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Luna said that she often had people take and hide her things because she was odd.

'Well, I've lost most of my possessions,' said Luna serenely. 'People take them and hide them, you know. But as it's the last night, I really do need them back, so I've been putting up signs.' (OotP).

Did JKR ever indicate in interviews/Pottermore why Luna couldn't simply get them back by "Accio"-ing them? (out of universe, it's likely because it gave Harry a reason to pity her; and to do character development by discussing her mother's death).

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  • 10
    You dare question Luna's logic?
    – Saturn
    Commented Apr 21, 2014 at 1:46
  • 5
    @Voldemort - Wrackspurts made me do it
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Commented Apr 21, 2014 at 3:56
  • 5
    Is the answer 'nargles'?
    – Valorum
    Commented Apr 21, 2014 at 10:24
  • Aren't you supposed to know at least the approximate location of something you are accio-ing?
    – vsz
    Commented Apr 16, 2017 at 11:02

2 Answers 2

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As we see in "Deathly Hallows" there are such things as anti-summoning charms;

‘There’s an easier way,’ said Hermione, as Harry wiped his inky fingers on his jeans. She raised her wand and said, ‘Accio locket!’ Nothing happened. Ron, who had been searching the folds of the faded curtains, looked disappointed. ‘Is that it, then? It’s not here?’ ‘Oh, it could still be here, but under counter-enchantments,’ said Hermione. ‘Charms to prevent it being summoned magically, you know.’ ‘Like Voldemort put on the stone basin in the cave,’ said Harry, remembering how he had been unable to Summon the fake locket.

Harry's cloak also seems to have an enchantment that prevents anyone other than the owner from summoning it;

Harry seized Ron’s wrist as he raised his wand. There were too many of them to Stun: even attempting it would give away their position. One of the Death Eaters waved his wand and the scream stopped, still echoing around the distant mountains. ‘Accio Cloak!’ roared one of the Death Eaters. Harry seized its folds, but it made no attempt to escape: the Summoning Charm had not worked on it.

It's likely that anyone who was deliberately hiding something would put such a charm on the hidden object.

Additionally, accio'd items still need to travel physically. If you hid something inside something relatively immovable (such as by putting it under a flagstone) it wouldn't come when summoned.

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    Oh man that would be a ridiculous amount of effort to put into a prank. :-)
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Commented Apr 21, 2014 at 11:41
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    @dvk - We don't know how easy/difficult the charm is. It might just be a case of waving a wand and saying "non-accio"
    – Valorum
    Commented Apr 21, 2014 at 11:50
  • I don't know why anyone would think to put an anti-summoning charm on something that was taken for a prank though. If I remember Goblet of Fire correctly, it took Harry a lot of practice and effort to be able to perform a summoning charm strong enough to summon his broom over such a large distance. Why do we assume therefore that Luna would be able to do such a charm?
    – The Giant of Lannister
    Commented Apr 22, 2014 at 18:35
  • @TheGiantofLannister - Luna shows herself to be a competent wizard on several occasions. There's no reason to assume she can't do common magic. As to the likelihood of someone performing a "non-accio" charm, surely the essence of a good hiding prank is that finding the hidden object requires more than a trivial amount of effort?
    – Valorum
    Commented Apr 22, 2014 at 18:37
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    @Richard I never said Luna was incompetent. What I said was that Accio takes an incredible amount of effort for a very competent wizard like Harry to perfect, which is demonstrable from what we see in the 4th book. I think we might suppose Luna had no reason to go to such effort (particularly if, as you say, it would've been pointless to do so if an anti-summoning charm is easy to perform and commonplace).
    – The Giant of Lannister
    Commented Apr 22, 2014 at 18:45
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In Ootp - Luna would be in her fourth year. From Goblet of Fire - we see that Harry perfected the Accio charm for his first task with Hermione's help. So fourth year students might not be as adept at the charm as the others. There is no indication that accio was given a lot of focus in the DADA classes. So it might well be a case of Luna's inability to perform the Accio charm rather than someone putting the items under an anti-summoning charm.

Also - i dont think there are physical hurdles to Accio - otherwise Fred and George's brooms would not have broken loose from Umbridge's locks.

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  • re: your second point : It's not terribly canon, but the "Wonderbook: Book of Spells" specifically states that you cannot accio something that is anchored (it mentions buildings) so clearly there are physical hurdles.
    – Valorum
    Commented Apr 21, 2014 at 22:57
  • @Richard - I would guess most "things" anchoring is closer to (or less than) chained broomstick - which works - than a building.
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Commented Apr 22, 2014 at 0:24
  • @Richard "Wonderbook: Book of Speels" was written by JKR. Not sure why it shouldn't be considered canon.
    – ibid
    Commented Feb 18, 2016 at 22:11
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    @ibid - Ignoring the fact that elements of it explicitly contradict higher level sources such as the original seven novels, the Wonderbook is mixed content, some from JKR and some from Sony Developments. Since the two are jumbled together, it's usually considered a lower level of canonicity.
    – Valorum
    Commented Feb 18, 2016 at 22:33
  • The longer writing parts are Rowling. (Obviosly the same probably cannot be said about gameplay and graphics). IIRC the only part that directly contradicted higher canon was the book itself. (A single textbook written by Goshawk much earlier that it should have been, and kept in the Restricted Section.) Yes it's a lower canon level than the books, but still pretty much canon. (Higher than Cursed Child IMO.)
    – ibid
    Commented Feb 18, 2016 at 22:39

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