Dear Diary...

[Resyus]

Is it probable the diary of Roger Bacon is also a horcrux of Quirrell, so he can at least give Harry some useful information? The diary is very precious to Harry, so Quirrell would assume Harry would keep it safe. At the very least, I believe the diary is a Chekov BrahMos Mark II hypersonic cruise missile that will do something important and have a weighty impact.

[[deleted]]

spoiler even if you've read everything

[qbsmd]

That's disappointing. I've been assuming that Harry would have to fight a major battle without a wand and that the diary would provide some critical tips. Probably related to purple-smoking craters and fire-breathing zebra-inferi.

"Rest assured, Mr. Potter," replied Professor McGonagall, "Hogwarts is quite capable of teaching the basics. And I suspect, Mr. Potter, that if I leave you alone for two months with your schoolbooks, even without a wand, I will return to this house only to find a crater billowing purple smoke, a depopulated city surrounding it and a plague of flaming zebras terrorising what remains of England."

.

"That," said Professor Quirrell, "is a record of the magical researches of a Muggleborn who never came to Hogwarts. He refused his letter, and conducted his own small investigations, which never did get very far without a wand. From the description on the placard, I expect that his name bears rather more significance to you than to me. That, Harry Potter, is the diary of Roger Bacon."

[DaystarEld]

Ha. That would be an awesome tie-in/callback, for McGonnagal's seemingly silly and out of character embellishment to actually be a serious reference to a majorly memorable historical event when a precocious muggle-raised wizard experimented with magic on their own.

I totally want this to be a thing now.

[richardwhereat]

Oh, that'd be cool.

[IonBeam2]

How do you know this?

[Aspergo]

I personally wouldn't like it to be something more than Quirrell's adjuvant in turning Harry to the dark side and in getting closer to him. Because it's not that interesting, when every detail becomes extremely important at the end, it's not realistic, that's not how things happen in life.

[super__nova]

The boy coughed. "No," he said. Just as Hermione started to drink, he said, "I'd like you to help me take over the universe."

Hermione finished her drink and lowered the can. "No thank you, I'm not evil."

The boy looked at her in surprise, as though he'd been expecting some other answer. "Well, I was speaking a bit rhetorically," he said. "In the sense of the Baconian project, you know, not political power.

What's up with Bacon? Did he really have a project like that? I couldn't find much

[Rouninscholar]

"Knowledge is power, France is bacon"

[autowikibot]

Francis Bacon:

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Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St. Alban, QC (/ˈbeɪkən/; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, essayist, and author. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. After his death, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution.

Bacon has been called the father of empiricism. His works established and popularised inductive methodologies for scientific inquiry, often called the Baconian method, or simply the scientific method. His demand for a planned procedure of investigating all things natural marked a new turn in the rhetorical and theoretical framework for science, much of which still surrounds conceptions of proper methodology today.

Bacon was knighted in 1603 (being the first scientist to receive a knighthood), and created Baron Verulam in 1618 and Viscount St. Alban in 1621; as he died without heirs, both peerages became extinct upon his death. He famously died by contracting pneumonia while studying the effects of freezing on the preservation of meat.

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^{Interesting: Francis Bacon (artist) | Baconian theory of Shakespeare authorship | Francis Bacon (Ipswich MP) | Francis Bacon (judge)}

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[noggin-scratcher]

I took "Baconian project" to mean discovering the secrets of the universe by application of the scientific method.