Chapter 108
The second week of school brought not much novelty.
On that Thursday, during Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Professor Moody announced that he would take turns casting the imperius Curse on each student to demonstrate the power of the spell and see if they could resist its effects.
As soon as he finished speaking, the classroom erupted in a cacophony of discussions, as if a dam had burst.
Casting an Unforgivable Curse on another wizard would lead to life imprisonment, and the young wizards did not expect Moody would dare to do such a thing.
Moody ignored the murmurs and instead called for the students to step forward one by one for him to cast the Imperius Curse.
Under the influence of the spell, the students began to act in the most unusual ways, one after another.
Blaise hopped around the classroom three times, Pansy mimicked a squirrel, and Neville performed a series of astonishing gymnastic moves that he absolutely could not do in a normal state. It seemed that none of them could resist the spell, and they only returned to normal after Moody lifted it.
"Draco Malfoy," Moody's voice rumbled, "it's your turn."
Draco shrugged and walked to the center of the classroom. Moody raised his wand, pointed it at Draco, and said, "इंपीरियो!"
Soren noticed—just a second before Moody cast the spell, a flash of green light flickered in the depths of Draco's eyes, dark mist began to swirl around him, and his demeanor changed drastically, becoming much more sinister.
The imperius Curse had no effect on Draco. He stood unmoving, looking at Moody with a faint, mocking smile.
What Soren saw was the dark mist resembling a lively magical serpent, flying around Draco's head. At the moment the इम्पीरियस Curse was cast, the mist dispersed instead of Draco being affected by the spell.
Draco chuckled contemptuously, "Professor Moody, it seems that the Imperius Curse isn't as hard to resist as you said!"
The room fell silent. Moody furrowed his brow deeply; to be honest, he had never imagined such an outcome.
He had thought that Draco might be able to resist the imperius Curse with willpower, and the two might even engage in a battle of wills over controlling their minds, but he never expected the curse would simply fail outright. He said nothing, waved his hand, signaling Draco to return to his seat, and then called out the next name on the list.
The next person was Soren.
Soren flashed a confident smile and strode to the center of the classroom.
The Imperius Curse, huh? Soren thought to himself, let's see what my will can do!
Although Soren had never actually cast the Curse, his understanding of the spell was far superior to this fake Moody.
The true principle of this Curse is to use magic to paralyze the cerebral cortex and prefrontal cortex of the brain, causing the victim to lose reason, logic, and decision-making ability, so they are governed by external emotional influences. In simple terms, a person who has lost the ability to make independent decisions will feel pleasure in obeying orders from the outside world and will find it irresistible to continue to indulge in the emotions brought about by compliance.
To resist the Cadmus Curse, the most effective method is not a Occlumency technique. The parts that are closed off and hidden by the Occlumency technique are actually a person's emotions.
Of course, this does not mean that the Occlumency technique is completely ineffective against the Imperius Curse. Through practicing the Occlumency technique, one can have stronger control over their emotions, making them less susceptible to external influences.
To combat the Imperius Curse, what is needed is an even stronger emotion and a more powerful will!
Just as Moody uttered "Imperio," Soren first felt his thoughts and worries swept away. In some corner of his mind, a sense of light-headed joy seemed to be about to sprout, but at the next moment, Meredith's face flashed in his mind, and a surge of fiery anger erupted, bringing a chilling rationality and calmness back to Soren. That little spark of joy extinguished before it could even ignite.
Soren smiled, "Professor Moody, if this is the level of magic we're talking about, it doesn't seem as terrifying as you said! Do we really need to learn to resist this curse in the fourth year?"
Professor Moody's complexion was quite poor. After two consecutive failures, he could no longer continue this method of teaching—he had previously asserted with great confidence how important it was to learn to resist the Imperius Curse, praising its power to the skies, claiming that even experienced adult wizards had suffered greatly from it. Now, after being slapped in the face twice, he estimated that the other young wizards now viewed the IMperius Curse as simply something trivial.
He struggled to speak, "In that case, we will end today's lesson here." He continued, "Both Mr. Malfoy successfully resisted the Imperius Curse and completely overcame it! You can ask them for advice, so that others cannot easily control you."
The remaining time in the class passed in a strange atmosphere; the classroom was eerily quiet, with no one speaking.
Moody sat in a chair next to the podium, with an expression that shifted between gloom and clarity, as though he was thinking about something.
The other young wizards also dared not ask questions, all of them bowed their heads to take notes on resisting the Imperius Curse.
It wasn't until the class bell rang and Moody announced the end of class and left the room that everyone began to discuss again.
The Slytherin young wizards surrounded Soren and Draco, demanding that they share their secrets. The Gryffindor lions were envious but dared not approach them recklessly.
Soren looked around at the eagerly awaiting young wizards and then turned to the corner where the Gryffindor students had gathered, saying lightly, "Since Professor Moody wants us to learn this skill, I don't want to keep it to myself. If the Gryffindor students are interested, they can come over to listen, of course, it's entirely voluntary, not forced at all."
The Gryffindor lions might not have felt much about the tedious knowledge, but they were quite curious about this battle-related magic—almost everyone gathered around, willingly standing behind the Slytherins.
Soren said aloud, "Let me tell you! There's really no secret to resisting the Imperius Curse; it mainly comes down to willpower. Can anyone tell me what willpower is?"
Everyone fell into silence; they understood the literal meaning of willpower, but articulating its essence was not so simple.
"Sor—" Hermione began, "Oh, I mean, Malfoy, does willpower mean the ability to resist the desires of the subconscious with rationality?"
As expected of Hermione, her answer was well-articulated.
Soren glanced at Hermione, and their eyes exchanged a brief connection for a few seconds. Hermione was initially a bit scared, but she was rallying herself internally, and so she gazed firmly at Soren, with no sign of retreat in her expression.
The corners of Soren's mouth lifted slightly; it seemed that this past summer vacation had seen not just him and his companions grow!
Then he looked at Ron, hmm, seemingly no change, still that little brat look.
"Hermione is correct," Soren praised, "Personally, I have another understanding—will is awakening; it's what a person is willing to give up for their own goals. For example, giving up sleep and playtime to achieve good grades, or for the sake of protecting the people around you, having to give up a friendship..."
Soren deliberately avoided looking in Hermione's direction, but the vision of her red-eyed, tightly pressed lips was vividly etched in his mind.
"Before learning to counter the Imperius Curse, the most important thing is to ask your inner self—what is your purpose in learning this? How much are you willing to pay for it?"
"When you have your own awakening, you have the foundation to resist the Imperius Curse. The purpose of the imperius Curse is to paralyze our reason and then use emotions to control us; our best way to counter this is to use stronger emotions to break free from the other's control..."
"When someone casts the Imperius Curse on you, you will feel a lightness; you will feel that if you let go of your reason, if you release control of your body, you will gain a sense of liberation and joy in your mental freedom."
"At that moment, just think—if you are controlled, what will happen to the person you care about most, or that thing? If you truly have an awakening—" Soren paused, unable to help but think of Meredith's face, which pained his heart, but he still spoke expressionlessly, "You will feel anger, you will feel unwillingness, and you will have a strong, passionate desire to break free from the control..."
"I am like this, relying on willpower to break free from the soul curse..."
When Soren came to his senses, he realized that the surrounding young wizards were looking at him with awe.
"Magic is quite an idealistic thing," Soren said lightly, "A wizard's true strength comes from within." He glanced at Draco and Hermione, "When you attain true awareness and are willing to bet everything for it, I personally believe you are already a qualified wizard."
After saying this, he elegantly donned his starry cloak and departed down the path that the young wizards had voluntarily opened for him.
The Occlumency spell is definitely not the best method to counter the soul curse. In the original story, Harry hadn't learned the occlumency spell by the time he graduated, yet he successfully resisted the soul curse when Moody cast it on him for the fourth time."
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