Harry and wandless magic

[luna_loco]

No: HPFGUIDX 96743

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "earendil_fr" <viviane at l...> wrote: 
> As I started re-reading OotP yesterday, something that I hadn't paid 
> attention to the first time struck me in the first chapter. It's in 
> the scene where Vernon Dursley catches (quite literally) Harry 
> listening to the news outside.
> 
> (OotP, UK ed., p10)
> 'Get - off - me!' Harry gasped. For a few seconds they struggled, 
> Harry pulling at his uncle's sausage-like fingers with his left 
> hand, his right maintaining a firm grip on his raised wand; then, as 
> the pain in the top of Harry's head gave a particulary nasty throb, 
> Uncle Vernon yelped and released Harry as though he had received an 
> electric shock. Some invisible force seemed to have surged through 
> his nephew, making him impossible to hold.
> 
> To me, it sounds suspiciously like wandless magic (even if Harry was 
> holding his wand at the moment, he didn't seem to use it). I know 
> it's not the first time Harry performs some (during his childhood, 
> against his Aunt Marge), but this one looks quite odd to me.

I agree that the electric shock to Uncle Vernon is probably not Harry
doing wandless magic.  We will probably never have a cannonical proof
of this, but there are some definate similarities to this scene and
Harry's fight with Quirrell.

(SS/PS, US paperback, p294)
Harry sprang toward the flame door, but Voldemort screamed "SEIZE
HIM!" and the next second, Harry felt Quirrell's hand close on his
wrist.  At once, a needle-sharp pain seared across Harry's scar; his
head felt as though it was about to split in two; he yelled,
struggling with all his might, and to his surprise, Quirrell let go of
him.  The pain in his head lessened -- he looked around wildly to see
where Quirrell had gone, and saw him hunched in pain, looking at his
fingers -- they were blistering before his eyes.

In both cases, Harry is physically threatened, Harry experiences a
pain in the area of his scar, there is physical contact between Harry
and his assailant, and the assailant receives physical pain as a
result of the contact.  With this level of similarities between the
incident with Uncle Vernon and a known case of Harry's protections in
action, we should probably remove this incedent between Harry and
Uncle Vernon as a possible example of wandless magic.

Allen