Now since this is a spinoff of a spinoff, I guess to get the background, you have three options as you start reading:

Long intro: You can just start with 'Harry Potter and Methods of Rationality'. It is a rather intelligent work. This spinoff picks up around chapter 65/67 of that fanfiction. You can find the link in favorite story section. Or else, you can directly begin by reading the short intro below…

Short intro: Just know that Harry in this version was brought up by a professor of Oxford. Thus Harry's approach to the world around him is very scientific.

Also Professor Quirell in that version is a very capable Evil Genius and sort of a mentor for Harry. Quirell has started organizing mock army wars as a way to teach magic and strategy for his subject Defence against dark art.

In the latest war, Harry's army has just decimated the armies of his friends and fellow generals Draco and Hermione.

Shortest intro: Just keep reading and fill in the gaps as you go.

Chapter 1: Consequences

"A fair war? " professor Quirell smirked. " You want a fair war? Do you think DADA stands for Defense against Dumb-assitude?" Quirell looked at the three of them as if he really expected an answer.

" I am afraid.." Quirell continued as he met silence in response"..that Dragon and Sunshine won't be given a bailout. You had a known enemy and plenty of time to prepare yet you failed to provide any match or the semblance thereof. In real life this would have either meant death, or subjugation. Of course you will get one of them now.

Both your armies would be disbanded after one week and will be allocated to senior armies.

We will then move forward to inter-year-wars."

Hermione and Draco were trying their best not to appear furious. Harry who stood slightly aside didn't seem to be furious at all. But then his army wasn't being threatened.

" But professor" Hermione interjected " Inter year battle won't be useful for us. We would all become busy trying to catch up on the magical knowledge that our seniors have learned over years, to have any time to devote to strategy. "

"Miss Gragner." Quirell replied " But you overestimate them. How much of a magical difference do you think there is?

Hogwarts has boasted of a pedigree of stunningly incompetent professors teaching DADA. So while in your case, I had to begin from zero, in case of your seniors the baseline was negative.

But that's not the only thing holding them back. They also have their quidditch matches. None of you are in quidditch teams, but senior army generals almost uniformly are.

So they do their best to pay equal attention to a game and a war.

No miss Gragner. You won't have much difficulty in trying to match up with majority of your seniors. You will even have time to think of your wonderful strategies.

But you won't get to use them.

It's a law of nature. An incompetent leader will have to punish any sign of competence. "

"But why are you doing this professor?" Draco asked " How do we get to improve our defense skill by this?"

"You will learn the price of failure Draco. And whether or not you could afford it." Quirell said. " Harry had to learn it artificially. In the class where he had to ask for forgiveness and mercy from the fifth year students instead of fighting back.

But being pushed around by some oversized morons is not nearly as bad as being ordered around by them. You think Harry had a hard time back in that class? Wait till you find out a superior sending you to certain death. Try arguing against him. Use reason. Tell them a better strategy. See what happens. "

"So this is our punishment then?" Draco asked, his anger now visible in a simmer.

"This is your introduction to a more real war. Where irrelevant things such as age can matter the most. Where white hair can give you the crown even if you are insane. Where people would jump to their deaths as long as they are doing it together and are being assured by incompetent leaders that everything is under control and the way it is supposed to be." Quirell was slowly getting angry too. He realised it and stopped. The sudden expression change was almost like his body language had made a grammatical error.

"Now if you have no more questions, you can go now. It will be the duty of the generals to inform their armies about next week's allocation." Quirell concluded. "All the best for the Inter-Year-Wars."