The Three Unforgivable Curses
The Imperius Curse
Imperio
The first of the three Unforgivable
Curses, Imperius gives the spell-caster total control over their subject. As fake-Moody
explains as he demonstrates on a spider:
‘I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your
throats…’ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Those subjected to the Imperius Curse don’t seem aware of what they're doing while under
another person’s control, but imagine how traumatic it would be to look back on actions you
made against your will. From the imprisoned Moody, kept weak and quiet so a Death Eater
could impersonate him,
to (relatively) innocent wizards like Stan Shunpike, forced to join Voldemort’s side,
Imperius robs its victims of any autonomy. It’s utter subjugation. Not to mention that the
very existence of the Imperius Curse gives others an excuse for their actions after the
fact.
The Cruciatus Curse
Crucio
The second Unforgiveable Curse,
Cruciatus causes such excruciating pain that when Voldemort used it on Harry, it was ‘so
intense, so all-consuming, that he no longer knew where he was…’
Repeated use of the Cruciatus Curse is torture and Bellatrix Lestrange subjected the
Longbottoms to such extremes of pain that it sent them insane. ‘Better dead than what
happened to them,’ was what Moody said of the Longbottoms’ fate, and there’s a sad ring of
truth to that statement.
Harry tried to use this spell himself. The first time was against Bellatrix after she had
killed Sirius. His attempt was unsuccessful because, as Bellatrix mockingly explained: ‘You
need to really want to cause pain – to enjoy it – righteous anger won’t hurt me for long…’
This shows that Cruciatus is bad for both parties – the wizard or witch has to mean pure
evil intent in order to even cast it.
The Killing Curse
Avada Kedavra
Obviously there’s no coming back
from this spell, and according to the Ministry of Magic’s classifications (and, again,
fake-Moody) this is the worst Unforgivable Curse.
If this countdown were about which spell is the most unforgivable we might agree – but
weirdly enough it’s not. In our eyes, the quick death afforded by Avada Kedavra seems to us
a (very slightly) better option than suffering the curses below. At least Cedric Diggory had
no inkling of what was about to happen and probably experienced little,
if any, pain, unlike those left behind.
