Unforgivables (was: Re: WW Ethics...)

[pickle_jimmy]

No: HPFGUIDX 58716

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "guardianapcelt" 
<guardianapcelt at y...> wrote:
> Well, after having so many fine people contradict me, I think it's 
> high time I contradict myself :-D...I've been rereading CoS, and 
> found this quote from Lockhart regarding Mrs. Norris' petrification 
> "It was definitely a curse that killer her - probably the 
> Transmogrifian Torture - I've seen it used many times, so unlucky I 
> wasn't here there, I know the very countercurse..." (CoS, American 
> Text page 141). So here we have a spell, not listed as an 
> Unforgiveable, that A)Tortures and B)Kills. And as we all know, 
> Lockhart is a big name dropper. He can tell you quite a bit about 
> wizarding, just from stuff he's picked up by putting into his 
books, 
> even though he's dismal at wizarding himself. I highly doubt he 
would 
> have mentioned a Transmogrifian Torture, especially in front of 
> Dumbledore, if there wasn't such a thing. He likely recognized the 
> symptoms from something he'd been told by a wizard/witch whose 
story 
> he had stolen for a book. - Joe S.

Maybe (and don't you love a post that starts with maybe)
the Transmogrifian Torture isn't an unforgivable curse because it 
*is* well known, and *everyone* knows the counter-curse. Hence it 
would only be useful on a defenceless animal (including muggles).

Transmogrifian Torture... sounds like what Moody did to Malfoy - 
Transmogrified him into a ferret and then Tortured him.

So, Lockhart goes off on one of his rants, and drops the first spell 
he thinks of that could kill a cat - it could just have easily been 
Wingardium Leviosa (lift Mrs Norris 40 feet into the air and drop her 
on her head) - just because a Spell/Charm/Jinx/Curse could be used in 
some means to cause harm, does it make it automatically unforgivable? 

Pickle Jimmy