Dark Arts

"It was surely one thing to speak of the Dark Arts as a worthy enemy, another thing to speak of them, as Snape was doing, with a loving caress in his voice?"

- Harry Potter's views of the Dark Arts

The Dark Arts are the collective term for the most evil forms of magic in the Harry Potter series. Unlike normal magic it is used for selfish or malevolent purposes.

Origins
Magic seems to be channelled through emotions, such as one can produce a Patronus through positive and pleasant emotions. The practictioners of the Dark Arts, named the Death Eaters, are unable to make Patronuses, because they do not need good memories.

The Dark Arts originated in ancient Greece, about thirty thousand years ago. It was practised by wizards full of hatred and anger, channelled into bitterness and deadly precision, which made it all the more deadly.

The first use of the Dark Arts was a Basilisk being bred by Dark Lord Herpo the Foul.

Uses
The Dark Arts come in many forms, the most famous is the Aveda Kedavra, the Killing Curse, and Harry Potter and Tom Riddle are the only humans to have survived the Curse. The practitioners of the Arts are the equivalent of Muggle criminals, and are often wanted by Law.

The uses of the Dark Arts include:
 * poisoning
 * Necromancy
 * immortality-seeking
 * creationism
 * sadism
 * all forms of curses
 * Horcruxes, the "most evil" of all Arts
 * breeding Dark creatures
 * killing innocents

Practitioners
The practitioners of the Dark Arts were named Death Eaters in modern times. In the past, they consisted of such figures as Herpo the Foul, first Dark Lord, Morgan, Circe, and Hecate.

Even Albus Dumbledore himself meddled in the Dark Arts in his youth; he sought to subjudgate Muggles into a police state where wizards would rule. His friend Gellert Grindelwald helped him in his ideas. But when Grindelwald began a fight which killed his sister, Dumbledore had to abandon his ideas.

Practicality
Some of the Dark Arts are described by wizards as "impossible" and "foolish" because wizards have proven that resurrection in solid form is impossible. This makes the Dark Arts branch Necromancy obselete. Nonetheless, Grindelwald sought the Resurrection Stone, the Hallow, for this purpose. Also, the Philosopher's Stone could be seen as part of the Dark Arts given that immortality is against laws of nature.