Scourgify

Scourgify, or the Scouring Charm was a charm used in the Harry Potter universe to clean things. This spell removed all the dirt or unwanted particles that were on the surface that needed to be cleaned.

Mohandas Alva

Article written by Mohandas Alva

M.A. Degree in English Literature from Manipal University, India.

Scourgify, also known as the Scouring Charm, was a spell used to clean something by clearing all dirt and unwanted particles that were present on it. It was one of the most useful spells for household and everyday use and was known for being quite easy to learn. It was also used by wizards and witches for several other applications. One of the other uses of the Scouring charm was to remove small infestations of the bundimun. Bundimun were many-eyed creatures that were green in color and infested wet and moist places. While larger infestations required assistance from pest control authorities from the Ministry of Magic, smaller infestations could easily be cleaned with the help of the Scouring Charm.

Another popular use of the Scouring Charm was as a punishment for children or anyone who swore or spoke unwanted things as the Scouring charm when targeted at the mouth of a person with the help of a wand, would cause a person’s mouth to fill with soap or soap water.

Etymology 

Scourgify is derived from the English scour and -ify with the latter being a common English suffix meaning “to make”. The word “scour” means to clean, so it is safe to assume that Scourgify, in this context, means to make clean or to clean.

Description

The Scouring Charm was a spell used quite regularly in most wizarding households. It was also referred to as the cleaning charm in some cases, but there existed an entirely different charm known solely as the cleaning charm. Scourgify was the “go to” spell for cleaning up the house and ridding places of smaller infestations of bundimun. However, there existed other charms like the Cleaning Charm and the Tergeo charm, also known as the wiping charm, which may have been the counterspell to the blackboard writing spell. As previously mentioned, it was also used sometimes to fill a person’s mouth with soap, especially as a punishment for swearing. 

The Scouring Charm used the incantation “Scourgify” which is also its other name. It had a wand movement that resembled the English letter ‘S’ and was known to not produce any light when incanted. This may be because it was a relatively simple charm with very little energy required to expend. For instance, stronger charms like Expelliarmus or the Killing Curse would expend a bright strong hue of light.  

Usage in the Harry Potter Universe

The Scouring Charm or Scourgify has been used on multiple occasions in the Harry Potter universe. One of the first known uses of this spell is when Hermione Granger used this spell and taught Neville Longbottom to use it so that he could clean up frog guts from under his fingernails. 

However, the first use of this spell in the Harry Potter universe as mentioned in the Harry Potter series was when James Potter used it on Severus Snape when they were both studying in Hogwarts. James was bullying Snape and used this spell to make soap come out of his mouth and prevent him from talking.

In the videogame Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, in the Hogwarts school year of 1987-1988, Professor Flitwick taught this charm to the fourth years and Jacob’s sibling used this to clear Bundimun secretions in Hagrid’s hut when he visited.

Nymphadora Tonks used this spell to clean Hedwig’s cage in Harry Potter’s house in Privet Drive. She had come there along with several other members of the Order of the Phoenix to take Harry to Grimmauld Place, the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. She had entered the room with her wand performing the Lumos charm and then saw Harry after which she used Nox to switch off the light from the wand and helped him clean out the feathers from the cage but wasn’t successful in cleaning it perfectly. She later claimed that she was not very good with these “household” charms.

Later, in the same year on the Hogwarts Express, Ginny used the Scourgify charm to clean Stinksap that had been secreted by Neville’s Mimbulus Mimbletonia. 

Scourgify in the Muggle World of Coding

Scourgify, inspired by the Harry Potter Universe, is a way of cleaning up entries in a Python file. Python is a computer programming language used in the Muggle world to give instructions that a computer can understand. Scourgify, introduced in the Harvard CS50 course, ensures that every entry in a file is compiled in a desired order. According to the Harvard CS50 website, for instance, if the names of the students of Hogwarts existed in a file along with their houses as follows:

  • “Abbott, Hannah”, Hufflepuff
  • “Bell, Katie”, Gryffindor
  • “Bones, Susan”, Hufflepuff
  • “Boot, Terry”, Ravenclaw
  • “Brown, Lavender”, Gryffindor
  • “Bulstrode, Millicent”, Slytherin
  • “Chang, Cho”, Ravenclaw
  • “Clearwater, Penelope”, Ravenclaw
  • “Crabbe, Vincent”, Slytherin
  • “Creevey, Colin”, Gryffindor
  • “Creevey, Dennis”, Gryffindor
  • “Diggory, Cedric”, Hufflepuff
  • “Edgecombe, Marietta”, Ravenclaw
  • “Finch-Fletchley, Justin”, Hufflepuff
  • “Finnigan, Seamus”, Gryffindor
  • “Goldstein, Anthony”, Ravenclaw
  • “Goyle, Gregory”, Slytherin
  • “Granger, Hermione”, Gryffindor
  • “Johnson, Angelina”, Gryffindor
  • “Jordan, Lee”, Gryffindor
  • “Longbottom, Neville”, Gryffindor
  • “Lovegood, Luna”, Ravenclaw
  • “Lupin, Remus”, Gryffindor
  • “Malfoy, Draco”, Slytherin
  • “Malfoy, Scorpius”, Slytherin
  • “Macmillan, Ernie”, Hufflepuff
  • “McGonagall, Minerva”, Gryffindor
  • “Midgen, Eloise”, Gryffindor
  • “McLaggen, Cormac”, Gryffindor
  • “Montague, Graham”, Slytherin
  • “Nott, Theodore”, Slytherin
  • “Parkinson, Pansy”, Slytherin
  • “Patil, Padma”, Gryffindor
  • “Patil, Parvati”, Gryffindor
  • “Potter, Harry”, Gryffindor
  • “Riddle, Tom”, Slytherin
  • “Robins, Demelza”, Gryffindor
  • “Scamander, Newt”, Hufflepuff
  • “Slughorn, Horace”, Slytherin
  • “Smith, Zacharias”, Hufflepuff
  • “Snape, Severus”, Slytherin
  • “Spinnet, Alicia”, Gryffindor
  • “Sprout, Pomona”, Hufflepuff
  • “Thomas, Dean”, Gryffindor
  • “Vane, Romilda”, Gryffindor
  • “Warren, Myrtle”, Ravenclaw
  • “Weasley, Fred”, Gryffindor
  • “Weasley, George”, Gryffindor
  • “Weasley, Ginny”, Gryffindor
  • “Weasley, Percy”, Gryffindor
  • “Weasley, Ron”, Gryffindor
  • “Wood, Oliver”, Gryffindor
  • “Zabini, Blaise”, Slytherin

This list, if it were to be used to send Hogwarts Acceptance letters to each student, would adapt the existing order of the name with the surname first, which would be inconvenient. However, using Scourgify would clean up that unordered format, thereby giving the desired result.

FAQs

What does the spell Scourgify do?

The spell Scourgify cleans up anything that has been dirtied by unwanted particles. Scourgify could be used to clean a surface that had dust, or any other unwanted substance. Scourgify was also used to clean small bundimun infestations and to prevent someone from swearing as the use of the Scourgify spell would literally create soap water in someone’s mouth.

What are the cleaning spells in Harry Potter?

There were several cleaning spells in the Harry Potter series. Scourgify was one of the most popular cleaning spells. Other cleaning spells included the Cleaning Charm and the Tergeo Charm which was also known as the Wiping Charm.

What does Scourgify mean?

Scourgify is an English word that literally translates into “to make clean” as scour is an English word for “clean” and -ify is a common suffix for “to make.” The name of the Harry Potter spell for cleaning, therefore, makes a lot of sense even from the perspective of an English reader, despite most nomenclature for spells in the Harry Potter series being in Latin or other Romance languages.

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Harry Potter Quiz

Summon your wit and wisdom—our Harry Potter Trivia Quiz awaits you! Do you have the knowledge to claim the title of Master Witch or Wizard? Take the challenge now!

1) What creature is Aragog?

2) What are the dying words of Severus Snape in both the book and the film "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"?

3) What is the name of the train that takes students to Hogwarts?

4) Which object is NOT one of the Deathly Hallows?

5) Who originally owned the Elder Wand before Dumbledore won it?

6) What is Dumbledore's full name?

7) In which Harry Potter book does Harry first speak Parseltongue?

8) What does the incantation "Obliviate" do?

9) What potion is known as "Liquid Luck"?

10) What is the effect of the Cheering Charm?

11) What is the name of Harry Potter's pet owl?

12) Which spell is used to open the Marauder's Map?

13) What specific type of dragon does Harry face during the Triwizard Tournament?

14) Which creature can transform into a person's worst fear?

15) What is the name of the goblin-made object that is supposed to bring its owner prosperity, but also brings them into conflict with goblins?

16) Who was the Peverell brother that owned the invisibility cloak?

17) What does the Mirror of Erised show?

18) Who teaches Herbology at Hogwarts?

19) What animal represents Hufflepuff house?

20) What is the name of the goblin who helps Harry, Ron, and Hermione break into Gringotts?

21) What form does Hermione Granger's Patronus take?

22) What is the core ingredient of the wand owned by Harry Potter?

23) What was the last Horcrux to be destroyed?

24) What is the name of the book Hermione gives to Harry before his first ever Quidditch match?

25) Who is the Half-Blood Prince?

26) Which potion did Hermione brew in her second year that allowed her, Ron, and Harry to assume the identities of Slytherins?

27) Which character is killed by Bellatrix Lestrange in the Battle of Hogwarts?

28) In the "Order of the Phoenix," who is NOT a member of the original Order of the Phoenix shown in the old photograph that Moody shows Harry?

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Mohandas Alva

About Mohandas Alva

M.A. Degree in English Literature from Manipal University, India.

Mohandas is very passionate about deciphering the nature of language and its role as a sole medium of storytelling in literature. His interests sometimes digress from literature to philosophy and the sciences but eventually, the art and craft of narrating a significant story never fail to thrill him.

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