[HPforGrownups] Creating spells

[k12listmomma]

No: HPFGUIDX 186048

Geoff:
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?

Shelley:
I imagine that in the Ministry of Magic there is a book with a complete list 
of spells that have ever been used- certainly they knew when a spell was 
used in the location of Harry, although they did not know exactly who used 
it, when he was yet an underaged wizard. Exact time, location, and spell 
used was recorded, somehow. In this way, I think that when a new spell was 
created, it's name would appear in that magical log. Thus, at least those at 
the Ministry would know of this new spell, and be able to try it out on 
their own (although, like Harry when he tries out Snape's spell, he may be 
shocked at what happens).

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.

Shelley:
I think this process makes sense for the creation of a spell- imagine what 
you want it to do, and keep playing with word or effect until you get it 
just right. Once it's finalized, then someone else can just use the final 
name to get the same results, sometimes without even knowing what those full 
results will be. (Which, as we've seen not only applies to Harry, but every 
new student trying a spell for the first time- many of them don't fully 
comprehend what's going to happen either.)

Going back to Geoff's comment on Bellatrix's comment to Harry in the  battle 
at the Ministry when he tried to use Crucio- no I don't think it's a matter 
of  "really mean what the spell was for" but rather a will to do the spell 
itself. Harry was held back by his conscience, since he knew that the spell 
Crucio was meant to inflict real harm, he couldn't bring himself to fully 
accomplish that harm, and so he held himself back from performing the spell 
correctly. Contrast that with the cutting spell, which he did not know the 
results, thus he didn't hold himself back from fully intending to cast the 
spell. Hence, he got full results of harm, since he fully intended to cast 
the spell, even though he regretted it immediately.

Using the music analogy, when a person writes a song, they imagine the tune 
in their head first, then hit the notes, then finally record them. The 
sequence of notes then forms the song. When a person plays the song later 
from the written, all they have to do is pluck the notes as written, and 
after they've done that correctly, they hear the song as the first person 
imagined it to be. I imagine spell creation to be that same sort of process- 
starting with a thought, then physical representation of that thought (in a 
spell name, particular wave of the wand, etc.) then imitation later of that 
name or movement to recreate something like the original thought.