Lily and the Homorphus Charm

by Sarah Lou

I was rereading Chamber of Secrets randomly and I stopped on Chapter Ten: “The Rogue Bludger.” I flipped to the first page, read it and then when I hit the second page I gasped. Literally; I was shocked that nobody realized this before! Here is the excerpt:

“Nice loud howl, Harry – exactly – and then, if you’ll believe it, I pounced – like this – slammed him to the floor – thus – with one hand, I managed to hold him down – with my other, I put my wand to his throat – I then screwed up my remaining strength and performed the immensely complex HOMORPHUS CHARM – he then let out a piteous moan – go on, Harry – higher than that – good – the fur vanished – the fangs shrank – and he turned back into a man. Simple, yet effective – and another village will remember me forever as the hero who delivered them from the monthly terror of werewolf attacks.”
~ Professor Gilderoy Lockhart (161-62)

Now, of course, this isn’t true; Lockhart did not do this, but somebody did. Maybe somebody we know did this or maybe not. I’m not going to focus on that now. But I don’t think Lockhart is THAT stupid to completely make up his stories out of nothing, or else he could be exposed easily. He just plagiarized other people because his only talent is memory charms… but back to the point. Let’s put the pieces together.

JKR said she planted an important clue in the 3rd movie that wasn’t in the PoA book, and I’m pretty sure most people noticed it when Remus Lupin prattled on about Lily. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had fancied her at the time, but that’s not important. Lupin said that Lily was there for him at a time when others weren’t, that she helped him out, and that she was an exceptionally bright witch. We also know that Lily’s wand is good for charms and that it is relevant, and we know that we will receive a huge revelation about Lily in HBP.

So, did Lily try to do the Homorphus Charm on Remus? He is a werewolf, and we know that the spell could not have been done properly because he is still a werewolf, but… did Lily try? It is a charm – Lily is good at charms – she helped Remus out at a time when he needed her… he’s a werewolf… Also, this clue (the Homorphus Charm) is planted in CoS… could this have been an important subplot?

It does make sense. Could someone try the charm again perhaps? Was Lily the one who did the charm? I think if she got it wrong on Remus though, how could she have done it again on somebody ELSE but not on Remus? Who knows? Well, Jo knows, but everybody else doesn’t…

Or maybe I’m just completely wrong and Lockhart made up that charm as well… but I think not. Only time will tell.