Dark Magic WAS: Re:help with JKR quote/ Children's reactions

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 176730

lizzyben wrote:
> 
> OK... so there's a distinction between "dark magic" & "Dark Magic"
that's never been outlined in the books at all? What is the
distinction? Is it simply that it's (lower-case) dark magic when our
side does it and (upper-case) Dark Magic when people we don't like do
it? <snip>

Carol responds:

We need to look at canon (not that it's consistent, but it's the place
to start). When and by whom and in what context are the terms "Dark
arts," "Dark wizard," and "Dark magic" used? (I agree that there's no
canonical distinction between "dark" and "Dark"; only JKR's
off-the-cuff attempt to distinguish between jinxes, hexes, and curses,
which doesn't fit canon at all since it puts, say, the Conjunctivitis
Curse or the Leg-Locker Curse, aka Locomotor Mortis).

Where to start? How about Knockturn Alley or curses and spells used
*only* by known Dark wizards and particularly Voldemort. Horcruxes and
the unnatural resurrection magic performed by Wormtail and possession,
used only by Voldemort to control his victims and in Quirrell's case,
use up his life force, is surely also Dark magic.

Or how about what's taught in the DADA classes (other than
Umbridge's)? The focus in the first through third years, especially in
Lupin's class, seems to be on Dark creatures (as distinct from
"magical creatures" like Unicorns and Knarls and Hippogriffs). Dark
creatures are easy enough to identify and always labeled as such, and
we can definitely see a range of "darkness" or at least of danger in
them, from the mischievous Cornish Pixies released by Lockhart to
Dementors, the foulest of Dark creatures, soulless and evil despite a
humanlike appearance when they're cloaked. (I suppose we could include
Blast-Ended Skrewts as Dark, but since they were bred by Hagrid and
are otherwise nonexistent, we can safely leave them off the list.)
Werewolves are Dark creatures once a month; Dementors and Inferi are
always Dark--irredeemabe and unreformable and permanently perilous.
(Vampires, oddly, seem to be essentially harmless and comic. Strangely.)

The Dark Arts, covered by Fake!Moody in GoF and Snape in HBP, are
another matter. Fake!Moody focuses on curses, even using the Imperius
Curse on students. (I think it was an excuse to force them to do his
bidding, but, oh, well.) He also hexes them as a "test" to see whether
they can protect themselves (so he says). We're not told that he
actually teaches them any defensive spells; if he did, Hermione
wouldn't have had to look up Protego and Impedimenta (another
"curse"!) in the library. Snape, our resident Dark Arts/DADA expert,
mentions Inferi as the creations of Dark wizards, which surely
indicates that they are produced using Dark magic. (The whole idea of
making corpses obey your will seems DArk without our having to be told
so.) In addition to practicing nonverbal defensive spells, his DADA
classes study the Unforgiveable Curses (not how to perform them,
however!) and Dementors (including an unspecified defense against them
other than the Patronus Charm, which I suspect must be Occlumency).

Anyway, I'm working from memory here, but I'm suggesting places to
look. DADA is "Defense Against the Dark Arts," so what, exactly, are
the students being taught to defend themselves against? What is sold
in Knockturn Alley that isn't sold in Diagon Alley? What magic is
performed by known Dark wizards that isn't performed by, erm, non-Dark
ones?

Is the Unbreakable Vow, which involves the death of the oath breaker,
Dark? (I'd say it is.) What about curses that have no countercurse or
poisons with no antidote? Are poisons in general, at least, magical
poisons, Dark magic? (That horrible potion protecting the locket
Horcrux (and the fake one) surely is. If, say, Dumbledore had created
that potion, surely it would still be Dark magic. It isn't Dark simply
because Voldemort created it.

The Unforgiveable Curses cause excruciating pain or instant death
(with no countercurse) or an invasion of the mind and robbing of the
will which for lack of a better term we can call mind rape.
Apparently, good wizards can use them without becoming Dark
themselves, but nevertheless, these curses do seem to be Dark magic.
But, apparently, some magic is *so* Dark (Horcruxes, the creation of
Inferi, possession) that only a Dark wizard would use it.

Are we any closer to a definition or to something resembling
consistency in JKR's use of the term? Can we please look at canon?

Carol, thinking that perhaps JKR's ideas changed as she wrote and
spells that she originally labeled "curses" became "jinxes" (as for
"counterjinxes," what the heck are they?)