Inferius

[Alz]

Ok - this isnt going to blow apart the septology or anything - but I just need to know as this really bugs me!!!

The cave - lake full of inferius ...

How the heck did they get there?
I mean - how did Riddle/Voldemort build up such a stash in one place?
Where did they all come from?
How did he get them into the place - physically!

I think most will say apparition - but see if you could apparate there - wouldnt Dumbledore have worked that out in his advanced scouting missions?

It is a very minor thing - but bugs the heck out of me each time I read that chapter!

[kashlie]

yeah...been wondering the same gross thing, and came up with one awful thought.
Mass murder.
Luring who knows how many people for a gathering, and killing them all. They could have been his followers during his first reign, and i can't see him, standing before them, saying they have been given a task to fulfill, to protect their masters horcrux. imagine the excitement until they were all killed...

i shudder at the thought and really kind of hope we don't have to find out.

[kaz]

Isn't an Inferius a dead body under the imperius curse? Voldemort told them to go there, get into the lake, lay down and wait until someone came! Ta da!...

Sorry, seriously, I think they were ordered there. They can pysically move of their own free will or they wouldn't have been able to get out of the lake- so I am guessing they were under instruction from Voldy.

Does an inferius think for itself?

[gumshoe]

You know, it's wondering where they came from that's freaky. How many of those people are dead witches and wizards? Will we learn more? Were they all DE kills -- Voldemort wasn't going around killing that many people himself, I don't think.

[Alz]

See my question also covers exposure - as in to have a great number of living dead negotiating a dangerous decent into a cave - wouldn't that raise the risk of exposure somewhat?
What I mean to say - Voldemort chose a location to store a piece of his soul - conceal it - would he risk exposure and investigation by having loads of corpses wandering around?
That is why I would oppose any theory that involved a stream of the dead making their obedient way to lay in a lake.

Kasher makes a good point - get a load of people into a cave an kill them all - but then that must have been one heck of an AK curse to get them all before someone got away!

As I said it isn't going to solve any mysteries - but it bothers me :o

I kinda got the feeling that to control the inferi - you had to be the killer - not sure how that sits with you all - but if that is the case - how many people did Voldemort kill :eek:

[DumbledoreLives]

An Inferius is a corpse that is assigned a task by the wizard that made it. They don't think for themselves, (kinda like zombies I suppose). I think Voldy and his DE's put alot of wizards and witches under the Imperius Curse during the First Wizard War. Under the Imperius Curse, these living people were forced to go to the cave and wait for Voldermort. (They could have even died while waiting.) I think the cave is somewhere in the Muggle world, because like King's Cross, even if there are wizards and witches around, muggles don't pay attention, or see them. Then when Voldy was able to get to get to the cave, he'd kill whoever wasn't already dead and then turn the dead into Inferi, assigned to the task of attaking anyone who attempted to take the horcrux.:)

[Alz]

LOL - nice sum up :p

I suppose my point was that JKR wrote about how difficult the decent into the cave was - it wasn't a stroll in the hills it was a harsh decent.
I just wonder if these poor victims had the co-ordination to make it through such a move and also - I did get the impression that place was rammed with inferi - I just cant help but wonder why no-one noticed.
As I said - it isn't going to solve the mysteries of Potter - it is just a gripe I have each time I read that part :o

[Vestral]

I personally don't think that you have to be the killer of a particular body in order to use the Inferius curse, nor do I think that the body has to actually be a "fresh" kill. I think the bodies in the lake in the cave could have been from the nearby church graveyard. With a powerful wizard like Voldemort, he could easily have made the graveyard unplottable, at least for a bit, dug up the bodies with magic, transfigured them into marbles, toothpicks, pebbles, whatever....
put them in his pocket, set the graveyard straight again so no one would suspect a thing, apparated into the cave, transfigured them back into dead bodies one by one, with an evil smirk on his face, Inferiused them, and made them do a belly-flop into the lake.

Many different variations to this thought I'm sure, but I would bet that these were not fresh Voldemort kills, rather dug up corpses...

[Alz]

Well - interesting take there as well!
Transfiguration - would never have thought of that one! :D
I suppose another thing he could have tried was a portkey - add their hands to the object and then c'est voila - portkey to the cave :D
Wow - you know this is more fun that I thought ...!

I suppose against the idea of Transfiguration - if you could do that - why didnt Dumbledore change into a bird and fly over to the island where the potion was?
I kinda got the feeling that the place was pretty well magically protected - but of course he could have added these things after he set the scene and put all the pieces in place :D