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"It is a very powerful dark charm. It creates a protective ring of black fire that harms enemies of the caster."
— Description[src]

Protego Diabolica was the incantation of a powerful dark charm[2] that allowed the user to create a protective ring of black fire around them that completely incinerated enemies of the caster who came into physical contact with it while leaving their allies unharmed.[1][3] It was similar to Fiendfyre, but was a different spell.[2]

History[]

Grindelwald controlling Protego Diabolica COG

Grindelwald controlling the fire to separate his enemies from his allies

In 1927, Gellert Grindelwald cast this spell in the Lestrange Mausoleum to test the loyalty of his followers and kill a number of his enemies, most of whom were Aurors trying to arrest him. Because they were loyal, Vinda Rosier, Abernathy, Nagel, MacDuff, Carrow, Krafft, Credence Barebone and Queenie Goldstein all passed through the fire into the circle. Krall, who considered turning against Grindelwald, failed to enter. Several victims who never attempted to cross either escaped the ring or fell to its wrath.[1]

During the 1990–1991 school year, Jacob travelled to Japan, believing R was after a legendary artefact after he gathered evidence from different captured R members. He discovered half of the Dark Scroll in a mountaintop cave and was severely burned with Protego Diabolica, with which the Dark Scroll was protected. Jacob was then sent to St Mungo's back in England, where he was treated for his injuries. After Healer Miriam Strout healed his burns and saved his life after adjusting his treatments upon being properly informed of what spell had burned him by Albus Dumbledore, Jacob told his sibling about his venturing in the cave and that he had deduced that "R" had already been there and took the other half of the scroll in order to brew Dai Ryusaki's mind-enhancing potion, as he only found one torn half of it.[2]

Description and effects[]

Vinda joining Grindelwald

As a true follower, Vinda safely crossing the circle of flames

When cast, Protego Diabolica, directed by the caster's will and intentions, created a protective ring of black fire around the caster that was capable of repelling a wide variety of spells, such as most jinxes, hexes and minor curses, as well as block physical entities and objects by burning them to ash. It was possible to walk through the flames unharmed, as demonstrated by Vinda Rosier, Credence Barebone, Queenie Goldstein, Nagel and Abernathy amongst others, only if they were loyal to the caster and meant them no harm. Krall, who expressed doubts about Grindelwald's goals and methods earlier and thus showed an insufficient amount of loyalty towards Grindelwald, was burnt to ash within a few moments of entering the fire.[1]

Krall's death

Krall dying in the flames

The black fire followed its caster's will and wand movements, and allowed them to create a protective ring of black fire around them that they were able to manipulate to an extent, such as causing tendrils of black fire to extend from the ring and burn one' enemies to reach those in mid-Apparition, and was capable of forming a gigantic pack of fiery beasts, such as dragon-like demonic creatures resembling many-headed hydras, as well as powerful, formless black flames that spread rapidly and were capable of great, uncontrollable destruction, such as the burning of Paris.

Counter and treatment[]

Mediwizard: "I've never seen someone who's survived 'Protego Diabolica'... your brother is quite lucky!"
Healer: "The recovery your brother made is quite miraculous! I can hardly believe it..."
— The rare survivability[src]

It was a very rare occurrence for a victim to survive being burned by the flames of Protego Diabolica, though the victim would still require medical treatment afterwards, provided that the wounds were not instantly fatal to its victim. Burn-Healing Paste was insufficient in healing such burns, though there were still some proper healing magic that was used to adjust the treatment accordingly in order to improve the victim's health and recovery.[2]

The black flames could be dispelled by a powerful enough usage of the General Counter-Spell, if cast by multiple individuals at once, as demonstrated by the aforementioned combined efforts of Newt and Theseus Scamander, Tina Goldstein, Yusuf Kama and also Nicolas Flamel to properly contain and extinguish Gellert Grindelwald's black fire before it destroyed the whole city of Paris. The black flames could be deflected or blocked, temporarily, with the Shield Charm.[1][2]

Known practitioners[]

Etymology[]

  • The incantation comes from Latin "protego", "I protect", and "diabolica", a declension of "diabolicus", meaning "diabolic, relating to the Devil".
  • It is unclear if the translation is meant to suggest "protection from the devil" or "the devil protects". As the spell is used to divide friend from foe, one can assume that the former translation is accurate, as Grindelwald was dividing himself from those whom he considered "the enemy" (also a euphemism for Satan). However, given Grindelwald's real intentions and his habit of using irony and misleading phrases (such as the phrase "The Greater Good" when he is, in fact, inflicting suffering rather than good), it could very well be the latter.

Behind the scenes[]

  • In Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - The Original Screenplay, the spell creates a "circle of black fire", whereas in the film the flames are bright blue. This is most likely due to the other tones of the scene being too dark for black fire to properly be seen. Therefore, blue fire might have been used instead to show contrast to these dark tones.
  • The spell's trait of rapidly spreading and growing in size and being able to create bestial entities out of its flames is remarkably similar to Fiendfyre, suggesting the spells are related. Additionally, the spell shares similarities to Bluebell Flames, which can seemingly be made to only damage certain targets and objects, as well as the caster being able to direct its movement to an extent. Also, it is similar to the black and purple flames that Severus Snape added to the protections for the Philosopher's Stone. The flames of Protego Diabolica and the black and purple flames have specific ways of being crossed unharmed, and not following the specific way will have negative effects to the victim.
  • Despite the flames of Protego Diabolica protecting Grindelwald from the curses that the Aurors fired at him, it was unable to protect the skull-hookah and Vinda Rosier from being destroyed or stunned by Leta Lestrange while both were in the protective circle. However, it should be noted that Leta was also in the circle at that point, allowed in by an unsuspecting Grindelwald.
  • Due to this spell's extremely dangerous, lethal and powerful nature and similarity to Fiendfyre or cursed barrier, it is unknown why it was labelled as a dark charm and not a curse.
  • It is one of the duelling spells available to students in Harry Potter: Magic Awakened where it is classed as a legendary spell. In this game, casting Protego Diabolica causes a ring of blue fire to erupt around the player character, damaging all enemies inside the circle whilst three successive waves of flaming dragons are launched at the opponent. Despite being classified in-universe as dark magic, the player does not have to remove it from their deck for story missions like they would for other dark magic such as Avada Kedavra or Crucio.

Appearances[]

Wiki
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Notes and references[]

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