The silver hand (Was: The Darkness Within)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 119371


kjirstem wrote:
> 
><snip>
> The transient nature of conjured items is puzzling to me, I'm not
sure how to tell what stays where it is conjured and what does not. 
> Perhaps as long as an item is in use it doesn't return to its
previous location?  I think this would keep the silver hand from
disappearing off Peter's wrist.  Or, perhaps if what is conjured is a
substance that actually exists somewhere (and that the person
conjuring has a right to take?) it stays where it is brought by the
spell.   
> 
> As far as Evanesco goes, that is definitely used on items other than
> liquid.  Bill uses it to remove some scrolls off the kitchen table
in OotP, the fifth years use it on mice in Charms class, I think there
> were other examples too.  I wonder where things go when they are
> Evanescoed - back to where they came from, or where someone directed
> them to go?  If it can be used on mice, why didn't Lily just
Evanesco baby Harry?  For that matter, why not use it on Voldemort
when he's being nasty?  I'm sure there are probably good reasons,
probably it is hard enough to do correctly on a mouse, never mind a
child or an evil overlord, but I can't help wondering.
> 
>
Carol responds:
I don't know what to make of the conjured items either, or I wouldn't
have asked the question about Peter's silver hand. But clearly some
conjured items, like Leprechauns' gold, are temporary, and I'm
guessing that the chairs and sleeping bags Dumbledore conjures on
various occasions last only as long as they're needed, as you suggest.
But Peter's hand will continue to be needed, so would that be
sufficient reason for it to last? And as for it being conjured out of
a substance he has a right to use, where would the silver have come from?

As for Evanseco, which Snape and Hermione use to clean up spilled
liquids, it's pretty clear that the liquids are gone forever. It's odd
that Bill would use the same spell to hide some scrolls that he surely
will want to use again. I don't think *they* permanently vanished into
thin air. Maybe the poor mice did, though--in which case, you
certainly wouldn't want to use it on a baby! And even if the baby
didn't vanish permanently, how would you find him again? "Accio,
Harry!" and Baby Harry comes zooming to you like the broom in the
First Task from wherever he's been hiding, in about the same condition
as Montague when he's found after being stuffed into the vanishing
cabinet? And I don't think you'd dare to use it on an evil overlord
for fear that he'd show up in, erm, Mongolia.

Carol, who still isn't convinced that Peter's silver hand ought to
stay in place if it follows the laws of JKR's universe but is pretty
sure that she'll ignore those laws if the plot requires him to keep it