Harry Potter and the Way of Reason

J. K. Rowling coils and strikes quietly; the killer whale spins in the water, tough and vigorous. [2]

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Act Three:

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Draco waited by one of the small windows near the hall, his stomach churning.

He will definitely pay the price, and the price is not small.Draco had figured this out a long time ago.He woke up and found himself afraid to go to the Great Hall for breakfast, because he might meet Harry Potter there, and Draco didn't know what would happen after meeting Harry Potter.

There are footsteps approaching.

"This way," was Vincent's voice. "Our boss is in a bad mood today, you better take it easy."

Draco was going to flay the idiot alive and send the flayed body back for a smarter servant, like a dead gerbil.

One set of footsteps moved away, while another set of footsteps approached.

Draco's stomach churned even harder.

Harry Potter came into his field of vision.There was a careful calm in his expression, but his blue-trimmed robe looked oddly askew, as if it wasn't right—

"Your hand," Draco blurted out.

Harry raised his left arm, as if to examine himself.

The hand hangs limply on the arm, as if dead.

"Madam Pomfrey said it wasn't permanent," Harry said softly. "She said it should be mostly back to normal before class starts tomorrow."

For a split second, the news came as a relief.

Then Draco realized.

"You went to Madam Pomfrey," Draco murmured.

"Of course," said Harry Potter, as if it were the obvious thing to do. "I can't move my hands."

Draco was starting to see what a real idiot he was, far more stupid than the older Slytherins he'd been calling him.

He had been used to thinking just now that no one would run to the authorities after a Malfoy did something to them.No one ever wanted to be targeted by Lucius Malfoy.

But Harry Potter isn't a freaking little Hufflepuff who just wants to stay out of it.He was already in the game, and his father had his eye on him.

"What else did you say to Madam Pomfrey?" Draco said, his heart in his throat.

"Professor Flitwick said that the spell cast on my hand is a black magic torture curse. This is an extremely serious matter, and it is absolutely unacceptable to refuse to explain the culprit."

There was a long pause.

"And then?" Draco said in a trembling voice.

Harry Potter smiled slightly. "I expressed my deep apologies for making Professor Flitwick very serious, and then I told Professor Flitwick that the whole thing was indeed an extremely serious, secret, delicate matter, and that I had informed the Headmaster of the whole plan gone."

Draco gasped. "No! Flitwick can't just accept that! He will confirm with Dumbledore!"

"Indeed," said Harry Potter. "I was immediately dragged to the principal's office."

Draco started shaking.If Dumbledore had brought Harry Potter to the Wizengamot - whether Harry voluntarily or otherwise - and had the Boy Who Lived testify that Draco had tortured under the influence of Veritaserum He...too many people love Harry Potter, father will lose the election...

Father might be able to talk Dumbledore out of it, but it would come at a cost.Great price.Today's game has rules, you can't just threaten someone so casually.But Draco walked into Dumbledore's hand by himself.Draco is a very valuable hostage.

But now Draco could no longer be a Death Eater, he was not as valuable as his father thought.

The thought tore through his heart like a cutting spell.

"And then?" Draco murmured.

"Dumbledore deduced right away that you did it. He knew we were working together."

This is the worst case scenario.If Dumbledore couldn't guess who did it, he probably wouldn't risk using Legilimency to track it down... but if Dumbledore did...

"And then?" Draco forced himself to utter a word.

"We chatted for a little while."

"Then?"

Harry Potter grinned. "Then I explained to him why he'd be better off doing nothing."

Draco's mind hit a wall and shattered.He opened his mouth like an idiot, staring at Harry.

Then Draco remembered.

Harry knew Dumbledore's mysterious secret, the one Snape used to hold Dumbledore hostage.

Draco could imagine it.Dumbledore's face was stern, hiding his eagerness as he explained to Harry how serious the matter was.

Harry then politely told Dumbledore that he'd better keep his mouth shut for his own sake.

Father had warned Draco to beware of such people, they could destroy you, but still act so cute that you can't hate them.

"Then," said Harry, "the Headmaster told Professor Flitwick that it was indeed a secret and delicate matter, that he already knew about it, and that he felt that it would be in no use to me or anyone else to pursue it now. Help. Professor Flitwick started saying something like the Headmaster was being too scheming this time, and then I had to chime in and explain that it was my idea, not the Headmaster forcing me, so Professor Flitwick turned around and started Taught me, and then the Headmaster interrupted him to say that as the Boy Who Lived I was destined for weird and dangerous adventures, so it was safer for me to take risks on purpose than to wait for them to happen by accident, when Professor Flitwick Whacked his little short hands and started screaming at the two of us, saying he didn't care what we were arguing about, but it won't happen again while I'm in Ravenclaw Happen a second time, or he'll throw me out of Ravenclaw, and I can go to Gryffindor, where this Dumbledore-esque behavior is supposed to happen—"

Harry made it hard for Draco to hate him.

"Anyway," said Harry, "I didn't want to be thrown out of Ravenclaw, so I promised Professor Flitwick it wouldn't happen again, and if it did, I'd tell him straight up. who did it."

Harry's eyes should have been cold.But his eyes were not cold at all.His voice should have sounded like a mortal threat.But it doesn't sound like that at all.

Then Draco found the problem that should have been obvious, and it ruined the atmosphere in an instant.

"You...why didn't you say it?"

Harry walked to the window, basked in a small ray of sunlight in the corner, and poked his head out towards the green Hogwarts lawn.The light shone on him, on his robe, and on his face.

"Why didn't I say it?" said Harry.His voice was a little choked. "I guess it's because I just can't be mad at you. I know I hurt you first. I wouldn't even say we're even because what I did to you is worse than what you did to me bad."

It was like hitting another wall.In Draco's ears, what Harry just said was bible.

Draco's mind searched for possible explanations, but found none.The concession in that remark was not in Harry's best interest.Nor should Harry have said so if he wanted Draco to be his faithful servant now that Harry was in complete control of him.He should have emphasized how kind he was, not how deeply he had hurt Draco.

"Even so," said Harry, lowering his voice now, almost to himself, "please don't do it again, Draco. It hurts, and I'm not sure I can forgive you for the first time. Second time. I don't know if I still have the ability to make myself want to forgive you."

Draco didn't understand.

Was Harry trying to befriend him?

Harry couldn't possibly be stupid enough to believe that, after what he'd done, they could still be friends.

You can be someone's friend and ally, like Draco tried to do with Harry, or you can ruin their life and leave them with no choice.But you can't do both.

But then Draco couldn't understand what other purpose Harry Potter had.

A strange thought flashed through Draco's mind, which Harry had been talking about yesterday.

The idea is: test it out.

You've awakened to be a scientist now, Harry said, and even if you haven't learned how to use your powers, you'll still be, looking, ways, testing, your beliefs... those ominous words, those in pain The words uttered in a breathless breath echoed in Draco's mind.

If Harry had really been pretending to be a friend who regretted accidentally hurting someone...

"You planned it!" Draco managed to say accusingly. "You didn't do this because you were angry, you did it because you wanted to!"

Fool, Harry Potter would say, of course I planned it, and now you're mine -

Harry turned to face Draco. "What happened yesterday was not what was planned," said Harry, his voice seemed to be stuck in his throat. "The original plan was that I would teach you why it is always better to know the truth than not to know, and then we will explore the truth of blood together, no matter what the answer is, we will accept it. Yesterday, I...was too hasty."

"Knowing the truth is always better than not knowing," Draco said coldly. "Like you're helping me."

Harry nodded - to the shock of Draco - and said, "If Lucius had the same idea as I did, that the problem was that powerful wizards had very few offspring, what would happen? What? He might start planning to pay the most powerful pure-blood wizards to have more children. In fact, if purity is right, then Lucius should do it - if If he can handle this from his perspective, he can do it right away. Now, Draco, you are the only one of Lucius' friends who will try to stop him from wasting his energy, because you are the only one who knows the real truth , and who can predict the real outcome."

It occurred to Draco that Harry Potter had been brought up in such a strange environment that he should now be classified as a magical creature rather than a wizard.Draco just couldn't guess what Harry was going to say or do next.

"Why?" Draco said.It's not at all difficult to fill your voice with pain and feelings of betrayal. "Why did you do this to me? What was your original plan?"

"Well," Harry said, "you're Lucius' heir, and then, believe it or not, Dumbledore thinks I'm his. So we can grow up and continue their fight. Or we can Do something else."

Slowly, Draco's brain understood. "You want to escalate and end the fight between them, then take advantage of it when they're both exhausted." Cold fear rose in Draco's heart.He had to try to stop this, no matter what it cost him—

But Harry shook his head. "The stars are above, no!"

"no……?"

"You're not going to follow their plans, and neither am I," said Harry. "This is our world, and we don't want to destroy it. But imagine, for example, that Lucius thinks the plot will be your tool and you're on his side, and Dumbledore thinks the plot will be mine. I am on his side; Dumbledore thinks the conspiracy will belong to me, and I am pulling you over, and Lucius thinks the conspiracy will belong to you, and you are pulling me over, so They will both help us, but only in a way that doesn't draw the attention of other people."

This time Draco didn't even have to pretend.He is speechless.

Father had taken him to a play before, called The Tragedy of the Moon,[3] about a very bright Slytherin named Moon, who wanted to cleanse the world of evil with an ancient ring, the The ring can kill anyone whose face and name he knows, and his opposite, the same super-intelligent Slytherin, is a villain named Lawliet, who has been wearing a disguise to hide his real face ; Draco screamed applause for all the good parts, especially in the middle; then the drama ended in tragedy, Draco was very disappointed, and his father pointed gently at the word "tragedy" in the title.

Afterwards, Father asked Draco if he understood why they had come to see the scene.

Draco said the scene taught him to be as smart as Leon and Lawliet when he grew up.

Father said Draco couldn't have been more wrong, then pointed out that even if Lawliet had cleverly hidden his face, he shouldn't have told Yue his name.Draco's eyes widened as his father overturned almost every part of the play next.Then my father concluded that plays like this are always unrealistic, because if the writers knew what a really smart person like Yue would do, the writers would try to conquer the world themselves, and Not to write these things out.

Then the father told Draco the rule of three: any plan that requires more than three things to happen will never succeed in real life.

Father further explained that since only a fool would try to plan as complex as possible, the real limit is two.

Draco was at a loss for words to describe how unrealistic Harry's grand plans were.

But that's the mistake you make if you lack a mentor, think you're smart, and learn how to plan by watching plays.

"So," said Harry, "what do you think of the plan?"

"Pretty clever..." Draco said slowly.Yelling "That's witty!" and gasping in awe looks so suspicious. "Harry, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course," said Harry.

"Why did you buy Granger an expensive pocket?"

"Signs innocence," Harry snapped back. "Although I also hope that she will feel embarrassed when she refuses any small request from me in the next few months."

And that's when Draco found out that Harry really wanted to be his friend.

Harry's action against Granger is clever, perhaps even brilliant.Reassure your enemies that they owe you a favor in a friendly way, so that you can easily dispatch them by simply asking.Draco couldn't do that, his purpose was too suspect, but the Boy Who Lived could.So the first step in Harry's plan was to give his enemy an expensive gift, which Draco hadn't thought about, but it might work out...

If you're Harry's enemy, it's hard to see his plan at first, it might even be stupid, but his reasons all make sense, and once you do, you can understand that he's trying to hurt you.

And the way Harry was treating Draco now made no sense.

Because, if you're friends with Harry, he'll befriend you in a strange, incomprehensible way, like the Muggles he raised did, even if it means destroying you the whole life.

The silence stretches.

"I know I've seriously abused our friendship," Harry finally said. "But you know, Draco, at the end of the day, I just want us both to find the truth. Is that the kind of thing you can forgive?"

A crossroads of two roads, but only one that Draco could easily turn back if he changed his mind...

"I guess I see what you're trying to do," Draco lied, "so yes."

Harry's eyes lit up. "I'm glad to hear that, Draco," he said softly.

Two students stood in the corner, Harry still in the beam of light, and Draco in the shadows.

And then Draco discovered with horror and desperation that while being Harry's friend was indeed miserable, Harry now had so many ways to threaten Draco that being his enemy was even worse in this case.

possible.

Maybe.

Well, he can always switch to an enemy later on...

He's screwed.

"So," Draco said. "What now?"

"Shall we come to study next Saturday?"

"It's better not to be like last time—"

"Don't worry, it won't," said Harry. "A few more Saturdays like last time, and you'll be better than me."

Harry smiled.Draco didn't smile.

"Oh, and before you go," said Harry, smiling a little sheepishly. "I know it's not a good time, but I actually want to ask you something."

"Okay," Draco said, still a little distracted from what he had just said.

Harry's eyes became eager. "Buying that bag for Granger cost most of the gold I stole from the Gringotts vault—"

what.

"—McGonagall has the key to the vault, maybe Dumbledore now. The plan I'm going to start now will cost some money, so I want to ask you if you know of a way for me to—"

"I'll borrow it from you," Draco's mouth said out of sheer reflex.

Harry looked shocked, but of the surprised kind. "Draco, you don't have to—"

"How many?"

Harry said a number, and Draco couldn't hold back the shock on his face.This is almost a whole year's pocket money from his father to Draco, and Draco only has a few Galleons left——

Then Draco kicked himself in the heart.All he had to do was write a letter to his father explaining that the reason he had no money was because he lent it to Harry Potter, and his father would send him a congratulatory note in gold ink, a Chocolate frogs for two weeks, and ten times as many Galleons as he asked for, in case Harry Potter had to borrow more money.

"Too much, isn't it," said Harry. "Sorry, I shouldn't have asked—"

"Please, you know I'm Malfoy," Draco said. "I'm just amazed how you need so much."

"Don't worry," Harry said cheerfully. "It won't threaten your family's interests, it's just that I want to do something bad."

Draco nodded. "That's fine. Do you want it now?"

"Of course," said Harry.

As they turned the corner and started walking down the cellar, Draco asked involuntarily, "So can you tell me what you're up to?"

"Rita Skeeter."

Draco scolded himself bloody, but it was too late to refuse now.

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When they reached the cellar, Draco began to gather his thoughts again.

He does have a hard time hating Harry Potter.Harry did try to be friendly, he was just crazy.

And that wouldn't stop - couldn't even delay - Draco's vengeance.

"So," Draco said after looking around to make sure no one was around.Of course, their voices had been muffled by spells, but it never hurt to be careful. "I've been thinking. When we bring new members into the Cabal, they've got to feel like we're equal. Otherwise it only takes one person to snitch on the father, and the plan falls through. You've thought about that, haven't you?"

"Of course," said Harry.

"Will we be equal?"

"I'm afraid not," said Harry.It's clear that he's trying to sound softer, but it's also clear that he's trying, with less success, to suppress his sense of superiority. "I'm sorry, Draco, but you don't even know what the word Bayesian means in the Bayesian Conspiracy. You'll have to study for months before we bring anyone else in so you can last Support the scene."

"Because I don't know enough about science," Draco said, taking care to keep his voice soft.

Harry shook his head. "The problem is not that you don't know a particular science like DNA. That doesn't prevent you and me from being on equal footing. The problem is that you're not trained to think rationally, which is hidden behind the knowledge The deeper secret is how to discover this knowledge in the first place. I will try to teach you, but those things are harder to learn. Think about what we did yesterday, Draco. Yes, you did some Work. But I was the one in control. You answered some of the questions. I asked the questions. You helped move things forward. I was at the helm. Without a rational way of thinking, Draco, you couldn't Steering the conspiracy will go in the direction it needs to go."

"I see," Draco said.He sounded disappointed.

Harry tried to soften his voice a bit more. "Draco, I'll try to respect your area of ​​expertise, like the interpersonal stuff. But you also need to respect my area of ​​expertise, and there's no way you and I are equal when it comes to leading the Conspiracy. You've only been there for a day." Scientist, you only know one secret of DNA, and you have not been trained in any method of rational thought."

"I see." Draco said.

He did get it.

That's what Harry said about relationships.Gaining control of the cabal wouldn't even be that hard.And then, after that, he'd kill Harry Potter in case—

Draco thought back to last night, how gut-wrenching he'd felt when he knew Harry was screaming.

Draco thought of worse words.

All right.He won't kill Harry.Harry had been raised by Muggles, and it wasn't his fault he was crazy.

Instead, Harry would move on, so Draco could tell him it was for Harry's own good, and he should be grateful—

With a sudden burst of surprise, Draco found that it was indeed for Harry's own good.If Harry tried to carry out his plan and play Dumbledore and his father for idiots, he was dead.

That's perfect.

Draco would take all of Harry's dreams, just like Harry had done to him.

Draco would tell Harry it was for his own good, and it was true.

Draco would purify the entire wizarding world with the power of conspiracy and science, and his father would be as proud as he was a Death Eater.

Harry Potter's evil plans will fail, and the forces of good will prevail.

Perfect revenge.

unless……

Just pretend you're pretending to be a scientist, Harry had told him.

Draco couldn't find the words to describe exactly what was going on in Harry's head—

(Because Draco had never heard of a term called 'recursion depth')[4]

— but he could guess what kind of strategy this hinted at Harry.

...unless that's what Harry wanted Draco to do, and it's part of a bigger plan where Draco trying to ruin that one is exactly what Harry wanted, haha Leigh might even have known that his plan wouldn't work, that its only purpose was to lure Draco into thwarting—

No.This is going to be crazy.There must be a limit.The Dark Lord himself isn't that twisted.This kind of thing doesn't happen in real life, it only happens in father's stupid bedtime stories, and every time those idiot buffoons try to stop the main character, it always ends up furthering the main character's plans.

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And beside Draco, Harry walked down the road, with a smile on his face, thinking about the origin of the evolution of human intelligence. [5]

In the beginning, before people fully understood how evolution works, they just randomly thought about crazy ideas, such as the evolution of human intelligence to make better tools.

This idea is crazy because only one person in the tribe invents the tool, and then everyone starts using it, and then it spreads to other tribes, and their descendants will continue to use this tool a hundred years later.That's fine from a scientific process point of view, but from an evolutionary point of view it means that people who invent things don't get a natural selection advantage of having significantly more children than other people.Only the relative advantage of natural selection can increase the relative proportion of a gene in the population, allowing this gene to spread widely, from a lone mutant to a gene that everyone has.And great inventions are too rare to provide the kind of constant natural selection pressure needed to increase the proportion of mutant genes in the population.This guess is normal. If you look at human guns and tanks and nuclear weapons, and compare humans with chimpanzees, you will feel that intelligence is born to create technology.A normal guess, but wrong.

Until people fully understand how evolution works, they just throw up crazy ideas like tribes need to move because of climate change, and people have to get smarter to solve all these new problems.

But humans have brains four times the size of chimpanzees.20% of human metabolic energy is fed to the brain.Humans are much, much smarter than other species.This kind of thing will not happen just because the environment increases the difficulty of the problem a little.Otherwise the human organism would just have to get a little smarter and solve the problem.It must have been some overwhelming evolutionary process that ended up with a supersized brain, something pushing it infinitely.

Today, scientists have a decent guess at the overwhelming evolutionary process.

Harry once read a very famous book called "Chimpanzee Politics". [6] The book describes how an adult chimpanzee named Ruyt, with the help of a young chimpanzee named Nick who has just grown up, confronted the elderly monkey king Ye Luen.Nick did not directly intervene in the struggle between Ruyt and Ye Luen, but blocked Ye Luen's other supporters in the tribe from helping Ye Luen. Whenever there was a fight between Ruyt and Ye Luen, he would send these supporters to distracted.And when Ruyt won and became the new monkey king, Nick became the second in command...

...However, it didn't take long before Nick formed an alliance with the defeated Ye Luen, overthrew Luyt, and then became the new Monkey King.

You'll be really relieved that, for millions of years, hominids have been fighting each other -- an endless evolutionary arms race -- and in doing so, increased intelligence.

Because, you know, human beings can totally expect this to happen.

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And beside Harry, Draco walked down the road, suppressing his own smile at the thought of revenge.

Someday, it may take years, but someday, Harry Potter will learn what happens when he underestimates Malfoy.

Draco awakened as a scientist in one day.Harry said this shouldn't happen for months.

But if you're Malfoy, you take it all for granted, and you'll become a better scientist than anyone who isn't Malfoy.

So Draco would learn all of Harry Potter's rational ways of thinking, and when the time came—

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Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis: en.wikipedia/wiki/Machiavellian_intelligence

The beginning is from a series of novels in the fictional continent, the original sentence is replaced by JK Rowling is Yendi, a race in the fictional continent, very similar to the snake yard in the HP world: dragaera.wikia/wiki/Cycle

Tragedy of the Moon: Death Note Memes

Recursion and recursion depth: en.wikipedia/wiki/Recursion

Evolution of human intelligence: en.wikipedia/wiki/Evolution_of_human_intelligence

Chimpanzee Politics: book.douban/subject/2879212/