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A Harry Potter Quest: He who was not

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So here's my view. The plan to pact it and then kill it is non-viable. This thing is chained up, presumably it can't be killed easily otherwise why chain it up.

So votes 1 or 3 are the only viable ones. I expect vote 1 to try and carrythrough with the idea of killing it and failing. I suspect vote 3 to be able to bind it. I just don't think we should. I also don't agree the creature is in some way the wrong party, that's speculation with out anything to act as a foundation for it.

The important question is why the imp is bound.
 
DerHesse said:
We might think we are cunning with back-stabbing the critter after we free it, but I have the feeling the creature will be more prepared to act the second it's free.
The way it almost instantly jumped to this whole scheme makes me think it has a plan as well.
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The reason it jumped to this whole scheme is explained in the chapter:
Tabula Rasa said:
It explained how to magically form such a contract and how to keep it in place. Only now did you understand why the creature had created this item. It was a token of security. If it ever found itself in this a situation, in which its life was at danger, the creature would propose a Pact with its captor.
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This is literally its contingency plan for this situation, "I'm in trouble, offer Pact for safety; here's a helpful book explaining what I'm talking about."
 
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SuperSonicSound said:
So here's my view. The plan to pact it and then kill it is non-viable. This thing is chained up, presumably it can't be killed easily otherwise why chain it up.

So votes 1 or 3 are the only viable ones. I expect vote 1 to try and carrythrough with the idea of killing it and failing. I suspect vote 3 to be able to bind it. I just don't think we should. I also don't agree the creature is in some way the wrong party, that's speculation with out anything to act as a foundation for it.

The important question is why the imp is bound.
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To learn dark magic. I am guessing that because of the book. Why bring a book of dark magic with you to bind a creature?
 
Pun-chline said:
Not entirely sure about your phrasing here, do you mean Lily used Dark Arts to protect her son? If I recall correctly it was some bullshit "power of love" deus ex machina, which is really questionable (implies Lily somehow loved newborn Harry in that moment more than practically any other witch or wizard that ever fell to Voldemort).
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I think the important bit of Lily's sacrifice actually had more to do with Voldemort than Lily.

This is admittedly up to the QM but Voldemort was planning on sparing her and she refused to step aside.

I think it's a lot more believable that Voldemort had just never bothered with mercy before than anything to do with quantities of love.
 
Pun-chline said:
Not entirely sure about your phrasing here, do you mean Lily used Dark Arts to protect her son? If I recall correctly it was some bullshit "power of love" deus ex machina, which is really questionable (implies Lily somehow loved newborn Harry in that moment more than practically any other witch or wizard that ever fell to Voldemort).
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IIRC the great deal was that Lily intercepted the killing curse whose objective was Harry... If Voldemort had decided to kill Lily first, and then killing Harry the killing curse would have worked normally.

So it was not as much that Lily loved Harry more than any other mother, it was that she had the opportunity to intercept a curse that was supposed to kill her son.
SomeOneElse007 said:
I think the important bit of Lily's sacrifice actually had more to do with Voldemort than Lily.

This is admittedly up to the QM but Voldemort was planning on sparing her and she refused to step aside.

I think it's a lot more believable that Voldemort had just never bothered with mercy before than anything to do with quantities of love.
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That is what I thought it happened, when Harry thinks at which would have happened if Neville would have been targeted, he wonders what would have happened and even if Neville´s mother would have died trying to defend Neville she may not have the chance of intercepting the curse that was aimed to her son.
 
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Don't overthink the imp having a contingency planned for its eventual defeat.

It makes sense that it would do so. It doesn't have a lot to offer to invaders, and it seems to be bound to the dungeon. It doesn't have a lot of options, which is why it had to turn to Pacts.

Regardless of if the imp gets what it wants, which is, in this case, living, it doesn't change the fact that Jacob is smart and negotiating from a position of power. If it was someone else not named Jacob Marvin Basques doing this, I might be worried, but Jacob is a canny sort, least easily tricked.

Others don't have to lose for you to win the most.
 
DerHesse said:
Jacob is currently dead on his feet. The last thing on his mind will be to carry two skeletons all the way back to the castle.
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The problem with vote 3 is that it'd use the information in the book which was written by that very same creature to bind it.

If there aren't a few subtle loopholes in that book I'll be disappointed.
Let's kill it and study the book when we aren't exhausted.
 
Pretty sure that the reason it didnt cross was the protections Helga put in, not because some other noble reason. This is a monster, not a misunderstood creature. While i like the idea of pacts, lets do them with something we would like to spend more than five minutes in the same room.
 
[ ] A Pact, I agree – Agree to form a Pact. But you want more than just this book. The creature will be freed by your hand. In return it will swear to not harm you and share with you all the knowledge you need to further explore the deeper levels once you return.

Going for this. New interesting creature sign me up.
 
I don't trust pacting it. Why?

Tabula Rasa said:
The first clue was why it was that the home of this creature seemed to be different. One possible answer; it thrived in the destruction of civilized constructions. It had started in the tunnel behind and had worked its way here, over decades, maybe even centuries to destroy inch after inch of the structure. This was the reason why the chains had started rusting away, it was actively destroying the magic holding this place together.
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I do not believe the Pact can hold it. Perhaps it can hold it long, perhaps it can hold it briefly.
But its very nature is to undermine the Pact, and unless we deem our craft to be peer to the Founders, we would not keep it anywhere near as long.
 
Sure dark arts are bad but i in my opinion I think that if your a wizard or witch you don't have to use dark arts you know about them and maybe use them but it's that knowledge of it all as Jacob is fond of riddle and knowledge why not we can find out about dark arts but we don't have to use spells
 
Thriceboiled said:
The students didn't bring the book, it was originally a normal school book but was written over using blood and shit, then new pages added using skin from the dead students.
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No the book was a dark arts book that the creature added to. But it appears to be a normal dark arts book with human writing that was added onto.

Edit looks like was wrong.
 
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Adding more fuel to the fire.

Bloody Gryffindor.

Now, why would one of the students say that? The imp overheard this, which is why it could replicate it. But shouting Bloody Gryffindor as you die, while an immense power move on the part of the Hufflepuff, doesn't make a lot of sense.

So I offer two alternative scenarios. This is not to clear the imp of any wrongdoing, but I think there's a riddle here.

The Gryffindor did something incredibly stupid that led to their deaths. Jacob, while hot shit, ain't that great duelist, and I put money on him being the youngest person to ever enter the dungeon. The imp couldn't have bodied them both.

Perhaps they did not die at the entrance, but died while trying to return from the deeps after the Gryffindor made a fatal blunder. Either the Ravenclaw and the Slytherin died earlier, not being as physically fit as their friends, and we'll find their bodies deeper in, or they managed to escape.

The other potential scenario is that the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff killed eachother. Bloody Gryffindor was shouted as a curse the Hufflepuff shouted as they entered mortal combat. Whether they killed eachother at the same time, or the imp cleaned up shop after the fact, it implies that they fell victim to the fracturing bonds Helga warned them about, the same reason why the Founders failed to find the dungeon in the first place, and why Helga was incapable of completing it on her own.

Besides being an old hag by that point.
 
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Naw, the iconic negative trait of the Gryffindor is recklessness.
He probably did the most Griffindor thing when faced with unknown scary thing - take the lead.
Which would prompt that exact statement, regardless of whether he tried to free it, make a deal with it, or murder it.

Griffindors act before making sure its the right action.
And their friends would be going "Bloody Griffindors" then hurrying up to support them in whatever they did.
 
Excellent chapter. I'm really glad the exploring option was chosen in the end.

As for the creature. I'll vote for killing it. It's gonna teach us how to form a pact that he basically wrote himself.... I don't trust that one bit. Even if the pact can be trusted I wouldn't want to form one with that creature.

We can study the book at a later point, dunno when that'd be though. Not sure if want to study it. It's a book we shouldn't keep on our person or among our belongings, that's for sure.
 
The only Gryffindor we need is our pal in Runes Club.

The only mauve shirt I currently think is viable as a dungeon partner is Tracy. So Jacob will be screaming Bloody Slytherin when she does something inadvisable for the sake of power, and she can shout Bloody Ravenclaw when he does something inadvisable for the sake of knowledge.

Cute dynamic, no? Even better if they needle eachother for wanting the same thing, because Knowledge and Power are interchangeable.
 
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Is killing the creature and burning the book and bodies an option?
 
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