Unbreakable Vow

Unbreakable Vow
✦ ✦ ✦
Incantation Unknown
Wand Movement Place wand between hands
Classification Vow
Light Red
Effect Forms a binding contract between parties
Inventor Unknown
Overview

Unbreakable Vows are spells which require three people - the two parties and a bonding witness. They are called Unbreakable Vows, because if you break the contract, you will die. The two parties creating the Vow hold right hands clasped together, while the witness held their wand on the joined hands. The first person issues the terms, and when accepted, a thin ring of fire formed around their hands.

The limits of the spell were that it could be open to interpretation if the terms were too non-specific. Additionally, if the Vow was impossible to complete through no fault of the party, then the Vow became void.

There are several known instances of this spell being used:

  • Yusuf Kama Vowed to his father that he would kill Corvus Lestrange V for using the Imperius Curse on his mother. This Vow was null and void, as Corvus Lestrange V was already dead.
  • Merula Snyde Vowed to her aunt to remain loyal to her family. She was able to survive betraying her aunt because she was able to interpret her "true" family as her found family of friends, rather than her blood relations.
  • Severus Snape Vowed to Narcissa Malfoy that he would protect Draco and support him in fulfilling Voldemort's orders to kill Dumbledore, or complete them if he was unable. Unbeknownst to Narcissa, Snape was a double agent, whom Dumbledore had already asked to kill him after being irreversibly cursed by the Marvolo Gaunt's ring horcrux.
  • Gareth Greengrass made two Vows. It isn't known who he made the first one with, but the terms were that he wouldn't tell anyone about the Unforgivable or the Calamity. The second was made with Harry Potter, with Harry Vowing to find a cure for Greengrass' daughter, Cereus, who suffered from a blood malediction. In exchange, he would tell him the identity of the Unforgivable and everything he knew about the Calamity. He broke this Vow when he gave Harry the journal with this information in.
  • Written by: Essam Al-Saed