Priori Incantatem, was: surviving AK

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 113906

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Alex Boyd" <alex51324 at h...> 
wrote:
> 
> > Bookworm:
> > To paraphrase someone (Mr. Spock?): when all the impossible 
options 
> > have been eliminated, the one of the remaining options, no matter 
> > how improbable, is the answer. 
> 
> I believe it was Holmes, actually, though Spock may have said it 
too.  


Geoff:

I immediately thought of Holmes -

"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the 
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?"

(Sign of the Four)

Alex:
> BTW, speaking of PI, there was a thread a week or so ago about why
> Priori Incantatem wasn't used to clear Sirius of the Pettigrew 
murder.
>  (I don't *think* it was ever resolved, but please forgive me if I'm
> repeating what someone else has already said.)  The answer is that 
it
> wouldn't have been possible.  Priori Incantatem isn't a spell.  
We're
> told in GoF (US hardback p. 697, the chapter "The parting of the
> ways), that Priori Incantatem is a "Very rare effect" that happens
> when two "brother" wands are forced to do battle.  It is, 
apparently,
> totally involuntary, and since it only works between "brother" 
wands,

Geoff:
I don't read it this way. In GOF "The Parting of the Ways", 
Dumbledore mentions Priori Incantatem which Sirius recognises as a 
reverse spell. It has been pointed out that a form of this (Prior 
Incantato)  was used by Amos Diggory but I interpret the graveyard 
result as being an unusual side effect of this spell when brother 
wands meet but that the the spell is also known for its wider use. If 
only the former occurred, how would it be known - the probability of 
brother wands meeting like that must be pretty long?

Geoff
Enjoy Exmoor and the 
heritage West Somerset Railway at:
http://www.aspectsofexmoor.com