Magic in the Harry Potter Universe

World-building

Where does magic come from? How does it work? What are the mechanics of it for lack of a better word?

We are told that magic and non-magical technology does not get along. Clocks are fairly high precision devices, yet watches seem to work, so I am going to assume only electronics are affected. Interestingly, Mrs. Rowling writes that an early 1800s Minister for Magic thought that telegraph lines affected magic, not the other way around.¹ Why would magic and electricity interact?

• One theory is that magical properties tend to be protected against specific kinds of things. If one of these protections were to be against lightening, and if that protection were applied broadly, and not just to the roof (since lightening can strike through windows for example), that would effect electronics.²
• One theory is that magic essentially an electromagnetic field. The source work does not clearly spell this out, but describes magic as a field that interacts with electrical fields, and thus powers, and sometimes over powers, electrical devices.³ Per this theory, it was the poor understanding of electricity in the 1700s and 1800s that lead magicals to conclude that electrical things could not work, and their isolation that lead them to never revisit that “knowledge” even as the non-magical world advanced and made electricity both more common and safer.⁴

We seem to have:

• Magical Animals
• Spells - curses, hexes, jinks, charms, transfiguration
  • wands

    The wand is a European invention, and while African witches and wizards have adopted it as a useful tool in the last century, many spells are cast simply by pointing the finger or through hand gestures.⁵

  • Mrs. Rowling published a Book of Spells only available on Playstation.⁶ There seems to be a transcript available, and mentions a fair number of spells.
  • I am putting together my own book of spells here. I am not trying to build a useful spell book, but rather a reference of names and sources.
  • Transfiguration is troubling on a few levels.
    • Are transfiguration permanent or temporary?
    • Are you changing the form, the substance, or both? Gamp’s Law suggests that this is a complicated answer.
    • The vanishing spell on living things is really disturbing. If you master this on a mammal, you essentially have the perfect murder weapon.
  • Fidelius Charm has contradictory information available.
    • When Hermione disapperates from the Ministry in book 7, bringing Yaxley along, she claims that since Dumbledore died, they are each secret keepers, and so she has effectively told Yaxley the secret.⁷
    • Mrs. Rowling, writing in her web page FAQ, writes

      When a Secret-Keeper dies, their secret dies with them, or, to put it another way, the status of their secret will remain as it was at the moment of their death. Everybody in whom they confided will continue to know the hidden information, but nobody else.⁸

    • The FAQ page exists after the publishing of book 7:
      • Book Seven is copyright 2007
      • Archive.org shows the FAQ page up on 2012-02-04
    • Either Hermione and Harry are wrong or the FAQ is wrong.
    • If the FAQ is correct, then any use of the spell is really rather dangerous. You set up a situation where locations can be totally lost, once the secret keeper dies, no one can learn the information, including potentially the location. Thus within a generation or so, a house becomes unfindable. There would need to be a way to deconstruct/break the spell without having the secret keeper.
    • If the FAQ is wrong, then it is even more complicated than any of Mrs. Rowling’s descriptions. How does the secret move into the other souls after the death of the first secret keeper? What is the mechanism that makes untransmittable knowledge now something “stored in your soul”?
  • Serpensortia
  • turning vinegar into wine is taught in charms class.⁹
    • some speculate that this only works with wine based vinegar, because the spell is reversing oxidation, not actually transfiguring. Under this view, transfiguration changes form but not substance. Since the substance really is wine, it cannot be true transfiguration.
• Potions
  • What role do the ingredients play in potions?

  • It is often asked whether a Muggle could create a magic potion, given a Potions book and the right ingredients. The answer, unfortunately, is no. There is always some element of wandwork necessary to make a potion¹⁰

  • I am compiling of list of these as well.
• [Runes]
• Divination - tea cups, horoscopes, star charts, crystal balls, so on.
• Arithmancy - Per Google, this should be part of Divination, but is apparently something different.
• Rituals - Riddle’s resurrection seems to be a combination of elements of the above. It is also interesting that it is normal spoken English where nothing else we see of magic is.

Healing

Healing seems to use charms for diagnosis, and a combination of spells (charms and transfiguration?) and potions for the actual healing. Per Mrs. Rowling:

I decided that, broadly speaking, wizards would have the power to correct or override ‘mundane’ nature, but not ‘magical’ nature. Therefore, a wizard could catch anything a Muggle might catch, but he could cure all of it; he would also comfortably survive a scorpion sting that might kill a Muggle, whereas he might die if bitten by a Venomous Tentacula. Similarly, bones broken in non-magical accidents such as falls or fist fights can be mended by magic, but the consequences of curses or backfiring magic could be serious, permanent or life-threatening.¹¹

Against this we have the fact that Percy wears horn-rimmed glasses¹². The question then becomes did the Weasleys not fix his eyesight because

• it is too costly to do so
  • I know of at least one where it is “extremely painful and very expensive, not to mention very hard, to make”¹³ where “very expensive” means “a couple of thousand Galleons.”¹⁴
  • Simply costly:
    • mymovingfingerwrites. A Study of Resonance Chapter 2 Published: 2022-03-29. Updated: 2022-11-17.
• it is painful to do¹⁵
• it is morally distasteful to do so (requires dark magic?)
• it is not possible to do so (contradicts the above quote from the website)
  • from one fan fiction:

    your homeostasis is having poor eyesight. Most healing magic works to get things back to normal. If you cut your eye and then healed it, your eyesight would remain the same. You’d have to purposefully leave a scar to leave an impact, which would only happen with a cursed or highly magical injury. Imagine! Cursing your own eyes to heal them, muggles are deranged!¹⁶

  • as a subset of this, it is possible, but only under conditions.
    • before a certain age¹⁷
    • after a certain age¹⁸
• it does not occur to British pure-blood society to do so
  • You could take the above quote, and assume that the shop owner is actually only partially right. Perhaps most healing magic returns you to “normal” and thus some forms of poor eye sight could not be affected by that magic. That would not preclude uncommon magic that changes your genetic predisposition to better eyesight, nor would it preclude magic fixing the need for glasses caused by eye strain, head or eye trauma, or other things that a muggleborn might show up in his shop with.

Lifespan

This is not “healing” per-se, but it relates. Wizards seem to have longer than non-magical lifespans. While the exact age of most characters is ambiguous, and/or relies on secondary source material, we have one solid fact: Harry’s OWL examinations are conducted by at least one examiner who also conducted Dumbledore’s NEWTs.¹⁹

Dark magic

Some magic is classified as being “dark.” How this relates to the Christian concept of “evil” is unclear, and is further discussed on it’s own page.

Horcrux

These are a huge topic, and need their own page as well.

Unforgivables

I have read fan fiction that tries to present the three unforgivable curses as merely misunderstood bits of magic.²⁰ I dislike that idea. Oh, there is some logic to it, particularly for the Imperius curse, but overall it does not fit with what we read in the books. I need to look up the citations for this, but there are a couple of key points.

Fake professor Moody tells the class that the killing curse requires true hate as well as power. He asserts that the class could cast it, but that he would be unlikely to get so much as a nose bleed.²¹ While it is possible he is implying that the entire class, even together, lacks the power to cast the curse successfully, the implication is that school children lack the hate. You do not hate an animal you are trying to kill painlessly. There is no obvious derivation from a spell used for animal slaughter to one that requires this kind of hatred to work. The addition of emotion may make a spell stronger, perhaps harder to block, but the spell as described does not overpower shields, it goes right through them.

Bellatrix tells Harry much the same thing when he fails to cast the cruciatus curse on her.²² There is no medical application for hating someone, euthanasia not withstanding. Sure you might envision medical applications for electrical stimulation (which might have similar effects as the curse), or otherwise shocking someone. However, your benign intent is the total inverse of that required for this curse. If the euthanasia argument is to hold water, then it is a mercy killing. Note, I do not actually agree with euthanasia in any way, but follow the proponent’s “logic” for a moment. The patient is in great pain with no hope of a cure or recovery. The patient will die anyway, but only after protected pain. I, because I sympathise with the patient (NOT hate the patient) am trying to end the pain, but ending his/her life is the only way. This is a VERY misguided form of love (if true, but that is a different debate), not at all the hate these spells require.

In both cases these two curses are unforgivable in part because they are difficult to shield against (I am assuming conjuration of stone is, for most people, very hard, very draining, and/or very slow) and in part because of the mind set required to cast them.

We know less about the third, the imperious, and if the intent required is merely to override someone’s will, then it is easier to see situations where you might justify it. Ultimately I think what makes it so dangerous to society and thus punished so heavily is that they have trouble detecting it. If you cannot know when someone has done something of their own will, you have utterly undermined your entire ability to hold trials, establish order, and effectively have civilisation.

I have read in one fan fiction that, while it has some very troubling elements, also has some really compelling world building elements, a view of unforgivables and perhaps dark magic in general that is not wholly incompatible with the above, but extends beyond it. I am not sure it how cannon compatible it is, but it certainly allows for a lot of flexibility.

“Those spells require the right mind set to work as intended,” Nicholas said. “I dare say any magic user of moderate ability could cast one, but it would not be nearly as effective and could be blocked and it would be magically draining without the mind set. With the mind set, the spells are unblock-able and do not drain the caster. The problem is that mind set would mean you are no better than they are. To do the spells as intended, you cannot have any regard for human life at all. You must be evil to the core. The more you use those spells, the more proficient you become at them, the less human you remain and the more you become that which you’re fighting. But Harry is right. Using those spells gives them an advantage in a fight one which can only be countered by a degree of skill most never attain.²³

This explains why the Death Eaters were so hard to fight, even though Aurors are supposedly some of the most skilled at magic that you could find, requiring five NEWTS with Exceeds Expectations including some of the harder disciplines.²⁴ I strongly suspect that not all inner circle Death Eaters have the same Exceeds Expectations or better in Charms, Transfiguration and Defence. If what they have instead is a type of magic that levels the playing field, or even tilts it the other way, a desperate Ministry losing the war might well decide to authorise it, and leave it up to each individual Auror to judge the cost.

Wands

While these are a staple of the universe, and have a page dedicated to them, we have no mention of staves.

The Wards around Privet Drive and The Trace

Wards in General

First of all, I am not going to spend much time worrying about whether or not “wards” are part of the cannon universe or not. The books may never use the word, but the concept certainly exists. The books provide no consistent name for area affect protection magics, particularly not long lasting ones. I am going to join most of fan fiction and call these magics wards. The books use all sorts of names, and in some places descriptions of effects without naming the magic behind it at all (you cannot apparate in Hogwarts). I need a word, and “ward” works well.

Wards at Number Four

In the cannon Harry Potter universe, the wards were set to fail when Harry turns 17, becoming an adult. This has lead some fanfiction authors to speculate that any event that causes Harry to be emancipated would also cause the wards to fail. Per the books, the wards were stood up when Petunia took Harry into her home.²⁵ I have to deal with this in this in any story. How exactly do the wards work, and what protection do they provide? I initially considered that the wards might not have activated, as this would both be a bit of ironic justice and make any story easier. In [Family Inseparable] I adopted a story in which Harry gets married at a young age. What affect, if any, would such a marriage have on the wards? In the non-magical world, Wikipedia suggests that England does not have a concept of emancipation of minors.²⁶ If that is true, his marriage should have no effect on the wards (or on the Trace), particularly since, per the same article, this seems to be in line with older systems of law.

Another possibility is that turning 17 is a magical event - literally. Because Harry never takes arithmancy in the books, we do not see much about magic numbers, but we know they exist. Perhaps this particular prime number impacts the operation of the wards (and the Trace must be some form of detection ward I think) in some way. If that is true, then it does not matter if emancipation exists in the magical world or not, because it would be a legal event and not a magical one, and so would not affect either the Trace or the wards.

We are told that they stand “so long as he can call Privet Drive ‘home’”²⁷ In the Philosopher’s Stone we read “The castle felt more like home than Privet Drive ever had.”²⁸ What does this mean for the strength, or even the existence, of these wards? Sure, Hogwarts is a boarding school, but Harry has at this point only lived there for about two months. If it already feels more like home than the only other place he ever remembers living, that is a remarkable lack of attachment.

The Trace

A related question is The Trace, which also terminates at 17. How does this operate? As I said, I think it has to be a detection ward of some sort. I have read ia number of different ideas about it. See the full article on the Trace.

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1. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists p. 18. Pottermore Publishing. © 2016 American Kindle Edition.↩︎

2. CmptrWz. For Want of an Outfit Chapter 19 Archive of Our Own Published: 2021-01-02 Updated: 2021-07-05.↩︎

3. Kratos1989. Head Start Book 1, Chapter 10 Updated: 2021-08-23. Published: 2020-02-03. Last Viewed: 2021-08-23.↩︎

4. Kratos1989. Head Start Book 1, Chapter 10 Updated: 2021-08-23. Published: 2020-02-03. Last Viewed: 2021-08-23.↩︎

5. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. “Uagadou” Originally published on Pottermore on 2016-01-30. Last Viewed 2021-03-04.↩︎

6. magicscrapbook “‘Book of Spells’ transcript” Last Viewed 2021-05-12.↩︎

7. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows p. 112. Pottermore Publishing. © 2007 American Kindle Edition.↩︎

8. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. “Result of F.A.Q. Poll” Same page through 2012-02-04↩︎

9. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince p. 428. Pottermore Publishing. American Kindle Edition.↩︎

10. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists p. 42. Pottermore Publishing. © 2016 American Kindle Edition.↩︎

11. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. “Illness and Disability” Originally published on Pottermore on 2015-08-10. Last Viewed 2021-03-02.↩︎

12. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Pottermore Limited. American Kindle Edition. Approx Location 4405 of 4470.↩︎

13. kb0 Fate’s Mistake Chapter 1 Published: 2008-02-19. Updated: 2008-03-02.↩︎

14. kb0 Fate’s Mistake Chapter 1 Published: 2008-02-19. Updated: 2008-03-02.↩︎

15. • Hippothestrowl. Broken Utterly! Chapter 2 Published: 2020-02-23. Updated: 2020-12-09.
    • kb0 Fate’s Mistake Chapter 1 Published: 2008-02-19. Updated: 2008-03-02.
    ↩︎

16. Sunlesswarmth. BrokenProphecy Chapter 3 Published 2020-10-04. Updated 2020-12-01. Last Viewed 2021-03-02.↩︎

17. Scarlet*Gryphon *For the Want of a Groundskeeper_ Published: 2019-11-24. Completed: 2019-11-24.↩︎

18. I know I have read a story with this, need to refind.↩︎

19. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Kindle Location 10438. Pottermore Limited. American Kindle Edition.↩︎

20. Works include but are not limited to:

    • Nigelcat1. Exodus Published: 2015-08-20.
    ↩︎

21. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire↩︎

22. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix↩︎

23. Radaslab. Not Normal Fanfiction.net Chapter 59 Published 2011-07-04, Updated 2013-08-10, Last Viewed 2020-07-31.↩︎

24. Citation needed.↩︎

25. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Chapter 37. Location 12236.↩︎

26. Wikipedia “Emancipation of minors Last Updated: 2021-03-27. Last Viewed: 2021-03-29.↩︎

27. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. paraphrased, but a citations is still needed.↩︎

28. Mrs. J. K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone p. 170. © 1998 Pottermore Limited. American Kindle Edition.↩︎