It seems like some spells are impossible to do nonverbally. Nobody throughout the entire series ever does an Unforgivable Curse nonverbally. Even Voldemort has to speak the words. Maybe they just require to much power and concentration to be done without speaking. Thoughts?

I'm not too sure actually. Maybe it's not possible to do the curses without speaking the incantation, like you said, or maybe the Death Eaters have more fun saying it. The latter makes sense actually, because Death Eaters are the main ones using them. And I would think for them, they like saying the curse. Imagine the fear on the person's face when they hear it. "Crucio!" Their victim knows that unbearable pain is coming next, their horrified expression would give it away, and then they have to endure it. Same thing with the other ones too.
I just think that evil people enjoy saying it and such. Harry had to use the Imperius Curse in Deathly Hallows, and if I remember correctly, he had to repeatedly say the words. I don't think Harry had fun saying it.
I don't know. I think saying it also sounds more dramatic in the book, and is probably easier to write as opposed to, "And so and so, was under the Imperius curse, from Harry's wand." Eh, I guess we'll never really know for sure.

They probably can be done non-verbally by skilled witches and wizards. But I agree with HPChic. The people using the unforgivable curses are usually the bad guys who aim to cause hurt and pain. They would want to enjoy their victim's suffer and saying the curse aloud would be more rewarding for them (sick, isn't it?).

True the Death Eater's would want to see their victim squirm in pain. But i disagree with you all.I don't think unforgivable curses can be said non-verbally.Why? Because in OOTP Bellatrix tells Harry that to pull off an unforgivable you have to mean them.So, in my opinion, saying the spell non verbally is easy to do and therefore you don't really mean it.

However saying aloud you are able to put emotion and expression into the curse so effectively you 'mean what you say.'

I hope that made sense

Didn't Voldemort kill all of those Goblin's non-verbally? o_o

But he was terrifyingly angry at the time, though. Every other time he had to shout 'Avada Kedavra', even when he was angry at Charity Burbage.

And Voldemort was at the point in the Deathly Hallows where he didn't want to play with Harry, but he shouted 'Avada Kedavra' continuously. The same in the Order of the Phoenix with both Harry and Dumbledore.

I think that the Unforgivable Curses are a lot harder to do non-verbally, because just shouting out the spell makes the person fearful - so if you shout it out you want to cause them fear. If you do it non-verbally you'd rather torture, control or kill them without them knowing, so you're not letting them panic, meaning that you don't want to cause them that much pain... But Voldemort was bubbling with hatred when he killed those Goblins non-verbally, and he was killing them out of rage, really, so he didn't need to shout out 'Avada Kedavra' to mean it...

I hope that my post wasn't confusing.

Didn't Voldemort kill Harry is "Forest Again" silently? If I'm not mistaken, Harry just sees the green light. He doesn't hear anything.

well i believe that they can be done non-verbally but its just easier to say it. i also believe (like the many people who have replied before me) that the deatheaters like to scare their victims and find it fun to say it. (no matter how evil or sick it might be)

i've just found something that could possibly prove the point:



he just says that magic in general can be used non-verbally so im thinking that all spells can be done that way. please feel free to correct me if im wrong but i think i may just be right.

In the Order of the Pheonix, the jet of green light is mentioned without Avada Kedavra several times as LV and DD battle.

Yeah, adding onto goldenhair, I remember in the Order of the Phoenix, when they were in the veil of the room... it said there were jets or red and green flying everywhere... I don't know if the people were shouting it but it could go either way. If I am thinking right here, is Avada Kedavra the only spell that shoots green light? I never really knew that but it seems likely to me.

I don't think they can be done non-verbally. Even though the Unforgivable Curses are unfair, I think that the person who invented them (or people...) must've thought that it was also unfair that the victim of said spells has no chance to prepare themselves.
JK talks a lot about balance, and how Slytherin was created to give balance to Hogwarts; how even the most evil of wizards and witches have some good in them, even if it's not in the most conventional of styles. I think this is the case with the curses, there must be some balance in there somewhere, even if it's somebody darting out the way to get hit by it a second later.




I think JK was just saving up time, It would of looked silly if Voldemort was stood there screaming "Avada Kedavra, Avada Kedavra, Avada Kedavra!!!", even if it was a really powerful scene






Nope, it says in the book,

I don't think Voldy mouthed it.



Sorry if that was a bit long, but when i was reading the books i was thinking the same question.
Anyone think I'm talking rubbish

i think voldy did say it in the forest but think about it, if you were abput to die i don't think hearing the incantation would matter much to you and since this book is about harry we were feeling what he was feeling.

and i think that it depends on the curses/spells/jinxes/hexes...but something i dodn't get was that levicorpus was supposed to be nonverbal, but n gringotts, hermione said it out loud and it worked...so i really don't know.

I'm sitting here screaming "Avada Kedavra" in my head and it doesn't have as much power as screaming it outloud. It kinda goes back on what Bellatrix told Harry about really meaning it. When you're screaming or saying it aloud, it really puts your effort in it and all your energy and meaning. I also agree with saying it aloud to scare them.

as for Levicorpus, I don't really remember seeing that, but maybe it was better to say it non-verbally so that person doesn't know it's coming.

I believe the unfogiveable curses can be done non verbally because if I remember correctly in Order of the Phoenix one of the death eater couldn't speak and tried use one on the kids when they were at the ministry of magic. I don't remeber which death eater ( I don't have the book with me) and I don't remember if it was Harry or Ron they were fighting. But I seem to remember that for some reason they couldn't talk were using one of the curses. So I guess they can and they just don't like to do it nonverbally.

See that's intresting i think you may be right. Because as Bellatrix states:

" You have to really mean them." So this i think would have to involve emotion in performing the curse. So saying it aloud with the real hatred. Only then can the curse be perfomed...

Member of the Phoenix - I don't think that curse was an unforgivable curse. It was used on Hermione and it was like a streak of flame that hit her. I don't think any of the unforgivable curses have had that effect. Well that's at least i remember from reading OOTP.

So i don't think Unforgivable curses can be done non verbally. But i suppose maybe Voldemort could if he really determined himself to. As he is so wrapped up in his desire to conquer.

I doubt you can say the Unforgivible Curses non-verbally. Why? Going back to what so many people have said, you have to mean them. Screaming in your head is deffinitly not as effective as screaming at the person it's aimed at. Even Voldy never does them non-verbally, and he's the second most powerful wizard that ever lived! That is what I'd consider plain proof.

I think not. I think, that in the heat of the moment, the adrenalen rush kind of makes you scream it. At least it seems like it. No one ever says it calmy, or quietly for that matter. IT is always yelled, or in some cases, screamed. So, there you have it...

I doubt it. I have three reasons for this. Unforgivable Curses are supposed to be really hard to do, right? So you'd need pretty much all the strength you can get. I think spells are weaker, or harder to get right, if you're doing them nonverbally. For some reason I can picture Voldemort doing them nonverbally, which leads to me to say that would it be possible, it would most likely have to be a really, really powerful wizard.

There's also the manner of having to 'mean it'. To really, really want it, to mean it, to be able to do it. It's not just a question of physical strength and skills or knowledge; it's a mental thing to. It kind of plays with emotion. Unless you're purely evil like Voldemort and his Death Eaters, than you really have to have a good reason to want to do it. Like even Harry had trouble doing it in OOTP, when Sirius had just died. It's not easy.

And then, of course, like some mentionned, it's never been done. I think JKR tried to or did answer most of our questions in all seven books, or everything that she had the answer to. Or that was necessary to know. If it was possible to do the spells nonverbally, I'm pretty sure someone would have done it in the series by now...

Doesn't Harry try to torture Snape non-verbally? Of course he screws up, but I think he tries, when pursuing him at the end of book 6.
I remember Snape shouting something like "not from you, Potter" and "learn to close your mind"

My guess is, if you're not adept at using them, they won't work, if the user is enraged.

I'm pretty sure that you can't use the Unforgivable Curse nonverbally. If I remember correctly, Dumbledore and another teacher stated that only simple spells can be used to the full effect nonverbally and more complicated spells can be used to some effectiveness nonverbally. But if we remember that death eater who swipes his wand at Hermione and does a fair amount of damage but it wasn't 100%. So I think that the difficulty of the spell matters and if that's the case then i doubt that Unforgivable Curses can be used to full effect.

-Nick
HJP

Yeah they can. People were using Avada Kedavara at the Battle of the Department of Mysteriese Battle without saying it outloud.

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I think that Unforgivable curses could probably be said nonverbally, but they probably wouldn't be as powerful. I remember that in GOF Moody said that if the whole class performed the Killing Curse, it most likely would only give him a nosebleed. Maybe, if the curse is used nonverbally, something like that would happen. You probably have to be really powerful to use them nonverbally.

Through a litterary point of view, it's way more dramatic to say the spell when killing someone, and it's be a cheep shot to kill them without it. They're just dead. Not quite as fun (that's from a Death Eater pov, which is my pov I guess, being a Death Eater and all) not to mention that it's anticlimactic too. I think we'd all be rather sad if they got killed with a nonverbal version, cause they'd be all defenseless, and not know it, and that's just not cool.

From a more logical point of view, it is rather possible that they can't be nvbl. There are some that can only be nvbl (6th book), so I bet it can go either way. And, true, it's not as powerful. The whole business with having to mean it, as well, seems like it also has to do a lot with power. You've got to be really powerful to cast the spell in the first place, and we all know that nvbl spells are harder; many have issues with nvbl spells when the vbl ones are really easy. I bet that the Dark Lord can do it, but he's a merciful lord, so why would he do a silly thing like that? And we are not pure evil, bytheway. We're awesome. Anyways, past the self-defense.

It seems most likely that they can be done, you just have to be really powerful to do it, and it's not as fun either. Not to mention that it could be just the fact that, unless you're so stupendously awesome you can manipulate flying glass with your hand, I doubt you can cast the spell nvbl and have any effect. You also want to make sure they're actually dead. That's bad when peeps don't die cause you were bored and thought to do it nvbl and see what happens.

~Aeryn~

Good question. I dont they can. Since they are they only spells that can send you straight to Azkaban. There are probably certain spells that are to powerful to be done nonverbally and i can bet these three would be part of those. These three spells could also be the only ones that cant be done nonverbally, they are incredibly powerful.