Why is AK unforgiveable

[Grey Wolf]

No: HPFGUIDX 45162

Melody wrote:
> I always thought AK was an unforgivable curse because it was the only
> curse that is unblockable.  Any other forms of death-by-curse can be
> avoided.  AK cannot.  Our hero Harry, even though he is so fast,
> cannot avoid it as he can the others as evident in the graveyard when
> he out runs the DE's curses to get to Cedric's body and the
> TriWizCup.
> 
> As for Imperius and Crucio, I guess they are unforgivable because
> they cause so much trouble.  Imperius is a headaches for others and 
> MoM, and Crucio drives people eventually insane.
> 
> Just the impression I had.
> 
> Melody

I've exposed my own theory on unforgivables a couple of times now, but 
the last time was quite some time ago, so I think I'll indulge myself 
and bring it back.

For one thing, there is canon. Crouch!Moody more or less tells the 
class that unforgivable is (*almost*) a legal definition: an 
unforgivable curse is one that anytime it is used on another human 
being (I'd imagine that would also aply to other intelligent beings) 
will earn you a life imprisonment in Azkaban. As simple as that. And, 
at this particular moment, there are three curses that are considered 
unforgivables: AK, Imperius and Cruciatus.

Now, the point is, of course, what makes these curses so bad that they 
earn the calification of unforgivables? At that point, all theories 
could aply, but in my particular case, I am with you (partially), 
Melody, in that they are unblockable -but in my case, it's the *three* 
of them. Let me explain my position with some canon.

Our first stop is the unforgivables lesson. Moody, talking about what 
he's supposed to teach them, talks about the original plan being only 
the counter-curses, that they weren't going to know about forbidden 
curses until last year. That is our first clue: how can you learn a 
counter-curse of a curse you don't know about? Logic implies that, to 
know the cure, you'd better learn before what the cure *will* cure 
(that is, learn to recognise the symptoms of the sickness). It somehow 
points that there are no countercurses for the forbidden curses.

Later on in that same lecture, when talking about AK, Moody mentions 
another important fact: "there is no counter-curse. Nor way of 
intercept it. Only one person is known to have survived it" 
(incidently, this is not totally true: Voldemort survived the AK too. 
It's an interesting pararell, since Harry is the boy who lived and 
Voldemort the man that didn't die). Now, I know that could only aply 
especifically to AK, but later we discover that they practise 
*resisting* the Imperius, never to block it. And we never hear of any 
of them practising anything against the Cruciatus.

Now, a final stop in canon before aunching into the explanation. When 
Ron and Hermione are helping Harry practice for the third task, one of 
the spells Harry uses is a shield spell, which is uposed to stop 
curses. So such spells do, in fact, exist.

And those are the premises. I believe that all curses can be blocked by 
the correct shield (allowing for things like relative power of the 
casters, amount of punishment taken by the shield so far, etc.). All 
except the unforgivable curses, which is what makes them so dangerous: 
if the ray hits you, you receive the spell. There is nothing you can do 
to prevent that. Of course, there are things you can do *after* being 
hit by one (except if that one was AK, in which case you're out of 
options): you can ride the storm in the Cruciatus, and you can fight 
the Imperius, but you cannot do a single thing to stop them from 
hitting you. And that, in a nutshell, is what makes them unforgivable.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf