Blasting Curse

"As they soared upwards, away from the two remaining Death Eaters, Harry spat blood out of his mouth, pointed his wand at the falling sidecar, and yelled, 'Confringo!' He knew a dreadful, gut-wrenching pang for Hedwig as it exploded..."

- Harry Potter's use in the Battle of the Seven Potters

The Blasting Curse is a spell that causes anything that the spell comes into contact with to explode. The incantation is Confringo.

Known uses

 * Alberta Toothill used this curse to defeat Samson Wiblin in the All-England Wizarding Duelling Competition of 1430.
 * On 1 November, 1981, Peter Pettigrew may have used an extremely powerful blasting curse to decimate a street and kill twelve Muggles at once while evading Sirius Black, who was blamed for the crimes and Pettigrew's alleged death. The explosion was so fierce, it left a massive crater in the street, with the pipes showing. The Ministry gave an excuse of a "gas leak" to the surviving Muggles, and thought that Black was the one who used the curse.
 * Harry Potter used this curse to destroy Sirius Black's flying motorcycle's side-car during the Battle of the Seven Potters.
 * Later that year, Hermione Granger used it in an attempt to kill Nagini and facilitate her and Harry's escape from Bathilda Bagshot's house in Godric's Hollow, but broke Harry's wand in the process.

Possible uses

 * This spell may have been the cause of the explosion which killed Fred Weasley during the Battle of Hogwarts.

Known practitioners

 * Harry Potter
 * Hermione Granger
 * Peter Pettigrew
 * Minerva McGonagall
 * Lord Voldemort

Etymology
Confringo is Latin for "I break".

Behind the Scenes

 * In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 Professor McGonagall possibly uses the Blasting Curse to duel against Snape (just in case this is not the Blasting Curse, it is referred to as the Fiery offensive spell), defeating Amycus and Alecto Carrow in the process.
 * In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Harry uses the Blasting Curse against Nagini in an attempt to kill her and possibly to provoke Voldemort to chase Harry, so the snake would stay behind unprotected. This fails in that the spells bounces off Nagini, due to her magical protection, and instead strikes multiple Death Eaters. Immediately after this instance, Voldemort also casted several Blasting Curses at Harry as he jumped into a corridor and escaped Voldemort's wrath.
 * Both this spell and Expulso share similar effects, though - unlike the latter - Confringo is sometimes accompanied by fiery explosions. The reason for this may be that Confringo is the result of a sharp, local temperature increase where as Expulso increases the local pressure to cause explosions. However, in the Deathly Hallows video games, Confringo is an explosive spell, while Expulso serves as some sort of "machine gun" spell.
 * In different varieties of games and films, the colour of Confringo varies. Its two main colours so far are a light blue and purple, or simply a fiery explosion.
 * A spellbook for this spell could be found nearby an old building close to an Acromantula lair and some abandoned nuclear power plants.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (video game)
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
 * Harry Potter: Spells
 * Pottermore