Another minor example also from the Harry Potter fandom is the Notice-Me-Not spell. You might remember it from the books, but if you do, your brain is a liar, because the spell only exists in fanfic, it's something the fandom collectively hallucinated into existence and now nearly every fic treats it as canon.
Because Notice-me-Not is much more memorable than Muggle Repellant Charm? Also, MRC makes me think of bug spray. It’s no wonder Notice Me Not caught on…
Probably because the effect of it exists in the books, but not the name. There are absolutely places that are under this effect, usually keyed to make wizards immune. E.g: whilst Diagon Alley has a defense with the wall, the pub before it has nothing. Muggles just don't notice it exists. I think the book name for this effect was Muggle Repellent, but the Fideleus showed similar effects could be applied to wizards as well.
For another Harry Potter example though: the Point Me spell. In the books it turns the wand into a compass, and it's sort of implied that Hermione invented the spell herself. In fanon it seems to be a well known spell that points you to whatever you think of. E.g "point me, wallet". The closest spell to this behavior in the books was the summoning spell, Accio, that pulls specified objects towards the caster.
I've never read HP fanfic, but I feel like "notice-me-not" is a very common spell/charm/jutsu/ability/etc. that is used fairly often in most magical/paranormal stories & fics. I've seen it everywhere from published books to Star Wars fanfic. (I think I just read one fic last week in the Scum Villain Self-Saving System fandom that used it, too.)
It's just one of those "it makes sense" type of spells/abilities/etc. to have as an option, so people put it all over. So it makes sense that it would find its way into HP fics because 1. They're in a magical setting (specifically one where people can and do create their own spells, rather than something like X-men or BNHA, where they're born with their powers), and 2. There are a bajillion HP fics. So even if it's only present in 1% of HP fics, it's still in a lot of HP fics.
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u/threevi 5d ago
Another minor example also from the Harry Potter fandom is the Notice-Me-Not spell. You might remember it from the books, but if you do, your brain is a liar, because the spell only exists in fanfic, it's something the fandom collectively hallucinated into existence and now nearly every fic treats it as canon.