Harry Potter and the Way of Reason

(April [-], [-], international headlines)

Toronto Magic Tribune:

Members of the Wizengamot, UK

Claims to have witnessed 'Boy Who Lived'

frightened a dementor

Fantastic creature expert: 'It's a lie'

France, Germany blame Britain

make up

"New Zealand Spell Inventor Daily":

What is driving the British legislature insane?

Is our government next in line?

Experts list 28 reasons

prove it's a fact

"Wizard of America":

The werewolf tribe is about to become

first wyoming residents

"The Quibbler":

Veela's power begins to awaken

Malfoy escapes Hogwarts

The Daily Prophet:

"Mad Muggle-born wizard"

Freed for legal sleight of hand

Potter threatens the Ministry of Magic

to attack Azkaban

——————————————————————————————

Hypothesis: Voldemort

(April 22, [-], [-]:[-] pm)

——————————————————————————————

The four of them gathered again at the Hogwarts headmaster's ancient desk.This desk has drawer within drawer within drawer; all documents ever recorded at Hogwarts House are kept here.Rumor has it that Headmaster Silgar once got lost in this desk, and is in fact still in it, until all her papers are sorted before she can get out.Minerva had little expectation that when she inherited the table she would inherit the drawers—provided, of course, that one of them survived.

Albus Dumbledore sat behind the desk, his face grave and composed.

Severus Snape stood beside the extinguished floo web and ashes, floating eerily, as if a student sometimes accused him of being a vampire.

Mad-Eye Moody is supposed to join them, but hasn't come yet.

And Harry...

The thin body of a boy perched on the armrest of the chair. It seemed that there was too much energy flowing in the body, and he couldn't sit still in an ordinary posture.The determined expression, the sweaty hair, the focused green eyes, and above all, that jagged lightning scar that never healed.Even compared to a week ago, his expression is now more severe.

For a moment, Minerva thought back to her trip to Diagon Alley with Harry as if it had been ages ago.Somehow, back then, the serious boy was inside Harry at the time.It wasn't entirely her own fault, nor was it Albus's.Yet there was a contrast between the little boy she had first met and what he had been shaped by Magical Britain, almost unbearably sad.Harry had never had much of a normal childhood, and she knew that; Harry's adoptive parents had told her that he rarely talked to Muggle children, and even less played with them.It was sad to think that Harry had only been playing with the other Hogwarts children for a few months before the demands of the war took all that away.Maybe when Harry wasn't glaring at the Wizengamot, he was showing a different face to kids his age.But she couldn't help imagining Harry Potter's childhood as a pile of logs that she and Albus were throwing into the fire, one by one.

"Prophecies are strange things," said Albus Dumbledore.The old wizard's eyes were half-closed and he seemed tired. "Ambiguous, vague, meaning slipping like water through loosened fingers. Prophecy is always a burden, for there are no answers in it, only questions."

Harry Potter sat tense. "Headmaster Dumbledore," said the boy softly, with precise words, "my friend was targeted. Hermione Granger almost went to Azkaban. In your words, the war has begun. I need Weighing the various hypotheses about what happened, and Professor Trelawney's prophecy is the key piece of information. Not to mention how stupid - and dangerous - the Dark Lord knew of the prophecy and I didn't."

Albus looked at her sternly and inquiringly, and she shook her head in answer; and whatever unimaginable means Harry found out that it was Professor Trelawney who made the prophecy, and that the Dark Lord knew about it, he didn't Got it from her.

"Voldemort fell to you to evade this prophecy," said the old wizard now. "The information he has has only done him harm. Consider this well, Harry Potter."

"Yes, Headmaster, I do understand that. My culture also has a literary tradition of prophesying self-fulfillment and being misinterpreted. Rest assured, I will interpret it carefully. But I have already guessed a lot. May I Is it safer to extrapolate by guessing?"

The clock is ticking.

"Minerva," said Albus, "you come."

"Have..." she began.The words choked in her throat; she was not good at acting.She couldn't imitate the deep, cold tone of the original prophecy; yet somehow, that tone seemed to carry all the meaning. "The one who has the power to destroy the Dark Lord is coming...born of parents who resisted him three times, born when the seventh month disappears..."

"The Dark Lord marked him as his equal," came Severus' voice, making her jump from her chair.The Potions Master towered over the hearth. "But he will possess powers unknown to the Dark Lord...One of the two must be destroyed at the hands of the other, except for a small remnant of the one, for these two different souls cannot coexist in the world."

Severus' last words were so ominous that they sent chills down the spine; it was almost like listening to Sybill Trelawney.

Harry listened, frowning. "Can you repeat that?" Harry asked.

"He who has the power to destroy the Dark Lord is coming, born of parents who have resisted him three times, born when the seventh month disappears—"

"Actually, wait a minute, can you write it down? I need to dissect it—"

She did, and Albus and Severus watched over the parchment together like a hawk, as if to make sure no invisible hand reached in and snatched away the precious information.

"Let's see..." Harry said, "I'm male, born on the 31st of July, true. I did actually kill the Dark Lord, true. The pronoun in the second line is ambiguous... But I wasn't born then, so it's hard to imagine how my parents could have resisted me three times. My scars were the obvious candidate for the mark..." Harry stroked his forehead. "Then there are powers unknown to the Dark Lord, presumably referring to my scientific background—"

"No." Severus said.

Harry looked at the Potions Master in surprise.

Severus closed his eyes, his expression tensed with concentration. "The Dark Lord can gain that power by studying the same books as you, Potter. But the prophecy doesn't say, powers that the Dark Lord doesn't have. Not even, powers that the Dark Lord can't have. She's talking about powers that the Dark Lord doesn't know." The power of the .

"Science isn't a collection of technical tricks," Harry said. "It's not just a Muggle version of a wand. It's not even knowledge, like memorizing the periodic table. It's a different way of thinking."

"Perhaps..." murmured the Potions professor, but there was doubt in his voice.

"It's dangerous," said Albus, "even if you've heard the prophecies yourself, it's dangerous to read too much into their meaning. They're terribly frustrating stuff."

"I understand that," Harry said.He raised his hand and rubbed the scar on his forehead. "But...well, if that's all we really know...Look, I'll be blunt. How do you know that the Dark Lord is, in fact, alive?"

"What?" she called.Albus just sighed and leaned back in the huge headmaster's chair.

"Well," said Harry, "imagine what that prophecy sounds like when it comes out. You-Know-Who has learned of this prophecy, and it sounds like I'm fated to kill him when I grow up. There's going to be a showdown between the two of us." , one of the two must perish at the hands of the other, except for a small remnant of it. So You-Know-Who attacked Godric's Hollow and was instantly wiped out, leaving behind a small remnant, which may or may not refer to his loss of body Perhaps the remnants he left behind were Death Eaters, or the Dark Mark. This prophecy may have been fulfilled, and that's what I mean. Don't get me wrong—I know my explanation sounds far-fetched. If only to describe a Trelawney's words don't feel very natural for the historical event that happened on October 31, [-]. Attacking a baby and then being hit by a rebounding spell wouldn't normally be called 'destroying the Dark Lord's power ’. But if you think that this prophecy foretells several possible futures, and Halloween fulfills one of them, then the prophecy may have already been fulfilled.”

"But—" Minerva blurted out, "but that attack on Azkaban—"

"If the Dark Lord is still alive, then yes, he is the biggest suspect in the Azkaban prison breakout," Harry said reasonably, "You can even say that the Azkaban prison breakout is the result of the Dark Lord's still alive Yessian evidence, because Azkaban is more likely to occur in a world where the Dark Lord is alive than in a world where the Dark Lord is dead. But this is not strong Bayesian evidence. It is not unless the Dark Lord is alive, It couldn't have happened otherwise. Professor Quirrell didn't assume the Dark Lord was alive, and had no trouble coming up with his own explanation. It seemed clear to him that some powerful wizard might have wanted Bellatrix Black, because she knew one of the dark lord's secrets, such as certain magical lore that was only ever told to her. Even if it were magically possible, the a priori probability of anyone surviving physical death is very low .[1] Most of the time it won't happen. So if it's just the Azkaban jailbreak...I have to formally say that the Bayesian evidence is not strong enough. The evidence is not low enough to happen if the hypothesis is wrong , cannot offset the low prior probability of the hypothesis itself."

"No," Severus said flatly, "the prophecy hasn't come true. If it does, I'll know."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Potter. If this prophecy has been fulfilled, I will understand it! I heard Trelawney's words, I remember Trelawney's voice, and if I hear something that matches the prophecy, I will You will recognize it. What has happened so far...is not correct." The Potions Professor's tone was very certain.

"I don't know what to do with that," Harry said, raising his hand absently and rubbing his forehead, "maybe it's just that what you thought happened didn't match up, and the real history is different..."

"Voldemort is indeed alive," said Albus, "and there are other clues."

"Like?" Harry asked immediately.

Albus paused. "There are some terrible magical rituals that allow wizards to return to the world after death," said Albus slowly. "Anyone can learn about these from history and legend. But those books are missing. Not anymore; I'm sure Voldemort took them—"

"So you can't find the books on immortality, and that proves they're in You-Know-Who's?"

"Indeed," said Albus, "a book—I will not name it—has disappeared from the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts Library. The Borgin-Bock store used to have an old Scrolls, now there are only empty shelves—” The old wizard stopped, “but I guess,” said the old wizard as if to himself, “You will say that even if Voldemort tried immortality, it would not prove that he succeeded. It's..."

Harry sighed. "Proof, Headmaster? These are always just probabilities. If some known, specific book about the rites of immortality is missing, that increases the probability that someone has tried them. And this in turn increases the probability that the Dark Lord will The prior probability of being alive. I agree with that, and thank you for telling me the fact. The question is whether the prior probability increases enough."

"Of course," said Albus quietly, "as long as Voldemort has a chance of being alive, it's something to be wary of, don't you agree?"

Harry bowed his head in agreement. "As you said, Principal. But once the probability is low enough, it would be a mistake to indulge in it...Since the book about immortality can't be found, and if this prophecy is understood according to the future battle between the Dark Lord and I, it will be a mistake." On a more natural note, I agree that it's not only possible that the Dark Lord is alive, but it's not a small possibility. But there are other possibilities that have to be considered - the possibility that You-Know-Who didn't survive, that someone else framed Hermione."

"Stupid," Severus said softly, "completely stupid. The Dark Mark hasn't faded, and neither has its owner."

"Look, that's what I mean by insufficient formal Bayesian evidence. Of course, it sounds awful, ominous, or something, but are magical markers that survive the death of their maker really that rare? Suppose If the Dark Lord is still alive, the Mark will continue to exist, but as a priori probability, we guess that if the Dark Lord is dead, the probability of the Dark Mark continuing to exist is 20.00%. Then, the phenomenon of 'Dark Mark has not faded' is five times more likely to occur when the Dark Lord is alive than if the Dark Lord is dead. Does this really offset the low prior probability of immortality? Assuming the Dark Lord is alive the prior odds of occurrence are one hundred to one ...if a hypothesis is a hundred times more likely to be wrong than it is to be true, then when you see a piece of evidence that is five times more likely to be true when the hypothesis is true than it is to be false, it's time to renew yourself The odds of believing the hypothesis are twenty times more likely to be wrong than the odds of being right. Multiply the odds of one hundred to one by the odds of one to five, and the odds of the Dark Lord being dead are twenty to one— —”

"Where do you get these figures, Potter?"

"This is indeed a recognized weakness of the method," Harry replied immediately, "but my purpose is to explain qualitatively why the phenomenon that 'the Dark Mark has not faded' is not enough to support the statement that 'the Dark Lord is immortal'." Hypothesis. The evidence is not as outlandish as the hypothesis itself." Harry paused. "Not to mention, even if the Dark Lord was still alive, he might not have framed Hermione. As some witty person said, there may be Multiple conspirators and multiple plots."

"Like the Defense Professor," Severus smiled faintly, "I think I have to agree that he is one of the suspects. After all, last year's prisoner was the Defense Professor; the year before last was also, and the year before that was no exception."

Harry's eyes fell back to the parchment in his lap. "Let's continue. Are we sure this prophecy is accurate? Has anyone touched Professor McGonagall's memory, such as changing or deleting a line?"

Albus paused, then spoke slowly. "There is a powerful spell on the territory of Britain, which records all prophecies within the borders. Deep in the Wizengamot Hall of the Ancients, in the Department of Mysteries, these prophecies are recorded."

"Hall of Prophecy," Minerva whispered.She had read about the place in a book, and it was said to be a huge room with rows of shelves filled with glowing glass spheres, which would appear one after another over the years.It is said to be the work of Merlin himself; the last slap of fate by the greatest wizard.Not all prophecies bring good; and Merlin hoped that those mentioned would at least know what the prophecy said about them.This is Merlin's respect for their free will, preventing fate from controlling them from the outside without knowing it.Those mentioned in the prophecy will have a glowing glass ball float into their hands and hear the prophet's actual speaking voice.Others who tried to touch the sphere were said to go insane - perhaps just their heads exploded, the legend is not clear on this point.Whatever Merlin's original intentions were, she had heard, the Department of Mysteries hadn't let anyone in for hundreds of years. In Achievements of the Ancient Wizards, it is written that the Department of Mysteries discovered that revealing the sky to the prophesied object would affect the prophet's release of the pressure of time; therefore Merlin's heir sealed his temple.Minerva did wonder (when she had been with Mr. Potter for a few months) how anyone could possibly know this; but she also knew not to ask Albus, who might try to tell her the answer.Minerva is a firm believer that if you don't have a clock, you don't have to worry about time.

"The Hall of Prophecy," Albus confirmed in a low voice, "those mentioned in the prophecy can hear the prophecy there. Do you understand what that means, Harry?"

Harry frowned. "Well, I can listen, and so can the Dark Lord... oh, my parents. The parents who defended him three times. The prophecy mentions them too, so they can hear the recording?"

"If what James and Lily heard was different from Minerva's report," said Albus evenly, "they didn't tell me."

"Where did you take James and Lily?" Minerva asked.

"Fox can go many places," said Albus, "don't tell."

Harry stared straight at Albus. "Can I go to the Department of Mysteries and listen to the recording of the prophecy? Hearing the tone of the original might help to understand."

The old wizard shook his head slowly, and a glint of light flashed through his half-moon glasses. "I don't think it's wise," said Albus, "for deep reasons. The place Merlin built is quite dangerous; more dangerous to some people than others."

"I see," Harry replied in a deadpan tone, looking down at the parchment, "I'll just assume for a moment that the prophecy is accurate. The next part says the Dark Lord marked me as his equal. You guys Do you know what that means?"

"Of course not," said Albus, "that you have to imitate what he does in any sense."

"I'm not stupid, Headmaster. Muggles have studied time paradoxes too, though it's all just theory to them. I'm not going to throw away my moral principles just because a signal from the future claims to happen, because if That way, the signal is the only reason for the event to happen. But anyway, what the hell does it mean?"

"I don't know," Severus said.

"I don't know either," she said.

Harry took out his wand, turned it around in his hands, and stared thoughtfully at the log. "Eleven inches, holly, with a phoenix feather in the center," said Harry, "the phoenix who gave this tail feather only gave another tail feather, and O...what's his name, Mr Ollie what?" ...made the Dark Lord's wand out of that tail feather. And I'm a Parseltongue. That's enough of a coincidence. And now I've discovered a prophecy that says I'll be equal to the Dark Lord."

There was a thoughtful expression in Severus' eyes; the Headmaster's gaze was unfathomable.

"Could it mean," Minerva stammered, "that the You-Know-Who—Voldemort—gave Mr. Potter that scar the night he also transferred some of his powers to him? Of course he didn't mean to. Yes. But... I don't see how Mr. Potter can be equal to him, after all, his magic is not as good as the Dark Lord himself..."

"Never mind," said Harry, still looking thoughtfully at his wand, "I would fight the Dark Lord if I had to, even without magic at all. Homo sapiens is the dominant species on this planet by virtue of Not the sharpest claws, nor the hardest armor-though that argument may not hold true for a wizard. At any rate, my human dignity does not allow me to fear anything less clever than I am; and from what I hear In this respect, the Dark Lord is not terrible."

The Potions Master spoke, with some of the usual contemptuous drawls in his voice. "Do you think you're smarter than the Dark Lord, Potter?"

"Actually, yes," Harry replied, rolling up the sleeve of his left hand and rolling up the sleeve of his shirt underneath, exposing his elbow. "Oops, this reminds me! Let's make sure no one here has a clearly visible tattoo in a fixed, easily inspected location as a sign of a covert enemy spy."

The Potions Master was about to snap back sharply when Albus stopped him with a quiet gesture. "Tell me, Harry," said Albus, "how would you design the Dark Mark?"

"Don't put it in a fixed location," said Harry immediately, "where it's not easy to spot, it's awkward and cumbersome to check, but of course a security-conscious person will check anyway. If possible, let it be Small. Layer a non-magical tattoo over it to disguise the true shape—or better yet, cover it with a fake skin—"

"True wit," said Albus, "but tell me, suppose you could put arbitrary conditions on the mark, making it appear or disappear as you pleased. What would you do in that case?"

"Keep it invisible," Harry replied in a tone of obvious fact, "You don't want any detectable difference between a spy and a non-spy."

"Suppose you were even more cunning," said Albus. "You are a master of trickery and deceit, and you make the most of your abilities."

"Uh—" the boy stopped, frowning. "It seems overly complicated, more like a strategy a bad guy would use in an RPG than a real war strategy. I guess, though, you could put a fake Dark Mark on someone who wasn't a Death Eater , while making the real Death Eater's Dark Mark invisible. But then there's the question of why people believe the Dark Mark is the symbol of the Death Eaters... I'll have to think about it for at least 5 minutes if it's going to be taken seriously .”

"The reason I'm asking you," said Albus, still in that mild tone, "is because I did take the tests you suggested early in the war. The Order of the Phoenix was not wiped out because of my stupidity." , thanks to Alastor's disbelief in the bare arms we saw. I thought later that perhaps the bearer of the Dark Mark could hide or reveal the mark at will. But when we sent Igor Karkaroff to When he went to the Wizengamot, the Dark Mark on his arm was clearly visible, no matter how much Karkaroff tried to prove his innocence, it would be useless. What are the real rules that control the Dark Mark, I don't know. Lian Xi Fleurs is bound by his mark, unable to tell the secret to anyone who doesn't know."

"Oh, that's easy enough," Harry said immediately, "wait a minute—you were a Death Eater?" Harry turned his gaze, glaring at Severus.

Severus returned a small smile. "I'm still a Death Eater in their eyes."

"Harry," said Albus, staring intently at the boy, "what do you mean it's easy?"

"Introduction to information theory," the boy said in a lecture tone, "observing the value of variable X can convey information about variable Y if and only if the probability distribution of X varies with the state of Y. Once you hear about spies and non-spies Any difference, and you should immediately try to use it to distinguish spies from non-spies. Similarly, in order to separate truth from lies, you need a program that behaves differently under truth and lies - that's why 'belief' It cannot be used to distinguish true from false, but 'make an experimental prediction and then test' can. You said that a person with the Dark Mark cannot tell this secret to anyone who does not know. So in order to find the principle of the Dark Mark, Write down all the possible Dark Mark principles you can imagine, and watch Professor Snape tell each of them to the experimenter - perhaps someone who doesn't know what the experiment is testing - and I'll explain the half search later [2 ], so that you can narrow down your search by playing twenty questions[3]—what he can’t say is the truth. You see, his silence is what makes the difference between the truth and the lie about the imprint.”

Minerva realized her mouth was open and quickly closed it.Even Albus looked surprised.

"Then, like I said, any difference in the behavior of a spy from a non-spy can be used to identify a spy. Once you find at least one secret of the Dark Mark that is magically silenced, you can see whether a person can Let the secret out to those who don't know it beforehand, and test them for the Dark Mark—"

"Thank you, Mr. Potter."

Everyone looked at Severus.The Potions Master straightened up, bared his teeth, and made an angry triumphant grimace. "Headmaster, I am now free to speak the secret of the Mark. If we knew we were captured as Death Eaters, the Mark would be revealed to those who had not seen our bare arms, whether we wanted to or not. .But the Mark won't show if they've seen our bare arms before; nor if it's just suspected. So the Dark Mark looks like the Death Eater's mark—but only those that have been exposed Dead Apostle, you can see."

"Ah..." said Albus, "thank you, Severus." He closed his eyes for a moment, "that would explain why Black even escaped Peter...ah, well. So Harry What about the proposed experiment?"

The Potions professor shook his head. "The Dark Lord is no fool, notwithstanding Potter's fantasies. Once it becomes possible to do a test of this kind, the markings are no longer tied to our tongues. But I cannot hint at the possibility, until someone else deduces it. He smiled faintly again, "I'd like to award you a lot of house points, Mr. Potter, but unfortunately it will give away my disguise. But as you can see, the Dark Lord is quite cunning." His eyes became ecstatic, " Oh," Severus whispered, "he's really cunning..."

Harry Potter sat quietly for a while.

Then--

"No," said Harry.The boy shook his head. "No, in fact this is impossible. First of all, the logic puzzle we are talking about will appear in Chapter 1 of Raymond Smolian's book [4], which is far from the level of professional Muggle scientists. It's too far. Secondly, for all I know, it probably took the Dark Lord five months to figure out this puzzle, and I solved it in five seconds—"

"Is it really that hard for you to imagine someone as smart as you, Potter?" The Potions professor's voice sounded more curious than reproachful.

"It's called the base ratio[1], Professor Snape. Whether it took the Dark Lord five months to invent the riddle or five seconds, is equally consistent with the present evidence, but in any population, it took five months to invent the riddle." There are many more people who have invented this riddle than those who can invent it in five seconds..." Harry rested his hand on his forehead, "Damn it, how can I explain it? I think, from your point of view, the Dark Lord A clever riddle came to mind, and I solved it cleverly, so we appear to be equal."

"I remember your performance in your first Potions class," said the Potions Professor dryly. "I think you still have work to do."

"Stop arguing, Severus," said Albus, "Harry has done more than you know. But tell me, Harry—why do you think the Dark Lord is inferior to you? Of course his soul is It's riddled with holes. But as far as resourcefulness is concerned—it seems to me that you're not yet ready to stand up to him; and I know all the things you've done."

——————————————————————————————

What was frustrating about this conversation was that Harry was unable to state the real reason for his disagreement, which violated several basic principles of collaborative discussion. [5]

He couldn't explain how Bellatrix had in fact left Azkaban—it wasn't some mysterious man in disguise who rescued her, but the collective wisdom of Harry and Professor Quirrell.

Harry didn't want to say in front of Professor McGonagall that the presence of brain damage meant there was no such thing as a soul.That made successful immortality rituals...well, not impossible, and Harry definitely intended to forge a path to magical immortality someday.But that would be far more difficult and require far more creativity than binding an existing soul to a lich's phylactery.No sensible wizard would bother to do such a thing if he was sure of his own immortality.

And the real, honest reason why Harry knew the Dark Lord couldn't be that smart was that... well... there wasn't any way to put it mildly, but...

Harry had attended a Wizengamot meeting.He'd seen the ridiculous 'security measures' guarding the lowest echelons of the Ministry of Magic, if that could even be called a security measure.They didn't even have Thiefproof Waterfall, which the goblins used to wash away Polyjuice Potions and Imperius Curses from people who entered Gringotts.An obvious way to take over is to cast Soul Reaper on the Minister of Magic and a few Directors, while using an owl to send a grenade to any wizard who is too powerful to be Soul Reaper.If you need to capture the living, pluck their hair for Polyjuice Potion in the state of the living dead, send them stun gas.Legilimency, False Memory Spells, Confusion Charms—it's ridiculous, there are so many ways to cheat in the wizarding world.Harry probably wouldn't do any of these things when he occupied England himself, because he's morally bound...well, maybe Harry would do some of the lesser ones, because of Polyjuice Potion, Temporary Confusion, Read-Only Legilimency Niandu is better than keeping Azkaban alive for one more day...but...

If Harry hadn't been bound by morality, he might have wiped out the more villainous parts of the Wizengamot that day; on his own, with only the magic power of a first-year student, he had seen through the dementors with only his wits. Nature.Afterwards, though, Harry may be in a less favorable position politically, and those surviving Wizengamots may choose to denounce his easy and cheap tactic out of public relations considerations, although the wiser ones will Knowing it's for the greater good...but that doesn't change the aforementioned facts.

If you were completely free from moral constraints, possessed the ancient secrets of Salazar Slytherin, had dozens of powerful followers, including Lucius Malfoy, and you spent more than a decade subverting magical Britain The government, failed, which means you are stupid.

"How should I put it..." Harry said, "Look, Headmaster, you are a moral person, there are many fighting tactics you don't use because you are not evil. And you are fighting the Dark Lord, you, a man without Restraints in this regard, and an extremely powerful wizard, and you still block his attacks. If You-Know-Who is extremely intelligent in addition to these advantages, you will die. Everyone. You will die immediately-"

"Harry," said Professor McGonagall, his voice trembling, "Harry, we did almost all die. Most of the Order of the Phoenix died. Thanks to Albus—Albus Dumbledore, 200 Greatest wizard of all time, Harry - or we'll all be dead."

Harry brushed his hand across his forehead. "Sorry," Harry said, "I didn't mean to downplay your painful experience. I know You-Know-Who is an extremely evil and powerful dark wizard with dozens of powerful followers, and this is...