Resisting the Imperius Curse

[erisedstraeh2002 <erisedstraeh2002@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 48553

Susanne asked:

> I wanted to know how Hermione did with the Imperius curse, but 
> couldn't find any mention at all. Did I overlook it? Was she not
> put under it?

Now me:

No, you didn't overlook it.  There's no specific mention of how 
Hermione fared under Fake!Moody's Imperius curse.  However, in Ch. 15 
of GoF, it says that "Moody began to beckon students forwards in turn 
and put the Imperius curse upon them...Not one of them seemed to be 
able to fight the curse off, and each of them recovered only when 
Moody had removed it."  This suggests to me that each student, 
including Hermione, was subjected to the curse, and each student was 
unable to fight it off.  Harry appears to be the last student that 
Fake!Moody put the curse on, for the book then says that they left 
the class an hour later because Fake!Moody had "insisted on putting 
Harry through his paces four times in a row, until Harry could throw 
the curse off entirely."

Susanne again:

> And I wondered why JKR chose to have fake Moody say: "The Imperius 
> Curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes 
> real strength of character, and not everyone's got it." It makes it 
> sound as if most wizards and witches have "weak" characters, 
> because if many could fight it, the curse wouldn't be so feared.

Me again:

I don't read "real strength of character" to mean a non-weak 
character.  I think someone can have a strong character and still not 
be able to withstand the Imperius Curse.  After all, Real!Moody and 
Viktor Krum couldn't withstand it, and their characters seem to be 
quite strong.

What confuses me is that Harry, the only student who can withstand 
the curse, seems to do so innately.  The "voice in the back of his 
brain" tells him not to obey Fake!Moody's commands.  Yet Fake!Moody 
talks about "teaching" the students to fight the Imperius curse, and 
he assigns them reading on resisting the curse.

And, of course, there is the question of why Fake!Moody worked so 
hard to help Harry learn how to completely resist the Imperius curse 
when Voldemort was planning to use it in the graveyard to either 
weaken Harry (according to MD theorists) or as an ego-enhancing 
strategy to show his power over Harry (according to Voldemort-as-
egomaniac theorists).  Numerous theories abound, including (1) that 
this is what Real!Moody would have done, so Fake!Moody needed to do 
it to keep his cover; (2) that Fake!Moody is really not 
Voldemort's "faithful servant" and was training Harry to resist the 
curse to thwart Voldemort; (3) that Fake!Moody was pushing Harry as 
far as he could go so he could report back to Voldemort on Harry's 
strengths and weaknesses; or (4) that Fake!Moody suffered so long 
under the Imperius curse that he was interested in seeing how someone 
could be able to be "taught" how to resist it.

Susanne again:

> Have we heard of anyone besides Harry who can fight it? Dumbledore? 
> McGonnagal? Voldemort?

Me again:

Canon only references Fake!Moody and Crouch Sr.  Under the 
Veritaserum (Ch. 35, GoF), Fake!Moody says "I was starting to fight 
my father's Imperius curse."  And he later says "After a while he 
[Crouch Sr.] began to fight the Imperius curse just as I had done."  
There could be others (Dumbledore makes sense to me), but these are 
the only two that have been mentioned so far.

~Phyllis