Hey everyone, welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory.
Today, we’re discussing the darker side of the wizarding world.
What do you know about the Dark Arts?
Just like any other line of magic, the spells and charms that the wizarding community feared most…
the dark arts… has a long, complex history.
But, unfortunately for modern historians, much of it has remained shrouded in secrecy.
If it weren’t for a few ancient Dark Wizards,
like the sorcerer named Godelot who wrote the resource book Magick Moste Evile , we
would know very little of the methods dark wizards employed in their crafts.
But thanks to their texts, and the resurgence in dark magic that Tom
Riddle brought about towards the end of the 20th century,
we’re able to chart a course from the earliest days of dark magic, to the modern era.
(WHAT ARE THE DARK ARTS?)
When we toss the term, “Dark Arts” around,
it’s easy to think that we’re only talking about the three Unforgivable Curses.
Three spells that would land a wizard or witch a one way ticket to a locked cell in Azkaban. But
the Dark Arts was much more than just a handful of curses that could kill or torture their targets.
Dark Magic, just like normal magic, ranged from charms, to potions, to enchanted objects.
Although, unlike the types of magic that Godric Gryffindor and the other Hogwarts founders knew,
Dark Magic also included innately evil magical beings,
like zombies, vampires, rougarou, and many more.
When we look at all the various strains of Dark Magic that exist,
it’s tempting to think that the distinction between normal magic…
the type that first years would learn in a typical class at Hogwarts…
and the type that a dark wizard like Herpo the Foul might use… was just a small distinction.
After all, both types of magic used an incredible amount of skill.
And in their effect, both types could have an awfully powerful result.
And… that’s actually a good point. Because the very thing that makes Dark Magic…
dark… is the way it’s used. If someone utilizes a spell, potion, or charm to harm someone,
whether physically or mentally, then it is typically considered dark magic.
In addition to that, if a spell, potion, or creature
was created explicitly through dark means, then it too, by default, is considered dark magic.
(EXCEPTIONS)
But just because a wizard used dark magic, it didn’t suddenly make them a dark wizard. In the
United Kingdom, the Ministry of Magic would often give its Aurors and officers authority to use dark
magic whenever situations demanded it. During war, even the Unforgivable Curses, the three
spells that would land wizards life-sentences in prison, could be utilized if the Ministry agreed.
And that was just in the nations that comprised the UK.
In other parts of the world, the wizarding community had even more flexible positions
on the use of Dark Magic. Most famously, former Deatheater, Igor Karkaroff, allowed
students to enroll in an out-right Dark Arts class at his school, the Durmstrang Institute.
The most famous exception to the common misconception
that only Dark Wizards use dark magic was perhaps Severus Snape’s use of the
Killing Curse. As part of a long-running ruse to deceive Lord Voldemort, Snape and Dumbledore
both decided that Severus would have to kill the aging wizard… when the opportunity arose.
Although Severus had once been a Death Eater, by the time he pointed his wand at Albus,
and took his dear friend’s life, he had been completely redeemed. This instance
was further proof that simple, honest, good wizards (or grey in Snape’s case)
were also capable of utilizing the Dark Arts, without damaging their souls.
(ORIGINS OF DARK ARTS)
When we turn our attention to the historical texts stashed in Madame Irma Prince’s library, we sadly
find that many of the books on the Dark Arts are locked behind cabinets in the Restricted Section.
But even if you were lucky enough to gain access, you’d discover that the
history of Dark Wizards and their magic seems to begin sometime around 100 BCE…
far later than muggles started recording their own history.
Although it's tempting to think that most of the ancient lore of the dark wizards
was deliberately destroyed through the ages… there’s probably a far simpler explanation.
Most of Muggles’ own recorded history failed to survive the centuries of war, famine, and
natural disasters that struck Europe over the past 3 millennia. And with the magical
community comprising a far smaller segment of the population… and the dark arts practitioners
representing an even smaller fraction… it’s only natural that only a few documents endured.
But thanks to these ancient tales, like the ones of Herpo the Foul and Hereward,
an owner of the Elder Wand, we’re able to piece the story together.
(TYPES OF DARK ARTS)
By the time Voldemort came to power, much of what was known of the Dark Arts had already
been established by the Dark Wizards that preceded him. Although his own mastery of
the creation of Horcruxes and complex potions made him seem like a dark wizard
on the cutting edge of magical breakthroughs, he was pretty mundane with his use of techniques.
When it comes to Dark Magic, in general, there are typically two types that wizards employ:
charms and potions.
If we start with Charms first, we can break that down into three further categories.
Ranked from weakest to strongest, these were jinxes, hexes, and curses.
Jinxes, as we’ve already suggested, were the weakest types of charms that a Dark
Wizard could utilize. Among the many jinxes, the knockback jinx is probably
the best example. As described in The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self Protection,
the Knockback jinx is a simple technique that wizards used while battling each other,
to push their opponent backwards. Professor McGonagal once used it, during her early
years as an instructor at Hogwarts, and it was a fairly typical spell for novices.
When we take a step up, and look at Hexes, we’ll see that these are considerably crueler,
and more devastating, than the comparatively weak jinxes. Amongst the most terrible hexes,
there was the Illegal growth Hex, which would cause a victim’s head to grow uncontrollably…
the pus squirting hex, which caused painful red boils to bubble to a wizard’s skin and spew rivers
of white pus…. And the horn-tongue hex, which transformed a victim’s tongue into a painful horn.
Now, the final category for Dark Arts charms is the curse. These were the most powerful,
and damning, spells that wizards could produce. Among these charms, the three
unforgivable curses were the most terrifying. As we mentioned earlier, if any wizard ever used
these particular spells on another, they would be condemned to a life sentence in Azkaban prison.
The Killing Curse, which you already know, is the most feared of the three.
But the Cruciatus Curse, a spell that causes a victim to feel unbelievable amounts of pain,
was perhaps far worse. The Imperius Curse, the last of the three, may seem more innocent,
but it isn’t. If a dark wizard used this spell on you, then you’d be forced to do whatever they bid.
However, it should be important to remember that there are other dark curses,
like the entrail-expelling curse, that should also probably be given ‘unforgivable’ status.
Beyond curses, the Dark Arts are most often applied to potions. The Drink of Despair,
the emerald potion that was used to protect Salaza Slyther’s Locket… one of Lord Voldemort's most
difficult horcruxes to retrieve… was an example of just how terrible a Dark potion could be. The only
way to dispose of the potion was to drink it, and the effects were horrible. Even the most powerful
wizard of his age, Albus Dumbledore, was unable to overcome the effects of the Drink of Despair,
as he struggled to consume it all. This, in fact, was one of the many inventions
that Lord Voldemort claimed to have achieved, in his many years of studying the Dark Arts.
Besides the Drink of Despair, other famous dark potions relied on terrible ingredients, like
unicorn blood, in order to bring their desired result. But if a Dark Wizard was willing to go
to such terrible depths, he could create a new body for himself, like Voldemort ultimately did.
Using these spells and potions, a wizard could enchant objects with harmful intentions.
Like the Hogwarts founders enchanted the Sorting Hat,
in order to select students for their houses in the years after their deaths,
Dark Wizards used similar techniques to curse pens, books, and even houses.
But the topic of dark creatures is, perhaps, the most interesting of all the dark arts.
While some, like the Basilisk, were the result of experimentation conducted by Dark Wizards,
many of these beasts occurred naturally in the wild. Boggarts and Dementors are
the most famous, but Vampires, Banshees, and Hags plagued wizards for centuries, as well.
The fact that many of these beasts preyed on witches and wizards wasn’t the only reason
they were considered Dark. Many other beasts, like dragons and manticores, were known to eat people,
but were often unlisted in catalogues of dark creatures. It seemed to most,
that a certain level of sentience, and a deliberate desire to be cruel,
were the attributes that separated dark creatures from other predators.
(SUMMARY)
When we take a step back, and look at all that the Dark Arts comprises,
it's hard not to feel a sense of awe. And when we consider the ultimate legacy of Dark Magic,
you might find that you feel an equally large sense of terror.
As we said earlier, not all Dark Arts practitioners were evil.
But the overwhelming majority were.
And the lives they ruined, and the devastation they wrought on the wizarding community,
would leave scars for centuries to come.
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Until next time
Remember
The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure.