Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 5 - Less Wrong
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(ch56)
Somewhat trivially... I hadn't realized that Patronuses (Patroni?) could be sent on remote missions, or that they were able to track down individuals whose location the casting mage didn't know (as Professor McGonagall seems to do here).
I'm trying to figure out why, given that, anyone would break into Azkaban to give prisoners temporarily relief from Dementors, rather than just send a Patronus (or hire someone who can send a Patronus) to do the same thing.
So far I can't think of a plausible reason. Admittedly, Patronuses can't bring chocolate, but that seems inadequate reason to take the additional risk of breaking in personally.
Am I being dense?
I hadn't thought of that, but (in canon) only members of the Order of the Phoenix can use their Patronuses that way.
I bet the Patronus' power isn't very strong when it's far away for its owner. It's just strong enough to get the message across, but not enough to repel dementors.
I hereby declare this to be fact. Not least because otherwise Harry would be tempted to send his Patronus into the Dementors' pit at any time, which problem I had thought about and planned to have him just not think of.
Does this count as a violation of the "don't say 'Eliezer said X'" rule? :P
This could make sense, but does it say anything about the possibility of long-range Horcrux action?