10 Criminally Underused Spells And Potions In Harry Potter

Due to J.K. Rowling’s nuanced and extensive world-building, there was a huge number of spells and potions littered throughout the Harry Potter stories.

Indeed, one of Rowling’s greatest strengths was her ability to continuously add in new elements of magic without overloading the reader or repeating herself.

Unsurprisingly, some of these spells and potions were given more prominence than others in both the books and the movies, such as the Killing Curse, the Patronus Charm, and the Polyjuice Potion.

However, there were plenty that were underused, many of which would have been incredibly useful to Harry during his adventures at Hogwarts and beyond. Sadly, they were forgotten about, leaving die-hard Potterheads screaming at the text how vital they could have been in solving a problem.

There's so many that flew under the radar, which is a tragedy because some of the most underused spells and potions in Rowling’s world were also some of the most powerful…

Effect: Enables the caster to see into the mind of their target.

Occlumency and Legilimency were amongst the most interesting elements of Rowling’s world. Sadly, in neither the books nor the movies did these unique abilities get much attention.

The only time either of them were given any limelight was in The Order of the Phoenix following Harry’s vision, in which he attacked Mr. Weasley.

Yet the capacity to observe the thoughts of others would have been an invaluable skill for Harry. In The Half-Blood Prince, for example, one of his key objectives was to discover what Malfoy was doing in the Room of Requirement. Had he cast the Legilimency Spell, he may well have been able to find out.

Granted, Rowling has never disclosed how difficult the spell is to perform. But it’s unlikely that Hermione, for instance, wouldn’t have been able to master the spell given her ability. As such, the question arises as to why such a spell wasn’t more prominent during Harry’s adventures.