CHRM-501 Lessons

Hello students! Hello hello! I am thrilled to see you all back here in class. Your assignments last week were good, but not perfect. Remember this is a Year Five course, so I expect some very high caliber work from you. But do not be discouraged! I am always available to help and will never ask something of you I do not think you can achieve.

Now as you may remember from our course outline last week, today is the first day of an interesting set of lessons on protecting the home. We will start this module today with spells to protect against detection by Muggles, with the next lesson detailing protection against magical intruders, and the final lesson capping it all off with what to do once an intruder has entered your home. I urge all of you to listen closely and take scrupulous notes, as these are all spells you will be using in the real world. These are spells your parents cast periodically to protect your family from intruders, and you will be doing the same someday. The next few lessons will be very heavy on the practical work, so I expect all of you to practice diligently to perform these spells correctly.

While we do love our Muggle counterparts, we must remember that our homes are dangerous for them. Additionally, the International Statute of Secrecy does not allow us to share our homes with Muggles. Therefore, for the protection of Muggles and ourselves, protection spells have been in use for hundreds of years. Perhaps the most well-recognized and easiest of the Muggle protection spells is the Muggle-Repelling Charm. This charm causes any Muggles within reach of the spell to suddenly forget what they are doing and turn and walk in the other direction, thereby protecting the home in question.

As with many of the oldest spells we use, the history of this spell is not very well known. It is suspected to have been created at the beginning of the time of the witch trials as a way to keep mobs of Muggles away from magical homes. The first written documentation of this spell in use occurred in Salem, Massachusetts by a coven of witches in hiding. Unfortunately the document in question is very old, fragile, and hard to decipher, so we don’t know much about the spell in particular except that it made Muggles forget what they were looking for when they were within 150 feet of the coven’s dwelling.

Many of our most well-known establishments have a Muggle-Repelling Charm applied to them. Hogwarts, St. Mungo’s, and The Leaky Cauldron are just a few. My home had this charm applied to it before I moved to Hogwarts! It is a very useful charm as it can also be applied to other areas like forests, magical creature habitats, and more. Now! Onto the casting.

Incantation: Repello Muggletum (ruh-PEL-oh MUH-guhl-tuhm)
Wand Movement: A wave of the wand across the general area to be protected.
Willpower: Strong; Depends upon size of area to be charmed.
Concentration: Strong; Must focus on what the effect on the Muggle is to be.
Category: Static

You will notice the simple wand movement! This and many other protective enchantments have wand movements that simply guide the spell across the area to be protected. Since your focus is on these areas, your wand movement is simple and directed at them. The willpower must be strong enough to cover the entire area you are trying to charm. A lack of willpower will result in a weak charm or in partial coverage. A lack of concentration can result in the Muggles not knowing what to think and getting very confused instead of simply turning and walking away. Since Muggles are not as attuned to magic as we are, this can cause permanent damage to their minds. Please use this spell with great care.

Another spell to hid the home from Muggles is known as the Hidden Homes Charm. This spell is another one used to hide the home from Muggles, but it can also hide it from other magic folk as well! This spell will hide the target area from anyone that is not within the area during casting. So, for example, say Derek is casting the Hidden Homes Charm around himself, Lisa, Mina, and a tent. Derek, Lisa, and Mina will be able to see the tent and enter and exit the charmed area. However to Tom, this area will simply look as if there is no tent and no people there. Therefore, this spell causes the target area to appear as normal, with no homes or other human interference. It has another effect as well that we will explore momentarily.

Incantation: Cave Inimucum (CAH-vay uh-NIM-i-kuhm)
Wand Movement: Skyward flourish across the area to be protected
Willpower: Strong; Depends upon size of area to be charmed.
Concentration: Strong; Must focus on what the effect on the intruder is to be.
Category: Static

You will notice the similar willpower and concentration to the Muggle-Repelling Charm. These elements are similar because the spells have a similar goal - protection. Please keep this in mind for future lessons as it will continue to happen!

Now, the incantation comes from Latin and translates to “beware of the enemy.” This introduces us to the second effect of this spell! So using the same four people as before, if Tom starts to come into the area that Derek hid, then Derek’s wand will start to hum. Therefore, this spell not only hides an area, but can warn someone if an intruder is entering the area they have hidden.

The Hidden Homes Charm has been used for centuries to hide magical establishments from Muggles and has also been used during wizarding wars to hide homes from the enemy. Perhaps one of the most prominent uses of this spell was when Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger were on the run from Lord Voldemort during the Second Wizarding War. It was one of the many enchantments that was used by Hermione Granger to hide their campsite from Death Eaters and Snatchers.

That concludes our lesson for today! You have an essay to complete regarding today’s lesson. I expect a higher caliber work than what was turned in for Lesson One. Thank you all very much and have a fantastic day!

Image credit: Pinterest, HP Wiki