Eliezer Yudkowsky - Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

After all of those spells had failed to produce any effect, Severus Snape was staring at Harry with a dark glitter that now seemed genuine. “I suggest,” the Potions Master said softly, “that you explain yourself, Potter.”

“I can’t explain myself,” Harry said. “I don’t have the Time, not yet.”

Harry looked directly into the Potions Master’s gaze as he said the words myself and time , widening his own eyes to try to convey the key information, and the Potions Master hesitated.

Harry was frantically trying to work out who was pretending to be what. Since Professor Quirrell wasn’t in on Dumbledore’s conspiracy, Severus was pretending to be the evil Potions Master of Hogwarts, who’d been sent here by the Headmaster… and might or might not have actually been sent here by Dumbledore… but Professor Quirrell either thought, or was pretending to think, that someone needed to keep an eye on Professor Snape… and Harry himself had been sent here by future-Harry and had no idea why… and why were they all standing outside the Headmaster’s forbidden door in the first place?

And then…

From behind where Harry stood…

Came the growing sound of another set of footsteps, rapid and manyfold.

Professor Snape stabbed his wand once, creating a burst of darkness that shrouded where the Defense Professor was lying. “ Muffliato, ” the Potions Master hissed. “Mr. Potter, if you must be here, then hide! Put on your invisibility cloak! My duty is to guard this door in case he comes here. And there has been—a disturbance , meant to draw the Headmaster, he thinks—” “Who—”

Severus took a long stride forward and snapped his wand against the side of Harry’s head. There was a trickling sensation like an egg had been cracked over him, the feeling of a Disillusionment Charm; and Harry’s hands faded out, followed by the rest of him.

The darkness shrouding one side of the wall dissipated like slow mist, and there was again visible the huddled form of the Defense Professor, who said nothing.

Harry tiptoed away quietly as he could, then turned to watch.

The approaching footsteps rounded the corner— “What are you doing here?” came many simultaneous cries.

Trimmed in three sets of Slytherin green and one Hufflepuff yellow stood Theodore Nott, Daphne Greengrass, Susan Bones, and Tracey

Davis.

“ Where, ” said Professor Snape with mounting wrath, “are your escorts, children? First-years must be accompanied by a sixth or seventh-year student at all times! Especially you!”

Theodore Nott raised his hand. “We’re, um,” said Theodore Nott. “We’re doing what the Chaos Legion calls a team-building exercise… see, we realized just now that none of us had tried the Headmaster’s forbidden chamber yet, and there wasn’t much time left… and Harry Potter has authorized it, Professor, he said specifically that you mustn’t interfere.”

Severus Snape turned to glance over at where Harry Potter had tiptoed; a storm seemed to be gathering on his brow, and a dark fury in his eyes.

I… maybe? There was still one hour left on Harry’s Time-Turner, so it was possible.

“Harry Potter does not have that authority,” the Potions Master said in a deceptively mild tone. “Explain yourselves, now.”

“Really?” said the form of Susan Bones. “Really? You’re telling Professor Snape that Harry Potter authorized the mission, that’s your idea of a bluff?” The young Hufflepuff turned to Professor Snape and spoke, her voice strangely firm. “Professor, this is the truth and it’s urgent. Draco Malfoy is missing and we think he went down there—”

“If Mr. Malfoy is missing,” said Professor Snape, “ why have the Aurors not been notified? ”

“Because of, because of reasons! ” cried Daphne Greengrass. “There’s no time, you’ve got to let us through!”

Professor Snape’s voice was now as sardonic as Harry had ever heard it. “Are you four morons under the impression that you are on some sort of adventure? Well, you are mistaken. I assure you that Mr. Malfoy has not passed through this door.”

“We think Mr. Malfoy has an invisibility cloak,” Susan Bones said rapidly. “Do you remember the door seeming to open for no reason?”

“No,” the Potions Master said. “Now be gone from here. This place is off-limits for today.”

“This is Dumbledore’s forbidden corridor,” Tracey said. “The Headmaster himself said nobody was to come here. Who do you think you are, forbidding it too?”

“Miss Davis,” said the Potions Master, “you need to stop associating with Gryffindors, especially those named Lavender Brown. And if you are still here in one minute, I will file papers requesting your transfer into that House.”

“ You wouldn’t dare! ” shrieked Tracey.

“Hm,” Susan Bones said, her face screwed up in concentration. “Professor Snape, do you occasionally open the door yourself, to check on

whatever’s inside?”

Professor Snape froze in place. Then he spun and put his right hand on the metal knocker—

Harry was watching the hand on the knocker, so he didn’t notice what Professor Snape was doing with his left hand until he heard the sudden outcry.

“No, in fact,” said Professor Snape, now holding the choking head of Draco Malfoy by his collar, though the rest of Draco was still underneath his invisibility cloak. “A fine try, though.” “ What? ” cried Tracey and Daphne.

Susan Bones hit herself in the forehead. “I can’t believe I fell for that.”

“So, Mr. Malfoy,” Professor Snape said. His voice had lowered. “You sent your friends here on a ruse… just in the hopes that you could pass through this door? Now why would you do that?”

“I think we should trust him—” said Theodore Nott. “Mr. Malfoy, we’ve got to trust him, he’s the one Professor who would take our side!”

“No!” cried Draco’s floating head, from where Professor Snape was still grasping his collar. “You mustn’t say anything! Stop!”

“We’ve got to take the chance!” yelled Theodore. “Professor Snape, Mr. Malfoy finally worked out what’s been going on this whole year, and why—Dumbledore is trying to get the Philosopher’s Stone away from Nicholas Flamel! Because Dumbledore doesn’t think anyone ought to have immortality! So Dumbledore tried to convince Flamel that the Dark Lord was coming back and needed the Stone to revive, and asked Flamel to give it to him, but Flamel wouldn’t, and instead Flamel put the Stone in the magic mirror that’s down there, and Dumbledore is finding out right now how to get it, and then he’ll come for it and we’ve got to get to it first! Dumbledore really will be all-powerful if he gets the Philosopher’s

Stone!”

“ What? ” said Tracey. “That’s not what you said before!”

“It—” Daphne said. She looked frightened, but determined. “It doesn’t matter—Professor Snape, please, you have to believe me. I looked at the books Hermione checked out of the library, and she was researching the Philosopher’s Stone just before someone killed her. Her notes said that something dangerous might happen if the Stone stays inside the mirror too long. We have to get it out of the castle right away.”

Susan Bones now had both hands over her face. “I’m not with them, I just came along to prevent anything even stupider from happening.”

Severus Snape was staring at Theodore Nott and the others. Then he turned his head to look at Draco Malfoy. “Mr. Malfoy,” the Potions Master drawled. “How did you come to discover Dumbledore’s plot?”