Harry Potter: 15 Spells Ranked From Weakest To Strongest
From fairly harmless to completely devastating...
For a series geared toward a family audience, the Wizarding World franchise sure has an awful lot of darkness lurking within itself. Numerous characters have died in the books and on-screen in particularly cruel ways, families have been torn apart, and lives have been damaged beyond repair.
Most of this tragedy is caused by the magic that inhabits Harry Potter's world. Whilst not all the spells in the series are inherently bad - and many are actually very helpful - there are a few that are so horrible and disturbing it can be easy to forget the series was originally aimed at younger audiences.
For this list, we're trawling through the series and remembering the spells that make the Wizarding World such an equally wondrous and terrifying place.
Whether they're useful spells us muggles wish we had in our own day-to-day lives or curses guaranteed to send shivers down your spine, these spells range from the harmlessly mundane to the shockingly powerful.
With that in mind - and a final warning about spoilers - here are 15 of the more prolific spells in the Harry Potter universe ranked weakest to strongest.
15. The Wand-Lighting Charm (Lumos)
Not all Wizarding World spells are used in combat; many are just helpful conveniences that help a witch or wizard through their day-to-day.
And in Harry Potter's world - where everything seems to be dank and dark - few spells are as universally welcome as the Lumos charm, a nifty trick that causes your wand to act as a flashlight.
Used throughout the series by the main characters in various life-or-death situations, Lumos is best used in the movies to heighten the tension of what's playing out on screen. Whether walking through the Ministry of Magic in Order of the Phoenix or trying to study like in The Prisoner of Azkaban, Lumos always makes it look as though something's ready to jump out the shadows.
As useful as it is though - both as a spell and a tension-building technique - it's still just a light, and isn't quite as powerful as some of the other spells in the Wizarding World's arsenal.