Incarcerous Spell

Incarcerous Spell
Incantation	Incarcerous (in-KAR-ser-us)
Type	Conjuration
Hand movement	Point wand
Light	None
Effect	Binds target in ropes

"Thin cords shot from Lupin's wand this time, and next moment, Pettigrew was wriggling on the floor, bound and gagged."

—Description

The Incarcerous Spell (Incarcerous) was a spell that conjured thick ropes or thin cords from "thin air", that bound whatever the caster was pointing their wand at.

Known uses

""Incarcerous!" A few of them stumbled, one or two of them bound in ropes, but those climbing onto the rock behind them merely stepped over or on the fallen bodies."

—Harry Potter conjuring ropes against attacking Inferi with this spell

Successful

Caster(s)	Victim	Date	Notes
Cecil Lee	Fenrir Greyback	October 31, 1984	Used this spell to restrain Fenrir Greyback during his attack on Hogwarts.
Jacob's sibling	Merula Snyde	1988	Jacob's sibling used this spell on Merula Snyde after learning the spell from Patricia Rakepick.
Quirinus Quirrell	Harry Potter	June 4, 1992	Used it nonverbally and wandlessly to bind and gag Harry, during the Attack in the Underground Chambers.
Severus Snape	Remus Lupin	June 6, 1994	Used it nonverbally to bind and gag Remus in the Shrieking Shack.
	Sirius Black		Used it nonverbally to when he found him unconscious next to Hermione Granger and Harry Potter under the influence of Dementor.
Remus Lupin	Peter Pettigrew		Used it nonverbally in the Shrieking Shack, after forcing him out of his Animagus form.
Peter Pettigrew	Harry Potter	June 24, 1995	Used it nonverbally to bind and gag Harry Potter to Tom Riddle Snr's gravestone.
Albus Dumbledore	Barty Crouch Jr.		Used it nonverbally after Crouch's polyjuice potion with Alastor Moody's hair stopped working and he revealed by Veritaserum that he escaped from Azkaban and helped Lord Voldemort to capture Harry Potter.
Dolores Umbridge	Magorian	June 18, 1996	Used it to strangle a centaur Magorian, during the Skirmish in the Forbidden Forest.
Harry Potter	Inferi	June 30, 1997	Used it to bind and gag one of them in the Horcrux Cave.
Antonin Dolohov	Ron Weasley	August 1, 1997	Used nonverbally during the Luchino Caffe Duel.
Robyn Thistlethwaite	A copy of The Monster Book of Monsters	2008–2009 school year	Tried out the spell and angered the book.
Cassandra Vole	A chest		Used it to practice the spell.
Ivy Warrington	Cassandra Vole		Used it to retaliate against Cassandra for muttering a counter-spell that nullified Ivy's previous Incarcerous Spell.
Jacturus Cloke III	Megan Scott	21st century	Cloke attacked the Muggle Megan Scott with this spell in an Upper Flagley graveyard.
Draco Malfoy	Harry Potter	September, 2020	Draco used this spell while duelling Harry Potter.

Unsuccessful

Caster(s)	Victim	Date	Notes
Harry Potter	Severus Snape	June 30, 1997	Used it in an failed attempt to restrain Severus Snape to stop him from fleeing from Hogwarts during the Battle of the Astronomy Tower after the murder of Albus Dumbledore.
Ivy Warrington	A chest	2008–2009 school year	Used it to practise the spell, but failed due to Cassandra Vole muttering a counter-spell.

Known practitioners

Quirinus Quirrell

Severus Snape

Remus Lupin

Peter Pettigrew

Albus Dumbledore

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Harry Potter

Draco Malfoy

Dolores Umbridge

Cecil Lee

Jacob's sibling

Etymology

The incantation "incarcerous" most likely derives from the Latin word "incarcerus", meaning "to jail" or "to imprison". "Incarcerus" is also the Danish translation of "Incarcerous".

See also

• Incarcifors
• Fulgari
• Brachiabindo
• Rope Bind

Behind the scenes

• In the books, the ropes simply wrap themselves around the centaur's arms and chest. In the film, they also encase his throat, slowly strangling and crushing him while forcing him to the ground. The ropes were animate and therefore could move and constrict their victims similarly to a constrictor snake.
• In the film adaption of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, a Snatcher is seen casting this spell on Ron Weasley who is bound in chains, of course it could have been a similar spell such as "Incarcereta" (which was used in an early script of the Half Blood Prince film when Harry attacked Snape for killing Dumbledore) but it seems most likely that it was Incarcerous.
• Also in the film adaption of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, while fighting their way down to the boathouse, Harry is seen casting this spell where a great flash of orange light escapes his wand and a Death Eater that was trying to lunge at him was instantly bound in chains, again it is unclear if this was Incarcerous or a different capturing-type spell.
• An etymologically and functionally related spell is Incarcifors, which transforms objects into prisons to restrict a person's movement.
• Based on conjecture, it is likely that Relashio or Emancipare could act as counter-spells to Incarcerous. The Revulsion Jinx would be able to release a person from the binding ropes of Incarcerous, while the incantation for Emancipare is derived from Latin for "set free", suggesting its ability to release a person from any form of incarceration.
• In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Minerva McGonagall uses a spell to conjure a silver rope to tie Alecto and Amycus Carrow up to the ceiling, which could be Incarcerous or a possibly a variation of it.
• Based on the text files from the PC version of LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, Incarcerous may have been intended to have a different effect from how it acts in the final game. In the released version of the game, Incarcerous is one of the "joke spells" used only to temporarily incapacitate minifigures. The text files of the game, however, call it "the Indy whip tie" [sic], presumably meaning the spell was originally meant to act similarly to Indiana Jones's whip from the LEGO Indiana Jones games.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (First identified as Incarcerous)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
• 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 Cursed Child
• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (play)
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (First identified as Incarcerous Spell)
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
• Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World
• Harry Potter: The Creature Vault (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
• Harry Potter: Magic Awakened