Lesson Two: 

Spellcasting Basics

Source of your magic: No one knows for sure where magical ability comes from. Wizards and witches usually pass it on to their children, but they can produce a Squib,a person of magical ancestry with no magical abilities, or very limited. t’s also possible that the children of muggles several generations removed from magical heritage can possess magical ability; these individuals are often described as “Muggle-born”.

Your power: Your power can be compared to a radiating ball of energy in centre, which is your core. When you concentrate, you can feel it flowing through you, filling your body with power and flowing from you to your wand, power flows through your wand, focused by your wand’s core and insulated by the wood, until it reaches the tip. You should see some colored sparks leaping gently from the top of your wand. If not, don’t be frustrated. It can take a little practice to learn how to gather and consciously direct enough of your power to make it happen. However, magic isn't really a ball of energy, it runs through your veins, in your blood and is controlled by will and intention. 

If you had times when you were able to perform random magical acts when you were angry or scared, that was your mind subconsciously shaping and releasing the energy to affect your surroundings.

Flight Spells: 

Wingardium Leviosa, the Levitation Charm.

Alternative charms: 

Hover Charm: Impractical, does not see much use as it only allows one to hover, floating up and down 

Rocket Charm: This charm does not require you to be touching the target (significant improvement) However, it is only capable of propelling an object straight up into the air and back down again. The height is not significant and heavier items tend to move less. 

Floating Charm: This spell can target a distant object rather than requiring physical contact. This spell involves controlled vertical movement. Objects can only be levitated a handful of feet into the air, and they cannot be directed to move any other way besides up and down. Still has use today. The discovery of the Levitation Charm blows all of these out of the water. 

The Levitation Charm is the closest the Wizarding World has come to true flight.The charm is easy enough that you will learn it as first year students. It allows the caster to control not only the vertical movement of an object but its movement back and forth or side to side. Height is also less of a restriction, though levitating or maintaining levitation on something very far away can be difficult. The charm even allows you to lift objects normally too heavy for you to lift yourself, though this also requires some effort. However, it fails to work on humans. However, you can charm their clothing or shoes. 

Incantation: The incantation for this spell is Wingardium Leviosa. It is pronounced ‘wing-GAR-dee-um levi-O-sa’. Please practice saying the spell without your wand several times to be sure you have the pronunciation correct. Note the ‘wing-GAR’, there’s a double ‘G’ there. The emphasis of the second word of the incantation, 'levi-O-sa', is the ‘O’.

Wand Movement: Typically called the “Swish and Flick”) raise your wand toward the left and then let it glide gently toward the right, wand tip pointed forward. Then you simply move the tip of your wand back toward your body before flicking it in the direction of your target.

Mental Component: Focus on the objet you want to levitate. Time the swish so that it ends just after you begin sayingLeviosa. Then, as you finish saying Leviosa, do the “Flick”. Bonus: Remember to concentrate on drawing the energy from your core and body through your wand.