Well, in the original canon, Voldemort fires one at Dumbledore, and Fawkes catches it and is reduced to a chick (phoenixes being unkillable.)
Of course, evidence from the original canon doesn't suggest it being able to pass through solid matter either, so that doesn't mean a whole lot with respect to HPMoR, but the spell would have to fade pretty damn quick to not be a liability for being spotted through a wall after missing. If it does it sounds like the best suggestion so far for resolving Quirrell's use of it in Azkaban, but that still leaves Moody able to snipe people through buildings.
Well, in the original canon, Voldemort fires one at Dumbledore, and Fawkes catches it and is reduced to a chick (phoenixes being unkillable.)
So that's why Dumbledore set a chicken on fire - he was reviving Fawkes!
Edit: New thread posted here.
This is a new thread to discuss Eliezer Yudkowsky’s Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality and anything related to it. This thread is intended for discussing chapter 86. The previous thread has long passed 500 comments.
There is now a site dedicated to the story at hpmor.com, which is now the place to go to find the authors notes and all sorts of other goodies. AdeleneDawner has kept an archive of Author’s Notes. (This goes up to the notes for chapter 76, and is now not updating. The authors notes from chapter 77 onwards are on hpmor.com.)
The first 5 discussion threads are on the main page under the harry_potter tag. Threads 6 and on (including this one) are in the discussion section using its separate tag system. Also: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.
As a reminder, it’s often useful to start your comment by indicating which chapter you are commenting on.
Spoiler Warning: this thread is full of spoilers. With few exceptions, spoilers for MOR and canon are fair game to post, without warning or rot13. More specifically: