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// 3865
//== Rationalization

// 3866
//Rowling is whoever does Rowling’s job.

// 3867
//Hermione Granger had worried she was turning Bad.

// 3868
//The difference between Good and Bad was usually easy to grasp, she’d never
//understood why other people had so much trouble. At Hogwarts, “Good” was
//Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall and Professor Sprout. “Bad” was
//Professor Snape and Professor Quirrell and Draco Malfoy. Harry Potter… was one
//of those unusual cases where you __couldn’t__ tell just by looking. She
//was still trying to figure out where he belonged.

// 3869
//But when it came to __herself__…

// 3870
//Hermione was having __too much fun__ crushing Harry Potter.

// 3871
//She’d done better than him in every single class they’d taken. (Except for
//broomstick riding which was like gym class, it didn’t count.) She’d gotten
//__real__ House points almost every day of their first week, not for weird
//heroic things, but __smart__ things like learning spells quickly and
//helping other students. She knew those kinds of House points were better, and
//the best part was, Harry Potter knew it too. She could see it in his eyes every
//time she won another __real__ House point.

// 3872
//If you were Good, you weren’t supposed to enjoy winning this much.

// 3873
//It had started on the day of the train ride, though it had taken a while for
//the whirlwind to sink in. It wasn’t until later that night that Hermione had
//begun to realize just __how much__ she’d let that boy walk all over her.

// 3874
//Before she’d met Harry Potter she hadn’t had anyone she’d wanted to crush. If
//someone wasn’t doing as well as her in class, it was her job to help them, not
//rub it in. That was what it meant to be Good.

// 3875
//And now…

// 3876
//…now she was __winning__, Harry Potter was flinching every time she got
//another House point, and it was __so much__ fun, her parents had warned
//her against drugs and she suspected this was __more fun__ than that.

// 3877
//She’d always liked the smiles that teachers gave her when she did something
//right. She’d always liked seeing the long row of check-marks on a perfectly
//answered test. But now when she did well in class she would casually glance
//around and catch a glimpse of Harry Potter gritting his teeth, and it made her
//want to burst into song like a Disney movie.

// 3878
//That was Bad, wasn’t it?

// 3879
//Hermione had worried she was turning Bad.

// 3880
//And then a thought had come to her which wiped away all her fears.

// 3881
//She and Harry were getting into a Romance! Of course! Everyone knew what it
//meant when a boy and a girl started fighting all the time. They were
//__courting__ one another! There was nothing Bad about __that.__

// 3882
//It couldn’t be that she just __enjoyed__ beating the living scholastic
//daylights out of the most famous student in the school, someone who was
//__in__ books and __talked__ like books, the boy who had somehow
//vanquished the Dark Lord and even smushed __Professor Snape__ like a sad
//little bug, the boy who was, as Professor Quirrell would have put it, dominant,
//over everyone else in first-year Ravenclaw __except__ for Hermione Granger
//who was utterly __squishing__ the Boy-Who-Lived in all his classes besides
//broomstick riding.

// 3883
//Because that would have been Bad.

// 3884
//No. It was Romance. __That__ was it. __That__ was why they were
//fighting.

// 3885
//Hermione was glad she had figured this out in time for today, when Harry would
//lose their book-reading contest, which the __whole school__ knew about,
//and she wanted to start __dancing__ with the sheer overflowing joy of it.

// 3886
//It was 2:45pm on Saturday and Harry Potter had half of Bathilda Bagshot’s
//__A History of Magic__ left to read and she was staring at her pocket
//watch as it ticked with dreadful slowness toward 2:47pm.

// 3887
//And the entire Ravenclaw common room was watching.

// 3888
//It wasn’t just the first-years, news had spread like spilled milk and fully
//half of Ravenclaw was crowded into the room, squeezed into sofas and leaning on
//bookcases and sitting on the arms of chairs. All six prefects were there
//including the Head Girl of Hogwarts. Someone had needed to cast an
//Air-Freshening Charm just so that there would be enough oxygen. And the din of
//conversation had died into whispers which had now faded into utter silence.

// 3889
//2:46pm.

// 3890
//The tension was unbearable. If it had been anyone else, __anyone__ else,
//his defeat would have been a foregone conclusion.

// 3891
//But this was Harry Potter, and you couldn’t rule out the possibility that he
//would, sometime in the next few seconds, raise a hand and snap his fingers.

// 3892
//With sudden terror she realized how Harry Potter might be able to do exactly
//that. It would be __just like him__ to have __already finished
//reading__ the second half of the book earlier…

// 3893
//Hermione’s vision began to swim. She tried to make herself breathe, and found
//that she simply couldn’t.

// 3894
//Ten seconds left, and he still hadn’t raised his hand.

// 3895
//Five seconds left.

// 3896
//2:47pm.

// 3897
//Harry Potter carefully placed a bookmark into his book, closed it, and laid it
//aside.

// 3898
//“I would like to note for the benefit of posterity,” said the Boy-Who-Lived in
//a clear voice, “that I had only half a book left, and that I ran into a number
//of unexpected delays -”

// 3899
//“__You lost!__” shrieked Hermione. “You __did! __You __lost our
//contest!__”

// 3900
//There was a collective exhalation as everyone started breathing again.

// 3901
//Harry Potter shot her a Look of Flaming Fire, but she was floating in a halo of
//pure white happiness and nothing could touch her.

// 3902
//“__Do you realize what kind of week I’ve had?__” said Harry Potter. “Any
//lesser being would have been hard-pressed to read eight Dr. Seuss books!”

// 3903
//“__You__ set the time limit.”

// 3904
//Harry’s Look of Flaming Fire grew even hotter. “I did not have any logical way
//of knowing I’d have to save the entire school from Professor Snape, or get
//beaten up in Defense class, and if I told you how I lost all the time between
//5pm and dinner on Thursday you would think I was insane -”

// 3905
//“Awww, it sounds like __someone__ fell prey to the __planning
//fallacy.__”

// 3906
//Raw shock showed on Harry Potter’s face.

// 3907
//“Oh that reminds me, I finished reading the first batch of books you lent me,”
//Hermione said with her best innocent look. A couple of them had been
//__hard__ books, too. She wondered how long it had taken __him__ to
//finish reading them.

// 3908
//“Someday,” said the Boy-Who-Lived, “when the distant descendants of
//__Homo sapiens __are looking back over the history of the galaxy and
//wondering how it all went so wrong, they will conclude that the original
//mistake was when someone taught Hermione Granger how to read.”

// 3909
//“But you still lose,” said Hermione. She held a hand to her chin and looked
//contemplative. “Now what exactly should you lose, I wonder?”

// 3910
//“__What?__”

// 3911
//“You lost the bet,” Hermione explained, “so you have to pay a forfeit.”

// 3912
//“I don’t remember agreeing to this!”

// 3913
//“Really?” said Hermione Granger. She put a thoughtful look on her face. Then,
//as if the idea had only just then occurred to her, “We’ll take a vote, then.
//Everyone in Ravenclaw who thinks Harry Potter has to pay up, raise your hand!”

// 3914
//“__What?__” shrieked Harry Potter again.

// 3915
//He spun around and saw that he was surrounded by a sea of raised hands.

// 3916
//And if Harry Potter had looked __more carefully__, he would have noticed
//that an awful lot of the onlookers seemed to be girls and that practically
//every female in the room had their hand raised.

// 3917
//“Stop!” wailed Harry Potter. “You don’t know what she’s going to ask! Don’t you
//__realize__ what she’s doing? She’s getting you to make an advance
//commitment now, and then the pressure of consistency will make you agree with
//whatever she says afterward!”

// 3918
//“Don’t worry,” said the prefect Penelope Clearwater. “If she asks for something
//unreasonable, we can just change our minds. Right, everyone?”

// 3919
//And there were eager nods from all the girls whom Penelope Clearwater had told
//about Hermione’s plan.

// 3920
//A silent figure quietly slipped through the chilled halls of the Hogwarts
//dungeons. He was to be present in a certain room at 6:00pm to meet a certain
//someone, and if at all possible it was best to be early, to show respect.

// 3921
//But when his hand turned the doorknob and opened the door into that dark,
//silent, unused classroom, there was a silhouette already standing there amid
//the rows of dusty old desks. A silhouette which held a small green glowing rod,
//casting a pale light which hardly illuminated even he who held it, let alone
//the surrounding room.

// 3922
//The light of the hallway died as the door closed and shut behind him, and
//Draco’s eyes began the process of adjusting to the dim glow.

// 3923
//The silhouette slowly turned to behold him, revealing a shadowed face only
//partially lit by the eerie green light.

// 3924
//Draco liked this meeting already. Keep the chill green light, make them both
//taller, give them hoods and masks, move them from a classroom to a graveyard,
//and it would be just like the start of half the stories his father’s friends
//told about the Death Eaters.

// 3925
//“I want you to know, Draco Malfoy,” said the silhouette in tones of deadly
//calm, “that I do not blame you for my recent defeat.”

// 3926
//Draco opened his mouth in unthinking protest, there was no possible reason why
//he __should__ be blamed -

// 3927
//“It was due, more than anything else, to my own stupidity,” continued that
//shadowy figure. “There were many other things I could have done, at any step
//along the way. You did not ask me to do __exactly__ what I did. You only
//asked for help. I was the one who unwisely chose that particular method. But
//the fact remains that I lost the contest by half a book. The actions of your
//pet idiot, and the favor you asked for, and, yes, my own foolishness in going
//about it, caused me to __lose time__. More time than you know. Time which,
//in the end, proved critical. The fact remains, Draco Malfoy, that if you had
//not asked that favor, I __would__ have won. And not… instead…
//__lost__.”

// 3928
//Draco had already heard about Harry’s loss, and the forfeit Granger had claimed
//from him. The news had spread faster than owls could have carried it.

// 3929
//“I understand,” Draco said. “I’m sorry.” There was nothing else he
//__could__ say if he wanted Harry Potter to be friends with him.

// 3930
//“I am not asking for understanding or sorrow,” said the dark silhouette, still
//with that deadly calm. “But I have just spent two full hours in the presence of
//Hermione Granger, dressed in such clothing as was provided me, visiting such
//fascinating places in Hogwarts as a tiny burbling waterfall of what looked to
//me like snot, accompanied by a number of other girls who insisted on such
//helpful activities as strewing our path with Transfigured rose petals. I have
//been on a date, scion of Malfoy. My __first__ date. __And when I
//call that favor due, you will pay it.__”

// 3931
//Draco nodded solemnly. Before arriving he had taken the wise precaution of
//learning every available detail of Harry’s date, so that he could get all of
//his hysterical laughing done before their appointed meeting time, and would not
//commit a __faux pas__ by giggling continuously until he lost
//consciousness.

// 3932
//“Do you think,” Draco said, “that something sad ought to happen to the Granger
//girl -”

// 3933
//“Spread the word in Slytherin that the Granger girl is __mine__ and anyone
//who meddles in __my__ affairs will have their remains scattered over an
//area wide enough to include twelve different spoken languages. And since I am
//not in Gryffindor and I use __cunning__ rather than immediate frontal
//attacks, they should not panic if I am seen smiling at her.”

// 3934
//“Or if you’re seen on a second date?” Draco said, allowing just a tiny note of
//skepticism into his voice.

// 3935
//“__There will be no second date,__” said the green-lit silhouette in a
//voice so fearsome that it sounded, not only like a Death Eater, but like Amycus
//Carrow that one time just before Father told him to stop it, he wasn’t the Dark
//Lord.

// 3936
//Of course it __was__ still a young boy’s high unbroken voice and when you
//combined that with the __actual words__, well, it just didn’t work. If
//Harry Potter __did__ become the next Dark Lord someday, Draco would use a
//Pensieve to store a copy of this memory somewhere safe, and Harry Potter would
//never dare betray him.

// 3937
//“But let us talk of happier matters,” said the green-shadowed figure. “Let us
//talk of knowledge and of power. Draco Malfoy, let us talk of Science.”

// 3938
//“Yes,” said Draco. “Let us speak.”

// 3939
//Draco wondered how much of his own face could be seen, and how much was in
//shadow, in that eerie green light.

// 3940
//And though Draco kept his face serious, there was a smile in his heart.

// 3941
//He was __finally__ having a real grownup conversation.

// 3942
//“I offer you power,” said the shadowy figure, “and I will tell you of that
//power and its price. The power comes from knowing the shape of reality and so
//gaining control over it. What you understand, you can command, and that is
//power enough to walk upon the Moon. The price of that power is that you must
//learn to ask questions of Nature, and far more difficult, accept Nature’s
//answers. You will do experiments, perform tests and see what happens. And you
//must accept the meaning of those results when they tell you that you are
//mistaken. You will have to __learn how to lose__, not to me, but to
//Nature. When you find yourself arguing with reality, you will have to let
//reality win. You will find this painful, Draco Malfoy, and I do not know if you
//are strong in that way. Knowing the price, is it still your wish to learn the
//human power?”

// 3943
//Draco took a deep breath. He’d thought about this. And it was hard to see how
//he could answer any other way. He’d been instructed to take every avenue of
//friendship with Harry Potter. It was just __learning,__ he wasn’t
//promising to __do__ anything. He could always stop the lessons at any
//time…

// 3944
//There were certainly any number of things about the situation which made it
//look like a trap, but in all honesty, Draco didn’t see how this could go wrong.

// 3945
//Plus Draco did kind of want to rule the world.

// 3946
//“Yes,” said Draco.

// 3947
//“Excellent,” said the shadowy figure. “I have had something of a
//__crowded week__, and it will take time to plan your curriculum -”

// 3948
//“I’ve got a lot of things I need to do myself to consolidate my power in
//Slytherin,” said Draco, “not to mention homework. Maybe we should just start in
//October?”

// 3949
//“Sounds sensible,” said the shadowy figure, “but what I meant to say is that to
//plan your curriculum, I need to know what I will be teaching you. Three
//thoughts come to me. The first is that I teach you of the human mind and brain.
//The second option is that I teach you of the physical universe, those arts
//which lie on the pathway to visiting the Moon. This involves a great deal of
//numbers, but to a certain kind of mind those numbers are more beautiful than
//anything else Science has to teach. Do you like numbers, Draco?”

// 3950
//Draco shook his head.

// 3951
//“Then so much for that. You will learn your mathematics eventually, but not
//right away, I think. The third option is that I teach you of genetics and
//evolution and inheritance, what you would call blood -”

// 3952
//“That one,” said Draco.

// 3953
//The figure nodded. “I thought you might say as much. But I think it will be the
//most painful path for you, Draco. What if your family and friends, the blood
//purists, say one thing, and you find that the experimental test says another?”

// 3954
//“Then I’ll figure out how to make the experimental test say the __right__
//answer!”

// 3955
//There was a pause, as the shadowy figure stood there with its mouth open for a
//short while.

// 3956
//“Um,” said the shadowy figure. “It doesn’t really work like that. That’s what I
//was trying to warn you about here, Draco. You __can’t __make the answer
//come out to be anything you like.”

// 3957
//“You can __always__ make the answer come out your way,” said Draco. That
//had been practically the first thing his tutors had taught him. “It’s just a
//matter of finding the right arguments.”

// 3958
//“No,” said the shadowy figure, voice rising in frustration, “no, no, no! Then
//you get the __wrong answer__ and you can’t go to the Moon that way! Nature
//isn’t a person, you can’t trick them into believing something else, if you try
//to tell the Moon it’s made of cheese you can argue for days and it won’t change
//the Moon! What you’re talking about is __rationalization__, like starting
//with a sheet of paper, moving straight down to the bottom line, using ink to
//write ‘and __therefore,__ the Moon is made of cheese’, and then moving
//back up to write all sorts of clever arguments above. But either the Moon is
//made of cheese or it isn’t. The moment you wrote the bottom line, it was
//already true or already false. Whether or not the whole sheet of paper ends up
//with the right conclusion or the wrong conclusion is fixed the instant you
//write down the bottom line. If you’re trying to pick between two expensive
//trunks, and you like the shiny one, it doesn’t matter what clever arguments you
//come up with for buying it, the __real __rule you used to __choose
//which trunk to argue for __was ‘pick the shiny one’, and however effective that
//rule is at picking good trunks, that’s the kind of trunk you’ll get.
//Rationality __can’t__ be used to argue for a fixed side, its only possible
//use is __deciding which side to argue__. Science isn’t for
//__convincing__ anyone that the blood purists are right. That’s
//__politics!__ The power of science comes from __finding out the way
//Nature really is that can’t be changed by arguing!__ What science __can
//__do is tell us __how blood really works,__ how wizards really inherit
//their powers from their parents, and whether Muggleborns are really weaker or
//stronger -”

// 3959
//“__Stronger!__” said Draco. He had been trying to follow this, a puzzled
//frown on his face, he could see how it __sort__ of made sense but it
//certainly wasn’t like anything he’d ever heard before. And then Harry Potter
//had said something Draco couldn’t possibly let pass. “You think mudbloods are
//__stronger?__”

// 3960
//“I think nothing,” said the shadowy figure. “I know nothing. I believe nothing.
//My bottom line is not yet written. I will figure out how to test the magical
//strength of Muggleborns, and the magical strength of purebloods. If my tests
//tell me that Muggleborns are weaker, I will believe they are weaker. If my
//tests tell me that Muggleborns are stronger, I will believe they are stronger.
//Knowing this and other truths, I will gain some measure of power -”

// 3961
//“And you expect __me__ to believe whatever you say?” Draco demanded hotly.

// 3962
//“I expect you to perform the tests __personally__,” said the shadowy
//figure quietly. “Are you afraid of what __you__ will find?”

// 3963
//Draco stared at the shadowy figure for a while, his eyes narrowed. “Nice trap,
//Harry,” he said. “I’ll have to remember that one, it’s new.”

// 3964
//The shadowy figure shook his head. “It’s not a trap, Draco. Remember - I
//__don’t know__ what we’ll find. But you do not understand the universe by
//arguing with it or telling it to come back with a different answer next time.
//When you put on the robes of a scientist you must forget all your politics and
//arguments and factions and sides, silence the desperate clingings of your mind,
//and wish only to hear the answer of Nature.” The shadowy figure paused. “Most
//people can’t do it. That’s why this is difficult. Are you sure you wouldn’t
//rather just learn about the brain?”

// 3965
//“And if I tell you I’d rather learn about the brain,” Draco said, his voice now
//hard, “you’ll go around telling people that I was afraid of what I’d find.”

// 3966
//“No,” said the shadowy figure. “I will do no such thing.”

// 3967
//“But you might do the same sort of tests yourself, and if you got the wrong
//answer, I wouldn’t be there to say anything before you showed it to someone
//else.” Draco’s voice was still hard.

// 3968
//“I would still ask you first, Draco,” the shadowy figure said quietly.

// 3969
//Draco paused. He hadn’t been expecting that, he’d thought he saw the trap but…
//“You __would?__”

// 3970
//“Of course. How would __I __know who to blackmail or what we could ask
//from them? Draco, I say again that this is not a trap I set for you. At least
//not for you personally. If your politics were different, I would be saying,
//what if the test shows that purebloods are stronger.”

// 3971
//“Really.”

// 3972
//“__Yes!__ That’s the price __anyone__ has to pay to become a
//scientist!”

// 3973
//Draco held up a hand. He had to think.

// 3974
//The shadowy, green-lit figure waited.

// 3975
//It didn’t take long to think about, though. If you discarded all the confusing
//parts… then Harry Potter was planning to mess around with something that could
//cause a gigantic political explosion, and it would be insane to just walk away
//and let him do it on his own. “We’ll study blood,” said Draco.

// 3976
//“__Excellent__,” said the figure, and smiled. “Congratulations on being
//willing to ask the question.”

// 3977
//“Thanks,” Draco said, not quite managing to keep the irony out of his voice.

// 3978
//“Hey, did you think going to the Moon was __easy? __Be glad this just
//involves changing your mind sometimes, and not a human sacrifice!”

// 3979
//“Human sacrifice would be __way__ easier!”

// 3980
//There was a slight pause, and then the figure nodded. “Fair point.”

// 3981
//“Look, Harry,” said Draco without much hope, “I thought the idea was to take
//all the things that Muggles know, combine them with things that wizards know,
//and become masters of both worlds. Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to just study
//all the things that Muggles __already__ found out, like the Moon stuff,
//and use __that__ power -”

// 3982
//“__No,__” said the figure with a sharp shake of his head, sending green
//shadows moving around his nose and eyes. His voice had turned very grim. “If
//you cannot learn the scientist’s art of accepting reality, then I __must
//not__ tell you what that acceptance has discovered. It would be like a powerful
//wizard telling you of those gates which must not be opened, and those seals
//which must not be broken, before you had proven your intelligence and
//discipline by surviving the lesser perils.”

// 3983
//A chill went down Draco’s spine and he shuddered involuntarily. He knew it had
//been visible even in the dim light. “All right,” said Draco. “I understand.”
//Father had told him that many times. When a more powerful wizard told you that
//you weren’t ready to know, you didn’t pry any further if you wanted to live.

// 3984
//The figure inclined his head. “Indeed. But there is something else you should
//understand. The first scientists, being Muggles, lacked your traditions. In the
//beginning they simply did not comprehend the notion of dangerous knowledge, and
//thought that all things known should be spoken freely. When their searches
//turned dangerous, they told their politicians of things that should have stayed
//secret - don’t look like that, Draco, it wasn’t simple stupidity. They did have
//to be smart enough to uncover the secret in the first place. But they were
//Muggles, it was the first time they’d found anything __really __dangerous,
//and they didn’t __start out __with a tradition of secrecy. There was a war
//going on, and the scientists on one side worried that if they __didn’t__
//talk, the scientists of the __enemy__ country would tell __their__
//politicians first…” The voice trailed off significantly. “They didn’t destroy
//the world. But it was close. And __we__ are not going to repeat that
//mistake.”

// 3985
//“Right,” Draco said, his voice now very firm. “__We__ won’t. We’re
//wizards, and studying science doesn’t make us Muggles.”

// 3986
//“As you say,” said the green-lit silhouette. “We will establish our
//__own__ Science, a magical Science, and that Science will have smarter
//traditions from the very start.” The voice grew hard. “The knowledge I share
//with you will be taught alongside the disciplines of accepting truth, the level
//of this knowledge will be keyed to your progress in those disciplines, and you
//will share that knowledge with no one else who has not learned those
//disciplines. Do you accept this?”

// 3987
//“Yes,” said Draco. What was he supposed to do, say no?

// 3988
//“Good. And what you discover for yourself, you will keep to yourself unless you
//think that other scientists are ready to know it. What we do share among
//ourselves, we will not tell the world unless we agree it is safe for the world
//to know. And whatever our own politics and allegiances, we will __all__
//punish__ any__ of our number who reveal dangerous magics or give away
//dangerous weapons, no matter what sort of war is going on. From this day
//onward, that will be the tradition and the law of science among wizards. Are we
//agreed on that?”

// 3989
//“Yes,” said Draco. Actually this __was__ starting to sound pretty
//attractive. The Death Eaters had tried to take power by being scarier than
//everyone else, and they hadn’t actually won yet. Maybe it was time to try
//ruling using secrets instead. “And our group stays hidden for as long as
//possible, and everyone in it has to agree to our rules.”

// 3990
//“Of course. Definitely.”

// 3991
//There was a very short pause.

// 3992
//“We’re going to need better robes,” said the shadowy figure, “with hoods and so
//on -”

// 3993
//“I was __just thinking __that,” said Draco. “We don’t need whole new
//robes, though, just cowled cloaks to put on. I have a friend in Slytherin,
//she’ll take your measurements -”

// 3994
//“Don’t tell her what it’s __for__, though -”

// 3995
//“I’m not __stupid!__”

// 3996
//“And no masks for now, not when it’s just you and me -” said the shadowy
//figure.

// 3997
//“Right! But later on we should have some sort of special mark that all our
//servants have, the Mark of Science, like a snake eating the Moon on their right
//arms -”

// 3998
//“It’s called a PhD and wouldn’t that make it too easy to identify our people?”

// 3999
//“Huh?”

// 4000
//“I mean, what if someone is like ‘okay, now everyone pull up their robes over
//their right arms’ and our guy is like ‘whoops, sorry, looks like I’m a spy’ -”

// 4001
//__“Forget I said anything,__” said Draco, sweat suddenly springing out all
//over his body. He needed a distraction, __fast__ - “And what do we call
//ourselves? The Science Eaters?”

// 4002
//“No,” said the shadowy figure slowly. “That doesn’t sound right…”

// 4003
//Draco wiped his robed arm across his forehead, wiping away beads of moisture.
//What had the Dark Lord been __thinking?__ Father had said the Dark Lord
//was __smart!__

// 4004
//“I’ve got it!” said the shadowy figure suddenly. “You won’t understand yet, but
//trust me, it fits.”

// 4005
//Right now Draco would have accepted ‘Malfoy Munchers’ as long as it changed the
//subject. “What is it?”

// 4006
//And standing amid the dusty desks in an unused classroom in the dungeons of
//Hogwarts, the green-lit silhouette of Harry Potter spread his arms dramatically
//and said, “This day shall mark the dawn of… the __Bayesian Conspiracy__.”

// 4007
//A silent figure trudged wearily through the halls of Hogwarts in the direction
//of Ravenclaw.

// 4008
//Harry had gone straight from the meeting with Draco to dinner, and stayed at
//dinner barely long enough to choke down a few fast gulps of food before going
//off to bed.

// 4009
//It wasn’t even 7pm yet, but it was well past bedtime for Harry. He’d realized
//__last __night that he wouldn’t be able to use the Time-Turner on Saturday
//until after the book-reading contest was already over. But he could still use
//the Time-Turner on __Friday __night, and gain time that way. So Harry had
//pushed himself to stay awake until 9pm on Friday, when the protective shell
//opened, and then used the four hours remaining on the Time-Turner to spin back
//to 5pm and collapse into sleep. He’d woken up around 2am on Saturday morning,
//just as planned, and read for the next twelve hours straight… and it still
//hadn’t been enough. And now Harry would be going to sleep rather early for the
//next few days, until his sleep cycle caught up again.

// 4010
//The portrait on the door asked Harry some dumb riddle meant for
//eleven-year-olds that he answered without the words even passing through his
//conscious mind, and then Harry staggered up the stairs to his dorm room,
//changed into his pajamas and collapsed into bed.

// 4011
//And found that his pillow seemed rather lumpy.

// 4012
//Harry groaned. He sat up reluctantly, twisted in bed, and lifted up his pillow.

// 4013
//This revealed a note, two golden Galleons, and a book titled
//__Occlumency: The Hidden Arte.__

// 4014
//Harry picked up the note and read:

// 4015
//__My, you do get yourself into trouble and quickly. Your father was no
//match for you.__

// 4016
//__You have made a powerful enemy. Snape commands the loyalty, admiration,
//and fear of all House Slytherin. You cannot trust any of that House now,
//whether they come to you in friendly guise or fearsome.__

// 4017
//__From now on you must not meet Snape’s eyes. He is a Legilimens and can
//read your mind if you do. I have enclosed a book which may help you learn to
//protect yourself, though there is only so far you can get without a tutor.
//Still you may hope to at least detect intrusion.__

// 4018
//__So that you may find some extra time in which to study Occlumency, I
//have enclosed 2 Galleons, which is the price of answer sheets and homework for
//the first-year History of Magic class (Professor Binns having given the same
//tests and same assignments every year since he died). Your newfound friends the
//Weasley twins should be able to sell you a copy. It goes without saying that
//you must not get caught with it in your possession.__

// 4019
//__Of Professor Quirrell I know little. He is a Slytherin and a Defense
//Professor, and that is two marks against him. Consider carefully any advice he
//gives you, and tell him nothing you do not wish known.__

// 4020
//__Dumbledore only pretends to be insane. He is extremely intelligent, and
//if you continue to step into closets and vanish, he will certainly deduce your
//possession of an invisibility cloak if he has not done so already. Avoid him
//whenever possible, hide the Cloak of Invisibility somewhere safe (NOT your
//pouch) any time you cannot avoid him, and step with great care in his
//presence.__

// 4021
//__Please be more careful in the future, Harry Potter.__

// 4022
//__- Santa Claus__

// 4023
//Harry stared at the note.

// 4024
//It __did__ seem to be pretty good advice. Of course Harry wasn’t going to
//cheat in History class even if they gave him a dead monkey for a professor. But
//Severus’s Legilimency… whoever’d sent this note knew a lot of important, secret
//things and was willing to tell Harry about them. The note was still warning him
//against Dumbledore stealing the Cloak but at this point Harry honestly had no
//clue if that was a bad sign, it could just be an understandable mistake.

// 4025
//There seemed to be some sort of intrigue going on inside Hogwarts. Maybe if
//Harry __compared stories__ between Dumbledore and the note-sender, he
//could work out a __combined__ picture that would be accurate? Like if they
//__both__ agreed on something, then…

// 4026
//…whatever…

// 4027
//Harry stuffed everything into his pouch and turned up the Quieter and pulled
//the cover over his head and died.

// 4028
//It was Sunday morning and Harry was eating pancakes in the Great Hall, sharp
//quick bites, glancing nervously at his watch every few seconds.

// 4029
//It was 8:02am, and in precisely two hours and one minute, it would be
//__exactly one week__ since he’d seen the Weasleys and crossed over onto
//Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.

// 4030
//And the thought had occurred to him… Harry didn’t know if this was a valid way
//to think about the universe, he didn’t know anything any more, but it
//__seemed possible…__

// 4031
//That…

// 4032
//__Not enough interesting things had happened to him over the last week.__

// 4033
//When he was done eating breakfast, Harry planned to go straight up to his room
//and hide in the bottom level of his trunk and not talk to anyone until 10:03am.

// 4034
//And that was when Harry saw the Weasley twins walking toward him. One of them
//was carrying something concealed behind his back.

// 4035
//He should scream and run away.

// 4036
//He should scream and run away.

// 4037
//Whatever this was… it could very well be…

// 4038
//…the __grand finale…__

// 4039
//He really should just scream and run away.

// 4040
//With a resigned feeling that the universe would come and get him
//__anyway__, Harry continued slicing at the pancake with his fork and
//knife. He couldn’t muster the energy. That was the sad truth. Harry knew now
//how people felt when they were tired of running, tired of trying to escape
//fate, and they just fell to the ground and let the horrifically befanged and
//tentacled demons of the darkest abyss drag them off to their unspeakable
//destiny.

// 4041
//The Weasley twins drew closer.

// 4042
//And yet closer.

// 4043
//Harry ate another bite of pancake.

// 4044
//The Weasley twins arrived, grinning brightly.

// 4045
//“Hello, Fred,” Harry said dully. One of the twins nodded. “Hello, George.” The
//other twin nodded.

// 4046
//“You sound tired,” said George.

// 4047
//“You should cheer up,” said Fred.

// 4048
//“Look what __we__ got you!”

// 4049
//And George took, from behind Fred’s back -

// 4050
//A cake with twelve flaming candles.

// 4051
//There was a pause, as the Ravenclaw table stared at them.

// 4052
//“That’s not right,” said someone. “Harry Potter was born on the thirty-first of
//Jul-”

// 4053
//“__HE IS COMING__,” said a huge hollow voice that cut through all
//conversation like a sword of ice. “__THE ONE WHO WILL TEAR APART THE VERY
//-__”

// 4054
//Dumbledore had leapt out of his throne and run straight over the Head Table and
//seized hold of the woman speaking those awful words, Fawkes had appeared in a
//flash, and all three of them vanished in a crack of fire.

// 4055
//There was a shocked pause…

// 4056
//…followed by heads turning in the direction of Harry Potter.

// 4057
//“I didn’t do it,” Harry said in a tired voice.

// 4058
//“That was a __prophecy!__” someone at the table hissed. “And I bet it’s
//about __you!__”

// 4059
//Harry sighed.

// 4060
//He stood up from his seat, raised his voice, and said very loudly over the
//conversations that were starting up, “__It’s not about me! Obviously! I’m
//not coming here, I’m already here!__”

// 4061
//Harry sat back down again.

// 4062
//The people who had been looking at him turned away again.

// 4063
//Someone else at the table said, “Then who __is__ it about?”

// 4064
//And with a dull, leaden sensation, Harry realized who __wasn’t__ already
//at Hogwarts.

// 4065
//Call it a wild guess, but Harry had a feeling the undead Dark Lord would be
//showing up one of these days.

// 4066
//The conversation continued on around him.

// 4067
//“Not to mention, tear apart the very __what?__”

// 4068
//“I thought I heard Trelawney start to say something with an ‘S’ just before the
//Headmaster grabbed her.”

// 4069
//“Like… soul? Sun?”

// 4070
//“If someone’s going to tear apart the Sun we’re __really__ in trouble!”

// 4071
//That seemed rather unlikely to Harry, unless the world contained scary things
//which had heard of David Criswell’s ideas about star lifting.

// 4072
//“So,” Harry said in tired tones, “this happens every Sunday breakfast, does
//it?”

// 4073
//“No,” said a student who might have been in his seventh year, frowning grimly.
//“It doesn’t.”

// 4074
//Harry shrugged. “Whatever. Anyone want some birthday cake?”

// 4075
//“But it’s __not__ your birthday!” said the same student who’d objected
//last time.

// 4076
//That was the cue for Fred and George to start laughing, of course.

// 4077
//Even Harry managed a weary smile.

// 4078
//As the first slice was served to him, Harry said, “I’ve had a __really
//long week__.”

// 4079
//And Harry was sitting in the cavern level of his trunk, slid shut and locked so
//no one could get in, a blanket pulled over his head, waiting for the week to be
//over.

// 4080
//10:01.

// 4081
//10:02.

// 4082
//10:03, but just to be sure…

// 4083
//10:04 and the first week was done.

// 4084
//Harry breathed a sigh of relief, and gingerly pulled the blanket off of his
//head.

// 4085
//A few moments later, he had emerged into the bright sunlit air of his dorm.

// 4086
//Shortly after, and he was in the Ravenclaw common room. A few people looked at
//him, but no one said anything or tried to talk to him.

// 4087
//Harry found a nice wide writing desk, pulled back a comfortable chair, and sat
//down. From his pouch he drew a sheet of paper and a pencil.

// 4088
//Mum and Dad had told Harry in no uncertain terms that while they understood his
//enthusiasm for leaving home and getting away from his parents, he was to write
//them __every week without fail__, just so that they knew he was alive,
//unharmed, and not in prison.

// 4089
//Harry stared down at the blank sheet of paper. __Let’s see…__

// 4090
//After leaving his parents at the train station, he’d…

// 4091
//…gotten acquainted with a boy raised by Darth Vader, become friends with the
//three most infamous pranksters in Hogwarts, met Hermione, then there’d been the
//Incident with the Sorting Hat… Monday he’d been given a time machine to treat
//his sleep disorder, gotten a legendary invisibility cloak from an unknown
//benefactor, rescued seven Hufflepuffs by staring down five scary older boys one
//of whom had threatened to break his finger, realized that he possessed a
//mysterious dark side, learned to cast __Frigideiro__ in Charms class, and
//gotten started on his rivalry with Hermione… Tuesday had introduced Astronomy
//taught by Professor Aurora Sinistra who was nice, and History of Magic taught
//by a ghost who ought to be exorcised and replaced with a tape recorder…
//Wednesday, he’d been pronounced the Most Dangerous Student in the Classroom…
//Thursday, let’s not even think about Thursday… Friday, the Incident in Potions
//Class, followed by his blackmailing the Headmaster, followed by the Defense
//Professor having him beaten up in class, followed by the Defense Professor
//turning out to be the most awesome human being who still walked the face of the
//Earth… Saturday he’d lost a bet and gone on his first date and started
//redeeming Draco… and then this morning Professor Trelawney’s unheard prophecy
//might or might not indicate that an immortal Dark Lord was about to attack
//Hogwarts.

// 4092
//Harry mentally organized his material, and started writing.

// 4093
//__Dear Mum and Dad:__

// 4094
//__Hogwarts is lots of fun. I learned how to violate the Second Law of
//Thermodynamics in Charms class, and I met a girl named Hermione Granger who
//reads faster than I do.__

// 4095
//__I’d better leave it at that.__

// 4096
//__Your loving son,__

// 4097
//__Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres.__