Disarming spell WAS: Re: Wandlore and more

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 185428

Pippin wrote:
> 
> Zacharias's opinion seems to be the common one. Even Harry is
apologetic about it, "I know it's pretty basic but I've found it
really useful and--" (OOP, ch 18)
> 
>  IIRC, we don't see older wizards using it in a serious fight.
Lockhart gives the reason: it was obvious what Snape was going to do
and if he'd wanted to stop him, it would have been easy. Of course
that's a lie, but only because it's Lockhart -- if it *is* obvious
that a wizard is going to use expelliarmus, and you are reasonably
competent yourself, you can stop him  without a blocking spell. 
<snip>
> 
> The stunning spell, in contrast,  needs a protego to block it. 
> 
> Disarming your opponent may be useful, but it's still going to take
> another spell to incapacitate him, and meanwhile, as Ron suggested in
> PS/SS ch 9, he might punch you in the nose. Not to mention that  even
> if you have the unerring skill of a Seeker, you're going to have to
> take your eye off your enemy to retrieve his wand. 
> 
> When people fight in exhibition they use  different techniques to keep
> things interesting, but when you are actually fighting for your life,
> I doubt being  bored with the proceedings is a problem. 

Carol responds:

Just two comments. First, you don't abandon the basics when you become
proficient at any activity, whether it's writing, sewing, cooking,
driving, or spell casting. You build on them. That's what "basic"
means. And Harry, as the quotation you cite indicates, has found
Expelliarmus "pretty useful." If we look at the canon, starting with
the disarming of Lockhart before Harry, Ron, and Lockhart entered the
CoS, I'd say that "useful" is an understatement. And I see no
indication that Zacharias's view seems to be the common one. The DA
members, Neville in particular, work hard to master this highly useful
spell, IIRC. 

As for Lockhart giving the reason that experienced Wizards don't use
Expelliarmus in battle, you said yourself that he's a liar giving
excuses for his own ineptitude. I don't accept him as an authority on
any subject, least of all DADA. He simply didn't see it coming and
lacks Snape's duelling expertise. Snape, he says, knows "a teeny bit"
about duelling. Yeah, right. The "assistant" ends up running the show,
not to mention showing that Lockhart is completely unqualified to
teach DADA on any level. If someone else had stated that he saw
Expelliarmus coming, I might accept his word for it. As it is, unless
the first syllable of a spell gives it away or some arm movement
distinguishes an intended Expelliarmus from an intended Stupefy or
Petrificus Totalus or Impedimenta or whatever, I don't see how anyone
but a Legilimens like Snape could anticipate that his opponent would
cast a particular spell. (Remember the split-second advantage of
casting a nonverbal spell?) Nor do we see anyone except Snape parrying
spells. The only defenses appear to be Expelliarmus (knock his wand
away before he can hit you with a spell) or Protego (block the spell
and, if you're lucky, deflect it onto the caster), which works just as
well for Expelliarmus as for Stupefy. (Exactly how would you block
Expelliarmus without a blocking spell, meaning, I assume, a Shield
Charm? I don't understand your argument since Lockhart's "it would
have been only two easy to stop him" seems to suggest the usual
defense, a Shield Charm, or just casting your spell before he casts
his, which would depend on having faster reflexes than your opponent
and would apply to any spell, even an Unforgiveable.)

And second, I wasn't thinking of the participants in the battles being
bored. Obviously, they're not fighting for their own entertainment.
They're concerned with survival and defeating their opponents. (It is,
however, a bit difficult to cast a spell against your opponent if
you're disarmed.) I was talking about my own experience as a reader. I
was disappointed to see battles consisting primarily of AKs and
Stupefies. What's the point of learning defensive maneuvers in DADA if
all you're going to use is Stupefy? What's the point of learning fancy
Dark magic from Voldemort if all you're going to use is AK? If all the
DEs know about Sectum Sempra, Snape's supposed signature spell, why
isn't someone using it? That would satisfy the DEs' lust for pain and
suffering. What happened to the purple-lit spell that Dolohov used
against Hermione in the MoM, which would have done considerably more
damage had he not just been Silencio'd? I wanted to find out what that
spell was and what it did. What spells were the combatants using other
than AK and Stupefy? Obviously, you can't continue duelling if yor're
hit by either of those spells. 

Now, granted, we're seeing from Harry's point of view, and he has
other concerns, but at least we could have heard the spell that Percy
shouted to turn Pius Thicknesse into a human sea urchin. Aside from
that, the only imaginative battle tactics that I can't recall come
from McGonagall, who animates the desks and suits of armor, Trelawney,
who casts crystal balls onto DEs' heads, and Sprout and Neville, who
engage in botanical warfare. I suppose you could count the use of
giants, House-Elves, and Acromantulas, but I would have liked to see
some imaginative spell casting. (The trouble with nonverbal spells is
that Harry can't hear them being shouted and consequently, the
narrator, writing from his point of view, can't identify them for us.)

All I'm saying is that, after the battle between DD and Voldemort in
the MoM and even the skirmish between Snape and McGonagall before he
jumps out the window, I, personally, found the battle of Hogwarts,
both before and after Harry's self-sacrifice, anticlimatic. I also
think that Expelliarmus would have been an excellent battle tactic for
both sides, in combination with other spells, especially for people
who were reluctant to kill or seriously injure their opponents. (I
wonder whether a skilled Wizard can disarm a whole group of opponents.
Imagine, say, McGonagall, since we were deprived of a chance to see
Snape fighting for the good guys, forcing a whole group of opponents
to stand back to back and disarming them as a group. Then all he or
she would need to do is cast a net around them and suspend them in the
air as McGonagall did to the Carrows, a kind of cross between
Levicorpus Incarcerus, the spell Snape used on Lupin to tie him up in PoA.

I'm sure that other readers found the battle exciting or were solely
focused on Harry. I found it tedious, not to mention that I had
trouble suspending my disbelief with regard to one witch or wizard,
however possible, duelling three opponents at once. I suppose that
even Bellatrix and Voldemort couldn't focus on one opponent long
enough to kill him or her without risking being killed or Stupefied
him- or herself.

Carol, who is tired of wands and spells and would like to get back to
character analysis!