Overview

Alohomora, the Unlocking Charm, is also known as the Thief's Friend. It could easily unlock doors and windows, and has a counterpart (Colloportus) that can lock the locks. However, if a lock has the Anti-Alohomora spell casted on it, one might have to get crafty with a lock picking kit. The counter-spell for this particular charm is Colloportus, also known as the locking charm.

Effects

The effect of this charm is to unlock doors and other things. Just move your wand in a backward S shape while saying the incantation, and listen closely to the tell-tale click of the intended target unlocking.

History

Alohomora first comes from Africa - which is where it received the name “Thief’s Friend”. In the 17th Century, Eldon Elsrickle first took a trip to Africa where she was taught by an Ancient African sorceress that had mastered the spell. When Eldron returned to his home country of Britain, he used the unlocking charm to terrorize his home country by breaking into the homes of wizards and muggles alike. On the infrequent occasions that he was caught, Elsrickle would tell the owners of the magical homes he broke into about the charm, and news of the spell quickly spread through the magical world.
However, Alohomora was not the first unlocking spell to exist. The first recorded one was Open Sesame, which could rip doors from their hinges and turn it into firewood. The second was Portaberto, which typically splintered the lock away from the door. On some occasions, the spell also left a smoldering hole where the key would have been put in. These three spells were all found in the first volume of The Standard Book of Spells, as well as in another book in the Hogwarts library.

Credits/References

Written by Vaughn Layton
Base code by Andrew Sutherland, edited by Iselin Merilä and Desmond Gray.