Vanishment

**Vanishment** was the magical art of vanishing objects i.e., causing object to cease to exist. Vanished objects went "into non-being, which is to say, everything". It was one of the four branches of Transfiguration, and was the opposite of Conjuration, which brought objects into existence.

## Description

### Nature

Compared to the other three branches, Vanishment appeared moderately difficult as Vanishment had to be performed with a clear and collected head, as demonstrated by Hannah Abbott who was supposed to vanish a ferret during her exam, but instead somehow managed to multiply it into a flock of flamingos.

For its complexity, however, Minerva McGonagall contended that Conjuration, its opposite, was even more difficult; and indeed, Conjuration was not taught at Hogwarts until the sixth year as part of the N.E.W.T.
The difficulty of the Vanishment to be performed correlated with the complexity of the organism to be vanished. For example, invertebrates were easier to vanish than vertebrates, whilst mammals were more difficult.
Vanishing sickness was a wizarding illness treated at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. It was unknown if vanishing was the cause or effect of this illness, though it may have been related to the contraction of some sort of magical bug (since it was treated in the "Magical Bugs" section of St Mungo's).

### Methods

There were several methods one could employ to vanish an object, described below.

#### Vanishing Spells

*Main article: Vanishing Spell*
Unlike Conjuring Spells, vanishing different things could all be accomplished with the same Vanishing Spell — *Evanesco*. *Evanesco* is the spell taught to the fifth-year students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is practised throughout the school year at Hogwarts. The Vanishing Spell is apart of the O.W.L. exam, which means that the spell is considered ordinary magic by the Ministry.

There could also exist spells for vanishing specific things, such as the Snake-Vanishing Spell. The Snake-Vanishing Spell seemed to be a specific spell that could only be used to vanish the intended target, which in this instance was snakes.

#### The Vanishing Cabinet

*Main article: Vanishing Cabinet*
The Vanishing Cabinet was a special piece of furniture in Hogwarts Castle that randomly vanished and reappeared. As such, it could be used to vanish things for a variable but finite length of time (since the cabinet always reappeared at some point in the future). The condition of the cabinet, determined whether or not the vanished object would appear in its twin cabinet after the object has been vanished, if the cabinet was broken or defective then the vanishment would not be hundred percent effective and the object would be trapped in a limbo like state.

A pair of Vanishing Cabinets would act as a passage between two places. Objects placed in one cabinet would appear in the other. The cabinets seemed to ward off all known defensive spells, as, as they were successfully used to transport several Death Eaters from Borgin and Burkes into Hogwarts.

#### The Room of Requirement

*Main article: Room of Requirement*
Like the Vanishing Cabinet, the Room of Requirement also appeared and reappeared, though in accordance with one's wishes. Things left in the Room after one no longer had need of it would be vanished along with the Room itself until a later date (when one had need of that specific object, at which point it would be conjured up inside the Room for them to retrieve).

## Known Practitioners

* Albus Dumbledore
* Bill Weasley
* Harry Potter
* Hermione Granger
* Minerva McGonagall
* Severus Snape

## Trivia

* It is interesting to note that Vanishment, rather than actually causing something to cease to exist, was said to go "*into non-being, which is to say, everything."* Unless this is to be interpreted metaphysically, a possible implication might be that the arrangement of the atoms that gives the Vanished thing in question a sense of shape and weight is simply being altered, with the distance between the atoms expanding to the point where the object loses its essential properties and seems to disappear — causing it, in essence, to be everywhere and nowhere. This would be consistent with the law of conservation of mass, but the required energy to achieve this (breaking all of the object's chemical bonds) would seemingly be explained only by magic.
* It is unknown if the Vanishment of a living creature would result in said creature's death, or merely send it into a conscious, intermediate state until it is conjured back into existence. According to Minerva McGonagall, vanished objects enter "everything", possibly suggesting that Vanished entities do have some form of existence, albeit an unknown kind.
* It may be possible to retrieve Vanished objects, as Bill Weasley vanished some of the Order of the Phoenix's plans in order to hide them.