Balance of Power

One of the troubling things about the world that Mrs. Rowling has created is that it is unbalanced towards being fallen. This is perhaps no where so obvious as in the case of the so called non-beings. With the exception of poltergeists, which are apparently based on "chaos," ¹ all of these "non-beings" are evil creatures. While I am okay with Dark Magic being difficult to impossible to fully repair to some extent, I have limits. I can accept the idea of acts having consequences that require divine intervention to fully heal. I cannot accept that if magic is not fundamentally tainted (as in the real world it would have to be if it existed), that it is fundamentally unbalanced towards evil.

• Evil creatures are indestructible, but on the side of good, the closest we come is the phoenix which seems to have a rather useless form of immortality, and can heal, but only if you can earn the loyalty of the bird in question (to get its tears).²
• Evil spells cannot be blocked, cannot be fully healed, may in fact be fully irreversible. The only good equivalent is a mysterious magic that Lily invoked that no one actually understands.
• potions alone seems somewhat balanced with things like the death potion balanced by the elixir of life, and debates on the exact effects of the draught of living death.
• While mandrakes might be useful, there seems to be more plants that harm you than plants that conspicuously help you.
• Occlumency is dependant on "shut[ting] down" and "deny[ing] essential parts" of oneself.³ As I discuss further on the page dedicated to it, this is not healthy.

Why do we not have shields that cannot be breached, or can only be cast to protect someone else, but are stronger than standard shields? Why do we not see instances of the healing magic that Mrs. Rowling implies makes mundane health problems irrelevant? Harry should be healed of his vision problems, someone else cured after being crushed by a giant (since that is, in essence a mundane injury), or after a catastrophic fall from a broom (explaining why Madam Pomfrey hates Quidditch). Since dementors play an important role, so to should some of the more benevolent creatures. Sure, Fawkes is critical with the basilisk, but that creature is so evil it needs its own balance. And yes, Buckbeak shows up a few times, but so too do Acromantula, which, again, are mostly evil.

In short, magic seems to have massively escalated the fallen nature of the world. If love is so powerful, why is Lily's self sacrifice the only example of its power that we see?⁴ This is perhaps not amply clear from Snape's poor description of the whole thing, but fan fiction authors have more or less worked it out to my satisfaction. Read Brumous by SeriouslySam, where this whole empty your mind thing is actually explored. To protect those you love from the danger of being possessed by Riddle, Harry must show love less, compartmentalise his love for others, to the point that people cannot tell he loves them. Does this even sound like authentic love at this point? When you cannot even show it properly? The only defence against possession, mind reading, and other mental invasions that take your will away is to become a cold emotionally distant person who borders on a trying to split their own personality? I'm sorry, if that is true, evil has won.