Theory: the workings of a wand (Was: WANDS: Harry's vs Voldemort...)

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 43119

Melody wrote:
> In duels, the point of facing each other and firing at each other is
> the show who is the fastest and surest shot. Yes it is dangerous for
> those standing around because of those facts. The bullets/spells
> could be misguided or even clash in the air. I am not sure how big a
> beam of magic light is suppost to be, but I assume, which might be a
> big assumption, that it is as hard for them to clash as it is for
> bullets fired at each other.
>
> <snip>
>
> Maybe also it is all in how we picture the beams of light coming from
> the wands.  Assuming they are straight lines of light and of the
> thickness of the wand it comes from, it would seem that they would
> not clash that much given the small target and that the beam of light
> would be of the same angle of the wand it is shot.
> 
> I don't know.  I was not a physics or even science major it college,
> so this is not my specialty.  It just seems that the whole point of
> magic is to defy these given "rules" of our physical world.  Sorry if
> I am way off.
> 
> Melody
> Off to bake cookies

I'm not going to participate in this thread directly (since I don't 
really see wherein does the problem lie), but nevertheless I'm going to 
point out that curses deflected is more common than what Melody 
suggests. She mentions the possibility of two curses clashing is 
equivalent to that of twio bullets hitting each other in midflight. 
This simply cannot be, unless JKR is playing *very* liberally with 
casualty. So far this circunstance has happened twice: a Draco/Harry 
clash and a Harry/Voldemort clash.

Also, the books don't mention this clashes as something espectacular, 
or otherwise anormal. In fact, it seems downright usual, so the chance 
of two spells clashing should be pretty high, since the only requisite 
seems to be that both spells are finished at the same time, and are 
directed at each other's caster. I'm going to porpose a possible theory 
to explain what happened.

According to this theory, a magical spell cast through a wand generates 
a beam of energy with an altered state (charged, as it were, 
electromagnetically). This altered state, however, is a little bit more 
complex than the simple positive/negative charge of electromagnetism, 
and it depends primarly of the composition of the wand. Especifically, 
it's a function of the nuclei of the wands, which makes the altered 
patron exclusive of each wand. This altered state of energy interacts 
with all other states of altered energy, normally by attracting them if 
they're both moving in the same approximate direction and repulsing 
them if moving in opposite directions (like two electrical currents 
repel each other if moving in the same direction and vv., only the 
other way round). The maginitude of this repulsion would be 
aproximately equal (or maybe just a little bit higher) to that of 
electromagnetic interation. Also, patrons /per se/ attract each other, 
but it's strenght depends on how close the patrons are: the more alike 
the patrons, the bigger the attraction between them.

Where does this take us? Well, if this theory is correct, two spells 
whose trajectories travel close to one another will affect each other, 
repelling if they come from opposite sides and merging if directed 
towards the same objective, but there is no need that they actually hit 
each other: close proximity is enough (this "close proximity" could be 
in a range of a few centimetres up to maybe a foot or so, depending on 
the energy of the spell, basing myself on what canon has shown us so 
far). If you've survived my explanation this far (I know it sounds 
strange. If I was using my own language, I'd be able to explain it more 
clearly. Sorry), you're probably wondering why I make it so 
complicated. This is because this theory can be enlarged to encompass 
two circunstances that are very peculiar about magic.

One is combined spells: we know that magical spells combine when thrown 
against the same target (see Draco et co in the train, end of GoF). 
According to this theory, the spells' energies attract each other when 
moving in the same direction and in fact combine into a single spell 
energy when in very close proximity (i.e. when about to hit). This 
combined energies bears the effects of both original spells, but 
distortioned due to the combination. In this case, the fact that the 
patrons attract eachother is irrelevant because most of the times the 
patrons will be different enough that the attraction is very small.

The other circunstance is, of course, priori incantatem. According to 
this theory, two wands with the same nuclei (or very similar one) 
generate energies of almost the same patron, since their altered states 
are based on very similar nuclei. Normally, two energies with different 
directions should repel each other, throwing them out of their apointed 
paths, but two equal patrons attract each other more than the movement 
repels, thus creating a continuos path from one wand to the other. This 
is extremelly rare, since you need two wands with very similar nuclei 
(not only the same type, but also the same origin: the same especific 
animal or plant). Of course, once the energies have attracted each 
other, since they're going in opposite directions, they continue to 
attract each other, drawing even more energy from the wizards through 
the wands into the bridge conecting both wands, and creating a vicious 
circle. 

Now, the problem becomes tricky, mainly due to all the extra special 
effects JKR threw into the graveyard scene. The energy continues to 
build up in the bridge, until it starts to overflow, creating the 
magical energy web around the two wands (picture that image of iron 
dust around a magnet). However, this web, with all it's energy, is 
still charged with the patron of both wands, and, since it's got any 
amount of extra power thrown in for good measure, it still interacts 
with all other magical patrons in the place, and is repelled by them. 
This includes the magical energies that all wizards posses. This energy 
is normally so small that it does not affect normal spells, but the web 
is strong enough to be affected. However, at the very beggining the web 
is not strong enough to move matter, so when faced with the repulsion 
of all the DEs, the web moves away from them, carrying inside it the 
"engines": the two casters, until it finds a place where it's strenght 
is enough to resist the repulsion of the magical energies of the wizard 
on-lookers, and it continues to gain energy until it strong enough to 
resist the on-lookers' interferance: after while it's strong enough to 
repell the public that try to penetrate the net instead of it itself 
being repelled.

Let's go back to what is happening inside the net: once the net is 
stablshed, the magical energy has nowhere to go, and starts to 
accumulate in form of energy globules inside the bridge. Since magic is 
formed and directed by using the will, this globules are also directed 
by pushing them with it: the original spells, although reduced to pure 
basic energy, are still moving against each other, and the caster that 
manages to put the most will preasure on the globules will be able to 
push them into the other caster's wand.

At this point, the looser caster's wand is suddenly overcharged: those 
globules are pure magic, and they've just been forced to reenter a wand 
through the exit end. Of course, the bridge starts to disappear at this 
point, since one of the wands is no longer feeding it magic (and thus, 
the other also stops, since the vicious circle is broken). In fact, the 
loosing wand is now in big trouble, since it has to get rid of all the 
extra energy, and it does this by reproducing it's last spells, 
starting by the most recent. However, a wand is not really a wizard and 
these "spells" haven't the will and purpose behind them, since they are 
only images, pale reflections of the real ones' effects, but still 
require as much energy as the real things, which explains that the 
"ghosts" had enough raw power to stop Voldemort from persecuting Harry.

OK, I think that covers all of it. I swear I didn't expect that this 
theory would get so out of hand. After this rant, which I just 
improvised, I'd imagine that there must be a few holes, but I feel 
quite proud of it, so if anyone wants to point out whatever holes they 
see in it, it'll help me to patch it. Of course, any priase and 
contribution is also welcomed.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf, who would be even more proud of the theory if he hadn't had 
to contemplate the flying net in the graveyard. That, as you may have 
noticed, requires quite a bit of fast talking to explain. At any rate, 
he'll continue to work on it.