Creating spells

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186040

Geoff wrote:
><snip>
> To kickstart the thread, in HBP for example, Harry used the Sectumsempra spell which we learn was invented by Snape. This for a long time has posed the question for me "How do you invent a spell?"
> 
> Did Snape just think up the Latin for "cut always" and imagine its result and – hey presto – it becomes a curse useable by anyone who knows of it? Is this how spells developed? Can anyone do this because this could mean that the Wizarding World could be awash with amateur spells just lurking and waiting to be used perhaps unknowingly.
> 
> There surely must be some way that new spells are "registered" by the magic environment of the Wizarding World for want of a better term. There must have been a time when spell creation was in its infancy. For instance, is it to do with the will of the wizard to really want the result, to really mean what the spell was for – as Bellatrix pointed out to Harry in the  battle at the Ministry when he tried to use Crucio on her?
> 
> What are the thoughts of fellow members on this?
>
Carol responds:

Apparently, any old incantation won't do (maybe the Latin has to be at least intelligible to the wand?) since HBP notes that at least one spell had given "the Prince" some trouble and he seems to have tried out several versions of the incantation before it worked the way he wanted it to. And evidently, you can't just use any old countercurse on certain spells, either. Maybe it's more difficult to create a Dark magic spell that doesn't respond to "Finite Incantatem" or other obvious formulas than it is to create, say, a hex like Langlock.

Of course, a powerful and highly skilled Wizard might not need an incantation at all, especially if he and his wand were on the same wavelength, so to speak. But if you're going to create a spell that others can also use, you need an incantation. And it would help if the incantation was memorable and easily pronounced. (I could use a spell to help me organize all my papers, but "Organizatio" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.)

We also know that silly rhyming incantations like the one that would supposedly "turn this stupid fat rat yellow" don't work, or, at least, I don't know of any that work. And some spells, such as Wingardium Leviosa, seem needlessly complex. Why not just use the Latin for "I hover" (in the sense of a transitive verb requiring an unstated object)?

Why do some spells require practice while others--even including Sectumsempra--can be performed the first time (by a person who doesn't even know what the spell does)? Partly, of course, the wizard probably needs to have reached a certain level of skill and power--but how did Harry's wand know how to perform Sectumsempra (or even Levicorpus) when Harry had no mental image of the spell's effects? He certainly didn't "really mean" Sectumsempra, so maybe that bit of advice applies only to the Unforgiveable Curses.

Maybe we shouldn't think too deeply about such questions since whatever explanation we come up with for one spell may not work for a different spell.

In any case, inventing spells, especially at a young age, seems to be highly unusual. Even Hermione (unless her parchment jinx is an exception) seems to research the spell she (or Harry) needs for a particular purpose rather than invent one.

Carol, again just tossing out random ideas with no thesis (main point) or coherent argument