Unforgivable Curses and Underage Wizardry

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 127484


Dysisgirl wrote:
> 
> 
> As I was studying the excerpt in Book 5 where Harry breaks into 
> Snape's thoughts, I noticed something odd. "<i>A greasy haired 
> teenager sat alone in a dark bedroom, pointing his wand at the 
> ceiling, shooting down flies...</i>" [US Verion, Book 5, pg. 592] 
<snip>
> 
> Of course, we don't know if teenage Snape is using the Killing curse
(or if it's even Snape, for that matter...). But we haven't been
introduced to many other spells that can create those same effects. <snip>
> Assuming that it <i>is</i> Snape, and that he is using the Killing
Curse as a teenager, we have to wonder (1) where he learned it, (2)
how powerful he must have been, and (3) why was a teenage kid using an
Unforgivable Curse when he knew full well that the Ministry had and
Underage Wizarding Policy.
> 
> For the first two, I think we can reasonably conclude that Snape was
and still is good at the Dark Arts. After all, he was completely 
> immersed in his DADA OWL as we see in "Snape's Worst Memory." And 
> also, hasn't he been applying for the DADA teacher position ever 
> since we've known him? Where he learned it, well that's still a 
> mystery, unless someone out there has a good theory. But it wouldn't
have been too hard. We've seen repeatedly in the books that Snape's a
powerful wizard. However, I'm most interested in how the Ministry
didn't send him a letter for Underage Wizardry.
> 
> The Ministry uses special magic to detect when an underage wizard 
> has done magic. Yet, we see a teenager doing magic in his own 
> bedroom without any qualms. Does he know some sort of spell that 
> shields him from the special magic that the Ministry uses to detect 
> underage magic? <snip>

Carol responds:
I think several things are going on here. First, while young Severus
did know an astounding number of hexes and jinxes before he entered
Hogwarts, I doubt very much that he knew any Unforgiveable Curses
while he was still in school. Most likely he was simply stunning the
flies out of boredom. Why weren't the stunning spells detected? The
same reason that he was able to practice jinxes and curses at home
without being detected (before he was even legally of age to buy a
wand)--his parents were both magical and it would have been impossible
for the MoM to know who performed those spells. (What I want to know
is whose wand little Sevvie used to learn those hexes! Or maybe he got
his wand in January when he turned eleven and learned them all before
he went to school September 1!)

Anyway, clearly the MoM watches some households more closely than
others. There were, we can be pretty sure, no Muggles in the Snape
family household or anywhere nearby to witness the magic, and who
knows? Maybe witch housewives routinely stun flies rather than
swatting them. I don't think it's at all comparable to Crouch!Moody
(an adult DE who performs all three Unforgiveables *on people* in Gof)
killing Crucioing, and Imperioing spiders. (Now if young Snape had
made the flies tapdance, I'd be worried! Yes, I know, the idea I just
stole is from the Cos film!)

So--no need for shield charms to hide his magic and no need to assume
that he used a killing curse on the flies.

BTW, I do think that Snape is a powerful and talented wizard, but
doing well on a *Defense against* the Dark Arts course is not
necessarily evidence of ability in the Dark Arts themselves (aside
from whatever curses he learned as a child, probably from witnessing
his father perform them). If Snape used the Unforgiveable Curses as a
DE, and we have no indication as yet whether he did or didn't, I think
he learned them as a DE from his older friends (Malfoy and the
Lestranges, maybe) or from Voldemort himself. I doubt very much that
bored teenager!Snape was performing Unforgiveable Curses on flies. If
he'd known how to use a killing curse at fifteen or sixteen, James
Potter probably would not have survived to father Harry.

Carol