Blasting Curse

Blasting Curse
Incantation	Confringo (con-FRING-go)
Type	Curse
Hand movement	Point wand at target
Light	Fiery orange
Effect	Explosion

"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!"

— The curse is used in the Battle of the Seven Potters

The Blasting Curse (Confringo) was a curse that caused the target to explode. This curse was very dangerous and potentially even lethal.

This curse was also popular when it came to duelling. It could create maximum damage, depending on the power behind the spell. If handled improperly it can even prove fatal.

History

A powerful explosion caused by this curse

The Blasting curse was invented some time before the year 1430, when Alberta Toothill used this curse in the All-England Wizarding Duelling Competition. This curse was used during the First Wizarding War and several times during the Second Wizarding War. The most prominent example was the mass killing of twelve Muggles by Peter Pettigrew in 1981.

A spellbook for this spell could be found nearby an old building close to an Acromantula lair and some abandoned nuclear power plants.

Known uses

"Hermione screamed, ‘Confringo!’ and her spell flew around the room, exploding the wardrobe mirror and ricocheting back at them, bouncing from floor to ceiling; Harry felt the heat of it sear the back of his hand."

— Hermione using this curse against Nagini in Bathilda Bagshot's home

Caster(s)	Date	Notes
Alberta Toothill	1430	She used this curse to defeat Samson Wiblin in the All-England Wizarding Duelling Competition.
Peter Pettigrew	1 November, 1981	Pettigrew 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.
Patricia Rakepick	Start of 1987–1988 school year	Taught this curse to Jacob's sibling whilst training them to prepare for the Cursed Vaults, and previously used this spell against them to help them master the Shield Charm.
Patricia Rakepick	End of 1987–1988 school year	Used this spell to blast and incapacitate Ben Copper in the Clock Tower Courtyard, after he attacked Jacob's sibling, Rowan Khanna and Charlie Weasley while disguised as R's messenger.
Jacob's sibling	1987–1988 school year	Jacob's sibling used this spell whilst practising duelling with their Defence Against the Dark Arts professor Patricia Rakepick.
Harry Potter	27 July, 1997	Harry used this curse to destroy Sirius Black's flying motorcycle's side-car during the Battle of the Seven Potters.
Hermione Granger	24 December, 1997	Hermione 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

• It was possible that this was the curse used by a Death Eater to kill Benjy Fenwick, as he was blasted into pieces and fellow members of the Order of the Phoenix only managed to find bits of his body.
• This curse may have been the cause of the explosion which killed Fred Weasley during the Battle of Hogwarts.

Known practitioners

Alberta Toothill

Patricia Rakepick

Peter Pettigrew

Hermione Granger

Harry Potter

Jacob's sibling

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Etymology

Confringo is Latin for "I break".

See also

• Exploding Charm
• Expulso Curse
• Bombarda Maxima

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. Though it did not burn them and simply knocked them down, leaving them incapacitated.
• 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, though they were only knocked over and otherwise seemed undamaged by the explosive spell. 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 a sort of "machine gun" spell, causing damage similar to gunshots.
• 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.
• In the video game adaption of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the colour of the curse varies. For the player, the curse is blue; enemies fire red curses; bosses, Snape, Greyback and Bellatrix, fire green curses.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game) (Mentioned on a Famous Wizard Card)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) (Mentioned on a Famous Wizard Card)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (First mentioned)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game) (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Possibly mentioned)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (First appearance)
• 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)
• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (play) (Mentioned only)
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Appears in photographs)
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
• Harry Potter: Spells
• Pottermore (Mentioned on a Famous Wizard Card)
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells