Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky Page A

here, you have some explaining to do!
” That was his Dad.
    Harry shut his eyes and ignored everything he knew about justified credibility and just tried to believe
really hard
that he’d go through the barrier and -
    - the sounds around him changed.
    Harry opened his eyes and stumbled to a halt, feeling vaguely dirtied by having made a deliberate effort to believe something.
    He was standing in a bright, open-air platform next to a single huge train, fourteen long carriages headed up by a massive scarlet-metal steam engine with a tall chimney that promised death to air quality. The platform was already lightly crowded (even though Harry was a full hour early); dozens of children and their parents swarmed around benches, tables, and various hawkers and stalls.
    It went entirely without saying that there was no such place in King’s Cross Station and no room to hide it.
    Okay, so either (a) I just teleported somewhere else entirely (b) they can fold space like no one’s business or (c) they are simply ignoring all the rules.
    There was a slithering sound behind him, and Harry turned around to observe that his trunk had indeed followed him on its small clawed tentacles. Apparently, for magical purposes, his luggage had also managed to believe with sufficient strength to pass through the barrier. That was actually a little disturbing when Harry started thinking about it.
    A moment later, the youngest-looking red-haired boy came through the iron archway (iron archway?) at a run, pulling his trunk behind him on a lead and nearly crashing into Harry. Harry, feeling stupid for having stayed around, quickly began moving away from the landing area, and the red-haired boy followed him, yanking hard on his trunk’s lead in order to keep up. A moment later, a white owl fluttered through the archway and came to rest on the boy’s shoulder.
    “Cor,” said the red-haired boy, “are you
really
Harry Potter?”
    Not this again.
“I have no logical way of knowing that for certain. My parents raised me to
believe
that my name was Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, and many people here have told me that I
look
like my parents, I mean my other parents, but,” Harry frowned, realising, “for all
I
know, there could easily be spells to polymorph a child into a specified appearance -”
    “Er, what, mate?”
    Not headed for Ravenclaw, I take it.
“Yes, I’m Harry Potter.”
    “I’m Ron Weasley,” said the tall skinny freckled long-nosed kid, and stuck out a hand, which Harry politely shook as they walked. The owl gave Harry an oddly measured and courteous hoot (actually more of an eehhhhh sound, which surprised Harry).
    At this point Harry realised the potential for imminent catastrophe. “Just a second,” he said to Ron, and opened one of the drawers of his trunk, the one that if he recalled correctly was for Winter Clothes - it was - and then he found the lightest scarf he owned, underneath his winter coat. Harry took off his sweatband, and just as quickly unfolded the scarf and tied it around his face. It was a little hot, especially in the summer, but Harry could live with that.
    Then he shut that drawer and pulled out another drawer and drew forth black wizarding robes, which he shrugged over his head, now that he was out of Muggle territory.
    “There,” Harry said. The sound came out slightly muffled through the scarf over his face. He turned to Ron. “How do I look? Stupid, I know, but am I identifiable as Harry Potter?”
    “Er,” Ron said. He closed his mouth, which had been open. “Not really, Harry.”
    “Very good,” Harry said. “However, so as not to obviate the point of the whole exercise, you will henceforth address me as,” Verres might not work anymore, “Mr. Spoo.”
    “Okay, Harry,” Ron said uncertainly.
    The Force is not particularly strong in this one.
“Call… me… Mister… Spoo.”
    “Okay, Mister Spoo -” Ron stopped. “I can’t do that, it makes me feel stupid.”
    That’s not just a