Scouring Charm

Scouring Charm
Incantation	Scourgify (SKUR-ji-fy)
Type	Charm
Hand movement
Light	None
Effect	Cleans objects

"She pointed her wand at Hedwig's cage. 'Scourgify.' A few feathers and droppings vanished."

— Nymphadora Tonks's using this charm to clean Hedwig's cage

The Scouring Charm (Scourgify) was a cleaning charm used to make an object clean. It could also be used to clean out smaller infestations of bundimun. This spell was listed in the third chapter of Book of Spells by Miranda Goshawk. Many wizarding families used this spell, both for cleaning and punishing people who swore, as the spell caused human mouths to be filled with soap.

History

James Potter used this charm to bully Severus Snape on the Hogwarts grounds, causing soap to fill his mouth.

In the 1987–1988 school year, this charm was taught to the fourth years in Charms class by Professor Filius Flitwick. Jacob's sibling later used the Scouring Charm to clean up Bundimun Secretion in Rubeus Hagrid's hut.

Hermione Granger taught Neville Longbottom the Scouring Charm to clean frog guts out from under his fingernails, in their fourth year.

The Scouring Charm was used by Nymphadora Tonks when attempting to clean Hedwig's cage during their liberation of Harry Potter from 4 Privet Drive in 1995. It was later used by Ginevra Weasley on 1 September that year on the Hogwarts Express to clear Stinksap that had squirted from Neville's Mimbulus mimbletonia.

Known practitioners

Filius Flitwick

James Potter

Nymphadora Tonks

Hermione Granger

Ginevra Weasley

Neville Longbottom

Jacob's sibling

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• Mathilda Grimblehawk's partner

Etymology

Perhaps related to English scour, "clean". -ify is a common English suffix meaning "to make ...". Therefore scourgify likely means "to make clean".

Behind the scenes

• The Skurge Charm, which is used to clean up Ectoplasm, may be a variant of this spell.
• In Wonderbook: Book of Spells, the hand gesture is "a smooth, sinuous motion, like a letter 'S".
• The Scholastic Official Site lists this as the Vanishing Spell.
• In Spanish, this spell is known as "Fregotego".
• In Hebrew, this spell is known as "התקרצף" ("Hit-kar-tzef"), which means "scrub yourself".

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Mentioned only)
• Pottermore (Mentioned only)
• Wizarding World (Mentioned only)
• Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World
• Wonderbook: Book of Spells
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
• Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells (Mentioned only)