What is 'Dark Magic'?

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 95960

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "potioncat" <willsonkmom at m...>
wrote:
> Jim wrote: 
> > So I'm sticking with the notion that it's the state of mind of the
> > caster that's the most important element in Dark Magic.  BTW, if you
> > can find it, find the late Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy stories,
> > mysteries set in an alternate history where magic works.  Garrett 
> knew
> > a great deal about literature about magic and the Laws of Magic and
> > put it into his stories.  They're great reads anyway, and you'll 
> find
> > his ideas affecting yours, I bet.
> > 
> 
> 
> Potioncat:
> You may have covered this in other posts, but are you saying that a 
> curse could be cast by two different wizards, and would only be dark 
> magic for one of them?..or that the state of mind makes it possible 
> to cast dark magic?

It could happen that two wizards could cast the same curse/jinx/hex
and it would only be Dark for one.  Here's an example: Draco cast the
leg locker curse on Neville once (in CoS? I think so) just to bully
him.  I don't remember it mentioned, but it's likely enough somebody
cast a leg locker curse against a Death Eater in the MoM battle.  Is
one of those instances "darker" than the other?  I say yes.

When you ask if the state of mind makes it possible to cast Dark
Magic, that can be true as well.  Harry's poorly cast Cruciatus Curse
is the exemplar of that.  Bellatrix said it: you've got to mean them,
boy, you've got to want to cause pain."  I say she's right.  Harry, as
angry as he was, didn't have the hatred in him to really agonize
someone, even Bellatrix.  And, if he could build up that hatred, it
would be bad for him, wouldn't it, make him a worse person.

Casting these spells has a certain amount of danger for anyone.  What
if you cast one of these spells and find out you like it, that you got
a rush out of it?  A first step down a dark road, so that these spells
shouldn't be cast unless absolutely necessary.

Other kinds of Dark Magic probably require such a dwelling on evil
symbols and bad intentions that it inevitably would destroy the person
who practiced it.