[HPforGrownups] Reading Minds/ was OOP: Re: Crazy Neville Theory

[the firey chasm from whence it came]

No: HPFGUIDX 65074


>Well, first thing would be that in the book it is mentioned that
>Snape is great in Oclumancy not Legilimency. So maybe his abilities
>in this last one are limited and he cant do it without his wand. we
>see Snape reading Harry's thoughts with his wand all the time.

My guess would be that that's basically true, though I do think that Snape 
can tell if Harry's lying, even without his wand, since there's times in 
the past when he definitely seemed to know that Harry was hiding something 
from him or lying to him (and Harry often wondered before if he could read 
minds). He probably needs his wand to actually be able to get into his 
memories though.

>I have
>never understood quite well the use of wands in the book. Harry blows
>up his aunt without a wand, Voldemort could tell Harry was saying the
>truth without a wand, etc. I assume that wands are a conductor of
>ones power and a very powerful wizard doesnt need a wand to do
>certain magic. Or when there are very strong emotions like all
>through Harry's childhood where he kept doing "things" without
>realizing it as it is explained in Philosopher's Stone.

I think that's basically correct. I think a wand allows you to focus and 
direct magic much more efficiently, but it is possible to do magic without 
a wand. Also, the more powerful you are, the more wandless magic you can 
probably do and also the less need you have for the incantations. We see a 
lot of examples in the books of powerful wizards (especially DD) performing 
magic without saying anything or using their wands.

~dream