While reading, I never considered this to be a mystery, or even a question.
Perhaps you should.
McGonagall said what she meant to say, and then she said goodbye. Also, McGonagall doesn’t do the Batman Exit at any other point in the fic or the source.
McGonagall said what she meant to say, and then she said goodbye.
The way I see it, she then had a last minute thought that the loneliness avid book-reader Harry mentioned and the loneliness she saw in avid book-reader Hermione might be healed if they met each other. But she didn’t want to say anything more, because it’d be inappropriate to actually discuss another student to Harry.
Also, McGonagall doesn’t do the Batman Exit at any other point in the fic or the source.
I think Eliezer just being silly with the dramatic-ness of the thing has a higher prior than Dumbledore going around invisible and playing ventriloquist to make him think that McGonagall told him to find Hermione—especially when Dumbledore could have accomplished just as much by e.g. telling McGonagall to tell Harry to find Hermione. (And there’s no other player at this stage, neither Quirrel, nor Snape, nor Lucius, that would know or care about Hermione at this point. It’s unlikely that even Dumbledore knew anything about her beyond that she was a new Muggleborn student.)
But I don’t think this is anything more complicated or mysterious than Minerva thinking that Harry & Hermione would be a good match for each other.
Now I do find it slightly more plausible that Dumbledore was following Harry around invisible during his King’s Cross station visit—but that’s mostly because in that occasion Harry Potter was known to be in a known location and thus might have been a potential target for enemies and therefore require protection.
You are making excuses for your assumptions by piling on more assumptions. Chapter 6 is written in a way that does not make the speaker clear. That looks deliberate. We are given Harry’s opinion of who said it, but he never confirms that with McGonagall. We’ve been in McGonagall’s head quite a few times, and she has never thought back to playing match-maker.
You may believe that was McGonagall. You may be right. But when you say, “we already know,” you are mistaken.
You are making excuses for your assumptions by piling on more assumptions.
You’re misusing the word assumption. I don’t *assume” that was McGonaggal’s reason, I simply judged it to be the most likely and most natural explanation, given the facts in evidence. But yes, I did assume that my initial reading of the text and that Harry also wasn’t being mistaken about who told him about Hermione. As I said, I didn’t even realize some people saw this bit as a mystery. That’s what true assumptions look like, I guess, when one doesn’t even realize some people consider it a question.
You may believe that was McGonagall. You may be right. But when you say, “we already know,” you are mistaken.
Okay. As I said, when I wrote that sentence, i didn’t even realize there existed people who considered this a question. Discussing more about this would probably just be about what the word “knowledge” means.
You would think that Harry, on hearing a mysterious voice, would mention something. Harry turned around expecting McGonagall, not expecting some random person. Harry heard McGonagall.
The author would also mention that the voice changed owners or sounded strange. It’s clever writing to drop clues in plain sight to the reader. It’s not clever writing for your story to omit sensory experiences that are immediately apparent to all the involved characters, but are not conveyed to the reader.
Seeing the look of horror on Harry Potter’s face, Fred Weasley thought faster than he ever had in his life. In a single motion he whipped out his wand, whispered “Silencio!” and then “Changemyvoiceio!” and finally “Ventriliquo!”
Every member of Hogwarts could actually be Dumbledore with polyjuice and a time turner. Remember we only know about the 6 hour limit from him (or people that could be him, or forged by him). There’s no reason it couldn’t be so, just like there’s no reason that the person Harry was having a conversation with couldn’t have changed out by a an invisible man with a ‘changemyvoiceio’ spell.
But it’s way more reasonable to assume that people are who they think they are, and that the person that starts a conversation is the same one that finishes it.
It’s an ugly hypothesis, because so far Hermione’s influence in Harry has been that of greatest opposition to Quirrel’s influence… If Quirrel set it up so that they met, then this would have all been to his purpose since the beginning, setting up some future betrayal from Hermione from the start. (e.g make a paragon of goodness friends with Harry, so that he’ll do anything to keep her from Azkaban, even if that means declaring war on magical Britain?)
Thankfully, I don’t consider it very likely. I think this being McGonaggal who matched the two of them is still much more likely.
Alternatively, perhaps Quirrel thought Hermione would make a good straw foil to himself. Set up the main anti-Quirrel voice in Harry’s life as someone who’s conspicuously naive, and Harry will be more inclined to see Quirrel as the voice of reason rather than the voice of evil.
Perhaps you should.
McGonagall said what she meant to say, and then she said goodbye. Also, McGonagall doesn’t do the Batman Exit at any other point in the fic or the source.
The way I see it, she then had a last minute thought that the loneliness avid book-reader Harry mentioned and the loneliness she saw in avid book-reader Hermione might be healed if they met each other. But she didn’t want to say anything more, because it’d be inappropriate to actually discuss another student to Harry.
I think Eliezer just being silly with the dramatic-ness of the thing has a higher prior than Dumbledore going around invisible and playing ventriloquist to make him think that McGonagall told him to find Hermione—especially when Dumbledore could have accomplished just as much by e.g. telling McGonagall to tell Harry to find Hermione. (And there’s no other player at this stage, neither Quirrel, nor Snape, nor Lucius, that would know or care about Hermione at this point. It’s unlikely that even Dumbledore knew anything about her beyond that she was a new Muggleborn student.)
But I don’t think this is anything more complicated or mysterious than Minerva thinking that Harry & Hermione would be a good match for each other.
Now I do find it slightly more plausible that Dumbledore was following Harry around invisible during his King’s Cross station visit—but that’s mostly because in that occasion Harry Potter was known to be in a known location and thus might have been a potential target for enemies and therefore require protection.
You are making excuses for your assumptions by piling on more assumptions. Chapter 6 is written in a way that does not make the speaker clear. That looks deliberate. We are given Harry’s opinion of who said it, but he never confirms that with McGonagall. We’ve been in McGonagall’s head quite a few times, and she has never thought back to playing match-maker.
You may believe that was McGonagall. You may be right. But when you say, “we already know,” you are mistaken.
You’re misusing the word assumption. I don’t *assume” that was McGonaggal’s reason, I simply judged it to be the most likely and most natural explanation, given the facts in evidence. But yes, I did assume that my initial reading of the text and that Harry also wasn’t being mistaken about who told him about Hermione. As I said, I didn’t even realize some people saw this bit as a mystery. That’s what true assumptions look like, I guess, when one doesn’t even realize some people consider it a question.
Okay. As I said, when I wrote that sentence, i didn’t even realize there existed people who considered this a question. Discussing more about this would probably just be about what the word “knowledge” means.
You would think that Harry, on hearing a mysterious voice, would mention something. Harry turned around expecting McGonagall, not expecting some random person. Harry heard McGonagall.
The author would also mention that the voice changed owners or sounded strange. It’s clever writing to drop clues in plain sight to the reader. It’s not clever writing for your story to omit sensory experiences that are immediately apparent to all the involved characters, but are not conveyed to the reader.
I would be very surprised if there were a grand total of 0 voice-changing charms in existence.
And besides, it’s a whisper. That’s probably significant in some way.
You’re multiplying hypothesises unnecessarily.
Every member of Hogwarts could actually be Dumbledore with polyjuice and a time turner. Remember we only know about the 6 hour limit from him (or people that could be him, or forged by him). There’s no reason it couldn’t be so, just like there’s no reason that the person Harry was having a conversation with couldn’t have changed out by a an invisible man with a ‘changemyvoiceio’ spell.
But it’s way more reasonable to assume that people are who they think they are, and that the person that starts a conversation is the same one that finishes it.
Suddenly, Dumbledore EVERYWHERE.
Between this and the auncle comment by pedanterrific, it seems plausible that it was Quirrel who said that line.
It’s an ugly hypothesis, because so far Hermione’s influence in Harry has been that of greatest opposition to Quirrel’s influence… If Quirrel set it up so that they met, then this would have all been to his purpose since the beginning, setting up some future betrayal from Hermione from the start. (e.g make a paragon of goodness friends with Harry, so that he’ll do anything to keep her from Azkaban, even if that means declaring war on magical Britain?)
Thankfully, I don’t consider it very likely. I think this being McGonaggal who matched the two of them is still much more likely.
Alternatively, perhaps Quirrel thought Hermione would make a good straw foil to himself. Set up the main anti-Quirrel voice in Harry’s life as someone who’s conspicuously naive, and Harry will be more inclined to see Quirrel as the voice of reason rather than the voice of evil.