Magical abilities you can be born with in HP:

- Parselmouth (Tom Riddle)

- Metamorphmagus (Tonks)

- Legilimency (Queenie)

- Magical resistance (Hagrid)

Continue the list.

One observation: these abilities seem to fall into two categories. Category A: an innate ability to perform a spell (e.g. legilimency) or family of spells (human self-transfiguration). Category B: abilities which spells cannot replicate.

Naturally, it's easier to come up with ideas for category A. Some ideas:

- Invisibility (Disillusionment Charm)

- Apparition

- Telekinesis (Locomotion Charm or similar)

Some ideas for category B:

- Unaided flight

- Intangibility (e.g. turning into animated smoke)

 

You forgot the gift of prophecy which of course should fall under B.
Did Voldemort not fly without a broom or anything like that? Or was that movies only?

 

Something like Midas touch. Anything you touch turns to Xxx. Can be voluntary or maybe just always in for a cursed version of it.

 

There is something special about goblins' ability to imbue enchantment in arms & armor.

Fairly sure Barty Crouch Sr. had unusual capacity for languages, if Percy's boast of his knowing 200 is close to accurate.

Speaking with snakes or birds seems like a special subset ability

If you're looking for expansion, there could be people with a gift for making truly magical food, like Florean Fortescue's ice cream. Others may have a talent for animating things made like clockworks. The Veela have their dance and there are all sorts of legendary creatures with the ability to sing inhumanly well.

 

An undoer. Can naturally remove enchantments and charms from objects.

 

Mage sight of some kind seems popular.

 

Easy one:

Green thumb: able to turbo charge plant growth.

Rare and slightly useless: Kronomancer: able to see and sense the effects of time travel.

 

I always held that every wizard has a particular set of magical gifts, which may be based on temperament, to do better at particular branches of magic. That makes sense with particular wands being better suited to particular kinds of magic, and would also sort of explain why the Hogwarts houses are separated by character traits, instead of something else.

 

Curious why you've gone for B as an ability a spell can't replicate, as we see Voldemort and Snape doing it, and it's implied Snape learnt it from his Master. Do you mean the action of using the wand makes the flying 'aided flight'?
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I swear I recall some WoG (possibly walked back) that you both had to undergo a lot of work to become an animagus, but also that you had to have the gift - not just anyone could get results from the process.

One I like is Barty Crouch's gift for humanoid languages being an actual magical gift like the above, that can be replicated to a lesser degree by charms. So: Babbling or something like that.

I'd be tempted to look into Luna as having a gift for some otherly sight, if it suited the story: something like Otters' Druid of Holly thing. So in the style of more folkloreish wizards they can perhaps see the spirits of the trees that other wizards can't. A couple of species that hide themselves like Thestrals, spiritual magical creatures, perhaps.

Oh, another one, as per FB:

Dumbledores: Phoenix summoning in times of need.

 

Let us plumb the depths of shitty powerwank fanfiction:

Shadow Mage! What does it involve? I'm not really sure, but it sounds so dark and broody.

Elemental Mage! Basically, they're a water/fire/earth-bender etc.

DrakenTongue! Parseltongue doesn't work on dragons, as they're obviously not snakes. Thus DrakenTongue is 5000% cooler.

Wandless Channeler! Wands are soo last year. Real men do it with their hands.

Creature Inheritances! Granny once fucked a snake, giving her grandson the ability to do Basilisk eye shit or something.

 

We know luck is a real thing in Harry Potter, so I always enjoyed the Idea that some people have are just born inherently luckier than others(Harry).

We know there is also an inherent connection between a person and their name, which be used by owls to track people just by knowing their name.

A possible magic ability would be to see the true name of anyone you interact with.

I also always liked to think of Tom Riddle's ability to infuse his voice with power to influence others to be some innate trait of his.

 

Yeah, definitely Mage Sight in the sense of 'can detect active magic, places where magic has been performed, plus magic and enchantments on an object / person / place'. Basically what Dumbledore does in the cave in HBP.

I'd like to imagine this being something that all wizards have at least a bit of affinity for and that you'd typically develop naturally through gaining a sufficient understanding of the deeper complexities of magic, where it is almost an essential skill to be a top tier wizard.

However, through an accident of birth, some people just get lucky and are intrinsically much more disposed towards developing it, whether because of their disposition or their worldview.

Whether the end goal of this is you becoming an exceptional wizard with an awareness of magic before formal tuition like Tom, or if it just makes you a little odd like Luna is based on nurture and luck.

 

I can think of dozens for these, but at some point it all just feels like a HP/Xmen crossover...

 

I had a family be naturally ambidextrous in a fic (including the talent for multitasking and coordination to dual wield wands, of course).

Steelbadger forgot the fanon favorite, Natural Animagus.

Also, considering Hagrid's resistance comes from his giant blood, you probably can justify any creature* ability that way. Dragon's breath, Veela Allure, Werewolf SuperNose™, vampiric sparkling, etc. A Demiguise could be the cause for invisibility, for example.

*I'd say, reasonably humanoid so reproduction is credible but, well. Giant.

 

What about flying on broomsticks? Harry obviously was a natural; he knew how to do it the first time he tried it. Presumably an inherited trait from James.

McGonagall and Snape are both said to have the ability to make a class of students stay quiet and listen while they teach, maybe this is a magical ability.

And clearly Aberforth had the ability to communicate with goats.

 

A flying on broom 'ability' sounds a bit...weird, but I'm all for the idea that Harry is unknowingly a powerful telekinetic, and his unusual skill on a broom is a result of him subconsciously having control he shouldn't have.

'I placed and even invented all of the charms on those brooms, they shouldn't be able to perform like that!' Mister Nimbus.

 

Could be!

I'm basing it on how Harry states that flying on a broom is something nobody had to teach him in PS, just something he knew how to do from the first moment. I don't have the books with me, but it's from the first time he flies.

For argument's sake (I don't actually believe this next bit), let's say he has a special talent for flying on/with things in general. Without Harry, Arthur's car would never have made it across both England and Scotland in CoS. He was a natural on Buckbeak and on the thestral going to London in OotP. And without Harry, the flying motorbike would have crashed from the Death Eaters spells and he and Hagrid wouldn't have made it to Andromeda in DH. All things point to Harry being a prodigy with flying aided, the anti-Voldemort, if you will.

 

I think tying these abilities in to particular magical creatures/heritage of certain magical creatures is a useful plot device which doesn’t present the risk of overpowering certain characters. To wit:

1) Oak laying:
Once a common practice among gaulish druids in antiquity that involves a sort of reproduction with oak trees. It appears that this ability is not fully innate; as it is said that modern adherents are capable of learning this ability after years of practice. Ideally the user should already possess a natural aptitude for herbology, and hold a particular philosophical outlook on life that comports with the druidic tradition. Given the contemporary practice of human sacrifice endemic to modern druidic cults; oak laying is an ability that is shunned among common wizarding folk.

The ‘procedure’ itself is obscure, but what is known is that the oak layer is capable of developing a unique connection to the trees that form his/her offspring. Typically, plants are far too simple to communicate with effectively, compared to more common abilities concerning animals. But the offspring of an oak layer are unique in that they are capable of passing on their perceptions and knowledge to their respective parents.

An oak layer can sense what is going on in the surrounding of his/her offspring trees, and they have within them a shared memory of all that occurred within the territory of their offspring. It is said that the most committed among the oak layers spend their time exclusively in the land of their offspring; taking sustenance from the nutrients of the oaks themselves.

In reality most ancient practitioners were hardly social hermits, and would have used their abilities to set up their own demesne from which to operate in society.

2): Hypnotism:
An ability that is naturally present among hags, known to hypnotize and devour their prey, which often include small children. Most hags are incapable of hypnotizing the average adult, but the mentally weak, the young, and those who are accosted at vulnerable moments (e.g. sleep) can all be hypnotized.

It is important to specify that the act of hypnotism (involving direct eye contact between hag and prey) is fragile; the smallest disturbance, whether a loud noise or a fright, might interrupt the process.

Even a glimpse of the ugly visage of a hag is often enough to startle the victim out of a hypnotic stare. As such, hags must often conceal themselves at the time of their attack, either by hiding their facade in darkness, or by utilizing magical means (e.g. polyjuice) to take the form of another.

In modern times hags have become relatively civilized, typically using their powers to curry favors or influence over wizarding folk, rather than outright cannibalism. Because of this, and because hypnotism is an ineffective tool against the prepared/average wizard; the presence of hags is well tolerated in most magical societies.

Occasionally, there are some hag descendants who bare little to no resemblance to their horrid ancestral figures, but who nevertheless have retained a measure of hypnotic ability.

3) Truth-tellers:
Unlike the legilimens, the practitioner of the art of legilimency, or the rare natural who grasps the ability innately, truth tellers do not read minds. Instead, their skill at truth telling is entirely behavioral. By reading lips, a truth teller can always discern intentional fiction from fact in any utterance. Such an ability does not extend to the written language, or to lipless reading.

But make no mistake; a truth tellers born ability to tell lie from true statement is not just some sophisticated guesswork based upon the behavior of those they witness. Rather, it is a serious magical ability that unerringly works regardless of attempted countermeasures, including tricks involving amnesia or a trick of the lips (e.g. illusion spell).

Such an ability is naturally powerful, given that the alternatives, legilimency and veritaserum for example, are not always reliable (and rarely in the presence of skilled magical practitioners). Naturally, many a person has attempted to exploit the use of truth tellers for their own purposes; it was common practice in the past to use them at criminal trials, and many who bear this gift had acquired prominent positions at the sides of authority.

Soon however, it was discovered that many truth tellers were spinning falsehoods for their own political benefit. This finally culminated in the arrest of Ffion the younger in Wales in the year 1638; one of the most famous truth tellers in history.

In her specific instance, she had manufactured cases against over 60 wizards and witches; resulting in nearly a dozen being sentenced to execution (pre-Azkaban this was a common enough sentence).

The uproar over this scandal was so great, that Ffion the younger never had a chance to reach a trial. She was dragged from her house while under house arrest by an outraged mob, who transfigured her into a crippled pigeon and forced her to attempt to fly away whilst being chased by rabid dogs. Needless to say, she met a painful end, and her body was burned in effigy as nothing much could be found.

After this scandal, the use of truth tellers in the criminal justice system gradually became outlawed in many countries worldwide. Pogroms continued to escalate throughout the years, and what little truth tellers remain to this day keep their abilities deeply guarded and secret, out of fear of ever lingering reprisals.

(As you can see, I have entirely too much free time these days.)

 

I think abilities from Fairy Tales would also fit thematically with Harry Potter like

• a beautiful singing voice that compells animals who hear you sing to aid you in your task.
  
• feeling everything you're sleeping on and whats under it.
• being able to spin straw into gold
• reversing transformations with a kiss.
  
• having a unatatcehd shadow with its own will
  
• letting pots fill themsevles with porridge on command

They are clearly of varying usefulness, from extremly usefull and valuable to things that pretty much useless.

 

Considering Lily's controlled floating descent scene as a kid, I like to think that Harry's natural flying talent also comes from his mom. I imagine the dual talent he might get from both parents might contribute to why he's so insanely good at quidditch.