Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video we’re going to
be discussing curses. More specifically- we’re going to be discussing the unforgivable curses-
and comparing them to a relatively unknown curse that is arguably worse than all of them
put together.
The curse in question is probably most similar in nature to the unforgivable curse known
as Crucio. The Cruciatus Curse, which also goes by Crucio, lliterally translates to ‘I
torture’ in latin, so that should give you a good idea of what the spell does. Crucio
is most often used by dark witches and wizards and a known proponent of Crucio is Bellatrix
Lestrange, who used it to torture Alice and Frank Longbottom. When cast, crucio inflicts
excruciating pain on the victim - pain so excruciating that it is considered to be torturous.
Casting Crucio is said to require a wand and incantation, and its effects are said to vary
depending on the casters desires and emotions. To produce the excruciating pain implied by
the name, the caster must despise the victim and enjoy causing pain. Harry Potter, after
crucio was cast on him, described it as feeling like’ his head was being split open’ while
‘having his bones set on fire’. Hard to imagine a spell worse than that.
It should be mentioned, however, that Crucio- along with the other 2 unforgivable curses,
were set apart from other dark spells in that they were very clearly categorized and outlawed.
What’s interesting, however, is that while these three spells are pretty awful, and their
potential for destruction is high, there are other spells that exist in the wizarding world
that have the same potential for damage. Enter transmogrifian torture.
Transmogrifian torture is first mentioned by Gilderoy Lockhart while speculating as
to what spell Mrs.Norris was inflicted with in the Chamber of Secrets.
"It was definitely a curse that killed her - probably the Transmogrifian Torture. I've
seen it used many times, so unlucky I wasn't there, I know the very counter-curse that
would have saved her..."
There are a few issues with what Gilderoy said- the first thing being that he couldn’t
have been more wrong about his conclusion from Mrs.Norris’s ‘autopsy’. The second
being that I’m nearly 100% certain that Lockhart doesn’t know a counter-curse, nor
does he properly understand what Transmogrifian Torture is to begin with. When I first heard
of this spell I was intrigued- so I decided to do a little more digging. Beyond all of
the nonsense that Lockhart spouts off, it turns out that Transmogrifian Torture is very
much a real spell, and it’s pretty horrific sounding.
Transmogrifian Torture is like a mix between the killing curse and crucio- in that it inflicts
the victim with torturous effects, and then eventually kills them. How the victim is tortured
is not stated- however, if we look at the name of the curse, we should be able to come
up with some theories.
‘Transmogrifian’ comes from the word ‘transmogrify’ which means ‘to change or alter greatly-
often to grotesque effect’. Bearing this in mind, my theory is that the spell contorts
the body of the victim, stretching them and pulling them, until they eventually die.
There is supposedly a counter-curse, but that intel only comes from Lockhart who clearly
didn’t understand what the spell was to begin with.
I speculated in a previous video that this may have been the curse that Remus/Sirius
intended to use on Pettigrew in the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Remus Lupin: "You should have realised if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would. Good-bye,
Peter."
At this point the pair point their wands at him
"Shall we kill him together?" "Yes, I think so," said Lupin grimly.
In closing, I’m not sure how this spell avoided ‘unforgivable’ status- but then
again, it does seem to be relatively unknown.
Had you heard of this spell before? Let me know in the comment section below
Until next time
YER A WIZARD ARRY