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magic - Did Harry Potter ever invent any spells?


Many of the greatest wizards in the Harry Potter universe invented their own spells.




  • Dumbledore, acknowledged as one of the greatest wizards of the age:




    "Examined him myself in Transfiguration and Charms when he did NEWTs ... Did things with a wand I'd never seen before..."
    -- Griselda Marchbanks, HP and the Order of the Phoenix, chapter 31: OWLs.





  • Snape, perhaps not one of the greatest but certainly a very talented student while at Hogwarts, and a master of the rare art of Occlumency in later life, invented numerous spells including Levicorpus, Liberacorpus, and Sectumsempra.




What about Harry Potter? After defeating the Dark Lord, he's surely seen as one of the greatest Aurors of his time, and he always topped his Defence Against the Dark Arts class (I think?)
Did he ever invent any of his own spells?



(I'd also be interested in Hermione, who's perhaps a more accomplished witch in everything other than Defence Against the Dark Arts, or indeed anyone in Harry's generation - students at Hogwarts during his time there - since I can't recall any mention of spells invented by any such people.)



Answer



Taking inspiration from Himarm, I can offer another half-answer. Fred and George's headless hats certainly use an innovative extension of an existing spell, if not a spell of their own creation:



'How do those hats work, then?' said Hermione, distracted from her homework and watching Fred and George. 'I mean, obviously it's some kind of Invisibility Spell, but it's rather clever to have extended the field of invisibility beyond the boundaries of the charmed object ... I'd imagine the charm wouldn't have a very long life though.'


Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - p.477 - Bloomsbury - Chapter 24, Occlumency



To further expand on this part answer, it's clear that the invention of spells is, if not illegal, regulated to some degree:



'Mortlake was taken away for questioning about some extremely odd ferrets, but that's the Committee on Experimental Charms, thank goodness ...'



Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - p.34 - Bloomsbury - Chapter 3, The Burrow



And, regarding Hermione in particular, I think it's worth taking note of her attitude to the Prince's spells:



'So you just decided to try out an unknown, handwritten incantation and see what would happen?'


'Why does it matter if it's handwritten?' said Harry, preferring not to answer the rest of the question.


'Because it's probably not Ministry of Magic-approved,' said Hermione. 'And also,' she added, as Harry and Ron rolled their eyes, 'because I'm starting to think this Prince character was a bit dodgy.'


Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - p.226 - Bloomsbury - Chapter 12, Silver and Opals



Now, obviously, her attitude here is partly towards who wrote the spell, but also, it's clear that trying out someone else's spell, without knowing what it does is different to conducting your own experiments. It could be anything. It could be a prank. But, I think her reasoning is suggestive. "'It's probably not Ministry of Magic-approved.'"



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