Arthur Weasley, With Imperius Curse

[elfundeb at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 37247

Elkins graciously responded, in dead earnest, to my tongue-in-cheek request 
for a sinister Weasley backstory to counter my "straightforward" Weasleys:
> 
> I don't know if this is quite what you
> hoped for -- it's not really so much sinister as it is sad -- but 
> would you care for a bite of Arthur Weasley With Imperius Curse?
> They may be only half-baked, but I did make them myself, and 
> 

[Debbie agreeably settles in armchair, hoping canon tastes like chocolate, 
then snips and eats excellent and highly believable backstory]
> 
> And finally, in defense of my Imperio'd Arthur Weasley theory, I 
> would point out that Ron seems to find fighting off the Imperius 
> Curse unusually difficult.  Nowhere else in canon is Ron depicted as 
> a poor student.  He does have some difficulties in CoS, but only 
> because of his broken wand; he doesn't take Divination at all 
> seriously, but then, neither do any of the other male Gryffindor 
> students.  Ordinarily, Ron is canonically depicted as a perfectly 
> average student.  So why the trouble with the Imperius Curse?  He's 
> not a weak-willed person at all, really.
> 
> Well, could it be a family trait?  Riddle's diary did quite the job on
> 

I stop here only to mention that Weakness Against Imperio, rather than being 
a family trait, appears to be endemic.  As you point out, Hagrid says that 
when Voldemort fell a lot of people "came outta kinda trances."  Moody/Crouch 
tells the class that a lot of witches and wizards were being controlled by 
Imperius.  And when he tests the class's ability to resist, "not one of them 
seemed to be able to fight off the curse, and each of them recovered only 
when Moody had removed it."  I've suggested before, back when we were 
discussing who might Crack, that Ron was a likely candidate for Imperio.  
Like father, like son, like half the wizarding world . . . .

[more snipping and eating canon support, which indeed tastes like chocolate.  
Dark chocolate.]
       
> think? 
>  Rather a nasty secret.  Rather an ugly secret.  A Deep Dark 
> secret.  A Skeleton In the Weasley Family Closet sort of secret.
> 
> So I'm hoping that it's true.  Because not only do I think that the 
> it would be interesting for the Weasleys to have one of those; I also
> think that the Weasleys *act* as if they have one of those.  There's
> something festering away somewhere in that family dynamic, and I 
> don't think that it's just a matter of financial stress.  I think 
> that there's something swept under the carpet somewhere in that 
> household.  

Having swallowed this story completely, I can only comment (as I lick up the 
last bit of tasty canon) that I don't think it's sinister and I don't think 
Arthur With Imperius Curse is at all inconsistent with my "straightforward" 
Weasley family.  Moody/Crouch and Hagrid both indicate that a lot of witches 
and wizards suffered from Imperio, so Arthur is not alone.  That the Weasleys 
would have hidden the painful memories under a thick rug while they picked up 
their everyday lives would not surprise me.  It's a very common response.  
>From what we've seen of the wizarding world, that seems to be what most 
people, including Fudge himself,  did, as reflected in the mania, shared by 
the Weasley family, about saying "You-Know-Who" as though the name Voldemort 
itself would bring all the skeletons tumbling out of the closets (Ron doesn't 
know the family history, but his family has conditioned him to be terrorized 
at the sound of Voldemort's name and at one point he practically yells at 
Harry not to say it).  At least the Weasleys, when faced with a new threat at 
the end of GoF, react by immediately preparing to do whatever is necessary to 
fight it, which I see as a sign that they are at least prepared to face the 
past (whether it be Imperio, missing children, the Dark Mark above the Burrow 
or all of the above) and prevent it from happening again.  

Finally, while I don't see the Imperius Curse by itself, or any of the other 
possibilities mentioned above, as falling into the category of Arthur being 
shockingly different than he appears to be, which I view as the prime kind of 
dirty secret whose discovery would be very difficult to deal with (it's in my 
comments on the Still Life With Memory Charm), there is the presently 
unanswerable question of what horrific things Arthur might have done under 
Imperius, how he was exonerated, and whether there are any questions 
remaining in anyone's mind about his innocence, which would affect how big 
and ugly the skeleton might be and how deeply its revelation would impact the 
family.  

And Abigail cites the following to support the Auror ice cream to accompany 
the Arthur With Imperius cake:

Amos Diggory calls on Arthur to bail Moody out 
when his flying trashcans attack muggle policemen, and the reactions 
from Molly and the older Weasly children seem to suggest the kind of 
closeness you might see between former colleagues:

Debbie responds, after nibbling the ice cream:

Actually, I would offer Amos Diggory as another Imperio candidate, based 
partly on this incident and the further theory that Moody may have been 
responsible for their escape from Imperius.   Amos seems to have an enormous 
chip on his shoulder.  That he might have been Imperio'd and embarrassed 
about it is a possible explanation why it is so important to him that his son 
can stand shoulder to shoulder with Harry.   

I'm less certain about whether either could have been an Auror.  I'm not sure 
wizards who are susceptible to Imperius make strong candidates. 

Debbie, who also really likes Arthur, as well as the rest of the Weasleys 
(well, I'm still not certain about Fred, though I suspect that's not a 
popular view)





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