Skip to main content

harry potter - What Are the Other Four Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration?



In reading Why does the Aguamenti spell work? question, Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration came up in DVK's answer.



‘It’s quite straightforward, really,’ said Neville modestly. ‘I’d been in here about a day and a half, and getting really hungry, and wishing I could get something to eat, and that’s when the passage to the Hog’s Head opened up. I went through it and met Aberforth. He’s been providing us with food, because for some reason, that’s the one thing the Room doesn’t really do.’

‘Yeah, well, food’s one of the five exceptions to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration,’ said Ron, to general astonishment.

Deathly Hallows - page 465 - Bloomsbury - chapter 29, The Lost Diadem



I personally suspect money is one of the exceptions due to two examples given in the books. In Goblet of Fire, Leprechaun gold disappears after a brief period of time (granted, it could simply be charmed to do so). In Deathly Hallows, in the Lestranges' vault, the Gemino Curse, which causes whatever treasure that is touched to multiply almost infinitely, but the copies are worthless.



‘They have added Gemino and Flagrante Curses!’ said Griphook. ‘Everything you touch will burn and multiply, but the copies are worthless [...]’

Deathly Hallows - pages 433-434 - Bloomsbury - chapter 26, Gringotts



For the five exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, so far I know and have guessed at food and money respectively:


1) Food

2) Money?
3) ?
4) ?
5) ?


What are the other four exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration?


NOTE: I'm looking for a canon-based answer (books, JKR, Pottermore, and the like). I do not prefer answers from the HP Wikia or the Wikipedia. Thoughtful subjective answers in the spirit of canon are fine.



Answer



There's very little explicitly stated about the mechanics of Rowling's "Potterverse". The five exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration are taken to be things that cannot be conjured from nothing or transfigured from unrelated items. The only exception given any real attention is food, as you have stated. The other four are left up for speculation.



  • Love - While hardly a substance one can think to have a physical presence, love is considered one of the exceptions to Gamp's Law as it is impossible to create using magic. Obsession or extreme infatuation can be created with so-called "love potions", but they are nothing close to the real thing.


  • Old Life - Interestingly enough, new life can be created through magic, birds from the Avis charm for example, but dead is dead in the Potterverse.

    Even one of the Hallows, a legendary magic item, can only conjure a wraith and not actually bring someone back to life.





These two are that make the most immediate sense and explicitly said in the book to impossible to conjure through magic, although not stated as exceptions to Gamp's Law. There is speculation on other exceptions (such as precious metals and clothing), but nothing substantive.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.