I dunno. From what we've seen, it seems that the Imperius takes control of the mind, not the body. It tells people to do stuff, and then they do it like they were following orders willingly.

If there was no mind there to give orders to, maybe it wouldn't work.

 

Do we know if there's a limit on how old a corpse can be in order to be made into an inferius? If there isn't any than that's almost certainly going to be the superior option. Just apparate to some random cemetery, do whatever's involved in making them, and boom! Instant army. The only advantage the imperiused shell would have is a lack of pyrophobia, but that's more than balanced out by the fact that it can be killed by anything, not least fire. So no, the idea fails.

 

The empty shell would have the positives of being able to freely walk around in society (unless high-profile criminal or such obviously) and basically being a spy who can't fight back. Also, I doubt that the 'raise the dead' spells are found in your average bookstore; who's to say you don't force this imperio'd body to shamble around and buy you the book you need before you can make inferi?

What are the canon-documented effects of being Kissed? Obviously you lose your soul, but I don't remember the implications of that. Can you feed yourself? Do you lose control of all bodily functions?

 

The mere fact that people are buried rather than cremated suggests that creating inferi is hideously difficult or otherwise has some significant restrictions that we're unaware of, and creating them is well beyond the average person capable of casting Imperius.

 

Kissed people are considered "good as dead" and the description of Crouch sounded like a complete vegetative state, presumably they die soon after from dehydration (I think that's how Vapormort is possessing Quirrell in MoR if anyone cares).

I'm pretty sure bodies can be made Inferi at anytime, presumably anywhere from fresh corpse to just the skeleton, and that's why you need to incinerate them.

 

No. No, we don't.

 

I get that this thread is more for questions about Harry Potter, but I had this other little general question that didn't deserve its own thread, so I hope its okay I ask it here.

What exactly does "consort" mean? Does it always have romantic/sexual connotations? I read this story a while back that kept referring to one of the characters as the protagonist's "consort" (he was more like a mentor), and it bugged me out. I couldn't figure out if the writer was bad at English or trying to write thinly veiled homoeroticism, cuz the two dudes had what was either a transcendentally platonic relationship or lots and lots and lots of repressed sexual tension.

 

Consort (n.): Refers to something like a mistress (so yes, sexual implications). Generally subservient standing.

Consort (v.): To deal with.

 

Consort also refers to the partner of a member of royalty. E.g. Prince Philip is the Prince Consort.

 

You're looking at it from a wrong angle.

It's essentially a magical transformation. That little bit lets you actually choose the way you want to handle it. Here are some ways that have been used in other medias.

• Running a DNA test on Werewolf returns Human
  1. Because even if the DNA changes, the parts that get chopped of, or the samples return to human form
  2. Because it's a magical transformation and its still human even though it looks like its not. (Does a transfigured table sample still look like a Pig on atomic level? Is it the same or different?)
• Running a DNA test on Werewolf returns Wolf
  1. Because at the time the human is a wolf
  2. Because the results are too similar to the wolf to really tell.
• Running a DNA test on Werewolf returns something else
  1. Because our werewolves are different
  2. It could happen even in human form, as an inverted result of the first variant.

For example, old World of Darkness had different werewolf DNA and the Bloodlines game even had a side-plot of stealing a vial of werewolf blood, as not to give it a chance to be inspected, to preserve the secret.
The new World of Darkness, I think, had all separate body parts revert to normal human's without any physical distinction.


tl;dr Just choose one and run with it.

 

Option 4: trying to sequence werewolf DNA turns the machine into a were-sequencer, which then goes on a bloody rampage through the laboratory.

 

"Sir, the machine is eating our experts!"
"Can't you read - it says not to use the lab on the full moon!"

:awesome

 

Would Homenum Revelio detect a wizard in their animagus form?

 

If you consider the animagus transformation to be a transfiguration of one's own body into an animal body, save for your human consciousness, then I'd say no.

If you consider it to be the act of concealing one's human form inside a magic-made animal form, then I'd say yes.

 

Yeah... To put it bluntly, it depends on whether you're treating it as a "soul detector" or something else (that is a lot simpler and less prone to provoking philosophical debate).

If the former is the case, do all intelligent creatures have "souls". Or, does the spell simply not work on, say, goblins because the wizards who originally came up with the spell just didn't design it to detect anything but humans, due to the wizards' penchant for blatant racism.

Or, do goblins really not have souls? Because fuck goblins.

Does the spell detect human biology? Humanoid biology? The thought patterns of sapient species? Souls?

Yeah, the soul option just opens up a huge can of worms, but I had to throw it out there.

 

I would say it'd detect an animagus, but that's just me.

 

My intuition would be that animagi aren't human when they're in their animal forms - that it's more than an illusion, but rather deep and powerful magic that goes all the way to the turtles.

Of course, I'd imagine that there's an animal detection charm that will catch animagi quite handily.