Sadism or not ? McGonagall and her punishments

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186783

Shaun wrote:
> <snip> The thing is though, Professor McGonagall's classes don't seem involve memorising a lot of spells. I don't believe we ever learn the name of a spell in a Transfiguration class. When Moody/Crouch transfgures Draco into a ferret, he doesn't say a spell - nor does Professor McGonagall say one when she turns him back. Not all magic seems to require the use of spells with complicated names. Transfiguration is a lot more about theory. <snip>

Carol responds:

I'm just going to respond to this one point since I don't want to go back over the unprovable argument as to whether Hogwarts has a rule regarding hair ornaments or not. (As I said, I'm quite sure that McGonagall is just extremely anxious for the students of her House to make a good impression on the visitors. That much is clear from the canon that has already been cited.)

However, I don't think we can conclude from the fact that the teachers and other adults don't speak spells aloud when they're performing Transfiguration that no spell is required. (I do suspect, however, that some feats of advanced Transfiguration, like turning into an animal, require intense concentration on your goal or intention rather like the mental process involved in Apparition.)

I think that the adults are merely performing nonverbal spells. The narrator in HBP informs us that Snape isn't the only teacher who expects the students to learn nonverbal spells in sixth year. McGonagall and Flitwick expect it, too. Hermione, for example, performs Specialis Revelio nonverbally in Potions; Harry and Ron overhear Ernie whispering the same spell and use it themselves. (Whether it's a charm or a Transfiguration spell, I don't know, but it's certainly not a DADA spell.) Before sixth year, all the spells that the students perform regardless of subject involve spoken incantations. Whether it's turning a hedgehog into a pin cushion or Vanishing a mouse, the spell requires an incantation and, until sixth year, that incantation would be spoken. (It would probably be whispered well into sixth year.) 

We learn the Vanishing Spell, Evanesco, from, IIRC, Snape (who on other occasions Vanishes spilled potions nonverbally. Vanishing is a Transfiguration spell, not a charm. We also learn (in one of McGonagall's homework assignments) the spell for conjuring an inanimate object, Inanimatus Conjurus. (I assume that the spell for conjuring animals, such as Hermione's birds, is Animatus Conjurus.) I can't recall any other Transfiguration spells offhand, but sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between a charm and a Transfiguration spell. (Surely, turning vinegar into wine would be elementary Transfiguration, but HRH attempt it in Charms class in fifth or sixth year.)

Carol, who thinks that if Transfiguration were all or mostly about theory, neither Harry nor Ron would have received Es on their Transfiguration OWLs