Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Magic/Nox

Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter - Magic
Nox
Type Spell
Features Turns off wand light
First Appearance Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Overview

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Nox is the counter-spell to Lumos; it darkens a lit wand.

Extended Description

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Beginner warning: Details follow which you may not wish to read at your current level.

The Nox spell is used by Harry and Hermione in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and in the depths of Gringotts in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, to extinguish their wands, previously illuminated by means of the Lumos charm, when they no longer needed their light.

Analysis

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An extinguishing spell is, in retrospect, necessary; otherwise, you have the equally ludicrous cases of a wand that, once illuminated, never goes out, or of a wand that, once lit, goes out eventually of its own accord, likely at the worst possible moment. It is surprising, perhaps, that we see the extinguishing charm used so very infrequently, given the number of times that wandlight is invoked. However, looking at the behavior of magic in the stories, this is something of a pattern; time-limited spells, such as the effects of Polyjuice Potion only wear off inconveniently when such is necessary to the story line, and otherwise remain in force as long as necessary for the action, but no longer.

Questions

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Study questions are meant to be left for each student to answer; please don't answer them here.

Greater Picture

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Intermediate warning: Details follow which you may not wish to read at your current level.