Creating spells

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 186045

> Geoff:
<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.
><SNIP>

Alla:

Oh, pure speculation here, but I always thought that it is sort of backwards to what you described. Meaning that I thought that wizard would imagine the result first and then would come up with the words that better describe the result, if that makes sense. So to me in your example Snape would first imagine what happens to his enemies and then find a word for it.

And it is interesting that you suggest that there must have been a time when spells creation was in infancy, because yeah that makes sense on one hand. However I always thought that some spells, or I guess a lot of them always existed. Wierd, yes? Because if you think about it, I guess it is the same thing as with language, if I do not remind myself that many basic definitions words also developed in time, I would start thinking that some words always existed.