Nature of Dark Magic - Imperius and AK

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 141323

Elyse wrote:
<snip>
> So my question is, when anybody under Imperius is forced to commit
murder, what happens? We have canon implications that an AK can be 
cast succesfully by someone who has been Imperiused and has no idea of
what he/she is doing. <snip excellent examples>
> My point is, if you do need a certain degree of intention involved
to cast an AK, if you really have to draw a large amount of fuel from
the well of evil within, how come people under Imperius are able to do
so? 
> 
> If it is the intention that counts, logically the AK should not
work, as the caster has no control over his or her own will. It is not
his will that his victim die, and the AK should malfunction. If it
requires tapping into the well of evil, I dont see how this is
feasible under Imperius conditions. If you could summon that amount of
dark anger/hatred/willpower inside you, surely you can throw the
Imperius off, right? And as for making an evil choice with a Dark
Curse like AK, how can you do so when you are incapable of free will
in the first place? <snip>

Carol responds:
Excellent questions. (I sincerely hope the answer isn't that JKR
hasn't thought things out!)

Here's a possibility, which I think would work whether AK and Crucio
depend on the intention to kill/torture or the "evil within": Since
the victim of an Imperius Curse has lost his free will and is acting
as the tool of another wizard, he requires neither the intent(ion) to
cast the spell nor the ability to cast it (normally acquired through
concentration and practice). It's the intention/desire/"well of evil"
within the wizard who cast the Imperius and is controlling the victim
that enables the victim to cast the spell. IOW, Mulciber was making
murderers out of other people by transferring his (wholly evil) will
to them. In the same way, Crouch!Moody caused a decent, quiet (if
surly) boy named Viktor Krum to Crucio another boy (Cedric Diggory)
whom he did not hate and may have liked. In this case, the will to do
evil was Crouch!Moody's, not Viktor Krum's. Without Crouch!Moody's
will manipulating and empowering him, Viktor would have been unable to
cast the spell, as well as having no intention of doing so.(Viktor's
actions afterwards make it clear that he did not want to cast the
Crucio and was ashamed of having done it.)

Which brings up the problem of the Dark Arts actually being taught at
Durmstrang, for which we have only the word of Draco in CoS (IIRC),
and even he doesn't state that the Unforgiveables are taught. (JKR
doesn't introduce them until GoF.) Viktor's mortification, his
apparent feeling at the end of GoF that he doesn't deserve to be in
Hogwarts (and Dumbledore's kindly remark that *everyone* present is
welcome to return at any time, surely directed at poor Viktor)
indicate to me that Viktor has never done anything of the sort before.
Surely even Karkaroff would not have taught his own students to kill
and Crucio each other, and from what we've seen Imperius is just as
dangerous. Maybe, like Barty Jr., they used spiders or other small
creatures to practice the Unforgiveable Curses on. Or maybe they were
taught the Dark Arts in general (whatever the Dark Arts really are),
but not the Unforgiveable Curses, which would be just as Unforgiveable
in Eastern or Northern Europe as in Britain. Or maybe Draco is full of
hot air.

One more small point before I forget: an Imperius Curse can't be cast
off with "dark anger" or hatred. Imperius makes the victim feel
euphoric. His own worries and concerns disappear. He is not even
really himself; he's out of touch with reality. (The closest thing to
the sensation of being under an Imperius Curse is being under the
spell of the Veela.) Resisting the curse requires an awareness (like
Harry's when Crouch!Moody Imperios him in DADA class) that someone
else's will is trying to make you do something stupid or dangerous or
evil and the ability to impose your own will in place of the other
person's. This talent appears to be extremely rare. I have no doubt
that Dumbledore had it. Probably Voldemort does, too, and perhaps the
ability to resist the Imperius Curse is one of the powers that Harry
received from Voldemort (along with Parseltongue and possibly
possession) when the AK backfired. The Crouches (very powerful
wizards) had only limited powers of resistance, and both of them were
experts on the curse's effects. Most wizards (even Snape?) would
probably be as defenseless against it as Ron and Neville in
Crouch!Moody's DADA class.

Another teeny observation: I do think the person under the Imperius
curse would need to have the *power* to cast an Unforgiveable Curse
(as opposed to the will to cast it or a "well of evil" with them).
IOW, the nine-year-old boy who tried to kill his grandparents would
not have succeeded despite the evil will of the DE who Imperioed him.
(I could be wrong on this point. It's possible that the power required
to cast an AK or Crucio is transferred along with the will, but if
that were the case, I think Mulciber would not have been so eager to
Imperio a large number of people in VW1. Chances are that the people
he Imperioed were fully qualified wizards with sufficient power of
their own to cast an Unforgiveable Curse; he would not have wanted to
deplete his own powers. As for the will to do evil, I'm pretty sure he
had an unlimited supply.)

Carol, who agrees with Elyse that we *really* need to know what is
meant by "Dark Arts" and by "Unforgiveable"