Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration
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- Hermione: "Your mother can’t produce food out of thin air, no one can. Food is the first of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfigura—"
- Ron: "Oh, speak English, can’t you?"
- Hermione: "It’s impossible to make good food out of nothing! You can Summon it if you know where it is, you can transform it, you can increase the quantity if you’ve already got some..."
- — Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley on the exceptions to Gamp's Law[src]
Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration is a law of wizarding physics which states what powers magic has to create or destroy matter. There are five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law; some are food and love. Food may be multiplied once a real food object is actually in hand, but cannot be created from nothing.[1] Love cannot be created; it can only be imitated through a Love Potion or the Imperius Curse, in which case it resembles an obsessive infatuation.[2]
Life does not seem to be an exception, as birds can be created using the spell Avis[2], and flowers with Orchideous[3]. Gold can be created through use of the Philosopher's Stone[4]. Leprechauns may create objects that look like gold or money, but which will, in time, change back to dead leaves or dirt; it is merely an illusion or transfiguration. The Gemino Curse may also cause the illusion of created gold, as was witnessed in the Lestrange Vault at Gringotts in 1998. However, this was a curse placed on the real, existing gold and would multiply any object it was cast upon, not necessarily gold.[1]
[edit] Behind the scenes
- Gamp's Law apparently uses the surname of the person who discovered it. Hesper Gamp, a witch married to Sirius Black II, might be that person or a relative of that person.[5]
- Food can´t be conjured, but this is what Minerva McGonagall seems to do in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. However, it is possible that she used a Summoning Charm. Molly Weasley also appears to conjure sauce into a pan in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
