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In the first book there is a discussion between McGonagall and Dumbledore while they are waiting for Hagrid. Dumbledore uses the name "Voldemort" and McGonagall cringes:
"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense - for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him ...
93
We don't need to argue about reproductive fitness to explain this.
Here in the real world, the fertility rate falls off as the standard of living increases. Until quite recently, the magical community has had a much higher standard of living than Muggles. (Arguably, they still do!) So we would expect their fertility rate, historically, to be similar to ...
86
You're looking for the Bartimaeus Sequence by Jonathan Stroud, the first book of which is "The Amulet of Samarkand"
A brief summary of the trilogy from the wiki (spoilered for those who haven't read the series yet):
Each of the three books is named for a magical artifact or spell: the Amulet of Samarkand, named after the city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan, ...
85
As @OghmaOsiris has said, spells can certainly be created, though the means of doing so is unclear.
There's also quite a simple example as early as the first book: Harry vanishes a pane of glass for a few minutes, allowing a snake to escape.
We can also postulate a process for spell creation from the sixth book: Harry sees several words before Sectumsempra,...
77
Quidditch Through The Ages states on its first page that no wizarding spell has been invented that allows a wizard or witch to fly unaided.
It seems likely, therefore, that the spell must be a new one, dating to some time during the series. We know from HBP that Snape was an inventor of spells, he must have figured out a way to do it. Voldemort likely ...
75
To quote from a webchat from JK Rowling shortly after the release.
Laura Trego: Did hermione really put a memory charm on her parents she
says she did but then about 50 pages later tells ron shes never done a
memory charm
J.K. Rowling: They are two different charms. She has not wiped her
parents’ memories (as she later does to Dolohov and Rowle)...
70
I've written before here that "magic" in Tolkien's world isn't really how we traditionally envisage it. Again, the key quote is Galadriel's confusion over what Sam means by the word itself:
'For this is what your folk would call magic, I believe: though I do not understand clearly what they mean; and they seem to use the same word of the deceits of the ...
65
I don't believe it's directly addressed in the stories, but Hermione indicates things about her parents' substitute life, such as the fact that they don't have a daughter; this suggests that she didn't use the Obliviate charm, but something more complicated. Obliviate COULD remove the knowledge of them having a daughter, but at the expense of the last 17 or ...
65
The best explanation is that the first two Discworld aren't really "Discworld" books as much as they are "Rincewind" books. They're much more aimed at being parody of a large number of fantasy genres than they are designed to be a unique work that starts a brand new franchise.
There's tons of inconsistencies between the early books and the later. In the ...
55
The best theory I can suggest is that magical ability is like a recessive gene. If each Muggle parent is a carrier, they can produce a magical child. (However, this theory only works if you exclude Squibs :P)
Also, quoting JK Rowling:
"Muggle-borns will have a witch or wizard somewhere on their family
tree, in some cases many, many generations back. ...
53
Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs.
The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials.
Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes:
‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke! Now, after a Kwikspell course, I am the centre of attention at parties and friends beg for the recipe of my ...
52
Yes, there are absolutely spell that can be cast without a wand. Examples include:
Removing glass spell in the first book by Harry Potter
Tom Riddle's use of magic pre-Hogwarts
Transfiguration, in particular from Animal back to Human
Sirius's escape from Azkaban.
There are some examples of some spells being done without wands even for experience wizards. I'...
52
In the Half Blood Prince, Severus Snape created his own spell, Sectumsempra, which created invisible swords that cut the enemy.
Voldemort also created his own spells for his death eaters - the Dark Mark, for example: Morsmordre, as used in the 4th movie.
I imagine that wizards and witches at the level of competency as Voldemort and Dumbledore could come up ...
52
First let me say that I don't believe it is a real spell.
The thing we need to realize is that Ron did not know enough spells to differentiate between fake and real spells. Mr and Mrs Weasley would have used Nonverbal Spells at home.
We also know that Ron blindly trusted his brothers which is normal at that age.
Instance 1:
“So we’ve just got to try ...
51
From the Goblet of Fire:
Voldemort smiled his terrible smile, his red eyes blank and pitiless.
'Wormtail's body, of course, was ill-adapted for possession, as all assumed him dead, and would attract far too much attention if seen. However, he was the able-bodied servant I needed, and, poor wizard though he is, Wormtail was able to follow the ...
51
Crucio
From the Order of the Phoenix:
Hatred rose in Harry such as he had never known before; he flung himself out from behind the fountain and bellowed, 'Crucio!'
Bellatrix screamed: the spell had knocked her off her feet, but she did not writhe and shriek with pain as Neville had – she was already back on her feet, breathless, no longer laughing. ...
49
JK Rowling got it wrong. She actually had it right, her editor told her that it was wrong, and she changed it to be the wrong way. This was corrected in later versions.
The explanation was previously on her official site, but her site has undergone a major rehaul recently. In any case, I tracked down the original quote, and have included it below.
At the ...
49
Barty Crouch Jr, who has a lot of experience in both ends of the Imperius curse, tells us that its victims can be aware of their situation, although normally they are not:
‘But your father escaped,’ said Dumbledore.
‘Yes. After a while he began to fight the Imperius curse just as I had done. There were periods where he knew what was happening. My ...
48
It's a snake oil subject from practical Hogwarts teaching standpoint.
He likely knew that for students like Harry and Ron, the best and only way to pass it is to make *&t up. The darker the better.
He also knows very well that the professor makes predictions up (e.g. Trelawny predicting someone will die every year, as Professor McGonagall indicated).
...
48
Given the context of the line (Voldemort complaining that the Elder Wand isn't making him any stronger than before), I don't believe Voldemort was referring to a specific spell or set of spells, but rather the power of his magic in general. He expected the Elder Wand to increase that power, but because he wasn't its true owner, his magic was instead being ...
47
It sounds like Eragon by Christopher Paolini. Published in 2003 but it looks like the German translation wasn't published until 2009. The film was 2006.
Eragon finds a dragon egg and it hatches. He bonds with it and becomes a dragon rider.
Big Bad Galbatorix has his own dragon and had all the other riders killed.
There are elves.
There was a film that a ...
46
In the books, casting spells without words is a skill introduced in the 6th book that requires more effort than casting it normally. The movie just glossed over this.
As regards the "cheating" part, the primary goal of these verbal spells is to yield a momentary advantage in a duel due to the surprise. So, in a sense, yes it's cheating but as they say - ...
46
Pratchett himself always claimed that all consistencies in his work were accidental so there almost certainly is an inconsistency. That's the first point.
Secondly Rincewind is a special case, he has a very nasty spell in his head that chases other spells away so what he says is probably his exact experience of trying to learn other magicks.
Thirdly Esk is ...
45
In the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry and Hermione learn from Ron and Xenophilius Lovegood about the nature of invisibility cloaks.
An average invisibility cloak is usually a travelling cloak imbued with a Disillusionment Charm, or carrying a Bedazzlment Hex, or else woven from Demiguise hair, which will hide a person initially but fade ...
45
Harry wears his glasses during Quidditch because he cannot see without them. Why he cannot see without glasses, I think, has to be one of three reasons.
Harry's poor eyesight is collateral damage from Avada Kedavra, the darkest of evil curses. Body parts that are damaged, destroyed, or severed due to dark curses don't seem to be repairable in Potterverse:
...
45
Sounds like Philip Pullman's The Subtle Knife. It's part of the His Dark Materials series. In it, a character called Will uses a knife to make portals between parallel worlds.
45
There are several things to keep in mind.
According to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the cry of a mandrake is only fatal if the mandrake is fully grown. A juvenile mandrake would knock anyone who heard it unconscious for several hours, but its cry would not kill them. Given that the purpose of the battle was to delay (not defeat) Voldemort and ...
45
She had no reason to use Legilimency.
It's true that the Veritaserum she uses on Harry is fake.
"It was [Snape], too, who gave Professor Umbridge fake Veritaserum when she was attempting to force you to tell her Sirius's whereabouts."
(Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 37, The Lost Prophecy).
However, at the time Umbridge (obviously) didn't know that the ...
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