Warning! At least some content in this article is derived from information featured in Hogwarts Legacy. Spoilers will be present within the article.

Necromancy was the Dark Art of raising the dead. It was also the branch of magic used to create Inferi and Charmed skeletons,[2][3] as well as Zombies.

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Nature

Albus Dumbledore mentioned in his notes on Beedle the Bard that Necromancy was "a branch of magic that has never worked". Assuming the original goal of Necromancy was to bring people back from the dead, this is mostly true: whilst it was possible to create Inferi, these were mindless creatures with no soul or intelligence, despite possessing human corpses and hence were not truly "raised" persons.[1]

History

Tom Riddle was a notable practitioner of this branch of dark magic, having created an army of Inferi during the First Wizarding War, mainly from the corpses of people he had murdered. Possibly his largest army of Inferi inhabited The Cave where he hid Salazar Slytherin's Locket, to protect it from potential intruders.[4] He further grew his army of the undead during the Second Wizarding War, which often created thick grey mists in the areas they occupied.[5]

Hermione Granger owned a book on necromancy titled The Nightshade Guide to Necromancy, which could be found on her bookcases in her Ministry office by the time was the Minister for Magic.[6]

Behind the scenes

If the Resurrection Stone was truly created by Cadmus Peverell rather than given to him by Death himself, it could be seen as a work of Necromancy, since it too was created with the purpose of bringing back the dead, albeit in a completely different way.

Appearances