Plot in OotP (wand confusion)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 118317


> Carol responds:"
> 
> Harry has to *catch* the presumably heavy TWT cup with a 
hand that's already holding the wand that a second before was 
pointing at the cup.<

Ah, I see the problem. You're imagining that he has to aim the 
wand at the cup,  guide the cup to him with the wand, then catch 
it as it hurtles past at top speed.  But it doesn't work like that.
In 
GoF, Harry summons his broom, then simply waits for it to arrive, 
which it eventually does

"And then he heard it, speeding through the air behind him; he 
turned and saw his Firebolt hurtling towards him around the 
edge of the woods, soaring into the enclosure , and stopping 
dead in mid-air beside him, waiting for him to mount."--GoF 20

I see no reason the cup wouldn't behave in the same way. As 
soon as Harry shouted Accio, it came right to his hand and 
stopped dead of its own accord. I have a souvenir wand 
(non-functional, alas) made of a dowel and a clothes peg, which 
I can hold easily with my ring and little fingers against my palm, 
leaving two fingers and thumb free to grasp. 

Carol:
> It's a badly choreographed moment, like Wormtail holding 
Baby Voldie yet still (unless you're a conspiracy theorist) 
managing to AK Cedric.<

What is this compulsion to believe that JKR doesn't know what 
she's doing? Clearly it was impossible for Peter to AK Cedric. 
Why not admit that Peter didn't do it? As Sherlock Holmes 
remarked, when the impossible is eliminated, whatever 
remains, however improbable, must be the truth.


 I know two Wormtails sounds unlikely, but just imagine that GoF 
had come out as a serial. Would you have been prepared to 
believe after The Egg and The Eye chapter  that 'Bartemius 
Crouch'  wasn't the Ministry official we had met, but another 
character we hadn't even heard of so far? And yet, if someone 
had asked, "Was it really Barty Crouch that Harry saw burgling 
Snape's office?" what would JKR have answered except, 
"Correct." 

Pippin
who thinks that JKR is generally careful about the details that 
matter, and purposefully foggy about the ones that don't.