[HPforGrownups] Re: ps/ss chapter 5

[Shelley]

No: HPFGUIDX 192521

On 8/26/2013 3:20 PM, Dorothy Dankanyin wrote:
> On 8/25/2013 7:14 PM, Alcuin York wrote:
>> Geoff:
>>
>> I'm sorry, Chris, but I don't quite see your point re wandless magic...
>>
>> Me:
>> The point being that some of JKR's ideas seem to have developed after
>> writing PS/SS, so that certain things in that book contradict what
>> comes later. While it's pretty clear later on that spells can't be
>> cast without a wand, Quirrell does just that at the end of PS/SS: he
>> merely snaps his fingers and thereby casts an Incarcerous jinx on
>> Harry. Why couldn't Dumbledore have done exactly that to Malfoy after
>> he had been disarmed on the Astronomy tower? The only reason I can
>> think of is that, by then, JKR had decided that casting spells without
>> a wand can't be done, which is why Dumbledore was helpless in that
>> situation. Likewise, my suggestion that the DADA curse might have been
>> an idea that she came up with after PS/SS, and so when writing that
>> book she didn't see any issue in having Quirrell teach it for a second
>> year.
>>
>> Chris,
>>
>          It's my understanding that Dumbledore wasn't helpless on the
> Astronomy tower, he was trying to get Malfoy to understand that he
> wasn't a killer.  Dumbledore had asked Snape to kill him, just to make
> sure Malfoy didn't end up being one.
>       Dorothy
My reading of the tower is the same as Dorothy's- it's not that 
Dumbledore couldn't do wandless magic, it's that he purposely chose NOT 
TO. Remember, what he was controlling was who would gain control of that 
Elder Wand- which is why he told Snape he had to be the one to kill him 
(and not Malfoy). Had Malfoy actually tried to kill him, he would have 
defended himself to prevent Malfoy from succeeding, but he would not 
defend himself from Snape because he had prearranged for Snape to 
succeed. Dumbledore was FAR from helpless!

Chris, I do think you are right about wandless magic- it seems to be a 
slight inconsistency through the book, used for "convience" when Rowling 
wants to display it, and seemingly impossible otherwise. All kids are 
taught to use a wand, but when they are able to use magic without a wand 
preHogwarts, it's not explained. (Notice it doesn't show up until the 
later books, but by chronological order, the parent's generation was 
doing it before they entered Hogwarts and had their first wands.) It's 
not the first instance of either purposeful misdirection so we don't 
figure things out too soon, or a change in her mind as to all the rules 
this world had, or an outright mistake. Rowlings admits in fan 
interviews, when writing the 2nd book that she lost track of where 
classrooms were, and so forth, and,  in further books, to using online 
fan guides to remember who-did-what and what-was-were to keep it all 
straight in her head. Her world is richly detailed, and so, frankly, I 
think this is one detail that wandless magic didn't occur to her as a 
possibility until the later books, where she wrote it into the plot.

Shelley