Summoning Charm

The Summoning Charm causes an object to fly to the caster, even over quite some distance; the target object is said to have been Summoned. It would seem that the caster must know at least the general location of the object Summoned.

History and Notes

Note: The pronunciation of this spell has been debated by fans. The "official" pronunciation from Scholastic is "A-see-oh." This is the pronunciation used in the audio version of the books. The word is Latin, however, and in Latin the letter C is always pronounced 'hard,' the same as the letter K. Some languages which are descended from Latin, such as Italian, pronounce 'cc' as 'ch,' but this is almost certainly not correct. UPDATE: In the Book of Spells, Accio is pronounced "ACK-see-oh"

References from the canon

• Newt Scamander used "Accio" in an attempt to recapture his wandering Niffler in 1926 New York. The Niffler evaded capture by grabbing a light pole and using it to propel himself into a jewelry store (WFT).
• Tina Goldstein used the Summoning Charm to retrieve the wand of Gellert Grindelwald, disguised as Auror Percival Graves, after Newt Scamander bound him with fiery ropes. This is an interesting example of "Accio" being used in place of the Disarming Charm "Expelliarmus" (WFT)
• Graves/Grindelwald summoned Newt Scamander's case at MACUSA, as well as summoning an automobile that he tried to crash into Tina Goldstein while they fought over an Obscurial (WFT)
• Newt Scamander used "Accio" when searching for Tina Goldstein in Place Cachee. He summons a Niffler from his case to aid in the search using the spell and then sends it back to his case when the job is done (CG48).
• Mrs. Weasley used a series of Summoning Charms to find the magical items Fred and George were trying to sneak out of the house at the time of the Quidditch World Cup (GF6).
• Harry learned the Summoning Charm for the first task, when he Summoned his Firebolt to him so he could fly around and past the Hungarian Horntail (GF20). He practiced on chairs, a dictionary, a set of gobstones, and Neville's toad Trevor.
• The fake Moody used a Summoning Charm to grab the Marauder's Map off the stairs on the night Harry solved the golden egg clue (GF25).
• Harry used this charm to call the Triwizard Cup to him while escaping Voldemort and the Death Eaters (GF34).
• Used several times during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries by both sides. The most notable instances were byDeath Eaters attempting to pull the prophecy sphere from Harry's hands, by Hermione to pick up wands after a Disarming Spell hit, and most memorably by Ron in the Brain Room after he'd been knocked silly (OP35).
• Harry attempted to cast this nonverbally to Summon his wand into his hand after Draco Malfoy had hit him with a Full-Body Bind, but Harry couldn't make the spell work at the time (HBP8). Harry had a similar problem when his wand was knocked out of his hand during his fight with Nagini at Godric's Hollow (DH17).
• Harry used this to Summon Rosmerta's brooms so that he and Albus Dumbledore could return quickly to the castle on the night of the Battle of the Tower (HBP27).
• Harry cast this on Hagrid (DH4).
• Hermione used this to steal the Horcrux books - library books which had been taken out of circulation - fromDumbledore's study (DH6).
• Harry used this to Summon his glasses (DH7).
• Fred Summoned hairs from a Muggle boy in Ottery St. Catchpole in order to help Harry disguise himself using Polyjuice Potion (DH8).
• Hermione used this to try to Summon the locket Horcrux in Regulus' room (DH10). Harry similarly attempted to Summon it in Umbridge's office at the Ministry (DH13).
• Most objects of value are placed under counter-enchantments to prevent them being summoned magically by anyone other than the object's owner (BoS4). The stone basin in the Horcrux cave and Hufflepuff's cup in Gringotts had both been placed under such counter-enchantments (DH10, DH26).