Only works if Quirrell knows where to start looking to begin with. Actually, it is fun to speculate on whether this sense of doom obeys the inverse squared law or something else. Options:
there is a conserved “doom charge” which repels another one like it: you get inverse squared for the force of repulsion.
there is a “doom radiation” affecting a “doom detector”: simple inverse for the discomfort level. Something like a “doom magic” source.
Quirrell has a doom charge and Harry is a doom dipole: this would be 1/r^3, but it does not really work since the sense of doom is not directional
Quirrell has a doom charge and Harry gets a “doom induction”, forming a doom dipole whose strength depends on Quirrell’s doom field strength: 1/r^4. This breaks the symmetry between the two, however.
Both H and Q get doom induction from each other: 1/r^6. This is way too steep to fit the experimental data, as it would feel more like a “doom wall”.
There is a dissipating doom charge (because the doom charge carrier “doomon” is massive, or because of the ambient magic vacuum polarization): exponential (Yukawa) decay.
1 or 2 are probably the only likely options, with 2 less likely, both because of the need for the doom source and because simple inverse decays too slowly to fit the description.
Kinda OT: Your having posted the above, plus being an LWer, makes it very likely you would enjoy Yvain’s post on Newtonian ethics (but also that you’ve read it already).
I was going to say that it appears that their connection is not symmetrical, because Quirrell was able to track down Harry during the troll event. Further research seemed to reduce this likelihood, however.
Quirrell started burning through the substance of Hogwarts once he realized that Harry had found the troll. He didn’t know that the two had met until he read Harry’s emotions. That he did not realize that they were getting closer before means that he wasn’t tracking both the troll and Harry. I was going to say that it appears clear that Quirrell was tracking Harry (almost certainly via link), because he is not fool enough to leave his magic on his weapon, but not only did he strengthen the troll (and thus must have a method of covering his tracks) but also there is this:
The Defense Professor had felt the boy’s horror, through the link that existed between the two of them, the resonance in their magic; and he had realized that the boy had sought the troll and found it.
That does not seem to imply that he could feel Harry zipping all over the place, because I would expect Quirrell, being able to read Harry’s emotions in the Great Hall and since, to correctly deduce where Harry was going if he started moving in a hurry. That implies that what he was tracking was indeed the troll, and so reduces the likelihood that he could track Harry with the link.
Though it is still clear that the resonance is not wholly symmetrical, as Harry lacks the emotion-reading aspect.
If he does get even a vague sense of doom at large distances, then he could have triangulated regardless, first with the second set of emotions that would have popped up an hour ago, then with the current ones from a different starting location.
Especially, why does Quirrell know that he’s in the forest?
Triangulation via sense of doom.
Only works if Quirrell knows where to start looking to begin with. Actually, it is fun to speculate on whether this sense of doom obeys the inverse squared law or something else. Options:
there is a conserved “doom charge” which repels another one like it: you get inverse squared for the force of repulsion.
there is a “doom radiation” affecting a “doom detector”: simple inverse for the discomfort level. Something like a “doom magic” source.
Quirrell has a doom charge and Harry is a doom dipole: this would be 1/r^3, but it does not really work since the sense of doom is not directional
Quirrell has a doom charge and Harry gets a “doom induction”, forming a doom dipole whose strength depends on Quirrell’s doom field strength: 1/r^4. This breaks the symmetry between the two, however.
Both H and Q get doom induction from each other: 1/r^6. This is way too steep to fit the experimental data, as it would feel more like a “doom wall”.
There is a dissipating doom charge (because the doom charge carrier “doomon” is massive, or because of the ambient magic vacuum polarization): exponential (Yukawa) decay.
1 or 2 are probably the only likely options, with 2 less likely, both because of the need for the doom source and because simple inverse decays too slowly to fit the description.
That would be
… and thus were postulated the Maxwell-TrE-equations of Doomodynamics.
Kinda OT: Your having posted the above, plus being an LWer, makes it very likely you would enjoy Yvain’s post on Newtonian ethics (but also that you’ve read it already).
And also Blessed Are The Taxonomers, For Theirs Is The Phylum Of God, and well, a lot of stuff that he wrote. He has written multiple posts in this style, and they are uniformly excellent.
Yes indeed, but the “Newtonian ethics” one seemed particularly apposite here.
I must try to work ‘magic vacuum polarization’ into conversation.
I was going to say that it appears that their connection is not symmetrical, because Quirrell was able to track down Harry during the troll event. Further research seemed to reduce this likelihood, however.
Quirrell started burning through the substance of Hogwarts once he realized that Harry had found the troll. He didn’t know that the two had met until he read Harry’s emotions. That he did not realize that they were getting closer before means that he wasn’t tracking both the troll and Harry. I was going to say that it appears clear that Quirrell was tracking Harry (almost certainly via link), because he is not fool enough to leave his magic on his weapon, but not only did he strengthen the troll (and thus must have a method of covering his tracks) but also there is this:
That does not seem to imply that he could feel Harry zipping all over the place, because I would expect Quirrell, being able to read Harry’s emotions in the Great Hall and since, to correctly deduce where Harry was going if he started moving in a hurry. That implies that what he was tracking was indeed the troll, and so reduces the likelihood that he could track Harry with the link.
Though it is still clear that the resonance is not wholly symmetrical, as Harry lacks the emotion-reading aspect.
If he does get even a vague sense of doom at large distances, then he could have triangulated regardless, first with the second set of emotions that would have popped up an hour ago, then with the current ones from a different starting location.
Or maybe Harry is not aware that it is or not as attuned to it. I don’t recall him seriously trying to investigate or exploit it.