dirty.

PS: That democracy is inconsistent with rational governance in your story is starting to become inescapable. Most people, and indeed, most people in positions of power in your story, are not reasoning well and certainly aren't interested in rational governance - even someone who reasons well but abuses their power for personal gain isn't promoting rational governance. And while the rational approach in the long term may be to help people become more rational, Harry is taking heroic responsibility *now*. He doesn't have 50 or 100 years to wait. And people *now* aren't capable of rational governance by democracy, pseudo-democracy, oligarchy, or whatever the Wizengamot is supposed to actually represent.

Violent revolution is not necessarily an irrational act. "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, ... it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." (US Declaration of Independence, preamble) Close parallels are not hard to draw, especially that the American colonies perceived the King of Britain to be an irrational actor. And as the war had already started, its not really in doubt that *violent* revolution was intended.

Having already accepted Heroic Responsibility, it is within the realm of Harry's conceit to accept it would fall to him to abolish the old, illegimitate (to him) government of magical Britain and help erect a new one in its stead.

Loved the idea of throwing Lucius's supposed/fictitious 'Imperius defence' back in his face. While I've seen other fanfics - quite a few - insult him openly by calling him 'weak willed' this is the first one that actually *used* his deception against him so skilfully and to such avail. Good show!

Umbridge had me worried that poor Hermione was still going to be restricted/penalised somehow ... very pleased that Harry put her in her place.

Well, I'm pleased that Harry was poised to rescue Hermione on his own initiative, with the dreaded (for an eleven year old NO KISSING boy) M-word ('marriage') - but it appears that McGonagall saved the day with another sort of servitude (uh-oh, did I just suggest that marriage is akin to slavery? :-)). Very pleased to see McGonagall help out ... and that Harry saved his friend after all.

"If they had, in any particular ethical system, damned themselves, they clearly thought quite highly of themselves for having done so."

Loved this line

Dementor scaring was fun too.

"It must have been such a happy day for him." Pure gold.

Conflict was resolved perhaps too easily thou. Many reviewers will chew on you whenever you make anything bad happen to the characters, but without conflict there is no drama and you do write adversity so beautifully.(Loved TSPE and was expecting something similar)

However maybe your intention was to get to later ethical issues in which case never mind.

I adore this story; it makes me think, laugh and at times to still with tension. A beautiful combination of fantasy and forward thinking that is so engrossing and fun to read.

Once again, that little so far proved useful; I present the funniest line in this story: "Enough, Mr. Potter," said Professor McGonagall. "We shall be late for afternoon Transfiguration as it is. And do come back here, you're still terrifying that poor Dementor."

SO FAR. I'd say let's hope I don't need to say that again, but I will. There's no way I won't with this story.

Dear Mr. Yudkowsky,

This is a writing review and commentary on some aspects of the work. Please read it with two overall things in mind:

First, I am not a writer by training or experience. So, even though I have read extensively in both fiction and nonfiction most of my life, I will not be able to reliably name writing techniques nor will I necessarily be able to recognize them. Second, I still stand by my first review, which said something to the effect that I have books on my shelves that have been there twenty years that I like less than this work. So, the quote “I don't know anything about art, but I know what I like.” (Gelett Burgess) fits nicely for both facts.

Disappearing author’s notes are irritating. I want not only the story, but also the meta-story. There were also extras in the author’s notes that were entertaining, e.g. all the links to various fan art. I suspect that I am not the only person who would be happy if you could resurrect and post the older author’s notes (on / of course, since apparently has some problems in that area).

There has been a change in writing recently. I don’t know what to call it, but the last section of Ch 81 is different than the earlier part of the chapter. The last section is more general and has less dialog, and just feels different. Reading through Ch 81 is like driving along and having the road change from asphalt to concrete – they are both good road surfaces, but the transition is noticeable. Chapter 80 is similar, but the more general text comes first instead of last. I am not the only reader to notice this. If this dichotomy in writing styles is a deliberate experiment then I am not unhappy but I suggest working on the transition. However, I have seen similar things before when the author was not inclined to expand certain summary sections (for many possible reasons) or when parts of the text were ghost written (or heavily ghost edited). I am hoping that is not the case here.

Some commenters were … inelegant (cough, cough) in their reactions to your inclusion of more personal touches in the author’s notes. To me, the inclusion was similar to but more jarring than the change in writing styles above. It is your work and a large part of your life, but I also think that sections that are not information about HPMOR should go elsewhere. I suggest a “personal notes” section of , with a link in the author’s notes saying something like “And the personal notes section also has an update” when you want people to know to look. I think that since the primary purpose of HPMOR is to increase interest in rationality, that items that pertain to rationality education are also good fits in author’s notes. Example items I would break out of the current author’s notes are the announcements about Erin and her search for a concert companion and the commentary on polyamory. (From what I see, it appears that biochemistry, medicine, psychology, and biotechnology are breaking down many of the biological and psychological reasons that may have contributed to the various relationship taboos - consider the impact of the birth control pill. Things look interesting on that front in the future.)

There is a pink elephant in the room. Actually, this is a neon-glowing elephant on LSD attempting to play polka on a pipe organ. This elephant is named the Philosopher’s Stone. Given Harry’s thoughts on death, if he knew about it he would abandon all pursuits until he got it. Yes, it would potentially break the story. However, it is also not reasonable that he has simply not heard about it. Grimhook references it in Ch 4, Quirrell talks about Nicholas Flamel in Ch 77, and Dumbledore tells Harry it is in the castle (though not by name) in Ch 79. It is simply too well known for Harry to have overlooked it and he would never have ignored it. I personally can think of nothing whatsoever that would stop Harry from looking for it once he heard about it, but I think that you could come up with a substantial reason. Therefore, it is disingenuous to simply ignore its existence.

“This was actually intended as a dry run for a later, serious “Solve this or the story ends sadly” puzzle”. I sincerely hope you do not do that. It does not appear to advance the cause of making teaching rationality fun, there would be a lot of upset fans, and consequently it would make the flames for delaying an update look mild by comparison. Still, I acknowledge that this work is eating into your personal life, so I hope a compromise can be reached.

At some point in the author’s notes (I cannot find the reference right now) you say that if Harry used everything you know about rationality the story would end even sooner. When the story does end, I think a very good omake would be an outline of what would happen in that case. Harry already seems far too aware and intelligent for a child as it is – it is hard to imagine him solving this even faster.

And a nit: Ch 81 refers to Harry as an eleven year old. He has had a birthday – unless I miscount, he is now twelve.

Thank you and au revoir.

Was the puzzle solution fair?

The debt owed to someone breaking an Imperius curse was clearly outlined out in Ch 26. The possibility of a taboo tradeoff, i.e. money for sanity and life, was also mentioned. Note, however, that Quirrell says "How could Miss Skeeter possibly be fool enough to believe -" in response to some part of the story. Therefore, there was reason to disbelieve at least some aspects of the story, especially considering it was clearly revealed to be a fake. Nevertheless, there was sufficient prior evidence for the reader to believe it was a possibility and several readers did suggest it.

The potential use of Fawkes as transport into Azkaban was presented in Ch 56. Fawkes shows his affinity with Harry in Ch 62 along with his dislike of Azkaban, or at least of something in it. (Phoenixes are certainly good candidates for magical avatars of life and would be opposed to the magical avatars of death, the Dementors.) So, while it was not specifically said that Fawkes would help Harry for certain requests, there was reasonable evidence that was possible. Interestingly, I do not remember any commenter mentioning this possibility.

The oath Hermione swore to bond herself to Harry is not mentioned previously (unless I missed something). Harry considered marriage before he knew the oath was possible and the events of Ch 26 showed that marriage bonds of such young children were possible, so there was some method of binding House Potter and House Granger available anyway. The idea of vassalage fits in well with magical Britain being a "pathetic little magical remnant of the Dark Ages" [Ch 7]. Therefore, there was enough information to predict that some form of legal obligation was possible and indeed several commenters did suggest marriage.

Harry’s control of Dementors is well documented in Ch 57. However, even then Harry didn’t know "Whether they truly had their own pseudo-intelligence, or whether Harry had finally succeeded in expecting them to go [i.e., they were psychosensitive objects]". Either way, his potential plan of announcing that he will cancel Patronuses, cancelling them by revealing the secret of Patronuses, and getting the Dementor to kill all the "Imprison Hermione" voters would work – either he was controlling the Wizengamot’s expectations or he was using a carrot and stick approach on an intelligent opponent (kill many, which it likes, or I kill you, which it is afraid of). However, since only two of the Wizengamot could even guess that Harry could control Dementors (Harry and Dumbledore), then scaring them doesn’t work if they are primarily controlled by expectations. Harry simply ignores this possibility in the actions he took against the Dementor. So, some possibilities for the missed contingency are: 1) even if the Dementor didn’t react Harry could claim a victory (walking up to a Demetor, saying "BOO", and surviving is impressive in and of itself), 2) Harry failed to consider all the alternatives in the heat of the moment, or 3) Less Wrong / Eliezer Yudkowsky didn’t want to have Harry kill off large numbers of the Wizengamot, which would have made Harry an immediate outlaw. There is also little reason to suspect that Harry’s attempt will work based on events so far. Yes, wordless, wandless magic does exist here and in canon but Harry has not been taught it, he has never personally exhibited accidental magic that we know of, and he has never practiced such techniques that we know of. Therefore, while the overall plan of controlling the Dementor is reasonable based on the known information and has contingency plans for alternate possibilities, the Dementor scare does not have substantial evidence that it should work. Also note that several commenters thought of using the Dementor but none thought of pushing it around. I judge that what actually happened was a mild abuse but the result was so ! #$%&* hilarious that it was well worth it – "still terrifying that poor Dementor" indeed!

So, overall, a great puzzle with mostly well-documented solutions, and, as always, a very good read.

… and Tracey Davis is going to blow a gasket when she hears that Hermione is officially sworn to Harry before she is … and if Harry and Hermione thought the Hogwarts rumor mill was bad before …

Amazing chapter! glad i found this story again, keep up the good work i can't wait for a update.

Also what will be the affect of having Hermione under s bond like that?

does that mean that she will have to be subservient to harry at all times?

will it affect her magic in any way when casting spells to defend harry?

will at any time he find out that ? (I think Lucius) is behind it?

did he actually memory charm his son or was his son Knocked out is all?

Finally what was with the ghostlike being that talked to hermione?

Will be waiting to see what comes of the next chapter have a good time and enjoy life.

This review is late and probably many have already said that, but the chapter wasn’t anticlimactic. The reasoning was solid, the consistency of the chapter was satisfying, the timing was right, the comedic relief was nice (and, at least for me, needed) and there was an element of surprise.

Also, I don’t think we simply neglected obvious solutions because they were obvious. Well, not only because of that! (I’m guilty of doing it on too many an occasion to pretend otherwise) For example, Harry and Hermione’s marriage. It had great advantages (Harry being able to interfere, as it would be his fiancée, rather than a simple friend, involved and of course, the obvious one, Hermione becoming part of the house of Potter) but no glaring disadvantages (They could date other people while married, they could divorce and I don’t think being the first wife of the boy who lived would ruin her reputation).

In universe, it could be (part) of a perfect plan; no apparent reason to abandon it. As readers though, we were aware of the countless future possibilities that would be ruined if we married these two off.

Making Hermione Harry's vassal was a great (and unexpected) move. It can be used to invoke a dramatic effect in many interesting ways- I already can’t wait to see how you will use it! It also feels more in character for them; a marriage could possibly make them awkward, but this is closer to the relationship they already had.

On a completely unrelated note, does Harry read literature?

Well, that's quite an "unexpected" face of the wizarding world, maybe different from JKR's.

I'd say that such travesties can be ended only by blood. Blood and fire. Fell free to call me racist or dursleyish.

My logic is: what happened in the last chapter was illegal. Thus, the wizards are criminals. Criminals ought to be arrested. However, Wizards shall oppose such a thing, utilising violence. Thus, wizards are terrorists. Terrorists who refuse to surrender should be treated as hostile military force. Thus, wizards need to be slaughtered (of course, not all of them). Again, feel free to tell me that I've learned nothing from your story.

Harry now has only 100 galleons and 6 years before he has to pay Lucius 60000. And he still owes Draco 40 galleons.

With odds that bad, he cannot fail.

I'd love to see Harry's reaction if he were to find out about the department of mysteries...

Great chapter, I can't begin to imagine how they're going to be treated once back at school.

The dementor's line has to be the best part of this sequence so far.

Keep up the good work!

The most incredeble book I've ever read-though I can't actually think why I think so.

Harry has a minion! Now all he needs to do is vassalize Padma and he'll totally outclass Malfoys minions. Of course, for the ambitious- he;d be better off vassalizing Malfoy and getting Crabbe amd Goyle in the deal

To my knowledge this is the first thing that i've ever read that, once i finished the chapter i immediately scroll back up to the top of the page and re-read. Words cant describe just how full of win this chapter is.

Thank you sir, this is now without a doubt my favourite fanfic of all time.

Epic... epic is the word of which i assume that fits this chapter(81) the best. I read the hole book in the last two days an i think it is most likely the best story i ever read; not because of its own humer, which lets you burst out laughing, or the well drawn and komplex characters; what makes this story in my mind the best is that, when you read it, you don't have to think of possible alternative actions because the hero isn't stupid, what saves you from the annoying question: Why did the hero act stupid like that. So please keep up the amazing work an take all the time you need to ensure the incredible high level of your work.

I'm a huge fan of the fic, but I don't like the editorializing tone that the narrator's voice has taken in the Taboo Tradeoffs chapters. "This is the truth of the Wizengamot...Some of them are stupid." In earlier chapters, you let Harry or Quirrell do most of the work of calling people stupid, and let the narrator keep a more neutral tone. Maybe I'm just remembering things fondly now, but I got the impression that you used to be less abusive of your villains outside of the quotation marks.

I'm immensely depressed that there are only three chapters until another break... That void will be hard to fill.

This has been the most enjoyable fanfic that I have ever laid eyes on. Not only is this AU story well-rounded, it makes the reader think. Never before have I been made to look up words or theories from a fanfic (THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU). Harry offers fresh (in other words, funny) insight into the wizarding world (why DO they play with a snitch?), Hermione is a solid three-dimesional character, and Draco actually has a personality besides the whole richboywhoisthesemianti-hero. Draco has got to be my favorite character in this fic. He is manipulative, but is inexperianced enough to be manipulated. He is also not the little perfect boy that you'll find in many other fanfics, but neither is he the canon crybaby. I mean really, what could be better?

This fanfic is one of the best out there. Seriously, it is. So for those people who are reading the comments to see if this fic is good enough to read, READ IT! It is so worth it. And for the author, thank you so much for comming up with this awesome idea and then sharing it with all of us. is a better place for it.

-bella-farfallina

'Make him go away' oh wow :D

Surely Dumbledore & co can now deduce that Harry rescued Bellatrix: they know that Dementors are scared of him; they know that Bellatrix was rescued by someone using Muggle technology; they probably can figure out that Harry's special transmutation technique lets him cut through walls. In fact *anybody* can probably deduce that Bellatrix was rescued by the Muggle-raised boy who is impervious to Dementors; the bit about cutting through walls is mere technique.

I don't know whether Lucius knows about Bellatrix's escape, but if so I'm surprised that he isn't a bit more polite.

You are a brilliant author, a genius. I'm saying this not for your actual knowledge which can all be learned or your rationality, but rather the way you portray it so efficiently in the Harry Potter universe. I truly enjoyed seeing some of the greatest references to works that are rather famous in an educated community. One of which was the obvious Ender's Game reference where Ender/Harry teach how one fights in zero-gravity.

Your explanations of logical fallacies and human psychology is remarkably clear and simple to understand. I, personally, tend more towards the fields of mathematics and I have also tried changing my entire mode of thinking into complete and subconscious belief of quantum mechanics. However, I have found that much more difficult than relativity.

I would appreciate more references to the other fields of science, but I must say that you are the xkcd of fanfiction. I truly appreciate your work and your writing. Please continue updating frequently and continue writing a remarkable story.

Another thought before I finish, this story has had me chuckling for good long hours and I enjoyed reading the most recent line, "Make him go away."

Thank you for all your work.

each of your chapters are leaving me breathless. I am not one of those, who like to speculate what comes next, as I like to let myself surprised, and you managed it again! good thing, I am curretnly busy at my job , so each weék is flying fast, and i look forward to next tuesday!

I just re-read the whole story because FFnet doesn't like sending me updates for this story. I'm really enjoying this story, and your doing an awesome job so please keep up the good work. This almost had me fall out of my chair at times from laughing to hard. Also I'm noticing a trend. Its that the aftermath scenes when everyone is sitting around and thinking about what just happened, those are freaking hilarious. Especially when they are trying to figure out what Harry's done this time. Its early and I normally try to point out flaws, typos, or other things which bring a good story down so that this is a constructive review. But either I am to tired to remember if I saw any, I read to fast to notice, or there weren't any.

BOO!

MWA HA HA

The forthcoming chapters of the Taboo Tradeoffs story arc will contain Harry starting a bank using the 100 Galleons that he buried in his backyard during chapter 36 multiplied using the gold and silver trick from chapter 4.

Using 2012 exchange rates (I don't have 1990s info at hand) one gold galleon is worth about 161$, while seventeen sickles is 88$ or so. So each cycle of galleons - raw gold - muggle money - raw silver - sickles - galleons should increase his wealth by 175% or so which, after some ciphering, says that he only needs to do that cycle 11 or 12 times without getting stopped before he's all paid off.

Two Constants:

10:40pm, right on schedule, though Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres.

At Harry's command the showdy form raised its hood. Harry's theory had been good, but it was still just a theory. A theory which quickly disolved into confusion. The look that spread across the boy's face made the showdy form laugh out, which sounded like so many files on a blackboard. The laughter of the Dementor hurt to hear.

"That's Right, I am the pure essence of the IRS! Now that I am know , for you there will be no return."

Good fic. I can't wait until you reveal Hermione's true heritage. I caught that slip at the Christmas party and I'm very sure it'll be significant later. Who exactly was Hermione's grandmother who was murdered during Grindlewald's reign? Most intriguing.

Hey Wow this is a good story but the problem with rationallity is that unless new factors are aded the paths of rationality become narower, more tangled but condenced. some new playeres would give it a good wave of good things ut alas! you have to finish this ark first before even contemplating because as of this chapter it is not time yet to add a certian snake in a certian bathroom.

Remeber Harry too many words are the banes of morality! your morality can be in color but youmust make a line! and have a system of review that will alow him to change his line if he decides to change a stance. its the only way to stay sane in a mad, mad, world.

also im curious I had literature class today and we went over the white mans burden.

and Harry... semms to might possibly have a case of of the guys abscense of collor who has a burden of a sort when he has no collors.

quite possibly

a smidgh

a bit

his whole talk about a utopia (witch is great! utopia is a nice... thought (i want italics!) )

while heartwarming and his disregard for the natural order and rejection of something of reality or at least a hope of rejecting that part of reality was very cute and worryingsome

Well that was a sensibly vast chunk of my life gone

Ive done almost nothing but read this for the last three days

I find it fantastic to read a fanfic that isnt just drivle.

its brilliant

E

Bwahahahaha!

This is how a real Dark Lord comes to power. Not through insanity or selfishness but through genius, ambition and the failings of those around him.

I don't know why I doubted you I didn't actually but there was always a slight doubt he decided to dispose of a valuable character

Not just the fact that you saved her but the fact that you did it in a cool manner

Because your story is written so well I felt more emotionally then I normally would when unpleasantness happens to a character and so yes for free four days in between your updates I was in despair guess I'm being silly but the problem is you're so good at writing it sucked me in

if I knew what I knew now I would have read the last few chapters in one sitting I would have waited for the updates before reading the blok

mm I wonder what having a magical finance debt over you means

I think Harry Potter should start of by calling in every life debt of every scumbag ever and say cough up offer that scumbag over their need your money then point out Goldilocks

I wonder how much money they would decide the debt is worth could every magical person have some level of debt?

Can magical memory be reversed and Hermione ever be fixed or do you have to replace fake memory with more fake memory

So she's a servant now not an equal ( wife)

a knowing new authors note you have expressed dislike at the restrictions of marriage and how it changes together and it's actually quite old-fashioned but I'd rather be married than a slave even if Harry never enforced it it will always be hanging their

Could they have got married on the spot I don't believe no ?

Yes they are to young but in the future I can see them becoming very much a couple no other could compete

One last thing I am convinced the headmaster could have stopped this

back in time wiped Hermione's brain before interviewed? and so on he could have easily have invented a brilliant alibi Snape wiped the minds of 50 people so we could have clearly made them believe they had a lesson or something an entire a class as witnesses

quick ways for Harry Potter to get rich

use the defence professor to rob

uses time Turner and win the lottery and win the lottery

uses invisibility cloak and Rob everywhere

blackmail the secret of magic threatened to reveal it to the world as a doomsday weapon and less magical Britain does precisely as you say

) last resort)

Still think you should be paid for writing this as soon as I will a lottery you will certainly be graciously compensated

Dumbledore's still got the Philosopher's stone... why doesn't he just make a load of gold, give it to the goblins to make galleons and pay of the debt?

I look forward to seeing how you solve this problem :). I'm really enjoying this story!

Fantastic! I had thought of the idea of a blood debt (but not specifically w.r.t. Lucius), rather I figured he would call it due on Wizarding britain for saving them from Voldemort and demand their vote on this one case. Although I can't say I would have terribly minded his other option...

Now I am curious though, with Dumbledore's sapphire eyes locked upon Potter, I wonder what is going through the headmaster's mind. I think he now knows (or rather assumes because the proof is circumstantial) that Harry was directly involved in the break-out. Or at the very least has had additional interactions with Dementors since January.

I am looking forward to Tuesday with great anticipation :)

Very well indeed!

I've just finished reading up to the current chapter - I am completely and utterly hooked. Can't wait for the next update, thank you!

I had in my mind a very detailed review, but then Work Designer already wrote almost all I wanted to say.

I love this fanfic, some Badass moments (the Patronus 2.0!) are even better than the original novels (and we all hate Umbridge).

[SPOILER]

One could suspect that Dumbledore set up Hermione, since now Harry is even more the good side, and without money he is much less dangerous.

I don't think that is what happened, but maybe Harry could be brought to suspect him.

I'm also curious to see how Lesswrong will manage the option that "Everybody throws money at Harry" (he is not going to ignore or handwave it, I suppose)

Thank you. Truly. I actually was going a little bit insane when I reached Chapter 80 and it left off at that point, I couldn't believe the curveball you tossed. Hermione was a character I considered nigh untouchable in that sense, and to see it all so quickly go to hell was powerful and disturbing.

The challenge you gave us at the end was also inspiring, but I'm happy to say that I was much, much happier with your version than with mine. It is a sheer art (and perhaps a science) to mix humour, darkness, and humanity so beautifully together. Thanks again for this amazing fic, and as always, I look forwards to more!

Wow. I read the last chapter in public on my iPod and I'm pretty sure people were staring at me strangely because of the odd whimpering noises I was making. I just wanted to reach in and hug Hermione. That or punch Lucius Malfoy. I think I'm far more emotionally caught up in this story than I was the original books.

A very satisfying conclusion (or perhaps not quite yet), all things considered.

I have a question, though. Would the debt still stand after Harry (hypothetically) found the real culprit?

Because if that's the case, then he's just bought himself a lot of valuable time with money he can get back soon after.

I'm guessing Quirrel-mort has the best motive to have launched the plot. He deals with Harry's two strongest tethers to the light side of the force in one fell swoop. Then Q will be free to corrupt and groom him with big obstacles out of the way. Can't wait to see what happens back at the station with Quirrel.

Thanks for the great fanfiction.

Interesting... You mention Dumbledore's eyes being lock on Harry, while also mentioning the alarming list the more powerful wizards were putting together.

I see the clues to the Azkaban breakout are all available now. A person outside the ministry who is now known to be able to control of Dementors, a two seated broom containing one person who was powerful enough to beat an Auror yet some how was expect to be killed and subsequently never found by a woman who barely had any magics left, which was assumed only because nobody appeared from the disillusion charms... however the same person that can scare Dementors has the cloak of invisibility who is also known to associate with, with of all people, a Defense professor (whom are always suspect), and that stubborn inability to contact this person until after the events were known.

Look forward to the next chapters...

As for those people commenting on how they feel about you from your Author's notes. They be back reading every week you put something out.

Awesome update.

I was really concerned about Hermione becoming Draco's slave. I guess being Harry's vassal is a slightly better situation.

I really don't want to be Lucius right now. He just kept on escalating and lost. Now, he's wondering about why the hell is Harry-Mort doing so much to protect Hermione, a mudblood. He's also wondering if he lost the opportunity to get Hermione's service, if pure competence was the only reason Voldermort would want anyone by their side.

I really wish now that you had not retro-actively changed that "You are the heir of Merlin" line that H&C had told Hermione. If she had blurted that out under veritaserum, half the wizengamot would have shat in their pants, but especially Lucius Malfoy.

I think when Dumbledore was preventing harry from getting his money, he was truly testing Harry's limit of heroism and Harry passed, with flying colours. There was someone for whom he would throw all caution to the wind. The fact that harry could hear the phoenix's voice so clearly should have been enough evidence that harry was good.

I can see several ways for harry to get the money. The Grangers are wealthy dentists. They can provide enough seed capital to Harry to do his arbitrage thingy, until the prices in the muggle and wizard world equalise.

Another reviewer brought out the possibility of the time turner being used in a lottery. That is easily the simplest way to do it. Though, I wonder if that would be tantamount to meddling with the privacy statute. Ideally someone had to win the lottery, why not a wizard?

Lesath will help harry if the lestranges, if they have any wealth left at all after all the lawsuits on them.

The longbottoms might help Harry a bit.

But the way that would advance the plot the most would be the removal of the philosopher's stone from its protection.

Also, to neutral observers and to Snape, the possibility that breaking out Bellatrix was the work of Harry has just increased exponentially. I think that is what the last line alludes to.

I still don't understand why Quirel spooked out the auror. it doesn't seem to serve any purpose.

One thing I love about this fanfic is that despite the first rule of fanfiction, there were just some characters in the fic that you wanted to be beaten badly by the protagonist. Snape's putdown and this one of Umbridge are perfect. They are something that would gladden the heart of every HP fan, not just HPMOR fan.

This chapter made me laugh evily quite a few times, especially when he scared the dementor and threatened everyone with destroying Azkaban, still, why couldn't have McGonagall done a marriage vow, would that be so bad for the convoluted plot you already have going on? (still can't decide whether or not Quirrel has Voldi hidden up his sleeve) Also, in case you haven't noticed yet, I love this story with my soul. P.S. When you finish this story, could you please post some sort of bulleted/numbered list, sorted by chapter/arc that explains who the mystery people are? Such as whether or not the healer for bellatrix was real, the shade/angel figure obliviating Hermoine was a couple of chapters ago, etc. PLEASE?

Aw, poor little Dementor.

Mademise Morte

Okay Omake. Best Prank Ever. Harry has to have some dementors come to hogwarts or somewhere and be all mean and scary and I WILL MAKE THEM SUCK OUT YOUR SO... after this last dance. (proceeds to disco with dementors XD)

Boo! That was incredibly amusing. Confusing but very good chapter. (I can't help remembering Harry being told that he just has to let things GO sometimes, though. How he gets so determined and things spiral out of control. Hm...

I certainly didn't see it coming, but it's hard to believe nobody in the story world had realized the Malfoys owed Harry. By these standards there are many others in debt, too.

So for his failure to shut up and multiply, Harry's going to pay an even higher price than the torture and death of a small girl? This is the most heinous cliffhanger yet. And you've given us a week to stew on it. You're a cruel, cruel man.

Firstly, thanks for writing the story, it might be the best fiction I read so far. :)

I think most people (including Harry) see the debt as a problem much worse than it actually is. I don't know what rights Lucius Malfoy has over Harry now but the moment someone solves the crime and finds out, that it wasn't Hermione who attempted to kill Draco or that her mind was influenced by a spell the debt is probably void. If it isn't then Malfoy could also still be blamed for his crimes under the Imperius curse.

trixt: I think you have a point there. There might be rules we don't know about yet, that prevent the use of a Patronus over long distances (not for delievering messages but for protecting people). Maybe they have to protect their caster too, since it's his thoughts that feed it, or a similar reason.

Or there are just laws preventing that and the Aurors, since they don't get bribed that way, are more inclined to find out who did that. The moment someone got bribed he has to hide the crime too because he doesn't want the official authorities to find out about him being bribed.

emanon: I don't think Hermione actually belongs to Harry (maybe on paper but Harry doesn't care, at least outside of official affairs) and I guess he can release her whenever he wants so he just keeps her safe for now until the someone finds out what actually happened and that Hermione is proven innocent of the crime.

What I'd really like to know now is what the consequences of the debt to Malfoy are. It probably doesn't matter what happens after Harry graduates (because if he keeps increasing his strength and power at this speed he'll probably be powerful enough to not care about the law. Or he invents something and makes a fortune.

I guess the story will kind of turn into a detective-ish-story for the next few chapters or it was in fact a perfect crime and can't be solved. If Quirrell was behind it then it probably was.

I wanna know how the story continues :D

Phsheeeeeww this story is intense. I absolutely want to know what happened with Draco, Hermione, and the Blood-Chilling curse. I'm really not sure how to praise you. You are an excellent author and clearly a highly intelligent person. I'm sure you get this question quite often, but have you ever thought of writing your own original stories? Have you already done so? Of course, if you have, I would love to know what they were.

You make me want to keep reading, and you make me use my brain. Two higher compliments I cannot imagine.

There was a lot of foreshadowing in earlier chapters about Hermione being her own person, and not a thing belonging to Harry and his reputation...and yet here we are. There was also a line about people growing up after being placed in grown-up situations. I think we can say this now applies to Hermione. How will she deal with it? After all, they didn't really win: Harry is in debt to Malfoy and Hermione's character has been destroyed in the public. I hope there is some righteous justice and payback soon, as well as clearing her name. Hermione is too great a character to be a "thing."

If Harry has learned anything, it's that the Wizengamot in self-serving, corrupt, cruel, and cares not for the torturing of children. It was just another day in the office for them. Dumbledore swore last chapter that their world was not so far lost as to condemn children to Azkaban, but the mob did gleefully. They can't be reasoned with. They can't be educated. If Harry is going to make good on his plans to revolutionize the wizarding world, then Lucius Malfoy, and all others like him, need to die. It's just that simple.

"They believe in the Deathly Hallows, but they also believe that Merlin fought the dread Totoro and imprisoned the Ree."

Somewhere without air-ducts, I hope? _

Just wanted to say that I really liked this chapter. Pt 1 was kind of boring, but it's really picked up since then.

this is an amazing, gripping twisty story that has cost me lots of sleep to read. I have hardly any guesses as to how things will turn out in a given chapter and fewer still are correct that tends to be... rather rare in my readings. Even more than that none of the major characters have the idiot ball dropped on them for the sake of plot; they may do things which are in retrospect stupid but none of the actions are outright stupid and all are believable and seem characteristic. I love all the references to science, psychology, and rationality, I love that this is the only time a fic has made me learn and investigate these psychological incidences and studies I didn't already know about. You have crated a compelling story with characters whom I deeply care about.

To be honest, I'm not sure how Hermione making an Unbreakable Bond to Harry saves her from Azkaban, but it sure was a dramatic plot twist!

Keep up the good work, and update soon!

Outstanding as always.

Merlin [...] imprisoned the Ree

I often miss references in this fic (and I'm frequently told *my* references are obscure) but: was that a reference to "Nobody Dies"? *_*

thing that came to me some days ago:

if anyone competent can send messaging patronus to a prisoner in Azkaban (we've seen Minerva's cat there) I guess it means any prisoner can be guarded from dementors effects with a little cost.

Anna

It likely has to do with the fact that he's going Papa Bear on Harry.

I don't understand why L. Malfoy was so hell-bent on Hermoine going to Azkaban. So much so that he's willing to stand up to what he believes is Voldemort, over the (albiet only suspected) protests of Draco. Is it really only appearances he cares for? If so does he not consider the aftermath of defying Voldemort? What is his gameplan now that he has no leader? Not Dumbledore, not Voldemort, nor any other strong magical force? He is throwing everything away for... what?

"That's the wrong answer, you know, said Slytherin. Seriously."

On the other hand, it worked.

Good chapter, despite how much Harry's plans I'd predicted or read predicted by others.

Fuck. Yeah.

This chapter was everything I'd hoped for, and so much more! Keep up the awesome! _

"A riddle, Lord Malfoy!" the Boy-Who-Lived shouted across the Most Ancient Hall.

"Not another one," thought Lord Malfoy...

You are indeed very talented to get a story so far as you have today, but this chapter felt... I don't know... weird somehow. Harry thinking about "player characters" and arguing with his "Slytherin" side. Don't get me wrong - it was very well done, but it didn't feel like a "Methods of Rationality" chapter.

/D.R.

The phrase "willing suspension of disbelief," so often used in theater, comes to mind... it always worries me when people bring it up in real life. But I love Professor McGonagall's line to Lucius Malfoy, I am rather worried about what exactly Lucius can claim while Harry is so severely in debt to him, and the image of Harry yelling "BOO!" made me want to laugh hysterically and at the same time be completely unable to fulfill that want... can't wait until this updates again!

Well it looks like Hermione just became Harry's man... or woman in this case.

- and as Harry did that, he flung his hands up and shouted "BOO!"

The void retreated sharply away from Harry until it came up against the dark stone behind.

In the hall there was a deathly silence.

Harry turned his back on the empty void, raised his middle fingers to the sky, and shouted "Top that Voldemort!"

Very nice.

Love the Imperius debts, love the internal dialogue, love the monetary demand (a talented, respected, brilliant, Occlumens rationalist chosen one hero with a Time Turner, an Invisibility Cloak, and a fortune would have been a bit much.)I am appreciative that they did not get married, just because that's what would have been expected at that point.

"A riddle for you, Lord Malfoy..."

I'm trying to model Lucius Malfoy, and my brain is exploding. Poor guy. Well, not really.

I also like that this is very much of a mixed victory for Harry. He makes a lot of enemies, loses all his money, openly tells the entire world that he will throw away the game to protect Hermione, and still fails to clear her name - they're both going to be pariahs back at school. Helps a little bit with the Mary-Sueishness.

Speaking of which, Harry is being a very bad rationalist. He's assigning a negligible probability to Hermione being guilty - refusing to even consider it - and, while from the reader's perspective this is justified, based on the information Harry has, he's wrong to assign "I underestimated Hermione and have never seen her angry" a probability less than 5-10%. I hope someone calls him on this. Quirrell probably will. And he's making it blatantly, flagrantly obvious that Hermione is his highest priority, which gives anyone who wants to get to Harry an incentive to go after her. (And acausally making the events of the last few chapters more probable, unless I'm very confused about the things on your LessWrong website).

You use the phrase "It was simply a brute fact that it was..." twice in the last two chapters. I suggest you get rid of the first one, which seems awkward, and keep the second one, which works.

Wow, another week until the next chapter? I'd give you the $1.6 million if I had it, but this delayed schedule is just agonizing. I hope this means you will have the next chapter ready by the time we get to 84?

Although I suppose with three girlfriends and a job saving the world,it's a miracle you write this at all.

Also, as one of the people who commented that your fic had affected my academic success - don't feel bad about that. Really. It's not your fault that you're a fantastic writer. And you are responsible for my currently failing physics, but you're also the reason I'm taking physics in the first place -I hated science until I read this fic and realized that there's a lot more to it than memorizing vocabulary. Now I'm taking biology, biochemistry, and physics at my school (making up for lost time), and once I drag that physics grade up I'll be acing all of them. So your fic, despite its addictiveness, has been a net boost to my academic performance and you shouldn't feel guilty about your cliffhangers.

That was interesting, I enjoyed it, but it was extremely speechy. I'm trying to imagine a ten year old boy taking center stage in a murder trial in the muggle world without having some bailiff remove him. In this case, I suppose Dumbledore might have stopped an auror from hitting Harry with a sit-down-and-shut-up spell; but then again, he might not. But it was cleverly written.

I'm left wondering how Harry and Hermione can possibly go back to ordinary classes, ordinary life, again. That would be like Tom Brown going back to the Rugby School after threatening the PM and Lord Flashman in a session of Parliament — if the PM also ran Rugby School and Lord Flashman was the richest man in Great Britain. With all three generals involved in the attempted murder case, Quirrell's army games are suddenly far less academic. Solving the mystery of who programmed Hermione, to me, becomes of paramount importance.

I'm also wondering how long I'll live if I start referring to my wife as my primary consort.

I'm happy about the continuing updates! And I like this latest story arc: things had been getting much too easy for Harry. _

Why does Harry have to empty his trust vault? Write a note for 100,000 galleons and use his 40,000 to do his gold to silver switch trick. Or use his gold in some other way. I assume the ancient Potter vaults don't exist in this fic as McGonagall didn't mention them in Chapter 4.

Amazing. Wonderful chapter.

My guess is that Harry will get in contact with that nice goblin he met in Gringots, then spend a few hours/days tranfiguring a solid lump of gold for him to smelt into galleons. Though perhaps his magic isn't quite strong enough for that yet. It would be good to see how strong it was though - 10kg/hour?

I reached the end of the chapter. Then I screamed "NOOOO!" because I wanted to read more. My neighbour runs to my door and asks what happened. I explained to him that I realised that I have to wait for the next chapter of this epic tale, and the realisation had made me scream in anguish. He looked at me for a while, shook his head disbelievingly, and finally asked "Fanfiction or manga...?" and I sob "fanfiction..." he laughs and tells me to review the awesome author. So here I am, writing a review to tell you that you are awesome. Thank you for being awesome.

Dear Eliezer:

It occurred to me this morning while thinking over chapter 81... why are there not _T-SHIRTS_ for this fanfiction yet? You want to make a little money for yourself, and some for the Singularity Institute; fans want to buy HP&tMoR merch; you can't market the work itself, as per Ms. Rowling's wishes, but surely T-shirts based off various Totally Awesome snippets of it would be okay?

Some examples of the sort of thing I'm thinking of follow. (Yours for the taking if you want.) For all of these, [BLOCK] is a block of text, in whatever slightly-impressive font looks best, center-aligned on each line, saying

Harry Potter and

the Methods of

Rationality

-

1), my initial inspiration:

FRONT:

left - an iconic or stick-figure Harry, very simplified, perhaps Potter Puppet Pals style - round head a la Charlie Brown, glasses rims with no eyes showing, lightning bolt, jagged fringe of hair - black trapezoidal robe, stick arms upraised, word-balloon -( BOO! )

right - an iconic Dementor, cloak with ragged edges, hood with black hole facing away from Harry, perhaps with raised ragged-edged arms, three short parallel lines coming from its back indicating it's fleeing

bottom - a slightly ragged Gothic font, in all small caps (a la Pratchett's Death; no reason not to borrow from the best), saying MAKE HIM GO AWAY (or possibly MAKE HIM GO AWAAAAAY)

BACK:

top - in an italic font, "...do come back here, Harry, you're still terrifying that poor Dementor."

bottom - [BLOCK]

the rest of these are in whatever font seems best; I'm visualizing italic but who knows what will look good

2) FRONT:

"Draco Malfoy said in front of his father that he wanted to be sorted into Gryffindor! Joking around isn't enough to do that! ... What part of 'get fitted for robes' sounded to you like 'please cast a Confundus Charm on the entire universe!', Harry?"

BACK: [BLOCK]

3) FRONT:

(the defining quote for the TvTropes page)

"You turned into a cat! A SMALL cat! You violated Conservation of Energy! That's not just an arbitrary rule, it's implied by the form of the quantum Hamiltonian! Rejecting it destroys unitarity and then you get FTL signaling! And cats are COMPLICATED! A human mind can't just visualize a whole cat's anatomy and, and all the cat biochemistry, and what about the neurology? How can you go on thinking using a cat-sized brain?" "...Magic, Harry." "Magic isn't enough to do that! You'd have to be a GOD!"

(in rather small print, of course)

BACK: [BLOCK]

4) FRONT:

"When you walk past a bookstore you haven't visited before, you have to go in and look around. That's the family rule." "That is the most Ravenclaw thing I have ever heard, Harry!" "What?"

BACK:

top - "You can never have enough books" - Potter-Evans-Verres family motto

bottom - [BLOCK]

5) FRONT (definitely italics for this one):

"Don't Sort me yet! I have questions I need to ask you! Have I ever been Obliviated? Did you Sort the Dark Lord when he was a child and can you tell me about his weaknesses? Can you tell me why I got the brother wand to the Dark Lord's? Is the Dark Lord's ghost bound to my scar and is that why I get so angry sometimes? Those are the most important questions, but if you've got another moment can you tell me anything about how to rediscover the lost magics that created you?" "...Oh, dear."

BACK: [BLOCK]

6) FRONT:

top - iconic picture of the Sorting Hat, with its mouth/rip wide open, tip tilted towards the left, three small speed-lines attached to its left side indicating it's fleeing across the shirt left to right

bottom - The Sorting Hat screamed, an awful high-pitched sound that echoed through the Great Hall and caused most of the students to clap their hands over their ears. With a desperate yowl, it leapt off Harry Potter's head and bounded across the floor, pushing itself along with its brim, and made it halfway to the Head Table before it exploded.

BACK: [BLOCK]

(similarly, front: text, back: [BLOCK])

7) "Potter? What are you doing in this class?" "Draco? What are _you_ doing in oh my god you have _minions_!"

8) FRONT:

"The Hungarian Horntail is taller than a dozen men! It breathes fire so quickly and so accurately that it can melt a Snitch in midflight! One Killing Curse will bring it down! ... The Hungarian Horntail is taller than a dozen men! It breathes fire so quickly and so accurately that it can melt a Snitch in midflight! One Killing Curse will bring it down."

BACK:

top - "There is no defense without offense! There is no defense without fighting! This reality is deemed too harsh for eleven-year-olds by the fat, overpaid, Auror-guarded politicians who mandated your curriculum. To the abyss with those fools! You are here for the class that has been taught at Hogwarts for eight hundred years! Welcome to your first year of Battle Magic!"

bottom - [BLOCK]

9) FRONT:

(in a slightly shaky font) DO NOT MESS WITH TIME

BACK:

top - To the best of Harry's knowledge, that had been the scariest experimental result in the entire history of science.

bottom - [BLOCK]

10) "Oh, indeed, in very deed, this is my punishment if ever there was one! Of COURSE you're in here blackmailing me to save your fellow students, not to save yourself! I can't imagine why I would have thought otherwise!" Dumbledore was now laughing even harder. He pounded his fist on the desk three times.

11) And from that day onward, no matter what Hermione tried to tell anyone, it would be an accepted legend of Hogwarts that Harry Potter could make absolutely anything happen by snapping his fingers.

12) FRONT:

"I've decided it's not fair if mysterious old wizards give some people a chance to be heroes and not others, and also I've read history books and there aren't nearly enough girl heroes in them. So I thought I'd just drop by and see if you wanted to be a hero and why are you glowing like that?"

BACK:

top - "That reminds me, Dumbledore refused to be my mysterious old wizard, is there someplace I can write to get another one?"

bottom - [BLOCK]

13) Doomed.

They were all doomed, in Susan Bones's opinion.

Auntie sometimes told stories which started out like this, people doing something they knew was stupid, and the stories usually ended with someone being doomed all over the floor and all over the walls and getting on Auntie's shoes.

14) "You want to know my plot? _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." "Huh... I don't think I believe you, that doesn't sound cunning enough to be really it -" "That's what he wants you to think."

-

Some of these are better than others, of course, but I've only tapped the smallest part of the goldmine of T-shirt quotes that make up this fanfic. Also, asking readers what THEY want to see on a T-shirt from it, that would be characteristic of it rather than the original books, seems like an action highly likely to produce lots of responses...

In any case, something for you to think about, if you find yourself with too much spare time anytime in the immediate future!

-Dave DeLaney

Awesome chapter :)

Continue,

Z.

So all might become well again. (Sorry for my english.)

They held this Wizengamot without mentioning Quirrel. Does this mean, that they are convinced of his innocence in this matter? But it's probably too much to hope, that they waited with the Wizengamot till all the investigators were satisfied with their results.

And Draco will soon know that one can get minions even without making arrangements shortly after your birth.

I wonder who of the two has the better minions.

Thank you for the fanfiction

I just recently found this story, and I find it strangely fascinating. I can't wait to read more. Keep being awesome!

Doug: well, the first HP fact would still be "When Harry Potter Evans-Verres stares down Death, Death blinks"

An excellent, excellent chapter.

I didn't realize until reading the author's note that the reviewers had any influence at ALL on the story, and the fact that if people didn't guess right would have changed the story filled me with a sort of terror. Or very least, unhappiness. One of the things I like in a good story is for unexpected (but still perfectly logical and well set up) events to occur. It shouldn't fall on the reader to pick up on things and GUESS. I don't generally read the reviews because I don't WANT to know people's guesses, because if they are right they lessen the impact. In short, the responsibility for the characters fate should stay with the author, not be thrown onto the readers, especially in something THIS intricate.

this was great. i had to stop readin several times durin this chapter cause it had me so guessin harry is going to take the gold he burried in his back yard and change it for silver and take it to the goblins and make more gold off it and repeat the process untill he has lucy paid off?

Fantastic. These updates are wonderful.

The time and focus of these chapters is showing, the writing is very good.

I found the phrase "and start snapping my fingers" to clunk a little. This chapter skillfully walks the line between melodrama and drama, and that part puts a toe over said line. I know it has been set up by Harry's omnipotent finger-snap, but still.

My thought: Harry should have summoned the phoenix to his shoulder, if he could have done so without immediately going to Azkaban. It would have given weight to his threat, and made him appear a crusader rather than an angry, short Dark Lord.

BOO! -hilarious Monsieur...hilarious!

Nice chapter, hope to see more updates soon!

I'm very interested in seeing how this affects Harry's and especially Hermione's personality long term. After all, she was first essentially mind-controlled into attacking Draco, then put into a holding cell by the police, then had the highest authority in the country condemn her to essentially 'death' (she wouldn't survive long in Azkaban), had Albus Dumbledore tell her to her face that her life is NOT WORTH a hundred thousand galleons, had seen that Fawkes apparently AGREED with him, and lastly had Harry rescue her despite everything.

After seeing what the real world is like, she will either break completely (unlikely, given that this is a story), or finally shape up into a more rational/dark/Slytherin/etc. person. That would mean actually not trusting authority, not being satisfied with herself as she is now, learning the secret Patronus from Harry, and so on and so forth. It would be an interesting twist if she actually learned to HATE Dumbledore and the Wizengamot, it would be the most likely psychological response to what she experienced.

Harry should also be strongly affected, having the last vestiges of trust in Dumbledore and the Ministry as a whole shattered, coming face to face with people whose world-view he cannot accept.

Awesome chapter. I stand by my previous predictions as to who's responsible, and I revise the motive. Quirrill would have known of all the cards Harry played during the trial, and intended to:

A) Test Harry's irrational (as he sees it) attachment to Hermione (Harry basically threw away his knight and bishop to save a pawn)

B) Remove Hermione as an obstacle (as he sees her) for Harry, by getting her bound to service to him.

So today, our rationalist Harry is not so rational at all.

SYSTEM ERROR!

You do realise that if I laugh out too loud in a public library I'm libel to get kicked out.

!

The author notes for this chapter at hpmor dot com are such lulz.

Thanks again.

Hmm, 100K is close to about 50/17ths of the Galleons in his vault.

"And do come back here, you're still terrifying that poor Dementor."

Professor McGonagall is kind of amazing. XD

I'm glad Harry didn't end up abruptly engaged to Harry - if anything could spell the final end from which there could be no return for H/Hr in this fic, I'm pretty sure that forced marriage would be it - but I'm not sure having her as House Potter's vassal is necessarily better, depending on how the terms of that work out.

"Only Harry Potter, for all the books he has read, is unable to understand; to the Boy-Who-Lived the life choices of the Lords and Ladies seem incomprehensible - not what a good person would do, nor yet an evil person either. Now which of the three is most wise?"

I had trouble parsing this till I realised it referred to the peers of the Wizengamot rather than Dark/Light Lords/Ladies; you might want to consider phrasing that more clearly.

Also, that last sentence is kind of annoyingly pseudo-profound; I think the paragraph would work better if you chopped it off and let the contrast stand on its own.

Such a good chapter, short but good, and made sweeter by the fact the next update is in five days. You're spoiling us EY, and I LOVE IT. The vassal (love that term, reminds me so much of Disgaea) thing with Hermione, Harry and now Draco should make things more interesting with that threeperson dynamic. So what's next? We better figure out what really happened right?

Oh, and I love the internal critic, inner ravenclaw, darkside and all these little nuaces of HJPEV's pysche. And I liked how you said McGonnigal wasn't a PC. HARRY IS STILL A 12YR OLD NERD (:

An excellent chapter.

Dumbledore seems to have abandoned his Obfuscating Stupidity for the meeting.

To all the people who worry about Hermione now being Harry's "servant": First, the word is "vassal", as in the relationship a medieval knight had to a lord; not something that reflects low-status on Hermione, but one that reflects high-status on Harry. Second, while Hermione almost certainly takes her obligations seriously enough to fulfill them to the letter if pressed (and even without any magical aspect there may be to the vow), she and Harry also both know that the minute he takes advantage of this, he loses their true contest once and for all. In fact, I fully expect her to goad him nearly apopleptic by calling him "milord" at some point, perhaps as soon as chapter 82 (but not before he deserves it).

And speaking of deserving it. Eliezer, milord, your exploits with the ladies may have you very impressed with yourself, and as far as we know you fully merit the swelled head (no pun intended). But it doesn't matter; preemptively scoffing at the old fuddy-duddies takes it one step too far, and makes you look like a two-bit braggart. You're better than that, if you just pause to think about it.

"They mark it as a clue.

They add it to the list.

This list is beginning to look somewhat alarming.

It doesn't particularly help when the boy yells "BOO!" at a Dementor and the decaying corpse presses itself flat against the opposite wall and its horrible ear-hurting voice rasps, "Make him go away.""

Uh oh...I think that's suppose to mean Amelia Bones or Dumbledore or others like that are coming to suspect Harry was behind the Azkaban breakout (since the Dementors had refused to talk about the intruder).

Either that or they think he is a Horcrux like in canon!

I loved it. Brilliant chapter and now I feel a little guilty for calling your previous chapter not up to the mark. The most interesting thing I found however was his hesitation and pain at parting with money that a few months ago he did not even realize he had. That is a remarkably apt phenomenon that occurs in real life. Life you can imagine parting with...living on without the things you value however..that is more painful. Fascinating indeed.

But now everything has changed. He's in debt to House Malfoy and that will definitely change his relationship with Draco. Not to mention Hermione permanently in service to him. I cant wait to read the aftermath.

Keep writing!

I shrieked with laughter most of the way through this chapter. Then I read it again backward from bottom to top and shrieked with laughter some more. Oh, Harry. 3 Oh, McGonagall. 3 Oh, helpless Dementor in over its abstract metaphorical head. 3 Oh, Harry's internal dialogue. 3 I have a lot of hearts right now.

Well this may not reflect well on Harry in the future, in fact i can see a number of problems and rumors that could spring up from this, but at least the goal was achieved. Hermione is not going to get eaten by Dementors today, although if he HAD go to Azkaban, it would have been interesting to see if he could slowly kill off all the Dementors there without killing himself.

Doing that though may have just painted a bigger target on his back than there is now. It all depends on public reaction to a child who scared death itself.

Wonderful chapter, thanks.

The by-play between Malfoy and Harry and Dumbledore had me guessing and on the edge of my seat. That is a hefty debt to owe Malfoy by graduation time.

Is it wrong that I consider the most entertaining part of this chapter to be Fawkes giving Dumbledore the dope-slap?

Rufus Shinra

Lol yeah, Harry is getting to be a serious badass. But I still don't think the author is going to make Harry into some kind of wizard Chuck Norris and have people say those kinds of funny tall tales about him. That would just be cheesy and kind of jumping the shark, lol.

Make him go away.

Very good, very good.

So, it seems like the unnamed characters that are observing Harry are going to suspect that he is actually Mr. Voldemort. Especially since the big bad was able to control the dementors during the previous war.

I wonder if that was the real reason that the old man did not want Harry to speak up.

All in all a marvellous chapter, though the solutions were far less surprising and convoluted than most expected (indeed the blood debt part of it was guessed by me and many others).

Also, this paragraph ""Enough, Mr. Potter," said Professor McGonagall. "We shall be late for afternoon Transfiguration as it is. And do come back here, you're still terrifying that poor Dementor." She turned to the Aurors. "Mr. Kleiner, if you would!" had me laughing my ass off, almost literyally, for over a minute.

Loved it.

Good bit, though a bit of a hodgepodge. I presume the real culprit will be found, but that doesn't necessarily counter the debt - the Wizengamot would have to agree, and the truth could be found out in a way that leaves little actual proof, even aside issues of Wizengamot's fairness. I'll be disappointed if paying the debt turns out to be too arduous though, but of course depending on the methods chosen there may be side effects. (One way would be for Draco to accept a counterdebt, having been convinced of the truth of the matter and seeing that being on good terms with Harry is still of value. Assuming Draco will return, which is sadly not a given.)

Merely spooking the Dementor was a good twist on the common (mine included) anticipation of it ending up destroyed. The telling of the incident was cleverly arranged not to give out too much new information on how they actually work. Harry's theory of them operating on the expectations of others works as an explanation; as the animal Patronuses imperfectly shield the Wizengamot from the Dementor, thus they shield the Dementor from their expectations, leaving Harry's dominant. (Also, one might argue that the Dementor shirking from Harry was wholly unexpected to almost everyone present, thus they didn't really have sufficiently direct active expectations on that particular thing either way. But this is an unnecessary side hypothesis.) The Dementor may as well still have also some internal intelligence and self preservation instincts though, as has been hypothesised especially on the grounds of them all refusing co-operation with the Azkaban guards earlier.

In any case, now the expectations of many will actually support Dementors fleeing from Harry, which might come in handy if they at least partially work off of those ;) (Also may extend to him being able to pretty confidently control them, as Roibeard said.)

"They believe in the Deathly Hallows, but they also believe that Merlin fought the dread Totoro and imprisoned the Ree."

No... sorry, but no. It's simply impossible, no matter how powerful Merlin was, that he managed to imprison the Ree. That, Sir, is way beyond unbelievable... XDDDDDDDDDDDD

Anyway, great chapter, as usual, and Harry's badassery just got more publicized today. When could we expect the "Harry Potter facts" to become a meme in the wizarding world?

For Dumbledore to initially turn down Lucius Malfoy's offer.. does being in his debt confer Harry's guardianship upon Lucius? We know his adoptive parents aren't seen to have any rights by the magical world. In that context, Dumbledore believes allowing Harry to go into debt to save Hermione is the equivalent of allowing him to go home for holidays - the mistake he said Gandalf made by allowing his key piece in the open where it could be captured. With that in mind, his response is sort of understandable. He expects Lucius to not allow Harry to stay at Hogwarts over the Summer, exposing Harry to Voldemort, as if exposing him to Lucius wasn't enough on its own.

Even more interesting that Lucius tried to refuse such a thing. There's been plenty of evidence already that he thinks Harry is Voldemort, but that he still intends to oppose him, which makes me wonder if the story about being under the Imperius curse isn't a lie after all.

Also interesting is that Harry has demonstrated his power to scare the dementors in front of the Wizengamot, who're going to spread rumours of what happened. By the time he needs to, just telling anyone present that he can control the dementors is likely to make them believe it enough to actually allow him to do so in their presence.

Huh, so everyone who claimed to have been under the Imperius curse during Voldemorts reign is indepted to house Potter. That gives Harry a LOT of additional options in the political scene. Come to think of it, why doesn't he just collect all the debts of people working together with the Malfoy's. It would probably be enough to pay Lucius of right away, plus it would mean he's paying Malfoy of with HIS OWN SIDES RESOURCES. Dumbledore is not going to be happy about Harry's threat, but they weren't on good terms anyway, so it doesn't really matter that much. Harry's last words to Lucius are pretty stupid. He already reveiled a lot about himself and his capabilities and resources to get Hermione out of this, he shouldn't be drawing additional attention to himself just to show of. The Wizengamot was already scared enough, it would have been better to let it rest. Professor Quirrel is NOT going to be happy if he hears about it. Hermione is going to be in trouble when she gets back to Hogwarts, as far as the other children know she was freed through political maneuvering, and is still guilty. It's going to be hard for Harry to convince Draco this was all just a plot by a third party, (If Lucius even sends him back to Hogwarts after this) but he'll probably manage. Draco has had some rationality training by now, and should be able to see that Hermiones behavior was uncharacteristic. And it's past time for Harry to teach Hermione how to destroy Dementors. She has the right mindset to do it with some training, and she's extremly vulnerable to them, as was demonstrated in this scene. It's ALSO past time for her to take some Slytherin lessons, she's beginning to fall behind.

Amazing.

"Dementors are death, and the Patronus works by thinking happy thoughts to make them go away"

*A human patronus crosses its arms behind him as he poses dramatically since Shit Just Got Real*

"They fear me cause I'm gonna live forever, you sons of bitches"

Erm, yeah, other than that, great chapter!

I... probably read too much other Harry Potter fanfiction, since I jumped straight to marriage contracts as well.

I am looking forward to seeing the butterflies that come from something as dramatic as this, though.

I wonder what it will do for all those rumors about him being a dark lord/eldritch thing from beyond?

Well, I mean, I'm actually pretty sure I know what will happen, I'm just wanting to see it in effect.

Great chapter as usual – I always thoroughly enjoy the depths (and humour) of your writing plus all the creative twists and turns the plot takes us on.

With regards to Harry getting out of the money debt situation; I remember in chapter four Harry was talking about the Goblin and muggle conversion rates between gold and silver. Clearly he’s put it out of his mind with everything else he’s got going on, but I thought that was a clever observation when Harry came up with it back then, and I figure it could help solve his debt problem here and now. True, now he needs a start-up capital (a decent weight of silver, by the sounds of it) to begin cycling his income, but I’d figure if he took this route that *someone* sympathetic (or at least not wanting Lord Malfoy to have influence over the rather powerful boy-who-lived) could loan him *something*.

Alternatively, didn’t McGonagall say in that same chapter that she thought part of Harry’s vault money was from bounties paid to the ‘destroyer of Voldemort’ but that she wasn’t sure they had all been collected yet? Perhaps it’s time to clarify that (although with Dumbledore holding the strings to the vault as legal guardian – which by the way, is Harry going to question that at some stage? – and him wanting to finance his own endeavours, I guess it is entirely possible they’ve all been gathered in Harry’s name already). If not, anyone rich enough to have previously offered one has obviously been sitting very quietly and thinking they’ve gotten out of fulfilling their payment. Still, bounty collection is certainly an interesting option – out of curiosity were there any international ones or were things all internal and insular to Britain? Since in the books Dumbledore had no compunction about using other people’s resources, I’d be willing to bet he had plans for Harry’s money involving the Order (and, inevitably, the greater good).

Also, now that Harry’s successfully set a precedent with claiming a ‘life-debt’ for freeing Lord Malfoy – couldn’t he theoretically claim the same off all the families that argued they were forced against their will to serve Voldemort? I’m sure there must be a list of names for the acquitted somewhere… and it’s not like they could say they didn’t owe a debt without raising questions about *why* they feel they don’t… huh, now there’s a possible source of income and leverage. :) Bwahaha! Paying for your evil deeds indeed.

I don’t think Dumbledore really understands how little sway his opinion actually has/had over Harry (and now, perhaps, Hermione? – this will be interesting to see). This might give him some idea. Or perhaps not; he’s good at missing signals, believing that everyone can be forgiven (and by extension expecting to be forgiven himself for all his decisions in the name of the ‘greater good’ thereby absolving him of blame/guilt) while being respected by (nearly) everyone.

Sorry Tracy, but I’d think threatening to destroy a prisons-worth of soul sucking death-demons, showing you have some grounds to back up that threat, sacrificing your family fortune and going way into debt makes you yesterday’s news in the ‘destined to be Harry’s one true love’ gossip ring at Hogwarts. You’ll have to destroy a few more minor gods in Harry’s name to beat that. Too bad you’ve already used up your soul on the first one right? :)

The Hermione’s debt situation, while an interesting solution, made me immediately draw parallels between Voldemort and Belladonna’s ‘relationship’. *Shudder* I wondered about the possibility of you using the popular Harry ‘marrying’ Hermione to save her (I thought it was amusing that you touched on it and Harry freaked out, nice one). Although I think I would have preferred the marriage solution over the servitude one, personally. Namely because I feel that the two of them work great as partners/equals (and didn’t they promise that they’d remain that to each other at one point?) – can Hermione even argue back or tell Harry no to his crazy idea’s after this? If not, that’s a real shame, since she is one of the few not scared to do so and clever enough to get him to listen, plus their conversations and debates are very interesting and entertaining. I don’t know how, but I’d love to see them find a loophole that gets her out of being a minion and being her own person with her own goals/missions again instead of Harry’s (she was juuuust breaking out of Harry’s shadow a bit and now this, sigh).

Plus the idea of a powerful ‘mudblood’ servant has the unfortunate potential to really catch on in certain circles, where they are viewed as little better then animals already. On that note, I wonder what Volemort’s *primary* goal was? To weaken attachments between; Harry and Malfoy? Harry and Dumbledore? Harry and the wizarding Ministry/world? Harry and those that see him as ‘good’? Dumbledore and Hermione? Dumbledore and his allies (I find it hard to believe *all* of them would be as ok with sacrificing a schoolgirl to Azkaban)? Hermione and everyone? And many more.

So many choices, and regardless of the outcome he stood to gain something. Can’t help wondering if he got exactly what he wanted here or how accurately he predicted events. Regardless of the outcome he must have known that Harry’s would go to bat for Hermione, no question, but he can’t predict everything Harry might chose to do. Which is why your story is so much fun to read. :)

Very much looking forward to how things play out (especially the talk with Dumbledore and whether they can prove Hermione’s innocence) next week!

Deo

PS; I don’t suppose anyone bothered to notify Hermione’s parents about the fact she was being trialled for murder and possibly locked away for life? I don’t know how much point there is in telling them *now* as they’ll just freak out and try to withdraw her, but still, you’d bet if she had a wizarding family the parents would be informed and present.

The resolution of the trial was just brilliant. Harry just got another minion:)

On the other hand, now I wait until Harry learns what does it mean to be indebted in magical Britain. Dumbledore had to have a reason to object to this idea at the beginning.

Hooray! I quite liked that chapter.

Intresting chapter and I finally have some words that I can write that makes me feel like some charecters are wrong

Logic is a tool it is the tool that you use to map out the cause and effect what will happen when you do a cause and what are the most likely effects

I ate fish so Im going to kill you.

I ate fish, witch is salty, and salt drys my tounge, witch makes me annoyed, when I am annoyed I am more agreesive, WItch means I am more likely to be violent, If I am more likely to be violent, violence is more likely to happen, if its more likely to happen, It will most likely will happen, If it most likely will happen than eventually it will happen, if it will eventually happen then eventually violence shall be done, If violence shall be done, THen violence will most likely escalate, If violence will most likely escalate It shall be done on a person that is you, you will be whoever is in the situation at the time so violence shall be done on you, whoever you will be, if violence is to be done on you, then it will eventually stop being done on you, If violence will stop being done on you, their must be an end, if their must be an end, death witch is the final end is an outcome, if death is an outcome when I eat fish, then eventually if I keep eateing fish eventually when violence is done some you will be killed.

so when I eat fish, I kill you

of course logic could make it go another way entirely you just have to map it out.

Im kida curious about you opinion that will help me understand your story much better as Ill have insight to the creator of this story's opinion and so have a better understanding of this story

what do you believe our mind or or thought process is most like? not the actual way we think but a simile or metaphor of it

erlyier your omake with frod mentioned my towers of reason, is this what you think or reson is most like?

I would like to think that or thought proscess or how we debate in arguments or or reason is like a storm.

what do you think it is?

I have written a review on your actual work down below

Finally I like what you did here and Im so curious about what Quirell is up too! has his secret (witch might just might be diffrent than in cannon) been found?

is rufious scrimjour still alive?

what did Quireel do to or in texas? will their ever be a survival game of free for all in your armies?

will Quirell eventually have all the armys of all the years join together with the seenth years in charge and have a big wide war? (each year has three armys)

What exact pull does Lucious Malfoy have here? Forgive me if I am wrong because you mentioned rita Skita here but Isnt she dead?

Will Draco still go to Hogwarts or will he go to drumstang? (probably stay in hogwarts it alows Draco to be an influence in the futrue of Magical britian) Will their be a big fuss because of Harry and Hermiones ROMANTIC! little story that happen?

WHy the hell was harry allowed at herminoes trial in the first place? (besides dumbledore and his bending rules, or did he bend rules?)

Why is it that the magical world that has been supposedly more advacned than muggles fallen behind so much that the nobles and "most ancient houses" are in charge? Was the ancient houses first ancestor a muggle born?

Was Merlin a muggle born?

Was Merlin a survivor of the cataclsim of whaever happened to atlantis?

were the dementors and other magical creatures experiments of Atlantis?

Does Life have meaning without death? (how can one live if they cannot die?)

is this the purpose of dementors perhaps?

does magic have a light side a dark side and does it act like duct tape holding the universe together?

is is worse to have a light so great that it blinds everything it touches?

or is it worse to have a darkness so great that one cant see anything?

If Divination is a magic, than can it be trained, controled, Compartementilize, disect and find out how it works.

are time turners and Seers tied together?

if so are their Time turners cause their are Seers?

or Seers because their are time Turners?

what happens if a Seer has a vision and then uses a time turner to change something that makes the prohicy change?

(for example if a seer went back and made sure that no child could be born during the months that mattered of anyone who defied the dark lord twice?)

Now that I think about it the prohicy dosent say a year does it? so eventually in the future if harry fails could two people who defied the dark lord thrice have a child and then he will be a new boy/girl who lives if Voldy or any dark lord for that matter marks them as a ?

could another dark lord fall into a trap of the Proficy?

could the magic of the Seer be what insares those who have been proficied about? is that why profices happen or they dont regardless if a hero or villian try to change it?

can every magical country only have one dark and one light lord at one time? would anyone else of light or dark just be knights or something?

o those of the light or dark get a title if they fight but are not the leader?

will Draco, Hermione, and Harry eventually have one of "those" arangements?

(they are your "golden trio" in this story)

why is it that quest mostly have three people on it?

(I know it started because of the greeks but why?)

if the magician our the secret society to the muggle world does that mean any secret war in the magical war is the war inside the war inside the war?

Harry Potter

/ \

/ \

/ \

Hermione-Draco

Granger Malfoy

finaly why are you makeing it seem that scientist(earlier chapter) are their own culture or people seperated from the others? I view it as a profession you arnt a... Greek and a scientist your a Greek scientist.

(matter of opinion I suppose)

Good luck on april third and It would be cool if harry got into a scuffle with an adult and lost (controled scuffle like a class thing)

just to prove how far he has to go cause it would go a good way in makeing harry not a boring invincible hero not that he is! but it would deepen your story in my opinion.

Harry just can't stop escalating, can he? He does it even when continuing to respond on the same level would suffice. It depends somewhat on what you have modeled as Quirrelmort's first few plans, but I imagine his reaction to Harry's revealing many secret advantages of his publicly is fairly predictable. If Quirrelmort is really responsible for this, it isn't very clean. Perhaps it's got a further purpose not yet shown?

It makes one wonder how long it will take before someone brings Grindelwald into this, he's the only living canon character who might be more powerful than the current belligerents. I always thought canon Voldemort's killing of him while in Nurmengard proof of his fear of Grindelwald personally, and he clearly held far more political power than Voldemort ever did.

I agree with selquist: the chapter was utterly, fantastically awesome, and made me salute the author in astonished respect. The Author's Notes made the author come across as arrogant and self-righteous, and made me curl my lip in distaste.

But anyway, about the actual story, it was magnificent and fantastic. I loved that some of Harry's internal components considered the taboo / bad-guy options, but Harry's "true self" (overall decision-making self) didn't.

I'm really itching to hear Quirrell's reaction to all this now. I'm guessing that we won't hear of the Auror again - as in, he'll turn in his report that "nothing untoward was discovered when interrogating the witness" and never know any wiser. But it'll be awesome to see QQ's icy "You did *what*?" or whatever he does :)

Also, I wonder if it'll become relevant that Harry can't hear what the Dementors say.

Thank you for giving me another chapter of fun that makes me giddy with excitment...

Thank you... this is really the only fic whos updates still makes me this giddy.

Nicely written chapter. Especially like the ending.

You would think that as well to do dentists in the UK, Hermione's parents could cough up 3 million pounds no trouble. That still leaves Harry poor but atleast there is no debt. Still further you would assume Dumbledore probably has accumulated something as well.

It will seem remarkably contrived if the following chapters have to do with the problems of living under debt to Malfoy. Unless of course it's Quirrelmort doing the lending in which case it might be plausible and serve a story purpose.

Second I'm looking forward to seeing how the Hermione back thing works out. I mean most of Hogwarts still sees her as a attempted murderess. Not going to be pretty in classes. So I guess I too lean towards an closure with proof for Hermione's innocence being found. If for nothing else because Harry needs an independent and near equal foil. Draco doesn't fit since he's the "project in progress". Hermione reduced to lackey status complicates that. She needs to return to heroine status.

Hmm... Send a child to Azkaban seems a little harsh, especielly since we haven't really been pointed out how faulty the system is... Or to what degree. But nice and terrible :)

really well done.

1 - "applying story-logic to real life"

1 - a debt to House Potter (i don't think i've ever seen this before...)

1 - McGonagall recovers from speechlessness.

1 - you didn't end on a cliffhanger.

-1 - harry accepts offers that he hasn't decided whether to take or not?

-1 - harry addresses symptoms, not the cause: ie, he threatens azkaban, but does not commit.

thanks until the 3rd. :)

LO

So does Harry still have to pay the 100,000 Galleons now? Because if so couldn't he just call in another blood debt from a Death Eater freed from the Imperius curse? Or he could start a charity. I'm sure many would pay to the Boy who Lived's charity. Or he could just do some celebrity appearances.

And I think that we can still hope to see more epic!Quirrell!battles. Hermione's oath never said anything about never going against him, just to serve them. And Harry could just order her to lead the other army to the best of her ability. He wouldn't stop her from doing that. I wonder how this will affect Harry-Draco-Hermione interactions now. Does Draco truly believe she tried to murder him? And does Draco still not believe in blood purity? Will we even see him again for a while if he's in hospital?

This will be short. Great arc. Hardly finished though. Therefore I'm happy.

It was annoying when quite a few characters mentioned the trial being longer than planned, and even mentioned being late for afternoon classes. Do they really find it inappropriate to miss a luncheon because of taking time to decide of a girl should spend 10 years in hell? I was more than annoyed, I was disgusted, when I read Dumbledore implying they indeed thought so.

Aha. Potter counts as a noble house. I read chapter 79 incorrect, I remembered it as Dumbledore stating the torture curse wouldn't count as a debt because Harry Potter isn't a noble house and you'ld have a hard time convince the wizengamot, but he was talking about the defense professor.

Anyway if this fic has a weakness it is how much of Dumbledores awesomeness is an informed ability. Even assuming senility, most of the time when he's uncertain or insecure or stupid it doesn't come of as senility as much as bumbling.

Sometimes he get a good hit, like "that's why it's important to have many plans going at once" but I dunno, here what did he really do? Defending hermoione isn't even shown, just told. I was looking forward to seeing why he's the head honcho wizard, have him get in a few good yet ultimately futile hits, just to note that he is a dangerous man.

At least we got to see what Gryffindor is good for more than generic heroics. Vile worm indeed.

If this story would have use of something in particular it'd be a decent editor. Someone to chip away at the flaws and rugged edges to make it go from really good to really very good.

Also it seems Granger is less marrying Potter, and more becoming his minion. I wonder what the wording implies in detail.

And I was really liking the plotline between Draco and Hermione. Will he even be allowed to stay in Hogwarts now? I suppose as such things go, succesfully defying the entire wizengamot was the easy thing, compared to repairing the rift between these two.

Wait, WHAT! How does telling the Wizengamot about the Demntor's secret make them unable to cast Patroni? If it truly does work, even though a majority would most likely not believe him, they can just Obliviate themselves and cast Patroni.

Pure awesome.

I nearly strangled my father because he kept interrupting me while I was reading...

Oh gosh, that was awesome. Youyr Harry always did have a flair for such dramatics.

well I meant to post this general thought as a review for ch. 80, but now I have more substantive a watch?vrSAaiYKF0cs& /a to back it up:

Harry, harry, harry...stop it with the drama, ok? Fall back on your true strength-y'know, what I thought this whole thing was supposed to be about, RATIONALITY? and SCIENCE? Stop with the battling. Lose to Malfor: bow your head and apologize for your intemperate remarks and turn to distraction.

Humbly ask the Chief Wizard if you can ask the accused a question: When, where and from whom did you learn the Blood-Chilling Charm? If you want to be dramatic about it jump down and ask her to cast it on you right now. She can't, because she didn't do it in the first place. The whole bit with Dumbledore offering that feeble defense after taking "she's innocent" off the table without even trying was mind bogglingly stupid.

that said, ch. 80 was so incredibly blood-chilling in its own right I couldn't really give a review of it because I couldn't bring myself to reread it to the bottom. 81 was a great wonderful relief but yet has the quality of the wolf who chews off his paw to escape the trap. I would have loved to see Harry be Harry again and use his true genius to win this one.

O well. I await the next chapter with my usual vow to swear off this thing for at least six months to let some length accumulate. As usual my vow will be forsworn. :)

. . . Please tell me the "pledging undying loyalty to House Potter" thing can be redacted when the whole of House Potter, as well as the person who made the oath, unanimously decide it's not needed any more.

That last little taunt to Lucius was just Potter showing off.

"...help us develop new exercises for teaching the methods of rationality."

Try kōans:

- Why life and mind (rationality) would evoulve only in "bad enough" world, which deals out strict punishments for [relative] inefficitncy, capital ones included - and provides no "free dinners" as a rule?

Now, as the weak antropic principle follows: we'll start asking ourselves this question and any question at all only in these words, where we did evoulve (we may continue with questions in other worlds - as turists).

The stronger (but not the strong) antropic principle: the most interesting and usefull words for us (for any technical supercivilization) to create would be these, that would evoulve life and mind.

Don't worry too much about this being anticlimactic: I would guess most of us were relying on the cleverest few reviewers, and the most credit goes to whoever independently thought of the Imperius debt; I did not, and I was not alone. That was indeed the direct, least risky solution. The rest were contingency plans with much greater costs and risks, which only had to be used when presented with challenges. I guessed money might be involved, but did not guess that Lord Malfoy might simply be able to publicly reject calling in a debt.

Because a combination of solutions wouldn't make sense except as a way to overcome a series of complications, the chapter's unanticipated twists and turns made good use of Chekov's armory.

Harry lost a great deal here, perhaps not least of which is that a friend whose rivalry often brought out the best in him is now a bound servant. (Can she even fight him in Quirrell's battles any more?) His debt to Malfoy at least presents some opportunities along with the ominous risks.

I appreciate the reviewer "Reviewer" pointing out how Harry's "A riddle, Lord Malfoy!" could have an unintended effect on Lucius. I also thought it was a neat bit of fake foreshadowing to have Harry do a *heel turn* right before his dark side considered using the Dementor as a weapon.

"What destroys Dark Lords, frightens Dementors, and owes you sixty thousand Galleons?"

Wow. That is an interesting position for Lucius to find himself in.

Anyway... well played, Harry. You are now penniless and hopelessly in debt to a Death Eater, and in return you have Hermione. This is probably a good trade, no matter what Dumbledore says. You already know several ways to make money, but you'll be hard-pressed to find another Hermione Granger. (Destroying Azkaban and dying in the process *wouldn't* have been a good trade, because no one is likely to find another Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres either. But your ability to credibly make that threat seems to have worked in your favor.)

It seems like people are suggesting ways Harry can pay off the debt quickly. In fact it seems Harry has made his own decisions under the assumption that agreeing to pay 100,000 galleons now is equivalent to doing so later. But it seems there is still a straightforward way to cancel this debt. Now that the immediate threat has been neutralized, Harry can perform a proper investigation, after which he can prove irrefutably to the Wizengamot that Hermione Granger is innocent.

What makes me think he can do this? Most authors would have her proved innocent because it was the appropriate happy ending, but our friend Eliezer has no compelling need for happy endings. What he *does* have a need for is intellectual honesty. And Eliezer has repeatedly made these two closely-related points in his other writings and discussions, as well as in HPMoR itself:

All things leave evidence behind.

If you once tell a lie, the truth is ever after your enemy.

Lucius has just experienced the meaning of the latter point, seeing his old lie turned into a debt to Harry for the favor of destroying his lord and master. This hints to me that the entanglement of reality is one of the 'morals' of this chapter. Someone has committed the perfect frame-up of Hermione; what better way to illustrate it than by showing how impossible a perfect frame-up is?

The character who most confuses me now is Lucius himself. He promised Harry, I believe sincerely, that he would throw away all his riches and political capital for the sake of revenging his son. Now he has accepted (sort of) a deal whereby his son's attempted murderer goes free in exchange for 100,000 galleons. If we grant that Lucius really believes Hermione guilty, we would have to conclude that he has traded his loyalty to his son for cash. If that's not a taboo tradeoff, I don't know what is.

But then, did he really mean to do this? In calling for a vote, he explicitly said, "I think few of us would like to see the little murderess go free." He was shocked beyond words when Harry actually agreed to pay. Once he thought this might actually happen, he withdrew his 'offer' on a pretext, and at the end of the chapter he seems still to not quite believe his bluff was called. It seems a similar tactic has worked on Dumbledore: offer to let him pay more than he is willing, then display his refusal to do so as a moral failure. It's a clever trick and probably one he has used to bully his opponents for some time. Perhaps his experience in the political arena had taught him that everyone is willing to trade their soul for comfort. Perhaps he had never met a counterexample until today.

So... Lucius' actions are still consistent with someone who really believes Hermione is guilty. In which case Harry had *better* prove she isn't, or he will have a real fight on his hands. Fortunately we already have another, far more likely suspect, with a more compelling motive-if only Harry can remove his blinders long enough to notice.

Interesting that Hermione already knew the oath. I assume it had come up in Hogwarts: A History, or similar reading, but it's interesting that her eidetic memory works even under intense stress.

Author's note: Please don't let readers control where the story goes - even in a 'guess right to get the good ending' sense. Most of your readers don't participate in the various online discussion threads about the story. I like to make my own guesses, without having the guesses of others influencing me. I've even, once or twice, gotten something right!

Spectacular!

Bravo!

Now for the obligatory griping. I can't decide whether the idea that house Malfoy owes a debt to house Potter as an embarrassingly weak premise or a deliciously weak premise. Lucius has definitely blown a gasket. Perhaps we can blame Lucius' poor performance on his stress, surprise, and he just wants revenge too badly. Or perhaps it's sort of a black swan/reverse hindsight bias/overconfidence/super planning fallacy, that Lucius just can't even consider losing to Harry seriously enough to prepare seriously, and therefore lost.

And he hasn't totally lost. There's still all that ominous foreshadowing about how something terrible can happen if you owe the Malfoys money. Not to be a spoilsport or anything, but wouldn't it be both possible and desirable for Harry to borrow the money from someone else and pay the Malfoys off? The story seems to be building toward a situation where the debt is a major complication for Harry, not just the amount but the Malfoy-associated side effects. I hope I'm wrong about that, because it seems a bit contrived.

On the good side, it seems to me that Harry and Hermione had better find a way to clear her name pretty quickly, as she seems in serious danger of dying horribly in an unfortunate accident while Lucius Malfoy is far away doing something very public and could not possibly have had anything to do with it. So, urgency! Suspense! Danger! Good story!

This chapter is simply amazing and probably one of the best chapters in terms of drama and jaw- dropping. Demanding a blood debt from the House of Malfoy? Genius. Putting Lucius on the spot? Would have paid dearly to see it. Yelling that riddle across to the bigoted arrogant son of a worm? My virtual hands were clapping non-stop.

And wow, this story is getting way huge if it gets its own site.

It never ceases to amaze when I see so much rationality, physics and philosophy learnt in school being used to draw parallels in magic theory. It's refreshing, and frankly its implications loom like a huge specter for a story world as vast harry potter. And in recent chapters its beginning to be tempered by such strong emotions behind the thinking not just powered by social and economic incentives, but simply moralistic moves.

Looking forward to further chapters. This is going to be one heck of a story.

Congratulations. The chapter 81 was even more awesome than I could imagine. In some ways your story reminds of the experience I had when watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Each episode was more awesome than the earlier episodes, and left me convinced that it was the epitome of awesome - just to be superceded by the following episode, all the way until the finale.

Luckily, the finale of your story doesn't seem to be in the immediate foreseeable future.

Another nifty thing: I like the internal consistency of your story, how you make everything fit together so well.

Chapter 81:

It doesn't particularly help when the boy yells "BOO!" at a Dementor and the decaying corpse presses itself flat against the opposite wall and its horrible ear-hurting voice rasps, "Make him go away."

refers to

Chapter 5:

"I have formed a conjecture..." McGonagall said. "After meeting you, that is."

"Yes?"

"You triumphed over the Dark Lord by being more awful than he was, and survived the Killing Curse by being more terrible than Death."

terrible fearsome, and if Dementors are Death, and are scared of Harry, then Harry is indeed more terrible than Death.

Well, loonyphoenix beat me to it, but I can't resist:

"Yay, we completed a quest and got a minion"

More thoughtful commentary later, when it is not past my bedtime.

Holy Shit Fuck. That was the most amazing thing I've ever read. Possibly influenced by reading fiction while listening to music for the first time for extra emotional impact. And I've been reading everything up to this point.

At this point I stopped to read your author's notes...

and am now annoyed, not because of your lifestyle, but for coming off as as arrogant fuckwad in the last 2 paragraphs. YES you write amazing fiction, but please use some of your intelligence and hopefully self control that comes with it to ... not trumpet your own talents when others will do so for you. Now after a few sentences my emotions are back to normal... while I will note that there is very little I can do to influence your behavior, since I'll still read your stuff, and in the future I will wait so as not to have a mood shock... (I enjoy the extra insight into the chapter which is why I usually read them.)

Anyways, I had read all of the guesses of what was going to happen, and it didn't ruin it at all.

I am very concerned over the possibility of Harry having a minion, especially if that was sort of like an Unbreakable Vow. A marriage would have been much better.

Well, I figured it'd be some kind of a marriage law or something... eh, close enough, and the debt business was quite surprising. A great continuation to a great story.

Harry must be more then a bit disconcerting to the people who actually keep that list.

After Harry made Umbridge shut up and fall into her seat, I almost clapped out loud. Wow. This fanfic is something else, gotta hand it to Yudkowsky for being an incredible writer.

Holy cheese, you're such a good writer that it's almost impossible. I almost DIED when Harry yelled ''BOO!'' at that Dementor!

Lucius Malfoy's eyes narrowed. "By the report I received, you cannot cast the Patronus Charm, and Dumbledore knows this.

Hmm.

So maybe he hasn't given Draco veritaserum after Draco's memory of Harry's Patronus has been

erased.I wonder by who and another Lucius is lying of course.

I suppose this solution fits with both the clues, and is extremely fanfiction-y.

(Hermione must marry Harry etc.-sort of).

Still seems less efficient than directing the dementor to attack Lucius in a way that makes it all look like a set-up to kill Lucius. Also,revealing that he can control dementors to a room with Aurors- .dumb.

(although /maybe/ necessary-in which case not-dumb.)

I'm really wondering about this scene from Dumbledore's POV though. When Harry starts on

about destroying Azkaban is he flashing to the things Snape has told him about muggle

super-weapons? Or is he only thinking of Dementors getting Moon Healing Escalationed ?

I do believe the London Stock Exchange was already all-electronic in 1991,but I'm not certain.

At any rate, this piece is giving me a slight urge to try to invent immortality serum,so you have more time to work on it and possible biology is not my field.

Very good! I like it- the actions of a true hero. I would love to read more, and can hardly wait until next week.

I wonder who it is that thinks that way on the Wizengamot.

Wen Harry Potter stares in to the abyss... the abyss runs hides beneath its bed.

Harry Potter is Chuck Norris illegitimate child.

Love the show, it was awesome.

Dear Wizengamot:

You just saw me scare a Dementor. With the word ''Boo!'' of all things.

I get my way. Thank you for complying.

Good Day!

I thought this was a pretty good chapter and the solution to Hermione's imprisonment was elegant. Especially since Harry's plan probably would not have worked form most of these wizards. The author established that wizards aren't very logical and a lot of them don't really think of how there magic works, just that it does. Same with us and technology. So his plan to share the secret of what a patronus does and what a Dementor really is would probably go over their heads and they wouldn't lose their patronus animals and thus their protection. Harry's plan relied on them being smart enough to understand his explanation and thus burst the bubble of their ignorance and patronus animals.

Every time Harry is confronted with a dementor, something awesome happens.

I like the message: Death is the truest, final enemy.

However: Is it legal to marry someone who's in your service in magical Britain?

OK, self-evaluation time.

Harry uses Malfoy/Potter blood debt: expected, but only because other reviewers pointed it out. I went through the relevant chapters "with a fine-toothed comb" myself before reading reviews, but somehow my computer search for "House" and "Wizengamot" wasn't as systematic as I thought, because I didn't reread the relevant clue at better than a skimming pace. But yes, I basically expected something like this to be key, because the hints were clear. Let's say, 30/100 (also, kudos to the author for explaining the source of the clue without breaking the pace)

Blood debt not enough unless Hermione is a Potter: expected. Marriage a solution: expected, discounted as too cheesy; did not realize that it still was valid from Harry's PoV and for humor from the author. McGonagall a factor: unexpected, good. 80/100

Money involved: Thoroughly unsurprising based on chapter titles, but honestly you can't claim we could have expected this, because in the fictional Weasley case it ran the other way. So, let's say, 10/20. By the way, the internal dialogue of "hey, that's a lot of money" is cute, and even realistic, but a bit jarring the first time you read it; until the author makes it clear that the outcome was never in doubt, as indeed it shouldn't be.

Dumbledore vetoes money: Totally unexpected, a good plot twist, and in character, but wow, he really has no soul left does he? No, that's wrong, he's just decided it's somehow noble for him to ignore his nobler instincts. Bleh. No points either way for me, fat points for the author.

Threatens to destroy Azkaban: Considered possibility, but did not expect it to be first solution; did not realize this many solutions would be needed. 25/50

Plans to use phoenix to get to Azkaban: Totally had not considered it, awesome detail. 0/30

Scares dementor: see destroy Azkaban. 20/50

Could control dementor: Rejected idea because his expectations couldn't be stronger than those of others present. However, didn't consider setting up negative expectations from others, or indeed the real power a rampage would have. 10/50

Chapter totally awesome: prediction verified, 100/100 (hey, some points are easy. I also second the point about it being just as good the second time, so guessed spoilers in the reviews aren't a problem.)

Spent too much time on this: well, yes. 0/100

Total: 275/600. Under 50%... but not shameful.

ps. I also like the climax to which this is building. Key people from both sides of the last war are concluding that Harry may be Voldemort (which of course may well be partly true, but not in a way that makes Harry evil). Harry in debt to Lucius. All in all, it seems clear that the final Harry/Enemy confrontation will be played out on multiple levels at once – magical power (through science!), detective-like deduction, politics, and the good-hearted "power he knows not", sheer trickery; and with both good and evil third parties arrayed on both sides. Any one of those battle-styles could easily be cheesy; getting them all together will be epic. The best part is yet to come! (and so I somewhat-irrationally hope the current update streak will last until 85 or so).

OK, self-evaluation time.

Harry uses Malfoy/Potter blood debt: expected, but only because other reviewers pointed it out. I went through the relevant chapters "with a fine-toothed comb" myself before reading reviews, but somehow my computer search for "House" and "Wizengamot" wasn't as systematic as I thought, because I didn't reread the relevant clue at better than a skimming pace. But yes, I basically expected something like this to be key, because the hints were clear. Let's say, 30/100 (also, kudos to the author for explaining the source of the clue without breaking the pace)

Blood debt not enough unless Hermione is a Potter: expected. Marriage a solution: expected, discounted as too cheesy; did not realize that it still was valid from Harry's PoV and for humor from the author. McGonagall a factor: unexpected, good. 80/100

Money involved: Thoroughly unsurprising based on chapter titles, but honestly you can't claim we could have expected this, because in the fictional Weasley case it ran the other way. So, let's say, 10/20. By the way, the internal dialogue of "hey, that's a lot of money" is cute, and even realistic, but a bit jarring the first time you read it; until the author makes it clear that, as should be so, the outcome was never in doubt.

Dumbledore vetoes money: Totally unexpected, a good plot twist, and in character, but wow, he really has no soul left does he? No, that's wrong, he's just decided it's somehow noble for him to ignore his nobler instincts. Bleh. No points either way for me, fat points for the author.

Threatens to destroy Azkaban: Considered possibility, but did not expect it to be first solution; did not realize this many solutions would be needed. 25/50

Plans to use phoenix to get to Azkaban: Totally had not considered it, awesome detail. 0/30

Scares dementor: see destroy Azkaban. 20/50

Could control dementor: Rejected idea because his expectations couldn't be stronger than those of others present. However, didn't consider setting up negative expectations from others, or indeed the real power a rampage would have. 10/50

Chapter totally awesome: prediction verified, 100/100 (hey, some points are easy. I also second the point about it being just as good the second time, so guessed spoilers in the reviews aren't a problem.)

Spent too much time on this: well, yes. 0/100

Total: 275/600. Under 50%... but not shameful.

ps. I also like the climax to which this is building. Key people from both sides of the last war are concluding that Harry may be Voldemort (which of course may well be partly true, but not in a way that makes Harry evil). Harry in debt to Lucius. All in all, it seems clear that the final Harry/Enemy confrontation will be played out on multiple levels at once – magical power (through science!), detective-like deduction, politics, and the good-hearted "power he knows not", sheer trickery; and with both good and evil third parties arrayed on both sides. Any one of those battle-styles could easily be cheesy; getting them all together will be epic. The best part is yet to come! (and so I somewhat-irrationally hope the current update streak will last until 85 or so).

"And do get back here, you're still frightening that poor Dementor."

I'm just glad to have this dilemma resolved. The waiting is over, on to thinking about other stuff, like...

Dumbledore would rather let Harry be indebted to Malfoy than help Harry destroy Azkaban.

What rights does Malfoy have over Harry now that Harry is in debt?

What else does big Malfoy know about little Malfoy and Harry? It seems he doesn't know Harry can cast a patronus, unless he is feigning ignorance because it's not public knowledge. Maybe he will learn, but just hasn't had time yet.

Will Harry and Draco be allowed to meet after this? I think Lucius will forbid Draco to meet Harry after this.

Does Dumbledore now suspect Harry was involved in the first Azkaban incident? It seems he might. (the second incident being one still to come)

What did Quirrel do to that poor auror?

Will the battles continue? Probably not.

Will they be able to solve the mystery of what really happened in the duel between Draco and Hermoine?

What was Quirrel's original reason for framing Hermoine? Did he foresee this entire chain of events? I think he planned for Hermoine to go to Azkaban, and just wanted to take Harry's friends away and make Harry colder.

Lucius Malfoy and clues... oh, dear. What would his reaction be in this universe if he thinks that Harry is secretly Voldemort, and perhaps has been since his master was supposedly vanquished?

I laughed aloud when he said "boo."

I also must wonder why he doesn't just call in partial life debts from everyone in magical britain to pay this price. He could just ask everyone in magical britain for 20 galleons as partial repayment of the debt with the promise that he would never ask for more money and his debt to the Malfoy family will be paid. Though, arguably having confirmation that EVERYONE in magical britain in some way owes him a debt and that the fake death eaters have no choice but to accept it could be nice. Arguably, he could just pay Malfoy's debt with the debts owed by all of the other fake imperiused death eaters, which would just make people who already hate him hate him more.

FWIW, I'm very in favor of a bad end puzzle. And you know at least the Lw folks are up for it.

I've been convinced that the correct way to solve this sort of puzzle is:

1. enumerate all relevant facts, without proposing solutions

2. enumerate all possible solutions

3. assign probabilities to each solution, keeping in mind that complicated solutions are less probable. Also that their sum can be less than or greater than 1.

4. report the entire set with probabilities. With this story (and a Lord of Chaos at the helm), they might *all* come to pass over the course of the chapter.

5. We'll show him! We'll show them *all!*

"That's the wrong answer, you know, said Slytherin. Seriously.

But it's the true answer."

Its something I figured out a while back that anyone who genuinely would always make the right answer in a situation like this would be neither a very empathetic character nor a very interesting one.

Although what is odd is the not interesting has nothing to do with predictability- I mean given that I think this is close to the wrong answer, killing oneself to destroy Azkaban to protect Hermione, and that you know it is the wrong answer (the world on net does not become a better place) and Harry knows it is the wrong answer, it is theoretically possible you could have decided to write Harry as not making that choice.

However from a fiction perspective, the protagonist doesn't sacrifice his friends like that, the protagonist makes unlimited personal commitments, not unlimited abstract commitments.

Which of course leads in stories which aren't philosophically aware to annoying situations, like a Star Wars novel I read recently where a person was being treated as making the obvious not a bad person decision when he was risking millions of lives because a group was threatening to kill his family.

Harry of course is aware of the issue, but.

Anyways another good chapter.

Kudos to that reviewer that thought of the debt thing, I thought it was slightly crackish but they were obviously correct. Quite a few people mentioned the marriage card, but I was like, no that's waay too obvious, he wouldn't do that...would he? But you managed to implement quite a few plans in here which was epic although it caused Harry to reveal a few of his tricks. Anyways, lovely update and can't wait for Tuesday, I can just imagine the aftermath... the fangirls will just go crazy. One thing to note though, is that the marriage vows went a bit quick. Considering they're twelve, I would have thought guardian permission would need to take place...

I loved this! Especially the last line, that was brilliant!

Another great chapter.

Well thought out solution. I wonder what Lucius will do, or will he be to afraid to act?

Entertaining; thanks for the update.

I loved the chapter! It was so incredibly funny and heart-stopping at the same time. I wonder how things will change now that Harry has alienated Lucius Malfoy, and how it will affect the relationship between Harry and Draco. I'm especially concerned about the nature of the bond made between Hermione and Harry. I thought that they were "going to be equals"? It seems that it would have been almost preferable that Harry marry Hermione (or form a marriage contract between them, which is what I assume would have happened). And what are those extra rights that Lucius had over Harry until he pays back his debt?

"I now, in accordance with the last decision of the survivors of the eighty-eighth Wizengamot, adjourn this session."

How much over time did the last session of the eighty-eighth Wizengamot go?

I enjoyed this story very much, yet I almost feel like the interesting parts of it haven't happened yet. It seems like it is setting up a lot of future material, and I am really eager to see what happens next.

I have no idea what it means for Harry to be in debt to Lucius Malfoy, or for Hermione to be sworn to the Potters. I know this created a rift between Dumbledore and Harry, but I don't know how deep or how it will play out. I keep wondering what Lucius has or hasn't done to Draco, and how Draco will react. Hopefully Lucius isn't enough of a nutcase to tamper with Draco's mind in order to try to obliterate Harry's influence.

I do feel like the 5-day guessing period undermined some of the impact. The chapter contained many ideas which readers had proposed, but it wasn't just that. It's also that I had five days to mull over these ideas and think of why (according to my reasoning) they weren't practical.

For example: revealing that the Dementors are death in order to destroy the ability of people to cast the patronus charm. Readers proposed this, but to me it seemed pointlessly vindictive and futile. My reasoning was that it would destroy a patronus only if the person who cast it actually believed Harry. So Harry would destroy only the protection of people who took him seriously. That might include a few of his enemies, would almost certainly include Dumbledore, but most of the Wizengamot would probably shrug it off - Harry's just a desperate upset kid making nonsense threats.

Of course Harry has only a few seconds and is in an intense emotional situation. It makes sense for him to think of things that aren't practical. Add in that I don't know the universe as well as the author, and I'm even willing to believe that it really would work. (I also believe that if Harry used the Dementor that way, he himself would surely lose the ability to cast the patronus charm himself, and then where would he be?)

My point isn't that it was a bad plot twist. My point is that, as a reader, that plot twist would have worked much better without me having five days to internally refute it. (But now that i know that about myself, I will just avoid reading too much speculation from others.)

Let me say again that even though I think the five day speculation period did not help it, I still liked the chapter a lot and, as I said, am really curious and eager to see the followup.

Quite natural, actually. Or should I say rational? I recall another fanfic where Harry got money from a fund Lucius Malfoy set up as 'thanks' for freeing him from the Imperius, but that's the only other one I know of.

But then later, Hermione is going to get ostracized by the Slytherin side of the school when she returns there.

It really raises a strong point, about what makes a user of magic a wizard. Magic - Magician, Wisdom - Wizard... it really speaks of the Wizarding World's arrogance, doesn't it?

This was a great chapter. (Full disclosure: This is unquestionably my favorite work of fanfiction. Maybe also as a work of literature. And thank you for queuing the chapters as you have. And you've got me reading .) I surely owe you a review for the chapters you've published, considering that I rarely review.

Personally, from surveying the Less Wrong discussion thread, I wasn't really satisifed with the proposed solutions closest to the correct answer. (Not that I placed any stock with the wilder ideas at all.) I also thought about some sort of secret ballot, which seems like just the sort of thing Harry would bring to the Wizengamot, but again I didn't see how Harry could actually do it. (Not to mention that it wouldn't be sufficient.)

I suspected Harry could influence the Dementor without destroying it, but only after I read just such a theory on Less Wrong. Destroying it wouldn't necessarily have the right influence, and would reveal too much. The way you wrote it was excellent and believable; framing it as a conversation between Dumbledore and Harry worked better than even Harry's own plan for it, which itself was awesome and convincing. The particular detail that the Dementor was faster than any broom really made it for me.

Glad to see Lord Malfoy so shocked and called dishonorable. And McGonagall was awesome. Even after everything that has happened: "you're still terrifying that poor Dementor." Then I read the last line of the chapter.

From the discussion, I take that I was not the only one to think the imperious-debt would have come up in the planning session. It wasn't a deal-breaker.

And I considered the issue that Hermione was not of house Potter, and while I suspected that writing such a thing *well* was in your power, I didn't think you actually would. (This became clear to me when you seriously warned us/joked about shipping McGonagall x Draco.) It doesn't even seem to be necessary, based on Dumbledore's ruling. Why did he allow it? ...Romance? I *do* have the requisite smidgin of romance needed to ship (this particular) Harry and Hermione. For some reason I never extended this to the two from Rowling. I thought the brief dialogue, with that one voice inside Harry, was particularly well-written to lampshade the matter nicely. (Without reading all the emergency-marriage HP fic on the internet, I am confident that this is the most reasonable; maybe putting it so deep in the story, rather than chapter 1, was a factor, but it's not dominant.)

But I think you reached the heart of the matter in your author's note already: I was expecting the sort of solution that would come from someone who knew about Taboo tradeoffs, and knew that Lord Malfoy would only accept certain offers. This guided my thinking, along with the hint that might have suggested Harry see the Wizengamot's members as individuals.

One point of clarification (which, all considered, I'm more likely to find the answer two on ): Is the implication of Hermione's silence that Hermione didn't say anything, even though she should have, as a sign of her own (completely undeserved) guilt? I hope that sleep, or the submit reply button, will bring the answer to me.)

Now I'm wondering if Harry would start some sort of fundraiser to cover his debt from Malfoy, or at least go into the debt of *anyone else* who would rather not make any additional obligations of him. Oh, and didn't Draco loan Harry money to foil Skeeter? Ha. I wonder if that came up between Draco and his father already.

Addendum: I followed the link here, and the chapter was not found. I went to , and the chapter was not there. I doubled back to my email, which was still there. This put me in a rather poor position; I couldn't check the reviews or author's note, or discussion, without spoilers. Then the chapter appeared, resolving my minor crisis. *That* is how much this fic means to some people.)

Another excellent entry in a fantastic series of fantastic fictions. It is very heartening to read McGonagal stepping up and acting as a mentor to heroes and heroines that her house is said to represent. Great work. Eagerly awaiting your next entry and hoping your projects and goals all success.

LOL. Oh man, you don't see dementors cowering in fear every day, do you? I have to say that was pretty awesome, and funny.

I knew the marriage thing was going to come up somehow. I also knew that it couldn't be carried through because an author previously had made a character talk about what couldn't happen "just so that their romance wouldn't resolve itself before the end of Act IV". By the way if they ever have a confession of feelings for each other, my vote for the title of the chapter is "The End of Act IV".

Very well done though, I hadn't thought of the servitude aspect. The only thing that worries me is that not even 6 chapters ago Hermione said "You said we'd be partners!" and now she is technically subservient to Harry. We all know he won't actually make her do anything, but I wonder if the thought will occur to her as ironic.

You are an excellent author, and this story is one of only two which I actively check to see whether new chapters are up. To anyone else who hasn't read Prince of the Dark Kingdom, I highly advise trying it, it is Harry and Voldemort centric and is beautifully written.

Yay! You've acquired a new minion, Harry...

If hundreds of people spent 5 days trying to solve a problem and failed while harry solved the problem in 5 minutes, then harry is way too smart and is definitely not "thinking in understandable patterns that readers can, in principle, adopt for themselves." so I think its good that people came up with the right solution.

Wow. Just... wow. An amazing story, to be sure.

Firstly: I really hope that Lucius knows Voldemort's true name, because that reference passing him by would make me really really sad. Harry is messing with Lucius's mind really really badly, and at this point he's probably extremely worried about Hermione (WTF IS VOLDEMORT DOING WITH A MUDBLOOD THAT MAKES HER WORTH SO MUCH GOLD?)

I am happy that the Dementor was used in the story. I anticipated something like this. The reference to the Ree is nice. I guess it's time for me to go reread Nobody Dies. I know it's almost certainly just a passing nod that will never be referred to again, but I just imagined you writing them and the idea makes me smile. Who knows, after all - there's been one instance of an AT field (confirmed when you changed it's shape from hex to octagon to make the reference more clear).

I liked that there are a few smart people on the Wizengamot. I really think that this section was intended to break Harry from Dumbledore by Quirrel - a lot of his work has been done to alienate the two from each other. It likewise likely drove a rift between Dumbledore and Hermione, and brought Hermione closer to Harry. THAT outcome might have been unintentional, but I cannot see Quirrel failing to foresee this outcome occuring as it did, so perhaps he fully intends to allow Harry to foster a pro-muggleborn, anti-pureblood political stance that will serve as a great mask when he takes over Harry, and is accomplishing this by splitting Draco from Harry and attaching Hermione more tightly. Further, splitting Draco from Harry deprives Harry of Draco's cunning and knowledge of the wizarding world, which we have seen throughout the story are quite useful to him and which would probably help him with dealing with Quirrel's future plots.

I liked your portrayal of Harry's emotional difficulties regarding the relative difficulty of spending huge portions of gold, risking his life, and SYSTEM ERROR. That felt incredibly well-realized, trying to be a coldblooded preference utilitarian vs trying to not sacrifice a friend under any circumstances.

I look forward to hearing about Harry's fellow students' reactions to this, as well as to hearing what Quirrel's been up to in interrogation. (I remember the student who was speculating about their future children, and that was before Harry spent 2 million pounds for Hermione's life and possibly soul if they happen to exist and be eaten by dementors). I look forward to Draco's take on this, also - it's pretty crazy and pretty interesting. Will Draco take time off from school to "recover from his murder attempt" and be reindoctrinated by Lucius and his mind-control magics? Will Hermione be able to serve as a general to an opposing team when she just made some sort of oath to serve House Potter (is that magically binding in any way, or just legalese for the Wizengamot?) If the general of an army becomes a traitor, that could get some chaos and crazy like we haven't ever seen before even in the crazyness of the quintuple agent in the previous battle. What will Draco's instructions be with respect to Harry (it would be pretty interesting if he tried to murder her on his father's instructions to disrupt the presumed Voldemort's plans and for revenge for her attempted murder).

One thing I suggest could be marginally refined:

"I never learn that you've been interfering with me or any of mine. And you never find out why the unkillable soul-eating monster is scared of me. Now sit down and shut up."

Parallel this by turning the verb at the start of the first two sentences to both be "never learn" or "never find out" might improve it. That said, it's part of Harry's speech, and having him be a refined and polished impromptu public speaker, while interesting, is probably not realistic. A bit of awkwardness is probably more true to his character than a totally polished speech.

Lastly, on your personal situation touched on in the author's notes: Congrats on living the fanfic writer's dream, at least as far as I can tell from here. I am pretty much of the opinion that anything consenting informed adults want to do is cool.

PS: When opening up Nobody Dies, I notice that while HPMOR has a lot of great and interesting and relevant chapter titles, nothing quite approaches the splendour of "The Commander Fist Fights the President". Do you know of any better titles in fanfiction? (rhetorical question).

Quite good chapter. not anti climatic at all. I am so pleased that I got one of my guesses right- Harry used his ability to scare the dementors, the one he picked up in Azkaban! So cool.

(I may not have spelled it out so fully in the review I posted, but I know that the way I imagined it was actually how he did it- minus the part about yelling BOO.)

What on earth does it mean for Harry and Hermione and their relationship that they swore this vow? I find it worrying and I don't know what the implications are.

To the reviewers asking why he didn't destroy it entirely- that's easy, its because he was able to accomplish his goal without giving away the secret of the dementors and the form of his patronus charm.

read your author note...

anyway I just want to say that while reading, I just wanted the dementor to make some mention of the story behind the deathly hallows

just thought that would have been a little more epic by being an indirect confirmation of a story of a good damn portion of the wizardry world's ancestry (if dementors are shadows of death they might be able to confirm or discredit the story)

"Solve this or the story ends sadly"

No. Nonononono. NO NO NO! It'll be a disaster. It'll ruin HP:MoR. If you let the readers make this story end sadly I'll only be able to look back at it with bitterness. I won't even want to learn about rationality because I'll just think of how Harry failed, so how can I hope to do any better?

Please don't.

Certainly an interesting addition. I think you should shy away from editorial critique (the "who is most wise" parenthetical) but it appears the book is fully "on track" again (note: the fanservice parts [Snape's kiss, Black & Lupin] are exceedingly damaging to what is, potentially, the greatest work of fan fiction since the Book of Mormon).

At any rate Harry's solution is a good one and we are certainly left wondering 1) what Dumbledore is up to 2) who those rational wizards are and 3) just who Quirrell is. I look forward to my birthday update next week.

Pax et lux,

G.M. Palmer

wow.. that was amazing!

Haha. My friends and I have chatted about this off and on for a couple of days now, and it's pleasant to see none of us managed to guess everything that happened. I confess that while I eventually puzzled out ALMOST everything he could have done with that dementor, setting up the expectation that it would eat over half the Wizenmagot never even occurred to me. So much for my own intent to kill, I guess. The blood debt approach was a surprise as well, though I suppose it really shouldn't be given how much foreshadowing we had for it. You left yourself enough rope to strangle any of Harry's hopes to easily make up the sixty thousand galleons, too, so that remains a valid plot point for quite some time. Sometime soon I really must fulfill my promise to write a longer review about the arc as a whole, because I enjoyed it more than I've said, but right now I'm sufficiently exhausted to lie down and dream of dementors eating Umbridge (only to spit her out and complain about the taste being too rotten AND cloy all at once) for the rest of the night.

PS: If Merlin could imprison the Ree, I'd swear by him too.

EEEEEE! That was great! I loved how he was thinking about if he would have to marry Hermione, only to be rescued by Minerva who knew alot more about how someone could be part of a household, thus the magical oath. Heh, I was wondering how far he would go to save her.

Well at least since he doesn't have to pay Malfoy back until after he graduates, that gives him a few years to build up his wealth, and use his money to make more money. He will probably have to convince Dumbledore to let him do crazy schemes with his money, so that's gonna be an obstacle. I wonder how you'll have him do it. :D

I don't review often, but I am always reading and looking forwards to a new chapter. You are absolutely brilliant, and I just wish you would update sooner. I want to know more, and see how it all ends, and waiting is annoying. :)

I am seriously wondering right now why Fawkes has not abandoned Dumbledore, and become Harry's familiar. He should! Unless you have to wait for your previous bonded one to die before you can be someone else's familiar, in which case I guess Fawkes is stuck for now. Looking forward to seeing how you develop the whole, Fawkes and Harry thing. :D

Damn I love Harry's effect on Dementors it is hilarious!

The last sentence of chapter 81 seems a bit forced. I believe it would flow better if you were to replace the word "and" with "while" so that it would read:

...presses itself flat against the opposite wall while its horrible ear-hurting voice rasps, "Make him go away."

Oh, this is badass. And the Ree could potentially show up? Oh yeah! Now, what is Dumbledore going to do and when are the old men going to put two and two together to come up with potato?

For that matter, what is Dumbledore going to say?

Another awesome chapter. Just got done reading it for the second time, and I can't tell whether I'm happy that I had a very rough idea of how it would go and it came true, or whether I'm disappointed that it wasn't something even more incredible. The point is well taken that the best answer is not always complex, and usually the reverse, but I guess the story has built up a reputation for the unexpected and the fantastic.

As an aside, "the legends are true" from the author's note was a real-life lol. Who needs comedy in the story when you can get it on the side ]

Also: "A favor for a favor, Sunspark, until the End." - thank you for the Duane shout-out!

-Dave, uncountable dragons should appear at some point

Another awesome chapter. Just got done reading it for the second time, and I can't tell whether I'm happy that I had a very rough idea of how it would go and it came true, or whether I'm disappointed that it wasn't something even more incredible. The point is well taken that the best answer is not always complex, and usually the reverse, but I guess the story has built up a reputation for the unexpected and the fantastic.

As an aside, "the legends are true" from the author's note was a real-life lol. Who needs comedy in the story when you can get it on the side ]

Thanks for the update.

Another very good chapter. I look forward to reading what happens next in your fic.

Harry's internal debates still rock, so does the ending. BTW, in order to have suspenses like this one realistic, you should get rid of one of PCs. Now, the ending suspense, that's a really nice one.

Also, it'be nice to have the Weasley brothers move back to the PC level from becoming Dumbledore's lackeys after nice introduction.

Thank you and looking forward to the next part.

Great story, great chapter.

Hermione is free. Yay!

And slave? Servant? of House of Potter.

And Harry has to earn money, fast.

Now what the long term consequences will be is extreme,y interesting.

Thank you very much for writing.

Yes... Thank you for all of the amazing story so far. Thank you again for keeping me riveted to your story. Finally thank you for twisting and turning more than M. Night Shyalaman. Your updates make my week and your story is awesome. Thank you.

George

Well, as I noted just now on . :

Harry did NOT marry Hermione.

Harry did NOT summon his Patronus and destroy the Dementor that was there.

And Harry did NOT cancel out the debt Lucius was claiming by invoking the debt owed by House Malfoy to House Potter.

Well done, Eliezer: I rate this chapter, on a scale of one to ten, EPIC.

Eliezer: "This makes me worry that the actual chapter might’ve come as an anticlimax, especially with so many creative suggestions that didn’t get used. I shall poll the Less Wrong discussants and see how they felt before I decide whether to do this again."

Well, I am not a Less Wrong discussant, so far. But I do not think this chapter can manage to count as ANY sort of anticlimax. More plz kthxbye!

-Dave

GREAT end to the chapter

It's amazing what you can do with a time turner. A quick check of one big lottery seems to show that sales are cut off about one hour before the numbers are announced. Of course, Harry is too young to buy a lotto ticket, but I suspect his parents would be willing to help him out. Lotto winnings do not pay out all at once, but for a sufficiently big pot, it could work (and he has years to accumulate the amount he needs) or they could sell their pay-out for an immediate smaller lump sum. It is definitely time-turner abuse, but it'd only need to be done once, so it wouldn't be too blatant.

Beautiful chapter, loved every second of it. I have to wonder though, why did harry not outright kill the dementor? Would it not have been more impressive than just scaring it? Im also excited to see how the new spin on Harry and Hermiones relationship will turn out.

Eagerly awaiting the next instalment,

Mymalkshakes :)

I considered that Harry would use his power to control the Dementor (by threatening it) far more likely than outright destroying it, and when someone suggested calling in the debt Malfoy owed Potter I thought that likely as well. Yet even those two were executed quite differently than I expected, with Harry simply frightening the Dementor (which seems more likely to be perceived as 'Light" by others than controlling the Dementor) and Lucius demanding so much money.

What I really admired most about this chapter, though, was how basically EVERY suggestion I read that made sense for how Harry could get out of his predicament was considered in some way. Destroying Azkaban, destroying the Dementor, ruining peoples' ability to use Patronuses, marrying Hermione...And despite Harry not thinking of anything that I hadn't seen suggested somewhere, the chapter still managed to surprise in some ways and do the unexpected (who saw McGonagall stepping up like that?)

And, thankfully, while I'm still very much looking forward to the next chapter, I am not as desperate to see where it goes this time.

I have now read this chapter, and your author's note.

I think your fears that this chapter were anti-climactic are unfounded. While most of what happened in this chapter was predicted by reviewers, I don't think any one reviewer got everything right. And even if they had, that *still* wouldn't have detracted from this chapter. It was well written, the pacing was very good, and it just came together *well*. I'm sure you've heard that sometimes the journey can be more important than the destination. Why do people reread favorite books, despite knowing exactly what is going to happen? Being predictable is not a sin, and as you have said, you had already laid all of the clues. Readers only needed to pick them up.

Regardless, I greatly enjoyed this chapter. I'm very glad that it was longer than the last two, and I feel that we finally have some release from the excitement, anticipation, and dread that have been building throughout this whole arc. And you even managed to work some comedy into this chapter, which did not detract at all from the overall mood. Well done!

I am interested to see what comes out of Harry's clash with Dumbledore, as well as what *control* Lucious gets over Harry.

Outside of this story:

You mentioned some people complaining about you question preventing them from studying for finals. I think that your audience is large enough that no matter what, you are always inconveniencing someone. For instance, 6:00 Pacific time is 10:00 Eastern time, and that is just in the US! Some people are taking finals now, but others won't (such as myself) won't be taking them for another few weeks.

At the end of the sixth book, Harry finds a locket with a note in it signed RAB. I thought it was painfully obvious who that was (Regulus Black), but many people disagreed, or thought that was far too simple an answer. I don't think fans guessing what will happen next, even if they are accurate, will ever detract from a story.

There was an experiment that Wired magazine wrote about (can be found on their website under the title, "Spoilers don't spoil anything" that showed that some people might actually enjoy a story *more* if they know what is going to happen next. Interesting article, even if you don't agree.

Anyway, keep writing! Looking forward to the next chapter.

Wow! This chapter was incredible. A true master piece. Now to wait one week for the next chapter.

Hahaha. A most satisfactory resolution.

This is interesting. I like the way you're handling the plot development thus far. Everything is very neat and the tied-off to loose-end ratio is pleasing as well. I'm a little bit in silly giggles because of how good it is to read another update from you. This is fantastic. We all love you. Please make more. Please update more. Once a week is a nice rate, though. Very reliable and nice. This story is like eating all my favorite flavors of icecream in one bowl. As far as immersion and suspension of disbelief go, you've managed to handle that flawlessly. Even when you outright break the fourth wall it's very natural and smooth. The writing style, everything, it's great. I'm trying to give you as much silver thought to keep your productive because this is a masterpiece. Write more.

so many ups and downs! I read the last few chapters together, and was pretty much gasping and holding my breath at some parts.. loved it. :)

"...imprisoned the Ree."

"...imprisoned the Ree."

"...imprisoned the Ree."

...Heeeeyyy, I see whacha did there.

Well, I think it's time for Harry to whip out some schemes and cheat/trick Lord Malfoy out of, say, 100,000 galleons. Or just make his own 100k. Whatever works, really.

Or just 60,000. The magical world is, after all, filled with convenient niches and loop-holes and such. Although I must say, the whole Wizengamot fiasco was well-done. Harry Potter trounces Lucius Malfoy in the battle of wits. How will be affected the dynamic between Draco and Harry, I wonder.

I was definitely ready for Harry to go and crush Azkaban. Hopefully, that's on the near horizon. Either way, great story.

Phew, not a cliffhanger for once. Thanks for the update.

Harry, the dementor spooker. How nice. I wonder how Hermione will feel about that vow, once she had some time to get her thoughts back in order.

So, once again, great job! Please keep up the great work! I'm looking forward to the next update!

This story has officially become a drug for me. This chapter was satisfying but too short. So I find myself reading and rereading it, trying to absorb every possible drop of enjoyment.

Adding the demntor's scream at the end was a nice touch. Something not heard by Harry, but everyone else. I had forgotten that others hear a dementor's voice.

Love it, love it, love it!

Wonder how Draco will react?

This...this was glorious. Excuse me while I read it again...

brilliant :) why do you take so long to upload each chapter that you've written? and these are just the ones in this bunch that you already had written - what about the new chapter you'd write now .. that'd take even longer ..

Holy crap that's intense. MAN, I hope things go well soon. That was a really touching scene between Harry and Hermione. Really showed the bond and the trust there. Looking forward to the next chapter. By the way, is Dumbledore mad because he thought he'd have to sacrifice Hermione for the "greater good" but then Harry refused? I'm not so sure.

T-thank you for writing this.

(jizz in my pants)

Very very interesting. Liked how it played out, though wish Harry'd had the chance to propose to 'Mione. Loved that he made the Dementor piss itself in fear.

Wow. That was worth the wait. Totally awesome chapter, and I love this whole arc. My mind is blown yet again.

Picking up one totally inconsequential detail: it's nice to see that Harry's gold is gone. "(virtually) unlimited wealth" is too much of a resource for him; I'm glad to see that he'll be to be more creative when it comes to money-making schemes!

Now hopefully I can get back to writing my PhD thesis instead of refreshing tvtropes discussion and lesswrong for theories about the resolution to your cliffhanger. :)

Well, that was... interesting. There were fans expecting that the dementor ability would be relevant. There were fans expecting that the blood dead to House Potter would be relevant. There were fans expecting that Hermione would somehow join House Potter. I don't think anyone predicted that all three would happen. Well done.

I love it! though I thought that you might have had them married instead of bound in service. Well played out though. .

great chapter, great story

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Awesome!

Ho Thank You, Flying Spaghetti Monster for bringing us this new chapter of Harry Potter.

It's here, and it is long! Cheers! Now I may read it.