(nvbl)

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 152403

Steven:
> > > Often through the books little details later turn out 
> > > to be important.  I was wondering, why did JKR take pains 
> > > to make it clear that levicorpus is a nonverbal spell?  
> > > It could be a meaningless detail, but maybe not.  I have 
> > > a guess.  Maybe this has been thought of before, but 
> > > anyway, at the end of HBP Snape says "You dare use my 
> > > own spells against me, Potter? It was I who invented 
> > > them ... you'd turn my inventions on me, like your 
> > > filthy father ..."  So we know James used the Spell, 
> > > and we know that Snape invented it.  How did James 
> > > learn the spell?  Since its nvbl, he did not hear 
> > > Snape say it and copy him.  He could only have learned 
> > > it from the HBP potions book.  How did he get his hands 
> > > on Snape's potions book?  Snape was sharing it with Lily, 
> > > which accounts for Slughorn's repeated references to her 
> > > potions ability.

Kim:
> > I wonder about the reference to Harry's "filthy father" 
> > using Levicorpus, though.  Snape says that he invented 
> > the spells (plural) and that Harry's father turned his 
> > inventions (again plural) on him.  Is he referring to 
> > the spell Harry had just flung at Snape or was he 
> > referring to other spells that James may have heard 
> > Snape use outloud?
  
Steven:
> I'm pretty sure this was right after Harry tried to 
> use levicorpus.

houyhnhnm:
*********************
"Sectum--!"
     Snape flicked his wand and the curse was repelled yet again; but
Harry was mere feet away now and he could see Snape's face clearly at
last:  He was no longer sneering or jeering; the blazing flames showed
a face full of rage.  Mustering all his powers of concentration, Harry
thought, Levi--
     "No, Potter!: screamed Snape.  There was a loud BANG and Harry
was soaring backward....
*********************

After hearing Harry attempt to use Sectumsempra, Snape was no longer
sneering or jeering, but he was still flicking.  It seems it *was* the
attempted use of Levicorpus, that put Snape over the top.

We don't *know* that Snape and Lily were friends or even lab partners.
 She could have come to his defense in the pensieve scene because she
was a kind-hearted girl or because she was using Snape as a prop in a
sort of approach-avoidance flirtation with James.

I like the idea, though.  I like the idea that Snape charmed his
potions book so that only Lily's eyes could read the glosses.  (I
think it was Catlady who intoduced that idea.) Was the pensieve
incident the first occasion on which James turned Snape's invention on
him?  Then, it is likely he would have assumed that Lily had betrayed
his secrets.  No wonder he called her a mudblood.  What if he was
wrong? Maybe that incident really was Snape's worst memory because he
turned an innocent Lily into an enemy on that day.

I can't think of any other spells that are exclusively non-verbal.