I'm simply blown away. I've seen 'merging' before, but that was simply perfect, orchestrated for dozens of chapters and simply arriving at the logical conclusion at the logical time.

Good Lord. I've understood most of Harry's decisions before; like you said they may not be agreeable but we can follow his process. But this? Agreeing to free Bella on the word of one man? He's so in love with Quirrell/Voldy that he can't even think straight. I have no idea how this scene is going to end but I hope it ends poorly for each involved in the breakout. And by poorly I mean Harry's estimation of poorly, which would be getting caught and possibly locked in Az himself. Though we know they won't lock him up but Q and Bella? Kiss em. Harry has abandoned so much or what he originally purported as rational thinking that he's more Dark Lord than Harry right now, regardless of his "I want to save people" ideology.

A good o a bad idea? i don't know.

You know at first I had no idea how you'd make a prison break take so many chapters? I will never again make that mistake.

They really don't know what they're hunting.

Sucks to be them.

Reading Sleep

Harry somewhat makes peace with his dark side... that is probably the best thing that'll come from trying to bust Bellatrix out.

Wow, that is a much cooler version of the invisibility cloak and definitely feels more right as part of the deathly hallows this way.

More cookies for the Dark Lord!

Hope Harry will stop trusting Riddle after this 'adventure'! Will Hermione sense something happened with Harry?! She can sense when he's done something wrong. :D

I think Dumbledore will suspect what happened but Harry will be at Mary's and so he won't be able to prove it...

Wow, I mean, I knew Professor Quirrell was bad news in this fiction too, but wow, Harry's in some deep shit right now. And he's still in his first year, and the story's not halfway over.

So, does Harry actually have two consciousnesses in his mind? Or is he simply very good at visualization and dissociation (which he is), and that's why he acts like he has two personalities?

The Cloak of Invisibility, of course, it hid it's original owner from even Death, of course it'd hide them from Dementors!

HE HAD A COOKIE WITH HIM! XD That's awesome. I'm curious though. Can you not transfigure food into a different food, consume it, and digest the untransfigured, chewed up food once it is in your belly? Or better yet, maintain a transfiguration for long enough to digest transfigured food completely and drain the... Wait. Never mind, I see where that is wrong. The nutrients would become something different while on the path of your circulatory system towards the wrong location and mess up your body. Anyways, magic theories aside... I just realized that the other thing I wanted to talk about was magic related too. Derp. XP Anyways. Could Harry not cast a temporary partial transfiguration on the walls themselves for just long enough to escape? Or is that what you're going to do? Owo Idk. I'll have to keep reading.

Aaaand continueing on.

Have a cookie, Harry. You most definitely deserve it.
Actually, have two.

working from the idea that harry's dark side is Voldy's horcrux this chapter becomes much more interesting, if a small part of voldy's soul can be taught not to cower from death then perhaphs the whole can be redeemed?

Dumbledore wasn't afraid of death. Dumbledore really wasn't afraid of death. Dumbledore honestly, truly believed that death was the next great adventure. Believed it in his core, not just as convenient words used to suppress cognitive dissonance, not just pretending to be wise. Dumbledore had decided that death was the natural and normative order, and whatever tiny lingering fear was still in him, it had taken a long time and repeated exposures for the Dementor to drain him through that small flaw.

Huh. Interesting.

Harry, Harry, why you must complicate things?

Wow, I'm amazed and baffled by Harry's rationality and the turn of events this story has taken. Can't wait to read on further :)

War.

Congrats on harry for earning his cookie!

Should his saviour complex have a voice, or is it just going to speak to him through the voices of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff?

Wouldn't it be the *third* Wizarding War?

I'll TAKE a cookie... and EAT it!

I just had a thought-Harry, after his ascension to godhood, looks over The Timeline and decides "Hey, I really could've used a bit of help while breaking Bellatrix out of Azkaban. Why not send a note to my past self?" Just thinking, since the major theory is that what will happen cannot be changed by interference.

Giggling at the notion of Harry's brain vacating his skull and taking a well deserved vacation in Tahiti.

That is quite brilliant: that the darker part of our personalities is incredibly fearful.
Weirdly real life psychopaths have very little fear.

Wow, the urgency keeps escalating, yet you/Harry keep finding solutions. I was... awed, at Harry being capable of refocusing his thoughts while under the Dementors' influence enough to enable him to recast his Patronus. And now he's managed to do... what? Separate the horcrux from his soul? o_O

Wow.

His ability to dissociate so easily still makes me extremely uneasy. He has too defined personalities and while he has managed to form some sort of a bond with his dark side...it is still too unnatural.

I wonder why he does not realize that the dark side is different enough to be part of the dark lord and not he himself?

Great writing.

I cannot explain to you the great duty you are doing the world by posting this, it's original, wonderfully written, and it keeps readers glued for days.

I cannot praise your work enough, and I am looking forward to devouring anything you write

Of course, somewhere around chapter 5 I began to wonder if you were REALLY writing a fanfic or if you were writing an enjoyable instruction manual: "Rationality for the Masses Using Pop Culture Tropes." Even if you are, I'm still enjoying this.

"Is there another Patronus still present?" the old wizard

said clearly to the bright creature.

The bright creature dipped its head in a nod.

"Can you find it?"

The silver head nodded again.

"Will you remember it, should it depart and come again?"

A final nod from the blazing phoenix.

So Dumbledore can determine that HP was the Patronus caster, if ever his patronus is in the presence of Harry's again.

Nice chapter, REALLY good fic. I'm hooked.

Yay, a level up! Harry solves the puzzle and unites a bit more with his dark side! When I think about it, even though the mission ends pretty badly, I'm kind of happy with the results: a stronger harry that trusts quirrell less and can use his time-turner more often.

Can I just say that this chapter, on Harry's part, is made of absolute WIN? I just... I have no words for how awesome he is, knowing canon. It's like going back to something you read a few years ago, and reading it again; and finding that the characters are so much more awesome the second time around, because now you know they were up against something much more dufficult/dangerous/whatever than they (and you) thought they were the first time around.

Also, I forgot to say it before, but I loved both the extremely subtle refernce to Ranma 1/2, and the pointed reference to Ender's Game. Harry would make a good Ender, I think.

-RC

Why would hiring wizards to go into Azkaban and cast patronus charms be a common occurrence if a message bearing patronus (in this case McGonagall's cat) could just be easily sent?

I just breath...That's all I can do after that ride!

thanks for randomly putting in gay characters and giving your minor characters such diverse personalities, it makes your story realistic. When i read this i dont feel like it's a fanfict or a fantasy story - you've got how people think on lock. plus the whole world is in your story, not just the straight world, and your bad characters aren't just "bad people", finally a story where people are rational and do things for a reason not just because they are "good" or "bad"!

Amazing mind you have there. I follow this story too awed to be resentful.

I LOVE it that the invisibility cloak hides the wearer from dementors. It never made sense why the cloak was a DEATHLY Hallow. Now it does.

Excellent chapter! Harry could think under pressure,that's awesome! and Dumbledore trick with his patronus is awesome too XD

Excellent chapter

(This is actually for 58 again, but you can't review the same chapter twice.)

Well, I feel a bit foolish regarding my review of 58 (and quite humbled) after reading the author's notes. :D

I don't know if I prefer what I'm going to call the "magic missile" solution over the "boomstick" solution; either are pretty awesome. I did see another reviewer speculate about a rocket-assisted broomstick before 58 was posted, and I mulled it over for a while, wondering about certain problems it might face. ("strapping a jet engine to a cessna" was the specific phrase I used, if I remember correctly). Still, with magic, I guess pesky little things like aerodynamics and airframe strength aren't much of an issue.

(Still I think I'd like to see some variant of the phrase "Harry casts magic missile" at some point in this fic, even if it wasn't in this chapter :P )

andy's cat :)

haha my big brother is famous as well :)

Aargh! Aargh! Aargh!

In all honesty, this is an absolutely brilliant story; I'm quite impressed. You're actually tackling the-well, the "science of magic", as it were, whereas most people are content to point out the flaws and let it be. Which is certainly entertaining, mind, but not brilliant.

That said...

Argh! Argh! Argh!

..Tell me you update regularly.

i don't know where to start really ... this is just too epic for me to put into words i have now only gotten 4 hours sleep total in the last 3 days because of this fic ...

i have only read 2 other stories that did that to me and nither are as good and grounded in sientific fact as this is

KEEP IT UP

more please

P.S. i especialy liked the title of the last 6 chapters as i just finished doing a report on the Stanford Prison Expiriment for my phyc class

there is a book partialy about it and about good people being turned evil vs. resisting that i read for the report you may find itnteresting called the Lucifer Effect By: philip zimbardo ( the creator of said expiriment)

Who can say enough good things about this story? It's often difficult to explain to friends why I read fanfictions so often, as most assume that all of these stories were written by teenage girls with awful plots, paper thin characters, and unoriginal scenarios. But occasionally you strike gold, that one 1,200 word one shot that completely alters your view on a character or that chapter story that show alternatives your mind never even considered (hint hint). It is true that these golden nuggets (in my experience) are found more in the Harry Potter section of any fansite (either because of its sheer mass or the amount of serious adult writers). In this respect, MoR is a diamond (lacking the 'in the rough'). I have recommended it to anyone and everyone I know who has read the entire Harry Potter series, and although a few were skeptical at first most are enjoying it immensely. I only feel terrible that its taken me so long to make a review, but I've always had too much to say.

Draco and Lucious, adorable. Death of Narcissa, tragic. Blaise Zabini, awesome (honestly love your portrayal of him, just lovely). Luna, kickass. Neville, interesting. McGonagall, lovely. Snape, realistic (a compliment of a higher degree I cannot award). Every female, hilarious.

Dumbledore is phenomenal, you take him as seriously as he's meant to be taken. Harry is a trip, a lovely unforgettable trip. Quirrellmort is a masterstroke. I think he'll be the end of us all, including you :)

The arc with the patronus made me cry, I had two deaths in the family recently. One was far too young and the other very old. Death is not the next great adventure, for it not to be natural... Thank you for that arc. If there's any part to choose from this story, thank you for that.

This arc with Bella in very fun as well, I wonder how her son will react... Anger, relief?

Until next time, thank you. I'll be watching my alerts.

How many personalities has Harry invented now? There is his Dark Side (presumably a gift from Tom Riddle ;-) ), Gryffindor Harry, Hufflepuff Harry, Ravenclaw Harry, Slytherin Harry, and now his own brain. Not to forget the fake personalities he crafts for his occlumency erxercizes, like his current Voldemort persona.

It's getting awfully crowded in there - I can only imagine what it would be like if he starts to imagine his next internal argument with the full crowd. :-)

"Now Harry could remember it, what was reputed to hide someone from the gaze of Death himself..."

This was my favorite part of the chapter, and indeed my favorite part about MoR is how you use canon so well. I really enjoyed your author's note where you explained that the way to write fiction is to show that A implies B, then show A, then show B. And this was perfect; you mentioned when the cloak first showed up that it would hide the wearer from the gaze of Death himself, you showed that Dementors represent Death, and so OF COURSE the cloak will hide a person from Dementors!

And the best part is that almost all of this is canon compliant; it really FEELS like it should all work according to the rules of the original Harry Potter universe, and not like you're just making things up as you go along.

Kudos as always, hope you can update soon.

I can't believe it... I found this story yesterday afternoon, started reading and couldn't stop ... until this ... oh well 56 chapters in 8 months ... that would mean the next one should be close (at least I hope).

Well, having said that, I still can't figure Quirell, OC, voldemort reincarnated, time travelling Harry, I could make a case for any of them. Your most interesting creation without a doubt.

Your Harry is complex, very well painted, genius but childish enough, way from being omnipotent.

Hermione and Draco suffer a bit in comparison, being a bit too "shallow" compared to the other two characters, somewhat too monolithic but that's understandable. I hope you'll give us a bit more about hermione (but I am biased as I find her one of the most interesting characters in the Potterverse).

Dumbledore's madness is the bit too much at the start of the story but getting more and more interesting as time goes on.

Finally, I love the way you describe McGonagall ... strict but with a deep humanity, it's too rare to see her that way in fanfiction.

As I am still not sure where you are going with this, it is difficult to rate the plot, except that, so far, it is riveting.

Writing is excellent, nothing to grumble about being grammar or spelling (which is unfortunately too often the case), good mix of description and dialogs. I especially love to take the time to decipher your quotes (the ender reference notably as it is one of my favorite books). I even found a few references to sci-fi books I hadn't read (lensman).

I can't imagine how you'll be able to take this to conclusion but I salute your abnegation and thank you for an exceptional read.

Read the newer chapters a few days ago, just now getting to the review.

Few things:

I am not sure belief in "good" and "evil" is rational. Therefore it does not make sense to speculate whether Bellatrix is "evil" or not. Personally, I enjoyed her insane side and hope she has not been permanently defanged by her stay in Azkaban. In the movies, at least, she was captivating because Helena Bonham-Carter portrayed her with a lot of delicious chaos.

Also, this sequence of chapters reminds me of when canon Harry goes off alone with his mentor in a situation that is beyond his ability. The quest with Dumbledore in HPB.

About the chapters themselves, I liked how Harry's rationality and General Chaos experience are saving the day. The cookie was an excellent touch. His psyche is divided but I would not call it DID; plenty of normal people experience multiple sides to themselves in the form of "inner committees" or symbolic representations of specific aspects of self.

One thing I hate about the eons between new chapters is that it gives me too much time to speculate rather than be carried by the story to wherever it is trying to lead me.

I love that General Chaos is now playing in the real world - for keeps; pitted against highly experienced and competent opponents. I suspect Dumbledore and McGonigal are about to shine as well.

But my mind keeps going back to subtle things like the blind slave-like devotion of Bellatrix. Either her mind has only her devotion to the Dark Lord to hold on to or there was something else all along. Saying that she can no longer be passed off as a reward to other Death Eaters suggests she has been in this state all along. Which begs the question, could she actually be that blindly devoted and in love or was she turned that way? Certainly a love potion could produce that effect but they aren't permanent. Which brings me back to the question of why did Snape know muggle chemistry? Did he learn this on his own or for the Dark Lord?

Now if I was Dark Lord would I use a mild love potion on my subjects to insure loyalty? Would I administer it in a way my subjects would never suspect or detect? Through a patch? Subcutaneously like Implanon? Or perhaps special ink in the tattoo that marked them my minions to trickle loyalty in their bloodstream for decades?

Um... Harry's "dark side"... I could easily see this become rather unhealthy, hahaha!

Just because Bellatrix isn't TALKING doesn't mean she isn't THINKING...

Love the story. Am interested to see where you're going with the latest arc. Just giving some encouragement. Hope you win the bet with your sister.

...I read up to this chapter in 3 days. One of which I was drowning in homework.

THIS STORY IS JUST THAT ADDICTIVE. XD

Rationalist!Harry is epic, and I have to love his thoughts for some reason. :3 I can't wait for the next update!

Great chapter. I'm really enjoying this story, love how the pacing has picked up.

This chapter was EPIC.

I don't know any better words to describe it. Of course, the chapter about killing the Dementor was epic, too.

You have astounded me, again. Again of who knows how many times.

Hunch : Quillmort is actually not that evil, the side that made him really evil now reside in Harry as Harry's " dark side ".

Furthermore , Quillmort do in fact love Bellatrix now when his dark side ( which I guess is a curse or something alike ) moved from him to Harry.

It seems that Harry's brain will get its wish and gets to visit Tahiti pretty soon. ;-)

Awesome.

Captivating indeed, Less Wrong. I am looking forward to the next chapter. The Thestral blood seems like a very true thing (you must be an Extractor, getting these things from the mind of JK Rowling.)

Bella seems so...sad :(

I wish people like her didn't really exist.

Awesome chapter though, although yuo seem to be leaving the science stuff behind.

Erm, please update and keep feeding teens information in an interesting and easily remembered way :) I have learnt so much from this story, and remembering it.

Wow again. This fic is amazing. Do you write original stories? You totally should. I hope I can write at this level someday.

The "if you read 15000 words, support by adding a comment" brought me here.

Very very addicting so far! I find most of the minor characters in this story are way more interesting versions of the ones in the original! Malfoy is outstanding here, really well done with him!

I love games and I love the detail that goes into describing the games and the thought process of the players... i can definitely feel the love for games in this series! (I also thought the rules of Quidditch were a joke when i read the books)

My biggest criticism: I cant tell if harry is a character or the author's soap box sometimes... When he made the decision to not agree to Malfoy's and Hermione's "no traitor" truce in the war game, that was awesome. When his philosophy on death and space turns out to be the RIGHT way to view the world as shown by his advanced humanoid patronus... well... I find that kind of annoying. There are a bunch of other cases where i feel like the story goes out of its way just to let harry make a great profound philosophical point or discovery.

Dumbledore? better. Neville? better. Quirrel? awesome. Comed-Tea? beautiful.

Keep up the great work!

Holy crud. So Harry's dark side is actually the part of Voldemort's horcrux that's connected to his soul/body? I'm guessing that's what's going on, since the terrible fear of death is so like Voldemort. That is a really interesting twist and a totally plot-changing take on this... a redeemable Voldemort. Huh.

Sorry if there are grammatical errors. English is not my native languae.

While I enjoy very much The fic for its unusual take of the Harry Verse and the several teories it take and represent, there is a fact (probably only character vision instead of the Autor) that confuse me. Is Harry and his approach of space traveling.

And this is a trend that seem to crop very much lately. Why is so much atention to traveling trough space and even found a new Planet? While it would be economic and social helpful to find a new resource of precious materials, land and it may act the way piligrams fared: opened the way for the Super Nations and cultural proliferation, the way Harry (and Voldemor) stated it blaffed me. Isn't space pretty much a cold, lifeless desert. Most Planets are completely barren, most of it is void (or as void in can happen inside of a Galaxy) and its repetetive. Traveling trough it would become very tedious very easily. Its pretty much a non-entity of darkness and unhospitable planets, stars and several cosmic (one in a billion) fenomenons that would probably kill/destory the spaceship.

So why is he so obssesed? Where is the appealling?.

I always found our own Planet to be incomparable more fascinating than stars or facts in space and the tremendous importance its given (not to mention absurd levels of resource) to be quite contraproducent. Wouldn't be better to pour our resources and energy to study and dominate the Planet (who still posses near-terrifying levels of enygmas) to its minute levels before be preocupated with the Infinite, probably useless (in a escence of remunaration-or tactically control) far out promise that space proving could provide. I don't mean to infer that the space investigation had been useless, since its beggining had advanced human technology, medicine and even religion to great bounds and many of our technologies exist because of it, but still... The way Harry and Voldemort gush of Space traveling and its advances seem a little bizarre.

I had read some works stating that Humans need to find the way to travel to other planets to avoid stagnation, which seem to be a fallacy by taking a known fact of Human Nature and applying the Square/Cube Law in a socio-psichological level.

Well, while I had more questions this is, if not the most urgent, the one I found to state at the moment. I hope you could give me an Answer (to enjoy more the fic) Thanks for your time.

Antiguo.

holy sh!t grenades in a handbag! - that's pattern matching btw

Harry is one slippery dude!

if he comes out of this smelling like roses we may as well call him the messiah lol

I have immensely enjoyed these 56 Chapters. This is also an improvement over your previous work with alien moral systems and the three ships.

Observations:

1. The story really shines when you're able to illustrate a psychological bias or a point of rationality through the narrative. Harry explanations come in very consistently sized paragraphs encouraging readers to know when to skim them.

2. Your content has shifted from exploring rationality to more explicitly moral/normative themes while at the same time shifting to focusing less on how magic works and more on politics.

While this is more compelling to us social creatures, I think you've made the transition without trying to knock-down deontology or virtue ethics based systems and have adopted consequentialism without struggling with the apparent objections/difficulties a rational person may find with it or with the particular version of consequentialism he's putting forward. Dumbledore was a straw-man, and Quirrel was arguing more about means than ends.

I hope Harry explores these difficulties and does not further sacrifices good reasoning and the pursuit of truth for good action and a compelling narrative.

3. I am paranoid that Harry's arguments make sense because he has made arguments that made sense in the past. This seems like lazy thinking on my part. I worry that this laziness is inevitable as justification is sacrificed for narrative expediency, and that this sacrifice opposes the methods of rationality.

It's a thought provoking an interesting story, keep it up.

There is one point that confuses me, however: this section is called "The Stanford Prison Experiment". Obviously, it's about a prison, but I haven't seen much discussion of how the prison atmosphere has shaped the attitudes and behaviors of the wardens or the prisoners. Or, for that matter, Harry and Quirrel. There is a hierarchy to the cells, but Bella is placed in the lowest cell because she's an insane death eater, not as a result of a show of dominance by the guards. It seems that all of the prisoners are in permanent solitary confinement and there doesn't seem to be any collaboration or even communication between them. I know that's all we saw from the books, but it really doesn't seem to look like anything you would find in a real prison. I was also hoping to that Harry would get a chance to see the other Black, while they're at it.

Well, at least it's not as much of a cliffhanger this time... (I mean, a dozen Dementors, pfft.)

Anyway, speculation time again. Quirrelmort, having enough of Quirrel still in him, plotting in a corner of his mind to get himself in Azkaban using a plot plausible to his inner Voldemort, opportunistically escalating the situation with One-Hand on purpose, knowing that Harry would have a major reaction to that and get their operation in trouble.

Why? Well, where in the world would there be a better chance to get exposed to Dementors good and proper, even going in quite prepared? Either having been forcibly possessed or having some regrets after the fact, Quirrel hopes to get rid of his inner Voldemort, whom he knows to be much more susceptible to the Dementors' influence.

Or, you know, something else. Hopefully we'll see soon enough ;]

Super cool. I must say that I wasnt convinced at first, I mean Intelligent-Harry! is normally so far-fetched that it doesn't work but now I can't stop reading! STOP! I should be studying but NO you keep adding chapters! And then you have the gall to finish almost ALL of them with CLIFFHANGERS!

I hate/love you.

Don't you dare stop/continue.

Queue ominous music.

Looking forward to the next chapter!

Excellent, as always, yet I worry about where Harry is going after this.

He's up against the Aurors, if he wins this, I don't think anyone can take the possibility of him losing seriously anymore. Granted, this means he might just go straight to Showy Invincible Hero, because I can't wait to see what happens next, but I'm not sure this is what you're going for.

If Professor McGonagall had gone to Mary's Place and not found Harry there, she would probably have sent her Patronus to Harry again. I can think of three reasons why she hasn't done so:

1. She found Harry at Mary's Place, or somewhere along the way or nearby, and is now (for some value of now) communicating with him in person.

2. She has been accosted at Mary's Place (or elsewhere) and is unable to contact Harry. I can't really imagine even Quirrel managing to distract her from finding Harry with her consent, so this would mean that she is in trouble at least temporarily.

3. The author didn't think of it.

In my opinion 2 is not very likely because that's just too many balls in the air for this stage of the story. We're busy with Azkaban. I'm sure SOMETHING interesting is going on at McGonagall's end, whatever made her so worried...but rescuing McGonagall just doesn't feel like it belongs on Harry's agenda today.

No interesting conclusions follow from 3 so I'll ignore it.

1 is evidence that Harry makes it to Mary's Place. Although it's conceivable that Harry was found elsewhere and she was immediately summoned there, the only person I can see doing that is Dumbledore, and even then it's not very likely. She's not his Head of House. If the Aurors found him, they'd probably (eventually) fetch Dumbledore and/or Flitwick. So if she's communicating with him in person, it's probably because he met with her directly, and that probably happened at Mary's Place. Although merely being at Mary's Place doesn't mean Harry was successful at all of his objective, it is *a* success, and McGonagall of all adults is most likely to act in Harry's best interests.

In short, I think the fact that McGonagall has not contacted Harry a second time is 75% likely to be a good sign.

I wonder how many here are considering doing an Eric Cartman/Buck Rogers and freezing themselves because they can't take the suspense until the next chapters?

JDro

"Oh, and what would General Chaos do? Two words: Prison Riot."

Exactly my thought.

AAAGHH WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN? Why do you do this to meeeeeeeee? /end self-entitled rant. Okay. Your story/novel/work is AMAZING. I love it. I was gripped from the first chapter, and I am absolutely dying to find out what happens! :)

Anvil Chorus? Do you mean Kafka Comedy?

/Main/KafkaKomedy

This is quite a bit lighter and softer than a real Kafka Comedy, but so are most of the examples on the page.

Anyway, good set of chapters so far, but the whole "randomly figures out the invisibility cloak is a hollow" is not great writing. Don't do that again. You said yourself that a rational hero does not work through an opaque process.

My thoughts about the title:

What roles is harry playing? Both to Bella and to himself? What is the narrative HE is using for his actions? How will this affect his view of magical Britain going forward?

Solid story, but I don't really know what any of this has to do with the Stanford Prison Experiment.

At any rate. I went back over your P NP thing. You can solve NP-Hard problems like this (yay). It's still not P NP, because you 1) Take constant time and 2) Call an oracle which has access to infinite time. Also, I saw why it doesn't need infinite time turner turns. Nice. That said, you *really* need to pick an NP-hard problem (factoring isn't) of variable length.

Damn! Can't the cloak fit both of them?

But then again, only so many constrains you can add...

/

This is wonderfully clever and gripping. I love it. :)

The last two chapters were decent..

The writing is good, but it's part 6 of the same "sub-story" and it's getting a little too much.

Btw, is the person the Demenators can sense who isn't a prisoner the auror that was stunned in part 4?

Brilliant.

nice fic

Aaaargh.

'There was a lurch in Harry's mind, like his brain had taken one step to the left, or the universe had taken one step to the right.'

It's the pelvic thrust that really drives you insane.

To be honest, I still don't think sufficient evidence has been presented to show Quirrell was making a good decision when he tried to kill the auror, though I hadn't considered the possibility that he didn't want it to be a perfect crime. That part makes sense. It still seems to be a sticking point that he could have done something more subtle to achieve that end, even if Harry has decided for the moment that he has rather more pressing puzzles to solve.

Not to be confused with "I think Quirrell was holding the idiot ball". If this was any other story, I'd think that, but here, I fully expect that additional information will come out later that will vindicate Quirrell's action as the smart one, so to speak. My original comment was mostly just comparing Quirrell's action to Harry's, and commenting that Quirrell's seemed more out of place than Harry's at that time.

Great! Awesome and great. The march into the depths, unfortunately not rescuing everyone along the way. I hope that Harry lives and the Dementors die. Why doesn't Dumbledore want Bellatrix rescued? I mean why is it so important that she dies or stays imprisoned more than the ordinary criminal.

Awesome update. I liked seeing Harry's brain working through an impossible problem (well, nearly impossible!). My continued thanks for giving us an amazing story.

P.S. I see you changed it from Bermuda to Tahiti. Any reason for that?

Long time reader, first time reviewer here. I'm loving this current arc: seriously compelling drama. Particularly with the piling on of conflict and problems for Harry: you know the craft of telling a story.

I love the detailed sowing of hints. The current arc has been both the fulfillment of several things from before, and raised a number of interesting questions.

On the fulfillment side, I wouldn't have guessed it would be so important that Harry know Dumbledore's opinion of Death; and the introduction of Harry's turbo-Patronus and Parseltongue were both interesting enough in their own right that I had no idea they were going to be put to such awesome use. I don't quite remember what the riddle about evading the gaze of Death was from, but I'm prepared to believe that also was nicely set up.

And then we have the intriguing unanswered questions raised by the current arc. If Quirrell isn't an heir of Slytherin, and didn't gain his Parseltongue by being a snake animagus, then how does he have it? Why does Dumbledore consider it so vital that Bellatrix Black not escape? How much does McGonagall suspect of what's going on, and particularly Quirrell?

What's the identity of the crying woman (that Harry realised)? My guess is the mother of that Slytherin kid who was being bullied, but I thought she'd been in Azkaban for a while. I imagine the mention of "my children" is meant to help us realise who she is – either that or seed for a future twist.

What's Harry's "excessively Gryffindor" plan? Does it involve marching straight into the central Dementor pit? I'm looking forward to the revelation of that :)

Even beyong appreciation of the carefully plotted and layered nature of the fic, the Azkaban arc has just been an awesome read. The duel between Quirrell and the Auror was awe-inspiring. And it's such fun to watch Harry working to solve problems under constraints.

The one piece of criticism I might offer of the current arc is that when Harry's had the realisation of the power of his Hallow, and is walking along beside Bellatrix, he comes across as a bit over-powered. Being able to see through the Invisibility Cloak purely by the power of insight? I mean, I'm sure it's a useful ability plot-wise, but that didn't seem very justified within what rules we've seen magic following so far. And the healing of his "dark" side's fear of death seemed a bit too easy as well.

However, even if Chapter 56 ends with Harry seeming a bit too powerful, I have no doubt the future twists will reverse all that before too long :)

Keep up the good work!

Did Harry just redeem a part of Voldemort's soul

Eli, you ain't nothing if not ambitious.

Oh, and what would General Chaos do? Two words: Prison Riot.

Gaaaah!

Hmm.. Healed Harry! Unitary Harry!

He will be immensely stronger than before, that's for sure. He's also really screwed. Nothing changes that.

The most insanely gryffindorish thing I could imagine him doing or saying will be to threaten breaking the statute of secrecy or threatening to kill a dementor (and demonstrating it) But nothing changes for Bellatrix here. So what was he planning on doing?

I notice that I'm confused, really confused! But awesome, awesome story till now!

I wonder what it means, that Harry "left part of himself behind." It usually doesn't amount to anything tangible in works of fiction, but this is the sort of story where I can imagine it adding up - where I can imagine some reckoning of total potential further down the line, and the temptation of various kinds of vampirism, as more and more gets "left behind."

Harry's actions in and before Azkaban strike me as somewhat out of character, but even more as those of a person confronting problems entirely outside their experience... and his mystical realizations are more problematic for the rationalist premise than are his sometimes rash or ill-considered actions.

Anyway, I don't care because I'm invested in the characters at this point. And I note that Harry's impulses here are exactly consonant with canon Hermione's observation in OoTP that he has "a thing about rescuing people."

Another Marvel of a chapter. Simply wow!

Oh wow, this arc is oh so interesting. (Harry having so many significant moments. But I guess he has to.)

Can't wait to see how you get us out of this one.

For those who are interested in such things: I've made all 56 chapters of MoR into a book-like PDF. Mine differs from Bogdan Botaru's in that I've combined all the multi-part web-chapters into individual book-chapters, which is why the chapter count of my PDF is only 39. This PDF can be downloaded from here:

/~

Cookie Brilliance!

Also, some minor dissent-

This is my second reading of the chapter, and this time through you've apparently edited it to keep the tension at a steady(ish) level as opposed to rising sharply and falling off.

I disagree with the readers who disliked that.

I LIKED the original pace changes. Its the way brains (or mine) at least work- they can freak out about something and calm down very quickly after the something is solved or dismissed.

And I don't think you should have to hold to the silly narrative idea that all characters in a scene should be doing similar things, with a similar tone, or to a similar tempo.

I LOVED that the grim auror teams were systematically sweeping throiugh the tower like magical SWAT teams whilst Dumbledore was solo-mystic-protagonisty and Harry was juggling and switching between his ever-diversifying brain patterns.

The pace changes were fun! (to me)

Of course, I may be out voted-

and even the majority view may be moot!-

this is after all, a dictatauthorship (all hail!)

.

(If Mrs. Norris is sealed in a box with a basilisk, and the basilisk may or may not be asleep...)

Holy cow, this entire series: Incredible.

I wish there could have been more tie-in to the subject matter of the actual stanford prison experiments in this chapter.

Awesome!

Another great chapter!

I think the "Anvil Chorus" description is apt. While I think Midshipman's Hope is a great example, I felt the sequel, Challenger's Hope was much more grueling.

I think this storyline occupies a place held by both Goblet of Fire and Order of The Phoenix in the original novel series. Like GoF we are at such a crucial turning point that nothing could ever be the same after this. Like OoTP we see Harry stuck in an utter mess where everything that could possibly go wrong, has, and he has to decide who he really is since he has nothing left. Unfortunately, novel!Potter was at least on the right side, whereas our hero is on the verge of his Heel Realization. I don't think he'll ever get a straight answer out of his dark mentor, since I think the Voldy part of Quirrell got killed by the rebounding killing curse.

Rowling made a massive mistake in the novels with the tone and content of Half-Blood Prince; thinking that she could us one last outing, where we'd care about things like marks and Quidditch. The novels had grown up since Goblet of Fire, and the attempt to recapture that old atmosphere was really jarring. I'm hoping LessWrong doesn't make the same mistake with the chapters following this storyline.

Good chapter.

Here's what I think we know:

-Quirrel is Voldemort

-Dark Harry is a Voldemort horcrux. This helps explain Harry's extreme intelligence, as well as his unknowingly correct guesses about the other horcruxes.

-The sense of doom is some kind of interference effect of having two living Voldemorts too close.

-That's also why the reaction between Harry's patronus and Quirrel's Avada Kedavra was so strong and painful to them both.

-Harry knew about the flask they left in Bellatrix's cell, so he must think it is kind of red herring - perhaps an empty flask of poison which they want any suspicious guards to think was smuggled in, perhaps some form of poison which would have produced any anomalous symptoms of the doll-corpse on autopsy.

-Harry has less than an hour to finish the plan and get out, because even the readers, even the author, cannot face the unthinkable horror of getting caught in that big a lie by McGonagal.

Here's what I guess:

-Dumbledore is hiding something about Bellatrix

-Quirrel had several scenarios plotted out for the rescue, dependinding on what came up. He at least had plans for a no-hitches success; for being intercepted by an Auror and getting off with a bribe; for dueling an Auror, killing them, and continuing the mission over Harry's objections; and for dueling an Auror, killing them, and Harry's objections somehow aborting the mission. However, I don't think he planned for what actually seems to be the likely result - not killing the auror, who is then obliviated, being put out of commission himself, the aurors discovering the escape, and Harry nevertheless successfully completing the mission. You can't blame him, it's totally improbable result.

-It seems likely, then, that Quirrel's overall goals included the eventual discovery of the breakout, and not a "perfect crime". Thus, the glass flask is perhaps not the red herring Harry thinks it is, but a clue which would in fact lead to further nearly- correct suspicion.

-An escape plan which is very "gryffindor", does not require either Patronus 2.0 or the super-Hallow cloak - that must mean bullying it out through the Dementors somehow, but without destroying (m)any of them. Of course, Harry might still quickly dispatch the ones which come upon him sooner, but otherwise make some sort of a run for it out the bottom. Perhaps he will disguise himself as a dementor, though that of course presents several problems of its own.

-The story will end happily. Therefore, Voldemort will be either turned to the light, or defeated. Since I don't see how anybody, including Harry, would tolerate him not being punished, no matter how light he went, I think defeated. Yet there's also almost no way that all those well-hidden and inaccessible horcruxes will all be destroyed in this book. So, Voldemort will be somehow stripped of his powers and punished by a post-dementor wizardly justice system, but of course not before offering Harry a bona fide moral dilemma. Basically, since he's so badass, I think that the in-world most probable ways for him to lose would include never regaining his wand, but dramatically, he must be in his full powers and brought down by a miscalculation. He's too smart to just forget about the possibility of altruism like a normal villain, so I think he'll make one of the mistakes that Dragon and Chaos armies have made in underestimating Sunshine. So, say, Q will misjudge Harry, the conflict will build to a point where Q is just barely defeating Harry, but he'll have discounted the initiative of some more-minor character(s) (Draco and Hermione?).

-But of course the surest prediction anyone can make is that this story will continue to surprise all its readers.

absolutely love your interpretation of the dementors and Harry's feelings on death - a rational person rejects it as the natural order. please continue writing, this is one of a few stories I follow avidly.

Happy Writing,

Another amazing update! Harry was pretty dumb to keep trying to get out uncaught. He should have explained the situation to Professor McGonagal when he had the chance, and relied on her to understand his mistake and help him get out of trouble. And it should be clear that attempting to wake up Professor Quirrell is a bad idea now that Harry knows that Quirrell not only tried to kill an auror, but also must have lied to him about not intending to leave any traces. Both are in-character mistakes for him to make though, and I suppose under as much pressure as Harry is, it would be unreasonable to expect perfect play. The Anvil Chorus comparison does seem fitting. I'm exited to find out how this plays out.

words will always fail to convey just how much I adore this piece of pure genius, so I will not even try...:)

please update as soon as possible!

thank you:)

Gaah! Nice was to end the chapter. Again!

Anyway, it's a fascinating dance of measures and counter-measures that's going on there. I can't wait to see the rest.

As always, thanks for the great work! Please update soon.

Introducing Inferies already, tHAT4S GOOD!

It seems to me that Harry has already decided that when he gets down to the lowest level, where he is closest to most of the dementors, he will attempt to kill all of them, even if it costs him his own life to pour that much of his life force through his anthropoid patronus.

Now we will see just how good the author is at getting himself out of the corner he has painted himself into, with Harry and Quirrell and Belatrix trapped in the lower levels of Azkaban. I think the author has shown himself to be pretty good at plotting so far. He may be able to pull it off. But: Will Harry wind up getting caught? Will Belatrix escape? Will Quirrell escape-and if not, what becomes of Voldemort, who we assume is inhabiting Quirrell based on the original JKR novel?

Could it be that Harry will succeed in annihilating all the dementors-and himself survive the doing of it-and then that this will change the magical conditions prevailing in Azkaban and make it possible for Harry and company to use their portkeys to escape? If Harry does kill all the dementors, then it would not be such a bad thing to leave Belatrix in Azkaban. Perhaps Quirrell/Voldemort will decide to leave Bellatrix in prison, since he does not love her, and there may be a limit to the number of people who can use the portkey(s). Or perhaps during the final escape, it will be necessary for Harry to touch Quirrell/Voldemort, which will mean the destruction of Quirrell, and the remnant of Voldemort wafting away-as in the first novel. Then Harry could leave Bellatrix, knowing the dementors are gone.

Dumbledore and McGonagall know Harry is able to kill a dementor, so they will realize the destruction of all the dementors guarding Azkaban must have been his doing. But as long as Bellatrix does not escape, they will probably keep his secret.

Quirrell's secret hosting of Voldemort will have to come out at this point or shortly thereafter, at least to Harry, Dumbledore, and McGonagall.

So, what's Dumbledore up to? Dumbledore is billed as "the obvious expert" - presumably on dementors and patronuses? Perhaps he also noticed the same thing as Quirrell: the dementors were blind to Harry's Patronus v2. So, Emmeline's message gave him enough information to suspect that Harry is involved - confirmed when he asks "Is there another Patronus still present".

Dumbledore actually suspects that Harry will dismiss his Patronus, and he isn't disappointed when this happens. But this could only happen because Quirrell was unconscious at this point. So far I can only think of one explanation for all of this:

Quirrell and Dumbledore planned this whole outing together, as an opportunity for Harry to get some on-the-job training.

That only leaves one problem to solve: how is Harry going to escape? Harry hatched the plan before he knew he could dismiss his Patronus and cloak Bella. In fact - "if it's that easy, why hasn't anyone broken out of Azkaban before" - ie. anyone can do it, without using a Patronus v2.

Does Azkaban have fire exits?

All I can say is, "Bravo!" You answered so many questions and restored my faith in your authorial narrative. Now I can read with interest and anticipation, and not dread.

There are these hanging threads - why did Quirrel turn into his animagus? Why was he enervated? What was Quirrel REALLY planning on doing with Bellatrix, once she was freed?

What's going on with McGonagall, Snape and the Philosopher's Stone? Why isn't Flitwick clever enough to pick up on anything going on in his House? Is Harry's power of partial transfiguration going to help him in this, or any other, escapade? What happened to Harry and Draco's investigation of what happened to Narcissa Malfoy? Who is Harry's mysterious benefactor, anyway? Which team did Blaise Zabini end up on after the two generals decided to no longer accept traitors? What about Harry's father's rock?

haha, Harry is so dead. Do you HAVE an actual plan for him or are you just making it up as you go along, too? I do sincerely hope that he'll see the truth about Quirrell now. I'm sure if he could only let himself be found by Dumbeldore and stick to the story of his kidnapping he might get away unscathed.

heidi

I've been keeping up with the story. Another good group of chapters.

Can't wait to see how he gets out of this one! I've really enjoyed this story to the point where it's made me cringe at parts of Rowling's version that I now see as being a bit irrational.

Thanks so much for this!

Oh, I beg you to update soon, I'm looking forward to this!

what a great chapter! This is ridiculously exciting!

It just gets better and better - for us readers :) - for Harry and company... not so much. Also, nice to have some competent aurors show up for a change :)

I think this story might be the modern-day equivalent to the serials of Dickens, which had the Victorians so obsessed that crowds would gather in the streets to learn the fate of Little Nell. Can't wait for the next update.

Poor Harry. I can't believe he actually managed to solve that last problem. The cookie bit made me smile. XD

i loved it!

being Ill all weekend and reading this his made me fell better

if i was harry i wood of gon to the auror saying HELP i being attack and as the BOY WHO LIVE THEY WOOD all love to save me and if could get out that i could kill Dementor or 2 all the better

GOOOD can kill Dementor

bad Live next to Dementor

I did love Amelia in this

and he could of hid Bellatrix but sending hur back to hur cell saying you can hur back in a week or 2

best stoary of 2010

PS tk for that Twilight storys got to the end of it on fridays just in time for a new updats from you but then being came ILLL poo old me

Keep up the good work

hop to see some Hermione time soon

Harry is going to murder those dementors.

Wow! Fantastic story! Very well done!

That lucky son of a bitch

I cannot wait to see how he gets out of this one. Or, if he does at all. :D

Creepy chapter but good!

Your thinking is innovative, and I love that I can never really predict what will happen next.

-Grace

Better and better. I can't seem to get enough of this. Well done!

As much as I'm enjoying this story, I just have to wonder... Why can't Harry just get under the cloak with Bellatrix? If it's big enough for three eleven-year-olds (as demonstrated many, many times in Philosopher's Stone), it's definitely big enough for one eleven-year-old and one emaciated adult.

Thanks for mentioning thestrals! They are some of my favorite creatures from the books.

Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.

I think that says it all.

Harry is a little miracle worker. He is also completely screwed.

This is getting better and better! Amazing twists and deep insights and really well written. I am really thrilled to know how this one pans out.

That dark side, I'm not sure what to make of it. It's such a logical problem solver, so it can't be his irrational side, but I guess some part of Harry must have "comprehended" death to feel so strongly about life. Still, well done on this chapter, even if things are spiraling out of control. Dumbledore isn't stupid, he'll probably have it all figured out that it was Harry, but nonetheless it never really seemed like the dark side was part of Harry before, but after this chapter, I can see the dark side being just another subset of Harry's mind. Eagerly awaiting for the next chapter!

Thank you for writing!

The way your mind works is very different from mine. It is fascinating to see things more your way than mine.

by the way, is Harry developing dissociative identity disorder? I was always very careful with my dark side not to think of it too often as a separate entity, lest it become one. Harry almost has two people in his head (well, rather, six: ordinary Harry, Darkside Harry, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin).

I also wouldn't be surprised if some PTSD symptoms developed from the trip to Azkaban. Sure, he's got his super-humanist happy thoughts, but there's got to be an emotional toll from hearing all those screams (and especially leaving that one woman behind). Harry's going to need some serious psychological treatment after this...

And suddenly, the Harry I missed has returned. He's starting to question everything again, which I don't think he's really properly done in some time. I really loved these last two chapters.

I feel like this chapter should really be named "On the perils of letting your opponents know that the game is being played", but that's too long and not entirely rationality-related. On the other hand, the Stanford Prison Experiment connection seems very sketchy beyond the setting, so meh.

Also, re: "To anyone who assumed Professor Quirrell was holding the Idiot Ball, you reeaaally need to have a little more trust in your author."

Sorry, sorry, but trust in authors has been vastly eroded by authors. And I mean professional authors here, not even fanfic authors. Plus, it doesn't help that Harry seemed to be holding the Idiot Ball shortly afterwards and the Painfully-Slow Ball through the whole beginning of ch55. (And I don't think I'm even being biased by OOC knowledge in that.)

Wow. Can't wait for the next chapter. Love your hilarious excerpts, oh Professor McGonagall... Thanks for this, I loved it!

-curledruler

Awesome chapter can't wait to read what happens next

Will Harry get caught?

That was pretty cool. Now all Harry needs to do is withstand a dozen dementors...! I look forward to seeing how many sweets his brain gets for that one.

It is hard to make a story with so little action epic, you sir have managed it magnificently.

Loved the cookie bit.

The simplest solution is often the best: just walk out the front door, not like they bother to lock the thing.

i begin to be concerned that harry actually has some form of MPD... or, his 'dark side' might be the horcrux in him, assuming that is something carrying over from canon. either way, this clear divide is rather unsettling.

In chapter 52, I was able to empathize with Harry. I felt what he was feeling. And the feelings were was surprisingly intense. But in the next chapters the story just started getting too unrealistic, and Harry became an impossibly superpowered character, and I lost my emotional connection with him. This was a constant problem throughout the rest of the story too, but the problem is especially egregious in this story arc. And the impossibly-superpoweredness kept escalating. Chapter 52 was vaguely plausible. Chapter 53 might have been plausible, if Harry had a lot of time to prepare. Chapter 54 was only slightly less realistic than chapter 53. And I thought that after Chapter 54, this story arc was over. Harry failed at his mission, and just had to keep from losing his mind entirely before the aurors found him and he had to face the consequences of his actions. But then in chapter 55, he made a miraculous recovery. Noone could recover like that. Not even Eliezer Himself could recover like that. From then on, this wasn't a story about a real person, it was a story about an impossibly superpowered character, and the story lost almost all of its emotional impact. I still think Harry should have just given up, and turned himself in to the aurors. I don't see how this could possibly end well, and Harry's actions in chapters 54 and 55 are just making things a whole lot worse. But this is a story, and so of course it's going to end well, no matter how stupid or reckless the protagonist seems to be acting. It's still an awesome story though, it's just that the suspension of disbelief is gone. But that's just my opinion. Your Mileage May Vary.

Awesome. Awesome awesome awesome x-a-million-cajillion-googleplex (okay, that may be a slight exaggeration..) I can't wait to hear what General Chaos came up with. I bet it'd make Eris proud.

"Will you remember it, should it depart and come again?"

I get the feeling that in another 5 chapters, after most of the fiasco has all blown over and been forgotten, this will become very important.

"Amelia turned and glared toward Dumbledore, then, daring him to argue; but the old wizard only looked at her a bit sadly, and held his peace."

I bet he knows about Bellatrix too, and never did anything about it. Jerk.

Cookie for Harry's mind!

So we're looking for a part 7 now are we? Harry VS Dementors without a Patronus.

Also I found it rather unlikely that Harry still believed there actually was a mind healer at the other end of the portkey.

I am wondering though...what in the world was Quirrelmort thinking?

And he keeps going deeper...

Yeah, you made me feel sorry for Bella too. :(

Very very impressive. I started reading a while back and cant wait for the next update after each reading. The story started out very jolly and light-hearted, and the transition to deep cleverness and powerful rationality and from there to adventure as with Stanford Prison or most of the battles was very well managed. It's pleasing and important that you can bring out new aspects of the story and new ways of seeing the characters without loosing the ability to go back. (This is one sense where I prefer MoR to the original stories, when JKR went dark around book 5 she couldn't come back again).

The characters are nothing like the originals, but they're not meant to be, a universe with a HJPEV in it is very different to a universe without one in. The depth of your characterisation is very pleasing, it's nice being inside Draco's head rather than have him as a faceless villain. Understanding the universe of Harry Potter from a much more morally ambiguous angle is a lot more interesting than the simple good/evil distinction. And Harry's labels for moral concepts are a very interesting way of expressing this. Good/evil, light/dark, Slytherin/Hufflepuff really are different things and it's good that you've developed a good vocabulary to express them.

HJPEV is an unbelievably strong character, it will be interesting to see what you do with him (and more importantly with Dumbledore/Lucius/Quirrelmort) to stop him sliding towards Marty Stu territory.

All in all this is fantastic, please keep it up.

Shouldn't the Aurors had asked about other prisoners, to establish a control/baseline? It means very different things if only Bellatrix is unknowable versus if everyone is.

This entire sequence has been riveting thus far. I am thrilled to see the Deathly Hallows take on more significance. The idea of Harry's dark side perhaps coming over to the light because Harry's good side offered acceptance and comfort was just spot on for the kind of goodness Harry wants to achieve.

I will be pining away until the next posting.

I was wondering when Harry would remember that little shred of info.

It would be very useful to Harry if he could use his Patronus like a stand right now.

When will Professor Riddle wake up he's no pansy he's still breathing. Unless an ak rebound is a slow and painful death instead an instant kill.

"The Dark Lord must have been... *evil* doesn't seem like a strong enough word, he must have been *empty*... to not appreciate her loyalty"

You have hit the nail on the head! What really struck me as making canon!Voldemort an irredeemable douchebag wasn't all the genocidal hatred, the callous killing and sadistic torture (these are not particularly remarkable traits in villains, fictional or otherwise) - no, it was when he killed Snape (whom he thought to be totally loyal) in his attempt to master the Elder Wand. He had no inkling that Snape was Dumbledore's spy. To Voldemort, Snape had been singularly useful, had achieved more for the cause than his devoted Bellatrix, and had earned, beyond all other Death Eaters, some reward from the hand of his master. For his reporting of the prophecy, for his (ostensible) spying on Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix, for his killing of Dumbledore when Draco failed (as intended), for over two decades of service - his reward was an unceremonious death on the end of Nagini's fangs, delivered with the premeditation of meticulous planning, and the calm of utter uncaring. Perhaps it's my own funny sense of honour, but even if I were a villain I could not imagine meting out such treachery upon those who had served me loyally. It's so...COLD.

While I will never be convinced by your interpretation of Dementors as Death rather than Depression as intended by J K Rowling, it was worth it to go along with your version just to have it tie in so neatly with the legend of the Peverill brothers and the specfic wording of the Deathly Hallows mythology.

Interesting that Cloaked Bella can be seen by Harry. I assume this is because he is the Cloak's current rightful owner? Or is it because he guessed the riddle of the Thestral blood, or is it because he understands Death/Dementors/Patronuses better than anyone ever has? Initially I read the sentence "Bellatrix within the Cloak was plain to his vision now, even as one who comprehends Death may see Thestrals" as "MoR!Cloak's wearer can be seen by those who can see Thestrals" but on reading again I see it's just an analogy. If Thestral-seers were also Cloaked-seers, this would have been any number of the older wizards and witches, and rendered the Cloak quite unreliable for its mundane and most common purpose of granting invisibility to the human eye, and especially for shielding Harry from Death Eaters, including Snape. This is evidently not the case.

I think I still instinctively breathe a sigh of relief when Dumbledore steps onto the scene because, as Harry did before discovering during the 7th book that his beloved Headmaster was not perfect and infallible, I expect him to be the god that comes out of the machine, powerful and benevolent and bailing Harry out. You would of course not allow this, and the principle is neatly encapsulated in your reminder of who our protagonist is.

I was being tongue in cheek when I mused in a previous review that "lead pipe legilimency" might be "a euphemism for beating someone about the head with a lead pipe until they fess up" and now I am very amused to find that my half-joke was in fact the intended reading. Happily, your wording got your meaning across even though the "rubber-hose cryptanalysis" reference went right over my head and I still don't know who Bruce Schneier is.

"To anyone who assumed Professor Quirrell was holding the Idiot Ball, you reeaaally need to have a little more trust in your author."

I trust you about as far as I can throw you. P But I think you misinterpret. Not to speak for everyone, but I think that many of the comments along the lines of "wow can't believe Quirrellmort would do something so stupid" were expressions of disbelief at an action that seems so out of character and out of keeping with the purported plan. We are still scratching our heads wondering just how this is going to turn out to be a Xanatos gambit on the part of Quirrelmort, and it takes quite outlandish speculation to reconcile his Avada Kedavra with what we /assumed/ was the plan. It makes more sense for us to say, "This is a strange of turn of events. I do not currently see a way to explain this or for him to get out of this mess." than for us to get meta and say "This must be part of the plan all along because Quirrellmort is a genius, and the author deity will write his way out" (which is no in-story reasoning at all).

Dinosaurusgede's work is awesome as always (Praise the Art Lord!). It does occur to me though, that his Azkaban is one in which Bella's cell contains a bed for her, which seems to me slightly kinder than the Azkaban of MoR. I still want to know what is that bottle Quirrell left in her empty cell!

Several rationality ideas reiterated in this installment, and as a student it's always good to get some revision.

Just to nitpick, in chapter 55 there is one 't' too many in

"The words came out a litttle halting"

and a wording oddity in chapter 55 has already been pointed out by reviewer Math and Chaos.

I have genuinely not felt like this about a book in years... You know that urge you sometimes get after you pick up a book to read the whole thing? I have been reading and have enjoyed many books, but I can only barely recall this *need* for more. Your writing is brilliant, thank you for posting this online. And yes, I do hate the fact that this is not a finished piece and so I can't just breeze through it... but I guess that is for the best :)

Hoping to hear more on why "our Patronuses are behaving strangely" is something... familiar, important, something that needs to be reported.

Loved the bit that basically implied McGonnagal is more intimidating than a full auror squad and all/most of Britain's dementors :D And also the brain-going-to-Bermuda, you completely pulled that off ;)

Can't wait for the next instalment!

I am so awed by these last few chapters. You've really brought the entire story together, now, and I'm waiting with bated breath for the next chapter.

And the patronus talks. Funny that.

Somehow, I think it might have more to say, if harry will only ask it.

Harry's brain gets a cookie. _

Very nice.

Whoooo!

...MORE!

I like the idea that it is the fragment of Voldemort (I'm assuimg that is what Harry's dark side is, anyway) that accounts for Harry's susceptibility to dementors.

Very very very impressed. Just had a marathon with a friend to see who finished this first and I am proud to say I won by a mile.

I was momentarily caught off guard earlier in the story when you revealed that in your verse Black was in fact of a homosexual persuasion, which is quite possibly the furthest thing from my own perception of him as you could get. However, I have confidence in your brilliance as an author that all will be explained and you will quite cunningly use this plot bunny to your advantage.

I do believe this is one of my favourite stories of all time, and I have indeed learned much from your never-ending wisdom! I do dearly hope that I shall one day read published novels of yours and aspire to be as astounding in skill as you.

Whoops, I seem to be getting ahead of myself in my flattery! So, instead, let us say that it was in fact bribery to... update soon?

Not Bermuda.

From memory, here, but certainly still googleable:

I don't know about your brain,

but mine is really

bossy.

I come home from a day on the golf course

and my brain says to me

why don't you get a real job

or

you and what army

or

get a horse

and then I hear this voice

coming from the back of my head

yeah

uh-huh

it's my brain again

and when my brain talks to me

he says

take me out to the ballgame

take me

out to the park

take me to the movies

'cause I love

to sit in the dark

take me out on the town tonight

'cause I know

the new hot spot

take me to

Tahiti

'cause I love

to be HOT

The answer is, Tahiti. Fully appropriate for a retconning, it's just a matter of changing one word.

Problem, well, not a problem, but a curiosity-

In the Prisoner of Askaban, Dumbledore says that Dementors can see through invisibility cloaks. At that point in canon, we didnt know that Harry's cloak is a super-Hallow-cloak, but Dumbledore did.

Are we to take it that Dumbledore was telling a misleading truth?

This superchapter has been IMO best out of the chapters so the last which really showed the power of Harrys rationality.

Magnificent.

You have a distinct penchant for ending weekends on cliffhangers, but things are looking up for Team Harry relative to end-of-chapter-54 at least.

In hindsight, nice hints in Chapter 51 to the effects of the cloak. I was really confused by how it could be that the cloak protects you from Dementors and yet the Dementors almost get Harry at end-of-54, beginning-of-55... until I realized that Harry takes off the cloak when Bahry tells him to lose the invisibility... yeah. One of the most excellent things about this story is that, thus far, when I'm confused by the plot it's because I haven't read carefully enough or don't have all the information yet, not because the world is inherently confusing.

Just when it seems like Harry can't catch a break in this adventure...! I love how he uses rationalization to overcome Dementation. Fantastic chapters. Please write more soon!

~fd97

Another great chapter.

I'm too tired to say anything more complicated than good chapter and omg cliffie. Thank you for the update.

If there are more then one Harry (due to time turners) at one time how does the patronus choose which one to go to?

Cliff Hangers... why is it always cliffhangers... Through Sirius was next to Bellatrix in the Prison, interested to see if something comes to that.

I really cant wait to find out what will happen next. Good work.