Silent/Wandless Magic? (was Re: Has Trelawney Done Anything Magical?)

[davewitley]

No: HPFGUIDX 101540

Brenda asked:

> Can a wizard 
> perform magic without saying incantation outloud, or better yet, 
> without a wand?  In PoA, during Harry's first encounter with 
> Dementors, Lupin seemed to do magic without saying incantation 
loudly.

Oh, I think they can - my impression is that it happens all over the 
place.  Dumbledore is forever clapping or twiddling his wand without 
speech to change the decorations, draw up chairs, make sleeping 
bags, extract Pensieve memories, put out street lights - the list is 
endless.  Molly orchestrates a whole kitchen, Lupin boils a kettle 
and makes flames in his hand, Death Eaters do the 'slash' spell, 
Snape makes ropes to tie Lupin, Sirius and Lupin turn Pettigrew back 
to human, Pettigrew then turns back to a rat, a baby engorges a 
slug, all without evident speech.  Perhaps most impressively, the 
battle between Dumbledore and Voldemort is fought in silence, IIRC.

I get the impression that, despite what Flitwick says about the 
importance of pronunciation, once you have grown up and become 
adept, you can do a lot of the basic spells almost without thinking.

David