I'm going by the fact that we never, as far as I can tell, see Stan use a wand, when at least some wizards seem to use wands for all sorts of little tasks. Some of the work/daily life examples we see are things like Molly's potato-peeling spell and her white sauce macro spell. We can probably assume that Reg Cattermole's job requires complex wanded magic, if he's expected to do things like diagnose what's making an office rain and stop it. So we have at least two relatively low-status jobs (one in and one outside the home) which demonstrate adept wand use for least for a few spells.
Instead of Stan levitating Harry's trunk onto the bus, he and Harry physically lift it together. He also physically throws a passenger's bag out after her. Levitation is one of the very first spells they learn in first year, and so is probably one of the least difficult.
It could just be that getting onto the bus is a tight squeeze which would require precision levitation (as opposed to zooming something around a large open space), which might be beyond many wizards due to lack of coordination or other non-magical reasons. But it also allows for the possibility that Stan isn't very good with a wand or doesn't have one.
I think in GoF he's just talking, so we wouldn't expect to see a wand anyway, and in DH it's not clear whether Harry saw Stan, specifically, casting spells, let alone whether they hit anyone or did anything. There are several pursuers and spells flying in what sounds like a confused fashion, then Stan's hood slips and Harry casts "Expelliarmus" without mentioning whether or not he saw a wand in (or flying out of) Stan's hand. He may have been holding one and not doing much, or holding one and casting spells that looked flashy but did little, or casting moderately effective spells, or casting wildly successful AKs (though probably missing, or killing bats or such, given the Order's low fatality rate). But I don't think we can be sure that he did cast effective--or any--spells.
We don't see Stan enough to get really solid evidence for any particular scenario, and you can explain each instance of his not using a wand other ways, but it does it means the low/no wand use is possible in a way that it isn't for many other characters.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2021-02-15 05:32 am (UTC)Instead of Stan levitating Harry's trunk onto the bus, he and Harry physically lift it together. He also physically throws a passenger's bag out after her. Levitation is one of the very first spells they learn in first year, and so is probably one of the least difficult.
It could just be that getting onto the bus is a tight squeeze which would require precision levitation (as opposed to zooming something around a large open space), which might be beyond many wizards due to lack of coordination or other non-magical reasons. But it also allows for the possibility that Stan isn't very good with a wand or doesn't have one.
I think in GoF he's just talking, so we wouldn't expect to see a wand anyway, and in DH it's not clear whether Harry saw Stan, specifically, casting spells, let alone whether they hit anyone or did anything. There are several pursuers and spells flying in what sounds like a confused fashion, then Stan's hood slips and Harry casts "Expelliarmus" without mentioning whether or not he saw a wand in (or flying out of) Stan's hand. He may have been holding one and not doing much, or holding one and casting spells that looked flashy but did little, or casting moderately effective spells, or casting wildly successful AKs (though probably missing, or killing bats or such, given the Order's low fatality rate). But I don't think we can be sure that he did cast effective--or any--spells.
We don't see Stan enough to get really solid evidence for any particular scenario, and you can explain each instance of his not using a wand other ways, but it does it means the low/no wand use is possible in a way that it isn't for many other characters.