1. Week 2
The Hover Charm
The incantation of the Hover Charm is Levioso. This is pronounced as
Lev-ee-o-so, which the emphasis on the first o. Levioso probably derives
from the Latin word ‘levo’, meaning ‘raise’ or ‘lift up’. This is
comparable to Leviosa from Wingardium Leviosa.
The Hover Charm allows one to move an object off the ground when the
object is physically touched. The horizontal movement of the object is
restricted (tested in performance 2). The hand movement that belongs to
the Hover Charm is an inward spiral and then up. There is a flash of
white light to be been when the charm is cast.
Performance 1
The tip of my wand was pointed at my copy of Quintessential
Magic: An Introduction to Charms when I performed the Hover
Charm for the first time. The moment I said Levioso I expected the
book to lift up into the air, but nothing happened. I tried several
different pronunciations and accents, but again, nothing happened.
Then I remembered, the Hover Charm requires that the object is
physically touched when cast.
Performance 2
This time, I put my finger on the book. And, when I said Levioso
the book raised up into the air. When the book was up in the air, I
did a few experiments to test some restrictions that I have
encountered in both class and textbook. The first restriction I tested
was the physical connection restriction. I already discovered that
the physical connection with the object is required to lift the object
up, but I was wondering if what would happen if I lost the physical
connection or changed the physical connection mid-air. When I
removed my finger from the surface of the book, the book
immediately dropped. This observation shows that you can only
move the object up and down if you touch the object. Next, I put
another finger on the book and removed the one I had on it before,
but the book did not drop. This observation shows that it does not
matter if you change the connection. As long as there is a physical
connection between you and the object, you will be able to move
the object up and down. Lastly, I tried to move the object

2. horizontally, but it was not possible to move it by any means.
The Rocket Charm
The incantation of the Rocket Charm is Alarte Ascendare. This is
pronounced as A-lar-tay-a-sen-day-ray, with the emphasis on the first a in
Alarte and sen in Ascendare. Alarte is derived from the Latin word ‘alate’,
meaning ‘winged’, and ‘ascendare’ is a Latin word, meaning ‘to climb’ or
‘to ascend’.
The Rocket Charms allows an object to propel straight up into the air. The
horizontal movement of the object is restricted. The hand movement that
belongs to the Rocket Charm is a quick swish at the end. There is red light
to be seen when the charm is cast.
Performance 1
Surprisingly, the first performance of the Rocket Charm went well,
despite of the difficult incantation. Unfortunately, my aim was a
little off and I accidently propelled the wrong object into the air.
Once again, I took my book to cast the charm on, but instead the
owl cage next to the book flew into the air. Thankfully, I was able
to prevent damage to both owl and cage. I now know, that I should
be practising in a clear room (or perhaps outside on a field) and I
should properly aim at the object I want to move. I experienced this
charm as pretty impractical.
The Floating Charm
The incantation of the Floating Charm is Fluito. This is pronounced as
flew-ee-toe. Fluito is a Latin word, meaning ‘to float’.
The Floating Charm allows objects to float a handful of feet into the air.
The vertical movement (up) (tested in performance 1) and the horizontal
movement (tested in performance 2) is restricted.
Performance 1
The first time I performed the Floating Charm, I immediately
noticed that the charm is more practical than both the Hover
Charm and the Rocket Charm. You did not have to physically touch
the object as with the Hover Charm and the movement of the object
was more controllable than with the Rocket Charm. Regrettably, the
object lifts up only a few inches. I did discover that the

3. pronunciation, voice volume and hand movement have an effect on
the height of the object. With either a bad pronunciation, low voice
volume or improper hand movement, the object lifted up to a height
varying between 0 and 2 inches. The maximum height of the
floating object that I have measured was approximately 7 inches.
Performance 2
Another observation that I made was that while the object was
floating, it did move horizontally. However, this was restricted to
approximately 1 inch. The object did not move any further to the
left or to the right when I applied force.
The Levitation Charm
The incantation of the Levitation Charm is Wingardium Leviosa. This is
pronounced as Win-gar-dee-um Levi-o-sa, with the emphasis on gar in
Wingardium and o in Leviosa. Wingardium consists of the English word
‘wing’, which comes from ‘to wing’ meaning ‘to fly’, and the Latin word
‘arduus’ (or ‘arduum’), meaning ‘high’ (or ‘steep’). Leviosa probably
derives from the Latin word ‘levo’, meaning ‘raise’ or ‘lift up’.
The Levitation Charm allows one to control the movement of an object.
The movement of the object is not restricted. This means that both
vertical (up and down) and horizontal (right and left) movement is
possible (tested in performance 2). Although, it can be hard to levitate
objects that are far away (tested in performance 3). Unfortunately, the
Levitation Charm fails on humans (tested in performance 4). The hand
movement that belongs to the Levitation Charm is a swish and flick.
There is no light to be seen when the charm is cast.
Performance 1
The first time I performed the Levitation Charm was in Charms
class, accompanied by professor Quilmane. As a tradition in
Charms class, we were supposed to make a feather lift up into the
air. And as a tradition, I did mess up the incantation a few times. I
replaced Leviosa by Levioso (probably because I have been
practising the Hover Charm a lot lately) and I put the emphasis on
the wrong syllable several times. Oddly, the feather did move (or
vibrate) a little when I pronounced the incantation incorrectly.
Moreover, the feather of a classmate exploded when he
mispronounced the incantation.

4. Performance 2
The greatest benefit of the Levitation Charm compared to the Hover
Charm, Rocket Charm and Floating Charm is that you are able to
control the horizontal movements. When I moved my wand
carefully to the left, the feather moved to the left as well. The same
goes for the right. My wand was working as the feather’s stirring
wheel. When you move your wand to the left or right quickly, you
must be sure not to hit anything or anyone (of course, a feather
would not be dangerous, but heavier objects can be).
Performance 3
The next day practising the Levitation Charm, I went to an open
field. I did some experiments on how the distant to an object effects
the levitation quality. The object I used was an apple that had just
fallen from a tree. I started at just 1 feet away from the apple and
ended up at a distance of 165 feet. As the distance between me and
the apple grew, my aim got worse. Then, I frequently levitated an
object other than the apple, such as leaves and branches. The
distance of 165 feet was the greatest distance where my accuracy
was still almost 100 percent.
Performance 4
The last experiment I did this week including the Levitation Charm
was casting the charm on humans. I was able to lift a friend up into
the air, but only because his clothing was lifting him up. When I
aimed at his arm or leg, nothing happened. This verifies the
restriction I have read in the textbook.
Week 3
The Mending Charm
The incantation for the Mending Charm is Reparo. This is pronounced as
reh-pah-ro, with the emphasis on pah. Reparo is a Latin word, meaning
‘to repair’.
The Mending Charm is able to repair broken objects. Unfortunately, the
Mending Charm is only able to repair non-magical items. Magical items,
such as wands and broomstick can be repaired, but will lose their magical
property. The hand movement that belongs to the Mending Charm, is an

5. inward pointed spiral. There is no light to be seen when the charm is cast.
Performance 1
The first time I performed the Mending Charm was on my pocket
watch. The pocket watch had fallen on the ground a few times,
causing the glass to break and the hands of the clock to fall off. I
thought the hand movement could be a difficulty, but the first time
went pretty well. The glass was almost fixed; there were only a few
scratches on it left. The reason why it did not repair all at once was,
I think, because of the severity of the damage. When I applied the
charm another few times, the clock was completely repaired. It even
looked like it was cleaned as well.
Performance 2
I could not resist to practise the Mending Charm on my old, and
broken, broomstick. I had read in the textbooks that it was not
possible to repair magical items and have their magical property
back. Of course, I was stubborn and tried it anyway. When I cast
the charm, the broomstick looked like I just bought it. However,
when I went to the courtyard to test it out, I looked like a fool
jumping up and down on the field. Embarrassed, I went back to my
dormitory. I have learned my lesson. Do not repair magical items.
The Unlocking Charm
The incantation of the Unlocking Charm is Alohomora. This is
pronounced as al-loh-ha-mor-ah, with the emphasis on both loh and mor.
Alohomora is derived from the West African Sidiki dialect and literally
means ‘friendly to thieves’.
The Unlocking Charm is able to unlock doors and windows. A physical
lock is not much of a challenge for the Unlocking Charm. The complexity
of the physical lot has little to no effect on the quality of the Unlocking
Charm. A magical lock, on the other hand, can be difficult to unlock. The
hand movement that belongs to the Unlocking Charm, is a backward S
curving up at the end. A coloured light is to be seen when the charm is
cast, ranging from blue to yellow.
Performance 1
During my first performance of the Unlocking Charm in Charms
class, I noticed something contradictory. Since the incantation of

6. the Unlocking Charm is Alohomora, I expected the pronunciation to
be al-loh-ho-mor-ah with ‘ho’ instead of ‘ha’. So, I mispronounced
the incantation and ultimately nothing happened. The lock was still
locked.
Performance 2
The second performance was on physical locks with a ranging
complexity. As predicted, the complexity of a physical lock did not
affect the quality of the Unlocking Charm. Once you know the
proper pronunciation of the incantation and the right hand
movement, you will be able to open all physical locks.
Performance 3
The third performance is similar to the second performance, but this
time professor Quilmane prepared a set of magical locks. When the
complexity of the magical lock increased (new magic versus old
magic, multiple magical defences, etc.) the quality of the Unlocking
Charm decreased. It was significantly harder to open complex
magical locks than ordinary magical locks. Although, the accuracy
of unlocking did increase when you applied the Unlocking Charm
more often. So, practise should help me to open more complex
magical locks (faster) in the future.