Harry Potter: Everything You Didn’t Know About Duelling In The Wizarding World

Within the wizarding world of Harry Potter, wizard duelling occupies quite an interesting place in the story and in the magical world at large. While duelling is seen as something of a sport, it shares a lot in common with muggle combat sports in that while it can be done as a practice or used as a learning experience, it can also be a literal life saver.

The history of wizard duelling within the wizarding world is long and complex, and duelling has it’s positives as well as it’s negatives. This is everything that many Harry Potter fans don’t know about wizard duelling.

10 It’s Considered A Sport

Although it obviously isn’t on quite the same level as other wizarding sports like Quidditch, many witches and wizards in the wizarding world see duelling as a kind of sport.

While something like Quidditch is clearly more analogous to sports like soccer or cricket, duelling is seen as a kind of magical version of sword fighting or other more combat-oriented sports.

9 Aspen Wands Are Ideal For Duels

Different wand woods are typically better at different types of magic, and aspen wood wands are particularly known for their strength when it comes to wizard’s duels. It’s a wood that is ideal for charm work, and charms are obviously an essential aspect of a good wizard’s duel.

The connection is so deep that there was actually a secretive duelling club called The Silver Spears that supposedly only allowed witches and wizards with aspen wands to join their group.

8 Yew Wands Were Feared In Duels

On the other side of that coin, one type of wand wood that many wizard duellists do not want to mess with is yew wood. Although it’s negative reputation might not be entirely earned, the superstition behind yew wands and their inherent darkness or draw towards evil puts many duellists off duelling with a yew wand owner.

Given the fact that Voldemort himself was in possession of a yew wand, it begs the question whether or not that superstition is entirely off base.

7 Hogwart’s Duelling Club Was Formed In The 80’s

In a school full of children with magical powers, it’s completely expected that students will get into magical fights with one another. But duelling is serious, dangerous business, so when Dumbledore became aware that kids were getting into duels in an uncontrolled environment, he and Professor Flitwick formed the Hogwart’s Duelling Club some time in the 1980’s.

The club seemingly didn’t stick around for long though, as it dissolved and was then later reformed under the supervision of Gilderoy Lockhart.

6 Duelling Is Not Permitted At Hogwarts Outside Of Controlled Environments

Although some of the teachers were not as keen on the idea of a Duelling Club as others were, providing a controlled environment where students could practice their duelling skills and get out some of their aggression towards each other seems to be a better option than the alternative.

And as a result of that controlled duelling environment, duelling outside of the Duelling Club is expressly forbidden at Hogwarts.

5 There Are Many Formalities

Despite the fact that most wizard’s duels are glorified fights, there are some niceties and formalities that duellists are supposed to observe when duelling.

Bowing, holding the wand in the right position, and only attacking within the set parameters of the duel are essential aspects of wizards duels as a sport.

4 Dumbledore May Have Foreseen It’s Usefulness

It should come as no surprise that Albus Dumbledore had some insight into the way that the wizarding world might devolve into war once again, or that he was always expecting Voldemort to return.

And while the Duelling Club and Harry Potter’s introduction to wizard’s duelling initially seemed to be more for the sake of education than anything, it’s hard to deny that his ability to duel was essential in his fight against Voldemort, and learning to duel may have saved the lives of many Hogwarts students.

3 Duelling Taught Harry His Most Important Spell

Expelliarmus is one of the simplest spells that any wizard duellist ever uses or learns, but it’s also the charm that just so happens to save Harry’s life a few times over and winds up defeating Voldemort for good.

The Disarming Charm is a key part of any duellist’s arsenal, and if Harry hadn’t learned it in the Duelling Club, the entire course of the wizarding war may have gone differently.

2 It’s Essential To Dumbledore’s Army

When Professor Umbridge refuses to teach the students at Hogwarts any remotely useful information or skills regarding defense against the dark arts, Harry and many of the other kids take matters into their own hands and form Dumbledore’s Army to brush up on their defensive skills.

And unsurprisingly, duelling is a huge part of that skill set. It’s hard to deny it’s usefulness either, as many members of the DA are capable of duelling with some of the most powerful Death Eaters in the world.

1 The Ministry Tried To Ban Duelling

Like most government institutions, the Ministry of Magic seems to be useless at best, and actively malevolent at worst. And in typical Ministry style, wizard duelling is something that they tried to ban.

In 1995 during the depths of Voldemort’s return, the Ministry actually tried to get countries across the world to agree on an International Ban on Duelling, which thankfully didn’t go anywhere.