In response to the recent threads on magical power and the nature of dark magic, as well as my own desire to explain the purpose behind wands and incantations, I have decided to develop and articulate to this honorable forum my an Unified Theory of Magic, of sorts.

Magic exists as a sort of three-dimensional overlay to the unverse, similar to The Force, and possesses limited sentience. For the purposes of this essay, it can be thought of as a 'membrane' similar to the "fabric of space-time." It is not self aware, and may or may not interfere with events of its own free will. If Harry Potter survived the killing curse without some sort of preparation by Lily, the incident would be an example of such interference.

All wizards make a 'connection' to this magical membrane when they are very young or still in the womb, and by using this connection to 'rock the boat' are able to appeal to magic to skew the odds in their favor. As the wizard ages, uses magic, and is immersed in a magical environment, their connection to the magical membrane grows stronger, and the wizard is able to produce greater distortions in the membrane with less effort. Because this connection is critical to a wizard's ability to perform magic, anything that disrupts it formation, such as genetic disorders or isolation from magic, results in a squib. In the opposite case, that of the muggleborn wizard, a muggle fetus or infant is exposed to abnormally high activity on the magical membrane, such as repeated obliviation or proximity to magical phenomena, allowing it to form an initial connection.

In the actual casting process, a wizard uses their connection to the magical membrane to gather a concentration of magic, then manipulates this focus to cause specific waves to propagate on the magical membrane. All effects (excepting those observed under mage-sight) of a spell are the response of magic's limited sentience to the aforementioned waves. The magnitude of a spell's effects is dependent on the amplitude and complexity of the waves the wizard creates on the magical membrane. Because the initial gathering of this focus requires concentration and is relatively time consuming, many modern wizards use wands, which, containing a highly magical substance, allow wizards to carry a ready-made magical focal point and an intuitive way of manipulating its physical location, adding to the complexity of the waves produced.

Any magical focal point can be manipulated in three ways, two of which are commonly employed in everyday spellcasting. The first is varying the intensity of the focus, which creates an effect similar to a sine wave on the magical membrane. The second is changing the location of the focal point, which with a wand is as simple as moving the wand around, but in wandless casting requires significant application of concentration and willpower. The third manipulation is the pluck, which is accomplished by creating a significant positive or negative magical concentration at the focus, then destroying it. This is actually the most common form of focal point manipulation, as it is the foundation for accidental magic, when a stressful situation creates emotional tension in a young wizard, which is then released in an accidental casting. This technique cannot be used in standard magic, because it would require the destruction of the casting wizard's wand, but it is used, albeit rarely, in ritual magics, where the effect is produced with a sacrifice.

After the initial creation of the wave(s) their complexity can be further increased by mental manipulation of their structure, which is usually aided by an incantation. It is possible to cast silently, although it is more difficult, due to the fact that the enunciative and tonal qualities of incantations aid the wizard in forming the magical waves to the right structure. Furthermore, wand movements can be replaced by altering the structure of the wave mentally, but the level of focus required to do so is only found in those accomplished in Occlumency or Legilimency. Wandless magic is even more difficult, requiring the wizard to create a focal point by drawing the magic around and within them to a single point.

Coming soon:

Wards and Enchantments Under VUTM​

 

Hmm...it's interesting, but it feels a bit clinical to me.

Yes, there are rules within magic, but I feel that these rules are hazy and open to interpretation, as well as having exceptions.

I prefer to view magic as an art rather than a science, like playing a musical instrument.

There are some things in music that just don't work and sound terrible, and some things that are known to work very well. These are like the rules of magic.

However, everyone plays differently and can create their own tune, improvising and being creative. No one tune played by two different people will sound the same. So it is with magic I feel. It's more of an art than a science - a skill - and two wizards saying the same words and making the same wand movements will get different results. And while there may be some base rules, such as "no reviving the dead," the rest of magic is subjective, open to interpretation and "played" in an individual style.

Some of the rules can even be broken by a skillful composer, turning them into something new and interesting.

 

You are forgetting that at it's base, music is all mathematics. The repetition of numbers in sequences. Sure, there is individual variation in the matter of individual style, but this leeway for creativity is actually very thin. There is a thin margin separating harmony and dissonance.

Also, you have to understand that the note scale and other measures that are taught in music are only arbitrary. They purposely exclude the other notes in nature to suit our purposes.

 

It's true that sound is a wave, and in that sense you could call music mathmatical, but I wasn't really talking about the physics of sound, I was talking about music.

You can't define what is good music, and what is bad music. Its completely subjective. My preferences in music will be different to yours. I can hear a song that I think is beautiful, and you can think it a mess.

You mention harmony and dissonance. This is what I was tlaking about with, "Some of the rules can even be broken by a skillful composer". Some composers will deliberatly put jarring notes and chords within their pieces, to great effect.

You seem to have a very reductionist view of music. In my opinion, though in physics terms a piece of music is just a "repetition of numbers in sequences" a piece of music as a whole is actually a lot more than that. It speaks to the soul and can inspire beyond any simple repetition of numbers could do. Under a holistic view, music is indeed, "a magic beyond any we teach here."

Anyway, it was just an analogy

 

I saw two possibly more ideas that I've presented in various threads there ~raises an eyebrow~

Now, as a disclaimer in this post I will present more than one view point, and those may differ from those recently expressed by myself in other threads. Please do not get confused. I do this. I argue multiple view points in the one post.

Moving on...I'm with Taure on this one. Magic is not a science, something which can be defined and codiefied. Its an art. It required talent, concentration and most of all love to master it. Thats quite possibly the difference between muggle borns and purebloods, and why the latter are generally more successful. Muggle borns try to analyse magic and think of it as a science, something with rules and limitations. Purebloods acknowledge that it is boundless and limitless, and can do anything if only they can learn to properly direct it.

Think about it. Dumbledore quite obviously is something approaching a genius, if not a verifiable genius. He also loves magic at a most basic level. He revels in his ability to use something so great and power, but he looks upon it as a sort of gift, not something he's automatically entitled to. (I'm extrapolating here, nothing here is actually based on hard canon fact) Hermione on the other hand has intelligence in large quantities, but will obviously try to analyse the magic as she does it. She manages because she has the first two things I mentioned, talent and concentration, in large quantities. But she views magic as something that is within her, that is her birthright, and not as something special and wonderful.

Certainly, as I have previously put forward, magic as performed in the books could well be the taking of raw magic is it being put into a sequence or pattern, almost like a line of computer code. An example of this in detail is with shielding and cursing spells. Low level curses are based around a similar line of code, and thus a general shielding charm like the protego spell is all thats really required. For more advanced curses, which contain unique lines of code, a unique counter is required. Something like the killing curse could possibly contain modulating and randomising strings of code, and thus can't be magically blocked.

 

Alternate Forms of Magic

I apologize for failing to clarify, in the first post, that the specific methods of casting which I outlined are only relevant to modern European magical practices. The only thing necessary to create a magical effect is that someone makes a disturbance on the magical membrane. The way this is accomplished is irrelevant. The most simple (and probably earliest) method of doing this is for the wizard to intentionally induce a powerful emotion in themself while concentrating on the magical effect they want to produce. This is reasonably effective, but slow and fickle. It can become very powerful, however when employed by multiple wizards together. I believe that when Dumbledore referred to the magical potential of music, he was speaking of its remarkable ability to inspire emotion. A 'Wizarding Benefit Concert' of sorts could be used to tap the emotional potential of thousands of wizards. Indeed, it would be reasonable to suggest that the "Happy Birthday" song originated as a pureblood custom.

Also, anyone, wizard, muggle, or squib, would be able to affect a magical effect through the use of magical substances, such as in a potion or by burning. But these are just a few of a myriad of ways magic could be manipulated. In a FMA crossover, for example, Ed Elric's hand clapping could be explained as a way of creating a magical disturbance analogous to dropping a pebble on the surface of a pond. The main point, however, is that magic is indeed very flexible in the ways it can be used under this system.

 

You can't use a small example like Hermione and generalize her whole attitude as the norm for most muggle-borns. If so, then Ron could be used as the archetype of all pure-bloods as some who only take magic for granted, and really doesn't know much of anything in their world. In fact, the meat of your pure-bloods loving magic argument can be destroyed by the fifth book, where the MoM actively worked to dilute/pervert/eliminate magical teachings and such. Isn't it also cannon that Hermione knows more spells than pretty many other students at Hogwarts and is willing to use magical means to do things, such as change her features (teeth in this case)?