if i were harry, i'd have found it strange that there was no evidence of *anything*, like the supposed cheating which occurred during the fight. if the testimony were true, there would have been some evidence of this *somewhere* and it would have been the first lead. right?

My favorite character is Fred or George, but I'm not sure which one

I just now noticed that "cold-blooded murder" is a pun; the murder supposedly involved *blood-cooling*. Ha!

...WOW. This chapter was absolutely MASTERFUL. Incredibly engaging and well-written, but the best part is that all characters are perfectly written and believable. The only small thing that bothers me is how RUDE Harry is to Dumbledore ("...are you STUPID"); I don't care whether or not he happens to be right - his impertinence is very grating. That said, this chapter is easily as good as the best of the canon and much better than most.

WHAT could possibly be going on with SNAPE though? I will not conclude he has anything to do with this yet, as that would stray way too far outside canon. I also love the many references to actual events in the original series. I had also strongly suspected that Dumbledore was indeed the one to give Harry the cloak in this AU as well, so he could size him up. I really hope the rest of the book is this good.

correction: you can do things that are though to be impossible.

I noticed that you continue to use key plot points from throughout the series and it is definitely appreciated. What an amazing, baffling development!

Somethin is wrong. Harry has a point, but not evidence. And the justice in the magic world is not the best.

Damn, Hermione just... went to sleep and planned to carry on? Cooooold but impressive.

Hm. Magic seems to be classical mechanical in nature. The question would be how this would into reality in a logical way, without violating the laws of physics.

The Fate references. I've already spotted three.

HOLY MOTHER FUCKING SHIT! I can't not believe you actually went there Lee! HOLY MOTHER FUCKING SHIT! This is excellent. This is something I was expecting but not quite like this.

So obviously from my last review (ch 40) I have continued to read this plot of your yours Lee. After all I NEVER said that I didn't find it enjoyable ... I just pointed out my honest thoughts was all.

But I do plan on reading this story to the end.

"Professor Quirrell?" said Harry. "What motive does he have to -"

Misery loves company, no more so than cynics, especially one they perceive as smart as themselves.
Here I was thinking that was a common phrase.

Sometimes there is no easy way out.

Awwww nu

Oh, I do hope Quirrel is Voldemort. I abhor stories with strictly black and white characters.

So Dumbledore did send the notes but Harry didn't know it's him ...
I continue to love Minerva.

Fred and George still are hilarious and made me chuckle.

This chapter is really intense and I love that.

Einwill: [ As it was already mentioned in a review above, Harry do knew how to send a message backward in time for more than 6 hours. He's already done this once to avoid being pinpointed as the culprit of Black's escape, hasn't he? ]

Nope. When Harry was suspected of misusing his Time Turner (which in fact he had done), he was instructed to send a message back 6 hours, from 9 PM to 3 PM. He accomplished this by using the remaining charge of his own Time Turner, plus 5 charges from someone else's, paid in cash through the Slytherin onion-routing message system. There was no violation of the 6 hour limit.

Enzwelva: [ Why not just cast priori incantatum on Hermione's wand to find out if it was the one that cast the Blood-Cooling Charm? ]

That was my thought too, but I doubt the Wizengamot would care. They'd likely find some excuse to do whatever Lucius Malfoy tells them they want to do.

Quirrel: [ "You are making highly questionable assumptions," the Defense Professor said with an edged voice. "What makes you think I did not steal his body outright using incredibly Dark magic?" ]

Bwa ha ha!

Professor Quirrell not being the actual Professor Quirrell? Le gasp. I am surprised.
I'm much more curious why Snape destroyed the letters. What's his goal?

Fuyuki City~~
ISWYDT

Wow, so Draco was indeed attacked by someone and Hermione remembers she's the one who did it!

Riddle, who I'm not sure is really the bad guy in this story since he only helped Harry even when he put him in bad situations, is about to be discovered and can't help Harry right now...

And Harry is doing the best to find an answer...hopefully soon he'll have one that can help Hermione!

I love the way things are unfolding, with plots coming to light and shards of truth being revealed

Darnit...

Enter Albus Dumbedore, professor of Hogwarts, swinging around a magical piece of paper and singing the Dora the Explorer map song.

...all that ran through my mind when you were talking about thinking harder allowing you to do the impossible was "harder, better, faster, stronger" over and over again. I am curious whether or not Harry will find the Chamber of Secrets in time and how he will be able to get Hermione out of this. This ought to be goooooood. w

My favorite chapter so far.

damn :s

I was just wondering, why did Dumbledore not wake up Harry, or anyone else with a time turner to send them those few hours back, as he travelled not far enough in the past? The person could then see himself who really put the cooling-charm on Draco..

In case 1983 was meant to be when the 4th grail war was held, that actual death is 1993/1994, IIRC.

Quirrel was sorted into Ravenclaw, so may I assume then that quirrel is a stolen identity?

The only assumption I can possibly make is that the characters themselves are not out to confound the reader. You, however, as the author, are.

I'm ready to hear a lot of reveals, man.

Omg Fate/Stay Night Fate/Zero lmao

With the latest revelations about the map we now see from this chapter that Dumbledore knows more than Q thinks he does...
At the very least he knows Harry is Tom Riddle and may also suspect that Quirrel is also Tom.

Fuyuki?...are you implying our dear Defense Professor was a master in the Holy Grail War are you? ] cause that would be awesome!

Argh, Dumbledore!
Only you would take the creepy obese elf who puts things in children's socks as a role model!

It's difficult to review for this story. I like it a lot, enjoy it tremendously the cleverness and the humor but strategy isn't my forte. The recognition actually makes it a bit worse *grins*. So here's an awkward token of appreciation because the effort that brings me such enjoyment deserves a review. This is my fourth? fifth reading through and it was my first favorite I think, the reason for my FF account. I enjoy the interplay with Harry and the Malfoys the most as Harry attempts to bring them around to value new perspectives using a mix of cleverness and open honesty.

Quirrell is the bad guy...to me anyway but he makes Harry think in new ways. Harry's parents are middle class brilliant - yet oblivious - happy to say I have wonderful loving parents quite like that.

My favorite bits of this whole story will always be -Harry's questioning why the Light side hadn't simply owled hand grenades to all Death Eaters...and Hermione being discovered as a truly potent force when she gets mad ")

Not sure I get the motivations behind Snape leaving Hermione the notes (strategy remember) but Harry's feeling very frustrated right now too - and Harry may never know Snape and Dumbledore are deliberately, out of fear, destroying or hiding evidence that would help HIS investigative strategies to clear Hermione of attempted Malfoy Murder. Well on to new chapters! Thanks for the awesome story.

its good to see the quirrell is being called on his lies, if only it could have happened under less unfortunate circumstances

Why not just cast priori incantatum on Hermione's wand to find out if it was the one that cast the Blood-Cooling Charm?

think hard enough you can do the impossible.

(It had always been an article of faith with Harry. There'd been a time when he'd acknowledged the laws of physics as ultimate limitations, and now he suspected there were no true limits at all.)

If you think fast enough you can sometimes do the impossible quickly...

...sometimes.

Only sometimes.

Not always.

Not reliably.

:(

As it was already mentioned in a review above, Harry do knew how to send a message backward in time for more than 6 hours. He's already done this once to avoid being pinpointed as the culprit of Black's escape, hasn't he?

So, clearly, Harry should send a message 12 hours back. 12 hour earlier he could, for example, install a cam in the Hall to record the duel. In order to avoid time-messing he could use Obliviate to forget about cam installation. Yet, he will easily find the cam while examining the Hall while searching for any clues or evidience of the duel.

This review contains what some people may see as a SPOILER, but it is very vague. Read at your own risk.

The question Severus asks Dumbledore, if he knows any magic that can find a soul... Even without including the marauder's map, I can think of 2 from the Harry Potter universe.

The first are Owls. The magical owls that deliver the post do not seem to need any sort of directions to find the recipients of their letters. They just need a name and a letter. This is shown even more so in the original books when Harry gives letters to send to Sirius using his dog name and Hedwig is still able to deliver them to someone who is hiding from the police.
Therefore, all you need to do is drop a GPS tracker on an owl and tell them to send a letter to Tom Riddle.

The second way of finding a soul, and probably easier is with a patronous charm. Same as with an owl, the message can be sent to a person regardless of where they are. And from the chapter in this fic with the troll, we know that a patronous is able to lead its caster towards the person they are asked to find. One could ask their patronous to find Tom Riddle. It may even possible to ask the patronous to find all the horcruxes and lead you to them... but not sure about that.
It would be funny to just tell your patronous to find Tom Riddle (or anyone else) and just read the entire contents of wikipedia to him in a squeeky voice, just to annoy him.

I can think of two holes:

Why no Incantus Priori (sorry if I got that wrong) on both Draco's and Hermione's wands?

Supposedly Draco was saved from death in spite of being found so late because he was so strong; the murderer was planning on him being dead by the time he was noticed missing in the morning. Yet QQ had wards monitoring Draco's health, so although the murderer wouldn't have known that, Harry et al would have known that after the fact and not considered it mere luck that Draco was found in time and survived.

Oh god this is too painful, I cannot read any more, taking a break

A few critical remarks for Mr/Ms/Whatever Wrong's edification.

1) One of the [few] great and brilliant strengths of the *real* Harry Potter series is that Rowling has a genuine gift [a "genius" in the original meaning of the word] for inventing names. They are chosen for aesthetic as well as 'logical' reasons. They are, to put it mildly, both credible and meaningful. Not so with American fictions. For Americans the more 'esoteric' the sound of the name the more credible it seems. It's incredible, isn't it, that Americans are so taken by 'imagined' Names. "Butnaru"?

2) "Mr. Malfoy has regained consciousness in St. Mungo's and named you, Hermione Granger, as his assaulter."
And by "assaulter" you mean "assailant".

3) "surreal" - a word too much used by Americans; a defeated, jaded, useless, discarded, limp-rag of a word.

4) "neither the Potions Master or the Boy-Who-Lived " - should, of course, be "neither … NOR …"

5) "his eyes were fury and freezing ice" - uhmmm: Ice can be … frozen? You can take ice out of your fridge, and freeze it? How does that work exactly. Try being a Realist.

6) "Minerva blinked in startlement again." - 'startlement'. bogus word. bogus prose recommends itself to sophomoric 'imaginations'.

Numbering things is part of the 'art' of being a Rationalist. in fact, it's where the rationing has its origins.

I hope Butnaru gets killed. Most preferably by Harry, or cut down by Voldemort.

Been reading each night still. I figured this wasn't the real (or "real" or whatever) Quirrell, though it was interesting to hear the Auror say that Quirrell was a Ravenclaw, when OUR Quirrell is clearly a Slytherin. Hmm...

Fuyuki City? The Holy grail War?

Ah shit nigga.

Interdict of Merlin Cannot learn extremely powerful magic from books.

Voldemort made immortal by Horcrux He learned from books. (Even in THIS version of the story.)

Horcrux A type of IMMORTALITY

/ ("Not equal to" or as close as I could get anyway)

Immortality / Extremely Powerful Magic

Great story, but epic fail.

Well, this chapter confirms it. Quirinus Quirrel, the stuttering fool from canon, is dead. The coldly powerful Quirrel we have in this story is the true Voldemort - but for some reason he isn't insane.

Wait... what eleven-year-old has unmentionable items in her trunk?

I don't have much to say about this chapter, except that it perfectly illustrates the author's philosophy: "The First Law of Fanfiction states that every change which strengthens the protagonists requires a corresponding worsening of their challenges."
Brilliant. But I still expect these challenges to be overcome somehow. The alternative is inconceivable.

Oh gosh... how will this be "solved"? I am so into this reading! Thank you again for this plots Mister!

This chapter is brilliant. The low status observation is cool to, because I think it would be an awesome way to get rid of the "good is dumb", "evil is sexy", "evil is cultured" tropes.

I knew it! Those Houses are stigmatizing.

Speaking of Legilimency, how come no one ever notices Snape having read Harry's, maybe Draco's and presumably quite a few other Slytherins' minds?

Maybe it's because it's been so long since I read the preceding chapters, but I'm totally oblivious as to why Snape was feeding Hermione the bully notices. And why he's burned them up ... to protect himself, I guess.

I feel like an idiot for not getting this sooner, but The Horns Effect probably refers to the fact that many of the members of the Wizengamot have children in Hogwarts - children who wrote them letters about Hermione's SPHEW terrorizing the bullies of the school, many of whom are probably bullies themselves. Before the trial even began, before any facts of the case were discussed, a significant portion of the Wizengamot already disliked Hermione because, to them, she is the bully of their children, and Draco is merely the latest and most severe case of Hermione's fighting rampage. Therefore, they consider any evidence against Hermione to be more solid, and any evidence in her favor to be more specious, than they otherwise would, which is the way the Horns Effect bias works. They are not wallpaper, they are people, and Harry will do well to incorporate that bias into his mental model of the "Wizengamot Parent".

A Taboo Tradeoff would be for Harry to take credit for manipulating Hermione behind the scenes, and using SPHEW as his weapon to try to control the Hogwarts student body. If Hermione is seen as merely a pawn of Harry's, the Horns Effect will be shifted to Harry instead of Hermione, and he will likely be punished instead. The Wizengamot may not send Harry to Azkaban as punishment, because Wizarding Britain would not stand for it due to his popularity, but they could certainly push to have him expelled from Hogwarts due to extremely inappropriate behavior.

Now, step back and blur away the details, and what do we see?

***

A student runs a group that is making waves against Slytherin, a Professor continually interferes and escalates the conflict over and over*, and when that student finally gets her comeuppance, that same Professor escalates the conflict again by re-rewarding her with the points she lost.

Soon afterward, a mysterious figure memory charms that same girl to provoke a fight between her and the son of the most powerful opposing member of the Wizengamot, and also memory-charms her to believe she attempted to kill him. Then, the SAME professor as before finds her opponent and "saves his life", leading him to accuse the girl in open court of attempted murder, which her memory charms lead her to confess to as well.

The girl's friend uses trickery to assume the blame himself, and is expelled from Hogwarts.

*per Dumbledore's suspicion of Quirrell breaking a shield to allow Daphne's Most Ancient Blade to harm Astorga, as well as the events of the White Robe battle

***

A method for understanding an opaque plot is to look at the result, assume it was the intended one, and ask who benefits.

Quirrell benefits. He already said in the aftermath of TSPE that he was developing a plan to remove Harry from Hogwarts, because of Dumbledore's protection. Quirrell cares nothing for sacrificing someone else to benefit himself, and if his plot to get Harry to take the blame fails, the only person who suffers as a result is Hermione, not himself.

So the whole thing appears to be a plot by Quirrell to get Harry out of Hogwarts. Notice that he doesn't rebalance the armies until after Harry has rejected his plan to defeat a fake Voldemort openly, and the rebalancing of the armies directly leads to the formation of SPHEW, which leads to everything that happens thereafter. This is all information that Harry knows, so assuming he understands Quirrell's plot, he can either take the bullet and free Hermione, or come up with some ingenious method of saving the day that I haven't considered.

As for what will actually happen in the next chapter, I can't be sure what direction EY will take the story.

Portkey visas for Transylvania, the Forbidden Empire, the City of Endless Night... my my, Texas." The man looked up from the portfolio, eyes narrowed. "What were you doing there, Mr. Quirrell?"

Hey! Whats wrong with texas!:D

I know it is probably a joke, but now i am going to be thinking about what evil and crazy stuff could be hidden in Texas to make it worse then Transylvania.

It's actually a good thing I didn't review this chapter. Lets me still get a message to you after I reviewed the next chapter. :) But I just realized something. Harry can transfigure parts of things by visualizing some of it's molecules changing and not other of its' molecules changing right? If we just extend that to some of the protons, electrons, & neutrons changing and and not others... That would slit an atom... Looks to me like Harry can cause an atomic explosion with his wand. Not saying he could survive it, (although if you make spells pure energy then I guess a strong enough protego could. Although who would be able to make one that strong is another mater all together.) but still, there's always, cast the spell and aperate/porkey/floo out before the spell lands and causes the atomic explosion. Wow, talk about ultimate gurila fighter. Guy capable of teleporting around causing atomic explosion and teleporting out before they go off. So this is why Muggle and Magic were never mixed, The result is to much power. And it's all Harry's

I was wondering if anyone came to the same conclusion that I did and read several pages of reviews- THIS IS NOT YOUR USUAL FANFICTION- Harry probably won't challenge Lucius to a duel and win or become a dark lord with Quirrel. What fic have you been reading for the last 80 chapters?

This fic is neither MarySuedom nor wangst. It IS SCIENCE!

An experimentally minded person would try to call a 'duel' between Hermione and Draco. That is to say, Draco should cast a Colloportus on something and Hermione cast Alohamora. Likewise vice versa. If Hermione wins it, then the testimonies would be brought into doubt.

Naturally, chocolate would need to be applied to Hermione, and possibly memory charms to both contestants so they don't know whats at stake- (hence influencing the intent of the competitors and invalidating the experiment).

In fact, the process could be rinsed and repeated (like the Hat-man did), just to improve the size of the sample data.

Of course, getting the Wizengamot to approve this process or pay heed to it would be difficult, but not impossible- if you spot the right things in the room. Which I haven't :(

Having reflected on it, I believe my previous "Harry sacrifices himself" route contains several unnecessary appendages. For example, there's no need for Dark Harry to deduce that Draco was ever plotting against him when he can already discredit the Malfoys by laying bare their Veritaserum-escaping tactics. Ironically, he is primarily able to pursue this tack because he himself is resistant to Veritaseum - here, as in many other situations, the close-mindedness of men will work to Harry's favor. Even intelligent people won't actually believe that an 11-year-old can beat Veritaserum. While Draco is from a family with magical resources capable of performing the tactics he outlined, Harry has Muggle parents and, as Albus PWB Dumbledore can attest, has never been allowed to withdraw more than 200 Galleons. Even if the Malfoy tactics are an open secret, the "unimpeachable" Veritaserum testimony of the Boy-Who-Lived forces them into the public arena. Thus,

1) Harry pretends to be Voldemort pretending to be Harry.

2) He confesses, mentions the Torture Charm, uses any story that justifies his murder attempt on Draco via Hermione, then wins the credibility war by laying out Malfoy's Veritaserum-escaping tactics. Since Harry's confession itself will be under Veritaserum, people will believe that he at least believes what he is saying. Malfoy's only obvious counter is to accuse Harry of using the same tactics Draco bragged about, but that is as good as admitting that those tactics work. However, Harry is actively providing details, so he can't have been merely obliviated, and he did not have enough prep time to have been that comprehensively False Memory-charmed (No one believes in False Memory charms anyway). Leaving aside the fact that Harry is, in the eyes of normal wizards, far less capable of acquiring such services, this information legitimacy attack serves Harry's purposes either way. On the other hand, Lucius and Draco have had plenty of time to create False Memories for Draco, if one believes they'd been plotting against Harry for a prolonged period of time.

Lucius' counter-accusation would mire the proceedings in internal top-level strife; when the executive devolves to such a state, power conflicts are resolved by the military. Who controls the Aurors? Amelia Bones, and she'll stay so until the Wizengamot is coherent enough to vote to unseat her. Plus, official power means nothing without legitimacy and loyalty, and in the absence of executive legitimacy the personal loyalty of the Auror corps to their Head will prevail.

3) Therefore, at worst, the proceedings would be mired in extensive investigations, giving Harry more points of leverage over time and delaying Hermione's doom. At best, Lucius thinks his odds of winning are too low to risk losing the ability to protect Draco and decides to throw himself on his Lord's mercy. Perhaps Draco's offense can be forgiven if he is useful enough. At the very least, Voldemort's vengeance will be delayed until the point where Lucius is no longer useful.

-

If Harry cannot think of a sufficiently credible and unfalsifiable story for 2), he can simply say he was taking vengeance upon Draco for the Torture Hex, and work in his attacks on Malfoy's credibility along the way. "I insist Draco be questioned immediately, before his father has a chance to use the Veritaserum-evading tactics the boy always bragged about!" Since Harry mind controlled Hermione she'll be acquitted, and "attempted murder vs actual torture" is a much grayer scenario with more room for maneuver. Simply creating a scenario where Lucius _could_ lose might guarantee instant victory; Lucius is extremely risk-averse with regards to Draco and will not predict his own victory against someone with the guile of Voldemort and the renown of Harry Potter. He is terrified of Voldemort and fully aware of how crushing and _sudden_ Riddle's reversals can be. Throwing himself upon Voldemort's mercy could, in his eyes, be a forced move in that scenario.

This is one of those amazing perfect chapters you sometimes write. Really loved the prose in this one and could absolutely not put it down even though I was supposed to go to sleep and it was 4 am in the night. You, sir, are a genius and an amazing writer. No one can really fault Harry for plunging into his dark side there at the end of the chapter. I only hope he will stop trusting Quirrelmort so unquestioning rather soon, for who knows what else might be the results of his war on the ministry. Though I have a hard time imagining what Voldemort's goals and ambitions actually are in this alternate universe. Just like he would want me to have :D.

Oh, and the Phoenix’s Fate fanart by Karen Dutton is really rather magnificent, maybe the best HPMOR fanart I've deen to date :).

this is an add on to chapter 80 why is harry alowed their again? cause he has no legal rights to be there none at all unless dumbledoor is pulling something triksty

It is time to play stump the chump again, the chump in this case being me. My previous review attempted to guess some future events in HPMOR. A few days distance and a re-read of what actually happened in Ch 79 revealed some serious flaws in my thinking. One of them, ironically, was pointed out in Ch 24’s discussion about the fictional play “The Tragedy of Light”: if I were really smart enough to predict what Less Wrong / Eliezer Yudkowsky (LW/EY) would do with the story, I would be probably be writing something of my own instead of guessing at his plans.

Nevertheless, here’s another attempt to guess at unknown events (I have deliberately not looked for Ch 80 despite the fact that it is past 7 PM). Why continue? Because the story is incredibly fun to read, which makes re-reading to trawl for clues pleasant and makes thinking about it an engaging pastime. And because any game where you are right all the time is boring. As Quirrell said in Ch 74 about games that are too easy, “But these small games hardly hold my interest as they stand. Add Legilimency, and it ceases to be a game at all.”

*** Trigger Warning – I will be discussing the potential actions of Lucius Malfoy against Hermione Granger. Lucius is almost certainly a murderer and more and has several good reasons to hate Hermione. Consider this to be just as nasty as LW/EL’s trigger warnings for HPMOR, which I cannot at the moment find. Do not read further if you are excessively upset by statements (not descriptions) about the possibility of non-consensual sex or torture. If this posting is moderated and the moderator considers I have crossed a line, remove the post and drop me a short explanation via PM. ***

I assume the Lucius will be the driving antagonist in the upcoming Wizengamot meeting. If that is not the case, then much of what follows is less valid.

What is Lucius (L) capable of?

If this L is anything like canon L he has tortured people. While it is unclear if he has killed personally, he has arranged multiple murders. In this work, he quite possibly committed rape – who is most likely to have taught Draco how easy that is [Ch 7]? L has gotten away with all of those actions with few serious repercussions. He is also fully capable of turning his enemies over to people who have fewer political and personal limitations than he does, especially if that would gain him favors or advantage (no examples come to mind, but that is a reasonable guess). Consider that Hermione (H) has also personally insulted the children of several Death Eaters during the Self Actualization arc. Draco believes his father is capable of arranging H’s death even before the current problems [Ch 47, OK, technically, “wants her to die”]. The really nasty part is the existence of Obliviation along with healing magic (effective healing in the hands of a torturer is worse than no healing) means L can potentially _repeatedly_ get away with anything that does no more than minor physical damage. Then add Imperius, False Memory Charm, Crucio, Confundus, a Pensieve, dark rituals, and who knows what else - Rowling’s universe is extremely vicious in this respect. Hermione’s life and sanity are in extreme danger.

What are L’s motivations?

Even before the Ch 78 battle, H is an embarrassment to pure-blood fanatics. Now, H is an acute personal embarrassment because of the Colloportus/Alohomora incident [Ch 78], which also makes her a major political problem. It unlikely that anyone as smart as L would believe she tried to kill Draco [Harry’s point, Ch 79], but L has several reasons to act as if he believes it. Snape was careful of what he said but he believes L has no reason to limit his vengeance [Ch 79]. So, personally, L has every reason to hate H, and, politically, L looses influence in his factions (pure blood and Death Eater subset) if he is lenient.

What are the limiting factors?

There is no evidence that I can find (positive or negative) that L will limit his actions based on H’s gender or age. However, while LW/EY is certainly aware of how inventively sadistic L and other death eaters can get, he would lose readership and reader sympathy if anything too extreme actually happened. Basically, H may be fictional but she is underage, female, a protagonist, and a generally likeable character. Internally, L is aware that Dumbledore (D) and Harry will attempt to protect H both now and later and that they will look for hidden damage to H. Remember that L is very aware of D’s power and is actually afraid of Harry [Ch 38]. L is a politico to the core and knows that extreme action would alienate some of the moderates in wizard society whose support he occasionally needs. Other mitigating factors exist but L will only be paying attention to the strongest because he is probably quite enraged. Draco is probably not limiting because L will be exerting strong personal control over Draco and has reason to ignore much of what Draco says.

What are the visible unknowns?

Quirrell is an unknown both for what he intends and for what L might ascribe to him – L has reason to see Quirrell as powerful, intelligent, and amoral and therefore potentially dangerous, but there is no indication of what motives L credits to Quirrell. What does Prior Incantato show actually happened with Draco’s and Hermione’s wands that night? There will certainly be the final stunner and blood freezing charm on Hermione’s, but what else?

So, what do I think will happen?

In the short term: The Wizengamot will not clear H: L is too strong and looks to be in the right in this case, plus dramatic tension. L will manage to get a humiliating punishment for the same reasons. L will have plans to secretly do worse to H, both for personal vengeance and to retain control over the death eater faction. D will attempt to limit the punishment to something that does not leave L too much personal control over H but may fail.

In the medium to long term: Quirrell has started to gain too much notice (and it is near the end of the school term). If this arc doesn’t see his downfall, it will occur shortly afterwards. I still think (previous post) that this arc will show Draco’s rise to hero status. The mostly likely chain of events I see to cause that is: L will maneuver H into his personal power and attempt something nasty and Draco will intervene, but possibly not until after some nastiness has happened. The price of H’s rescue may be Draco breaking off relations with Harry, as L is certain to see H’s manipulations of Draco as detrimental.

So, basically, a bunch of general predictions, some of which are fairly straightforward. Definitely shows I am not in LW/EL or Harry’s ballpark.

And the really interesting question: What does Taboo Tradeoffs mean? Certainly, Hermione broke a pure-blood taboo by showing herself stronger than the most prominent pure-blood’s son, but I fail to see how anyone on the “other side” of this, i.e. Draco, Lucius, Jugson, and Nott, have a taboo of hers to break in a “tradeoff”. Any ideas, readers?

And now, I see Chapter 80 has posted. Let me see how badly I miss-guess.

Incredible. A work of art, truly.

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is totally awesome and unpredictable. I like this better than the original.

Alright, I finished reading everything yesterday, thought about it for a bit-here's my truncated theory.

'Snape' is actually polyjuiced Quirrell who is setting him up for a fall, so that Harry will be allowed to leave Hogwarts again. Quirrell can go back in time more than 6 hours, so his alibi is that he was being interrogated. The duel actually happened, which can be checked using Hermione's and Draco's wand, and was completed under a half hour. It's only the last bit which was fabricated. Since Quirrell has Harry's hair now, at some point in the future, he'll disguise himself as Harry to break their friendship.

Puzzlements which come to mind from this remarkable chapter, in no particular order of chronology or importance: (1) Neither Snape nor Minerva bat an eye when Harry mentions that he taught Draco the Patronus Charm. Hmmm...only one person in that room is supposed to know that Harry is qualified to perform this act. (2) speaking of teaching, how did Hermione, of all people, come to know a particularly obscure, very Dark, and presumably way-above-first-year spell like Blood Chilling? She didn't learn ithat/i in Hogwarts: A History, Interdict of Merlin and all that. We do on the other hand have somebody who knows names, wand motions etc of Dark spells, of torturous if not lethal nature, and has a known history of casting them against purported friends in moments of strong emotion. Such as might have been felt after losing a duel to a Mudblood. Hmm. (3) Quirrell is impossibly powerful and skilled for an unknown bastard (literally) of obscure parents, no inherited wealth and no visible means of support for most of his adult life. On the other hand Dark Lords returning to life via Horcrux are said to be iless/i powerful, indeed quite feeble when occupying the bodies of victims. Hmm. (4) Quirrell has one cold blooded murder of a human being on his record (Rita) which caused only a momentary tinge of bodily weakness but no evidence of any pangs of conscience. Lucius Malfoy however is not known to have killed anybody, either here or in canon. Interesting. (5) the Marauder's Map was having glitches back when Fred and George were setting up the Rita prank. Wonder if Dumbledore knows about these problems? (6) How did Harry ask Professor Flitwick questions about the Trophy Room when Prof F is off guarding/sitting with Hermione during her imprisonment?

Predictions: Fawkes is going to put in an unexpected and unordered appearance at the Wizengamot. Mr. Hat & Cloak did not reveal an actual identity during that session with Hermione but rather showed the appearance of Mr. Finch. The playing-card portkey did not go to London but to a certain Castle Anthrax, where another scene involving a Grail was played out upon the incredibly repressed psyche of Professor Snape. He does not tell anybody about this. Quirrell ends his interrogation by making a small wave of his (wandless) hand and murmuring "These are not the droids you are looking for" after which he is released and Scrimgour is vaguely confused but satisfied with the outcome.

just some thoughts. Can't wait for tomorrow night. :)

First review after many times I passed.

Thank you a lot for this fanfic: I really appreciate the whole of it from the 'magical-science' to the really twisted plots. I'm spreading the novel as much as I can with friend and colleagues.

Do not bother too much about the chapters you think readers won't like too much: just use number of review/number of reads as proxy for how much appreciation comes from the readers.

I really enjoy also the fact that (currently) I'm not that sure that things will sort out for the better as happens in almost all stories (the hero always wins and one ends up expecting it): your world is much nearer to a realistic one and so is not fair. To reach such levels of 'fairness' the canon would have to be ended with the death of Harry as plotted by D.

About last couple of chapter I think that Hermione actions in the morning are not that OOC: imagine to wake up half remembering to have done something so dreadfull that you hope was just a nightmare (somethink that she would have probably suffered a lot in recent nights) and, still incredibly tired by the lack of sleep, you go, on auto-pilot, to breakfast trying to recollect your memories. The aurors arrive...

Magical science thought:

- As for the fact that nobody has yet stumbled by miss-chance on a nuclear equivalent potion (as someone has quite rightfully suggested) is due, probably, to the fact that creating a potion works in similar fashion as the casting a charm: the maker needs to have an idea of the pourpose of the potion itself and/or of the ingredients' energies he wants to exploit.

- The (not mine) idea of stopping others' time-turners going back in time to shout "The Sun didn't explode in the next 6 hours" is quite cool and probably should really work. But then on the other hand we know that if the someone coming back gives the same message to a third party, then the target has still a choice to keep possibility of going back further, even after knowing that the first guy has come back from the future.

This implies that the 6 hour limit for information backward is not about physical information (present sound waves are influenced by the future person precence and still the target can go further backward after earing them), but has to do with information that is intellegible by a human (only?) brain, probably established in the Atlanteian times. I guess the limitation was set in order to avoid race backwards to infinitum like with the case of the criminal and the auror both with time turners.

This would possible also explain why the earlier experiment resulted in "Do not mess with time". The message was inferred by the universe using future informations even way beyond the following 6 hours: I can't imagine what bizarre and daring experiments Harry would have continued to try if this very first experiment would have give a positive result!

I find it unlikely that Quirrel would slip on the Fuyuki-issue. After all it's not an unexpected issue to come up in a hearing. Unless he wants to get caught or does not care, since he plans to get rid of Scrim anyway or to recruit him.

Or unless he is not in fact Quirrel. Maybe mr Hat trying to discredit Quirrel(and Dumbledore)?

And why is there only one Auror present in the interrogations? Seems dumb.

Harry is right to be angry at Dumbledore since D obviously expected Voldy to get into Hogwarts despite any protections of the Founders. And is in fact counting on it.

Why does D warn against trusting himself in the Santa-letters? Maybe D isn't Santa but is protecting the real culprit?

6 hour limit on time-turners seems arbitrary. Why not 6h 12min and 41,95s? Maybe the limitation is built into the machines but is not necessarily compulsory if you make a turner from scratch?

Harry should try transfiguring air again now that he knows partial transfig and does not need to alter ALL of it. Come to think of it: can balloons be transfigured?

Who is Q? I think D knows or at least suspects or he wouldnt have hired him.

Maybe Voldy posessed by horcrux of real Quirrel? That would explain zombie-state as weakened Q. In canon posession weakens the posessed spirit but this is not necessarily the case here. Zombie state would probably work as single-use abrakadabra-blokker in this case.

Or maybe he is really just Quirrel.

D did not tell Harry Voldys location but this does not mean the map did not find him.

We don't actually know Hermione has had any implanted memories. I think Harry is just fixated on the idea since it was the first suggested solution.

A horcrux would be less complex solution and just needs to be discarded before H is taken into custody, H's actions/feelings would be more precisely controlled (if the horcrux is of yourself or of an ally) and it would be reusable after use. Requiring no spellcasting of your part after the initial spell no matter how many times it is used.

Of course this assumes you do not need to die to activate your horcrux, but even if this is the case you could use a horcrux of your dead friend.

I find it weird that H apparently obsessed about Draco for months but made NO notes about him or her suspicions about him and did not talk to Harry or any of the teachers about it.

I haven't watched Fate/zero but will definitely do so now. Even thou I do not think either Q or V were there and Scrim was just a fan.

I Love Love Love This Fic!

I do not think Harry is in any position to gripe about people not believing what he has to say when he has spent so much time deceiving them!

"You forget," Harry said, "that you're not the only one who can see patterns."

*Spoiler alert - I'm about to blow you damn mind.

- Also, Moderator/Less Wrong: feel free not to post this if I'm right, would humbly appreciate hearing so if I am. Love your work.

It's been recently regarded that Quirrell is possibly Nicolas Flamel. Intriguing, possibly true, but only in the sense that it is another false identity he has used over the years. The real identity of Professor Quirinus Quirrell is...

...

...

...

...

JESUS F***ing CHRIST.

Just kidding, He's Salazar Slytherin.

Think about it.

But by that point habermoose's voice could no longer be heard, because the riot had started.

*Did you you feel that? That was your mind. Was.

Joshua Basler If you're having trouble w/depression, the first thing to do is try therapy/medicdation. If that's not an option then I recommend trying CBT on your own starting with Martin Seligman's Learned Optimism, which can be found at any Barnes and Noble (and you can read it there for free, just bring a notebook and pen). And I can say from personal experience the Less Wrong Sequences can help out a LOT in doing self-directed CBT that works. If you don't have time to read them all, hit mysterious answers to mysterious questions and how to win at life (at least, beating procrastination and happiness).

I have finally caught up with this amazing story. In accordance with your wishes I will review this story, although I would not usually do so. I have found this story to be more enjoyable than the original books, and my biggest problem with it is that I have so much trouble convincing my friends to read a Harry Potter fanfiction, no matter what I say about it. I have discovered I love rationalist fanfiction and can only hope other works in the genre can live up to this story, because I crave more.

Your public service announcement feels like a stab in the heart. I dabled in C and I was good at Calculus in highschool, taking a programming elective in my last year for fun. After suffering some crippling depression I dropped out of my Comp. Sci. major in college 5 years ago and am now employed just above minimum wage. I am now convinced I must try to overcome my fear of failure and get a programming position very soon, perhaps before the end of this year if possible.

Thank you SO MUCH for updating this. I had given up hope. You have just put the capper upon this day, nay, this month, indeed, my whole lifetime.

...But not quite, because that would just be sad. Still, it was a really good try.

Chapter 78 was brilliant, one of the reasons why I like this series so much. The whole explanation about how potions work kind of makes the story easier to imagine for me. Sometimes stories try to wave everything off with genius, technology, or magic; and its so annoying because there don't seem to be any rule,order or limits in which things work. Even if its magic, there had to be some sort of line where some things just shouldn't happen or could not happen. Every time huge amounts of tension is build up, followed by a cheap magic trick, a little bit of love for story books die inside me. So thanks, for writing this brilliant story, and I'm looking forward expectantly to the next chapter!

Fred: Harry ordered Belatrix to obliviate the auror.

Wow. Just wow.

I usually don't review a chapter unless I have something specific to say about what I liked. In particular I try to compliment something that I haven't noticed other reviewers already calling out as awesome. But this chapter...

Just wow.

Thank you for keeping the story going. Your story rivals the original in quality. I occasionally have some nitpicks, but it appears that if I wait a few days, you go back and fix them! For example, I'm sure that you had Snape refer to the Dark Lord as "He who must not be named", but upon second review, he's now referring to "the Dark Lord", as it should be. By the way, when the story is done, I'm going to print it, and bind it in leather, and put it up on the shelf next to my hand-bound copy of the Tales of Beedle the Bard (in the original runes).

...well, THAT one came out of nowhere...

I should have waited until 6 pm on March 22nd to read this. I really, really, REALLY hate cliffhangers. And though most of my brain is currently screaming "Nothing bad is going to happen to Hermione because she's a good person!" and "Harry's going to come up with something because he always comes up with something!" the rest of it is quietly thinking of just how many assumptions you seem to enjoy proving wrong, and is just as quietly sinking into despair.

Then all of me remembers it's just a story, and I can always rewrite it to say something different if I really want to. Hello, universe, try THAT one on for size.

Eagerly awaiting next Thursday,

~Ash

Yea, I'm just gonna come out and say that this fic is a fucking goldmine. I read the entire thing in the last 2 days, and I eagerly await your next update on Thursday.

Urgh...you're story is so amazing but you update so slow...

Just wanted to leave a review.

Consider these words of the utmost encouragement.

Great twist! The MoM's law enforcement and justice systems are indeed woefully inadequate. It'll be interesting to see if Harry can find a way around it, or if his faith in Hermione is leading him astray.

Definitely interested in the results of the Quirrell inquiry as well.

I understand that this chapter shows the first example of QQ getting tricked (unless he deliberately fell for the grail-war-visa trick). But then it's immediately followed by a having him be ridiculously overpowered. He's in police custody, without a wand, and yet he can still resist poly...

...wait a minute...

He didn't resist the depolyjuice spell at all, did he? He just sneezed and made some sparkles, to make it LOOK as if he'd resisted the spell. Then he said exactly what had happened to misdirect attention.

Um. Wow. Carry on.

I mean, I had been going to complain that if he can beat a veteran auror, why would he even need a better version of resurrection... but, it would be pretty stupid of me to complain about how he shouldn't be able to overpower or trick an Azkaban auror in a duel, when he's just tricked me.

He's so badass, he deserves his own trope. Realistic Xanatos gambits should be called "Quirrel Gambits".

I didn't enjoy the SA arc, and the student battles aren't IMO the best part of this fic. Glad to see the pace is now picking up, I have a feeling this arc is going to be good.

Potions mechanic is very interesting, I want more revelations on the nature of magic like that.

"Find Tom Riddle" - what the fuck. There better be a good explanation for why Dumbledore hasn't done that earlier.

"Let's not narrow down the hypothesis space prematurely." - Harry's way of talking is getting tiresome, I hope he learns to adjust it to his audience ("let's not rule out any possibilities too early"? I'm sure there is a non-lossy, good-sounding way to rephrase that). I understand this is intended, but his speech on "your brain just pattern-matches the hypothesis" turned out rather anticlimactic - it would sound much better if it was actually directed to Hogwarts students and not the readers.

Thanks, and keep up the good work!

Badassness in a box! Love it!

These last two chapters have been absolutely mind-bending. Your description of the battle in Chapter 78 is the best I've ever read, and the frantic pace of Chapter 79 is justified by the time constraint all of the heroes(if you can call them that) face.

The explanations of how magic works in this universe are what drew me to the fanfiction in the first place, so it doesn't really matter to me how you shoehorn them in there. I would think that after 79 consecutive well-received chapters you would better trust your writing instincts.

I eagerly await your next update.

The man slammed the folder shut. "You're not Quirinus Quirrell. Who the hell are you?"

Unfortunately, I'm a bit thick-headed about this thing, so I was quite like AHA OH MY at that. Perhaps it was supposed to be obvious, but at any rate I'm glad it was said outright.

I just read 77-79 in one shot, 77 for review and 78-79 because I hadn't time when they first came out.

I will be reading this avidly at March 23rd at 5 PM. Only 22 hours after its posting...

Looks like this chapter, more than any other one, is where stuff hits the proverbial fan. Whatever relationships between Draco, Hermione, and Harry will irrevocably change. In other words, lots of fun stuff!

On another note, your General P/S/A intrigued me. Would you happen to know of any reliable and free online courses or tests on computer programming? Of course, nothing beats a college degree and personal lessons, but I'd like to try out the waters of coding and such.

Your version of Quirrell really makes him seem far to careful to mess up by knowingly committing a plot that will have left him interrogated and discovered. After the whole Azkaban episode he seems as though he would really be far more discrete then turning Drako in, unless his charms could be discovered on the corpse? But then why he would risk putting them on anyway seems unusual.

The only real alternative leaves me wondering if your going to go all Hitchcockian and go full on Psycho with Dumbledore.

So wow, just wow. I love you work. I have also been reading Less Wrong wiki and your other stories. I agree with so much of what you say and thank you for your writing.

Is it wrong that when I read that Quirrel went to Fuyuki City I immediatley thought of Fate/Stay Night? And that date, 1983 right? COULD IT BE? Quirrel is Waver Velvet!

Finally got around to leaving a review on this awesome fic! (And I'll also use the occasion to mention a pet theory of mine).

First of all, some praise: this arc certainly doesn't seem to show any decrease in the quality of the writing, which is really encouraging for the future chapters. Some plot bunnies finally get answered, although many people guessed SCDumbles, and the Weasley twins' prank, it's nice to have the confirmation!

Then, I believe that a good review must also include some criticism, so here are my two cents: this chapter seems sometimes...too rushed, if you see what I mean, especially when Harry and Dumbledore are discussing the situation: I understand that it's needed for the tension, but as you said, the color of the sky sometimes adds more tension than whole chapters, and it just seemed there were too many things explained in a very short period of time. It was nice for the reader but felt somewhat artificial. However, don't get this the wrong way: it's still an awesome chapter in a really cool fic!

Now, crackpot theory time:

I only see three possibilities for Mr H&C, including the fact that he might be Imperiused (Like someone suggested I don't remember where) by an exterior party. He must be a teacher or rated something even higher, so that leaves only Quirrell, Snape and Dumbledore. Quirrell is the most obvious suggestion, although his ulterior motives remain unclear. Snape seems unlikely, because he hasn't got any motives, plus, we sort of already know his hidden agenda. Finally, a possibility that I haven't seen around: Dumbledore himself. Indeed, maybe all this plotting (really complicated, characteristic of Dumbledore) was a way of getting at Lucius Malfoy through his son (exactly how Quirrell had warned HP it might happen; the fact that he's the bad guy doesn't mean that all that he says is wrong). The fact that Quirrell found him was only natural, as he had placed tracking charms for his protection, exactly how he claims. Finally, H&C's difficulty of understanding Hermione's mind is due to the fact that, quoting Professor McGonacall, " sometimes the Headmaster has trouble remembering what it's like to be a child". This theory is certainly less probable than H&CQuirrell, but it has the merit of being plausible, if not probable.

From Robert Rohm:("This is a question to the readers of this chapter: Does anyone else think that Professor Quirrell is really Nicolas Flamel?")

I've actually been thinking that for some time now. The obvious answer, that Quirrell is carrying Voldemort's spirit around, doesn't feel right with this particular chapter. Why would Quirrell block a charm to reveal a Polyjuiced form? It seems an effort entirely unnecessary and only leads him into further suspicion (unless of course it was necessary to hide his true identity). The additional information provided on Quirrell shows that he was a good student, but not possessed or even close to the possession of the power he currently wields. This leave me to conclude that:

1. The spirit of Voldemort has given Quirrell power beyond what he would otherwise be able to use.

2. The person known as Professor Quirrell is actually someone else, someone who possesses great power and vast knowledge.

With this in mind it is a safe bet to assume that Professor Quirrell is actually Nicolas Flamel.

I was confused by some things, and finally finished reading all of the lead up. Reading 73-77 was especially important to get back in the swing of things.

So, I really, really like the progression of Malfoy's character.

However, there were some things that kept me confused in 78 and 79 that caused me to reread them several times, and eventually the preceding chapters.

The fight between Draco and Hermione seemed very strange. So Hermione appears angry, Draco taunts her, and Hermione reveals she has been obsessing over a Draco-Snape plot, and they fight with Hermione overpowering his magic.

(On the umpteenth reading as I'm writing this I finally understand what was confusing me which is that Malfoy feels nobody takes him seriously and is referring to how he has no plausible deniability. "And then Draco got it, and it boiled his own blood in his veins. Even she thought he was secretly plotting against her -"

Often having to guess people's motives and thoughts is par for the course in this fiction-that's what makes it fun, since it becomes more active-so I guess that is ok.

However, it still seemed like a very strange way to reveal how Hermione had been obsessing. Part of this is that, while there is a date, I have no idea how much time has passed since the bullies incident. 79 makes it seem like she's been thinking about it for a while, and I would have expected her to mention some things out loud before now. However, given Harry's thought powers, this is a problem since he would pick up that something was off...

Anyways, I don't anything about how to improve writing, but I think the best I can do is point out places where something seems off to me.

But I did like Draco's actions-I think getting really angry and feeling trapped and having to challenge Hermione to a duel is a fitting climax to his character development.

The potions trick was pretty cool, and otherwise battles are fun.

79: Oooh, herding the plot bunnies...

First off... the thing I was confused about. (minor)

lbus hesitated. "Harry... whatever you have done with Draco, you must assume that Lucius Malfoy will soon know of it."

Harry's head sank into his hands. "He'll give Draco Veritaserum."

"Yes," Albus said quietly.

I don't understand Dumbledore's thought train-how he got to thinking about this.

I'm also confused by how Hat and Cloak's memory charm works.

What I've seen is

-HC is memory charming Hermione, trying to get her to accept help.

-Hermione has an implanted memory, which sets off a chain of events leading to a duel.

HC wouldn't need to do repeated memory charms if he(she?) just wanted to implant a memory, so that seems to be strong evidence for something else going on, such as possession (must be voluntary?). Dumbledore's comment makes it seem like possession would take advantage of anger that was already there, so maybe both memory implantation and possession occurred?

I'm also very curious about why Quirrel is having so much fun with the auror. I look forward to seeing this.

I liked 79 more than 78. I look forward to the rest of the story!

This is a question to the readers of this chapter: Does anyone else think that Professor Quirrell is really Nicolas Flamel?

Now you've gotten me confused.

What is probably exactly what this chapter was meant to do.

But at the moment i still see hope for Hermione Granger. Yet.

After all you're evil. Absolutely irredeemably evil. The scene with the map and the obvious absent Quirrelmort proves that :D Whow Dumbledore in a cheat induced God-mode... that's awesome and frightening at the same time.

I just don't get the connection between the hat and the glowing crystal rod... it's almost as if you're arguing that Hatty was the mobile field office of Godric Gryffindor and the sword was kept in it because he always lost his letter openers... but then, i guess there's nothing more irrelevant in this chapter than the question HOW Dumbledore got the map to work.

Thursaz: You can use two partly-used up time turners, say with 3 hours each, to add up to 6 hours, but you can't use any combination of time turners to send any information past 6 hours. Even if the person doesn't know that their information comes from the future, the time turner just won't work.

(Makes me wonder if some chapter Harry is going to be about to use the time turner, and some foe from the future will pop into being and say "The sun won't explode for the next 6 hours" and disable his turner.)

Zargon: It's actually much worse than that. You don't need transferric elements. Even helium is made at the center of a star, or in some rare cases, during the big bang. Yes, according to muggle thermodynamics, fission on helium would be endothermic, but by the potions principle, it should work.

And it's worse than that, too. Because every atom of hydrogen is standing in for hundreds or thousands of protons and antiprotons which mutually annihilated, leaving only the tiniest asymmetry of matter. So by the potions principle, a single atom of hydrogen should be able to make a very respectable explosion; a single atom of gold or lead would probably destroy a city; and a gram would be enough to destroy, not just the earth, but probably the solar system.

(This stuff about CP-symmetry-breaking was suspected since the 70s, and I think it's entirely plausible that Harry would know it in the 90s.)

Which means that any sane person would not do the slightest bit of research into stirring patterns for creating explosive potions. It's just really bad news. Using charms for explosives is fine, but potions is a no-no.

Bobbane: Priori incantatem could show Hermione was guilty, but it couldn't show her innocence. I mean, if it wasn't the blood-chilling hex, what would that prove? So there's no reason for our heroes to even mention it.

anon: trying to change events that you've witnessed is really, really dangerous. If the universe decides it would be easier to kill you than to make everthing work out to look exactly the same, then it will do that. Or if you're lucky, and smart/experienced enough to pay attention, you'll just get a "DO NOT MESS WITH TIME" note. Both Harry and Dumbledore realize this. (In fact, Harry's probably read the short story "Rotating Cylinders and the Possibility of Global Causality Violation" by Larry Niven, which you should read too if anyone ever gives you a time turner.)

Thursaz:

It has already been established (I forget in which chapter, but you can see it in action in Ch 61) that no combination of time-turners or any other magic can send information more than six hours in the past.

Also:

Ch 79 has me really worried, I hope someone comes up with some idea to avoid the looming tragedy.

I think that being good at algebra is a necessary, but very much not sufficient, condition for being a good programmer. Even a language as bone-headed as Java, to say nothing of , Perl, or Haskell, demands an idiomatic vocabulary to program well. Learning to program well from a math background is equivalent to an American learning to speak German like a native.

Insert reasonably standard expressions of shock, horror and awe here.

That was awesome.

~Mademise Morte

update soon

Wow, powerful stuff. I wonder what's going to happen next. Even if there is a small voice in the back of my head screaming "DOOM" at me when re-reading the end of chapter 78 and 79...

Why do I get the feeling that someone will die/be azkabanned and, since the universe isn't inherently fair, that someone is going to be either Granger or Malfoy?

Less wrong i am not happer

Hermione Why in hell you Hermione

you could of pic any there but hur and i be be a lot happer

end of ch78/79 have made be weel ill (BIG Hermione fan)

I no this is just a stroys but i dont even like to think what could happed to Hermione in the best ever (harry potter fanfic ever )

YOU BETTER FIND A GOOD WAYS TO GET Hermione OFF

just have harry pay Malfoy some thin

Malfoy is in it for the power he can get from it

One pressing question: Hasn't Harry already figured out one way of indirectly going backwards in time more than the standard Time-Turner allows? That is, going back the full six hours, then perhaps telling Dumbledore to go back the next six, and then so on and so forth. He's already done this once to avoid being pinpointed as the culprit of Black's escape, hasn't he?

I'm afraid I'll have to give a more detailed review at another time; I don't have the time right now but that question was bothering me. That said, your writing is absolutely fantastic.

It took me two days to think of a way out of this one. Harry in this story doesn't know about it, so he's off the hook, but the rest of Magical Britain doesn't have that excuse.

Priori Incantatem, anyone?

Why the heck didn't Harry get Minerva to time-turn him back (removing the protection on the time-turner or giving him a new one) immediately after he saw Hermione being arrested? Then he could have met up with her and the others (Albus, Minerva and Severus) to brainstorm, had a look in her memories and possibly modified them to not show her "attempted murder" of Draco!

Maybe even replaced her with a polyjuiced version?

He could also have done the finger-print dusting immediately with a much greater likelihood of success.

ARGH! Harry, why must you be so thick?

Some powerful drama here. I'm glad to see more of this story.

When they said Fuyuki I'm pretty sure I started hyperventilating and had to stop and remember how to breath. Having just recently rewatched Fate/Zero in anticipation for the second season coming out, and 1983 being a pretty good guess of when the 4th Grail War was held, the thought of Quirrell being in the war or at least watching it made me laugh hysterically.

Well, I guess Santa Claus was Dumbledore after all. Pitty, that seemed too simple. I thought it was Dumbledore's brother. I'm still not sure who Mr. Hat and Cloak are, but I suppose we'll find out eventually. Keep up the good work.

Stresses me out...I hope Hermione will be okay. the story won't be the same without her!

Ah, finally some close parens on Santa Claus, Lily's Potions textbook and possibly even James' rock. I like how the story seems more focused now.

I still don't know why Hermione didn't ask Harry about Draco's presumed plot against her. She knows Harry is an expert in twisted plots. And why didn't Dumbledore consult the Map earlier, since he apparently knew where it was all along?

Yikes!

I, like Harry, have some doubts about Hermione being the culprit. I can't wait to see how this plays out.

I am amazed by this story, as always. Keep up the excellent work!

This story is torturous but amazing and the wait between chapters hellish. I'm dissapointed that Professor Quirell isn't actually /the/ Professor Quirell but hopefully there's a satisfying, upcoming explanation for that. (Didn't he say he was in Slytherin and not Ravenclaw?)

An off ring note in this chapter is perhaps Hermione's OOC behavior. Perhaps there'll be a more in-depth explanation for that too other than magical manipulation of her personality.

Awaiting the next update with great anticipation,

JKyushu

For the record: I didn't hate any of it :)

You know what? Just ship it, and if it doesn't work go back and fix it.

Awesome chapter. I like this way better than the original Harry Potter series. Thanks for writing this.

Can't wait to see what exactly Draco's reaction to all this is.

During the interrogation they say "sorted into Ravenclaw". During the very early appearance of Quirrell he introduces himself to his students as a Slytherin. I think it appeared sometime later too. He seems far too intelligent to make such a silly slip up. I find it hard to reconcile in which way consistent with your character portraits. Ditto with Hermione's behavior at the breakfast table prior to being arrested but under the impression she'd killed Draco. Totally odd and out of place. Unless it is somehow deliberate.

Otherwise a great story. Looking forward to more.

GAH!

On another note, nice chapter-no, nice isn't strong enough a word. Jesus Christ, or at least, random quantum fluctuations! (To borrow from PTerry.)

Interestingly, I'm not sure MoR counts as a fanfiction. It seems to resemble, in intent at least, an original work.

Gah some more.

All things considered, I'm glad that you didn't post one chapter at a time with month(s)-long waits between. Otherwise, I suspect a legion of fans would have teamed up and held you hostage, and I myself would certainly have gone insane.

Thanks for writing this!

Owl

Oh no ;_; Hermione!

I just realized what bothers me the most about Hermione's behavior. She is a hero, she's the tiny percent who wouldn't shock in the Milgram experiment. No matter how many spells she has on her, if she thinks that she's killed somebody, she would freak the f*ck out, not say "I wonder why those aurors are here" in a "strange bright voice". Now, I'm not saying that there's not some magical explanation for this. But in canon, however full of idiot balls it is, all the characters at least remain true to their primary reason for being, no matter how many spells are flying around. So here, if Harry can heroically face down multiple dementors without a patronus, then Hermione can darn well at least react to her (false) guilt no matter what spells she's under.

I truly love this fic, but honestly, if the forthcoming explanation isn't damn good, this could be a fatal flaw. I'd even ask you to rewrite the last scene of chapter 78; making the wham line whammier is (was?) NOT NOT NOT worth sacrificing Hermione's integrity.

Not a lot to say about this one. None of the "reveals" were big surprises – not that any of them were my primary theories, but they were all clearly possible since before. To me, the biggest reveal was that HC couldn't possibly be Bellatrix due to obliviating by a non-teacher setting off the wards; in that case, it's clearly Quirrel.

So my main reaction to this chapter was: "Plot threads being tied up... I'm glad to know that this fic is starting to wrap up, and won't remain unfinished forever." This made me happy, because honestly in the giant gap I started to worry a bit.

I can see how this chapter would have been not-so-fun to write, though. Don't worry; it's still fun to read.

The only complaint I have is that you seem to overestimate the power of the dictionary attack. HC can get any result he (yes, I'm assuming) wants from the interaction, but making it so that he can program her for the next several days seems to make her too NPC-ish. Unless there's other mind-violating magicks involved... In other words, I know it was necessary for the plot, but I'd really like to see Hermione have more of a chance to throw it off once she has time to rethink. I mean, you lampshade the fact that Harry doesn't do something, but she never even got a chance. Wouldn't she at least have tried to get Draco to confess whatever-it-is, instead of just accusing him?

The pace has picked up significantly. Any new idea that Harry comes up with will be a very hard sell to the Wizegamot. Looking forward to court day. Dumbledore's confession surprised me.

Really happy and all that, and I am a huge fan and everything and I can scarcely believe how awesome this is and I never want it to end but you are hurting me so much. Why are you withholding the other chapters? Why put them out with a week delay between all of them? You finished them yes? Then why the torture? I just want to read all of the ones you've written so far, and then read them all again, and again, and again. Why? Let me impulsively read all of it, and then be left to myself to bemoan my ridiculous lack of self control! Aaaaahh, gaaah, gaaaaaaaaarrhghghdhfhdgh. Please?

-ian

Hahaha! Nice! You worked Fuyuki City into the HP:MoR universe. Is it a real place in MoR or is the Auror interrogator just a Fate/Stay Night fan?

You magnificent bastard.

Speculation time: Lucius did it. But plot thickens: Draco will intervene on Hermione's behalf, mostly on the basis of their remembered scenario being very implausible, as explained in the chapter. The Harry-Draco bond will strengthen. _Just as Lucius intended_, not being quite as inflexible as pictured in the discussion, and seeing that Draco will do quite well for himself as Harry's second.

As a side benefit, he'll get the record to show that (according to the false memory) Draco won a straight duel against Hermione. (Almost nobody will think to doubt that part of the memory - Draco might, but will keep it to himself.)

DUDE! That would be my first reaction after reading.

An awesome chapter. It finally feels that Harry has something real to lose. Even other times that he's been in trouble the penalty for failure didn't seem so high. (Even with the dementors possibly killing Quirrell it always seemed that the worst-case scenario wasn't that bad since the odds of Quirrell failing at anything are low.) From a meta standpoint Hermione probably won't be removed from the story, but the possibility that she might suffer severe emotional trauma is depressing.

The violation of Hermione's sanctity of self is horrible, and thus a great way to draw in sympathy for her. The Potterverse is full of terrible magics that infringe upon someone's free will. I hope that Harry's rationality can overcome them. (It does seem likely.)

First part is a reply to Trent.

"2) I think Fuyuki City is where Quirrell went to learn martial arts, and where Voldemort killed that instructor."

I doubt that Quirrell ever visited Fuyuki City.

"4) Quirrell going to Texas was to put a horcrux on the Pioneer plaque."

I honestly don't see Voldemort (Assuming, of course, that Quirrell is possessed) creating any more Horcrux while he's weakened and in an already temporary state.

I think it's stated in cannon that Quirrell travelled around the world before he stumbled across Voldemort in that Albania forest.

"2) How does not having a visa for Fuyuki City allow Scrimgeour to conclude that he's not talking to Quirrell? If Scrimgeour made that inference, then Dumbledore must have as well. In combination with the first question, it makes me wonder what Dumbledore knew, believed, or suspected about Quirrell prior to this incident."

I think that was probably a standard interrogation tactic to confirm the identity of a suspect. Question the suspects travel destinations and throw in a random location that the suspect supposedly never visited.

Quirrellmort has already been established as a very intelligent individual, but he's not infallible.

"3) Most here have concluded already that Quirrell Voldemort, as in canon. Why does Dumbledore not consider this a possibility."

Dumbledore believes that Voldemort knows the prophecy, Quirrell has had ample opportunity to snuff Harry. I don't think Dumbedore believes Voldemort would pass up the opportunity, if he even suspects.

Quirrell has also saved Harrys life multiple times.

While Quirrell is self-admittedly dark and "not a nice person", it's quite a stretch to jump from quirky DADA professor to Darkest Lord in recent history.

On the latest two chapters.

Honestly, I'm quietly hoping that Hermione is removed from the story. Less Wrong's characterisation of her just rubs me the wrong way and I find her insufferable.

I know Harry will probably pull something out of his ass, maybe she was manipulated or cultivated paranoia over the preceding months; but he attempted to murder someone in cold blood. I hope she is punished accordingly.

Well that was a twist I was not expecting. I think one thing that makes it hard to see what's coming is that I don't have a sense of what Vold's motivations are. In cannon it's "He's evil and wants to take over the world and live forever." That could be the same here but it's not certain. It seems you've changed something about V's first death and Harry's scar. What else have you changed? Certainly living forever seems to be the main goal of Voldemort but what else does he want? Is it really just like Dumbledore thinks? I doubt it.

Of all the things Malfoy Sr. will learn from this, the worst one is probably that Harry promised to take Dumbledore as an enemy if certain conditions were met.

I like how you basically ended the chapter with 3 pieces of misinformation that Harry has. Where the portkey goes, Hermione's notes, and where Voldemort is.

While I appreciate Harry's use of logic, his arrogance is really starting to wear thin. Hogwarts isn't like an American school, where people are only one crazy student away from a massacre. The only thing the teachers have in common is their extraordinary ability, or some use to Professor Dumbledore. It was made in the early days of magic by some of the most powerful wizards that have ever lived. Hogwarts is one of the few fortresses that magical Britain can trust, which is the only reason people send their children there, and it would be really nice if Harry got off Dumbledore's back.

Otherwise, a brilliant chapter. The tension becomes ever grimmer as Hermione faces a fate worse than death and Lucius Malfoy earns a dark reputation. I think it's entirely possible Lucius is pulling a Tywin Lannister moment here with Draco, and he would have both the motive and opportunity ever since observing Draco's defeat by Hermione. Anyways, watching Harry run into a problem that he can't easily solve is more heartrending than I thought it would be: I'm quite sure Hermione will get through this thing , but I have don't quite know what the consequences will be for Draco. Like Harry says, it could go either way. Good work, and welcome back.

It IS nice to know that an 11 year old child cannot always win.

Possibly explaining some of the sticking points:

1) Harry told both Quirrell and Dumbledore his conversation with Malfoy. The person with a motive Quirrell is referring to is Dumbledore (motive: hurt Draco so that Lucius goes after Harry).

2) I think Fuyuki City is where Quirrell went to learn martial arts, and where Voldemort killed that instructor.

3) I wonder if Dumbledore's port key leads to Sirius's place. He does, after all, say that the port key would leave him somewhere with friends.

4) Quirrell going to Texas was to put a horcrux on the Pioneer plaque.

My questions:

1) Like others are wondering: why the discrepancy between Quirrell in Ravenclaw now and Quirrell in Slytherin previously mentioned?

2) How does not having a visa for Fuyuki City allow Scrimgeour to conclude that he's not talking to Quirrell? If Scrimgeour made that inference, then Dumbledore must have as well. In combination with the first question, it makes me wonder what Dumbledore knew, believed, or suspected about Quirrell prior to this incident.

3) Most here have concluded already that Quirrell Voldemort, as in canon. Why does Dumbledore not consider this a possibility.

Wait Voldemort participated in the Holy Grail War? Or did he just sight see the wonderful battles.

Brilliant chapter. The mind wanders with possibilities.

Just shooting out all the thoughts I had regarding this.

Quirell being Ravenclaw is consistent with Canon.

Q1 - Why dumbledore/ Minerva didn't notice the same earlier when he proudly claims to be slytherin?

Most Probable Answer - Dumbles and McGonagall are tired of looking for dada professors and anyone who seems to be competent, even if slightly delusional seems like a very good deal. Possession by spirits may not have been their first answer.

Other Thoughts. Whether Lucius Malfoy will seek to break Hermione's wand (my earlier thought, thinking of Hagrid) is kinda doubtful in my mind now, since after the display of skill, He will like to keep a powerful Hermione as a slave. I'm thinking an unbreakable vow to always do what Draco says or something like that.

One thought is that Quirrell made his move. April has come and the school is going to take off. By acting like a jerk to the interrogator, he's deliberately adding a third blow for Harry in addition to the loss of Hermione and Draco - The loss of Quirrell.

But honestly, even saddened, Harry does not seem powerful enough to take over Magical Britain now nor does he seem patient enough to wait for 6 years while Hermione is enslaved. Even if he got super angry, he would not be able to steal the philosopher's stone. He simply doesn't have the power.

Quirrell may not know about the Marauder's map, so if he does return to Hogwarts, we might see some final fireworks. Though that is very doubtful.

Kidnapping hermione(which is what it would look like to the muggle world, when Hermione doesn't return home for summer) doesn't seem like that big a deal for the wizarding community. They could just obliviate the grangers. This does not seem to be a big enough incident to trigger a muggle wizard war.

Snape wanted to help Hermione and wanted her confidence. His hiding the evidence of helping seems natural, but not evil, yet.

I have a feel that we might be seeing multiple plots. I just can't wait to see how things turn out.

Damn, this chapter is dreary and depressing. You're playing Mass Effect 3 right now, aren't you? Go put in a happy game! )

I love the drama, and I especially loved Harry's speech to the other kids. "Unusually bad people," all the better because it's true.

Oh, I've missed this. I re-read the last few chapters before 78, but I'm going to have to find time this weekend to go through the entire thing. I've only done it twice before, and I'm sure all agree that's not nearly often enough!

There is an error in the Quirrell interrogation scene. He's said to have been in Ravenclaw when it has been stated repeatedly before that he's very Slytherin and he even names his ambition during his first lesson.

Other than that, this fic continues to shine. Eagerly awaiting more.

I think this story arc will be very interesting. Beautiful chapter.

Loved this chapter. It's good to have you back.

But Fuyuki? Please don't let this just be a token reference/reader mind screw on your part. But given the timeframe, am I correct in anticipating some Fate/zero references?

Interesting. I like how this arc is developing. But...and I dont know whether its because of an off day for me or something about this chapter...I didnt really connect to what Harry was feeling. Usually I can understand his emotions and empathize quite well. Didnt happen here even at the end.

Still good writing though. Looking forward to next week.

Aaand, yet another web of intrigue shows itself!

Beautiful as ever. Reveal of notes' author was good. Nothing much to say, except...

Fuyuki City. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Is that a joke, or is that really a crossover? Oh my god... Now I won't be able to sleep. As in, more unable than usual after reading you updates.

Thank you for your writing!

Well, that was somehow less ... exciting than I had hoped. Somehow too ... crybabyish perhaps? Gloomy?

Whatever it may be, while it is not a bad chapter, it suffers from all the usual "interlude" Chapter problems. I am looking forward to the next one, even if its still going to take a week...

The entire chapter was amazing.

I also have to admit that I see no reason for what Snape did, it's just strikes me odd, I am also starting to think that Harry really shouldn't tell his teachers anything so many plotters it's starting to be scary...

I know this is probably far in the future, if ever, but I am quite intrigued as how you will write Luna Lovegood.

Epic aftermath only inviting more questions. I know they will probably be answered in due course and hopefully Harry will come up with something wicked, although I like the fact that you made him fallible in this chapter, doubtful of his own capacities...

I am assuming Snape is the one who sent those notes to Granger, hence the destroying of evidence... But one thing I don't get is why Dumbledore waited until now to examine the map & search for Tom...

Anyways, thanks for the update and career ideas XD

...damn

Having grown up here my entire life, I am automatically suspicious of anyone who visits Texas of their own free will.

Especially Quirinus Quirrell, whom I am convinced is being worn like a meat-suit by the spirit of Lord Voldemort (thus explaining his zombie states, when Riddle goes away for a bit).

Being quite seriously drunk, I am sure I will have to re-read this chapter again tomorrow. I look forward to discovering whatever I missed the first go-round.

Looking back, we're now on chapter 79, and Harry is still in his first year. Is it your intention to write new fics for every year, i.e year 1 is Methods of Rationality, year 2 is Applications of Rationality (or what-have-you), etc.?

God I hope so. As you might determine from my screen-name, I *do* enjoy reading. I hope there is quite a lot of this story to come, because I don't want to stop reading it.

Your writings arre helping me to think rationally (at least when i am sober), more and more. I find it strange that the problems I am facing in my personal life have as their solutions the various chapters of HPMOR exactly when I am reading those chapters.

I look forward to the next update.

Excelsior!

Huh. So this really IS all a plot by Quirrel?

Or maybe it's Severus?

UGH! I don't know!

Thank you for the new chapter - it's as brilliant as always) And thank you for such frequent updates)

Awesome again, nice to know I was right about the Identity of "Santa Claus". For some reason I can't figure out who had a motive to harm Draco Malfoy after January. (or who Proffesor Quirell thinks(or pretends to think)has a motive for hurting Draco)

Judging by Harry's reaction it is very obvious, but somehow I don't see it.

I can't articulate very well just how exciting these new chapters are. I read that you caught some flak over withholding chapters, but I believe you've made the right decision. The thought that the rest is coming in a well ordered sequence is vastly more appealing than going mad over when the continuation and conclusion will eventually arrive.

Thank you, so very much. For the story as always, but especially for writing ahead. Its well worth the wait.

~Jans

damn, this was a shorter chapter than usual... that santa claus truth was amazing.. i never thought about that angle! / of course, the potions details you had explored in the previous chapter were fun! thats what harry is all about, hmmm? he tries dismantlaing transfiguration, dismantling a dementor's essense and the patronus, about the fear of death. .. so surely it's in character for him, and supports his character by making him devise a potion :)

!

Not another cliffhanger!

Is this story beginning to reach its climax point now? Or do you still have lots of plots left over to use?

I hope it's the latter as for this to end so soon, cut down before its time, would just be too sad.

How does Harry KNOW that Hemione was false memory charmed? Is it just that Harry knows Hermione's not a murderer or is there more evidence that we just don't know about yet? And since Slytherin is clearly not stupid, to have thought of using a Basilisk to evade the Interdict of Merlin, of which I hope there is a reasonable explanation involving an explanation about Atlantis and Merlin and the Source of Magic, wouldn't he have put clues at the very least of things like snake statue that speak Parseltongue? It seems a bit unlikely that your heir would just HAPPEN to be going into a girl's bathroom and see the snake. And why do they think Voldemort is in spirit form? I thought that they were all implying that Harry was possessed by Voldemort or at least that SOMEONE was so why would they feel he's not possessing someone at that point?

Since you obviously won't actually let Hermione be expelled I am eagerly awaiting the next installment of this (attempted) murder mystery.

Awesome

AAAAARRRGH WHY DO YOU DO THIS ARRRHFJDNZG,MFGZKHNJCKHG'

another great chapter.

Yet another interesting chapter. I have no idea what's going to happen here, and how/if they're going to get hermione off.

that is so sad look forward to the next update i really hope this turns out well

a huge fan

scorpioneldar

A review at last!

Your chapters don't inspire much reviewing. Well, I did re-view hpmor a couple more times. But leaving my sad, desolate thoughts in the back wash of this rather fantastic device (think a brainwashing machine x100 on the spin) seemed too daunting.

Oh well! Words don't come easy to me, and it seems far easier to gorge on yours. Haven't had such a delicious mind-blow since Ender's, and hope to see your next chapter as irritatingly suspenseful as this one mumble or I shall push the cliffhanger off the cliff mumble. I do like how you keep placing (well, dynamiting) Harry into fresh what-is-wrong-with-them scenarios in his journey to Enlighten the wizarding world.

I would like to see Dumbledore sacrifice a chicken to read its entrails. Or Harry asking Hermione to be his Valentine Wiggin. Hpmore please.

I loved Quirrel's prestidigispellcasting. Did those fool auror's honestly think they confiscated *this*?

H&C is Quirrel. His vocal mannerisms give it away, I think. No one else would have been quite so disappointed at Hermione distrusting him because of his Dark appearance - except maybe early-MoR Harry. Also, Harry turned down his Fake Showdown plot, primarily on the basis of anticipated feedback from Draco and Hermione. That may well have annoyed him enough to be worth removing Harry's two primary non-Quirrel influences.

New interesting questions to puzzle: Why doesn't Snape want Dumbledore and/or Harry to learn he was the one sending the notes? Secondary question: what did Snape leave in those notes that could implicate him, and why were they left there? Just because he didn't think anyone who mattered would ever see them? That seems like overly-optimistic thinking.

I can't remember why Quirrel was concerned that Dumbledore might harm Draco. Time for another re-read, I suppose.

Typo? "The room was now lit by a sourceless ice-colored glow which illuminated all of the Mr. Quirrell's pale skin like alabaster, except, somehow, his eyes, which stayed in darkness." There seems to be an extraneous "the" before "Mr. Quirrel".

Finally, Welcome Back! Wonderful as always. Seriously, your quality has been consistently amazing. Take all the time you need, but remember: there are easily thousands of us whose year would be made by a request for a beta-read.

Arrgh

How can you stop here... that's... :'(

Awesome chapter,

Continuuuuuuuuuue,

Z.

That is just so sad and depressing! Why must you torture us so? *sulks* Oh well. It was still cool though and I enjoyed every bit of this chapter. It actually showed that Harry is still human and has some emotion. His breaking down at the end gave me some relief that he actually does care for Hermione in this fanfic and isn't turning too Dark, or else he would only feel cold and mean not sad.

I also like what you've done with Professor Snape. I normally hate fanfics where he's good and awesome but this seems very in-character so far and quite accurate which is a breath of fresh air for me. I think he doesn't hate Harry so much anymore which is good and I really wonder how things will progress from here.

The slip-up with Quirrell was really epic too and I totally cracked up laughing. I really wonder who he is now especially since you alluded to the Barty Crouch Juniour/Mad Eye Moody incident during Harry's canon fourth year at the Triwizard Tournament. You really got my interest now and I think this fanfic is building up for an epic finale.

I really think it would be cool and epic if Harry bursts into the Wizengamont with proof of Hermione's innocence just when she's about to be condemned at the last second. That would be really badass and awesome and totally shock everyone and knock their socks off. Hermione and Harry should be inseperable after this incident if Hermione makes it out alive and free.

The part with Fred and George was also really funny and no doubt people are saying that their pranks are actually making them bullies and that they are secretly dark wizards and maybe one of them isn't really what he looks like but an infiltrator merely using the twin skin as a disguise, lol.

But enough rambling. Basically, this chapter was epic and lived up to your incredible standard of writing. I shall be eagerly awaiting your next update at the designated date. Thursday just can't come fast enough!

Keep up the fantastical work! ;)

HERMIONE! NOOOOOOooooo!

You, sir, are a brilliant, twisted soul, and entirely without compassion or pity. That being said, this is the finest piece of fiction on the web, and I doubt I will get much sleep between now and next Thursday.

Love love love it! Favorite story of all time way better than canon

That was amazing! These two chapters have absolutely been worth the wait!

I presume Snape will not disappoint with his reason for destroying the letters, either, if they ever are in fact from him. I think everyone thought of him with the S, but.. You know. Santa Claus. That makes me sad, really, even though it was obvious from canon that Dumbledore had the cloak.

I was a little worried about the flow of the story when the gravity of the events took a sharp dive after the prison arc. As seems to be the pattern with such worries, they were misplaced, as the intensity blasts back up to 11.

Excellent.

After reading this chapter once through, I can say that I definitely need to go back through the entire fic again and read from some new angles.

Interesting that harry is unwilling to suspect quirrellmort when he has plenty of evidence.

Upon first glance, a false memory charm by the twins on skeeter doesn't seem like a real explanation, especially with the time component that appears to be involved. It also doesn't explain how Q figured this out in chapter 26, but again I haven't reread the relevant chapters thoroughly yet.

Voldemort*, is still awesome.

Your*

I am currently sobbing along with Harry. I need the next chapter!

Evil cliffy, hope Harry's able to save Hermione especially from the Malfoys

There are a couple of things that I can't believe after reading this chapter...i can't believe that I completely forgot about Voldemort. I never considered him as playing a role in this story as of yet at all...i dont know why. Now that i think about it, the other things that should've been obvious now, in retrospect, sound equally stupid so i won't mention them here.

Killer chapter. I like one commenter's train of thought about this arc presaging the awakening of Draco, just as the previous two major arcs were about the awakenings of Harry and Hermione respectively. That fits.

Snape especially, and also Quirrell/Voldemort & Lucius are such delightfully ambiguous characters in your world. It seems almost certain that it was either Quirrell or Lucius who cast the near-fatal charm on Draco, memory-charmed both him and Hermione, and set things up for Hermione to be destroyed. From Quirrell's point of view, it neatly removes both of Harry's primary allies, as Dumbledore acutely observes (without knowing QV). From Lucius' point of view, it destroys the girl who humiliated him and his son, and returns his son to his own control and removes him from Harry's perceived-to-be-dangerous influence. [One can imagine various motivations for what Snape has done in previous chapters, but it is hard to see what he would get out of really destroying Hermione. Of course, there is also the mysterious Hat-&-Cloak, who could be either Snape, Quirrell, or Lucius, or someone different. Though the likelihood of someone different is low since I cannot recall another character of sufficient pivotality in canon, and it would be against your partial faithfulness to canon to create a deux-ex-machina character out of the blue. Hmmm... unless H&C is somehow Sirius Black, who might well be in Azkaban, but also well might not, given the guy saying "I am not Sirius. I am not Sirius" in the TSPE arc.]

I love Snape and Dumbledore both cover up their note leaving deeds in the course of "investigating"

Oh and triple props on the David Brin endorsement!

"I also see that you visited Fuyuki City in 1983."

...

...

D: Voldemort was a master in the 4th Holy Grail War!

Damn it Snape you rat bastad destroying evidence. There has to be a way to save Hermione something overlooked some way to save her from doom by a Lucius he can be as racist and bigot as he wants with this he's inside the laws his ancestor set up for crap like this.

Unless you plan to make this a defining tragedy for Harry that traumatic sorrow that drives him to strive even higher and work even harder.

I have to read the next chapter.

Another chapter that I really enjoyed. It's interesting how civil Snape and Harry were in regards to each other when they were in the Headmaster's office. I imagine they had more pressing issues on their minds at that moment to snipe and quarrel, but it was interesting nonetheless. I wonder how the Potions lessons play out now.

I'm not sure if this is only my paranoia talking, but should we necessarily believe Dumbledore when he claims to have been the author of those notes left to Harry? It seems awfully strange, half-remembering as I do the content of those notes, and it certainly brings us back into manipulative Dumbledore-territory, but I can't see a reason why he'd lie to McGonagall and Snape on this point. Maybe it's time to re-read the entire thing.

Anyway, nice update, hope to see more whenever it is ready.

The plot not so much thickens as curdles... I love it. Well worth the wait.

Thanks for the update. Those going-ons are quite troublesome, and now I have to wait a week for the continuation. Agh.

Anyway, keep up the great work! I'm looking forward to the next chapter.

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

Amazing chapter. I thought the characters were interesting and nicely portrayed. Quirrell's interrogation looks to be very, very interesting, and I think it is going to go quite well. The repeated references to Quirrell's immortality are intersting - "what are you going to do, kill me?" gets added to his "casting off a pretense of mortality" when reading the newspaper, and there's at least one or two more, besides the Horcrux of a pioneer plaque.

So apparantly Dumbledore is Santa Claus, and Severus Snape is S. Quirrell had tracking charms on Draco to prevent Dumbledore from killing him unnoticed.

Snape's game appears unclear - he could be serving the dark lord by provoking tensions between muggleborn and wizardborn, he could very well be mr cloak and hat. He could be attempting to play all sides against one another. He could have been orchestrating the entire Self Actualization Arc's action.

If Hermione gets turned into a House Elf that would be like, whoa, WTF, crazy twist. The eternal servitude thingy the various characters referenced sounds like it could be House Elfification [I don't think there's a good verb that means "to turn into a house elf", sadly] and that could be a crazy plot point. The discussion of house elves hasn't happened at all yet, but I think if it does it will be pretty interesting.

Wow. I feel dumb for thinking that Quirrelmort hadn't been involved with the duel-turned-attempted-murder. I probably should have reread the chapters you suggested.

Excellent chapter, looking forward to seeing if/how Hermione manages to not become Malfoy's slave or concubine or whatever. Also, Rufus Scrimgeour seems fairly doomed.

Wow - that's some harrowing stuff.

Heh. HP, McGon & Dumble should get groups of people they can Obliviate afterwards and have them roleplay this sort of thing to get a wider meme base...

I wonder how Lucius will take the knowledge that his son believes the pure blood stuff is all a lie.

So many delicious questions and thoughts.

Thank you so much for writing this stuff - fiction that makes some sort of sense at last )

moody maybe

Everyone needs a good disaster once in a while to get their butts in gear.

By the way, one typo -

"And according to Professor Quirrell, that portkey goes to somewhere in London - it's definitely not strong enough to be an international portkey."

Hogwarts is in Scotland. Did you mean literally overseas or just beyond the border?

Wow! Harry is so screwed! This is amazing stuff.

Thanks for working so diligently on this novel. You've been amazingly productive, especially considering how low this must be on your list of important things to spend time on. I definitely approve of the sporadic novella plan. However, I don't understand your motivation for releasing the chapters slowly once the sequence is finished.

Holy Crap!

This section of the story was amazing. It's totally, 100% genius. Really well done. I like it a lot.

Thought: Is the reference to Fuyuki City (the setting of Fate/Stay Night) a throwaway line or not? Yudkowski has referenced F/SN in his previous fiction (Three Worlds Collide definitely, maybe in his Megacrossover of Everything, probably elsewhere that I forget) so it could be a simple throwaway line. It could also be an indication that...

-Quirrel is a Heroic Spirit of some form (presumably a Caster, but of what identity?)

-Quirrel is a result of using the Holy Grail to Materialize the Soul of someone - could be Salazar, could be Voldemort, could be something else.

My favorite idea (Speculation) is sort of a spoiler for Fate/Stay Night, so read it at your own risk (don't read if you haven't played through the Visual Novel, because it's super awesome to see if you don't get it spoiled for you! Exposure to this idea might spoil a huge part of one of the best Visual Novels ever written!

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-Quirrel is Harry from the future (possibly summoned as a heroic spirit in Fuyuki). Would explain a lot, and be a totally awesome explanation that would make a lot of sense from a lot of perspectives. Quirrel matches up well as the older cynical experienced embittered version of Harry, and he could be to Harry as Archer is to Shirou in a lot of ways. It could be super cool if this happened.

End Spoilers

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If you are going to insist on dribbling these out at a one-a-week pace when it's known that they are all completely done, I dearly hope that you are also intending to make a little progress in the meantime and maybe with luck have one or two more to dribble out by the time this arc is finished posting...

Really great. Thank you.

Nice; I think you're better with shorter scenes. Nice things in particular: Headmaster not lying, some mysteries resolved, tension and legal system explanation. One still wonders if you could make it without Q being V, but I doubt it at this stage. The resolution seems to be getting closer as well, what else to write about after 84? :)

Looking forward to the next Thursday. Thank you.

Your punctuality is appreciated.

My mind staggers under the possible outcomes, I can hardly wait for next week.

The chapter demonstrates a mastery of suspense and dread, and Harry's narrative at the end does an excellent job at conveying just how rock-bottom everything has gone. It really feels like the sort of climatic gutpunch that would serve as a cultural icon if the context wasn't so niche, a "Luke, I am your father" moment that benefits from far more investment in the characters and the narrative.

So, with all that out of the way, with my appreciation well established, I want to get right to it and admit that nothing blew my mind so much as the passing mention that Voldemort possessed Quirrell during the Fourth Holy Grail War. The thought that your Voldemort would be anywhere near obtaining the Holy Grail, or even in a universe even the slightest bit adjacent to Nasu's, fills me with an almost inescapable dread that has permanently drained the color from my face. I think the melanin was eaten by a dementor, or possibly Tracey Davis.

Not bad for a three-line throwaway reference.

It is very, very good to have you back. I could go on at great length, describing the other little touches I admire (your preservation of the Hogwarts' student body's general cluelessness, how Hermione and Draco are equally screwed in differing ways, etc.), and I may do so later. For now, I will conclude with a three part farewell: (a) thank you, (b) I eagerly anticipate the next chapter, and (c) AHHHH Fuyuki City AHHHHHHHH!

Great update, it's crazy how much is happening.

I loved it. You have got a new fan!

Oh God, this is intense.

Liked the Weasley twins prompt change of opinions when they heard Hermione was in danger. OOCBehaviorIsSeriousBusiness.

Liked the scary-cold Harry-lecture.

Liked the super intense planning session you started with. Any other author following up a cliffhanger with an extended conversation would be a letdown-this wasn't. Thanks.

Liked Harry's OOCBehaviorIsSeriousBusiness/Angrish at the beginning of the chapter.

Liked the "there are CHILDREN!" line.

Liked the little TakeThats at canon, as always-due process? Investigations? Common sense? Nah. Also, the defense professor is always a suspect. Silly Harry, be more GenreSavvy.

Another update next week. I'm in heaven.

I love that you are updating so quickly now! It was a beautiful chapter!

Thanks for the update.

False memory charms take as much time as the memory they replace. Hermione has memories of obsessing about Malfoy, for hours. She also hasn't been sleeping well - because her normally scheduled sleep has been half-replaced with someone adding memories, obliviating the extra time awake, and leaving blankness where people expect to find blankness - when she would be asleep.

HC may still be Snape, trying to help her - but Draco's plan, Lucius' plan, and perhaps the plan of another have not mixed well.

The epic is too much! I shall wait impatiently until Thursday.

Darn you! It was getting so good!