Magical Theory (http://www.myhogwarts.co.

uk)Dear Reader—If you come from a magical household,

you may be familiar with “The Tale of the Odds-and-Endsman.” The Odds-and-Endsman handles all of
the most menial tasksof the village: connecting handles to cauldrons, replacing the lens of telescopes,
and removing rust from the chain that restrained the village dragon. The villagers decide that this man’s
contribution to their village is entirely too small,and end up feeding him to the dragon for his “laziness.”
Rapidly, the town falls into disarray. Potions won’t brew properly, spells don’t have the same effect,
and thevillage animals run amok. Finally, the dragon’s chain breaks and no one knows howto repair
them. The entire village is obliterated and everyone dies due to their under appreciation of the Odds-
and-Endsman. Of course, this tale has numerousmoral applications, but rather than delve too deep, I
would like to compare theOdds-and-Endsman to this particular textbook.Each year, countless students
show up to class with all of their textbooks except for Magical Theory, claiming that they thought it
was “optional,” since it“isn’t for any real class.” The teachers pre-order 20 extra copies of the textbook
each year specifically because of this. Yes, the textbook does not deal with any specific field of the
Magical Arts; instead, it touches on the essence of them all. Magical Theory discusses what it means to
be magical and how to best use one’smagical powers. These topics are the odds and ends of the magical
world, the stitching that holds the robes together.In revising the textbook, we discussed the elements of
magical life missing from the original Adalbert Waffling text. Specifically, we added an entire section
dealing with magical transportation, and expanded on the importance of visualization in light of recent
research from the Ministry of Magic. While much of the original text suggests the inconclusive nature of
Waffling’s ideas, recent wandlore and spellcasting research allows us to address such matters in a more
definite manner. One of the most tedious task we faced was trimming down some of the 2,718
footnotes in Waffling’s original edition (one of which read merely “I justnotice a red hair on the back of
one of my toes, another which rambled about thepossible dietary benefits of the juice of beetle eyes
for twelve pages). However, we recognized that these were, in a sense, the odds-and-ends of Waffling’s
textbook, and have preserved the more on-topic ones.One day in mid-February, as I compiled these
books, a friend of mine asked me, “If you had to choose only one of these textbooks to share with a
Muggle, which would it be?” I immediately answered that the entire hypothetical situation would
breach the Statute of Secrecy on various accounts (incidentally, we were working on that portion of the
History of Magic textbook at the time). While eachof these textbooks is a pivotal piece of a magical
education, this textbook defines a magical education and its value. Hence, if I ever did wish to grossly
violate the Statute, I would share this book with a Muggle, so that he or she mightunderstand the odds
and ends of our village, our community. Best wishes—Mallory HarrisDirector of Textbook
DevelopmentAntoinette D.Writer Amelia H.WriterKathryn Harris (Slytherin)Hogwarts - Currently
attendingWriterA Hatstall between Ravenclaw and Slytherin, I knew from a young age that I was special.
When my Hogwarts letter came on my 11th birthday, it was of little surprise to me. As a half-blood witch
entering Slytherin, as well as being Asian, I s

le to sense the fact that their owner in is danger, can summon its own magic toperform astonishing
feats, such as casting spells unknown to wizardkind, or performing spells using their own magic.While it
may be decades or even centuries before this debate is resolved, the Wand Theory is generally accepted
to state that wands are conductors of magic, semi-sentient, and indeed a enigma of their own.How
Magic WorksEven the brightest wizarding minds are not completely sure how magic works. Renowned
spell inventor and essayist Arthur Blitz writes in his memoir “Sparks and Colors: My Life as a
Spell Inventor”:“Magic comes from within. It is not something that resides inside of a witch, wizard, or
other magical being; instead, it is all around us. It is in every gust ofwind and every twig and branch. It is
simply the magic that allows itself inside of us that we can harness.”Blood vs. brainWhile Blitz took some
liberties with the facts, he was correct that magic comesfrom within. It is known that magic users
(witches, wizards, magical creatures,etc.), are different in some way from Muggles and non-magic users,
like Squibs.Throughout most of history, it was thought that magic resided in the blood of the magic user
and was carried throughout the body. The earliest evidence of thistheory comes to us from the Roman
wizard Augustus Cornelius Scaevola, who livedin the first century B.C. His research was concentrated on
magical versus non-magical blood, which he collected from gladiator rings. After identifying wizardsand
Muggles in the holding areas under the rings, he would buy them from the arena, take their blood, and
set them free. Because of this, he occasionally pops up in Roman wizarding records as “Dominus
Cruentus”, or “The Bloody Master”.Scaevola’s tests conclude that there was something different about
the wizard’s blood, a “slight difference in characteristics of sliding as well as of taste,” an observation
taken from his personal notes. This discovery was made simultaneously byancient Chinese wizards half a
world away, though both groups did not do extensive research into the subject until much later.Magical
blood was, and remains today, a common way of describing wizards. “A humanwith magical blood” is
still the dictionary definition of a wizard. In the past few decades, however, wizards have been doing
research based on the theory that magic is not centered in the blood, but in the brain.It is theorized that
the individual magic of a wizard is located in a small partof the brain or in brain connections that
Muggles do not have or cannot access.When an incantation, verbal or non-verbal, is invoked with the
corresponding wand movement, it is thought that this area of the brain sends signals through
thenervous system, which then channels the magic into the wand, producing the spell.There is quite a
bit of controversy surrounding this theory. Much of it comes from wizards who believe in Inheritance
Theory (discussed in detail elsewhere in this textbook), who can accurately cite not only historical but
recent research,showing that wizard blood does in fact differ subtly from Muggle blood in average
thickness and the ability to withstand charms. In an American study, blood taken from over 100 witches
and wizards was slightly thicker and was more resilientagainst spells and jinxes than Muggle blood from
a “blood bank.”[1] Supporters of Inheritance Theory also claim that magic in the blood makes
sense logically, as longtime Daily Prophet columnist Gary Briggs wrote in his March 15, 1988 column:

“Those that subscribe to the new theory of magic residing in the brain are too swayed by Muggle
learnings and teachings. Magic resides in the blood, as shown by many wizards in the past, and always
has. Our blood is what makes us special, notour brains. This is just Muggle nonsense and will never catch
on.”The “Brain Theory”, as it has been called, has in fact caught on, and has been steadily gaining
traction over the past several years. While there are many supporters of the idea that magic travels
from the brain to the nervous system, there isalso growing support for the theory that magic travels
through the blood from the brain. This is thought to explain why wizard blood is different, and is
considered the most diplomatic of these theories.Regardless of where it is kept in the body, magic is
most certainly there. Almost all children with at least one magical parent are magical, and there is, for
reasons unknown, an upward trend of magical children born to Muggle parents. While for children of
magical parents here is a 99 percent chance of them being witches or wizards themselves, one percent
of magical-born children worldwide cannotperform magic, and are called Squibs. This was once thought
to happen more often if the family in question had Muggle blood, causing the magic to skip
a generation, but it is now understood that being a Squib is simply a random occurrence.Producing
magicBecause each witch or wizard has magic inside of them, it is possible to do magic without a wand.
As almost every child who has gone through life producing “fits” of uncontrollable magic knows, this is
not good, focused magic. A child may be able to do a spell above their level, but they also cannot control
this spell. Tocontrol the spell, a witch or wizard usually requires a wand, which uses specialwood to
house and direct a magical core, the true catalyst for the spell.When the witch or wizard has the wand in
their hand, they must repeat the incantation verbally or nonverbally, as a way to focus the magic. They
must also do the proper wand movements to release the magic building up inside the wand. Each step is
integral to the magical process, and botching just one step may not onlycause the spell to fail, but
to backfire.Every step in casting a spell, from the wand to the incantation, is meant to control and focus
the raw magical power into a constructive spell that the wizard can use. It is like pouring water into a
funnel: it takes the water in a large opening, and forces it into a smaller opening in an organized
manner.After a wizard decides what spell to cast, magic is pumped through the blood orthe nervous
system (depending on the theory to which one subscribes) and coursesthrough the hand to the wand.
This is actually an enormous transfer of energy,although many wizards do not feel a thing. This is
because their body naturallyadjusts to this transfer; if the same thing happened to a Muggle, they would
feel incredible pain. The reason some wizards get “wand arm”, an aching sensation feltafter they have
been doing many spells, is because the magic rushing back and forth into the wand arm so rapidly and
frequently actually wears down the body’s ability to adjust and the wizard eventually begins to
feel pain.The magic enters the wand when the incantation is said, which focuses the magical energy. Not
only does the incantation matter; so does the pronunciation and intonation. If a wizard cheerily casts a
hex, it will not be as effective as if the same wizard casts it with malice. Nonverbal spells may lack this
intonation and may be less powerful.At this point, the magic is pent up inside the wand and is slowly
building. Themagic knows what effect it will cause, and now wants to escape the wand, which a

cts as a funnel for the magic. As long as the wizard is concentrating on the spell, he or she will continue
to release magic in the wand, which cannot escape without the assistance of wand movements.Many
young students question the usefulness of wand movements, thinking the incantations to be sufficiently
difficult. Wand movements do not exist to frustratestudents, but to keep them alive! The spell inside
of a wand can only escape ifthe correct movements are made in the proper order, with the right amount
of finesse. While some spells, including the simplest charms and some jinxes, are verylenient about
wand motions and will be released by just about anything, more complex spells will only be released by
a more refined set of motions. These motions allow the spell to escape by agitating the wand in just the
right way for the spell to filter itself out of the top of the wand. If the spell is filtered out incorrectly, it
could do anything from simply fail to be cast, to completely explode and produce other adverse effects.
Experimental spells, due to their nature, are more likely to be explosive and each year about a thousand
wizards worldwide die from spellcasting or potion-related mishaps.The Wizard’s DutyAs you can see,
casting a spell is truly a complex process! Many wizards are surprised to learn that there is so much
energy and possible danger when they simply cast a Levitation Charm. A wizard’s body, however,
not just houses magic, but isalso able to handle that magic.Magic may still remain an enigma after all
these centuries, but wizards have learned to master it. Like the first civilizations controlling fire, magic
users have honed their magical skill over centuries and turned a very dangerous thing into one that is
incredibly productive. “The Responsibility of the Magic Ones,” a first century A.D. Confucian text
discussing the role of the wizard in a harmoniousConfucian society, states:“Those that are magical have
a duty to help all, even those who are not. The bondsof order and respect dictate that a man…must be
loyal to all those he knows: hisfather, his ruler, his older siblings, his friends; and that he be a protector
to all of those whom he is above: his son, his wife, and his younger brothers. Hemust strive to be
a perfect man…in all of his values and his actions. He must control his magic and use it to better the
world…, not be reckless and destroy it. With his magical gift, he must live in social harmony with
everyone, and use all that he has for good.”Wizards have a great gift. They are given the ability to do
things that Mugglesonly dream of: fly, cast spells, clean rooms with a simple sweep of the wand.
Whether magic truly comes from the brain or the blood, it may be one of the most powerful forces in
our world, and witches and wizards must learn not only how toperform spells, but how to use them
well. If we did not, magical society could not function the way it does today.Footnotes:28) A blood bank
is a place where Muggles voluntarily give their own blood to beput into other Muggles’ bodies when a
Muggle has lost a lot of blood. This is done in lieu of a Blood Replenishing Potion.