"Now. . . those three curses - Avada Kedavra, Imperius, and Cruciatus - are known as the Unforgivable Curses. The use of any one of them on a fellow human being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban. That's what you're up against. That's what I've got to teach you to fight. You need preparing. You need arming. But most of all, you need to practise constant, never-ceasing vigilance. Get out your quills. . . copy this down. . . ."" —Bartemius Crouch Junior explaining the nature of the Unforgivable Curses[src]

The Unforgivable Curses were three of the most powerful and sinister spells known to the wizarding world.[1] They were tools of the Dark Arts and were first classified as "Unforgivable" in 1717, with the strictest penalties attached to their use.[2] The three curses consisted of the Killing Curse (Avada Kedavra), Cruciatus Curse (Crucio), and Imperius Curse (Imperio).[1]

By the 1990s, using any of these three curses on another human being, Muggle or wizard, would result in a life sentence to Azkaban, unless there was sufficient evidence that the caster did so under the influence of the Imperius Curse. Many Dark wizards attempted to use this excuse to prevent themselves from incarceration if caught, particularly after the First Wizarding War.[1]

Aurors were permitted to use them during the First Wizarding War, and during the height of the Second Wizarding War under Lord Voldemort's regime, the curses were made legal,[3] though this would have been repealed following Tom Riddle's demise.

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History

"Harry shouted, “Crucio!”. The Death Eater was lifted off his feet. He writhed through the air like a drowning man, thrashing and howling in pain, and then, with a crunch and a shattering of glass, he smashed into the front of a bookcase and crumpled, insensible, to the floor." —Harry Potter’s use of the Cruciatus Curse on Amycus Carrow[src]

These three curses have been classified as"Unforgivable" in Wizarding society since 1717 according to Albus Dumbledore

During the First Wizarding War the Death Eaters made frequent use of these curses and in an effort to even things out, the Ministry of Magic gave Aurors special permission to use them as well. After the First Wizarding War ended with the disappearance of Lord Voldemort, Alice and Frank Longbottom were tortured into insanity with the Cruciatus Curse by four Death Eaters.[4] This crime was considered by many to be one of the most horrific crimes in living memory. The victims never recovered and spent the rest of their lives in the Janus Thickey Ward for irrevocable spell damage at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.[5]

When disguised as Alastor Moody using Polyjuice Potion during the 1994–1995 school year, Barty Crouch Jnr performed each Unforgivable Curse on a spider in front of his fourth year Defence Against the Dark Arts class in 1994. He told his class the penalty for using an Unforgivable Curse on another human being is life imprisonment in Azkaban.[1] He later bewitched several of his students with the Imperius Curse, to teach them how to resist the effects of the curse, with only Harry Potter being successful.[6] On the 24 June 1995, Harry Potter was subjected to the Cruciatus Curse twice and the Imperius Curse once by Lord Voldemort during the Duel in Little Hangleton; he was able to resist the latter, ironically thanks to Barty Crouch Jnr's teaching.[7]

During the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Harry tried to use the Cruciatus Curse on Bellatrix Lestrange, but it didn't have much effect. She taunted Harry that he needed to really "enjoy" giving pain in order for it to work,[8] as he learned later when he successfully used the Cruciatus Curse on Amycus Carrow before the Battle of Hogwarts on 1 May 1998, incapacitating him.[9]

Snape killed Dumbledore using the Killing Curse on top of the Astronomy Tower. Also during the Battle of the Astronomy Tower, Thorfinn Rowle was recklessly firing off Killing Curses left and right, one of which accidentally killed fellow Death Eater Gibbon.[10] Throughout the 1996-1997 school year, Draco Malfoy used the Imperius Curse on both Katie Bell and Rosmerta,[11][10] and unsuccessfully attempted to torture Harry with the Cruciatus Curse, as he was severely injured by the Sectumsempra curse casted by Harry.[12]

Bellatrix Lestrange brutally tortured Hermione Granger with the Cruciatus Curse at Malfoy Manor[13] and Harry used the Imperius Curse numerous times during the trio's 1998 Gringotts break-in.[14] In the same year during the Battle of Hogwarts, Voldemort attempted to murder Harry with the Killing Curse twice, once in the Forbidden Forest[15] and the other during their final duel in the Great Hall. Also during this battle Bellatrix almost hit Ginny Weasley with the Killing Curse, missing by a several inches, but because of Harry's sacrifice and Ginny's ability to relatively easy dodge opponents' spells, it would not have most likely harmed her.[16]

During the Second Wizarding War the Unforgivable Curses were made legal by Lord Voldemort, after he and his Death Eaters successfully infiltrated and usurped the British Ministry of Magic.[3] After the war ended, this was reversed by Kingsley Shacklebolt, when he became Minister for Magic.

Performance

"Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it — you could all get your wands out and point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I'd get so much as a nosebleed." —Barty Crouch Jnr (as Alastor Moody Defence Against the Dark Arts class[src]

Since the Unforgivable Curses are very powerful, their use requires both great willpower and great skill in order to bring about the effects. One must also have a desire to use the curses for malevolent purposes.For example, Harry Potter was unable to effectively cast the Cruciatus Curse on Bellatrix Lestrange in 1996. Despite being furious with her for her murder of his godfather , he lacked the desire to cause pain for its own sake. Harry's "righteous anger" only inflicted a brief moment of pain on her.

Shortly before the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry not only successfully used the Cruciatus Curse against Amycus Carrow,[9] he also cast the Imperius Curse against two individuals during the Gringotts heist which led to Harry, Hermione, and Ron getting in the Lestrange vault.[14] Soon after being "cruciated" by Harry, Amycus Carrow was also subject to an Imperius Curse cast by Minerva McGonagall.[9] Perhaps because the curses were cast during a period when the ban on their use had been lifted, there is no indication of either Harry or McGonagall being punished for using them in these circumstances.

The Unforgivable Curses

The Killing Curse (Avada Kedavra)

Description: Causes instant and painless death.

The incantation of Avada Kedavra causes a blindingly intense green bolt of light to shoot from the end of the caster's wand, which, on contact with the victim, results in instant death. There are no secondary effects; the victim simply "drops dead" for no biological reason.[1] It is possible that the victim's internal organs cease function. However, it seems to be more likely that the method of killing is due to the soul of the victim being magically ripped from their body. Evidence for this comes from the testimony of perhaps its most prolific caster; Lord Voldemort. Having experienced the lethal effects of a rebounded Killing Curse but surviving due to his creation of multiple Horcruxes, Voldemort described the sensation of being struck by it as having his consciousness torn from his body, accompanied by a sensation which he described as being "pain beyond pain".[18] Muggle coroners would be unable to find a cause of death in such an attack,[19] but the Ministry of Magic recognises the signs of the curse.

The Killing Curse has no counter-curse and cannot be blocked by most magical means. However, the green energy bolt may be dodged, blocked with solid objects or intercepted with a few other powerful fast spells, particularly Stunning spells. For instance, Albus Dumbledore enchanted a statue from the Fountain of Magical Brethren to shield Harry Potter from Voldemort's Killing Curse during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. If the curse misses the victim and strikes an inanimate object instead, it may cause a small explosion at the point of impact results, which may start a fire of green flame.[8] However, the curse may also ricochet off the object in question.

The Killing Curse was used regularly by Lord Voldemort, possibly more than any other spell, and his Death Eaters used it as well. The spell was performed verbally as a rule; Bellatrix Lestrange killed a fox with a non-verbal Killing Curse after Apparating with Narcissa Malfoy at Spinner's End, thinking that it was a lurking Auror.[20]

Only two people have ever been able to survive the effects of this curse: Harry Potter, who was given magical protection against Lord Voldemort's use of the curse through his mother's loving sacrifice and Voldemort himself due to his Horcruxes, which each have part of himself in them. Harry used the Disarming Charm and was additionally aided and saved by the effects of Priori Incantatem when his and Voldemort's wands locked during a duel in 1995 because of their wands' twin cores.[21] When Voldemort struck him with a Killing Curse again in 1998,[15] Harry was able to survive once again because Voldemort had taken some of Lily Potter's protection of Harry into his own body by using Harry's blood in his rebirth ritual in 1995. This process somehow tethered Harry to life so long as Voldemort himself was alive.[22]

In 1996, Fawkes sacrificed himself by swallowing a Killing Curse that Voldemort aimed at Dumbledore. It killed him as it would anything living, but in a typical display of a phoenix's response to death, he burst into flames and was immediately reborn from his own ashes,[8] as phoenixes are immortal.

Lord Voldemort murdered many people with this curse: victims include his father, his grandfather, his grandmother,[19][23] James Potter, Lily Potter,[24] Charity Burbage,[25] Frank Bryce,[19] Gellert Grindelwald,[13] Bertha Jorkins,[19] a German-speaking family of three, and countless more. It is known he killed enough people to create an army of Inferi.[26]

The Cruciatus Curse (Crucio)

Description: Inflicts excruciating pain on the recipient of the curse (tortures them).[1]

The Cruciatus Curse, which inflicts excruciating pain upon the victim, requires the verbal incantation and the use of a wand.[1] The effects of the curse depend upon the desires and emotions of the character — to produce the excruciating pain implied by the name, the caster must, according to accomplished caster Bellatrix Lestrange, truly despise the victim and to enjoy causing pain.[8] The extreme pain inflicted by the curse makes it uniquely suited as a form of torture, and was used regularly by the Death Eaters.[1]

When Harry Potter was made the victim of the curse in June 1995, he described it as feeling like his head was being split open while having his bones set on fire.[18] However, since this is the only time Harry is known to have been inflicted with the Curse, and as no one else has ever given a description of its effects, it is unknown if this is how the Curse always feels.

The Cruciatus Curse caused Alice and Frank Longbottom such suffering that they were admitted to the permanent ward at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries as cases of insanity.[5] This was carried out by: Barty Crouch Jnr, Bellatrix Lestrange, Rodolphus Lestrange, and Rabastan Lestrange.[4] This act is considered one of the most depraved crimes of all time, in terms of damage to the victim and the sadism of their attackers.

The Imperius Curse (Imperio)

Description: Causes the victim to perform the unquestioned bidding of the caster.[1]

The Imperius Curse places the victim in a trance or dreamlike state, an experience is described as a "wonderful release" from any sense of responsibility, making the victim under its power profoundly susceptible to the influence of the caster, whose hold on their free will is deeply rooted in part by the victim's unwillingness to impart with the comfortable sensation and in part by their newfound lack (and thus indifference to) the moral perspective of the caster's desires, making the victim inclined to carry out whatever task thrust upon them for no other reason than that they fail to see why they should not do so, leaving him or her largely under the complete control of the caster.[6][27]

The victim is calm, from doing things they would be physically incapable of otherwise, to committing horrible crimes, and they obey any order. It is also seen that the curse works on animals, as Barty Crouch Jnr cast the Imperius Curse on a spider during class when disguised as Alastor Moody.[1]

Death Eaters often made use of this curse; for instance, in forcing Broderick Bode and Sturgis Podmore to try to steal a prophecy from the Department of Mysteries[28] and to place several officials under their control to facilitate their take-over of the Ministry of Magic in 1997.[25] Many Death Eaters also claimed to be under the Imperius Curse during the First Wizarding War to avoid imprisonment in Azkaban.[1]

Resisting the Imperius Curse is possible, but extremely difficult. Only those of a particularly strong will can achieve it. Harry Potter, Barty Crouch Snr, and Barty Crouch Jnr each learned to resist the curse after being subjected to its effects. Harry Potter in particular appeared to be extraordinarily good at this, as he was able to partially resist the curse from the very first time it was ever cast upon him,[6] and he was later able to completely resist it when it was cast upon him by Voldemort himself.[18]

Etymology

During an audience interview at the Edinburgh Book Festival (15 April 2004), J. K. Rowling said: " Does anyone know where avada kedavra came from? It is an ancient spell in Aramaic, and it is the original of abracadabra , which means 'let the thing be destroyed.' Originally, it was used to cure illness and the 'thing' was the illness, but I decided to make it the 'thing' as in the person standing in front of me. I take a lot of liberties with things like that. I twist them round and make them mine." Rowling's use of this name may have been influenced by the Latin cadaver .

avada kedavra abracadabra Rowling's use of this name may have been influenced by the Latin . "Crucio" means "I torture" in Latin, originating from crux (genitive crucis ), which means "torture platform or stake", or more specifically, "cross". The word excruciating is descended from the same root — crucifixion was a form of torturous execution.

(genitive ), which means "torture platform or stake", or more specifically, "cross". The word is descended from the same root — crucifixion was a form of torturous execution. "Imperio" is a corruption of "Impero", Latin for "I command".

Behind the scenes

Appearances