Charming (MIT Mystery Hunt 2020)

Charming
MIT Mystery Hunt 2020
Wizard's Hollow
Author(s)	Shelly Manber and Larry Hosken
Answer	Click to revealMONARCH
Statistics
No. solves	31
No. total guesses	91
Links
Puzzle	Link
Solution	Link

Charming is a [INSERT PUZZLE TYPE] puzzle from the Wizard's Hollow round of the 2020 MIT Mystery Hunt.

Puzzle Elements

Flavortext - When I got the course catalog from the dean, I was a bit confused. “Are these courses teaching you how to perform a charm, or how to be charming?” I asked him. He looked at the set of courses. “What’s the difference?” he replied.

 

Hint in Flavortext - When I got the course catalog from the dean, I was a bit confused. “Are these courses teaching you how to perform a charm, or how to be charming?” I asked him. He looked at the set of courses. “What’s the difference?” he replied.

Identification (Literature) - Each description describes a Harry Potter spell...

Identification (MIT Culture) - ...while also cluing a class from the 2010 schedule of MIT Charm School.

Transformations - The flavortext also hints at set difference; taking the incantation for the spell and removing individual letters from the class where present leaves one or two characters. Charms 111, for example, clues the liquid-siphoning spell TERGEO and the class on PROFESSIONAL DRINKING; taking the set difference leaves TE. (There is only one copy of the letter E in the class name, so one E is left in the incantation after the set difference).

Keep Going! - The phrase obtained from the previous element is FIND HARRY POTTER PHONE APP SYMBOLS...

Association (Video Games) - ...which asks the solver to consider the spell symbols from any Harry Potter mobile game, such as Hogwarts Mystery or Wizards Unite.

Give Me A Y - The symbols of the charms present on the "My Schedule" part of the puzzle, when rotated in the manner suggested by the handwriting, create letterforms, which spell out the answer when taken together.