Charms

Charms Community Comes to a Sudden Halt
by. Ginny Weasley

Today is a very solemn day in the charms community. The great Ardvardious Culsher (The great charm man) has died today at St. Mungoe's hospital of a strange disease that he picked up while traveling. The Minister of magic, Cornelius Fudge released a statement a statement, "The magical world, especially those admirers of Mr. Culsher will indeed miss him for his great sence of humor and his certain distaste for rules."

Culsher was a great man of many faces. He had several backgrounds including, British, Romanian, Turkish, Chinese, German, Irish, and he once told the press that he was half dragon (this was after he drank 3 pints of Mulled Mead so the press never took this seriously.) Culsher also spoke a variety of languages, and visited many parts of the world. Impressing many with his knowledge and skill of charms. Yes, Culsher will indeed be missed. A small funeral will be held for him but the location will not be released to the public. Culsher's wife (who divorced him soon after they were married) only had one to say about him, "Ardvardious Culsher, I'm going to miss you, you old bag"

This article is dedicated to the memory of Richard Harris. He was a great actor and will be greatly missed by everyone.

Harmless Spell or an Unforgivable Curse?
Reported By Ally Potter

Recently, a young witch named Roxy Wekret stepped into the Magical Menagerie to buy an owl. This 23-year old witch accidentally left her money pouch across the room so she used a simple Retrieving Spell to bring it to her. A retrieving spell is a harmessly easy spell and wizards as young as 7 years are known to be able to use it. However, there was an unknown reaction. Roxy had long, curly hair, she had suck her wand hand through the mass of hair. The wand made contact with her hair, and the retrieving spell chopped her hair and stuck it to her hand. A Magical Reverse Squad was sent to reinstate her natural appearance. Ms. Wekret bought a barn owl and named it Harriet.

Ban Finally Put on Charm
By Ginny Weasley

The infamous charming charm (which injured many peoples faces) has finally been banned. With over 1,000 facelifts gone awry because of the effects of this so-called "beauty charm." St. Mungo's has had enough with it. I myself have tried the charm to remove a quite annoying pimple in the middle of my nose. It did remove the pimple, but left my skin badly burned from the "burn that pimple off" section I seemed to have missed in the instruction booklet. I admit that I was the one to report this mad charm, and now fully regret it. The inventor of the charm, Bathilda Smidge, has been suffering from the amount of "I hate you" owls she has been receiving. Ms. Smidgeon is currently in the process of trying to re-create the charm so that it doesn't leave the user as hideous as a hag.

"I knew I first had a problem when Eoiliese Midgen tried it to remove a pimple from her nose, and ended up taking off her whole nose as well as the pimple," says Ms.Smidgeon. "But I didn't give it a second thought until those articles started coming out about how much chaos my charm was causing." But we here at the Daily Prophet found out that Bathilda Smidgeon was the one to ban the charm. She didn't say why she wanted to ban it herself, But she was finally able to enjoy an afternoon at the Three Broomsticks without being pelted with bottle caps and exploding bon-bons.

Charms...For Good or for Worse?
by: Ginny Weasley

Today Mr. Ollivander reports that wands have been stolen and used to 'fix up' certain things in diagon ally. Gringotts sign, the one on the front of the building now says:
enter, stranger, and take what you need
no one can have the sin of greed
for those who earn, but do not take,
will not pay dearly in their turn.
so if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that will soon be yours,
so if what you see makes you sway,
take it, we don't need it anyway.
teenagers are claimed to do this kind of thing, and will dearly pay if they are found out. Mr. Ollivander found inspiration for this warning from Gringott's Bank, when they suggested he post something similar to the poem that they put up outside their offices on Diagon Alley after a rash of robberies. Mr. Ollivander took them at their word and used the poem, tweaking it slightly for his own purposes.

New Charm Hits The People Literally
By Artimus Quirrell

Today at Diagon Alley a wizard was passing out our newspaper and somebody said a recent new spell named the pusher spell(Anomania). The saler was pushed into a wall and had a broken spine the next day. He is now on heart medication cause of the shock of the push. The caster of the spell was fined 1500 galleons which is the cost of the patient's medical bills.

Foreign Charms Explored
By Sam Flitwick

Although Ministries of Magic throughout the world are always in close contact, some countries like to keep certain magical secrets to themselves. The countries, of China, Japan, and Zimbabwe in particular keep to themselves magically. Recently however, a breakthrough with the Zimbabwean minister was made.

Because of recent revolts in that country, the minister wished to remain unnamed for fear of assassination. It has been confirmed however that he met with Cornelius Fudge on several occasions to try and establish a more open relationship between England and Zimbabwe. Fudge's main goal for the meetings was to find out more about undisclosed charms used by the ministry. Because of its remote location and abundance of dangerous animals, the Zimbabwean Ministry has worked hard over the years perfecting charms that keep dangerous and potentially deadly animals at bay.

Because of the discovery of a basilisk at Hogwarts School two years ago, the ministry had a new task on its hands: find out if more of these animals that were supposed to be extinct are still alive. This basilisk living within the walls of a school obviously provided a safety hazard for the students attending the school. The Hogwarts staff as well as the ministry combed the school for any more dangerous animals, but found none. This does not settle anyone however, since the best wizards in England searched Hogwarts countless times, and did not find the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, where the basilisk had lay dormant for years.

Whether or not Fudge's meetings were a success or not remains to be seen. He is keeping that information under wraps for now. However, there can be no doubt that if he did extract charms from the Zimbabwean minister, the Ministry of Magic must be testing them even now.

Charming Disaster
By Artimus Quirrell

Yesterday, two eighth year students attending Hogwarts were expelled after using floating charm (Wingardium Leviosa) to make a first year fly up and over the school and hover over the Forbidden Forest. She was found the next morning with blood all over her after being bitten by a werewolf and almost killed by a wild unicorn. I investigated the scene and asked the parents of the child to say a couple of words. Her mother says this is an outrage: "We send her to school to be safe from the kids on our block and she almost gets killed." The current headmaster says that the students will be expelled and they were.

Improving Your Looks?
by Ginny Weasley

Still more witches and wizards are casting the 'beauty charm' and are ending up as ugly as hags.

"This is the next one I think will be banned," says an irritated Cornelius Fudge, "Theres more of these beauty disasters in St. Mungo's than all of the kids in Hogwarts put together." One lady has been back to St. Mungo's nine different times for performing the same charm and each time there is a new wart on her nose. St.Mungo's is getting very irritated with all of the, "I used the beuaty charm" stories.

Few Charms Not Charming
Reported by Hermiona Pisces-Dumbledore

Today, a little 8-year old was hospitalized for a back-firing charm, the Alohomora one. She was opening a door, and the door flew off the hinges and bruised her face. A few other incidents have happened. The saddest incident was someone using the Charming charm. The two people, a boy and girl, turned into ogres and were caught by poachers. Parents, watch your wands. Kids, hide them. Over 3,000,000 incidents have happened like these. The result is backfiring wands. Please, if this or something else happens with charms, return your wand for a full refund and a free new one.

New Charm Isn't Charming
By Paul Pettigrew

A Ministry witch is in the hospital today after testing the spell called the charming charm, which makes the user better looking. For some reason instead of improving her looks the charm backfired and made her nose and ears disappear. Thankfully she is doing fine and is in recovery.

Hogwarts Cheering Charm Disaster
By Ginny Weasley

Recently at hogwarts, many people have been suffering from the 'spring feaver' eaven though spring han't sprung yet. Professor Flictwit, (the chrms teacher at hogwarts) Has found that the kids are beggining not to put as much heart in their charm work as he would like. Eaven the most talented students have been not as good grade wise So professor Flictwit decided to attempt a cheering charm over his thursday morning gryffindor 5th year class. But the charm ended in disaster. Flictwit 'over did' when trying to cast it. The students were indeed vary happy but began to run. ariund the school wrecking many valuble artifacts.

"Good thing they didn't get to the trophy room" Says an irritable Augus Filtch. "Or I would have been shining all night" He says. Than he had to rush away beacasue one of the mad students had knocked over another suit of armour. Flictwit told the prophet that "I was only trying to make them a little more in the mood for charms." Dumbledore had to substain the students by putting the full body bind on them so that they would keep still. And we are sure that professor flicwit will not be trying cheering charms soon.

What the World Would Have Been
By Ginny Weasley

I guess all of you out there always wondered, 'What would life be without our charms?' Well, we wouldn't have all the interesting spell books we have now. And Hogwarts would be missing a class, so Professor Flitwick wouldn't have a job. We could do without the unforgivable curses. But what would we do without cheering charms and charms to make yourself look a bit better in the morning?  Charms play an important role in every witch's and wizard's life. I, myself, use charms everyday! (In my charms class, of course.) But in the common room, what would wizards chess be without the charmed pieces? Or quiddich; the charmed golden snitch? Well, I guess I've made myself clear over the matter that charms are very important to the wizarding world.

New Charm Discovered
By Hermiona Piscesa Dumbledore

Only yesterday, there was a new charm discovered and made by our very own Hermiona Piscesa Dumbledore. It is called the Pretty Charm. I had been making a potion for potions class, when I discovered I had put in all the wrong ingredients, and instead of the bezoar potion, which cures a sore throat, I had made a sweet-smelling potion that can be poured on the person or drunk. A paticular unpretty friend of mine at Hogwarts tried to drink it because I had said, ''Maybe it's edible''. After 5 minutes, she went from spotted and zitted-up bushy-damaged hair girl to a tall, pretty, perfect hair, and flawless skined young woman. Since the potion ingredients are easy to find or buy, let me tell you the 10-item long list. (I found half and bought half at diagon alley):

Find:
Boomwang Tails (pick at 2:30 pm only)
Strawberry Wings (find a wangtree and find the red things on it)
Wangtree Bark
Bubotuber Pus (diluted, with a strawberry wing added to it, combine in a jar with a spoon.
Mandrake Hair

Buy:
Blackberry Twigs (Warlock's Wizarding Store, 5 knuts)
Mandrake Skin (1/2 inch long of), (Celesta's Everything Potions Store, 3 galleons)
Dragon heartstring (go to Olllivanders and ask for a broken wand with dragon heartstring inside it) ollivander's wand store, 12 sickles
Butterfly Wood (cut in 3/4 peices) The Warlock's and Witch's Store, 9 gaellons
34 Forget-Me-Nots (purple kind), Apothicary For The Magical Folk, 17 sickles.

Boil the Forget-Me-Nots and Butterfly together in a cauldron with hot water, (use the water spell), pour all the other ingredients together and cool it down using ice, (put ice cubes or ice-cold water on it). 15 minutes after cooling, put in glass and drink or slap it on you (it's kinda creamy) 5 to 14 mins. Later, you should be prettier than Pansy Parkinson with make-up on! But one more thing, this is reccomended for girls only; it will cause boys to start sprouting long straight blonde hair, and will start acting, dressing, and wearing make-up like a girl! (It happened to my friend Harry, the Boy Who Lived!)

New Spells Released From Ministry of Magic
By Hermione Granger

Today, to the shock of most wizards, the Ministry of Magic (MOM) has released new spells. These new spells came from a Boadicea's tomb, located underneath King's Cross in London, contained within books, journals and scrolls. Cassandra Wilson, the leader of a team of witches working to break some of history's mysteries found her tomb late last year, and has already handed over some information to MOM. However, some wonder if handing over this information to MOM, and then letting only the MOM release what they see fit, may make it harder for people who work in the same field, with the information only allowed to be seen by uniformed Ministry workers.

"You must understand," Wilson explained, "That without the Ministry of Magic funding this project, the team and myself would have been unable to go though with this project. We were in desperate need of funding."

Only three curses were released today, saddening many who were hoping for a bit more.

"What a pity the old nut bag didn't let them tell more," said a young red-haired boy from Hogwarts. "I was hoping they were going to let some more information slip so that I have new spells to curse some of my friends with. I've been dying to see if that rumour about a temporarily insane curse was really true."

Wilson also agreed. "It is true that more translating has been done than what the MOM actually released. In fact, a lot more. I was hoping that perhaps they would be a little more lineate, but I suppose not."

Wilson also reported that she hopes this find will interest more students in History, as she understands that the subject has become a bit unpopular.

"I hate history!" one black-haired girl from Hogwarts replied. "History is so boring. We just sit there twiddling our thumbs and do absolutely nothing else. Our teacher is this old ghost who goes on and on and on and on and on…"

"What History class? I take a History class?" Said another student at Hogwarts.

"I think History is fascinating," stated yet another student, from muggle parentage. "Now, do tell me, where have you heard that people my age tend not to like history?"

The Ministry of Magic released the following spells today:

Nomannic Spell

"BRANDWOND SCHOON!"

This spell, which was said to be a favorite of Boadicea's eldest daughter, makes a room smell like cinnamon. Most wizardettes who want to buy those scented muggle candles, but can't get their hand on the pound or pence will find this a nice substitute.

Ertpecs Spell

"SCEPTRE ZAUBERSTAB ROSSO"

Boadicea and her family also used this Spell. This spell makes wands glow a reddish hue temporarily, at an average of about 2 hours.

Edaj Spell

"KLEPERIS POBRZASK"

The Edaj spell is used to make any stone transform into jade.

Ministry Employee Hospitalized
By Sam Flitwick

Gilbert Wimple, while testing the recently-discovered Shadow Charm, had a nasty accident. The Shadow Charm is a supposed spy tool, used to eliminate the shadow of a person. This allows the person to move without being seen. Wimple however, encountered a more serious problem: he disappeared entirely.

There is no known charm to make someone reappear, because disappearing is always done with an Invisibility Cloak. Wimple's invisible body was taken to St. Mungo's for care, and the doctors poured a red potion all over him so that they could see the general outline of his body.

Meanwhile, members of the Ministry of Magic are feverishly working to find a reappearing spell. No one knows exactly why the spell turned him invisible, and yet simply eliminated everyone else's shadow.

Until more is learned about this spell, further use has been suspended at the Ministry. Wimple will continue to receive treatment until a counterspell has been found, but in the meantime, he will rest comfortably and invisibly at St. Mungo's.

Boy Charms Rosemary
By Ko Belladonna

In an unfortunate incident on Tuesday, Hogwarts student Malfustus Fremont Jr. (known to friends as “Mal”), performed an experimental charm on his Muggle neighbor’s rosemary plant, which caused the plant to begin composing and reciting rude poetry. The charm, which makes plants speak and compose stories and poems, was created by Malfustus himself. “I was only trying to have a bit of fun!” sobbed the unfortunate boy, who is facing charges of juvenile wizardry and illegal charm creation. The charm (which consists of a certain movement of the wand along with the word ‘verbafabulaplantum’, gave Mrs. Sminters, an elderly Muggle woman, quite a shock. She cannot, of course, be asked for comment, since Obliviators from the Accidental Magical Reversal Squad Modified her memory immediately after the incident. The actual text of the plant’s crude poetry has not been released to the press. “Nor will it be! The very idea!” exclaimed an oddly red-in-the-face Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic.

Fix-It-Up Charms
By Ginny Weasley

Recently my friend, Piper Syrall (in her 3rd year at hogwarts), bought a brand new quill. This may be unimportant to most people who don't use quills, but that's not what this article is about. Her quill was a beauitiful peacock blue and she loved it dearly. She took it home over the Christmas holidays to finish her load of homework(most was from Snape) and then while she was outside her muggle home, she dropped the quill on the ground and a massive muggle dog picked it up and ran down the street with it. Piper chased the dog for a long time. But when she got her beloved quill back, it was torn to shreads by the massive dog. She not only could not finish her homework, but she lost a vary good quill and was very upset because the quill had been given to her by her uncle who did not have a lot of money. So she worked long and hard over the holidays trying to fix it and made a new charm. This charm she named the 'destroyed by a dog charm' It worked by fully restoring her beautiful qill so it looked brand new. As for the dog that destroyed it, he found his favorite bone with little green men surrounding it. And wished dearley he hadn't destroyed the quill at all.

History of Creating Charms
By Sarah Weasley

Researchers have finally discovered how exactly charms are made. The first charm ever made may surprise you, but it was Wingardum Leviosa! The Father of Charms, Agustus Leviosa's, grave was found a year ago containing ancient parchments on how to create charms. Now the people of the daily prophet have a chance to use the newly made charm! Put your hands together for the Slim Charm. Anyone who uses this new charm becomes slim, but not too slim. It works great on model wizards! Anyway, we are happy to report that this new charm will be legal on the 3rd of next February.

Charms Helping to Save Dragons
By Sam Flitwick

The largest dragon reserve in the world, located in Romania, has been infiltrated by poachers for years. Poachers try to hunt down dragons for their dragon hide, which can be illegally sold. Although dragon hide can be bought at most clothing shops for use as gloves, poachers try and get the hide directly and sell it at a lower price to make a profit for themselves. However, a recently-discovered charm should put an end to it all.

The Fence Charm, which has recently been approved as "safe" by the Committee of Experimental Charms, is being employed at dragon reserves around the world. It is basically a stunning spell that is set up over a distance, stunning anyone who crosses the invisible line that it makes. At the Romanian Dragon Reserve, there are breaks in the charm at strategic intervals, allowing reserve workers to have access to the dragons.

This spell serves the dual purpose of keeping poachers out and keeping dragons in their natural habitat. Poachers will be automatically stunned upon trying to cross the line, but the dragons will not feel the spell at all because the charm only works on humans. There are, of course, stronger charms around the perimeters of the reserves to keep the dragons in.

The spell is rapidly growing in popularity, not only among dragon reserves, but for people with pets as well. They can put the spell around the pet, which will not know anything about it, but keeps robbers out.

The Not-So-Cheery Cheering Charm
By Thomas Flitwick

Graduated Hogwarts student, Nigel Sanford was arrested by the Ministry on November 14 for using a Cheering Charm on an already cheery muggle; the muggle is now in critical condition in a muggle hospital. The Cheering Charm made him (a muggle by the name of Robert Coleman) laugh and smile so much that his face was stuck in a smile. They had to do surgery to relax his face. Sanford will be on trial for deliberate force on an unarmed being, and deliberate force against a muggle, his trial is set for November 23.

Head of Law Enforcement Follows Through
By Sam Flitwick

Last week, as you may recall, I wrote an article concerning the Confoundus Charm's newly-discovered power. It has apparently been used for some time now to force innocent people to work for You-Know-Who. Some Death Eaters who have tried to remain within the law have used this, but others, like the legendary Lestrange family, have no need for abiding the laws, and have used the Imperius Curse. The Lestranges are wanted in Azkaban, where they were condemned to spend the rest of their lives. However, one month ago, they all mysteriously vanished. Many inside the Ministry believe that it was not only You-Know-Who who released them, but that he may also have had help from the Dementors, who served in the Dark Army before his fall.

In any case, the head of The Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Albert Dunhill, has taken the advice of Gilbert Wimple, a high-ranking member of The Committee of Experimental Charms, and the conductor of the Confoundus Charm tests, and made the Confoundus Charm illegal if performed on humans. It now carries a punishment of 24-35 years in Azkaban, and/or a fine of 4,000-10,000 galleons. While Wimple was hoping for the Confoundus Charm to become an Unforgivable Curse, Dunhill says that the charm was not as powerful as the Imperius Curse, and therefore not as punishable.

When news of this law was passed on to Wimple, he took on a bittersweet expression and said, "It is for the best, I suppose, and dark wizards will not be able to use it legally anymore."

Unfortunately, the two wizards who admitted to the crime of using the Confoundus Charm will not come under the ruling of this law, since it was passed after their arrests. They are, however, spending 8 years in Azkaban for associating with the Dark Arts.

Charms Out of Hand?
By Ginny Weasley

The Ministry of Magic has upheld a new law (not again!) that some of the charms are getting too out of hand. Which means that some charm work that people are doing are causing muggles to notice us. Rita Skeeter did an especially nasty report on how Mad Eye Moody (a once famous auror) has maniac dust bins that recently attacked a few police men (muggle law enforcers) and their memories had to be modified so that this brutal charm work wouldn't be spread amongst the muggle world. So recent events in the wizarding world have raised some questions about if charms should be made illegal. Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, disagrees with this new and cruel law. "Charms make the wizarding world all the better," he says. The charms teacher at the school, professor Flitwick also prevails against this law, "it's just wrong," he says after hastily changing the subject. Are our charms really bad? We'll just have to watch and wait.

New Charm Restriction
By Artimus Quirrell

New charm restriction for the cheering charm cause of a recent accident. The accident occurred at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It happened by two students [not to be named cause of privacy rule] using the cheering charm . The charm was so powerful it made them act like they were insane and they knocked over a 19 ton Christmas tree. The accident injured the Charms Professor and the two students who knocked it over. They are currently at Hookroot's Hospital for Magical Diseases and Injuries. We are excepting money for the repairs to the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Please send money to Hogwarts prior. Thank you.

Charms, or Dark Arts?
By Sam Flitwick

Since the recent return of You-Know-Who, several wizards have been arrested on charges of associating with the Dark Lord and performing charms usually performed only by Ministry officials. Many of these charms, such as the Confoundus Charm, are being used to bewitch people into serving the Dark Lord. Although this charm is legal, tests at the Ministry of Magic clearly show this charm being nearly as powerful as the Imperius Curse. The Imperius Curse is, of course, and Unforgivable Curse and carries a life sentence in Azkaban if performed on a human.

Two of the seven wizards arrested do not deny involvement with the Dark Lord, but insist that they were well within the law when bewitching innocent people. They claim to have used to Confoundus Charm on people. Nevertheless, involvement with the Dark Arts carries a minimum of 8 years in Azkaban.

Gilbert Wimple, a high-ranking member of the Commitee of Experimental Charms, and the main force behind the Confoundus Charm's test, is pushing for a law making the Confoundus Charm illegal. He says that "If You-Know-Who's followers can perform a charm of this magnitude and be within the law, then (the Department of) Magical Law Enforcement needs a new head. This is completely unacceptable."

The other five wizards arrested denied all charges, but The Department of Magical Law Enforcement's Prosecution Branch says that they have strong cases against all of the accused.

A Terrible Charm Put to an End
By Ginny Weasley

The ministry of magic has released a new policy, prohibiting the use of the Chasels charm. For those of you who don't know what it is. It is a powerful charm that controls another persons body so that the user of the charm can make the victim do anything. It's similar to one of the three unforgivable curses, but this one the vitim can not break out of. Eaven the most power witches and wizards can't break it. and there's no counter curse for it so others can't break it either. This curse was popular back when you-know-who thrived, and was ofted used by death eaters. If anyone is caught using this curse they will be hevily fined and will spend one terrible day in Azkaban.

Charming Yourself With Charms
by Ginny Weasley

Are you those kind of people who are concerend with what you look like? And even when you spend hours sitting in front of your mirror and still can't seem to get that pimple off your nose, or your hair is just out of control. Well there are a few simple charms that improve your complexion and shorten the time you spend in front of the mirror. It's called the beauty charm. This charm can make you beautiful in less than 2 seconds, for that special date, or for a photo shoot, even for every day! It removes pimples, tames the hair, eaven straightens and whitens the teeth! Charms can be bought at any spell store. And are affordable for the witch or wizard who are short on money.

When Charms Backfire
By Dan Granger

If your charms ever backfire, try to dodge it, and do NOT use that wand again. Go to the nearest wand store (Mr. Ollivander's), and either

a) Ask Mr. Ollivander to look at your wand and try to fix it, or

b) Buy a new wand.

Some people, whose wands sent backfiring charms out, ignored it when it happened. The following is about a person who just carried on using the wand.

An example is Alina Gosenwaber. The first time her charm backfired on her was when she was trying to Banish (using the Banishing Charm) some pesky gnomes. I t backfired and she went flying backward and hit her head so hard on her brick wall, that she had to take 2 whole doses of Skull-Mending Potion!

The next time she used it, (which was pretty foolish, if you ask me, that she dared to use that wand) she was scuba-diving in the Caribbean, when she ran into a grindylow. "Relashio!" she yelled. But it backfired and she got burns all over her face. So she sent up sparks that spelled out M.O.M * (basically S.O.S.). The Ministry came, and she learned she must get a new wand.

I hope you learned what to do when you have a wand that backfires, so if this ever happens to you, just think what happened to Alina Gosenwaber.

-The Daily Prophet