Fake-Moody's interest in Harry's resistance to Imperius

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 44460

One thing that has occured to me about Fake-Moody's great interest in
Harry's ability to throw off the Imperius Curse is that, as a loyal Death
Eater, he would be _ve-ry_ interested in whether or not this ability was
unique to Harry, or could be taught to others.

The rest of the Wizard World apparently thinks that the Imperius Curse is
unbreakable; I'm sure that Crouch, Sr. would not have relied solely on the
Imperius if he had thought that it could be thrown off, the way Barty Jr.
apparently did.  That would make the ability to throw it off at will, or to
resist it, a hugely important tool to the Death Eaters.  Like, forex:  Say
I'm an Evil Death Eater (bwahahaha!) and the Aurors have me cornered and
throw the Imperius on me.  Unfortunately for them, I know how to throw it
off.  They relax once they think they've got me, and this is my chance
either to turn the tables on them with a good old Avada Kedavra, or if
they've got my wand and are questioning me (trusting in the Imperius Curse
to make me answer truthfully) fill their ears with disinformation they'll
trust implicitly.  "Yes, Molly Weasley is a trusted servant of Our Lord
Voldemort!  She's been so prolific because she plans to either turn her
children into servants of Our Lord, or sacrifice them to call up demons!
And...and Hermione Granger's also high in the councils of Our Lord
Voldemort!  She _pretends_ to be a Muggle-born, but she was switched at
birth with the daughter of a couple of Muggle dentists---she's really Our
Lord's own daughter by Mrs. Lestrange, so she's a pureblood!"

Well, not quite _that_ wild, but definitely an opportunity to sow confusion
in the ranks of the side of good.  As long as they trust the Imperius
implicitly, not knowing that it is fallible, they will, at least, assume
that I'm telling the truth while under it.

Even if it could not be taught, the mere datum that the Imperius was
breakable by something other than spending literal years under it (did
Crouch Sr. periodically renew the Imperius, or was it "Imperio" once, and
then just assume that it was still good?) would be a very useful thing for
the DEs to know.  If they knew that the Imperius was fallible, they would
not rely on it completely, particularly in controlling other wizards and
witches, but would monitor people under the Imperius to make _sure_ that
they were doing what they were told to do.

Come to it, I wonder how Crouch Sr. learned the Imperius Curse?  Are the
Unforgivables taught at Hogwarts?  I can think of legitimate uses for at
least two of them---Avada Kedavra both in battle and as a merciful release
for someone dying in horrible pain, and Imperius to control monsters like
giants lest they get loose and wreak havoc.  It is stated that using the
Unforgivables _on another human_ is a life sentence at Azkaban, but that
says nothing about the various non-human, but human-like, creatures there
are out there.  I have my doubts that if I AK'd or Imperio'd a raving
werewolf to save my own life that I would have to go to Azkaban.

--Eric, who thinks that as good a teacher as Barty Crouch Jr. made, he also
made a heckuva secret agent.