Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, we’re going
to be ranking the 15 most EVIL dark witches and wizards in the Harry Potter universe.
Things to bear in mind here are that I’m not ranking them by POWER- but instead, how
sinister and evil they are. A lot of dark witches and wizards didn’t even make the
list, so if you’ve got a list of your own I’d love for you to comment it down below.
Also be sure to let me know what you think of MY list. We’ve got a lot to get through,
so let’s get going.
15. Ethelred the Ever-Ready
Starting things off in a relatively INNOCENT fashion...at least as far as 'dark' and ‘evil’
wizards go, we have Ethelred the Ever-Ready.
Ethelred the Ever-Ready was a Dark Wizard that existed in medieval times, known for
getting offended for ‘no reason’ - and taking out his anger by cursing innocent bystanders.
Ethelred was a master of jynxes, hexes and curses - which he loved to use on innocents.
For his actions he was eventually imprisoned.
14. Merwyn the Malicious
Next up we have Merwyn the Malicious- an evil pure-blood wizard that existed in the medieval
period, sometime between the 5th and 15th centuries.
During his lifetime, Merwyn was a dedicated practitioner of the dark arts, and would conduct
all sorts of twisted magical experiments using his uniquely hooked wand. He had dark grey
scabby looking-skin which sort of resembled lifeless human skin, and would often sport
a long dark-green cloak. He was a scary looking guy, and I have no doubt that the experiments
he would conduct had a lasting effect on his physical appearance, as we know how dark magic
can effect you in that way. Merwyn was single handedly responsible for creating a lot of
the dark spells,jinxes and hexes that sprang up out of the medieval era- and after his
death made it on to a chocolate frog card.
13. Morgana Le Fay
Morgana Le Fay is actually a pseudo-historical figure, and in many versions of folklore she
is the nemesis of the powerful wizard Merlin (though, not all of them). Morgana, however,
also exists in Harry Potter Folklore, where she is portrayed as an extremely EVIL witch,
and again, the nemesis of Merlin (who went to Hogwarts).
Morgana is considered by many to be the most POWERFUL witch of all time, and someone that
truly hated every aspect of ‘goodness’ in the world- doing everything she could to
fight against it.
12. Godelot
Godelot was one of the named and known owners of the Elder Wand before it came in to the
possession of the likes of Gregorovitch, Grindelwald, Dumbledore etc. If his name sounds doubly
familiar to you, it may be because Godelet wrote the famous dark magic textbook ‘Magicke
Moste Evile’- a book containing information on Dark magic (including a passing reference
to Horcruxes in its introduction).
Godelot used the Elder Wand to push the boundaries of magic- and considered it to be his ‘teacher’-
allowing the wand to help him write the book. Leveraging the powerful wand and using it
in accordance with his dark mindset, Godelot ultimately created a lot of dark spells and
curses.
Godelot was eventually killed by his own son who locked him in the cellar in order to gain
ownership of the wand.
11. Grindelwald
Grindelwald was a dark, powerful and dangerous wizard born in the year 1883. After a troubling
childhood where he showed an affinity for performing dark magic- he later became a HUGE
threat to the wizarding world. I bet a lot of you are wondering- why isn’t he higher
on the list?
Here’s the thing about Grindelwald:his ambitions of establishing a new world order were not
primarily driven by notions of evil or darkness- even if it looked that way at times. Grindelwald
genuinely felt that what he was doing was important for the world, and that is why his
slogan was ‘for the greater good’. He recognized that a lot of his actions were
wrong, but ultimately believed that his mission to establish the global wizarding hierarchy
was important for wizardkind. He felt that he was just helping his people, even if it
did oppress another people. So yes, Grindelwald was dangerous,POWERFUL and evil- but he certainly
wasn’t the most evil.
10. Bellatrix Lestrange
Bellatrix lestrange, born Bellatrix Black of the house of Black, was an english pure-blood
witch who would have attended hogwarts around 1962. She was one of, if not Voldemort’s
MOST LOYAL follower, and her reputation for administering hideous forms of magic on unsuspecting
wizards and witches in the wizarding world preceded her. Bellatrix was one of the most
twisted death eaters, and derived considerable pleasure from torturing people- finding the
suffering of others to be ‘amusing’. Her favourite spell was the cruciatus curse.
9. Barnabas Deverill
Another previous owner of the elder wand, Barnabas Deverill was a wizard from the early
eighteenth century, who earned quite the reputation as a fearsome warlock. To put things plainly:
Deverill certainly didn’t use the wand for good, and for many years he leveraged the
powerful wand to tyrannize the wizarding world. However, eventually, his reign of terror ended
when he was defeated by a rival wizard.
8. Loxias
And here we have yet another previous owner of the elder wand. Loxias is the man who famously
gave the elder wand the name ‘the deathstick’- and ruthlessly murdered copious amounts of
people while using it. Loxias was a truly evil dark wizard that many wanted dead, and
according to Dumbledore- many claimed to have been the one to finish him off- even his own
mother. This guy was almost as evil as they come.
7. Emeric the Evil
I mean- this guys name says it all. His name has ‘evil’ in it- so I had to have him
reasonably high up on the list.
The first official KNOWN historical owner of the elder wand is a wizard who went by
the name ‘Emeric the Evil’. Though the wand may have been in the hands of other wizards
before Emeric and after Antioch- Emeric is the first wizard on RECORD to have possessed
it. Emeric has been described as a ‘short-lived but exceptionally aggressive wizard’ that
terrorized the south of England in the early Middle ages.
6. Gormlaith Gaunt
Gormlaith Gaunt was an Irish pure-blood Dark witch and the aunt of Isolt Sayre who founded
Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Gormlaith, who attended Hogwarts herself (and was sorted in to, you guessed it- Slytherin),
strongly believed in pure-blood supremacy and had an intense hatred for anyone that
went against these extreme views. Her hatred went so deep that she murdered her own sister
and brother-in-law. She also shared something in common with Voldemort- she had an inability
to feel love. If you’re making a list of evil dark witches, you’d be wrong not to
include Gormlaith.
5. Salazar Slytherin
Salazar Slytherin, whose name you should probably recognize, was a pure blood wizard that was
born sometime before 976 AD. Famously, or rather, infamously- he founded Slytherin house
at Hogwarts. Slytherin is also infamous for his disliking of muggle-born students- and
was a strong proponent of having only pure-blood students at Hogwarts. This philosophy was
ultimately passed on to other Slytherins. His response to muggle-born students attending
the school was to build the chamber of secrets which concealed a basilisk that was intended
to purge the school of these students. As far as dark wizards come Salazar Slytherin
is certainly up there.
4. Herpo the Foul
Herpo the Foul was an ancient dark wizard that hailed from Greece. It’s entirely unknown
when Herpo walked the earth, but we do know that it was a long long time ago, as he is
commonly referred to as one of the earliest known dark wizards. During his existence Herpo
devoted his life to producing and creating some of the worst kinds of magic imaginable-
producing the first ever basilisk.
Some speculate that Herpo is the distant ancestor of Salazar Slytherin, since he too could speak
Parseltongue. Herpo was eventually immortalized on a chocolate frog card.
3. Lord Voldemort
VOLDEMORT! I bet you didn’t expect to see him here- but here’s the reality:there were
a LOT of dark wizards before him, and many of them were horrific. Born without the ability
to feel love and dropped off at an orphanage, Voldemort certainly had a rough start. His
perspective of the world was bleak- and he was essentially an emotionless psychopath
that sought power and eternal life. He wanted pure-blood wizards to rise to the top of the
food chain, where they would enslave and kill muggles and non-pure bloods- all under his
regime. He did a lot of horrible things over the course of his life- including murdering
his own family members, and creating horcruxes- but he showed no mercy for any of these things
at any point in his life. Voldemort is certainly EVIL.
2. Raczidian
Raczidian was a dark wizard who is said to have existed during an unknown period in time-
it’s only referred to as ancient.He was a very talented dark wizard who was fully
immersed in the dark arts- able to produce all sorts of evil concoctions and cast all
sorts of sinister spells. But one thing that he always had trouble with was what we now
know to be the Patronus charm.
According to Harry Potter lore- Raczidian, who was massively magically talented, was
simply not able to produce the patronus charm properly because he was not pure of heart.
Where a normal witch or wizard could expect to be introduced to their spirit animal when
casting the spell for the first time, Raczidian was met with maggots. Not only that, but they
were maggots that devoured him, ‘engulfing’ his body. This is a testament to just how
evil Raczidian was- he wasn’t just ‘not pure of heart’- Raczidian’s heart was
black: he was pure evil.
1. Ekrizdis Ekrizdis isn’t particularly well-known,
but he marked his place in wizarding history as a practitioner of the worst kinds of dark
arts imaginable. The types of magic that he performed and experimented with made Voldemort’s
horcrux creation look fairly commonplace. Ekrizdis was alive during the 15th century
and he is the original inhabitant of the island fortress of Azkaban. While travelling one
day, Ekrizdis stumbled upon the island- which at the time had no infrastructure to speak
of. When he first arrived, it was just a regular island, but he soon turned it in to his own
little dark arts experiment. After placing concealment charms on the island, Ekrizdis
began his dark arts experiments by luring muggle sailors to the island, then torturing
and eventually murdering them. Before ever stepping foot on the island, Ekrizdis was
mad, but after spending some time there, he became totally insane as he had completely
lost touch with reality. He became so wrapped up and enthralled in his experimentation with
dark magic, that he had lost his mind, and the poor sailors that he brought to the island
witnessed it first hand. In his madness, it has been speculated that Ekrizdis either unwittingly
or perhaps intentionally created what we now know to be Dementors- which are the most evil
creatures in the wizarding world. The most evil creature from the most evil wizard- makes
sense.
And that’s it for this video! What do you guys think of my list? Comment your OWN list
down below.
Until next time
Remember
Of the Horcrux, wickedest of magical inventions, we shall not speak nor give direction