By Niche Eenhoorn
Brief Introduction
This Curse rules. Period.
Not so Brief Introduction
Have you ever been in a situation where you wished you could control people in order to obtain a personal benefit? Well, wish no more. The wish is now a reality. Behold, The Imperius Curse.
Long Introduction
Yes, I will bore you with a little necessary bit of history here so you know what this Curse is. The Imperius Curse was created by Lord Voldemort, formerly known as Tom Marvolo Riddle, during his late teens. Creating such a magnificent Curse was not easy. It took Lord Voldemort approximately six years to master it fully, so don't expect to be able to imperio someone by just reading this cheesy but useful article.
Once Lord Voldemort started gathering followers, it became harder for him to train them all, thus, he appointed a few chosen ones to receive training directly from him *beambeam*, and who would in turn help train the new ones.
The Dark Lord appointed our dear friend Mulciber to be the one that would teach the wonders of the Imperius Curse. Mulciber had specialized in Imperius and it was a known fact that he had amazing control over people, sometimes even without the aid of his wand. Muggles usually obeyed his every command, and not only out of plain and sheer terror, for Mulciber was certainly someone to be afraid of, but he had a way with words that the muggles could not resist. We still wonder how he did it. Big, bulky and intimidating, Mulciber froze muggles with only his gaze, and he was capable of imperio'ing complete masses, including a whole stadium (Muggles blamed 'hooligans' for it, but the wizarding folk knows there was more to it than just simple vandalism.) Even Lord Voldemort was impressed.
However, not long after that, someone who shall remain nameless since he is not worthy enough for his name to be recalled, slipped a dangerous and almost lethal potion in Mulciber's drink (and before all of you readers jump and shred my throat to bits, no, I am not talking about Severus Snape!) and his mind was so messed up that he could not even defend himself when some Aurors came to lay their hands on him and threw him into Azkaban. Those Aurors, as well as the traitor, have been taken care of, of course.
Mulciber passed away a year or two after he was thrown into jail, and since then we celebrate a day on his honor. It is an Imperius Day during which all the Death Eaters get together to commemorate the creation of this curse and our mentor and guide Mulciber. No other curse is allowed to be used during Imperius day. Want to join us next time? Then read on.
How to cast the Imperius Curse
First of all, you will have to start with something easy. For example, you can try imperio'ing an ant. Once you manage to control one, try with two, and so on, till the whole colony obeys your mind commands.
Sounds easy, doesn't it?
Well, it is not. To cast the Curse you will need a special kind of "magic" that your wand cannot provide. It is called
focus. Casting the curse requires a lot of focus because if your mind wanders away, so does the being you are imperio'ing.
Casting the curse itself is not as difficult as the other two Unforgivables. Basically all you have to do is point your wand at the inferior being (muggle or wizard, the point is that they are ALWAYS inferior beings compared to yourself, keep that in mind) and chant the incantation,
Imperio (pronounced Imp-EH-ree-oh. Pay special attention on the "R", try to pronounce it the Spanish or Italian way, and NOT the American or French!)
Casting Imperius requires a certain degree of magical knowledge and energy that almost any trained wizard would possess at the age of 18, but even then, casting the Curse without any real preparation would result in, well, nothing. It has the same effect as if a muggle grabbed a stick from its garden and yelled "Alakazam" (a Muggle incantation which, needless to say, has no effect whatsoever.)
The tricky part is that you have to forget EVERYTHING else around you and pay attention only in what you want to command. It is difficult because the way we think is rather "messy". Thoughts come and go. For example, if you cast the curse on a Muggle while you are also thinking something on the lines of "I can't wait to try grandma's apple pie tonight", of course the muggle will do nothing at all. And no, do not expect it to transfigure itself into a pie either just because you ordered him to, you need a different spell for that. (Unless of course, it is a full trained wizard you are trying to imperio. Then you might be able to make him or her transfigure into something else.)
In the case of Muggles, this curse will only work with actions that the Muggles can perform themselves, meaning you cannot order a Muggle to transform into something else, or to cast a magical spell on someone, but you can order it to jump out of a window, walk around clotheless in a public place, hit someone, commit criminal acts and even force it to perform low and embarassing acts such as dancing the Macarena or singing to Mariah Carey's music, just to mention a few.
Useful tips1.- Look for a tutor to guide you along while mastering your Focus. He or she should be someone who is able to read minds. Mulciber was exceptionally good at this, and he knew exactly when your mind was wandering away. After a while you will be able to focus without somebody else's aid.
2.- Do not attempt to eat a wizard transfigured into a pie. The moment it is in your stomach he will turn human again and you will have the WORST case of indigestion ever.
3.- Try not to imperio more than two people unless you are fully prepared to do so. Otherwise your curse will not work and the muggles will walk away like nothing happened. It is better to concentrate on one single person and try to obtain full control. Once this comes easy, then you can try imperio'ing two people, and so on. The record was set by Mulciber himself, by controlling the minds of 250,000 people and 6 dogs, all at the same time. Maybe if you practice REALLY hard you can beat that, but don't count on it.
4.- A simple "Finite Incantato" will not be powerful enough to stop someone from being Imperio'd. It was a good way to fool the ministry of Magic as they thought that their spell would end the Imperius curse, but it didn't. To stop the curse you will have to cast "Liberata Cogito" and that will release the captive mind and the imperio'd being will be able to think on its own once again.
5.- Depending on how you cast the spell, you can leave someone under the Imperius curse without you having to be there to control the person. You can go away, play around of cards, have a drink, burn down a muggle disco, and then come back home to find that the person is still under your total control. Needless to say only trained wizards can achieve this.
It is a difficult thing to do and it also takes up part of your magical energy constantly, so it is not recommended to do it often. It might be that you will not be able to cast other curses because you are using part of your energy to keep a person under the Imperius. You might not be able to disapparate at given moments, nor summon toilet paper in cases of emergency. Be warned.
If you have the feeling that you are able to cast other spells without any difficulty, it might mean that your captive person is no longer under your control. Better go check on him or her.
Gallery of Imperio'd Muggles
Although many muggles and wizards have been imperio'd, some of them have turned to be more more known than others. Following next we will speak about some of the victims of this Curse -concentrating on the muggles- and the effect the Imperius Curse has had on them.

Muggle American President, George Bush This Imperius curse was cast by a powerful Death Eater to whom we will refer as Timmy, to protect his real identity. Timmy thought it would be quite hilarious if the American Muggle President made a fool out of himself in front of everyone by looking through those binoculars (muggle device to see things clearer and nearer than they are) and saying that he was seeing something when in reality he wasn't. (Notice that the cap in front of the binoculars is on, thus blocking the Muggle's vision!)
The President would have noticed immediately, of course, but Timmy made sure that he didn't. His mind wiped out for a few seconds was enough to have people laughing at him. Although I personally don't hold a grudge against this particular Muggle, I must admit the sight was pretty dumb. I had to laugh... Thumbs up, Timmy!

Muggle singer Christina AguileraIf you ever wondered what in the _world_ was she thinking when she dressed up like this, well, that's the whole point. She wasn't thinking, AT ALL. This was the job of our fellow Death Eater -eh, let us call him Bobby- who thought it would be amusing to have the girl appear worldwide on the muggle device called television (used to broadcast shows and news) wearing extremely ugly clothes, her hair a total mess, and also with make-up that makes her strongly resemble our friend Marilyn Manson. Obviously our fellow Bobby did not have anything against the other girls appearing in the musical video, as they still look pretty despite the cheesy clothes they were wearing. It was just Christina who was getting on his nerves and he decided to do something amusing about it. Probably up until now the Muggle Christina Aguilera still wonders "Who's that freaky woman that appears in the 'Lady Marmalade' video???"

Muggle Monica LewinskyI shall not comment much on this one as I find it slightly disturbing, because the Imperius curse did not have the desired effect that we wanted to achieve. It's one of those cases where the Imperius goes slightly wrong. It's not that we didn't cast it correctly, it's just that the reaction of the Muggles towards it was the opposite of what we thought it would be. Unlike what we thought, this woman actually became very, very famous! If you want to find out more, probably you can find tons of Muggle magazines where she even made it to the cover. We still don't get it why... Where did we go wrong...?

Muggle rapper NellyAnother case where the Imperius curse had strange effects. The Death Eater Jimmy (yes, he didn't want his name published here either, the wuss.) thought that he didn't like the music style of this particular Muggle at all. Jimmy tried to sabotage one of Nelly's appearances by imperio'ing him while he was shaving. The Muggle appeared on stage wearing a huge band-aid on his cheek, but apparently the Muggles thought it was a new trend and some of them started wearing the bands stating it was "cool" and that "they were in." Nelly has no need to wear the bandaid anymore but he still does! Strange, how these muggles think sometimes...

Muggle ice-skater Tonya HardingThis Imperius was actually cast by a female Death Eater. She is very proud of it and won't say no to having her name published here. Alanna found herself bored one morning and decided to go annoy muggles somehow, knowing that eventually the Dark Lord rewards those actions. She thought she would try to create another scandal of some sort, and she happened to spot Tonya Harding, an ice-skater who was getting ready to practice. Alanna imperio'd the woman to attack one of her rivals by hitting her hard on the legs, almost breaking them. Her curse was successful and Alanna's action caused shock, chaos, commotion, disbelief and other nasty feelings among the Muggle community worldwide. The Dark Lord rewarded her later on indeed. Lots of stories have been made up after that, as to why and how the events happened. Muggles' power of imagination never ceases to amaze us...

Muggle Singer Robbie WilliamsThis was my very own and quite successful Imperius. I cannot describe much of what happened here because I would have to add a remark stating something on the lines of "Warning, XXX content might be found on this site."
If you wish to know more feel free to drop me an owl. *smirk*

Muggle singers (?) The Cheeky GirlsWe have enough evidence to say that this is a strong case of Imperius. These women cannot sing yet they firmly believe they do so, they even appear singing live, however if you look closely at their mouths they do not even know the lyrics to what they are singing. It is quite a strong trance they are in, we are amazed they haven't snapped yet.
We tried a "Liberata Cogito" spell on them and indeed, they seemed to come to grips with reality for a second or two. After that brief period of time, someone anonymous recast the Imperius Spell on them and the Muggles went on prancing and "singing" like nothing happened.
If you are the one casting the spell on these two women and you are reading this article... Will you please cut it out? The Cheeky Girls are starting to get on our nerves, really!
To end this article, it is important to mention a few cases that have been deeply studied and analyzed. The Ministry of Magic has been trying to hunt down for ages those wizards who are responsible for the Imperio of the muggles shown below . What the Ministry doesn't know is that our own community of Death Eaters is also trying to track down who did it! We have no records whatsoever of Imperius curses being cast on these muggles and we actually tried the Liberata Cogito spell on them with no results, thus we have come to the conclusion that these Muggles are/were being mean and scary on their own free will. We will keep investigating though...


Muggles Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden and actress Glenn Close