Protego Diabolica

### Effect

Created protective black fire that only burnt the caster's enemies whilst leaving their allies unharmed

***Protego Diabolica*** was the incantation of a powerful dark charm that allowed the user to create a protective ring of black fire around them that completely incinerated enemies of the caster who came into physical contact with it while leaving their allies unharmed. It was similar to Fiendfyre, but was a different spell.

## History

In 1927, Gellert Grindelwald cast this spell in the Lestrange Mausoleum to test the loyalty of his followers and kill a number of his enemies, most of whom were Aurors trying to arrest him. Because they were loyal, Vinda Rosier, Abernathy, Nagel, MacDuff, Carrow, Krafft, Credence Barebone and Queenie Goldstein all passed through the fire into the circle. Krall, who considered turning against Grindelwald, failed to enter. Several victims who never attempted to cross either escaped the ring or fell to its wrath.

During the 1990–1991 school year, Jacob travelled to Japan, believing R was after a legendary artefact after he gathered evidence from different captured R members. He discovered half of the Dark Scroll in a mountaintop cave and was severely burned with *Protego Diabolica*, with which the Dark Scroll was protected. Jacob was then sent to St Mungo's back in England, where he was treated for his injuries. After Healer Miriam Strout healed his burns and saved his life after adjusting his treatments upon being properly informed of what spell had burned him by Albus Dumbledore, Jacob told his sibling about his venturing in the cave and that he had deduced that "R" had already been there and took the other half of the scroll in order to brew Dai Ryusaki's mind-enhancing potion, as he only found one torn half of it.

## Description and effects

When cast, *Protego Diabolica*, directed by the caster's will and intentions, created a protective ring of black fire around the caster that was capable of repelling a wide variety of spells, such as most jinxes, hexes and minor curses, as well as block physical entities and objects by burning them to ash. It was possible to walk through the flames unharmed, as demonstrated by Vinda Rosier, Credence Barebone, Queenie Goldstein, Nagel and Abernathy amongst others, only if they were loyal to the caster and meant them no harm. Krall, who expressed doubts about Grindelwald's goals and methods earlier and thus showed an insufficient amount of loyalty towards Grindelwald, was burnt to ash within a few moments of entering the fire.

The black fire followed its caster's will and wand movements, and allowed them to create a protective ring of black fire around them that they were able to manipulate to an extent, such as causing tendrils of black fire to extend from the ring and burn one' enemies to reach those in mid-Apparition, and was capable of forming a gigantic pack of fiery beasts, such as dragon-like demonic creatures resembling many-headed hydras, as well as powerful, formless black flames that spread rapidly and were capable of great, uncontrollable destruction, such as the burning of Paris.

## Counter and treatment

It was a very rare occurrence for a victim to survive being burned by the flames of *Protego Diabolica*, though the victim would still require medical treatment afterwards, provided that the wounds were not instantly fatal to its victim. Burn-Healing Paste was insufficient in healing such burns, though there were still some proper healing magic that was used to adjust the treatment accordingly in order to improve the victim's health and recovery.

The black flames could be dispelled by a powerful enough usage of the General Counter-Spell, if cast by multiple individuals at once, as demonstrated by the aforementioned combined efforts of Newt and Theseus Scamander, Tina Goldstein, Yusuf Kama and also Nicolas Flamel to properly contain and extinguish Gellert Grindelwald's black fire before it destroyed the whole city of Paris. The black flames could be deflected or blocked, temporarily, with the Shield Charm.

## Known practitioners

* Gellert Grindelwald
* Headmaster of Mahoutokoro during 1990
* Unidentified Muggle-born Hogwarts student
* Alexandre Durand

## Etymology

* The incantation comes from Latin "*protego*", "I protect", and "*diabolica*", a declension of "*diabolicus*", meaning "diabolic, relating to the Devil".
* It is unclear if the translation is meant to suggest "protection from the devil" or "the devil protects". As the spell is used to divide friend from foe, one can assume that the former translation is accurate, as Grindelwald was dividing himself from those whom he considered "the enemy" (also a euphemism for Satan). However, given Grindelwald's real intentions and his habit of using irony and misleading phrases (such as the phrase "The Greater Good" when he is, in fact, inflicting suffering rather than good), it could very well be the latter.