Real Danger vs. Perceived Danger In HP-land

***Tessar*** · 12-30-2008, 11:18 PM

VERY excellent point, and it actually gives me some ideas for the storyline I'm working on

.

Now one thing that I've been considering about the magic is that the books state that intent is very important when casting a spell. Like how Harry couldn't hurt Bellatrix for long when he couldn't muster the 'intent' to cause her real harm (if I'm remembering correctly, that is).

So I wonder how that intent effects the danger level of the common spells. For instance if you were casting a stunning spell and you really hated the person you were casting it against and your emotion was for it to cause them more "harm" than the spell is capable of (i.e. "I wish this spell could blast his head off")... how does that effect the spell?

We saw Harry get really angry, and he accidentally cast the spell that caused his aunt to float away... it turned out to be a harmless effect of his anger, since the spell did not cause her any immediate harm (i.e. it didn't make her puff up till she popped and died). So I guess that must mean the spells have a sort of 'limit' to their effectiveness, no matter what your real intention is.

And I wonder how much more dangerous a defective wand could be? Would it be like handing someone a half-chewed power cord and then plugging it in, where they might either get a bit of a zap if they're unlucky, or maybe a really powerful jolt if they happen to be messing around with the cord too much.

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12-30-2008, 11:18 PM	#1
*Tessar* Master and Wielder of the Cardboard Harp of Gondor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: IM IN UR POSTZ, EDITIN' UR WURDZ Posts: 6,433	VERY excellent point, and it actually gives me some ideas for the storyline I'm working on . Now one thing that I've been considering about the magic is that the books state that intent is very important when casting a spell. Like how Harry couldn't hurt Bellatrix for long when he couldn't muster the 'intent' to cause her real harm (if I'm remembering correctly, that is). So I wonder how that intent effects the danger level of the common spells. For instance if you were casting a stunning spell and you really hated the person you were casting it against and your emotion was for it to cause them more "harm" than the spell is capable of (i.e. "I wish this spell could blast his head off")... how does that effect the spell? We saw Harry get really angry, and he accidentally cast the spell that caused his aunt to float away... it turned out to be a harmless effect of his anger, since the spell did not cause her any immediate harm (i.e. it didn't make her puff up till she popped and died). So I guess that must mean the spells have a sort of 'limit' to their effectiveness, no matter what your real intention is. And I wonder how much more dangerous a defective wand could be? Would it be like handing someone a half-chewed power cord and then plugging it in, where they might either get a bit of a zap if they're unlucky, or maybe a really powerful jolt if they happen to be messing around with the cord too much.