Most of us grew up reading, watching and loving the Harry Potter universe. The books were incredibly popular and the movies showed us some awesome things that we still don’t see in movies today. There are tons of powerful wizards/witches to choose from which makes this list a lot more fun!

The movies reached a larger audience than the books which is why this list is based off them, rather than the entire Harry Potter lore.

10. Draco Malfoy

Draco goes from having everyone hate him to having everyone’s sympathy. Through the movies he bullies Harry Potter and his friends, he obviously picked up his terrible personality from his father. As the movies develop, he begins his journey to become a death eater. When it finally comes to it he is terrified and you can tell it’s not him – however he suppresses all good within him which further increases his dark traits. His power comes from being born to a strong bloodline and being intelligent. He knows a lot of powerful spells and can use them effectively.

9. Mad-Eye Moody

Mad-Eye is a very powerful wizard who has been hunting death-eaters for years, unfortunately his power isn’t shown much in the movies so we haven’t seen the kind of spells he casts in duels. He makes this list through reputation alone!

8. Sirious Black

Sirious is another powerful wizard whose power we don’t see much of. He’s shown to take on powerful death-eaters in a few movies so he must have a lot of skill. His long years in Azkaban will have no doubt made him hardy and able to pull through very difficult and painful situations.

7. Harry Potter

Harry becomes one of the most powerful wizards of all time but just from the movies, he doesn’t show that much in comparison to those who made it further down the list. He excels in magic from a young age and gets the hang of a lot of things quickly. He battles a lot of dark creatures and dangerous foes which do prove his might, but in a straight 1 on 1 duel, his disarming charm that he loved to use so much would not be enough to come out as a winner.

6. Hermione Granger

Arguably the most important character in the entire series, Harry’s plans would have failed over and over again without Hermione constantly aiding him. She surpasses him in knowledge of spells, being able to cast way more varieties than most other recurring antagonist character we see. She is also very intelligent and uses this gift to save her and her friends constantly. Definitely worthy of being #6 on this list.

5. Bellatrix Lestrange

Bellatrix is an extremely powerful wizard, trained by the Dark Lord himself. She is adept in dark magic, being able to cast the most despicable of curses. She was a master duellist who defeated many Aurors and even Sirius Black – albeit off-guard but I don’t think she’d have had much trouble anyway. She could have easily killed Harry Potter and the rest of his friends if not for the Dark Lord wanting Harry for himself.

4. Molly Weasley

Molly’s awesomeness caught everyone off-guard when in the final movie, she duelled and defeated Bellatrix Lestrange. She did this with relative ease, although her powers might have been amplified by her protectiveness of her children. She is also a very good healer, having healed her son George even after losing his ear and a lot of blood. It would have been amazing to see more of her duelling abilities but just defeating Bellatrix is enough to see her take the #4 spot!

3. Severus Snape

Snape has always been a powerful wizard, from a young age he loved the dark arts and would study them constantly. He even ended up creating several of his own curses and hexes. He’s duelled with the likes of Harry Potter and Minnerva McGonagall and didn’t look like he was breaking a sweat for either. He has a lot of knowledge, his own spells, high power and his childhood experiences will have helped help greatly. I have no doubt he’s one of the strongest wizards in recent history.

2. Albus Dumbledore

Dumbledore met a tragic end by letting Draco Malfoy kill him but he’s regarded as one of the greatest wizards of all time. His powers have diminished in the movies due to old age but he’s still incredibly powerful. As shown when he faced the Dark Lord, he has many powerful offensive and defensive spells in his arsenal – combine this with the Elder Wand and you have a very powerful wizard well deserved of 2nd place. But there can only be one..

1. Voldemort

Voldemort is easily the most powerful wizard in the Harry Potter timeline and maybe the most powerful of all time. From a child he was able to wield magic that most wizards never obtain and he did this even without a wand. He had delved so far into the dark arts that the boundaries were pushed and no one knows what he discovered. He had all traits required to become god-like, being able to control other people and creatures easily and he could manipulate others with his silver tongue.

So why was he defeated by a bunch of kids? Well lets be honest, the only reason he was defeated was so there could be a happy ending. If it was real then Voldemort would have easily conquered the world. First you just hide the Horcruxes in unobtainable locations, in the middle of  a volcano, in Antarctica or simply make a coin a horcrux and purchase something with it so it goes into circulation. It would be so easy for him to defeat anyone who stood in his way!