I predict that Harry just went Dark. He discovered that wizards can be imprisoned without torturing them to death via Dementors, and yet people still tolerate Azkaban. The majority of the adult wizarding world has now given up their right to moral consideration in his eyes, a simple extension of the Death Eater: “His life is already bought and paid for, then, and I can do anything I want to him without ethical problems.”
Unless something drastic changes his course, he will impose his will upon the wizarding world by force and remove the moral atrocity that is Azkaban.
Further speculation—that “something drastic” is Harry himself. Somehow Hermione ends up dead due to his actions. He develops a way to travel much further into the past than a mere six hours (possibly sacrificing the whole world, won’t much matter if it’s going to be disappeared into an unstable time loop anyway) so he can change the past. The story we’re reading is the “second” run through of events (yes, technically there’s only one, the lack of Time Travel English Vocabulary fails me), Mr Hat-and-Cloak is Future Harry, and he’s meddling with everything to prevent First Harry from going Dark. Or, if that fails, trying to get Hermione out of the path of danger by getting her to leave the school and/or stop trusting First Harry.
Dunno, depends on how far they’ve diverged. I know if I went back 10 years and told my past self not to do a certain thing I’d have even ignored myself, much as I ignored everyone else in my life that tried to warn me away back then. If Harry really wanted to do something he could conceivably (and possibly even correctly) reason that his future self has had such a radical shift in values that they are antagonists now, and his future self is yet one more obstacle to overcome.
Well, whats the point in super-secret self-recognition codes (Recognition code 927, I am a potato) when you then do not listen to your time-traveling self? Especially a rationalist of Harrys Level would have to be holding an entire idiot globe to ignore such advice.
But he also knows that he has the rare potential to become a perfect occlumens, and also that “defense” is far superior to “offense”- setting new recognition codes after aquiring immunity to mind-reading seems a trivial thing to do.
Harry actually says that can’t trust something simply because it mentions the recognition code in the chapter that mentions it:
Dear Me,
Please play the game. You can only play the game once in a lifetime. This is an irreplaceable opportunity.
Recognition code 927, I am a potato.
Yours,
You.
Harry nodded slowly. “Recognition code 927, I am a potato” was indeed the message he had worked out in advance—some years earlier, while watching TV—that only he would know. If he had to identify a duplicate of himself as being really him, or something. Just in case. Be Prepared.
Harry couldn’t trust the message, there might be other spells involved. But it ruled out any simple prank. He had definitely written this and he definitely didn’t remember writing it.
I know if I went back 10 years and told my past self not to do a certain thing I’d have even ignored myself, much as I ignored everyone else in my life that tried to warn me away back then.
OK, but Harry is not as stupid as you were then. (^_^)
More generally, people are focussing on Harry would know recognise Future Harry for certain, whereas Future Harry should be able to give rational arguments sufficient for the cause. Only terrible coincidence will make dissuading Harry depend on specific knowledge unavailable in the past.
Mr Hat-and-Cloak is Future Harry, and he’s meddling with everything to prevent First Harry from going Dark.
This would seem to indicated that something happened to Harry from the past-future that caused him to lose about 80 IQ points or possibly most of the details of his memory. He doesn’t strike me as incredibly brilliant or astoundingly well informed.
Just finished 76. This might be crazy, but...
I predict that Harry just went Dark. He discovered that wizards can be imprisoned without torturing them to death via Dementors, and yet people still tolerate Azkaban. The majority of the adult wizarding world has now given up their right to moral consideration in his eyes, a simple extension of the Death Eater: “His life is already bought and paid for, then, and I can do anything I want to him without ethical problems.”
Unless something drastic changes his course, he will impose his will upon the wizarding world by force and remove the moral atrocity that is Azkaban.
Further speculation—that “something drastic” is Harry himself. Somehow Hermione ends up dead due to his actions. He develops a way to travel much further into the past than a mere six hours (possibly sacrificing the whole world, won’t much matter if it’s going to be disappeared into an unstable time loop anyway) so he can change the past. The story we’re reading is the “second” run through of events (yes, technically there’s only one, the lack of Time Travel English Vocabulary fails me), Mr Hat-and-Cloak is Future Harry, and he’s meddling with everything to prevent First Harry from going Dark. Or, if that fails, trying to get Hermione out of the path of danger by getting her to leave the school and/or stop trusting First Harry.
I doubt it. If Harry simply told himself, he’d probably listen.
Dunno, depends on how far they’ve diverged. I know if I went back 10 years and told my past self not to do a certain thing I’d have even ignored myself, much as I ignored everyone else in my life that tried to warn me away back then. If Harry really wanted to do something he could conceivably (and possibly even correctly) reason that his future self has had such a radical shift in values that they are antagonists now, and his future self is yet one more obstacle to overcome.
Well, whats the point in super-secret self-recognition codes (Recognition code 927, I am a potato) when you then do not listen to your time-traveling self? Especially a rationalist of Harrys Level would have to be holding an entire idiot globe to ignore such advice.
But now Harry knows that mind-reading is a thing.
But he also knows that he has the rare potential to become a perfect occlumens, and also that “defense” is far superior to “offense”- setting new recognition codes after aquiring immunity to mind-reading seems a trivial thing to do.
… which means there’s no point in talking to him until becomes a perfect occlumens.
Harry actually says that can’t trust something simply because it mentions the recognition code in the chapter that mentions it:
OK, but Harry is not as stupid as you were then. (^_^)
More generally, people are focussing on Harry would know recognise Future Harry for certain, whereas Future Harry should be able to give rational arguments sufficient for the cause. Only terrible coincidence will make dissuading Harry depend on specific knowledge unavailable in the past.
This would seem to indicated that something happened to Harry from the past-future that caused him to lose about 80 IQ points or possibly most of the details of his memory. He doesn’t strike me as incredibly brilliant or astoundingly well informed.
Quirrel is a much more plausible time-traveling Harry. (Still not that great though.)