Rare Levitation Charm

The Levitation CharmSee this image from J. K. Rowling's . (Wingardium Leviosa) was a charm used to make objects fly, or levitate. It was taught to first-years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 
There were a number of lesser variations of the Levitation Charm, such as the Levitation Spell, the Hover Charm, the Rocket Charm, and the Floating Charm, but the Levitation Charm remained the original and best.
==History==
The Levitation Charm was first developed in the sixteenth century, and warlock Jarleth Hobart is credited with its creation.In response to the catcalls, Hobart tried to move in midair, and started performing vigorous swimming movements, which produced no effect. Mistakenly believing that his clothes were making him heavier and impeding his movement, Hobart stripped thus making him fall ten feet onto the ground below, as it were the clothes that were holding him up in the air — they had been charmed by the Levitation Charm, not Hobart himself. He fell completely naked on the ground, breaking sixteen bones, and received a fine for "outrageous silliness" from the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot in 1544.
Hobart returned home, humiliated, where he realised that his spell could make objects levitate for varying lengths of time, depending on the skill of the spell-caster and on the weight of the object. He also concluded that small animals or even children could be levitated, but that they had no control whatsoever of their movement once airborne.
He thus made a second announcement, and an even larger crowd gathered to see his second demonstration of the spell (hoping for another laugh at his expense). Hobart's demonstration was, at first, by far more successful than the first one: he showed the onlookers how he could easily levitate objects ranging from small rocks to fallen trees. Hobart decided that, for a finale, he would levitate the Chief Warlock's hat — what he managed to levitate, however, was the Chief's wig, exposing his bald head to the gathered crowd. The Chief was not amused, and was determined to duel Hobart, but the Warlock levitated the Chief's robes over his head, and ran for it.
This was also the first spell students learnt to cast during their Charms lessons in the first year. They revised it in the second and their third year. The theoretical Charms O.W.L. exam included a question on the Levitation Charm. Hermione Granger was the first student in her class to levitate a feather much to Ronald Weasley's annoyance.
==Effects==
The Levitation Charm appeared to be an improvement on both the Levitation Spell and Locomotion Charm and/or the Hover Charm, being able to lift objects high in to the air but also allowing one to magically move them through it as well. It also conveniently defied gravity by lifting objects heavier than a normal person, which would otherwise be able to carry, as seen when Ron used this on a troll's club, something a first-year Hogwarts student would otherwise never be able to do without magic.
Despite its strengths, however, the Levitation Charm had one fatal flaw: it did not work on human beings. Though a human could be levitated using this charm, it was actually their clothing that was being affected. The charm was apparently not strong enough to allow a human to do anything more that float a few feet off the air using this method, and therefore did not allow the true flight afforded to most other objects.
Almost anything could be lifted with this spell, although the object levitated depended on the skill of the caster and the weight of the object.
The effects of this charm could be reversed with the General Counter-Spell.
==Known uses==
Caster(s) 	Date 	Notes
Hermione Granger	31 October, 1991	Hermione was the first student in her charms class to master the spell in the first lesson; whilst doing so she attempted to teach Ron Weasley how to correctly cast the spell, much to his annoyance.
Ron Weasley 	31 October, 1991	Ron used this spell to defeat a Mountain Troll which Professor Quirrell had let into the school.
Charlie Weasley 	August, 1994 	Used this spell to levitate the table to fight a table levitated by his brother Bill.
Harry Potter 	December, 1992 	uses this charm to levitate two cupcakes for Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe to eat, containing Sleeping Draught, where as in , they simply leave the cakes on the banisters of the Grand Staircase.
*The fictional character Babbitty Rabbity may have used this spell to levitate a horse, in the tale of Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump, found in .
==Known practitioners==
Filius Flitwick profile.jpg|Filius Flitwick
Mcgonagall.jpg|Minerva McGonagall
Hermione Granger OOTP profile.jpg|Hermione Granger
OOTP promo front Ron cropped.jpg|Ronald Weasley
OOTP promo front Harry cropped.jpg|Harry Potter - Chapter 20 (Polyjuice Potion)
Colin Creevey OOTPG.jpg|Colin Creevey
Arthur Weasley profile.jpg|Arthur Weasley
Charlie PM.jpg|Charlie Weasley
Fred HS TDH promo.jpg|Fred Weasley
DH promo front closeup George Weasley.jpg|George Weasley
Leejordan OoTP.PNG|Lee Jordan
OOTP promo front closeup Sirius Black.jpg|Sirius Black
Draco Malfoy hp6.jpg|Draco Malfoy
Quirinus Quirrel.jpg|Quirinus Quirrell
Lord Voldemort Tom Marvolo Riddle Original Appearance.jpg|Tom Riddle
Wormtail DH1.jpg|Peter Pettigrew - Chapter 27 (Kill the Spare)
*Rowan Khanna
*Unidentified Muggle-born Hogwarts student
==Etymology==
Wingardium is a composite word, based on: English to wing meaning "to fly" (e.g. the plane winged skywards);Wing, definition of arduus (meaning "high, tall, lofty, steep, proudly elevated")Latin word listArduus, meaning of or arduum (meaning "steep place, the steep");Arduum, meaning of and the common Latin ending -ium. Leviosa probably derives from Latin levo, meaning to "raise, lift up", or levis, meaning light (of weight).Levis, meaning of Altogether, therefore, the incantation could best be read as "lift up high".
==Behind the scenes==
*Whilst it was originally assumed that this spell and the Hover Charm were the same, they are not; the Hover Charm makes the target hover, whereas this one is always described as making it fly.
*In , Harry Potter uses this charm to levitate two cupcakes for Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe to eat, containing Sleeping Draught, where as in , they simply leave the cakes on the banisters of the Grand Staircase.
*As a homage to the scene in the film, the PC version of the first video game had feathers flying out of the wand when the spell was used.
*In the GBC video game adaptation of , this spell is used to lift small enemies (havling no effect on large ones), and will deal damage depending on the target (e.g. if it is very light, flying, or, has a shell, it deals very little damage).
*In , the Mending Charm is not present, Wingardium Leviosa is used instead as repairing charm. It levitates broken LEGO pieces to form a new or previous object.
*Although this spell canonically produces no visible effects (apart from its actual spell effect of levitation) - a possible sign of its simplicity - it sometimes does in other HP media. For example, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire the spell connects objects and wand via a yellow stream of light continually released from the wand tip whereas in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (GBA version) a blue orb of magical energy is shot at the target. In a pink glow appears around the object and levitates it.
*In the Levitation Charm is also a double up of the Cruciatus Curse for Death Eaters. It works the same way as the Levitation Charm by lifting it's victim off the ground, but instead it causes them to writhe and scream in pain, causing them damage.
*This spell's incantation is Warwick Davis's favourite line,See this YouTube video and his favourite spell in the series. - What are the Harry Potter cast members favourite Hogwarts classes?
*In The LEGO Batman Movie, Lord Voldemort uses the incantation of this spell for effects normally completely unrelated to it, emitting a green light similar to the Killing Curse and transfiguring people into fish.
==Appearances==
* 
*
*
*
* 
* 
*
*
* 
*
*
*
* 
*Harry Potter: The Wand Collection 
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
==Notes and references==
Category:Charms
Category:Levitation
Category:Spells Of-Known Incantation