[HPforGrownups] Jinx and Mandrake nitpick

[Joel N. Fischoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 22998

On Thu, 26 Jul 2001, Sam Brown wrote:
>However, when we get to GoF, Harry learns the Impediment Jinx, which is
>performed via a wand, and is only said with one word ('Impedimentia!') and
>not a string of words. Is this a Flint, or am I just being too nitpickish?

You're being nitpickish.  The Impediment Curse is a Curse, not a Jinx.  
Here's the actual quote from GoF:

-----

"Well, I think Harry's got it now, anyway," said Hermione hastily.  "And we
don't have to worry about Disarming, because he's been able to do that for
ages. ... I think we ought to start on some of these hexes this evening."
She looked down the list they had made in the library.

"I like the look of this one," she said, "this Impediment Curse.  Should
slow down anything that's trying to attack you.  Harry.  We'll start with
that one."

The bell rang. They hastily shoved the cushions back into Flitwicks cupboard
and slipped out of the classroom.

-----

Here's another reference, from later on in the book (Chapter 31):

-----

Tired of walking in on Harry, Hermione, and Ron all over the school.  
Professor McGonagall had given them permission to use the empty
Transfiguration classroom at lunchtimes.  Harry had soon mastered the
Impediment Curse, a spell to slow down and obstruct attackers; the Reductor
Curse, which would enable him to blast solid objects out of his way; and the
Four-Point Spell, a useful discovery of Hermiones that would make his wand
point due north, therefore enabling him to check whether he was going in the
right direction within the maze.  He was still having trouble with the
Shield Charm, though.  This was supposed to cast a temporary, invisible wall
around himself that deflected minor curses; Hermione managed to shatter it
with a well-placed Jelly-Legs Jinx, and Harry wobbled around the room for
ten minutes afterward before she had looked up the counter-jinx.

-----

>Also, in CoS, the second year Herbology class learns that the root of the
>Mandrake is used to 'return people who have been transfigured or cursed to
>their original state' (I'm paraphrasing here; my copy is on loan). Does
>this mean that you could reverse Avada Kedavra with the Mandrake root? AK
>is a curse, after all.

GoF, chapter 14:

Harry looked around.  From the looks on everyone's faces, he guessed they
were all wondering what was going to happen to the last spider.  Hermione's
hand shook slightly as, for the third time, she raised it into the air.

"Yes?" said Moody, looking at her.

"Avada Kedavra,"  Hermione whispered.

Several people looked uneasily around at her, including Ron.

"Ah," said Moody, another slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. "Yes,
the last and worst. Avada Kedavra. .. the Killing Curse."

He put his hand into the glass jar, and almost as though it knew what was
coming, the third spider scuttled frantically around the bottom of the jar,
trying to evade Moody's fingers, but he trapped it, and placed it upon the
desktop.  It started to scuttle frantically across the wooden surface. Moody
raised his wand, and Harry felt a sudden thrill of foreboding.

"Avada Kedavra!"  Moody roared.

There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a
vast, invisible something was soaring through the air - instantaneously the
spider rolled over onto its back, unmarked, but unmistakably dead.  Several
of the students stifled cries; Ron had thrown himself backward and almost
toppled off his seat as the spider skidded toward him.

Moody swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor. "Not nice," he said
calmly.  "Not pleasant.  And there's no countercurse.  There's no blocking
it.  Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in
front of me."

-----

Even if you could restore a cursed person to their uncursed state, it
doesn't say anything about Mandrake restoring people to life from death.  
Sure, the curse MIGHT be undone, but dead is dead. <grin>


Joel