Tors. The black lightning curse. I cant remember where I read it but it was meant to be used as a cattle prod for dragons.

 

I've always been annoyed at the 'Reducto is a 4th year's spell' thing. No, it isn't. It was found by Hermione during their fourth year and was put in a set of useful spells for a seventh year's tournament. The spell was made to blow apart thick hedges with ease. It probably wouldn't blow off heads, but it might certainly break a few bones, rupture a lung, cause a major concussion, etc..

 

or might make a nice motivation to move if you hit some body in the ass with it.

 

I think one of my all time favourite spells is the Lockheart Special. Brachio Immendo. The combat applications of such a spell are astounding. Who needs to break bones when you can just remove their spine?

 

Well we don't know for certain whether Reducto is a 4th year spell, but it seems most likely. Canon Harry shows no particular aptitude for wand magic. Sure you might consider him above average, but he isn't doing NEWT spells in his 5th year like Hermione. When you look at the spells Harry used in the Triwizard Tourney, which off the top of my head consist of accio, a spell he casts at the grindylows in the second task (can't remember which at the moment), point me, riddikulus, impedimenta, stupefy, and expelliarmus. None of these spells are above 4th year curriculum. I remember Harry having quite some difficulty learning the summoning charm for the first task which is really the only spell in this group that we know for sure is a 4th year spell. Now Harry does use Reducto in the Third Task, but he does it with ease and there wasn't a specific training scene for Reducto in GoF like there was for the summoning charm, so we can reasonably conclude that Reducto is either a pretty easy spell (given canon Harry's average skill at magic), is included in the Standard Book of Spells Grade 4, or is magic not taught in their 4th year but is equivalent to 4th year spell difficulty.

Pretty much all evidence points to the fact that Reducto is a 4th year (equivalent) spell. This reinforces my point that Reducto does not explode body parts in a shower of gore, or even causes bone breakage or concussive force because a destructive spell like that (which can break bones, cause concussions, rupture a lung etc) would definitely not be standard 4th year magic, or equivalent to 4th year spell difficulty. Also, given Hermione's view towards Dark magic, I don't think she would teach Harry a spell which could cause such bodily harm.

Tell me if you don't agree with this line of reasoning.

 

I agree that the evidence in canon isn't there for reducto being a big badass spell; its beefiness is mostly a fanon thing. (And movie thing--a single, Ginny-cast reducto wipes out the entire Hall of Prophesy). I never thought much of it until I started reading fics like lorddwar's "Harry Potter and the Summer of Change," where it's mega-potent.

Confringo, on the other hand, is a true blasting curse. Whenever it's used in canon, things either blow up spectacularly or people die. And Hermione isn't averse to using it either. She uses it to dramatic effect in DH in Bagshot's house against Nagini.

 

a spell that transfigures stuff into nitroglycerin, whole rack of Prophecies it comes crashing to the floor.

 

Legillimency + Felix Felicis + Polyjuice + Las Vegas and/or Monaco = Retirement. Just think about it.

Back on topic, my favorite spell is FiendFyre, but I particularly love when tame spells (household charms, 1st year spells, etc) are used in extremely creative, lethal ways.

 

I'm quite fond of Jbern's combination spells, such as Pyrus Impactus, Vlad's Impaler and the Bonesaw.

I also thought Faux Kedrava was a great idea.

 

I don't think this is canon, but it's SUCH a good idea:
A Dark Mark detector.

From Voldemort's first Rise to before the Second Voldemort War really started heating up, the Ministry, the DoM, the Unspeakables, and the Order had plenty of time to research the Mark. Between Snape actually helping and all the Marked convicts in Azkaban, they could have backwards engineered the Mark, determining the spell (or spells) involved. Then it should have been well within their ability to design detectors, ready to implement in public places.

 

Banner Fudge was still in office at this time, while a good idea probably would not happen with him, in office.

 

* waves hand dismissively *
Canon Fudge was so utterly clueless, I'm sure that everyone was running rings around him before Malfoy managed to get hold. It would have been a snap to simply go behind his back. Bury your report in Buzzspeak, and watch him nod off during the meeting.

 

and if Malfoy is sitting in on the meeting?
Though I digress your idea would probably work.

 

You know, it would be interesting to see a smart, powerful Fudge for a change. I can imagine it now, Fudge would outsmart Harry and force him to promote him for the war, but then Harry gets pissed and goes postal on Hogwarts and kills everyone there, The headlines would be a smart play on words, the headline would be The-Boy-Who-Went-Postal.

Where did that come from??

 

We don't know either way for some of them. Impedimenta was learnt for the tournament as was reducto. They were not taught in class so they could very well be higher level spells. The stunning spell first appeared at the beginning of GoF but Harry does not use it until OotP, again suggesting it isn't taught in 4th year, else he would have used it in the maze

 

Spells like erecto and point me are evidence of JKR's laziness, How many actual spells are there in canon, 20?

 

You know its sad when Fanfic writers beat the author when it comes to something like this.

 

Fanfic writers bested JKR in a lot of ways eg; HBP and Deathly epilogue.

 

JKR really didn't put much effort into her spells. Her combat spells were limited and unimaginative, and she was much worse with non-combat spells.

 

Obliviate. Give me a pack of cigarettes and some glasses to obscure my face, a gun, and that spell, and I could take over the world.