10 Most Epic Harry Potter Duels, Ranked

Harry Potter duels are one of the things we love most about the series. But which duel is the best?

Below we rank the best Harry Potter duels from epic to most epic.

10. Gilderoy Lockhart vs Severus Snape

Although seemingly innocuous at first, this duel between the two teachers is more profound than you might realize. First, it’s not just funny. We get to see Snape show off why HE should be the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher instead of these hacks who Dumbledore keeps hiring.

Second, we get to see the expelliarmus charm for the first time – Harry’s most leveraged tool in his battles.

Third, we get to see how scary Snape is when he feels no need to hold back.

9. Bellatrix Lestrange vs Mollie Weasley

Bellatrix causes a lot of harm in the Harry Potter world. Her victims include Serious Black, and also Neville Longbottom’s parents who she tortured out of their minds (among others).

It’s fitting, then, that she meets her end at the hand of Mollie Weasley who turns out to have a lot more powerful magic up her sleeves even than bewitching clocks.

8. McGonagall vs Snape

Despite being one of the strongest wizards of them all, we never get to see Snape actually leverage the full extent of his considerable power. In this duel against McGonagal, he’s holding back. He definitely doesn’t want to kill off any more members of the Order of the Pheonix, so what we get instead is the image of a man we feel to be cowardly and weak on top of evil.

However, that’s not really the case at all, and it makes you realize just how strong Snape is that he’s able to fully defend himself against the likes of McGonagal without harming anyone in the process.

7. Serious vs Bellatrix Lestrange

Harry’s life is littered with loss. However, the loss he feels the hardest has to have been the result of Serious Black’s duel against Bellatrix Lestrange. It happens so quick and out of nowhere that we almost don’t have a chance to feel it. Not to mention Serious’s last words to Harry were calling him by his father’s name.

Honestly, it’s been a long, long time since this happened, and we still don’t know how to feel about it.

6. Harry Potter vs Draco Part II

The first time we ever learn about what a wizard duel entails is in the Chamber of Secrets from one Gilderoy Lockhart. And we get to see Draco and Malfoy actually face off wand-to-wand.

However, that battle is sort of silly, and there’s nothing really life threatening going on.

Fast forward several years, however, and what you get is two young dudes with serious beef throwing down for one of the most deadly and clausterphobic Harry Potter duels of them all.

What makes this particular duel even more intense is that we get to see Harry use dark magic without realizing what he was doing, and the reality of what striking to really harm someone means.

5. Harry Potter vs Snape

Imagine hating a teacher for years, attempting to convince everyone that said teacher was really evil all along, only to be disproved time and time again, only to then realize that you had been right about him the whole time.

That’s what makes this battle between Snape and Harry so epic. You can just feel the hatred Harry feels towards this guy who has done his best to make his life a living nightmare for years, and he finally doesn’t have to hold back anymore.

Too bad for Harry Snape’s a thousand times stronger than him at this point in the story.

Otherwise, it could have been a seriously epic duel.

4. Dumbledore vs Credence

This battle is seriously trippy but cool. We start to get a better idea of just how powerful Dumbledore is at his prime. The only thing that keeps this battle from feeling even more epic is the sense that Dumbledore isn’t in any real danger the whole time, and that instead he has the whole thing totally under control.

3. Harry Potter vs Voldemort – Goblet of Fire

You might be a little surprised to find this one here instead of Harry and Voldie’s final battle. However, this duel has more suspense, and carries with it a heft that the final duel doesn’t quite have. We really get to feel Harry’s terror and powerlessness here, and yet the feeling of relief and safety that comes with the souls of Voldemort’s victims is something equally strong and powerful.

At this time, the whole laser-wand-connects-with-laser-wand to create a bead that goes back and forth thing hadn’t gotten old yet. It certainly would, later.

2. Dumbledore vs Voldemort

What do you get when you take two of the strongest wizards in Harry Potter and pit them against one another? One of the best duels in wizard history. This moment is particularly epic because its hinted at for the entire series. There’s all this talk about Voldemort being so powerful, and the greatest dark wizard in history. But as long as Dumbledore is around, he’s not free to really move out of the shadows.

The duel in the movie is epic. However, the duel in the book is arguably even better, where we get to see Dumbledore’s complete mastery over magic, and a greater difference between his and Voldemort’s power.

1. Dumbledore vs Grindelwald

Who else is keeping up with the Fantastic Beast movies just for the epic duel? We’ve known about how Dumbledore famously defeated Grindelwald since early on in the books. However, we still haven’t seen that epic fight. The video above is just a teaser for the real battle that we will (eventually) see on the big screen.

That fight will undoubtedly be the greatest single wizard duel of all time. Not only did it forever alter the course of history, but it ended a chapter in Dumbledore’s life that would set him up for the pivitol role he would play in the many year’s war against a dark wizard even stronger than Grindelwald.