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"Thin cords shot from Lupin's wand this time, and next moment, Pettigrew was wriggling on the floor, bound and gagged."
— Description[src]

The Incarcerous Spell[2] (Incarcerous)[1] was a spell that conjured thick ropes or thin cords from "thin air", that bound whatever the caster was pointing their wand at.[1]

Known uses[]

"'Incarcerous!' A few of them stumbled, one or two of them bound in ropes, but those climbing onto the rock behind them merely stepped over or on the fallen bodies."
Harry Potter conjuring ropes against attacking Inferi with this spell[src]

Successful[]

Caster(s) Victim Date Notes
Ruth Singer Cassandra Mason 1891 Used to bind Mason with ropes so she could arrest her.[3]
Cecil Lee Fenrir Greyback 31 October 1984 Used this spell to restrain Fenrir Greyback during his attack on Hogwarts.[4]
Jacob's sibling Merula Snyde 1988 Jacob's sibling used this spell on Merula Snyde after learning the spell from Patricia Rakepick on the Training Grounds.[5]
Tied-up Merula
Alastor Moody Burke 1990–1991 school year Used to bind Burke at the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary after Jacob's sibling defeated him in a duel, in order to transport him to Azkaban.[6]
Burke bound with ropes HM736
Quirinus Quirrell Harry Potter 4 June 1992 Used it nonverbally and wandlessly to bind and gag Harry, during the Attack in the Underground Chambers.[7]
IncarcerousOnHarry
Severus Snape Remus Lupin 6 June 1994 Used it nonverbally to bind and gag Remus in the Shrieking Shack.[8]
Sirius Black Used it nonverbally to when he found him unconscious next to Hermione Granger and Harry Potter under the influence of Dementor.[8]
Remus Lupin Peter Pettigrew Used it nonverbally in the Shrieking Shack, after forcing him out of his Animagus form.[8]
Peter Pettigrew Harry Potter 24 June 1995 Used it nonverbally to bind and gag Harry Potter to Tom Riddle Snr's gravestone.[9]
Albus Dumbledore Bartemius Crouch Jnr Used it nonverbally after Crouch's polyjuice potion with Alastor Moody's hair stopped working and he revealed by Veritaserum that he escaped from Azkaban and helped Lord Voldemort to capture Harry Potter.[10]
Dolores Umbridge Magorian 18 June 1996 Used it to strangle a centaur Magorian, during the Skirmish in the Forbidden Forest.[1]
Harry Potter Inferi 30 June 1997 Used it to bind and gag one of them in the Horcrux Cave.[11]
Antonin Dolohov Ron Weasley 1 August 1997 Used nonverbally during the Luchino Caffe Duel.[12]
Robyn Thistlethwaite A copy of The Monster Book of Monsters 2 September 2008 Tried out the spell and angered the book.[13]
Ivy Warrington Unknown Before or during the 2010–2011 school year Used this spell for unknown purpose. Was discovered by Linderina Crane when she used the Reverse Spell on Ivy's wand.[13]
Unidentified Muggle-born Hogwarts student A Manticore 2010–2011 school year Used this spell to restrain a Manticore found in the Forbidden Forest.[13]
Minerva McGonagall Elspeth MacGillony Used this spell to incarcerate Elspeth MacGillony when she was found duelling with students by the Great Lake.[13]
Jacturus Cloke III Megan Scott 21st century Cloke attacked the Muggle Megan Scott with this spell in an Upper Flagley graveyard.[14]
Draco Malfoy Harry Potter September 2020 Draco used this spell while duelling Harry Potter.[15]

Unsuccessful[]

Caster(s) Victim Date Notes
Harry Potter Severus Snape 30 June 1997 Used it in an failed attempt to restrain Severus Snape to stop him from fleeing from Hogwarts during the Battle of the Astronomy Tower after the murder of Albus Dumbledore.[16]
Linderina Crane A Boggart in the form of a masked wizard from NOTME 2010–2011 school year Used it in an attempt to restrain it, but failed to realise it was a Boggart instead of a real wizard.[13]

Known practitioners[]

Etymology[]

The incantation "incarcerous" most likely derives from the Latin word "incarcerus", meaning "to jail" or "to imprison". "Incarcerus" is also the Danish translation of "Incarcerous".

Behind the scenes[]

  • In the books, the ropes simply wrap themselves around the centaur's arms and chest; in the film, they also encase his throat, slowly strangling and crushing him while forcing him to the ground. The ropes were animate and therefore could move and constrict their victims similarly to a constrictor snake.
  • In the film adaption of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, a Snatcher is seen casting this spell on Ron Weasley who is bound in chains, of course it could have been a similar spell such as "Incarcereta" (which was used in an early script of the Half Blood Prince film when Harry attacked Snape for killing Dumbledore) but it seems most likely that it was Incarcerous.
  • Also in the film adaption of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, while fighting their way down to the boathouse, Harry is seen casting this spell where a great flash of orange light escapes his wand and a Death Eater that was trying to lunge at him was instantly bound in chains, again it is unclear if this was Incarcerous or a different capturing-type spell.
  • An etymologically and functionally related spell is Incarcifors, which transforms objects into prisons to restrict a person's movement.
  • Based on conjecture, it is likely that Relashio or Emancipare could act as counter-spells to Incarcerous. The Revulsion Jinx would be able to release a person from the binding ropes of Incarcerous, while the incantation for Emancipare is derived from Latin for "set free", suggesting its ability to release a person from any form of incarceration.
  • In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Minerva McGonagall uses a spell to conjure a silver rope to tie Alecto and Amycus Carrow up to the ceiling,[17] which could be Incarcerous or a possibly a variation of it.
  • Based on the text files from the PC version of LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, Incarcerous may have been intended to have a different effect from how it acts in the final game. In the released version of the game, Incarcerous is one of the "joke spells" used only to temporarily incapacitate minifigures. The text files of the game, however, call it "the Indy whip tie" [sic], presumably meaning the spell was originally meant to act similarly to Indiana Jones's whip from the LEGO Indiana Jones games.[18]

Appearances[]

Wiki
The Harry Potter Wiki has 13 images related to Incarcerous Spell.

Notes and references[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 33 (Fight and Flight)
  2. LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
  3. 3.0 3.1 Hogwarts Legacy - (The Haunted Hogsmeade Shop)
  4. 4.0 4.1 Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Year 1, "Howling Hallowe'en" Achievement
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Year 5, Chapter 1 (Year Five Begins)
  6. 6.0 6.1 Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Year 7, Chapter 36 (Impenetrable and Unplottable)
  7. 7.0 7.1 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 17 (The Man with Two Faces)
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 19 (The Servant of Lord Voldemort)
  9. 9.0 9.1 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 31 (The Third Task)
  10. 10.0 10.1 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 36 (The Parting of the Ways) - "Then he raised his wand once more and ropes flew out of it, ropes that twisted themselves around Barty Crouch, binding him tightly."
  11. 11.0 11.1 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 26 (The Cave)
  12. 12.0 12.1 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 9 (A Place to Hide)
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 13.7 Harry Potter: Magic Awakened
  14. 14.0 14.1 Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World - Case 9: Cloke and Dagger, Act 1
  15. 15.0 15.1 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Act Two, Scene Thirteen
  16. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 28 (Flight of the Prince)
  17. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 30 (The Sacking of Severus Snape)
  18. LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Windows) on The Cutting Room Floor

See also[]

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