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.

And that’s it for this video!  If you enjoy the content  

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Until next time

Remember

The mind is not a book, to be opened  at will and examined at leisure.