Wandlore and more

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 185400

Pippin:
> Usually, when Harry fails at some magic he wanted to use, he 
practices
> until he gets it right. He didn't do that with the crucio or 
imperius
> curses, and I think that's where his moral quality shows. Most of 
the
> time, he didn't care to be skilled with those curses, just as he
> didn't want to be skilled at the dark magic Slytherin was known for.
> My theory is just that using Draco's wand may have been a shortcut 
to
> acquiring the necessary skill.

> 
> But Draco did want those skills -- at least until he discovered they
> would be put to Voldemort's uses, not his own. 
> 
> The moral question in the Potterverse is not whether Harry has an
> ability but whether he can  recognize when using it would be wrong. 
> Of course, knowing something is wrong is not always enough to keep
> someone from doing it, and I think that's what JKR is interested in
> here. Harry didn't cast the crucio in cold blood.  We're told the
> blood was thundering through his brain.

Magpie:
But it does sound like the moral question also touches on the ability 
to do it--which is why the ability is supposed to come from Draco who 
wanted to do the spells unlike Harry who doesn't want those skills as 
much as Draco even while he's reaching for them. 

To look at Harry's ideas about when it's right to use them, well, he 
never has any situation where he learns when it's correct to use them 
because the one time he uses them it's pretty much okay. There's an 
obvious moral difference between good!Harry who doesn't want to learn 
those spells as much as bad!Draco who didn't. Then it's bad!Draco's 
mojo that gives an ability to the wand that good!Harry couldn't give 
it himself.

Perhaps "in cold blood" isn't the right phrase, but I think it fits. 
Harry is standing hidden under a cloak and so has a chance to choose 
whatever spell he wants. He decides, throws the cloak off, I believe 
says something and then totally under his own volition and power 
casts the spell. Then he takes full responsibility for it, even 
giving us the reason that he got it right this time--making no 
mention of the wand making it easier (which he might very well have 
noticed and said since he's been noticing stuff like that throughout 
the book). 

I just don't see how one can truly suggest that Harry's initial 
ability for this spell came from the Malfoy cooties on the wand he 
was using (since two years earlier when he first tried it the spell 
didn't work as well for him) and not think there might be a moral 
component to the ability. 

-m