The Imperius Virus Again

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 144345

 
> Christina:
> 
> The only problem with this is the way we see the Imperius Curse
> demonstrated in GoF.  IIRC, Harry hears *specific* instructions in 
his
> head in the form of Moody's actual voice (ie, "Jump on the table-
> Jump! Now!") telling him what to do.  I'm not sure "Be a good 
servant
> of the Dark Lord" would work because who determines what that is? 
> Each Imperiused wizard would need to be given real instructions (ie,
> "Go blow up a bridge," "Kill so-and-so Auror," etc).  There needs to
> be an objective for the Imperiused person to follow.  Someone would
> have to be at the end of the chain, pulling the strings- the 
original
> wizard that cast the first Imperio Curse.  This is a pickle, because
> the original wizard would have to pass down instructions through a
> long line of people, saying something like, "Wizard A, go tell 
Wizard
> B to tell Wizard C to tell Wizard D to do such-and-such a task."
> 

Neri:
I think such problems can be solved with some standard programming. 
For example, Voldy could give the imperiused wizard a list with very 
specific instructions, such as "obey any wizard with a Dark Mark on 
his arm", and order him/her to follow them. The last instruction in 
this list would be to copy it, give the copy to the next imperiused 
wizard, and order him/her to follow the instructions in it. 
Additional items in this list could be: 

...

15. Send an owl to Belatrix Lestrange with your name, address and the 
circumstances of you being imperiused. 

16. You may receive a response owl from her with specific 
instructions. In such case obey these instructions before you proceed 
imperiousing other wizards.

...

This would be a simple way for the DEs to control their army of new 
servants more directly. Bella would need some help with the mail, 
though, since after a week or so she'll be receiving thousands of 
owls per day. 

RL computer viruses also require very specific instructions. They are 
even dumber than imperiused wizards, actually, and yet they can be 
extremely efficient.


> Christina:
> Also, LV doesn't even need to Imperius large amounts of people to 
win
> the war- just the people he is fighting, the Aurors and the Order.  
No
> mass army rose up against him in the first war.  The Order is
> presented to us as a Resistance movement than an actual party 
fighting
> in battle.  Lupin comments in OotP that the Death Eaters outnumbered
> the Order "twenty to one" and were picking them off individually. 
> While the actual numbers concerning the Death Eaters and Order 
members
> are unknown, we can assume that there weren't *that* many people
> opposing LV; certainly not every witch or wizard.  People might have
> disagreed with LV, but there will always be people that disagree 
with
> those in power.  Voldemort was easily keeping those people in check
> using fear (anyone who did speak out mysteriously "disappeared"). 
> Even in the second war, people refused to believe that any threat 
had
> returned whatsoever.  

Neri:
Actually the main advantage of the virus is in mass attack. Attacking 
a very small and hidden organization would be much more complicated 
than simply attacking *anybody*. With mass attack you don't care much 
about the small groups. Even if the Order members can avoid all the 
wizards around imperiusing everybody on sight, they won't be of much 
danger to Voldy if the rest of the population are his loyal puppets.

> Christina:
> The instructions for a limited use of the
> Imperius Curse on the Aurors/Order members would be much simpler-
> 
> 1.  Go find a fellow Order member/Auror.
> 2.  Imperius them and give them these three instructions
> 3.  Go lie in a ditch/hide in your basement/jump off a building
> 

Neri:
Why would Voldy want him to jump off the building? This is a waste of 
good resources. Better instruct him to continue infecting more Order 
members.

> Christina:
> I doubt that even a plan like this one would work because we know 
that
> it is possible to fight the Imperius Curse.  Even though we've seen
> some evidence of advanced magical skill on Harry's part (the
> Patronus), he is still just a kid and is able to throw off the
> Imperius Curse.  I wouldn't be surprised if Aurors were taught
> techniques to prevent themselves from being Imperiused; otherwise, 
all
> LV would have had to have done was Imperius one Auror and order them
> to walk into Auror headquarters and start firing off curses.
> 

Neri:
Which is why it would be much preferable, strategically, to attack 
the whole population than elite groups like the Order or the Aurors. 
After they would find themselves isolated in the middle of hostile 
population imperiousing everybody around it will be much easier to 
dispatch of such groups using more conventional methods.

Resisting the Imperius curse is a bit like the action of anti-virus 
programs in RL, but as we know such programs can lose the fight if 
the virus spreads fast enough. Once few defenders find themselves 
isolated in a population of infected and infecting hosts, they just 
can't cure themselves and others faster than the re-infection rate. 
I'd imagine even the most powerful wizard would find it difficult to 
fight an Imperius curse while he is simulaneously being imperiused by 
ten other wizards. 

Neri