[HPforGrownups] Memory charms, Imperius, Harry and Neville

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 5789

atelecky at mit.edu wrote:

> I wonder if Harry himself might not have been given a
> memory charm when he was young? It has been mentioned that Harry
> whereabouts for 24 hours after his parents' death are unknown, and
> furthermore, there is a strange thing about the final scene in GoF.
> When Voldemort puts Harry under the Imperius Curse, the narrator
> informs us that this is the third time in his life that Harry has felt
> the strange sort of pleasure that this curse causes. Harry has been
> put under the Imperius Curse before by Moody, but only on the one
> occasion. He was put under several times during this one class "until
> he could shake it off entirely", but we are told this took "no less
> than four times", so these are not being counted as separate. The
> symptoms of a memory charm are supposed to be very similar to those of
> the Imperius Curse--when Mr. Roberts the Muggle is given a memory
> charm, Harry recognizes his "look of dreamy unconcern" as the look of
> one whose memory has been recently modified. Since the narrator says
> it is the third time that Harry himself has felt this way, not the
> third time that he was hit with the Imperius Curse, a memory charm
> might fit the bill. It might even have been Harry's mother who gave
> him the memory charm, if it was for his own good; her wand was
> supposed to have been a "nice wand for charm work".
> Thoughts on this, anyone?

I think you're reaching a bit, especially about his mother doing it, because
by all accounts Voldemort took them totally by surprise. I really doubt, in
the fear and confusion, that the possibility of Harry having a bad memory of
the event was Lily's paramount concern.

--Amanda