Lesson 3: The Cruciatus Curse
INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
If you remember only one thing from this class, you should remember the following phrase:
"The Cruciatus Curse can be used for quite a few different things; it is not restricted to being a spell to cause pain!" Most likely, when you read the last sentence, it went against your instincts. But why? Why would it be so controversial to look at such a versatile, powerful spell with numerous uses and associate it with something other than its most famous use: when a deposed "Dark Lord" and his "Death Eaters" used the spell primarily to cause pain?
To answer this, let us turn to the Muggles for one of their sayings: "If <X> is outlawed, only outlaws will have <X>". Here, <X> can be anything from a concrete object to an abstract concept such as freedom. What the Muggles mean when they say this is that when something that was once legal gets banned, the people who continue to use that thing - by definition - are willing to break the law for at least one thing. This means that there will be a strong association between the usage of this newly-banned thing and people who are willing to break laws in general. As such, the thing that was banned will be used more and more (proportionately) by criminals... and because the people who are willing to use it now that it is illegal will be more likely to be criminals, we will be more likely to see people who are using it unethically than people who were using it in less controversial ways! Eventually, we may reach the point where nearly all of the uses of what was banned are unsavory in some form or another... at which point it will be seen as lunacy to unban it! Despite my own pride in my pure blood, I feel that the Muggles have wisdom in this saying; after all, it describes exactly what happened with regards to Cruciatus over the past three centuries!
Going back to the day in 1717 that the Ministry of Magic renamed the Cruciatus Charm to the "Cruciatus Curse" and rendered all of its uses to be Unforgivable, the most prominent British hospital, St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, wasted no time in responding appropriately. The very next day, St Mungo's issued an order to its Healers: henceforth, any Healer who tried to use Cruciatus as part of a healing treatment for a patient would be immediately let go and never allowed to work as a Healer again. The vast majority of Healers at St Mungo's obliged and immediately replaced their most powerful palliative treatments (all of which relied on Cruciatus to replace the sensations of pain the patient was feeling with something more soothing) with less effective spells and potions, such as Sleeping Draughts. But a small handful of Healers, not willing to give up their most effective ways to relieve pain, set up their own private clinics in which all of the traditional remedies were available to those willing to pay the price. Each of the clinics ended with the death of their founders, so when Aristotle Smethwyck (his son Elliot would be better known as the inventor of the Cushioning Charm), the healer who had founded the final clinic, died in 1803, the days of Cruciatus as an accepted part of medical treatment were officially over. For the rest of the nineteenth century, the spell was almost completely unused in Europe. But in the twentieth century, two of the most famous Dark Wizards of that century: Gellert Grindelwald and Tom Marvolo Riddle independently discovered that the spell could be used for torture. They both taught their followers how to use the spell - and with Grindelwald's and Riddle's followers being the primary users of the spell, almost everyone now associates the spell with the way it was used by them: as a particularly effective means of torture. Even though the Smethwyck family finally returned to healing somewhere around that time, Aristotle is probably rolling over in his grave on seeing that the tools he used, in secret, to relieve pain are now primarily used to cause pain instead!
MECHANISMS OF THE CURSE
Now that the history lesson is complete, it's time to explain exactly how the Cruciatus Curse works. You will not be surprised to learn that the mechanism is nearly identical to that of the Imperius Curse: both curses function by creating a magical connection between the caster's mind and that of the target which is then used to overwrite a key part of the target's mind using the will of the target. The difference is primarily in the parts of the mind used: while the Imperius Curse overwrites the thoughts of the target, the Cruciatus Curse overwrites the way the target physically feels. This is why the Cruciatus Curse works as such a great palliative: if you're casting the spell on someone who's feeling strong pain somewhere, you can overwrite the feelings of pain with much more soothing feelings, such as a massage, so that the target is no longer in pain! Going back to the most familiar usage of Cruciatus: from the followers of Grindelwald or Riddle - we see that when they cast the spell, they are willing their targets to feel some sort of pain. Sure enough, that is exactly what the targets feel - and exactly why most modern witches and wizards associate the spell with pain!
But what is the 'default' sensation produced by Cruciatus, if you don't specifically think of a location or a sensation when you cast the spell? Well, that's simply a gentle tickling sensation all over the target's body - much like what they would feel if they were in the proximity of flames modified by a Flame-Freezing Charm. It is almost certain that this is exactly what Bellatrix Lestrange was feeling that day in 1996 when Harry Potter tried to use Cruciatus on her to avenge the death of his godfather, Sirius Black. Bellatrix's laughter, combined with the phrase "You need to mean them, Potter!" is consistent with Harry casting the spell but forgetting to change the resulting sensation from the default of the gentle tickling sensation.
CASTING THE CRUCIATUS CURSE
After reading about the similarities in the mechanisms between the two spells, you should not be surprised to learn that the Cruciatus Curse is cast very similarly to the Imperius Curse. Here is the procedure for casting the Cruciatus 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 "Crucio" 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 feel, and imagine inserting a new set of sensations in place of your target's. It is probably easiest to focus on a specific part of the target's body to target the sensation; otherwise, the sensation will spread evenly over the target's entire body.
4) You will know the curse has taken effect when the target reacts in accordance with the sensations you imagined: no known being has lasted more than fifteen seconds under the Cruciatus Curse without reacting in some way!
5) Once you have confirmation that the Cruciatus has hit, you can modify the sensation and its location. If you're giving a massage, for example, moving from the left arm to the small of the back to the right arm might produce the desired relaxing effect.
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 the spell to the best of your advantage when casting it, you should keep the following tips in mind.
1) Before attempting to cast the Cruciatus 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 Cruciatus 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 this spell requires both a sensation and a location to be cast effectively: before you cast the spell, think about what you want the effects to be. In particular, decide ahead of time whether you want to affect your target's entire body or simply a small part of it.
And that's it! Note that there is no section for "how to resist the Cruciatus Curse" because as of yet, even the greatest Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries have not figured out an effective way to resist this curse.
Click on the link at the end of this page to proceed to the third assignment: Assignment 3
If you remember only one thing from this class, you should remember the following phrase:
"The Cruciatus Curse can be used for quite a few different things; it is not restricted to being a spell to cause pain!" Most likely, when you read the last sentence, it went against your instincts. But why? Why would it be so controversial to look at such a versatile, powerful spell with numerous uses and associate it with something other than its most famous use: when a deposed "Dark Lord" and his "Death Eaters" used the spell primarily to cause pain?
To answer this, let us turn to the Muggles for one of their sayings: "If <X> is outlawed, only outlaws will have <X>". Here, <X> can be anything from a concrete object to an abstract concept such as freedom. What the Muggles mean when they say this is that when something that was once legal gets banned, the people who continue to use that thing - by definition - are willing to break the law for at least one thing. This means that there will be a strong association between the usage of this newly-banned thing and people who are willing to break laws in general. As such, the thing that was banned will be used more and more (proportionately) by criminals... and because the people who are willing to use it now that it is illegal will be more likely to be criminals, we will be more likely to see people who are using it unethically than people who were using it in less controversial ways! Eventually, we may reach the point where nearly all of the uses of what was banned are unsavory in some form or another... at which point it will be seen as lunacy to unban it! Despite my own pride in my pure blood, I feel that the Muggles have wisdom in this saying; after all, it describes exactly what happened with regards to Cruciatus over the past three centuries!
Going back to the day in 1717 that the Ministry of Magic renamed the Cruciatus Charm to the "Cruciatus Curse" and rendered all of its uses to be Unforgivable, the most prominent British hospital, St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, wasted no time in responding appropriately. The very next day, St Mungo's issued an order to its Healers: henceforth, any Healer who tried to use Cruciatus as part of a healing treatment for a patient would be immediately let go and never allowed to work as a Healer again. The vast majority of Healers at St Mungo's obliged and immediately replaced their most powerful palliative treatments (all of which relied on Cruciatus to replace the sensations of pain the patient was feeling with something more soothing) with less effective spells and potions, such as Sleeping Draughts. But a small handful of Healers, not willing to give up their most effective ways to relieve pain, set up their own private clinics in which all of the traditional remedies were available to those willing to pay the price. Each of the clinics ended with the death of their founders, so when Aristotle Smethwyck (his son Elliot would be better known as the inventor of the Cushioning Charm), the healer who had founded the final clinic, died in 1803, the days of Cruciatus as an accepted part of medical treatment were officially over. For the rest of the nineteenth century, the spell was almost completely unused in Europe. But in the twentieth century, two of the most famous Dark Wizards of that century: Gellert Grindelwald and Tom Marvolo Riddle independently discovered that the spell could be used for torture. They both taught their followers how to use the spell - and with Grindelwald's and Riddle's followers being the primary users of the spell, almost everyone now associates the spell with the way it was used by them: as a particularly effective means of torture. Even though the Smethwyck family finally returned to healing somewhere around that time, Aristotle is probably rolling over in his grave on seeing that the tools he used, in secret, to relieve pain are now primarily used to cause pain instead!
MECHANISMS OF THE CURSE
Now that the history lesson is complete, it's time to explain exactly how the Cruciatus Curse works. You will not be surprised to learn that the mechanism is nearly identical to that of the Imperius Curse: both curses function by creating a magical connection between the caster's mind and that of the target which is then used to overwrite a key part of the target's mind using the will of the target. The difference is primarily in the parts of the mind used: while the Imperius Curse overwrites the thoughts of the target, the Cruciatus Curse overwrites the way the target physically feels. This is why the Cruciatus Curse works as such a great palliative: if you're casting the spell on someone who's feeling strong pain somewhere, you can overwrite the feelings of pain with much more soothing feelings, such as a massage, so that the target is no longer in pain! Going back to the most familiar usage of Cruciatus: from the followers of Grindelwald or Riddle - we see that when they cast the spell, they are willing their targets to feel some sort of pain. Sure enough, that is exactly what the targets feel - and exactly why most modern witches and wizards associate the spell with pain!
But what is the 'default' sensation produced by Cruciatus, if you don't specifically think of a location or a sensation when you cast the spell? Well, that's simply a gentle tickling sensation all over the target's body - much like what they would feel if they were in the proximity of flames modified by a Flame-Freezing Charm. It is almost certain that this is exactly what Bellatrix Lestrange was feeling that day in 1996 when Harry Potter tried to use Cruciatus on her to avenge the death of his godfather, Sirius Black. Bellatrix's laughter, combined with the phrase "You need to mean them, Potter!" is consistent with Harry casting the spell but forgetting to change the resulting sensation from the default of the gentle tickling sensation.
CASTING THE CRUCIATUS CURSE
After reading about the similarities in the mechanisms between the two spells, you should not be surprised to learn that the Cruciatus Curse is cast very similarly to the Imperius Curse. Here is the procedure for casting the Cruciatus 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 "Crucio" 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 feel, and imagine inserting a new set of sensations in place of your target's. It is probably easiest to focus on a specific part of the target's body to target the sensation; otherwise, the sensation will spread evenly over the target's entire body.
4) You will know the curse has taken effect when the target reacts in accordance with the sensations you imagined: no known being has lasted more than fifteen seconds under the Cruciatus Curse without reacting in some way!
5) Once you have confirmation that the Cruciatus has hit, you can modify the sensation and its location. If you're giving a massage, for example, moving from the left arm to the small of the back to the right arm might produce the desired relaxing effect.
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 the spell to the best of your advantage when casting it, you should keep the following tips in mind.
1) Before attempting to cast the Cruciatus 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 Cruciatus 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 this spell requires both a sensation and a location to be cast effectively: before you cast the spell, think about what you want the effects to be. In particular, decide ahead of time whether you want to affect your target's entire body or simply a small part of it.
And that's it! Note that there is no section for "how to resist the Cruciatus Curse" because as of yet, even the greatest Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries have not figured out an effective way to resist this curse.
Click on the link at the end of this page to proceed to the third assignment: Assignment 3