Dark Arts

The Dark Arts are the branch of magic the wizarding world treats as forbidden, existing alongside the Hogwarts class that exists to counter it, Defence Against the Dark Arts. The label covers curses and other magic meant to harm, control, or kill, practices that are illegal or heavily restricted under wizarding law. Those who pursue them are called Dark wizards and witches, and the most feared of them in living memory is Lord Voldemort, whose first rise to power ended on the night his attack on the infant Harry Potter failed. Every Hogwarts student studies defence against such magic as a core subject, and dread of the Dark Arts, and of the people drawn to them, shapes much of wizarding society.