Can you Accio a person?

[butter_beer_drinker]

I searched the lexicon and have looked around but I wanted to double check to see if anyone else had some information. I know Harry tried to Accio Hagrid, but was that out of desperation or do you think it can really be done? If it can, why wasn't it done more often?

[Dark_Lady_Z]

Hmmm.... interesting. I think the Accio spell sort of cushioned Hargrid's fall a little. Also, Hagrid is half-giant so it would have been much more difficult. IF people can't Accio other people they could Accio their underwear! The spell would drag them along with the underwear....or at least make the person come to get back their underwear. And of course Harry was scared at the time so he could have done it out of desperation like you said or knew you can Accio people from school.

Hope that helped some!:D

[butter_beer_drinker]

ROFL! What if the person didn't come with their underware? I have this image of Hermione walking up to Ron, grabbing her underware from him and smacking him.

Actually, this is for a fic I am batting around and the person would be unconcious. The couple was traveling on a motorcycle (I won't get into details here) and it was giong to fast and they wipe out. The girl is unconcious a few yards away and he is being arrested by muggles. He wants to get away so I want him to be able to Accio his girlfriend then disapparte- which will then get him in trouble with the ministry for doing magic in front of muggles.

I wanted it to be blatant use of magic so I thought his girlfriend flying through the air might be just the right touch.

[cmwinters]

I don't *think* you can Accio someone, but if you absolutely must use it, maybe you can Accio anyone that you can carry?

Harry is an extremely poor example of thinking magic through and having the slightest grasp of magical theory. <.<

However, is there anything preventing your character from Apparating to his girlfriend and either Disapparating with her, or creating an unauthorized Portkey to whirl them off? That would still be blatant use of magic.

[butter_beer_drinker]

I thought of that too, I was just tossing around the Accio if too many people think it won't work then I will change it. It just came to me when I remembered what Harry had done.

[Shev]

Accio summons an item towards to you at high speed - this would be the main issue I can see with using it on something as heavy as another person. At the kind of speeds generally described in the books (zooming etc) they would almost definitely knock over the person casting it. And as for summoning Hagrid....ouch.

[star_sailor]

It just doesn't seem... sensible to just Accio a person to another... Yet, now that I think about it, in Goblet of Fire, during a Charms class, Neville was accidentally using the Banishing Charm on Flitwick. The Banishing Charm is supposed to be the counter-spell to the Summoning Charm. So, by logic, if one could be banished, one could also be summoned.

But it would be impractical for people to just be Summoning and Banishing people all the time. Just think of all the nasty tricks bullies could play if they could Accio people. They could probably make people fly and trip all the time. There must be some sort of catch.

The most obvious one I can draw is that it's an issue of size and weight compared to the summoned object and the summoner. Flitwick's tiny, and probably extremely light weight, so it only makes sense that he is easy to Banish/Summon. Whereas Hagrid, on the other hand, is... well, he's HUGE, especially in comparison to Harry. So obviously that wouldn't work. I think it depends on who is casting the Charm, and what they're casting it on. Most of the items Summoned during the books were small, and therefore, lightweight, so it seems to fit. If it could be lifted physically by the person, without difficulty, they can probably Accio it.

As for your situation, butter_beer_drinker, I'm going to have to side with Shev. Everything Summoned seems to be flying dangerously fast, and something big like a person flying through the air would be no bueno, for the person and the caster. I foresee lots of injury.

[FullofLife]

I can't remember the book, or the charm, but I'm pretty sure it was the Accio charm, and it was stated that the students' aim wasn't always perfect, so Flitwick was flying around the room too, sometimes. I think you could Accio a person (again, remember at the Yule Ball, Harry notices that the Durmstrang boy who asks Parvati for a dance seems to find a friend out of thin air for Padma too, almost like he'd been summoned - this wasn't literal of course, but the point stands) but it would be the height of rudeness. Just like you don't Apparate right into a person's house.

[xpadfootsangelx]

I think so. I think I remember once that one of the charecters tried summoning Hagrid. In fact, I have such a vivid memory of reading this that I'm almost 100% positive that you can, in fact summon a human. Now I have to check my books again. I'm sure someone tried summoning Hagrid, in DH I believe. Near the end perhaps? Who knows.

[sheltered_ambitions]

I think this is a matter of the size of the person. Yes, Harry tried to summon Hagrid when they were being chased by Death Eaters. But it didn't work.
Flitwick, on the other hand is light. And guess what? It did!
So I have to agree with star_sailor. It really depends on the size.
Cheers,

[xpadfootsangelx]

Yeah, now I think of it, you're right. I thinkk you can only summon something you yourself would have the strength to carry. Also, I'm sure the distance is an issue too, like how far you could carry the object.

[untitlednine]

Haha, my good friend went to Canada for holiday and I was trying to accio him.

Needless to say, it didn't work.

[Snape's Talon]

Quite simply put, if you could Accio someone, then why didn't the Ministry have several Aurors jointly Accio Sirius Black during PoA or OotP? For that matter, why didn't Voldemort and company Accio Harry during HBP or DH?

[butter_beer_drinker]

That's what I thought too but I was thinking someone close by like in the same room or within a few yards of each other.

[apollo13]

I believe someone summonend their friend either at the Yule Ball or Slughorns party, but I'm not sure whether he was actually using accio or not.

~Evie

[MithrilQuill]

Oooh, interesting question.


Some people have already pointed out the problems they can see with it so my advice is that if you need to have someone Accio someone else then give it a twist. For example, what if they try it and then end up propelling themselves towards that other person, or something like that. (I'm sure you can think of a more interesting outcome). But yeah, I'm big on magic doing things it's not supposed to in extreme situations. I've had someone "accidentally" go back in time among other things and the readers didn't seem to mind, either. You just have to write it in a way that it doesn't seem too convenient, in my opinion.


/too many cents


:D

[Elmindreda]

Kerichi makes very interesting use of a modified Summoning charm used in terms of people in her story More Than a Feeling. It starts out with Severus experimenting and has interesting consequences. I think it is rather elegantly done. You could have a look here, for curiosity's sake:

Chapter 10 - Summons (http://fanfiction.mugglenet.com/viewstory.php?sid=45870&textsize=0&chapter=10)

EDIT: If the discussion must stay purely within the canon framework, I give my humble apologies and am ready to remove the post.