harry potter - Why does Hermione say she hadn't used a memory charm before?

After the wedding, Hermione has to use a memory charm on two Death Eaters, where she states that she has never done it before, but she knows the theory. However, she states that before she left on her adventure, she made her parents forget her, and move to Australia. Is this a contradiction, or is there an explanation?

Answer

I don't believe it's directly addressed in the stories, but Hermione indicates things about her parents' substitute life, such as the fact that they don't have a daughter; this suggests that she didn't use the Obliviate charm, but something more complicated. Obliviate COULD remove the knowledge of them having a daughter, but at the expense of the last 17 or so years of their memory, from how it's shown being used. (Or, possibly, just the 'event' of her birth/life/etc, but that would still leave too many loose ends.) This is far from the first time we've seen her use a spell that hadn't been specifically "taught."

So this could be the first time she used that specific memory charm; that being one that simply wipes memory of a certain time period or event.

Also, she later says "I’ll find Mum and Dad and lift the enchantment," but Obliviate appears to erase memories, rather than simply hold them suppressed, so what would there be to lift?

That's trying to stick to the story. What I suspect happened is that JK Rowling did some re-writes or editing, and missed that :)

Comments

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