Serpensortia

Classification

Transfiguration (Conjuring)

Description

I find the Serpensortia charm to be… problematic. The description in the books is a bit vague, but seems to imply that Malfoy created the snake, rather than summoning it. I don't like the idea of it being a true conjuration, that is, creating something from nothing. The idea that Malfoy is skilled enough as a 2nd year to conjure a snake that can understand parseltongue is ridiculous. In book 6, Hermione conjures some birds while moping about Ron and Lavender, and Harry is impressed by her spell work. Surely a snake would be at least as difficult, if not more so. So, I decided to go with the non-spatial summoning charm described above.¹

The transcription of the Book of Spells references a "Principle of Artificianimate Quasi-Dominance" and goes on to state that for poorly understood and entirely unstated reasons, birds and snakes are easier to conjur than anything else.² I do not feel this rather hand-wavy quasi-explanation truly addresses Mr. Hycrest's objections above.

Found in

Primary Cannon : citation needed.

Secondary Cannon : magicscrapbook "‘Book of Spells’ transcript" Last Viewed 2021-09-30.

Fan Fiction : Ian Hycrest. Harry Potter and the Hands of Justice Published: 2019-08-27. Updated: 2020-01-14. Last Viewed: 2021-06-29.