Dumbledore and Voldemort use wandless magic on occasion. Why can't Quirrell? The stuttering, mild mannered Professor persona was just an act, so who's to say he wasn't a powerful wizard?

Although we only caught a glimpse of his true nature, his cool confidence gave me the impression that he wasn't your run of the mill lackey.

 

When?

<filler>

 

Tom Riddle to Dumbledore during HBP

 

Right, that was as a child though. We don't know if it's continued into adulthood - we've never seen him use it, and we know that every other person's childhood magic goes away as they age.

There is a debate to be had (which has been had before) over what the exact nature of Riddle's childhood magic is, of course. My own opinion is that it's the same kind of thing as other magical children, only he's figured out how to trigger it (perhaps by working himself into a certain emotional state - we know he already has a remarkable instinct with legilimency).

Anyway, that;s the only instance of deliberate wandless magic in the series, besides Quirrell, I think.

 

I used that Ctrl+F then E-Book trick you were espousing earlier this evening



Yeah, I get it, wandless is probably way less powerful than using an actual Magic Foci, like a wand or even a stave (JBern), and it was something I wrote in my first ever FanFic…

I know it’s not technically canon, but the explanation goes to explain Harry’s blowing up of his Aunt Marge, and Neville surviving his Uncle Algie’s assassination attempt

 

Well, we know that childhood magic usually occurs in a heightened emotional state, my theory is that Riddle was so good at it because he was always in that heightened emotional state. He was constantly angry at the world, so he really wanted to cause pain to others. In the same way Harry is able to regrow his hair because he really wants to avoid the embarassment, Riddle was able to "make bad things happen to people who annoy me", because he really wanted to cause them pain. It was this anger and hatred that allowed him to control his magic without a wand.

And than at Hogwarts he found a place where he belonged, so to speak, and his constant hatred lessened which meant that he lost the ability, not that he needed it any more. Which is why we never see him using wandless magic later in life.

 

Unless you were drunk.

 

Hey, I’ve been drunk, the five abortions I’ve gone through will count as testimony, and believe me it’s impossible to get pregnant by accident…

Regardless, the kid version of Tom Riddle was using wandless magic, whether or not anyone is willing to admit it. It’s just that the skill of summoning one’s wand is probably the extent of the skill which powerful casters ever bother to retain!

 

Yes, Tom Riddle when he was a child... but y'all are also forgetting the bit in HBP when Dumbledore is scanning the cave wall with his blackened fingertips, murmuring words in a tongue Harry couldn't understand (it's possible he was using his wand here... as he did have it on him... but that's not what the imagery or Harry's internal subtext implies).

To me, that clearly stood out as 'wandless' magic.

Edit: I went around and did some digging and found this:

'He clicked his fingers, and the ends of the cords that bound Lupin flew to his hands.' (He referring to Snape in PoA)

This is rather intriguing, as Snape, Dumbledore, and Voldemort are all highly skilled with mind magic. Correlation? Maybe.

 

Dumbledore's detection of Riddle's magic in HBP is wandless magic in the same way Potions is. It's magic, for sure, and he's not using a wand... but it's not magic that you would normally use a wand for (i.e. spells) being done without a wand.

 

Meh. I'm not splitting hairs. This main purpose of this 'not wandless magic performed without a wand' seems awfully similar to a 'Specialis Revelio,' it's just more complex and less intent driven. Seems to fit the bill just fine.

And anyway, Snape's example is crystal clear. If Snape can do wandless magic, then it's not a stretch to imagine that Quirrell can too.

Edit: It seems to me like canon wandless magic falls roughly along the lines of magically interacting with one's immediate environment, not 'casting' spells per se.

 

If you weren't planning on making a woman pregnant, as usually happens when someone is drunk and thinks only about sex and not its consequences, then when it happens it's an accident. Unless you have a different definition of this word than I have.

Anyway, before DH I always assumed that Lily somehow prepared her sacrifice to save her son's life or it was one in million chance of magic doing its, well, magic. But the last book showed Harry's doing the same for everyone fighting Voldemort without any additional ritual or anything else and that made me wonder - what if the protection is similar to a life debt and forms always when someone is selflessly (and probably without trying to fight the enemy) sacrificing his life for another person? I suppose it would not be as common as debts and probably not as apparent in its working, so it's not impossible that nobody ever realized it happens.

 

Here's a question— how the fuck has nobody else in the wizarding world ever willingly sacrificed themselves before? We are led to assume that Lily's protection for Harry stemmed from a very particular set of criteria — that she was directly offered a choice between living and dying and chose instead to stand between a killer (using the killing curse) intent on hurting her child. Fair enough, this is not a set of circumstances that might happen often, I mean how commonly do people set out to murder children but decide to spare their parents? But in DH we learn that it's just anyone who is given the choice to willingly accept death in order to protect anyone. So this has never happened before in the entire history of the world? Why aren't people surviving the killing curse left right and centre?

 

Like you said, it's not really common for anyone to willingly sacrifice his life for another person. Even these that do it, most of times want to die fighting instead of simply giving their life to the enemy. But few times when that happened, wizards could find a different explanation for the protection - luck, badly casted spells etc. and not realize what it really is.

Or maybe there are people who know about it, but they are not sharing this knowledge with the rest of the world for whatever reason.

Or maybe the protection was a special power of Evans family that is a descendant of Jesus. Wait, Harry Potter and the Da Vinci Code? I see a potential in it.

 

You're the only one (I hope).

 

Exactly!

You, me, and Mr. Celestin are all arguing the same thing...

It's not common, and let's face it Saint Lily comes across just as stupid to my ears as it prolly does to the rest of the DLP Forum, so something weird happened which I like to think was some kind of questionable ritual

 

Except Harry does it in DH, without ritual. Unless you're suggesting whatever Lily did passed it on to him.

 

Yeah, I read the quote. I just think it's amazing that in thousands of years of history, nobody was ever given the choice before.

 

Oh, hold on…

I know the supermajority of people think I’m an idiot, but I’ve thought through all of these implications ages ago…

It's also why Harry had to go back to Privet Drive after Fourth Year, despite Voldemort having the same blood running through his veins as Harry did…