Legilimens

• Incantation: Legilimens
• Pronunciation: le-JIL-i-menz
• Wand Movement: Not described; can be performed non-verbally and wandlessly by skilled practitioners.
• Light: No specific light or color is described in the novels. The intrusion is portrayed as a mental, rather than a visual, force.
• Effect: Allows the caster to penetrate a target's mind, giving them access to their thoughts, feelings, and memories. The magical art itself is known as Legilimency, and a wizard or witch who practises it is called a Legilimens.
• Type: Spell, Mind-Affecting Magic

Legilimency is a difficult and obscure branch of magic that is not part of the standard curriculum at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It requires making eye contact with the target, although a powerful enough Legilimens can overcome this limitation. Skilled users can perform it non-verbally to subtly read or forcefully invade a mind.

• Lord Voldemort: Regarded as one of the most powerful and accomplished Legilimens in history. He used Legilimency as a primary tool for intimidation, interrogation, and control over his Death Eaters. He successfully extracted crucial information from Bertha Jorkins about the Triwizard Tournament and Barty Crouch Jr., and later located the Elder Wand by delving into the minds of Gregorovitch and Gellert Grindelwald. His soul-fragment connection to Harry Potter created a two-way link, allowing Voldemort to project visions and feel Harry's emotions, but also inadvertently giving Harry access to his own thoughts.
• Severus Snape: An exceptionally skilled Legilimens. He was tasked by Albus Dumbledore to teach Harry Potter the defensive art of Occlumency. During these lessons, Snape repeatedly used the incantation Legilimens! to forcibly enter Harry's mind, causing Harry to relive painful and private memories. Snape also used his ability subtly to determine if students were being truthful, as seen when he questioned Harry about the Marauder's Map.
• Albus Dumbledore: Also a masterful Legilimens, though he used the skill with far more subtlety and wisdom than Voldemort. Snape noted that Dumbledore was not a man to be easily fooled and could likely perceive the truth without resorting to Veritaserum.
• Salazar Slytherin: One of the four founders of Hogwarts, he was reputed to be a powerful Legilimens. (Pottermore)

Learning Legilimency is a challenging process requiring considerable mental discipline. Severus Snape emphasized to Harry that it is not simple “mind-reading,” but a complex and subtle art. He stated, “The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure… It is the subtle art of penetrating the mind and interpreting its findings.” A true Legilimens must be able to navigate the complex layers of a person's consciousness to extract truth. The primary and most effective defence against Legilimency is Occlumency, the magical art of closing one's mind to external intrusion.

• Blocking: A practitioner of Occlumency can clear their mind of all emotion and thought, presenting a blank, impenetrable surface to an invading Legilimens.
• Deception: An advanced Occlumens can go beyond mere blocking and plant false thoughts or memories to actively mislead the attacker. This was a skill mastered by Severus Snape, which allowed him to successfully act as a double agent and deceive Lord Voldemort for many years.
• Other practitioners of Occlumency mentioned include Draco Malfoy, who was taught by his aunt Bellatrix Lestrange, and Harry Potter, who struggled to master the discipline due to his emotional turmoil and the unique nature of his connection with Voldemort.

The term “Legilimens” is constructed from two Latin words: legere, which means “to read,” and mens, which means “mind.” The name literally translates to “mind-reader,” a simple term for a highly complex magical skill.

• In the film adaptations, particularly Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Legilimency is visually represented as a rapid, chaotic montage of memories flashing through the screen, often accompanied by loud whooshing sound effects to convey the violent mental intrusion. (film)
• The Fantastic Beasts film series introduced Queenie Goldstein, who is described as a natural Legilimens. Unlike other wizards who must learn and cast the spell, her ability is innate, allowing her to passively hear the surface thoughts of nearly everyone around her. (film)