I agree with your first part, but I think Grey Magic in itself is a Peeve. I think HP Magic is mostly just magic, not light, dark, and especially not grey. Some magic is considered dark, but that doesn't mean one can go about classifying shades to it. It just is.

 

I prefer the stories that don't spend that much time going on about light vs dark. They just use the magic, perhaps mention how Harry is uncomfortable at first blowing people's arms off, but that's about it.

Though I suppose it depends on who writes it.

 

I think in DH Molly Weasley mentions that dark magic can't be healed like normal. Even when sectumsempra was healed by Snape he mentioned that it would leave a scar.

 

Yes, and there are many mentions of Dark magic throughout the series, but not so for 'light magic' or 'grey magic'. Also, so far as I know, while there have been mentions of 'powerful Dark magic' and 'advanced Dark magic', no magic is called 'darker' or 'darkest' in the books, which suggests that there are no shades of magic.

Magic is magic, with some magic being called Dark, but magic might be either Dark or not, and the latter doesn't mean it's light.

 

Pretty sure Sectumsempra was dark magic because the wounds were specifically designed to be resistant to healing. I imagine dark magic is whatever the government wants it to be and most of the time it's magic that causes harm and is difficult or impossible to reverse.

 

I wouldn't say it's a pet peeve per say, just something that annoys me now and then.

When a snake/creature can understand English, but speaks an entirely different language (a.k.a Parseltongue). This usually happens when Harry is conversing with a snake in parseltongue and the snake is making comments about what other people are saying while they speak English, which afterwards supposed hilarity ensues.

Not to say there aren't some stories/crackfics where this is done superbly, but really, since you can't understand the language from the snake/creature what makes the author think said being could understand humans?

Some fics do this well, but more and more often lately I find myself 'mentally rolling my eyes.'

 

Whenever I see Light with a capital "L", I groan. It's just so damn stupid. This is not Star Wars, stop it please.

 

Even more general, a pet peeve of mine is the whole dualism that usually underlies "light" and "dark" magic. Yes, it exists in different real life permutations of witchcraft/magic/etcetera practice, but it is not in the books.

 

I imagine you were quite ticked off when you read GoF, especially this part:

 

I hate it just as much in SW as I do in everything else.

I thought 'dark magic' was just a legal definition, unlike in Dresden. Some magic just does fucked up shit etc.

 

Honestly I think the dislike of light magic is stupid. If there is magic that is innately harmful in nature (being harder to heal, having no non-violent uses, etc) why would there not be light magic (that is, magic that intrinsically wards away evil or harm, eases suffering, etc)? Do I think the vast majority of magic in HP is 'gray' or has no intrinsic characteristics? Yes. Does that exclude there being intrinsically positive things in the world? No.

Such as Unicorns, Phoenix, and the patronus charm.

Signature relevant.

 

Unicorns don't seem inherently positive. They have cursed blood.
Pheonix's are pretty great but I woudn't call them light magic.
The patronus is just plain speciest.

 

I don't think it's a dislike of light magic. It's more that there is no such thing as light magic in the HP world. There is also nothing that says that Dark magic is one that is innately harmful in nature.

Being harder to heal, having no non-violent uses are extrapolations from some statements made in Canon about Dark magic, and not a known fact. They could be just as easily contradicted using some of the other texts in Canon:

1. Petrification by the Basilisk was Dark magic, as stated by Dumbledore, and it was not known to be too hard to heal, rather the ingredient (Mandrakes) were hard to obtain.
Instead, what we know is that you can't repair the damage from injuries inflicted by Dark magic, as Harry states in DH. Doesn't mean that all Dark magic inflicts injuries.

2. Snape says that the Marauder's map was 'plainly full of Dark Magic', even though he didn't see any violent effects from it, or any suggestion of the same. It suggests that Dark magic might not have only violent uses. Snape could have been saying it just to get Harry into trouble, but he could have used any other reason to do so too.

As esran stated, Unicorns are known to have cursed blood, Phoenixes can cause harm (like when the Phoenix clawed out the Basilisk's eyes), etc.

TL;DR So, it's not a dislike of light magic, but the fact that there is no such thing as light magic. Dark magic is clearly mentioned in Canon, whereas light magic and grey magic are not.

 

The whole Light/Dark thing is best analysed case-by-case, I think. Yes, "light magic" with a capital L never appears in canon, and fanfics which try to adhere to canon by all other appearances should probably steer clear of it.

There is scope for it, as Wildfeather suggested (minus the unicorns), so I don't have much of a problem with AUs that feature "Light" magic when it's handled well, but to each their own.

If anything, I find most depictions of Dark magic in fanfiction to be considerably more offensive than its fanon counterpart.

 

How about if we redefine 'Dark magic' so that it fits with other 'Dark' things.

Dark matter
Dark energy

Named dark because either they cannot be seen/viewed or because they do not interact 'normally' with other matter. Those definitions actually kinda work with the things that are called 'Dark' in the books.

No one knows how the petrifaction happened -> Dark magic
The marauders map works by some unseen and strange magic -> Dark magic
Parseltongue? How can that even work? -> Dark magic
Unforgivables cannot be blocked by magic, in other words they interact weakly with normal magic -> Dark magic

Aww yeah.

Ok, I'll stop now.

 

Here's a pet peeve of mine: Fiendfyre being the ultimate spell in almost every freaking Harry Potter fic. It's become a cliche and I am tired of it.

Sure, you could say it was the strongest spell in canon, but it was also fire in a room that had accumulated magical items for centuries; it had plenty of fuel to become an inferno. And it was started by a mere seventh year. Surely people don't always have to look at canon and say, "yep, fiendfyre's obviously the best destructive magic there is" and use it every. single. time?

 

I don't mind thinking of fiendfyre as the ultimate destructive magic, so long as it's destructiveness is compensated by the fact that no sane wizard would ever use the spell due to the difficulty in controlling it. Only someone as stupid as Crabbe (Goyle?) would think of using it.

It was one of the very few things that could destroy a horcrux, after all. So long as no one goes casting it willy nilly, it's not that hard to believe that it's the ultimate destructive spell, one that is easy to cast, but impossible to control.

The problem is that fanfics that use it generally present it as the ultimate shortcut to power, or something of the like, which never works.

 

I have no problem with someone as skilled Dumbledore or Voldemort being able to use it.

 

And in journals like Transfiguration Today, dark magic is often referred to using its more scientific term - Weakly Interacting Magical Powers (WIMPs). Light magic is properly referred to as Powerfully Interacting Magical Powers (PIMPs). Yeah, I can see that happening.

 

This made my morning.

A minor pet peeve of mine is the handling of corporal punishment. It's usually used as an Author Tract, so wizards are either "hellz yeah, spank dat ass" or find such an act to be the most heinous thing one could do to a magical child, because children are the future and wizarding children are blah blah blah...

The only instances in canon are fairly representative of what we see IRL. Arthur spanks Fred (or George, or both, can't remember) for almost getting Ron to take an Unbreakable Vow, while Marvolo Gaunt is a typical abusive parent, except for the fact that he's also a Parselmouth.