Can wizards and witches be Obliviated?

Question

In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, towards the very end of the movie, a mass Obliviation takes place. As it takes place we see Aurors moving throughout New York as they repair the city. Evidently they are impervious to the effects of the Swooping Evil venom, (which was mixed with the falling rain). On the one hand, it seems that wizards are protected from the Swooping Evil venom and Obliviation. On the other hand it seems that wizards and witches can be Obliviated. We see they can be wiped of memory from the following four sources:

1. Newt Scamander's description of the Swooping Evil venom in the suitcase doesn't differentiate between magical folk and non-magical folk.
2. Queenie Goldstein has to use a magical umbrella to protect herself from the rain as she kisses Jacob Kowalski.
3. Hermione Granger Obliviates death eaters in the pub at the beginning of The Deathly Hollows.
4. Lockhart loses his memory in the Chamber of Secrets due to a backfired Oblivate charm.

(There are many more examples...)

So what is it? Can wizards and witches be wiped of memory? It seems like they can from the sources I cited. But if that's true, how come the Aurors at the end of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them don't seem to try and protect themselves from the rain?

Answer 1

In Chamber of Secrets Gilderoy Lockhart both speaks of Obliviating (or at least using a similar sort of memory charm) other witches and wizards.

"Harry, Harry," said Lockhart, shaking his head impatiently, "it's not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had to track these people down. Ask them exactly how they managed to do what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them so they wouldn't remember doing it. If there's one thing I pride myself on, it's my Memory Charms. No, it's been a lot of work, Harry. It's not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog."

Later he Obliviates himself when trying to do it to Harry and Ron and Ron's broken wand backfires on him.

"The adventure ends here, boys!" he said. "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and the you two tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body - say goodbye to your memories!"
He raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled, "Obliviate!"
The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb.

Given that plus items 2 and 3 stated in the question I would say that there should be no question of the fact that they can be Obliviated.

As to why the Swooping Evil venom didn't affect them I'm not sure, maybe they had charms in place to protect themselves since they knew it was coming?

Answer 2

To supplement Forral's answer, there are additional instances in the books of a witch or wizard having their memory wiped.

Towards the end of Goblet of Fire,

Barty Crouch Jr. confesses that his father, Barty Crouch Sr., went to great lengths to conceal him, and to that end the elder Crouch

had once cast a Memory Charm on the witch Bertha Jorkins.

[Bertha] heard enough to guess who was hiding under the Invisibility Cloak. My father arrived home. She confronted him. He put a very powerful Memory Charm on her to make her forget what she'd found out. Too powerful. He said it damaged her memory permanently.

^{Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Chapter 35, Veritaserum}

Interestingly, we are told that this same Memory Charm was later "broken" by Voldemort, suggesting that the charm blocks or represses memories rather than erasing them entirely:

[Voldemort] had captured Bertha Jorkins in Albania. He had tortured her...He tortured her until he broke through the Memory Charm my father had placed upon her.

^{Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Chapter 35, Veritaserum}

And as chirlu pointed out in their comment, Hermione performs several Memory Charms in Deathly Hallows, all of them on wizards, to cover the trio's tracks.

Unfortunately, this gives us no clue as to how a witch or wizard might resist being Obliviated in the first place, or even if the methods for resisting a Memory Charm and resisting Swooping Evil venom are the same.

Answer 3

Yes, witches and wizards can indeed be obliviated.

Gilderoy Lockhart speaking of obliviation

"Harry, Harry," said Lockhart, shaking his head impatiently, "it's not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had to track these people down. Ask them exactly how they managed to do what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them so they wouldn't remember doing it. If there's one thing I pride myself on, it's my Memory Charms. No, it's been a lot of work, Harry. It's not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog."

While Lockhart is, in many ways, a bumbling, babbling baboon, the one thing he seems to be somewhat of an expert on is indeed the Memory Charm.

Gilderoy Lockhart obliviating himself

"The adventure ends here, boys!" he said. "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and the you two tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body - say goodbye to your memories!"
He raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled, "Obliviate!"
The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb.

While not hitting its intended target(s), the spell did erase the memories of a wizard.

Swooping Evil venom

The Swooping Evil venom did indeed not affect the various witches and wizards of New York. While the aurors could have had protective enchantment put in place, I find it unlikely that the non MACUSA-employed witches and wizards of New York have had the chance or time to do so.

I believe the answer to why witches and wizards were not affected by the venom lies in one or both of the two following quotes from Newt Scamander:

"You see, you're a muggle, so our physiologies are subtly different."

While this, in and of itself, could mean a wide variety of things, I think that in the context of the movie this is a hint that perhaps witches and wizards are not (as) susceptible to the Swooping Evil venom.

"I've been studying him and I'm pretty sure his venom could be quite useful if properly diluted. Just to remove bad memories, you know."

Again, quite an innocuous quote in itself, but given the context and what they end up using it for, I think there's a hint here. The key of the quote is bad memories. The No-maj population of New York have nothing but bad memories of the Magical Community and that's why they wash away so easily with the rain. Witches and wizards (and perhaps Kowalski, but that's digressing into another question) have good memories of magic and thus they remain unaffected by the rain.

So, while the venom could potentially affect witches and wizards, their subtly different physiology gives them some measure of protection and the fact that they have good memories of magic further stops them from being wiped.

Answer 4

In a comment on the root question, SE user Bellatrix mentioned a potion as a possible protection against the Swooping Evil venom.

After all, although the mode of action for the obliviation may be magical rather than chemical, the venom presumably acts like other venoms in that it needs to enter the body to act (skin contact apparently is enough).

Thus, a magichemical guard against the initial entry seems suitable as a way to obviate any subsequent effects.

Answer 5

Maybe the Obliviate from the venom works on Muggles only. And spells work on wizards as well. I don't remember any of the Harry Potter characters speaking of the venom, I assume it's the first time we see it.

Anytime someone is Obliviated in the Harry Potter saga, they are Obliviated by a spell, and not the venom.

Perhaps, the venom is diluted enough to work on Muggles, but is too much diluated to work on wizards.