Harry Potter Did What Dumbledore and Voldemort Never Could

We all give Harry credit for taking down Voldemort, sure. But there’s a weirder, quieter record he holds that almost no one talks about: he’s the only wizard we see who survives all three Unforgivable Curses. Not resists one and dodges another. All three. And that’s something neither Dumbledore nor Voldemort ever pulled off.

The strange triple nobody celebrates

It starts as a baby. Harry lives through the Killing Curse. That had never happened before. People chalk it up to Lily’s sacrifice and ancient magic doing the heavy lifting, which is true, but it still means he did the impossible: he took Avada Kedavra to the face and lived.

Jump to Goblet of Fire. In Moody’s Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Harry is put under Imperio and, while fully aware of what’s happening, pushes the command out of his head. Most grown wizards can’t manage that. Fourteen-year-old Harry does it in front of the whole class.

Then Deathly Hallows. After Harry walks into the forest and willingly gives himself up, Voldemort later tries Crucio on him. Nothing. No pain. Because Harry’s sacrifice casts protection over others and changes how Voldemort’s magic interacts with him, the torture curse simply doesn’t land in that moment.

Why the wizarding world shrugs this off

Wizards tend to treat achievements like a highlight reel: famous duels won, brilliant spells invented, Dark Lords defeated. Harry’s milestones don’t fit that mold. His survival as a baby gets filed under odd, ancient magic rather than something he did. His Imperius resistance is treated as impressive classwork, not a once-in-a-generation ability. And by the time Crucio fizzles, everyone’s too busy not dying in the Battle of Hogwarts to process what just happened.

The Ministry never studies it. History books don’t list it. If it isn’t a headline-grabbing victory, it gets overlooked. Which is wild, because this weird triple is exactly what sets Harry apart from the supposedly most powerful wizards alive.

Stuff even Dumbledore and Voldemort didn’t do

Dumbledore studied the darkest magic. Voldemort mastered it. Harry? He kept surviving it. And it isn’t just the Unforgivable Curses. He unknowingly becomes a Horcrux and survives when that piece is destroyed. He ends up master of the Elder Wand without chasing it, then decides not to lean on its power anyway. He walks into death expecting it to be the end, then comes back. No one else checks all those boxes.

Quick refresher: the movies and how they landed

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Nov 16, 2001) — IMDb 7.7/10; Rotten Tomatoes 80% | 82%
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Nov 15, 2002) — IMDb 7.5/10; Rotten Tomatoes 82% | 80%
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Jun 4, 2004) — IMDb 7.9/10; Rotten Tomatoes 91% | 86%
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Nov 18, 2005) — IMDb 7.7/10; Rotten Tomatoes 88% | 74%
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Jul 11, 2007) — IMDb 7.5/10; Rotten Tomatoes 78% | 81%
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Jul 15, 2009) — IMDb 7.6/10; Rotten Tomatoes 83% | 78%
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (Nov 19, 2010) — IMDb 7.7/10; Rotten Tomatoes 76% | 85%
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (Jul 15, 2011) — IMDb 8.1/10; Rotten Tomatoes 96% | 89%

So… does this count as one of Harry’s biggest achievements?

I think it should. It’s not flashy, but it’s extremely rare, and it tells you exactly how unusual his path was. Did we all just collectively miss it because it isn’t a neat, cheer-in-the-theater moment? Probably.

Agree? Disagree? Tell me where you land.

All Harry Potter movies are available to stream on Peacock.