Bewitched sleep

Warning!

At least some content in this article is derived from information featured in: Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery & Hogwarts Legacy.
As such, spoilers will be present within the article.

"Point me!"
This article is about the magically-induced condition in general. You may be looking for the specific spell of the same name from Hogwarts Mystery.

Bewitched sleep,^[1] or enchanted slumber,^[2] were terms used when a sentient creature was placed under a magically-induced sleep. Sleep could be magically induced by Sleeping Charms,^[3] and more advanced spells which placed the target in a state akin to suspended animation, where the person bewitched did not breathe for the duration of the spell,^[4] and even darker variations, such as the sleepwalking curse placed upon the Forest Vault, from which the victims could potentially run the risk of never waking up from.^[5]

History[]

In the Middle Ages, the hag Malodora Grymm attempted to eliminate the most beautiful girl in the kingdom by giving her a poisoned apple, which put her into a deep sleep. The hag Leticia Somnolens also placed an unidentified princess into a deep sleep with the Draught of Living Death.^[6]

Also during the Middle Ages, an unidentified medieval witch's parents cast a curse on a bee pendant they commissioned from King Ragnuk. The curse would cause the victim to fall into a bewitched sleep until the curse was broken when the victim's lover confessed their love. The cursed bee pendant would go on to curse multiple people throughout history until the curse was finally broken in the 1980s^[7]

Sleeping 2 — Hermione Granger suspended in the Black Lake in a bewitched sleep

In around 1634, Gormlaith Gaunt made an assault on Ilvermorny Castle; which she began by casting a curse that put those whom the dark witch specified by name into a bewitched sleep to render them vulnerable to attack.^[2]

In the late 19th century, the Daily Prophet reported an Irish witch who had awoken after a bewitched sleep for 600 years in her ancestral home in Donegal.^[8]

At some point between the mid-1970s to the early '80s, a student at Hogwarts by the name of Jacob was involved in a search for the fabled Cursed Vaults, which led to the accidental unleashing of a Sleepwalking curse, which placed students into a deep slumber and caused them to mindlessly wander off into the Forbidden Forest in the direction of one of the Cursed Vaults, where those whom the staff failed to stop where, due to their condition and inability to defend themselves, ravaged and some even outright devoured by the more dangerous and bloodthirsty creatures within.^[5] During the 1987–1988 school year, the same curse was triggered again,^[5] only to be broken by Jacob's younger sibling that same year.^[9]

Hogwarts students during this time were also able to learn a spell that caused bewitched sleep and was often employed during Duelling.^[10]

During the summer holidays leading up to the 1989–1990 school year, then Care of Magical Creatures teacher, Silvanus Kettleburn encountered a Ukrainian Ironbelly while "tramping across the Carpathians", during which he was able to save his remaining arm by the timely casting of a Sleeping Charm before the dragon could bite down.^[3] Later that year, Jacob's sibling would successfully use the same spell to subdue a Hungarian Horntail in a cave at the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary while they assisted their Curse-Breaker, unofficial instructor, friend and former peer Bill Weasley in an assignment centred around the recovery of Urgruff's egg; a lost goblin treasure, on the orders of Gringotts Wizarding Bank.^[3]

Fleur Delacour tried to put her dragon into a trance during the first task of the Triwizard Tournament, but it was only partially successful, as the dragon snored and caught the hem of her robes on fire.^[1] Albus Dumbledore also cast a spell on the hostages in the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament to put them in a bewitched sleep.^[11]

In the 2010s, the Herbologist developed a poison in his Bloom For You plants which sent the victim into an unwakeable sleep, creating an ailment known as the Mysterious Malady.^[12]