Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
In the Deathly Hallows, after the Battle of the Seven Potters Harry said:
"No," said Harry. "The bike was falling, I couldn't have told you where Voldemort was, but my wand spun in my hand and found him and shot a spell at him, and it wasn't even a spell I recognized. I've never made gold flames appear before."
What spell did Harry's wand cast? Did the wand cast it on its own or did Harry cast it?
In the book it is described as a "spurt of golden fire", but in the film it's a red spark, much like the colour of the expelliarmus charm.
However, it's most likely that the spell was some strong form of priori incantatem, similar to that of the one we saw in the graveyard of Goblet of Fire. Remember the colour of that charm?
"Harry's wand was vibrating as though an electric charge were surging through it; his hand seized up around it; he couldn't have released it if he'd wanted to — and a narrow beam of light connected the two wands, neither red nor green, but bright, deep gold."
In the graveyard, the two wands came close to destroying one another under the extreme pressure, but they couldn't due to the twin cores they shared. When Harry's wand turned against the borrowed wand of Voldemort it was able to destroy it: this could be due to the fact that wands can remain loyal to their previous owners, thus Voldemort's wand was unable to retaliate; and Ollivander mentions that phoenix feather:
"may be the most powerful and best of magical cores"...
This may suggest why Voldemort's temorary wand splintered under the effects of Priori Incantatem, which was cast not by Harry, but by his wand.
Harry did not cast any spell. His wand worked on its own.
Firstly, the scene:
As the pain from Harry’s scar forced his eyes shut, his wand acted of its own accord. He felt it drag his hand around like some great magnet, saw a spurt of golden fire through his half-closed eyelids, heard a crack and a scream of fury.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 4 - The Seven Potters:
Harry admitting that his wand acted on it's own:
"Wait till it gets out yeh did it again, Harry,” said Hagrid. “Escaped him, fought him off when he was right on top of yeh!”
“It wasn’t me,” said Harry flatly. “It was my wand. My wand acted of its own accord.”
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 5 - Fallen Warrior:
Dumbledore's explanation:
“I believe that your wand imbibed some of the power and qualities of Voldemort’s wand that night, which is to say that it contained a little of Voldemort himself. So your wand recognized him when he pursued you, recognized a man who was both kin and mortal enemy, and it regurgitated some of his own magic against him, magic much more powerful than anything Lucius’s wand had ever performed. Your wand now contained the power of your enormous courage and of Voldemort’s own deadly skill: What chance did that poor stick of Lucius Mal- foy’s stand?”
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 35 - King’s Cross
There are areas that we need to admit here: the case of Harry and Voldemort is extremely rare since they are more closely connected than any other wizards in history (let alone wizarding foes). Also with the evidently imprecise area of Wandlore, there is a possibility that Dumbledore's suspicion in Deathly Hallows (King's Cross scene) was incomplete, or insufficient, if anywhere near the truth. Nonetheless, the ability for Wands to act of their accord must be accepted here: 'Wands choose the wizard'. Surely this aspect of wandlore is even much more strong with the more powerful wands like the Elder Wand. Harry's phoenix wand can be argued to possess increased abilities after having bested Voldemort in the Graveyard (Goblet of Fire). This is further enhanced by the fact that it has a phoenix feather core - which Ollivander admits is 'possibly one of the most powerful wand cores'. My conclusion is that the golden flames (a spell that no one could identify) was a strange and novel counter-curse to the Killing Curse. It is very much possible that with the strangely warped circumstances at hand, there was an inadvertent creation of the Counter-Curse to the Killing Curse. The strange circumstances include the fact that Harry and Voldemort shared bits of soul; they shared the same blood (Voldemort having regenerated his blood from a drop of Harry's), and wand cores from the same (and very powerful) magical creature. With the explanation supplied by Dumbledore (that in the Flight of the Seven Potters, the phoenix wand combined both Harry's courage and Voldemort's deadly skill), what is there to stop the formation of a Spell powerful enough to counter the Killing Curse?
Because Harry was a horcrux, The part of Voldemort’s soul inside him and the wand defended itself. The wand recognized Voldemort’s as a counter soul piece. I️ think it wasn’t so much a spell as an act of “wand alliegiance” (as Ollivander puts it). How wand ownership can be won or gained. Since Voldemort didn’t properly win Lucious Malloy’s wand from him, it didn’t work for him. The matching Phoenix feather cores, and both Harry and Voldemort sharing Voldemort’s soul is such a unique situation. I️ surmise that no particular spell could have been created to fit this circumstance. It’s not so much a spell, but the wands ability to act on its own. “The wand chooses the wizard.” Shows that wands have their own inherent abilities or powers. The wand lore, the special trees to make wands, the story of the 3 brothers, the Elder wand being unbeatable, yet passing from owner to owner, are all examples of the wands magic. Another theory, is that a new spell could have been created that night (during the Battle of the 7 Potters). Maybe Harry performed an entirely new spell unknowingly. JK Rowling never explains how spells are created. They must have been created by wizards, because Snape created his own spell “Sectum Sempra” but it’s never explained how he created it. It does prove however that new spells can be created. Spells were not all created at once and set in stone. So one could not look up this spell incantation in a giant book of all spells created. Much like a dictionary, how new words can be added to the English language. I️ hope that answers your question.
