#countercurses

[calleo-bricriu]

Can it cut through protection?

Possibly.

Nobody here is stupid enough to touch it, knowing what it did to several Muggles.

If it hits my desk I’ll find out–not by touching it myself of course.

[calleo-bricriu]

How do you actually plan on making a countercurse then?

Oh, probably the same way I always do.

Deconstruct the curse into its bits and pieces so I know how it goes together and once you know that the more complicated ones can be dealt with a little easier. The curse itself has a great deal of information scattered throughout various books, papers, and occasionally madly scribbled notes by someone whose sanity makes what they've said either very reliable or completely unreliable.

When you know how it works, it's easier to slap together at least a stopgap and go from there; sometimes a stopgap is the best you get in the form of a block or in the form of weakening it so its effects are lessened.

Those are usually the first steps to a proper counter where it isn't a case of there being a counter and it having been overlooked.

It's also easier to see where its' hook points are, where it grabs, where it integrates, where it melts, where it winds itself in and around, and how--which does sometimes mean you find there is no actual counter that wouldn't kill a living target.

I may have been a bit off with my, "Get a new body" as it's starting to look more like, "Well, that's going to be an entirely new brain, which is probably more diffic--huh."

That reminds me of something.

It's not exactly a counter-curse so much as it is another curse but, the way it works could potentially, depending on the extent of the damage already done--

I'll get back to you in a couple of days.

[directoryandle]

You know that guy's going to be dead long before I figure out a counter, IF I figure out a counter, yeah?

Well aware, thank you, Calleo.

[calleo-bricriu]

what's the difference between nihil and nihilus then?

Two letters, one pronunciation, different outcomes, and a cast pattern.

Really?

Nihil is a general purpose counter, just not as well known as Finite Incantatem so you rarely see it used.

Nihilus is a specific purpose counter that’s more often misused as a particularly nasty, prone to backfiring and removing the caster from existence, curse.

Nihil’s cast pattern is a straight horizontal line. Doesn’t matter which direction. It’s also incredibly easy to cast silently both of which make it significantly easier to use than Finite, especially if you’re in a hurry. It does need to be straight, however, if you curve it it’s unlikely to work. That may also factor somewhat in to why it’s not used as often; still, practise it enough and it’s not exactly difficult to master.Think of that hand gesture people often use when they want to indicate someone should immediately stop speaking (or doing something), the one where they’ll make a sharp horizontal motion across the front of their own neck. It’s like that.

Nihilus looks like this; enjoy the old, water-stained parchment it’s written on, it’s easier than trying to describe it. Left to right:

If you somehow manage to screw up Nihil, nothing happens. Literally. Nothing happens. Try again.

If you somehow manage to screw up Nihilus when casting it as a curse, and most people do that around that tiny area were you can see it just barely doesn’t touch (as a bonus, the gap can only be very specifically that wide otherwise it’s a backfire), it’ll backfire spectacularly and may just run up your hand and arm and leave you with an incredible looking and very permanent burn, usually a lichtenberg figure; Excidium does the same thing if you screw it up.

If you cast it as a counter, it’s not nearly as difficult as it looks and it normally just looks like your wand is shaking a bit. As a counter, it very nearly casts itself.

As a curse, it’ll fight you every second you keep it active and if your control over it wavers, it’ll snap back in an instant and consume you instead.

[calleo-bricriu]

Oh, it’s nothing.

In various past conversations or writings, I’ve mentioned that Finite Incantatem doesn’t always stop a spell and, when it doesn’t, the effect can range from nothing to a spectacularly violent reaction to that charm.

While there are one offs now and again that someone will make as a counter to a spell they’ve created, and there are odd spells where the ‘opposite effect’ charm is what counters it, when Finite Incantatem doesn’t work, Nihil often does.

Technically, it means nothing but, if you talk to anyone who knows what it does, we tend to just refer to it as, “Oh, stop that.” Or “Knock it off.” Personally, I don’t care much for the incantation of Nihil as it’s a bit close to Nihilus, but since Nihil is a general purpose counter, it’s easy to cast and you can really add whatever phrasing you want to it so long as you think the proper incantation.

I do the same with Finite Incantatem.

My go to is typically, “All right, that’s enough,” if I bother saying anything at all.

Nihil and Nihilus are not the same thing, though they’re both counters. The latter is more well known for being misused as a highly destructive curse rather than the countercurse that it actually is. It is interesting to note that Nihilus was misinterpreted for several hundred years as a curse because someone had mistaken it for a grammatical typo in its original text and changed it to nihil. Not the counter, the word.

Nihil, for a start, cannot be used to any destructive end. It’s only function is to negate magic that does or does not respond to Finite Incantatem—apart from the very few spells out there that respond only to Finite Incantatem and apart from those spells that have exceptionally specific counters that neither blanket counter will touch.

This is a big reason why I started to get a bit short with the Defence professors I had as a student because, if you paid any attention to them, you’d think there are only two protective/defensive spells of any use: Finite Incantatem and Protego.

Both are useful, both are common, both stop a lot of spells; however, there are an equal amount of spells on which they have no effect.

That all may be a very long way of saying that if you think you know how to block any spell that might be thrown at you, you probably don’t—or you don’t know the correct ones for the correct spells, and you probably ought to hope that whatever you’re countering wasn’t a custom thing with a custom counter that you’d have no way of knowing about.

But, go ahead and keep throwing Finite Incantatem or Protego at things; you’ll be right about 50% of the time, if nothing else.

[lost845]

It's a Harry Potter kinda day. #countercurses #harrypotter #lootcrate #darkarts #lego

[buckbeakisback]

The Royal Tenenbaums

movie: never seen it :3blog: 9/10what i love most about your blog: your posts and dramione god why wasn’t i following you before?

[laurlcastilllo]

Purple, orange and grey :)

thanks for asking :) 

Purple: my room- its orange, i have a large stuffed tiger, i have way too many tiger stuff, theres a bay window where i like to read, my bookshelf is alphabetized (my pride and joy), theres a wicked poster (signed by the cast, my other pride and joy), i have a desk but i never use it, my door has lots of Vs on it (because thats the first letter of my name), my homework is all across the floor, i don't share my room with my sister 

Orange: hometown- its not very interesting, at all, umm its near the city, but not quite the city, there was a huge swimming pool next to my apartment, there was also a ymca, the people were really friendly, idkk

Grey: favorite things- one's my blanket that I've had since i was born (whose name is pink) and my harry potter books (thats not one thing but oh well)