Snape's Psychology: WAS: More thoughts on the Elder Wand subplot - Owner?

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 187435

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Beatrice23" <beatrice23 at ...> wrote:

Beatrice:
> > And most importantly he NEVER uses it again. 

Montavilla47:
> > Yes he does.  He uses it in the cave when he's surrounded by
> > Inferi.  It doesn't work on them, of course, but he's incorporated it
> > into his repertoire of spells.  As Hermione later incorporates the 
> > Muffliato spell she scorned in HBP.

Geoff:
Come now, let's be realistic. Harry is suddenly grabbed by an Inferus 
and is being pulled across the rock towards the water and he sees "an 
army of the dead rising from the black water" (HBP "The Cave" p.538 
UK edition). He managed to throw off this first one by using 'Petrificus 
Totalus' but "many more Inferi were already climbing on to the rock, 
their bony hands clawing at its slippery surface, their blank frosted 
eyes upon him, trailing waterlogged rags, sunken faces leering." (ibid)

Harry tries 'Petrificus' again which stops a handful and follows this up 
with 'Impedimenta' and 'Incarcerous' but this makes very little impression. 
So what should he do now? Offer them chocolate eclairs in the hope 
of persuading to leave?

Desperate times need desperate measures. You can't use an AK on a 
dead person; the most dangerous spell he knows is 'Sectumsempra' 
so he tries it, although this in turn fails.

This is not part of his repertoire; it comes to mind when he is in dire 
straits in a moment when he fears that he is going to die as his only 
hope. Yes, I know that he then admits to Dumbledore that he forgot 
about fire and had panicked but, in those circumstances, i think I 
would too.

But your suggestion presupposes that he will consider using it ad lib 
in the future. He knows what it can do; he has been devastated by 
what he nearly did to Draco. After that, I cannot see him wanting to 
use the spell except in a life-threatening scenario. Harry may have 
been unwise to use the spell on Draco but he was using it in self-
defence and now knowing what it does, will he use it on another 
person again? I seriously doubt it. Although he has used 'Crucio' - 
or tried to more than once, has he ever used an AK?