Dark Magic, Dark Wizards (was: Philosophy of Dumbledore)

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 179594

> Pippin Fowler:
> It seems to me from the short menu of Unforgiveable Curses
> that some readers may be looking for more in 'Dark Magic'
> and 'Dark Wizards' than JKR intended to place there. What
> makes magic dark? It causes pain (Cruciatus), it controls
> someone else's mind (Imperius), or it kills (AK). What makes
> a wizard 'dark'? His or her wanton uses of these curses.

zgirnius:
This is exactly how I see it. There is also more "minor" Dark Magic. 
JKR's website suggests (and so do the books) that spells classified 
as Jinxes, Hexes, or Curses are to varying extents, Dark. I imagine 
the degree of darkness is related to the severity and permanence of 
the damage, ranging from trivial "Jelly Legs Jinx" to potentially 
deadly "Sectumsempra", which was not classified for us that I can 
recall, but must be a Curse.

> Pippin Fowler:
> Sectumsempra is also considered 'dark' by the author.
> 
> "Mrs. Weasley looked around and said, 'I can't make it [George's
> ear] grow back, not when it's been removed by Dark Magic. But it
> could have been so much worse....He's alive.'" (DH Fallen Warrior)

zgirnius:
Snape also calls it Dark, in the chapter of HBP named after the 
spell. And yeah, I would guess he might have been able to do more for 
George than Mrs. Weasley could.

> muscatel1988:
> > The ritual that restores Voldemort to full size and strength
> > in the graveyard reeks of Black Magic - "blood of the enemy
> > forcibly taken, bone of the father unwillingly given", all
> > that.  But there's another spell in canon that falls under
> > the traditional classification of Black Magic, the one which
> > uses a body part of another person, the one that is essentially
> > identity theft: the Polyjuice Potion.
> 
> Pippin Fowler:
> A potion is a thing. Things have no inherent good or evil. Like
> a knife, they can be used many ways with many intentions.

zgirnius:
Here I must disagree with you (if I understand correctly that you are 
suggesting Potions are not Dark). Spells are also things, that have 
no inherent good or evil. Was the Avada Kedavra cast by Snape at the 
end of HBP inherently evil? Or did Snape do the "right" thing? I 
certainly believe the latter, and that it was no more or less evil 
than it would have been, had Snape used the knife of your example. 
Nor was it evil of Harry to use Sectumsempra against Inferi (just not 
effective).

The resurrection potion of GoF, I would say, is definitely Dark, for 
two different reasons. First, it requires pain and injury to be made 
("Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken"), and second, it is used in 
conjunction with Horcruxes, to restore the unnaturally anchored soul 
of someone already killed to a body. Horcruxes are of course the 
Darkest of Dark Magic, as the text makes plain.

I think Polyjuice may also be Dark in this sense (but again, this 
does not make anyone who ever took a swig of it a Dark Wizard, since 
that is a "wanton" user of Dark Magic). My reasons for supposing this 
include the argument presented by Muscatel above, as well as its 
introduction in the series, in CoS. The potion is mentioned by Snape 
as being in "Most Potente Potions". This is a book shelved in the 
Restricted (Dark Arts) section of the school library. Here is the 
description:

> CoS, "The Rogue Bludger":
> It was clear from a glance why it belonged in the Restricted 
Section. Some of the potions had effects almost too gruesome to think 
about, and there were some very unpleasant illustrations, which 
included a man who seemed to have been turned inside out and a witch 
sprouting several extra pairs of arms out of her head.

zgirnius:
Whether or not you accept Polyjuice in particular is Dark, it seems 
pretty clear to me from this that *some* Potions are.

We had some discussion of Dark Magic before. The threading functino 
of Yahoo is not working for me so I can't find the start of the 
thread, but this post: 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/176622
was one in which I propose that Dark Magic in the Potterverse is a 
rough analogy to violence/the use of force, in RL.