LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 & LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7

If any of you never got your letter to Hogwarts when you were 11, fear not for you can still go to Hogwarts with the LEGO Harry Potter games that were released back in 2010 and 2011 respectively.  Each game lets you learn new spells and potions that you use as you play through the 8 movies- since year 7 is split into 2 movies, as Harry Potter and his friends and defeat the Dark Lord Voldemort.  The first game, LEGO Harry Years 1-4, has a massive open world with the Hogwarts Castle, which is very easy to get lost and wonder how you ended up wherever you are, with no easy way out.  The open world for LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7 has more free-roam in areas like: the wilderness that Harry, Ron, and Hermione go camping in while on the run from Death Eaters, the Hogsmeade Village, and the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts.  You can still explore the Hogwarts Castle in LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7, but it is not as big as it was in the first game.

Below is a chart of the different abilities, spells, and potions that you can learn in the 2 LEGO Harry Potter games:

Spells	What Game	How to Unlock	What it Does
Wingardium Leviosa	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Taught in Professor Flitwick’s Charms lesson at the very beginning of Year 1. Automatically unlocked in Years 5-7.	Your most basic spell, used everywhere, to basically do everything, from building, moving stuff, to turning things on or off.
Lumos Solem	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Taught in Charms in Years 1-4, and becomes one of your default spells after your first class in Years 5-7.	Acts as a light in dark places, can also get rid of Devil’s Snare.
Immobulus	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4	Taught in Professor Lockhart’s Defense Against the Dark Arts class in Year 2	Use it on Cornish Pixies, to defeat them, also can be used on enemies to temporally stun them.
Riddikulus	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4	Taught in Professor Lupin’s Defense Against the Dark Arts in Year 3.	Used to defeat Boggarts, by making what you fear something ridiculous and humorous.
Expecto Patronum	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Harry Potter learns this spell in Year 3 from Professor Lupin to defeat the Dementors that are at Hogwarts looking for Sirius Black. In Year 5, the spell is taught to the members of Dumbledore’s Army when Professor Umbridge refuses to teach spells.	Used to repel Demenators.
Reducto	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Taught in Professor Mad-Eye Moody’s Defense Against the Dark Arts class in Year 4. The spell is retaught to you in Year 6 by Flitwick in Charms. Guess Flitwick didn’t trust you learning the spell from a fraud.	Destroys metal objects, and other objects, great for fighting things in the Forbidden Forest.
Avada Kedavra	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Only Dark Wizards can use this spell.	Instantly kills someone, and will give you a one-way ticket to Azkaban Prison.
Diffindo	LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7	Taught in a Charms Lesson in Year 5 by Professor Flitwick.	Used to cut out red LEGO walls and objects, while following the pattern that the spell wants.
Aguamenti	LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7	Taught in a Charms lesson in Year 6 by Professor Flitwick.	Shoots water from the end of your wand that can give you money, characters, or gold bricks.
Legilimens (Focus)	LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7	Harry Potter attempts to learn this spell from Professor Snape in Year 5 to block out Voldemort. Only very powerful Wizards can use it.	This spell is used to read minds, and see what people want.
Potions	What Game	How to Unlock	What it Does
Strength Potion	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Made in your first Potions class with Professor Snape in Year 1, and made it Year 5 early in the game to get out of a classroom.	Temporally gives your character super-strength.
Polyjuice Potion	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Made in Year 2 to sneak into the Slytherin Common-room to find out more about the attacks, then made again in Year 7 when the Order disguises themselves as Harry Potter.	Allows you to change your character into someone else that you have unlocked.
Ageing Potion	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4	Fred and George make this potion to put their names in Goblet of Fire in Year 4 because they are not old enough.	Gives your character a beard so they can cross age lines.
Invisibility Potion	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Able from the start of the game.	Turn invisible to sneak past people.
Exploding Potion	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4	Able from the start of the game.	A potion that when completed will blow up other LEGO bricks in the area.
Skele-Gro	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4	This potion is made by Madam Pomfrey in the Year 2 level, Dobby’s Plan.	Regrows Harry Potter’s bones after they are completely gone in his 2nd Year because of Professor Lockhart.
Draught of Living Death	LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7	Taught in Professor Slughorn’s Potions Class in Year 6.	No real usage, besides turning your character into a skeleton for a short period of time.
Special Abilities	What Game	How to Unlock	What it Does
Pet	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Has this ability unlocked from the beginning of the game.	Characters with pets can use them to go through special tubes to unlock new areas.
Dig	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Has this ability unlocked from the beginning of the game.	Characters with a shovel, or animals with paws can dig up dirt to uncover hidden objects.
Transfiguration	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Has this ability unlocked from the beginning of the game.	Change your character from a human into a dog, rat, beetle, werewolf, or cat depending on which character it is, to unlock new items.
Strength	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Has this ability unlocked from the beginning of the game.	Pull on orange handles to open doors and other objects.
Rune	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Hermione, McGonagall, Dumbledore, and Grindewald have this as an ability that they have from the beginning.	Characters with a blue textbook can use it to help them decode ruins, which unlock all sorts of things.
Invisibility Cloak	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Harry Potter gets his father’s cloak for Christmas in Year 1 from Dumbledore, and has had it ever since.	Turns Harry Potter invisible, but also limits his abilities while so using it.
Time Turner	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4	Hermione unlocks this at the end of Year 3. McGonagall and Dumbledore also can use the ability.	Turn back time at clocks to unlock more items.
Deluminator	LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7	Ron gets from Dumbledore at the beginning of Year 7.	Ron Weasley can use the Deluminator to move light from one lantern to another, unlocking new areas, and other surprises.
Weasley Boxes	LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7	All members of the Weasley family can use these boxes.	Open the boxes to unleash surprises to clear areas.
Handbag	LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7	Hermione unlocks this ability at the beginning of Year 7.	Hermione can use her handbag with a very intense carrying capacity to unlock new items.

As you can see from the chart above, basically everybody in the games have the exact same abilities. There is really no difference between an adult Wizard like Mad-Eye Moody, and the spells that a regular student knows. Professor Dumbledore is supposed to be one of the most powerful Wizards of all-time, but he has no special abilities at all.  Some of the abilities and missing elements that could have been interesting to have in the games are: being able to use Mad-Eye Moody’s eye to uncover secret objects, being able to play as Fawkes the Phoenix bird of Dumbledore to fly around, being able to create your own Animagus character, play as Firenze the Centaur, have Divination quests that you can do with Trelawney and Firenze, and a map.  Also since there is no taking characters in the games, it can be hard to know where to go next in the story sometimes especially since the LEGO games alter quite a bit from the movies and books to make it more kid friendly.