TBAY: The Night The Jabberknoll Screamed

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 38893

James asked:

> Am I being thick here (or worse ignorant), but I always assumed 
>the 
> imperious curse made you act a certain way, not think.
> 
> I never saw anything in the books that said it could do any more 
>than 
> make you do and say what you are told to.  Voldemort tells (word 
>for 
> word) harry what to do and say.  


Weeeellllll . . . 

I read the scene in the graveyard a bit differently.  Voldemort asks 
Harry if he wants him to do that again.  He commands, "Answer me!  
Imperio!"  Voldemort doesn't command, "Say 'No'"  So deep inside, 
Harry knows the "right" answer ("No"), but he resists giving that 
answer out of pride.  Presumably, then, one could use the Imperius 
Curse to extract information from another by putting the question 
and commanding, "Answer me!"

It would be odd indeed if the one thing Imperius can't make someone 
do is divulge information.  That could be why Crouch Sr. authorized 
the use of the Imperius Curse on suspects -- much quicker than Truth 
Serum.  That could also be why Sirius felt he had to go into hiding -
- Imperius perhaps could make him divulge the location of the 
Potters.

It's OK, though.  Maybe Mrs. Lestrange tries the Imperius Curse and 
Frank throws it off.  Or it doesn't work because it won't cause the 
victim to divulge information.  Or she doesn't do it right.  It's 
all the same.  The point is that Imperius doesn't work to her 
satisfaction, so she takes it up a notch to Cruciatus.

> It's almost like you cede control of your body to someone else, 
but 
> not like you are hypnotised or they see\control your mind.

Weeeeeelllll . . . 

Remember how Hagrid characterized the people who snapped out of the 
Imperius Curse when Voldemort fell -- they came out of "trances."  
Sounds a lot like hypnosis, don't you think?

 > If I'm wrong please ignore this and I apologise for clogging your 
> inbox's

Not to worry.  No one is ever "wrong," right?  We're all just 
guessing . . . I mean, engaging in "Creative Theorizing."  ;-)

Speaking of Creative Theorizing, I messed up a detail in this whole 
Jabberknoll theory.  Jabberknolls make no sound until they die.  So 
there's no chirping that night that alerted Snape and Moody to the 
existence of the Jabberknoll.  

It's all good though.  The silence of the Jabberknoll is the reason 
Mrs. Lestrange doesn't know it is there, recording everything.  
Snape and Moody find it not because of the chirping (as there is no 
chirping), but because they know to look.

Cindy (finding that the devil is in the details)