10 Deadliest Spells In The Harry Potter Universe

3. Sectumsempra

Voldemort Avada Kedavra
Warner Brothers

What does it do? Creates several large, deep gashes across its victims body, causing them to bleed severely.

Invented by none other than Severus Snape as a way for him to defend himself against the excessive amount of bullying he received in his schooldays, Sectumsempra is arguably the single most brutal spell the wizarding world has brought us to date.

Because - unfortunately, for the victim - it won't kill you straightaway. It'll make you bleed and suffer, dying slowly and incredibly painfully as you literally haemorrhage the red stuff for minutes on end. As much as we hate Draco Malfoy, it felt horrible to watch him fall victim to this curse in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and that speaks volumes as to it's effectiveness and deadliness.

George Weasley lost an ear to Sectumsempra during Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and because of the dark, advanced nature of the spell, the ear was not able to be reattached via any known magical means. It's violent, difficult to reverse and tears up its victims with the flick of a wrist - if there's one thing we can take away from this, it's not to bully people until they snap...

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.