Lesson 2: The Imperius Curse
INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The first of the three Unforgivable Curses that we will study in more depth is the Imperius Curse (of course, prior to 1717 it was known as the Imperius Charm). We are beginning with the Imperius Curse because of the three Unforgivable Curses, Imperius is the one which - by itself - causes the least damage to its targets.
The official records held by the Ministry of Magic state that the Imperius Curse was designed in order to force people into slavery. However, the Imperius Curse is actually poorly suited for creating slaves because of the amount of magical energy required to hold a subject under this spell for any extended period of time. Very few wizards are able to hold the curse on a single subject for more than eight hours at a time, which means that anyone who was placed into slavery under the Imperius curse would almost definitely have an opportunity to escape once the caster grew too weary and depleted of magical energy to hold the curse.
No, the Imperius Curse was much better suited to temporarily improving the performance of those who were already working on your behalf (whether voluntarily or involuntarily). To understand why this is the case, you will need to learn the mechanisms of how the Imperius Curse works. Fortunately, I will explain this for you right now!
MECHANISMS OF THE CURSE
Once the curse is cast on the target, a magical connection is created between the caster's mind and the mind of the target. The target's thoughts are completely overwritten with whatever thoughts the caster wishes them to create - and the target will recognize a fairly pleasant feeling as all their mental pleasures are lifted away (after all, they no longer have to think for themselves!) From then on, the caster can cause whatever thoughts they want to enter the target's mind, allowing the target to carry out those thoughts as if they were the target. This can go as far as allowing the target to carry out physical tasks that would normally be far beyond the target's physical capabilities... so long as they're tasks that could be performed by the caster. Remember how Neville Longbottom, who was normally incredibly klutzy, was able to perform an impressive series of gymnastic feats under Bartemius Crouch Junior's Imperius Curse? This is because it was actually Crouch who was performing those acts; he was using the mental connection created by the Imperius Curse to will Neville's body into a much higher state of agility and gracefulness than the state that he could normally attain.
Now that you understand the mechanisms of how the Imperius Curse work, we will finish this lesson in a more practical bent. We will focus on three specific subtopics: how to cast the Imperius Curse, how to effectively use the Imperius Curse, and how to resist the Imperius Curse.
CASTING THE IMPERIUS CURSE
Possibly the most surprising part of casting an Unforgivable to those who have never cast one of those three curses before is that there are no "standard" wand movements for the spell. This is because of the nature of these spells: trying to force your wand into a specific pattern runs the risk of constraining your magic in such a way that it cannot properly influence its target. Therefore, I strongly suggest that when casting these spells, you listen to your magic as it tells you where to move your wand!
Now that we have explained the trickiest part of casting Unforgivables in general, we will give the procedure for casting the Imperius Curse.
1) Focus carefully on your target (if casting on a human being, you want to maintain eye contact if at all possible) to prepare to establish a mental connection.
2) With your wand pointing in the general direction of your target, say the word "Imperio" while focusing your magic on the idea of establishing a mental connection with your target.
3) Concentrating on your target's mind, think carefully about how you want your target to think, and imagine inserting your own thoughts in place of your target's.
4) You will know the curse has taken effect when the target's movements begin to mirror yours: this can be tested by moving a finger on your non-wand hand and confirming that the target moves the same finger (or corresponding appendage for non-human creatures) with their own hand.
5) Once you have confirmation that the Imperius has hit, now you can control your target by imagining your target performing specific tasks *while focusing your magic into the act*!
6) When you're done with the spell, simply release your magic from the spell and the target will be freed of the curse.
HOW TO EFFECTIVELY USE THE CURSE
If you want to use this spell to the best of your advantage when casting it, you should keep the following tips in mind.
1) Before attempting to cast the Imperius Curse on a human, it is best to practice with much simpler animals (such as spiders) which require much less mental effort to overpower.
2) Because the Imperius Curse requires enough magic to overpower the target's mind, you should NOT try to cast this spell for extended periods of time.
3) Remember that under the Imperius Curse, your target's reflexes and magic become yours, so they can now cast any spell "as you" that you could cast normally.
4) Likewise, your target's abilities are now limited to yours: if you have a hard time casting a specific spell, your Imperiused target will have just as much difficulty casting the same spell... even if they could cast the spell just fine on their own.
It should also be noted that you can temporarily 'improve' your own abilities by having the Imperius Curse cast on yourself: for example, if you always wanted to perform a Wronski Feint but were not particularly agile on a broom, you could have a skilled Seeker cast the Imperius Curse on you while you were on a broom and then that Seeker could 'guide' you through the Wronski Feint using the
connection of the Imperius Curse! But keep in mind that you should ONLY allow someone to place you under this spell if you trust them completely; if you wouldn't trust someone with your life, why would you trust them with your mind?
RESISTING THE CURSE
As intimidating as the Imperius Curse is, it is actually fairly straightforward to resist with practice, as long as you are in touch with your own mind! The key thing to keep in mind when confronted with this curse is that you want to make it as hard as possible for the caster to establish a strong mental connection with you. For example, when they try to establish eye contact with you, avert your
eyes to prevent them from locking on that way. When they are trying to think their way into your mind, think of your own independent thoughts; it doesn't matter what they are as long as they do not mesh well with the thoughts your target is trying to suggest for you. Some wizards have done well by inventing false mental personae with ridiculous thoughts designed to be hard to steal. Other wizards do better by focusing intensely on their own thoughts, their own essence, and everything that makes them unique. Regardless, with enough practice and concentration you will be able to protect your thoughts from being hijacked by an Imperius caster! (Of course, if you're actually allowing someone else to cast Imperius on you to 'improve' your own abilities, you should do the exact opposite of this and focus on maintaining the connection... that way the caster will be better able to guide you!)
Click on the link at the end of this page to proceed to the second assignment: Assignment 2
The first of the three Unforgivable Curses that we will study in more depth is the Imperius Curse (of course, prior to 1717 it was known as the Imperius Charm). We are beginning with the Imperius Curse because of the three Unforgivable Curses, Imperius is the one which - by itself - causes the least damage to its targets.
The official records held by the Ministry of Magic state that the Imperius Curse was designed in order to force people into slavery. However, the Imperius Curse is actually poorly suited for creating slaves because of the amount of magical energy required to hold a subject under this spell for any extended period of time. Very few wizards are able to hold the curse on a single subject for more than eight hours at a time, which means that anyone who was placed into slavery under the Imperius curse would almost definitely have an opportunity to escape once the caster grew too weary and depleted of magical energy to hold the curse.
No, the Imperius Curse was much better suited to temporarily improving the performance of those who were already working on your behalf (whether voluntarily or involuntarily). To understand why this is the case, you will need to learn the mechanisms of how the Imperius Curse works. Fortunately, I will explain this for you right now!
MECHANISMS OF THE CURSE
Once the curse is cast on the target, a magical connection is created between the caster's mind and the mind of the target. The target's thoughts are completely overwritten with whatever thoughts the caster wishes them to create - and the target will recognize a fairly pleasant feeling as all their mental pleasures are lifted away (after all, they no longer have to think for themselves!) From then on, the caster can cause whatever thoughts they want to enter the target's mind, allowing the target to carry out those thoughts as if they were the target. This can go as far as allowing the target to carry out physical tasks that would normally be far beyond the target's physical capabilities... so long as they're tasks that could be performed by the caster. Remember how Neville Longbottom, who was normally incredibly klutzy, was able to perform an impressive series of gymnastic feats under Bartemius Crouch Junior's Imperius Curse? This is because it was actually Crouch who was performing those acts; he was using the mental connection created by the Imperius Curse to will Neville's body into a much higher state of agility and gracefulness than the state that he could normally attain.
Now that you understand the mechanisms of how the Imperius Curse work, we will finish this lesson in a more practical bent. We will focus on three specific subtopics: how to cast the Imperius Curse, how to effectively use the Imperius Curse, and how to resist the Imperius Curse.
CASTING THE IMPERIUS CURSE
Possibly the most surprising part of casting an Unforgivable to those who have never cast one of those three curses before is that there are no "standard" wand movements for the spell. This is because of the nature of these spells: trying to force your wand into a specific pattern runs the risk of constraining your magic in such a way that it cannot properly influence its target. Therefore, I strongly suggest that when casting these spells, you listen to your magic as it tells you where to move your wand!
Now that we have explained the trickiest part of casting Unforgivables in general, we will give the procedure for casting the Imperius Curse.
1) Focus carefully on your target (if casting on a human being, you want to maintain eye contact if at all possible) to prepare to establish a mental connection.
2) With your wand pointing in the general direction of your target, say the word "Imperio" while focusing your magic on the idea of establishing a mental connection with your target.
3) Concentrating on your target's mind, think carefully about how you want your target to think, and imagine inserting your own thoughts in place of your target's.
4) You will know the curse has taken effect when the target's movements begin to mirror yours: this can be tested by moving a finger on your non-wand hand and confirming that the target moves the same finger (or corresponding appendage for non-human creatures) with their own hand.
5) Once you have confirmation that the Imperius has hit, now you can control your target by imagining your target performing specific tasks *while focusing your magic into the act*!
6) When you're done with the spell, simply release your magic from the spell and the target will be freed of the curse.
HOW TO EFFECTIVELY USE THE CURSE
If you want to use this spell to the best of your advantage when casting it, you should keep the following tips in mind.
1) Before attempting to cast the Imperius Curse on a human, it is best to practice with much simpler animals (such as spiders) which require much less mental effort to overpower.
2) Because the Imperius Curse requires enough magic to overpower the target's mind, you should NOT try to cast this spell for extended periods of time.
3) Remember that under the Imperius Curse, your target's reflexes and magic become yours, so they can now cast any spell "as you" that you could cast normally.
4) Likewise, your target's abilities are now limited to yours: if you have a hard time casting a specific spell, your Imperiused target will have just as much difficulty casting the same spell... even if they could cast the spell just fine on their own.
It should also be noted that you can temporarily 'improve' your own abilities by having the Imperius Curse cast on yourself: for example, if you always wanted to perform a Wronski Feint but were not particularly agile on a broom, you could have a skilled Seeker cast the Imperius Curse on you while you were on a broom and then that Seeker could 'guide' you through the Wronski Feint using the
connection of the Imperius Curse! But keep in mind that you should ONLY allow someone to place you under this spell if you trust them completely; if you wouldn't trust someone with your life, why would you trust them with your mind?
RESISTING THE CURSE
As intimidating as the Imperius Curse is, it is actually fairly straightforward to resist with practice, as long as you are in touch with your own mind! The key thing to keep in mind when confronted with this curse is that you want to make it as hard as possible for the caster to establish a strong mental connection with you. For example, when they try to establish eye contact with you, avert your
eyes to prevent them from locking on that way. When they are trying to think their way into your mind, think of your own independent thoughts; it doesn't matter what they are as long as they do not mesh well with the thoughts your target is trying to suggest for you. Some wizards have done well by inventing false mental personae with ridiculous thoughts designed to be hard to steal. Other wizards do better by focusing intensely on their own thoughts, their own essence, and everything that makes them unique. Regardless, with enough practice and concentration you will be able to protect your thoughts from being hijacked by an Imperius caster! (Of course, if you're actually allowing someone else to cast Imperius on you to 'improve' your own abilities, you should do the exact opposite of this and focus on maintaining the connection... that way the caster will be better able to guide you!)
Click on the link at the end of this page to proceed to the second assignment: Assignment 2