HBP various responses and thoughts (minor spoilers only)

[davewitley]

> Pippin (of Pettigrew):
> 
> No, he didn't. The more you read his confession the more gaps
> and suspicious areas it has. He mouths like he's been hit with a 
> silencing spell  at one point, (and now we know there's nonverbal, 
> wandless magic), no one ever explains why he needed to kill all 
> those Muggles, no one ever explains *how* he did it -- if 
Voldemort 
> knew a spell that would kill everyone within twenty feet of 
himself,
> don't you think he'd use it to perpetrate a few  mass Muggle 
killings 
> now he's back? 
> 
> Instead he's got to resort to blowing up bridges and setting 
giants 
> loose --In the words of the immortal Nero Wolfe, pfui!

I don't get it.  How is a spell that blew up a bridge, killing a 
large number of Muggles, inferior to a spell that blew up a street, 
killing a large number of Muggles?

>how could he set off an explosion spell and not be caught by the 
blast?

Magic?

>Even the killing curse only takes people out one at a time.

Ah, but that's wizards.  You can kill Muggles much more easily - car 
crashes, throw 'em out of a high window, the sort of thing wizards 
just bounce out of.  Admittedly canon is somewhat inconsistent on 
this point (why did Dumbledore feel the need to catch Harry in the 
PoA Quidditch match? why was Neville injured falling off his 
broom?), but presumably a wizard who is on their guard against 
attack is very hard to kill except by AK.

Oh, and haven't we always known about nonverbal magic?  I see it as 
one of the ways JKR routinely marks adult wizards out as more 
competent than the children.  Molly cooking, Lupin boiling a kettle, 
Dumbledore drawing up chairs, I'm sure the list is long.  Note too 
the exceptions: Lockhart, Trelawney.

David