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BFH# Chapter 43: Imperio (The Imperius Curse)
🕑 Added 2025-01-06 15:28:47 +0000 UTC“Hey! Open that one up too,” Ron suggested excitedly. “It might be a training guide from Professor McGonagall, like The Rise and Fall of Quidditch. Let me borrow it after you're done!”
“Of course!”
Harry shared Ron’s enthusiasm and eagerly reached out to unwrap the package.
What slid out, however, was far from what they expected: a book with a peculiar, writhing cover, as if alive, titled From Bloodlines to Curses.
It was the very book Professor McGonagall had confiscated.
Harry and Ron stared at it in surprise. Harry had thought he would never see the book again, yet here it was, back in his hands.
Soon, Harry noticed a small note tucked into the side of the book, written in a familiar cursive script:
"Harry,
Professor McGonagall has returned this book to me, mentioning your improper use of its spells earlier this term. She asked that I supervise your learning of similar magic. I’ve marked spells that violate school rules—do not use them on people.
—Professor V. Vonderboom"
Ron paused for a moment before remarking dryly, “I’m pretty sure that’s not what Professor McGonagall meant.”
“Speaking of which, don’t you think this Professor Vonderboom is a bit... odd?” Ron added. “Doesn’t he hang out with Snape a lot? Professors who mingle with Slytherins are always harsh…”
“They’re not the same at all,” Harry said firmly.
Unfortunately, the seventh-years who’d lost two house points because of Professor Vonderboom might disagree.
Ron gave Harry an incredulous look, wondering if his friend had been brainwashed. But since Ron hadn’t interacted much with Professor Vonderboom himself, he scratched his head and turned his attention back to Harry’s broomstick package.
Meanwhile, Harry opened From Bloodlines to Curses and began flipping through it, looking for the markings Professor Vonderboom had mentioned.
He soon found a small "X" marked before a section titled Understanding Curses and Counter-Curses Through Familial Inheritance. Next to it was a hastily scrawled note:
"X
Per school regulations, the following spells are restricted to Auror trainees."
Aurors?
Harry wasn’t familiar with the term. Curious, he flipped through the next few pages, but all he found were illustrations of withered flowers, decayed blossoms, and leaves full of holes. The spells themselves made little sense to him, except that they seemed to cause various kinds of impediments.
As Harry turned to the last page, the corner of the book unexpectedly nicked his hand, leaving a shallow cut.
“Ouch.”
Harry instinctively shook his hand, but as he did, he noticed something strange. The text on the last page began to vanish, replaced by new words that surfaced from the paper.
A drop of his blood had soaked into the page and disappeared without a trace.
What’s going on?
Harry stared in surprise.
The new text revealed a spell written in elegant handwriting, accompanied by a hand-drawn illustration of a flower bound by countless threads. Above the flower hovered a semi-transparent phantom, its meaning unclear.
Imperio…?
Harry sounded out the name of the spell.
“What does it mean?”
He read the accompanying description, which was frustratingly vague. The training notes merely stated, “Requires the caster to possess an understanding of and sensitivity to the soul.” The effects section was no more helpful, consisting of a single word: “Control.”
Confused, Harry stared at the page.
At that moment, Hermione Granger walked by. Harry decided to ask her something first.
“Hermione, do you know what an Auror is?”
Hermione’s eyes widened in surprise, and her voice rose. “You don’t know what an Auror is?”
Harry sheepishly shook his head. “Is it something I should know?”
“Of course! Aurors are the magical police. They’re responsible for maintaining order in the wizarding world. During the Dark Lord’s reign, they were the main force resisting him.”
“Wow… I had no idea.”
Hermione shook her head in disbelief. “You really need to think about your future, Harry. How can you not know about Aurors when planning your career and studies?”
“Well, I haven’t thought that far ahead,” Harry admitted awkwardly.
“So, Auror spells must be really advanced?”
“Obviously. Aurors are the best of the best. They only recruit one or two people every few years. It’s the dream job for many top students. I’ve even considered it, but then I thought…”
Harry appreciated Hermione’s answer, but her endless lecture was hard to endure. By the end, his mind had wandered.
He glanced back at the Imperio spell, thinking:
This must be a very advanced spell, only manageable by Aurors.
Auror… That sounds like an interesting career.
The idea lingered in his mind as he reread Professor Vonderboom’s note, which explicitly prohibited using the spell on people or in public. Since there didn’t seem to be any danger in practicing it, Harry decided:
Maybe I’ll try it on a bug or something later.
And who knows? A spell like this might even impress the professors.
“So, you’re keeping this book?”
As they left the Great Hall, Ron fiddled with the broomstick package and asked.
“It looks like something from Slytherin, you know. Anything associated with them tends to be dodgy. Remember, McGonagall didn’t want you learning this stuff.”
“But it’s just curses, not Dark Magic…” Harry hesitated. “It should be fine, right?”
“Fred knows plenty of curses, and he says they’re great for dealing with Slytherins since they use them too. If we don’t learn them, Malfoy might use them against us.”
After a moment’s thought, Ron agreed.
“True. Fred does know that tongue-lengthening curse. Mum gave him an earful about it over the summer. As long as it’s just those kinds of spells, it should be okay.”
“Actually, that snake-summoning spell you used last time wasn’t bad. It’s just too bad snakes are unlucky. If only you could summon a lion instead…”
“...Summon a lion, and Malfoy would drop dead,” Harry replied dryly. “Don’t worry, I’ll steer clear of anything Slytherin-related from now on.”
Harry still disliked Slytherin.
It wasn’t because of their ambition or their family magic—if anything, he envied that. No, what bothered him was their obsession with pure-blood superiority.
Oh, and Snape and Malfoy, of course.
As if on cue, Malfoy and his cronies appeared just as Harry and Ron turned a corner to examine the broomstick.
“Well, well, what do we have here?” Malfoy sneered. “Harry Potter and his broomstick! You do know first-years aren’t allowed broomsticks, right?”
