Cruciatus, thoughts, boggarts

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 39077

Amelia Goldfeesh wrote: 
> Two of the three Unforgivables seem to work fairly directly upon the
> mind of the victim. So it makes me wonder if perhaps the Avada
> Kedavra does too in some way perhaps.  It makes me think of an old
> Avengers episode in which victims were killed off by their greatest
> fears.   

AK is possibly my favourite discussion subject, so I think I'm tackling 
(once again) this one. Even though I do believe that the  
"unforgivable" denomination has nothing to do with how the curses 
actually work but with the fact of being unblockable or maybe just a 
legal definition of sorts (on the lines of "capital offense"), I do 
believe that they do, in fact, opperate in similar ways. In case of AK, 
I think that the green beam separates the soul from the body (in 
Potterverse, the soul is known to exist: look at the ghosts - note that 
it may have nothing to do with the Christian idea of soul...). When 
that green beam (charged with inmense magical energy) hits a person, 
that person inmediatelly knows what's happening to him: he (or she) can 
feel his consciousness leaving his body, which imprints a horrified 
expression in his face. Once the soul is removed, that same spell 
totally anhilates the soul, and certain amount of energy goes back to 
the wand, where a "shadow" of that soul is stored. That's why no-one 
turns into a ghost after being AK-ed (no canon to back this last idea 
up, or to reject it, so it's IMO), and why images of the dead people 
appear on the graveyard scene (instead of a generic AK shadow).
 
> However, this makes me think of a boggart and I can't picture a
> boggart and the Killing Curse connected in any way (unless, of,
> course this is foreshadowing of a sort <g>).  This brings a question: 
> What do boggarts get out of frightening people?  Is it a defense
> method? Do they feed on fear? Basically why do they try to scare
> people? Is Lupin just picking on a timid creature that wants to be 
> left alone? <s> 
>
> A Goldfeesh

I think that boggarts use the transformations as a defence method, just 
as cats try to look bigger and certain fishes have a real-looking (but 
extremely big) eye painted in their "tail". Fear is a good weapon, 
which can save you from being eaten in any number of acasions, but I 
doubt boggarts actually feed on fear. They're dangerous, probably 
because they eat people if the opportunity exists, so the wizards are 
taught how to pretect themselves from them, but thewy're not as bad as 
dementors (again, IMO, since we don't really know: boggarts aren't 
listed in FB&wtFt).

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf