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In Half-Blood Prince, when Harry meets Draco in the toilet and they begin to duel, at the time Harry hits Draco with Sectumsempra, Draco is mid-cast of the Crucio curse. Does Draco ever get punished for this?

I am sure that there would have been some leniency given due to Harry “beating” him to it with his curse, but Crucio is one of the worst curses to use, surely there would have been some punishment? (Although I guess you could also say the same thing for Harry at the end of Order of the Phoenix when he is trying to curse Bellatrix.)

Any canon preferred :-)

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  • 3
    Punished for almost casting a spell? Sounds a bit iffy to me. Where's the proof?
    – Valorum
    Feb 26, 2015 at 10:10
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    About Harry, please see scifi.stackexchange.com/q/52267/4918 Why was Harry Potter not sent to Azkaban?
    – b_jonas
    Feb 26, 2015 at 10:24
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    Seems like at this time, laws are not well enforced anymore. I mean Harry could've made Draco bleed to death if it wasn't for Snapes' help and he doesn't really get any punishment. Harry used the Crucio curse on Bellatrix and nobody gave a damn. HE also broke into the ministry, also resulting in the destruction of hundreds of those prophecy orbs. Harry used the Imperio curse to gain access to Gringotts where he stole AND released a DRAGON over the city of London, full of Muggles and nobody cared. The Ministry seemed to have bigger Problems.
    – Dagon313
    Feb 26, 2015 at 10:38
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    Or J.K.Rowling just isn't consistent in her writing :)
    – Dagon313
    Feb 26, 2015 at 10:39
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    Actually, he has to live his entire life being Draco Malfoy. Isn't that punishment enough?
    – corsiKa
    Feb 26, 2015 at 19:03

2 Answers 2

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There's no proof. It would be Draco's word against Harry's, and Harry is the one that just performed a Dark curse.

Besides this, it's Snape who arrives to sort it out, and even leaving aside the obvious overshadowing of this by the HBP stuff he's not exactly a big fan of Harry anyway. And consider that he was trying to worm information out of Draco that year, so even IF he believed Harry punishing Draco may not be the best move tactically.

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Punished for almost casting a spell is a bit iffy, as there would be no proof. Also if memory serves, casting the spell is not enough, the castor actually has to want to Crucio, and it is unknown if Draco could do it. I think Moody said that he expected no student at Hogwarts could, and Harry had trouble using it against Bellatrix even after she just killed his godfather.

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