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HarryParseltongue

Harry Potter inadvertently speaks to a boa constrictor in 1991

Snape: "...and the Ministry can punish you if you do magic outside school, you get letters."
Lily: "But I have done magic outside school!"
Snape: "We’re all right. We haven’t got wands yet. They let you off when you’re a kid and you can’t help it."
Severus Snape and Lily Evans as children[src]

Underage magic is any magic used by a wizard or witch who is under seventeen years of age outside of school. While children are permitted to use magic as part of their education, it has been banned from use outside of such under the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery since 1875. Compliance with the Decree is monitored and enforced by the Improper Use of Magic Office at the Ministry of Magic using the Trace Charm. Children under the age of eleven, who have little control over their abilities and no wands, are exempt from the law. Though in wizarding families their parents are expected to keep them under control. The Ministry of Magic can only detect where magic is used, but not who used it. Most experts believe that if a child has magical ability, they will exhibit it by the age of seven.[1]

Accidental wandless magic

Tumblr lpwq5jP28k1qmbdmwo2 250

Marge Dursley being magically inflated

Magical children are prone to using magic accidentally when feeling angry, scared, or confused, as a form of self-defence. They typically have no control over this magic.

Known examples

  • Ariana Dumbledore was attacked by Muggle boys after they saw her performing magic, and the trauma affected her to the point of preventing her from ever learning to control her magic. In one of her fits, she accidentally killed her mother in a magical explosion.[2]
  • As a boy, Severus Snape made a branch of a tree snap and strike Petunia Evans in the shoulder when she made fun of him.[2]
  • Before Harry Potter went to Hogwarts, he did several things accidentally using his magical powers. He turned his teacher's wig blue, shrunk one of Dudley Dursley's old sweaters that Aunt Petunia was trying to force him to wear, and found himself on the roof once when his cousin, Dudley Dursley, and his gang were chasing him; this may have been a form of Apparition. He managed to grow all his hair back when his Aunt Petunia gave him a dreadful haircut using a pair of kitchen scissors. He also magically let a boa constrictor free from a zoo after he spoke to it in Parseltongue.[3] In 1993, he lost control of his magic when Marge Dursley insulted his late parents; his anger caused her to magically inflate.[4]
  • Neville Longbottom's uncle Algie accidentally pushed him out of a second story window in one of his many attempts to get Neville to perform magic. Luckily, on this occasion he did and bounced away instead of hitting the ground in what would have been a terrible fall otherwise.[3]

Intentional Wandless Magic

Tom Orphanage

Tom Riddle was able to control his magic from a young age

Riddle: "It's. . .it's magic, what I can do?"
Dumbledore: "What is it that you can do?"
Riddle: "All sorts. I can make things move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want them to do, without training them. I can make bad things happen to people who annoy me. I can make them hurt if I want to. . . I knew I was different. I knew I was special. Always, I knew there was something."
Tom Riddle telling Albus Dumbledore of his magical abilities at eleven years of age[src]

Some magical children exhibit mild degrees of control over their magic and are able to use it with intent, but not to cast specific spells, which is an advanced ability (to do magic wandless, not to cast spells) possessed by some adult wizards and witches. According to Albus Dumbledore, it is unusual and even somewhat worrisome for a child to be able to control their magic before the age of eleven. When discussing Tom Riddle's exceptional degree of control over his magic as a child, Dumbledore remarked that his powers were "surprisingly-well developed for such a young wizard and — most interestingly and ominously of all — he had already discovered that he had some measure of control over them, and begun to use them consciously"[5].

Known examples

  • As a child growing up in an orphanage, Tom Marvolo Riddle learned to somewhat control his magic. He could manipulate the minds of animals and creatures (for the free will, thoughts, and minds of animals are quite weak), enchant objects to make them move or travel floating with his mind, inflict harm on those who annoyed him, and speak Parseltongue.[5]
  • As a baby, in the mid 1930s, Minerva McGonagall used to inadvertently summon toys that had been left on upper shelves to her cot, made the family cat do her bidding, and made her father's bagpipes play themselves.[6]
  • Lily Evans displayed some control over her magical abilities as a girl. She floated off a swing set and manipulated the petals of a flower in front of her sister Petunia.[2]

Underage magic with a wand

HarryonTrial

Harry Potter at his trial for using underage magic

"Dear Mr Potter, the Ministry has received intelligence that at six twenty-three, this evening, you performed the Patronus Charm in the presence of a Muggle. As a clear violation of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, you are hereby expelled from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Hoping you are well, Mafalda Hopkirk."
Harry Potter's notice from the Improper Use of Magic Office in 1995[src]

British witches and wizards between the ages of eleven and seventeen are permitted to use magic within school, but not outside it, as legislated in the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery. When any magical activity is performed in the vicinity of an underage individual, the Trace Charm notifies the Improper Use of Magic Office as to the spell that was used and its location. Small infractions of the law will be met with a warning, but knowingly performing magic in a Muggle-inhabited area or in front of a Muggle is considered a crime punishable by expulsion from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as it violates the Statute of Secrecy. Exceptions are permitted in exceptional circumstances, such as self-defence and other life-threatening situations.[7]

According to Albus Dumbledore, although the Ministry can detect the use of magic near an underage witch or wizard, they cannot determine who performed it. This is why Harry was blamed for the Hover Charm used by Dobby at his aunt and uncle's house; since Harry was the only wizard who lived there, the Ministry assumed he was the only one who could have cast the spell. In the home of a wizarding family, it is up to the adults to enforce the rules for underage members of the household (also according to Dumbledore). This is consistent with the relatively numerous incidences of underage magic mentioned as having been performed at home by Fred and George Weasley.

Also, an underage wizard or witch may perform magic outside of school if given permission by a recognised authority figure, as Dumbledore gave a sixteen-year-old Harry Potter permission to use any form of defensive magic during their journey to Budleigh Babberton in case of an attack.

Known examples

  • Harry Potter received a warning after a Hover Charm was detected in his home in Little Whinging, though it was actually performed by Dobby the house-elf.[8]
  • In 1995, Harry used the Patronus Charm to ward off Dementors that attacked him and his cousin Dudley Dursley. He was expelled from Hogwarts for it, though this was rescinded in his Wizengamot hearing, as he was acquitted on the grounds of self-defence, and because the Ministry does not have the authority to expel Hogwarts students.[7]
  • Lily Evans occasionally used magic outside of school, despite living with her Muggle family, and received a few warning letters, but nothing “too serious”[9].
  • Hermione Granger mentioned having successfully cast "a few simple spells" upon learning that she was a witch and before her first year at Hogwarts[3], but apparently she was not given a warning. This might have been because underage magic warnings only apply to Hogwarts students.
  • In 1994, a boy named Kevin took his father's wand and enlarged a slug before his mom caught him.[10]
  • Sirius Black secured the decorations of his room with a Permanent Sticking Charm against alteration by his parents[2]. As he left his parents' home at the age of sixteen, he must have performed underage magic.
  • Hermione Granger uses the Wand-Lighting Charm in the woods on the Quidditch World Cup grounds in 1994, though apparently due to the Death Eater activities this seems to have been counted as a measure of self defence and thus no warning was issued.
  • On 27 June, 1997, Harry Potter used numerous spells during the Battle of the Seven Potters to defend against Death Eater attacks. No hearing was called as the Ministry apparently did not want to draw attention to Voldemort's current level of strength, nor that there had been a mass breakout from Azkaban.[11]

Other underage magic

  • At the age of five, Fred Weasley turned his younger brother Ron's teddy bear into a "great big filthy spider" after Ron broke his toy broomstick. This incident triggered Ron's lifelong fear of spiders.[12] It is unclear if Fred did this without a wand and with some degree of control, or if he took the wand of one his parents or older brothers to perform the spell.
    • This might suggest that the Ministry won't send letters to houses of Pure-Blood status, in the possibility that it was the parents and not the child at fault. This would mean that the only houses that are sent letters are those within Muggle Communities.
  • In 1995, when gripped by his uncle, Vernon Dursley, Harry Potter emitted a defensive charge, apparently as an automatic defensive response.
  • In 1995, at the age of fifteen, Harry Potter cast Lumos despite the fact that his cousin Dudley Dursley had punched him moments before and knocked his wand from his hand. The spell caused the wand's tip to light up.[13] This was a specific spell, which differentiates it from the intentional wandless magic of children who have not yet learned spells, and it also involved a wand, though it was not in Harry's hand at the time.
  • Moments after Neville Longbottom's birth, he magically adjusted his blankets so they were tucked tighter. No one noticed this, and the midwife believed his father had just tucked him in tighter.
  • Nymphadora Tonks learned the Jelly-Legs Curse when she was little.[14] It is unclear if she was able to perform cotrolled wandless magic, got her own wand at a younger age or used the wand of another person.

Behind the scenes

  • The LEGO Harry Potter game titles allow unlimited use of certain basic magic in certain instances even when Harry is in the Muggle world.

See also

Appearances

Notes and references
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Underage_magic
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