Lesson 3: The Five Exceptions

Chapter 3

INTRODUCTION - the 5 principles of Gamp's law tell us what we are unable to do within the science of transfiguration, particularly conjuration - The 5 principles: 1. food 2. magical energy 3. love 4. life 5. knowledge FOOD - Food cannot be conjured or transformed into existence, but it can be summoned and duplicated - You can duplicate, but you can't conjure it from nothing - You can technically conjure food but it will eventually disappear within the human body which can harm your body; If you eat something and it is digested and used to create things within the body, anything associated with the digestion of that food would cease to exist, causing parts of the body to be damaged in the process - Some spells allow other things to become a food-like substance, but it doesn't necessarily mean it is actual food (like the desk ---> pig spell, may be turned into a pig, but technically still a desk since that's where the matter came from MAGICAL ENERGY - matter cannot be destroyed nor created, which is also true with energy and, by extent, our inherent magical power - We can draw the energy from ourselves and the world around us and shape it to preform spells, but there is currently no physical way to imbue something with a self preserving magical energy if it does not have it to begin with - That also means we cannot conjure and materials, plants or animals, that have any natural magical ability - It is impossible to conjure a dragon whose heart heartstring could be used to give power to a wand or a phoenix whose tears contain healing powers - Not possible for a muggle or a squib to have the ability to practice magic - These charms may eventually fade as they are not a natural part of the object itself LOVE - love cannot be created falsely, even though love potions are a thing, they do not actually create love but rather they create a strong attraction that can be perceived as love - It is speculated that those under a love spell cannot actually feel love and since they were created in a false moment fueled by magic, that magic creates the effect of inability to love in the resulting child (for example, Tom Riddle) LIFE - Life cannot be created in any form - When someone dies, you cannot bring them back with conjuration, so when a plant is conjured, it isn't really alive they simply just mimic the appearance of life while they are conjured - When you conjure flowers, they won't need food or water, and they won't die or wilt - Conjured animals also don't contain life, such as birds conjured with the spell Avis, it just mimics an appearance of a bird and contain life - Also the same things apply when items are transformed KNOWLEDGE - Knowledge is the information and memories that reside in your brain - It is impossible for someone to create knowledge that they do not have, for example, you cannot conjure into your mind the entire understanding and ability to know the Spanish language, but you can conjure a book that teaches the language assuming you know that the book exists and you are familiar with its content before conjuring - knowledge can be stored and shared, for example, a device called a pensive which is a device that one an put their memories in to be viewed. Anyone can gain the knowledge retained in the memory