Disarming spell WAS: Re: Wandlore and more

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 185427

> Alla:
> 
> Harry IMO chooses not to become a killer. Does he want to torture the 
> bastard who did all that to his friends? I think he did. I think he 
> was extremely angry and let his anger overcome him and **made a 
> choice influenced by it** Did he want to kill DE when Lupin chastised 
> him? Well, it seemed to me that he made conscious choice not to.
> 
> So again, it seems to me that the point is the choices that Harry 
> makes here, be it a wrong choice or right one.

Montavilla47:

This is a small point, but it seems important to me.  When Lupin
chastises Harry for using Expelliarmus, Harry had used that spell
because he recognized the "DE" as Stan Shunpike, and believes that
Stan was acting under Imperius.  

I don't think that I would have agreed with Harry about why Stan 
was there, but it's clear that *Harry* believes that Stan is an innocent.

I haven't reread that chapter lately, and I didn't catch it the first 
time, but in a recap I noticed that Harry takes out at least two 
Death Eaters in that chase--one of them by blowing up Hedwig's
body.  They are flying at a great height:  the obvious outcome of 
being knocked off their brooms--even if they aren't hurt by the
exploding owl or the brick wall--is that they are going to die from
the fall.  But, since we don't see that, it kind of glides by and 
we don't realize that Harry is trying to kill people.

Which is why the idea that Harry is loath to kill people seems
odd to me--not to mention the oddness of Lupin knowing that
Harry used it in the first place--wasn't he way far away at that 
point?  How loudly did Harry yell it?  Or, did Lupin know because
suddenly all his Death Eater pursuers stopped, yelled out, "Harry
number 6 just used Expelliarmus!" and then turned around?

It's obvious that Lupin is saying this in order to set up the idea
that Harry would rather disarm than kill, and that Lupin considers
this too mild a spell in a life or death situation--and that the 
DEs consider it Harry's "signature spell."  He's basically telling
Harry not to be such a wuss.

As a story point, the reason to set this up is either to have 
Harry prove the better man than Lupin *because* of the 
pacifism, or to have Harry get over his wussiness at a crucial
moment.  I think JKR was setting up the former, because during
the ultimate duel, Harry wins by casting Expelliarmus.  But,
we also get the moment when Harry overcomes his wussiness
by Crucio'ing Amycus.  So, she does both, in a way.

But by doing both, it really comes off (to me, anyway), that she's
having her cake and eating it too.  There's really no reason for
Harry *not* to cast an AK at Voldemort at the end.  He would have
won either way, because of the wand mastery.  So, Harry's way is 
not better than Lupin's... it's just a way to keep him appearing
to follow the Hero's code of winning without getting his hands
dirty.

Montavilla47
Realizing this post strayed a lot from what she originally
wanted to say--which was that Harry wasn't loath to harm
Death Eaters, but only loath to harm someone he thinks
is innocent.