There are a lot of Harry Potter spells that the average fan will know. Classics of the series like Expelliarmus, the Killing Curse, or the meme-worthy Wingardium Leviosa tend to be the ones that come to mind. From the lighthearted to those that are much darker, the series is home to countless spells. However, fans may not know much about one of the most important forms of magic in the series: love.

While it may sound too cheesy to actually be real, it is true that love might be the most important form of magic in the Harry Potter world. Without love magic, Voldemort would have become a force that no wizard alive could have stopped. It may be shocking, but there is a lot to learn about love magic.

A History Of Love Magic

While love in the wizarding world hasn’t always ended in positive ways, love magic has been used for good throughout the history of Harry Potter. One of the earliest examples was actually a misguided effort by Cadmus Peverell in the 12th century. After losing his beloved, he hoped to bring her back from the dead using one of the Deathly Hallows, the powerful Resurrection Stone. Sadly, the woman he loved was just a shell of her former self. While the stone itself isn’t necessarily tied to love magic, this was an instance in which Cadmus failed to utilize love magic properly in conjunction with the stone, resulting in him eventually taking his own life.

In the 17th century, Gormlaith Gaunt placed Isolt Sayre and James Steward into an endless sleep. Rather than a simple spell, the magical love that the two felt for their daughters is what actually broke the curse. Upon hearing their daughter's screams, the two managed to come out of the powerful curse through solely the power of love magic. A much darker taste of love magic took place in the 1920s, once again involving the Gaunts. Merope Gaunt successfully manipulated Tom Riddle Sr. through a love potion, which ultimately backfired in the long run, resulting in one of the most evil wizards ever known, Voldemort.

The most famous instances of love magic in the series come thanks to Lily Potter, specifically her sacrifice. Her intense love for her child allowed Harry Potter to survive the Killing Curse, kept Voldemort from touching him (for some time). It may also be partially responsible for Lily and James’ reappearance in the midst of the Priori Incantatem during Harry and Voldemort’s duel at the end of The Goblet Of Fire. Harry was able to re-use a similar powerful protection spell for his loved ones during the Battle Of Hogwarts when, upon his sacrifice in the Forbidden Forest, Voldemort’s spells were rendered far less effective against many of those within Hogwarts.

What Is Love Magic?

Properties Of Love Magic

• Protective capabilities
• Counters the dark arts
• Can change a spellcaster's Patronus form
• Typically activated through sacrifice and/or intense emotion

Love magic isn’t as ethereal as one might think, though it can still be a bit hard to grasp. Essentially, love magic harnesses the powerful emotion of love. Through sheer magic power alone, some kind of benefit is gained by those who are a party to the strong bond of love. There are other darker aspects of love magic, the most notable being sinister attempts to directly harness that power, which has nearly always resulted in disaster. Love potions are a great example of this very thing. These potions simply take feelings of obsession and desire and increase them in the person who consumes the potion. A love potion can’t actually create feelings of love, as not even the greatest witches and wizards alive have adequately harnessed the power.

In the case of Lily Potter (and interestingly not James Potter), her love for her son was so strong, and her magical abilities so great, that she was able to inadvertently create a layer of protection around her son. Her willing sacrifice to protect the one she loved was the trigger for the love magic, and it was powerful enough to last for years until Voldemort found a way around it. Dumbledore explains it to some degree in Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone:

Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn’t realize that love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. […] Quirrel, full of hatred, greed, and ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort, could not touch you for this reason. It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good.

Love seems to be able to serve as a strong counter against the Dark Arts and dark creatures, as it is Harry and the love he has for his friends that allows him to negate Voldemort’s attempts to penetrate his mind with Legilimency. Additionally, it is believed that the powerful Patronus charm is either a form of love magic or strengthened by it, as feelings of love have the ability to change and strengthen a witch or wizard's Patronus. Love is a powerful force that is not to be trifled with. Those with ill intent seeking to harness love end up worse off for doing so. This creates questions surrounding whether there is some other force at work when love magic is being used.

Can Anyone Use Love Magic?

Successful Love Magic Users:

• Lily Potter
• Harry Potter
• The Sayre-Steward Family

Thanks to the nature of love magic, essentially anyone has the potential to use it in some form. It’s clear that anyone with enough money or cunning can harness the darker side of love magic through the use of love potions. Merope Gaunt may be the most famous instance of this very thing, but love potions were highlighted elsewhere in the series, especially in The Half-Blood Prince. As has already been mentioned, these attempts to harness love magic won’t turn out positively. While anyone could use love magic, not just anyone will be able to harness it to its full potential.

The key to using love magic is to be able to feel the emotion of love strongly, even if the loved one is no longer around. Dumbledore puts it perfectly in The Sorcerer’s Stone:

“To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.”

With that said, it is important to point out that Voldemort himself would be incapable of ever using love magic. He was both incapable of love, and he had no way to understand it.

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