Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: Difference between revisions

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''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality]'' is an on-going ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' fanfic by [[Eliezer Yudkowsky]], AI researcher and decision theorist.

* [[Being Good Sucks]]

** Dumbledore understands that some people are destined to become heroes no matter what, but it's nonetheless a fate that he wouldn't wish on anyone due to the ordeals involved. Though he's resigned to Harry Potter's fate, he tries to discourage Hermione from becoming a heroine for this reason. {{spoiler|Subverted in that he was only saying that to get her ''to'' be a hero.}} Quoth:

** Really driven home with Harry's talk about heroic responsibility in chapter 75.

** And later

** Dumbledore's hidden room, unlocked by the passphrases "''phoenix's price''" and "''phoenix's fate''": {{spoiler|A room of broken wands and pictures, each of them belonging to someone who died as a result of Dumboldore's actions, directly or not. It is essentially his room of shame, despite Harry INSISTING those sacrifices were worth it.}}

* [[Berserk Button]]: Don't imply Harry's adoptive parents are abusive.

* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: Chapter 30. {{spoiler|rationalist!Harry (with a secret dark side) and Draco (raised by a flawless instrument of death to be his successor) are fighting Hermione, whose army is named the Sunshine Army and whose badge is a smiley face. One guess who wins.}}

** And again in Chapter 78:

* [[Big Bad]]: Depending on their political orientation, people think either Lucius Malfoy or Dumbledore is this. However, Dumbledore plays the game as if Voldemort is still the [[Big Bad]].

* [[Black and Gray Morality]]: According to Draco, many Death Eaters knew Voldemort was evil but joined him anyway because they thought Dumbledore was [[Alternate Character Interpretation|worse]].

** Or he intentionally pretended to fall for the trick and get beaten up so people aren't suspicious that he needs to take a few days off to recover.

* [[Boring but Practical]]: The Killing Curse and Apparition according to Professor Quirrell (except against adult wizards).

* [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]: In Chapter 51 and Chapter 52, Quirrell tells Harry that {{spoiler|Bellatrix Black}} only served Voldemort because she ended up this way after being [[Mind Rape|Mind Raped]].

* [[Brick Joke]]: Quidditch without the [[Golden Snitch]].

* [[Call Back]]

** Scandalous continuity.

'''Chapter 75:''' Arty Grey, the seventh-year who was leading in their competition by three witches and a Defense Professor... }}

** Also:

'''Chapter 75:''' "Do the three of you have one of those, you know, arrangements?" }}

** People will remind Harry about sharpening Hufflepuff bones into weapons.

* [[Chirping Crickets]]: The noises made by the various gizmos on Dumbledore's desk fill the awkward pauses in his conversations with Harry.

* [[Chronic Hero Syndrome]]: Harry has a bad case of it -- something that becomes particularly clear in Chapter 27.

'''Harry:''' ''Do?'' No. Feel guilty about not doing? Yes. [...] Every time someone cries out in prayer and I can't answer, I feel guilty about not being God. }}

:: Made even funnier when he concludes that the obvious solution is to hurry up and [[A God Am I|become God.]]

* [[Cliff Hanger]]: Chapter 33, {{spoiler|who will get the Christmas wish is up to Zabini.}} (Chapter 41 contains more of a [[Literal Cliff Hanger]].)

** The author's note at the close of Chapter 80 is:

You have five days to think of something. }}

* [[Colorful Theme Naming]]: Trying to remain incognito and failing during his first trip to Platform 9 3/4, Harry asks Ron to call him Mr. Black. Malfoy arrives and says it is a good name, but the Black family may object. He suggests Mr. Silver instead, Ron counters with Mr. Gold, but Harry decides to [[Take a Third Option]] with Mr. Bronze, foreshadowing Harry's sorting a few chapters later.

* [[Confusion Fu]]: The tactic adopted by Harry's Chaos Legion, with appropriately varying effectiveness.

* [[Cool and Unusual Punishment]]: Quirrel has turned annoying humming into an ''art''. Note that no magic is involved.

* [[Couch Gag]]: The J.K. Rowling attribution at the beginning of the early chapters.

* [[Courtroom Antic]]: Despite Dumbledore's severe warning that doing anything fancy will just make things worse, Harry eventually succumbs to this trope when it becomes clear they're going to lose {{spoiler|Hermione's trial}}. And then escalates his antics, and then escalates it a little more. And then once more at the end just to impress everyone.

** Harry insists on filling up his [[Bag of Holding]] with anything he could end up needing if something goes horribly wrong, and explains the Planning Fallacy to anyone who tells him not to worry so much. He ends up using much of it, too.

** And of course Moody himself.

** Snape's preparations against the ''possible'', eventual return of Voldemort, while reasonable for the level of threat the man presents, are nonetheless frightening in their thoroughness. For ''years'' Snape had been going around and spiking graves with different potions in the event Voldemort might try to use the contents of his father's grave for some resurrection ritual. Many different graves over a wide area were similarly booby-trapped in the event that Voldemort thought ahead and obscured the grave's true location beforehand. The "most likely" grave is laced with seventeen different draughts, refreshed yearly, including LSD, ''[[Mushroom Samba|just on the off chance it'd have any actual effect on Voldie!]]''

*** And conversely, Snape and Mad-Eye come to the conclusion that Voldemort probably out-[[Crazy Prepared]] them by simply making the actual grave into an unremarkable field.

* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: Quirrell vs. Auror Bahry in chapter 53. {{spoiler|It ends in the unexpected way nevertheless.}}

* [[Curiosity Causes Conversion]]: Part of Harry's plan for Draco.

* [[Curiosity Is a Crapshoot]]: A character is at one point "almost killed by his lack of curiosity."<ref>Harry is so distracted by Neville's rememberall and getting admonished for improper time-turner usage that he doesn't realize broomsticks work by Aristotelian motion. In Chapter 59, he attaches a quite powerful Newtonian rocket to a broomstick with unexpected consequences.</ref>

* [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]]

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]

** Snape seems to have elements of this. Professor McGonagall, in hysterics, points out that the remarkably disruptive Harry Potter has an invisibility cloak, is immune to mind-reading (and, due to the same discipline, is able to resist truth-potions), and is [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|friends with the Weasley twins]], to which Dumbledore helpfully adds mention of the Time Turner. Snape then contributes:

'''Dumbledore:''' [[Mythology Gag|Maybe next year.]] }}

* [[Deconstruction Fic]]: Multiple tropes are [[Deconstructed]].

* [[Divide and Conquer]]: A common strategy in the battle sequences.

* [[Divide by Zero]]: Harry actually manages it, using real world math (and some slightly [[Tempting Fate|hubristic assumptions]]).

'''Harry:''' lim epsilon approaching zero plus of eight times four divided by epsilon... 10:47AM on Sunday. }}

** Originally, he just said "divided by zero". But then some readers didn't get the joke and complained, so Yudkowsky fixed it by making the math sound more complicated. [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=lim+epsilon+-%3E+0+of+%288+*+4%29+%2F+epsilon Though not actually correct.]

* [[Dramatic Reading]]: [http://hpmor.libsyn.com/ There is now a nice podiobook available.]

* [[Dramatic Thunder]]: Lampshaded, like so many others.

* [[Dying Alone]]: Hermione's greatest fear.

* [[Dying Like Animals]]: Quirrell delivers [[An Aesop|a lecture]] about how this happened in the first war.

** Or at least Dumbledore believes this, though that may just be his idealism showing.

** In an Omake about if it was a ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' fanfic, this was implied to be defied by [[Awesomeness By Analysis]].

** In Chapter 76, Mr. Hat and Cloak attempts to convince Hermione to flee Hogwarts. He fails utterly because he doesn't understand that Hermione just won't trust someone cloaked in an all-covering black mist. {{spoiler|He continues to try for several hours, [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|memory-wiping]] her every time he reaches an impasse in the conversation, and eventually hits on disguising himself as something less dark.}} Given Mr. Hat and Cloak's previous competence at running conspiracies, it seems his ability to form mental models of people has serious flaws when it attempts to analyze Hermione.

** For a truly epic example, in chapter 38, Lucius tells Harry "When I read your response to Professor Quirrell's little speech... I was puzzled, at first, for it seemed not in your own interest." Which mistakenly assumes that Harry is self-interested. It's never explicitly said what conclusion Lucius reached as a result of this mistake, but it's implied that Lucius ended up concluding that Harry ''is Voldemort.''

* [[Flat What]]

** Happens in the very first chapter:

** In chapter 24, Harry mentions stealing gold from his own Gringotts vault. This is {{spoiler|Draco's}} reaction.

* [[Forbidden Friendship]]:

* [[Forced to Watch]]: The martial arts instructor who wouldn't teach Voldemort had to watch his students tortured and killed.

* [[For Happiness]]

* [[For Science!]]:

* [[For the Evulz]]: Harry and Dumbledore ponder why Voldemort has become so inhumanly evil. The best answer they can come up is that a dark wizard might look at the injustice of the world and ask, "Why not?"

* [[Fridge Horror]]: A few, In-universe.

* [[Gambit Pileup]]:

** The War of Three Armies. One of the few cases where "thirty" is an ''understatement''. The author actually apologizes for the pileup in the author's notes, but explains that:

** In the main plot, Harry, Draco, Dumbledore, and Quirrell all trying to be [[The Chessmaster]], with varying degrees of success.

*** A recent chapter has Snape commenting, "If I have learned anything in my tenure as Head of Slytherin, I have learned what ridiculous messes arise when there is more than one plotter and more than one plan."

* [[A Glass of Chianti]]: Quirrell's usual drink in Mary's Room. No, not evil at all...

* [[A God Am I]]: Harry's ultimate goal is:

* [[Golden Snitch]]: Upon having Quidditch explained to him, Harry immediately points out that the [[Trope Namer]] makes the entire rest of the game meaningless, and resolves to remove it. Not right away, he has other stuff to do... but, you know, eventually.

* [[Gone Horribly Right]]: Dumbledore's pushing of Hermione towards trying harder to be a hero in her own right works all right. It works so well that the entire next eight chapters are about just how much trouble she stirs up as a result. Long before the end he is fearing for her life should things escalate further.

* [[Happily Adopted]]: One of the main differences from canon; Petunia and her husband think of Harry as their son, and are kind and loving parents.

* [[Happiness in Slavery]]: The House Elves, of course. However, in this version Hermione's issues with it are downplayed.

* [[Head Desk]]: McGonagall, in chapter 61.

* [[Heel Realization]]: Harry seems to be on the verge of this around chapter 55, at the worst possible place and time for it to happen: {{spoiler|as he's breaking Bellatrix Black out of Azkaban. By himself.}}

* [[I Have This Friend]]: With a touch of [[And That Little Girl Was Me]]. Harry learns it's dangerous to give advice unless he knows who his interlocutor is ''really'' talking about.

* [[I Know You Know I Know]]: Quirrell teaches Harry to pull off more subtle kinds of deception, leading to situations like this:

* [[I Know Your True Name]]: Neville pretends to summon Harry "by the power of [his] true name."

* [[I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That]]: On Harry's second trip to Diagon Alley:

* [[I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder]]: "I'm a hat, not a god."

* [[Immortality Immorality]]: According to Dumbledore, simply [[Primal Fear|fearing death]], let alone trying to avoid it, is enough to warp one's soul.

* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]

** After Draco has dropped {{spoiler|Hermione}} off the roof of Hogwarts ([[It Makes Sense in Context]] and the victim Got Better), it is speculated that his goal is to drop all the Muggleborns. That's right: he's the Heir of "Slipperin" and the next "Drop Lord".

** When Harry is trying to decide whether it is moral or not to eat meat, his inner Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor try to help:

** Chapter 67, about the rules how Hogwarts changes its geometry:

* [[Insufferable Genius]]: All of Ravenclaw house, of course, but ''especially'' Harry, natch.

* [[I Need a Freaking Drink]]: McGonagall needs one ''desperately'' after shopping with Harry.

* [[I Shall Taunt You]]: Draco ''thinks'' Harry is trying to break up his alliance with Hermione by teasing him about it mercilessly.

* [[Is This a Joke?]]:

* [[It's Quiet... Too Quiet]]: Spoofed in Chapter 13, when Harry wakes up thinking his dorm room is suspiciously quiet and then remembers there's a silencing charm on the bed.

* [[I Was Never Here]]: Harry says this to Professor Sprout when {{spoiler|setting up}} the Game, and it's implied in several other conversations.

* [[Jumped At the Call]]

** The Hat tells Harry: "You're just guessing, or to put it more exactly, ''wishing'' that you have some ready-made heroic role that is your personal property." And Harry certainly acts the part later:

** [[Deconstructed]] when Harry makes a series of less than optimal decisions in quick succession while {{spoiler|rescuing Bellatrix Black (whom he saw as a [[Damsel in Distress]]) from Azkaban}}. He recognizes that this is a flaw in his own psychology and it remains to be seen how badly this will come back and bite him in the end.

** Played Straight again in Chapter 69 for Tracey Davis, who is making up for the opportunity she realized she missed in Chapter 46.

* [[The Magic Goes Away]]: This is what Harry and Draco suspect might be happening. {{spoiler|It turns out to have been a mostly decoy theory Harry didn't have much faith in, but included to keep Draco interested in theories other than the pureblood dilution one}}.

* [[Mathematician's Answer]]:

'''Harry:''' {{spoiler|''(posing as Voldemort)''}} We are on a broomstick. }}

* [[Meaningful Name]]: Hermione tries to use it to justify her desire to be a heroine.

* [[Melee a Trois]]: The intra-school army competition. An all-out war for a prize of a Quirrell wish. Although each year has its own set of three armies, you would be forgiven to forget this small tidbit, since the First year had evolved far beyond what anybody (except Quirrell) could dream of. The three sides are: [http://dinosaurusgede.deviantart.com/gallery/27136676#/d2xlrgv Dragon army], led by Draco Malfoy; [http://dinosaurusgede.deviantart.com/gallery/27136676#/d2xdn9u Sunshine Regiment], led by Hermione Granger; and the [http://dinosaurusgede.deviantart.com/gallery/27136676#/d2xlq9v Chaos Legion], led by Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres.

* [[Mentor Occupational Hazard]]: Lampshaded: Dumbledore [[Genre Savvy|warns Harry]] that if he accepts Quirrell as a mentor, he'll surely end up losing him in some tragic fashion. (He becomes slightly more resigned to the idea when he remembers that Harry's going to [[Dead End Job|lose him anyway]].)

* [[Mundane Utility]]: Harry's always on the lookout for possibilities. Even he is aghast at the wizarding world's trivial uses of time machines... at first.

* [[Mouthful of Pi]]: More true of Hermione than Harry.

* [[Muggles Do It Better]]: A large part of the premise; Muggle ''technology'' isn't necessarily better than magic, but the wizarding world clearly could use a hearty dose of the scientific method.

* [[Mysterious Past]]: Dumbledore hires Quirrell without looking too deep into his history. Madam Bones thinks she has identified Quirrell as a hero figure from the previous war (not Tom Riddle; the author has changed his birth year to make this clear).

** In Chapter 26, Quirrell is absolutely livid about a 6th year Gryffindor who hit one of his 6th year Slytherins with a Dark curse, of which the former knew only how to cast it and that it was to be "directed at an enemy". [[Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince|Sound familiar?]]

** While Moody was working with a particular potion called [[Idiot Ball|Bahl's Stupefaction]] in Chapter 63, he recalls an anecdote that should sound very familiar to those who read ''[[Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire]]'':

** "Molly Weasley against Bellatrix Black? Who does she even think she's kidding?"

** Before the start of ''[[Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone]]'', Voldemort used the Killing Curse on Harry, which rebounded and destroyed Voldemort's body. In ''[[Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire]]'', he tried it again, and it failed again. In ''[[Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows]]'', he tries a third and '''fourth''' time, with the fourth time rebounding and permanently killing him. In Chapter 65:

** Chapter 71 pokes fun at ''[[Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets]]'':

** "So where's {{spoiler|the real Quirinus Quirrell}}, eh? [[Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire|Under an Imperius in the bottom of a trunk somewhere, while you take a hair now and then for your illegal Polyjuice?"]]

* [[Narrative Profanity Filter]]: Rianne Felthorne gets a small one in chapter 71:

* [[Never Live It Down]]: In-universe.

* [[News Travels Fast]]: In chapter 46, for example, the Hogwarts grapevine is shown to be remarkably efficient. It helps that some people have time turners (see [[Mundane Utility]]).

* [[No Except Yes]]: "World domination is such an ugly phrase. I prefer to call it world optimization."

* [[No One Gets Left Behind]]: Subverted in a thoroughly justified fashion in chapter 41, which incident is later [[Discussed Trope|discussed]] with some fascination:

"That's because you don't have the tiniest smidgin of romance in you." }}

* [[No Ontological Inertia]]: Harry's first Transfiguration class asserts that transfigurations are not permanent and need periodic maintenance to keep them from reversing themselves. McGonagall gives the example of [[Nightmare Fuel|someone drinking a block of wood transfigured into a glass of water and asks the class to consider the consequences given the above]].

** Most other forms of magic work on this principle as well. The best way shown to break shield charms is to keeping hitting the shield till the user collapses from exhastion, and the shield breaks.

* [[No True Scotsman]]: In-universe. Harry tries to convince the Sorting Hat that he's not like the other potential Dark Lords the hat has met:

'''Hat:''' No, of course they were not in this new reference class which you have [[Moving the Goalposts|just now constructed]] in such a way [[Overly Narrow Superlative|as to contain only yourself.]] }}

* [[Noodle Incident]]: Several.

** The prank involving Kevin Entwhistle's cat.

** Somehow, the Weasley twins were able to falsify a betrothal contract between Harry and Ginny and get it published in the ''Daily Prophet''. They did this by ''somehow'' faking a lot of evidence that most would believe near-impossible to fake (and then changing it back to normal after the fact). The only thing we know about ''how'' they did it was that it was on a budget of ''forty Galleons.'' Even the ''Weasley'' twins don't know how they did it because they also got themselves [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|obliviated]] after the deed was done.

*** It's later revealed that they {{spoiler|Memory-Charmed the reporter they were trying to discredit to make her believe she had seen the evidence}}.

* [[The Not-Secret]]: A number of students at Hogwarts have time turners, and pretty much everyone knows who they are, since its hard to hide the whole "going to multiple classes at once" thing. Then there's one girl who tends to spread rumors before the event in question actually happens.

** Also, Harry can't decide whether Luna is using this or not. Though he still hasn't actually met her, he just can't imagine anyone actually believes the kind of things she writes.

* [[Obviously Evil]]: Penelope Clearwater seems to think Professor Quirrell is this:

* [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome]]: The Weasley Twins fake for the benefit of Rita Skeeter a prophesy, a betrothal contract, a Gringotts seal, and a session of the Wizengamot for a grand total of 40 galleons. How they do it isn't explained until 50+ chapters later.

* [[Oh Crap]]: Harry often ends up inducing this in himself and others.

* [[OOC Is Serious Business]]: When Dumbledore asks Harry what Quirrell could be plotting that requires him to bring a Dementor into the castle, Harry argues that this is completely in-character for him, and naturally, [[Inverted Trope|in-character is business as usual]]. But he realizes that something is wrong anyway, because even coming out of his own mouth it's a [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]].

* [[Open Secret]]: Just about everyone in Ravenclaw House claims to have "heard" that Dumbledore is a [[The Chessmaster|secret mastermind]] whose apparent insanity is just a [[Obfuscating Insanity|cover]].

* [[Opposing Combat Philosophies]]: Draco, at least in the beginning, uses the command philosophy of [http://www.thornley.net/~thornley/david/military/strategy/comrec.html command push] (all orders come from the top, and subordinates are trained to carry out orders efficiently without questioning them, but this structure tends to be inflexible if the commander is out of touch with the situation). In contrast, Harry uses some elements of recon pull (subordinates are allowed to use initiative to do what they think is right for their situation, and the commander acts as coordinator who concentrates on the big picture).

* [[Orwellian Retcon]]: Several of the chapters were revised after they were posted. (The changes are generally minor, though.)

* [[The Password Is Always Swordfish]]: In chapter 51, Harry uses the password "Sword fish [[Lord of the Rings|melon friend]]".

* [[Peggy Sue]]: Mocked in chapter 29:

* [[The Perfect Crime]]: {{spoiler|Almost pulled off}} in chapter 53.

* [[Pie in the Face]]: Wielded by an invisible hand, no less.

* [[The Power of Friendship]]

** Roundly mocked:

'''Harry:''' Ha! Yeah, like ''that'' would have worked. }}

** Harry's plan to [[Heel Face Turn|redeem Draco]] involves overcoming his prejudices using logic and manipulating Draco into situations where he will see the ridiculousness of his preconceptions, but the friendship thing actually seems to be [[Double Subversion|pretty effective]] (and the part that seems to impress -- and frighten -- Lucius the most).

* [[Reverse Psychology]]

** Dumbledore tries this on Harry:

** He also succeeds in using it on Hermione in "Self Actualization". While at first it seemed as if things would have gone the same way whether or not he had meddled, because of it Hermione gets a small group of fellow witches who also want to be heroes. [[Gone Horribly Right|Which wasn't actually part of Dumbledore's plan]].

* [[Roof Hopping]]: Briefly in chapter 41.

* [[Sadistic Choice]]: Chapter 12 mentions offhand that Harry sees ordering in a restaurant as one of these. "Find out about only one of the mysteries on this list, [[Evil Laugh|ha ha ha]]!"

* [[Sarcastic Confession]]: If it ''is'' true, then this confession of Harry's qualifies:

'''Harry:''' Oh, that's obvious, right? Draco's working with Granger will make him realize that Muggleborns are human after all. [[Evil Laugh|Bwa. Ha. Ha.]] }}

** Similarly, Quirrell in chapter 79, when he {{spoiler|reacts to being accused of keeping "the real Quirrell" captive for polyjuice ingredients}}, may or may not be telling the truth.

* [[Satellite Character]]: Hermione eventually [[Genre Savvy|sees]] that's she's becoming this in-universe, and struggles against it.

* [[Scaled Up]]: Quirrell is an unregistered snake Animagus.

* [[Scare'Em Straight]]: The whole point of McGonagall's first class

* [[Schmuck Bait]]

** The third-floor corridor.

** Later it's mentioned that [[Take That|all the Gryffindors]] have tried it.

* [[Science Destroys Magic]]: A theory raised as to why none of the modern wizards are as good as the ancient ones. {{spoiler|Turns out to not be true.}}

* [[Secret Identity]]

** Sirius Black is really Peter Pettigrew, according to the ''Quibbler''.

** In canon, the ''Quibbler'' was correct about Sirius being innocent. They were completely bonkers in their "proof", but their ''premise'' was correct. Could be the same thing here.

** One of the prisoners in Azkaban can be heard repeating, {{spoiler|"I'm not serious, I'm not serious, I'm not serious"}} over and over. Just try to guess what he IS, instead.

* [[Shaped Like Itself]]: "First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. That is why it is called the Forbidden Forest. If it were permitted it would be called the Permitted Forest."

* [[She Is Not My Girlfriend]]: Harry about Hermione in chapter 75.

** Hermione followed suit a few lines later.

* [[Shipper on Deck]]

* [[Single Line of Descent]]: As in the original work, Harry's ownership of the invisibility cloak. Debatable whether there can be more than one Heir of Slytherin at a time.

* [[Skewed Priorities]]: Almost all of the wizarding world, which is canon, but also Harry at times:

** In the long term, [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|plants being sentient]] should be extremely high on any priority list. In the immediate term, and in the scope of an 11 year old boy learning magic and getting involved in lots of things 11 year old boys shouldn't get involved in? [[Don't Explain the Joke|Not so much]].

*** If snakes are sentient, other animals might be as well. That makes every non-vegetarian a serial killer. It's pretty important.

* [[Small Name, Big Ego]]: During the first 34 chapters it had implied that Lucius is one of the best Masterminds of Magical Britannia, an excellent manipulator and a "beautiful killing machine" then {{spoiler|Professor Quirrell shot it to hell in one sentence in front of hundreds, stating that Lucius was incompetent enough to let the Death Eaters implode at the brink of victory and had to return with his tail between his legs}}. [[Kick the Son of a Bitch|That had to hurt]].

* [[Smug Super]]: Harry has the attitude down pat.

'''Harry:''' Same here, I must say. It's sad how people keep underestimating me. }}

* [[Snowball Lie]]: Discussed in the chapter appropriately titled "[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/65/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality Contagious Lies]". Of particular note is that Harry thinks this is the primary reason having a phoenix is not considered a sign of being Good -- it benefits those without phoenixes, so they say whatever it takes to keep people from believing a phoenix's decision is made with sound reasoning.

*** From another Omake in Ch. 64, a jab at mainstream academia: "Everyone knew that no matter how honest, investigating, skeptical, creative, analytic, or curious you were, what really made your work Science was when you published your results in a prestigious journal. Everyone knew that..."

** Chapter six:

McGonagall had simply said how peculiar and left it at that, which had put Harry into a state of shock at the sheer, overwhelming obliviousness of wizards and witches. In no ''imaginable'' [[Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone|world]] would Harry have just went "Hm" and walked out of the shop without even ''trying'' to come up with a hypothesis for what was going on. }}

* [[Take That, Audience!]]: Many of his fans had suggested or asked if the story would be Harry×Draco because of the ''Quibbler'' headline, so Harry apologizing to Hermione by being dangled off the roof by Draco just as Hermione had done the previous day seems like this.

** For example, toward the end of chapter 47 when Draco says, "I don't want any more surprises today."

** [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]] in chapter 57, after Dumbledore declares himself to be invincible:

* [[That Makes Me Feel Angry]]: Harry is able to get away with this when Dumbledore is ''expecting'' him to be angry and doesn't seem likely to question it:

Harry's Internal Critic promptly awarded him the All-Time Award for the [[Worst Whatever Ever|Worst Acting in the History of Ever]]. }}

* [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors|The Five Elements]] In chapter 46, when Professor Quirrell asks Harry how to hide something permanently, Harry responds using the Western five elements of Earth, Fire, Water, Air, and Aether (outer space).

* [[Tickle Torture]]: Harry threatens Quirrell with this in chapter 19.

* [[Time for Plan B]]:

'''Blaise:''' Um, I said that to the Headmaster, actually, and he said that was why it was important to have [[Xanatos Speed Chess|more than one plot going at a time]]. }}

* [[Title Drop]]: In chapter 24.

* [[Unnecessarily Large Interior]]: The generals' offices seem this way to Draco and Harry, with Draco unable to think of any reason for their size other than to show off the generals' status, and Harry not even thinking of that. It doesn't occur to either of them that they might be meant to use that space to meet with their advisors, because it doesn't occur to them that they might want to ''have'' advisors. Hermione, understanding their psychology, had her officers' chairs removed for her meeting with Draco.

* [[Unsound Effect]]:

There was a distinct body-hitting-the-ground-with-a-thuddish sort of sound. }}

* [[Unspoken Plan Guarantee]]: In the first wargame (ch. 30), we see Draco and Harry explaining their strategies to their armies, while we know nothing about what Hermione has planned. Guess who wins. It was a valiant try at a [[Double Subversion]], but nobody was fooled.

* [[Up, Up, and Away]]: Neville uses it for his Chaotic Leap in the first battle. Hermione uses it as Super-Hermione during the battle inside Hogwarts.

* [[Verbal Backspace]]: When Quirrell insists that Harry's Occlumency tutor be [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|Obliviated]] after each session, Dumbledore wonders why such expensive services are necessary, but...

'''Dumbledore:''' Thank you Quirinus, your wisdom is now quite evident and I am sorry for disputing it. }}

* [[Walking Wasteland]]: Quirrell displays a touch of this while [[Villains Out Shopping|Christmas shopping]].

** Although the story is set a decade before the 2005 revival, for Harry to NOT think of Doctor Who when learning of Time Turners seems a conspicuous omission.

* [[Weirdness Magnet]]: Tracey seems to think Harry Potter is ''literally'' this, to the point where she suggests stunning him, tying him up and dragging him around with them to attract Adventure.

** McGonagall calls Harry a "weirdness magnet" in Chapter 17.

* [[Wham! Line]]: In Chapter 51, when Quirrell tells Harry that there is an innocent person in Azkaban, Harry correctly deduces that it is "a person named Black." Quirrell is surprised and tells Harry he is correct, then asks, {{spoiler|"How did you know I meant Bellatrix?"}}

** Also somewhat parodied earlier on.

** Chapter 78, to the surprise of pretty much everyone (including {{spoiler|Harry himself)}}:

** Chapter 84, {{spoiler|Quirrel}} and Hermione talking about heroics:

"Why, no," {{spoiler|said Professor Quirrell.}} "I stopped trying to be a hero, and went off to do something else I found more pleasant." }}

* [[What Could Have Been]]: An [[Omake]] chapter explores the possibility of applying the "rationalist" concept to other works of fiction, including ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' (which Yudkowsky explicitly states is the premise of Alicorn's ''[[Luminosity]]''), and ''[[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]''. A brief margin is dedicated to a ''[[Gurren Lagann]]''/''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' crossover, but leaves it simply as:

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?]]: Played for laughs in Chapter 29 when Hermione goes to Quirrell for advice.

* [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]: "Snakes are sentient!?"

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Frequent, though the Sorting Hat's was probably the most memorable, borrowing Harry's own intelligence and using it to refute the boy's own plans and arguments.

* [[Who's Laughing Now?]]:

'''Padma Patil:''' No, that's one of the Chaos mottoes, though she didn't do [[Evil Laugh|the laugh]]. }}

* [[Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?|Who Names Their Kid "Dud(l)e(y)"?]]: The reason Petunia didn't marry Vernon Dursley in this version of the story: she had this reaction when he told her what he was planning to name his firstborn.

* [[Wise Beyond Their Years]]: Harry, the eleven-year-old boy currently working on a reliable means of mass-producing carbon nanotubes, Draco, the twelve-year-old [[Evil Chancellor]], and Hermione, the girl who {{spoiler|beat both of them at magic paintball}} by the end of Chapter 30.

* [[With Friends Like These...]]: Draco realizes (a little too late) that having Harry for a friend is at least as dangerous as having him for an enemy:

Because if you were Harry's ''friend'', then he tried to be friends with you in the alien, incomprehensible way he'd been raised by Muggles to do, even if it meant destroying your entire life. }}

* [[A Wizard Did It]]: Defied continually and with extreme prejudice. Once Harry gets his mokeskin bag, he's frustrated at its inconsistency with object's names when summoning; when he asks McGonagall why it works that way, her reply of "Magic" does ''not'' satisfy him.

* [[The World Is Not Ready]]: Harry decides that he and other wizarding scientists -- unlike Muggle scientists -- should keep their discoveries secret until they're sure humanity won't misuse them.

* [[Word of God]]: The author posts on this work's discussion page.

* [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl]]: The bullies are cast in a negative light through continual reminder that their opponents are first-year girls.

** Generally averted during battles, as students target girls as much as boys. One exception is when Neville kicks Hannah in the stomach and immediately feels remorse.

* [[Xanatos Gambit]]: [[Discussed Trope|Described]] in Chapter 24 with Draco thinking about Harry's plans and those of stories he was told by his father. Not just a story - a story about a clever hero who always tricks a band of gargoyles into furthering his plans. [[Shout-Out|Does]] [[Gargoyles|that]] [[Perspective Flip|sound familiar]] [[Trope Namer|to you]]?

** The basic premise of the Xanatos Gambit was described earlier, in Chapter 22, though the wording was slightly altered as a joke.

* [[Xanatos Speed Chess]]: During the Stanford Prison Experiment in particular, but predicted much earlier:

* [[X Meets Y]]: ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' meets rationalism.

* [[Yaoi Fangirl]]: Apparently, most girls in the wizarding world.