"Although this spell is safe to use on animals, it is not recommended until the counter-charm has been perfected"
Why is it not recommended? Is it because the animal might grow big too extremely and end up exploding violently?
Asked
Active
Viewed 526 times
3
-
8Although I'm certain someone might know exactly where that sentence is from, it may be helpful to the rest of us to actually tell us what spell you are talking about. – Radhil Jun 14 '17 at 00:21
-
I assume you're asking about the Engorgement charm. – Voronwé Jun 14 '17 at 01:16
-
1Part of me half expected the series to make a joke somewhere of "If the charm resists the counter-charm, or lasts more than four hours, seek prompt medical attention from the nearest Medi-witch..." – FuzzyBoots Jun 14 '17 at 02:02
-
@Radhil - It appears to be a quote from the HP wiki, which is loosely based on information from a passage in Book of Spells. – ibid Jun 14 '17 at 03:46
2 Answers
2
Yes, it's not recommended.
Here's a description of the Engorgement charm in Miranda Goshawk's Book of Spells:
These straightforward but surprisingly dangerous charms cause certain things to swell or shrink. You will be learning both charms together, so that you can always undo an over-enthusiastic cast. There is thus no excuse for having accidentally shrunk your homework down to microscopic size or for allowing a giant toad to rampage through your school’s flower gardens.
While there are no instances of objects actually exploding by being engorged too much, there's this one similar incident:
A tiny boy no older than two was crouched outside a large pyramid-shaped tent, holding a wand and poking happily at a slug in the grass, which was swelling slowly to the size of a salami. As they drew level with him, his mother came hurrying out of the tent.
"How many times, Kevin? You don't - touch - Daddy's - wand - yecchh!"
She had trodden on the giant slug, which burst. Her scolding carried after them on the still air, mingling with the little boy's yells "You bust slug! You bust slug!"
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Barty and Crouch
This is likely to work the same way as animal cells. When too much water enters the animal cell via osmosis, it swells and eventually bursts.
Here's a video of your lovely red blood cells bursting:
1
Your quote appears to be from the infamous HP wiki.
It should be noted that much if not most of the information found on that website is highly inaccurate. In this case the information was sourced to the playstation game Wonderbook: Book of Spells.
The full text from the game reads:
ENGORGEMENT & SHRINKING CHARMS
These straightforward but surprisingly dangerous charms cause certain things to swell or shrink. You will be learning both charms together, so that you can always undo an over-enthusiastic cast. There is thus no excuse for having accidentally shrunk your homework down to microscopic size, or for allowing a giant toad to rampage through your school’s flowerbeds.The incantation to make things grow is ‘Engorgio’. To magically shrink things speak the incantation ‘Reducio’.
To make things swell, draw an arrow shape pointing up. Making things shrink uses a wand gesture pointing down.
You will now have a chance to practice the Engorgement and Shrinking Charms on some creatures. Don't worry, it won't do them any harm. With that said, it is not advisable to practice engorging or shrinking your own pets for homework practice, at least not until you are certain that you can reverse the effects.
As stated elsewhere, there is no official canon policy for Harry Potter, but the general practice among the community is to only accept information that comes from Rowling. The Wonderbook games get a much better rep than the other videogames because Rowling was credited with writing the "stories" and "spell descriptions". That said, the part of the game that this was derived from doesn't seem to me like either of those two things.
