Imperius Curse: Pure Mechanics or Maintained Mindlink?

[Erin]

No: HPFGUIDX 93492

 "nkafkafi"  wrote:
 
> Neri:
> Ahm, actually my chromosomes are XY. Not that I have any problems 
> with XX persons, and it is one of the advantages of this forum that 
> what we are writing is much more important than our chromosomes, 
age,  nationality, etc.   

Erin:
Oh, terribly sorry.  I haven't been around enough lately to keep 
track of who is who, I guess....  I'll remember in the future, I 
promise!


> Neri:
> Here there is one point we should be clear about: Winky was not 
> reinforcing an Unforgivable curse. Such a possibility would be 
> unthinkable for both a wizard and a house-elf.

Erin:
True, but doesn't Crouch Jr. say when he's telling all at the end of 
GoF that she used her own brand of magic to tie him to her, or words 
to that effect?  I wonder just how different her spell is from an 
Imperius curse?  

I personally don't believe elves are able to perform Imperius just 
because the type of magic they use is different; for instance, 
Dobby's disappearing act is not considered apparation.  But the 
effect is indistinguishable, at least from our point of view.

I agree that it would be impossible for an elf to independantly 
decide to cast I mperius, but if the elf had been ordered to by its 
wizard master?  I think it would be impossible for the elf *not* to.

Most wizards would never dream of giving such an order, but Crouch 
was already so far outside the law it wouldn't have mattered much to 
him at that point anyway, especially when weighed against the 
consequences of his son escaping.
 
 
> Neri:
 Do you realize that any 
> person that Harry meets, including any of his close friends, could 
be imperio'd with Wormtail in his pocket? Do you sleep soundly with 
this thought in your mind? 8-)

Erin:
Well, Wormtail can only tackle one person at a time, so, yeah, a lot 
more soundly than with the possibility of the Imperius virus. :-p


Erin