About not knowing what to resist doing -- that's the problem with the curse if someone casts it on you sneakily. Because you might not exactly be aware, and in part it depends on the instructions and how subtle they were. If the caster ordered you to murder Seamus Finnigan, you'd find yourself hunting murderously for Seamus and you would know you wanted to kill him but you might never question why. But you might, because it might take you a while to find him and it MIGHT occur to you to ask yourself why it was so important and you might, at that point, realise you'd been cursed.
On the other hand, the instruction might be, wait until Astronomy and when Seamus Finnigan steps near the ledge, push him off. You probably wouldn't notice anything until suddenly you'd pushed Seamus off the ledge. And yes, probably your own actions would take you by surprise in that case.
All this is precisely WHY it used to be Unforgiveable, and if you used it even once you'd get sent to Azkaban for the rest of your LIFE. Not that people didn't use it anyway and hope they didn't get caught, but. Especially since it wasn't taught, most people weren't very skilled with it. Now there's licences and everything.
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Date: 2011-11-30 03:34 pm (UTC)About not knowing what to resist doing -- that's the problem with the curse if someone casts it on you sneakily. Because you might not exactly be aware, and in part it depends on the instructions and how subtle they were. If the caster ordered you to murder Seamus Finnigan, you'd find yourself hunting murderously for Seamus and you would know you wanted to kill him but you might never question why. But you might, because it might take you a while to find him and it MIGHT occur to you to ask yourself why it was so important and you might, at that point, realise you'd been cursed.
On the other hand, the instruction might be, wait until Astronomy and when Seamus Finnigan steps near the ledge, push him off. You probably wouldn't notice anything until suddenly you'd pushed Seamus off the ledge. And yes, probably your own actions would take you by surprise in that case.
All this is precisely WHY it used to be Unforgiveable, and if you used it even once you'd get sent to Azkaban for the rest of your LIFE. Not that people didn't use it anyway and hope they didn't get caught, but. Especially since it wasn't taught, most people weren't very skilled with it. Now there's licences and everything.