Very hard, very Harry puzzle

[Chris M. Dickson]

Delurking...

You might be interested in the very hard Harry Potter puzzle at
http://web.mit.edu/puzzle/www/02/round2/02/Puzzle.html . Part of the
puzzle is working out how to extract an answer from it. In fact, part of
the puzzle is working out that it is a Harry Potter puzzle. :-)

The competition finished a little over 12 hours ago, the team I was on
didn't solve this puzzle and we weren't even vaguely close to winning,
so I'm not asking for help. (So, no, I don't know what the answer is;
hopefully it'll be published fairly soon.) But if you can work out what
to do and what the answer is, award yourself a hyoohj, as we say in
this part of the land, pat on the back. (And let me know what the answer
is!)

Enjoy!
Chris

-- 
  Chris M. Dickson, Middlesbrough, Great Britain; chris at dickson.demon.co.uk