In the Harry Potter series, are wizards capable of creating their own spells, or are they limited to the spells that they're taught/learn? I seem to remember something about Snape creating sectumsempra, but I'm not sure if that really is the case.
Answer
As @OghmaOsiris has said, spells can certainly be created, though the means of doing so is unclear.
There's also quite a simple example as early as the first book: Harry vanishes a pane of glass for a few minutes, allowing a snake to escape.
We can also postulate a process for spell creation from the sixth book: Harry sees several words before Sectumsempra, all of which are crossed out. It's possible that the process of spell creation involves focusing on the effect you want, discovering a word tied to it (I'm unclear as to how this would work, except that Snape obviously knew the general sound of the word), and refining it until you find the most effective word.
This is borne out somewhat by the early books: casting the spell Wingardium Leviosa, slightly improper pronunciations (and slightly incorrect wand movements) still produce something like the intended effect.
The other problem is wand movements -- there must be some form of standard movements, which can be used to cast most spells. There must also be a form of notation for wand movements for when the standard ones aren't correct. We can assume that Snape's Sectumsempra spell used the standard movements (possibly the standard 'attack spell' movements).
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