- 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 governing the magical world. There are five Principle Exceptions to Gamp's Law; the only one explicitly stated is food - however, there are a number of possible candidates for the remaining four.
It should be noted that while food cannot be outright created from nothing, it can be multiplied if one already has some food to multiply, it can be enlarged or the food can be summoned if one knows the approximate location and is fairly sure the food will still be there.[1]
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.[2]
- According to W.O.M.B.A.T., it may or may not be possible to turn an animal into a human.
- Although many things appear impossible to conjure, there is legislation in the wizarding world about what can and cannot be conjured.[3]