10 Darkest Harry Potter Moments, Ranked

This article contains spoilers for the Harry Potter books and movies.

Since its inception as a children’s book, the Harry Potter franchise had some truly dark moments. It made sense for the book series to evolve, as it started with Harry Potter at age 11, but ran until this protagonist was 17. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, book one, was published in 1997, and the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published in 2007. The ten-year gap between the releases of the first and last books was roughly paralleled by the timeline of the Harry Potter story, which spanned six years. The books grew more adult as Potter did, and the movies reflected this.

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling darkened the series’ tone and themes in line with its aging audience. Just as Harry started his journey in the books at 11, Rowling’s demographic started reading the books at roughly 11 years of age. As the novels’ characters and readers grew into young adults, the books became a YA series with a far wider appeal than they had initially. Logically, then, many of the darkest moments in the Harry Potter movies were later in the series. But even earlier movies could frighten and shock at some of their grittiest points.

10 James Potter Bullying Severus Snape

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2

Harry Potter’s heroics will go down in history as some of literature and cinema’s greatest, which is what made the reveal of his father’s bullying antics so disturbing. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Harry viewed Snape’s thoughts in a pensieve, uncovering James Potter as a bully. James bullied Snape, while Snape loved Lily, who, of course, married James.

Severus Snape’s torment at the hands of none other than the series’ hero’s father turned things around for Harry Potter. Snape was meant to be the villain and all of a sudden, he was revealed, in the same scene, to be not just an undercover spy for Dumbledore all along, but a victim of the hero’s family. This subversion shook the story to its core, confirming that no character was safe from in-universe danger, or indeed from toppling from their pedestal as a hero.

9 Tom Riddle Torturing Animals

Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince

Voldemort’s perversity was hardly a surprise, being the pure-blood supremacist villain of the series, but somehow, the chilling disclosure of Tom’s childhood torturing habit was shocking. Voldemort’s choices later in life made sense in the grand scheme of his twisted beliefs, but his childhood decision to torture animals and children at the orphanage provided the series’ first real glimpse into his psychology. Tom Riddle was truly missing a marble or two. Perhaps whatever gene accounted for empathy was deficient, which made sense, bearing in mind his mother’s actions.

But more importantly, Riddle was unable to assimilate his parents’ loss and failure from an early age, which was never righted by the orphanage. Growing up without a primary caregiver and emotional support allowed whatever impulses he may or may not have had to spiral. Riddle’s psychological profile transfigured his childhood pain into bitterness, self-sufficiency, and narcissistic, antisocial idealism. The extremity of his isolation was matched by the extremity of his revenge on the world. And yet, Harry Potter, when faced with similar circumstances, emerged humane, kind, and generous. ​​​​​​

8 Harry Potter Using Sectumsempra On Draco Malfoy

Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter truly went YA when Harry used Sectumsempra on the unpleasant Draco Malfoy. This constituted one of the franchise’s most awesome duels, which turned into one of its darkest moments when Harry made a huge blunder. Harry foolishly used a curse he didn’t understand, instantaneously lacerating Draco in numerous places, and leaving him incapacitated in a pool of his own blood.

Snape arrived in time to save Draco from an uncertain fate, saving his skin in the process, since he was bound by magic to protect Draco. This moment in the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie obscured the line between heroes and villains. It opened the series’ worldview up to the dark notion that everyone could fail and administer cruelty.

7 Quirrell Bringing New Meaning To “Two-Faced”

Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone

The Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is a movie where someone literally had eyes on the back of their head. This horrible moment involved Professor Quirrell unveiling Voldemort secretly ensconced in his head, face peering contentedly from the back of his skull. Hidden behind Quirrell’s turban, Voldemort’s rather undignified situation was, unfortunately, unforgettable.

This body horror shocker set the tone in Harry Potter and established it as a new fantasy series that took no prisoners. Original and bizarre, Harry Potter was proven capable of twists that genuinely surprised, and in some cases, disgusted. This brilliant Hogwarts highlight is certainly one of the darker points of Harry Potter.

6 Cedric Diggory’s Death

Harry Potter And The Goblet of Fire

Cedric Diggory may have been the first character death in Harry Potter that felt significant, despite the books and movies referencing the deaths of various minor characters. And the movie made it count – Diggory’s death was treated with all the tragedy and dignity it deserved. The Warner Bros. picture didn’t sugarcoat Cedric’s death, he was killed unceremoniously in a foreshadowing of the brutality to come.

The Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire communicated the value of life aptly through Cedric’s father’s reaction to his son’s death. This was the most effective way that the story could have chosen to impress upon viewers the horror of loss and grief. Cedric’s death marked a turning point of sorts in the series, as it only got darker from there on.

5 Bellatrix Lestrange Torturing Hermione Granger

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1

Bellatrix Lestrange tortured Hermione Granger in one of the most sickening parts of the plot. Harry Potter had thoroughly grown up by the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, in pretty much every way conceivable. Both the character and the franchise were facing darkness unimaginable in former movies.

Although Hermione escaped Bellatrix’s clutches, it wasn’t before Bellatrix inflicted an unforgivable curse on her. This use of the Cruciatus curse may be the series’ darkest, with Hermione refusing to give up information despite a curse defined by unbearable pain. In the movie, Bellatrix also carved “Mudblood” into Hermione’s arm, for good measure.

4 Fred Weasley’s Death

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2

Possibly the third most harrowing death in the Harry Potter movies, Fred Weasley dying stood out as an unbelievably dark moment. Fred was such a funny character, it seemed as if the series couldn’t possibly stoop so low as to kill him off. But this was exactly the point, making the harsh reality of war stand out.

Fred’s death seemed unfair, but so were the deaths of every other character lost in the Battle of Hogwarts. This defining moment in Harry Potter took the story to an epic place, serving a battle worthy of the highest fantasy. The last movie in the series was one of the darkest overall, but at least its redemptive final scene demonstrated the calm after the storm.

3 Dolores Umbridge In General

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix

It’s hard to narrow down Dolores Umbridge’s darkest moments to a top five, let alone one, so Dolores Umbridge, in general, is one of the darkest elements of Harry Potter. Rowling was wide aware that Umbridge was by far the most despicable thing she had ever committed to paper, excepting, perhaps, the Dark Lord himself. But being a villain to rival Voldemort was no mean feat.

The movies made Umbridge’s evil clear as day by contrasting it with her appearance. Umbridge took toxic positivity to a new level, seemingly taking sugar, spice, and everything nice as her mood and goals. Smiling politely and dressed in hot pink as she made students carve their flesh, Umbridge was a parody of professionalism and represented everything wrong with bureaucracy.

2 Nagini Killing Severus Snape

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2

Although Severus Snape’s heroics hadn’t been uncovered at the time of his death in the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, his death was brutal. With his dying breath, Snape encouraged Harry to take his thoughts, which Harry then viewed in a pensieve. This divulged that Snape was a double agent, and in fact, his loyalty to Voldemort was the act all along. Snape was on Dumbledore’s side the whole time, owing to a lifelong love for Harry’s mother, Lily. This moment was completely transformative for Harry Potter, the final nail in the coffin of black-and-white morality in the tale.

This moment also defined Severus as a hero second only to Harry, perhaps. As such, Snape’s death was arguably the most tragic of the series, delivering what may be Harry Potter’s biggest emotional sucker punch. It is ambiguous whether Snape could have helped the Potters more after his fatal mistake. But regardless of where he started, Snape gladly accepted his mistake as a terminal sentence, slowly paying his dues over his lonely double life until it ended with the same sacrifice his love had made – the final one, for Harry.

1 Severus Snape Killing Albus Dumbledore

Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince

Embroiled in Harry Potter’s miraculous maelstrom of double-crossing and tragedy was, of course, the unthinkable death of Albus Dumbledore. Although it was Voldemort who pursued immortality, it was Dumbledore who seemed like he would never die. Smiling, laughing, and yet cold and calculating, this old man seemed even older than he was. One of the most appalling deaths in cinema, Dumbledore falling from the tower after being struck by Snape’s killing curse was made even more tragic by the fact that Snape was a double agent, secretly Dumbledore’s friend.

Dumbledore was no more a perfect person than any other character in the series, making mistakes and weighty decisions that cost lives. In this way, he represented the most mature element of Rowling’s story, an open acknowledgment of the adult realities of war and politics. The magic of Dumbledore, as a character, was that he made all these things redemptive, rather than ugly. Even in extreme difficulty, Albus always did what was as kind as possible, even when that was hard for everyone to understand. The literal and metaphorical fall of this outwardly invincible hero may just be the darkest moment in Harry Potter.