My theory on Priori Incantatem

[Kelley]

No: HPFGUIDX 1735

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Scott " <harry_potter00 at y...> 
wrote:
> -I have been wondering if James could have tried to Avada Kedavra 
> Voldy at the same time that V did it to him, thus destroying the 
> house....BUT sorry to say that Kelly's theory doesn't work because 
> the Prioi Incantatem is (as Penny said-) the reverse of spells cast 
> and not necessarily the order of death.  

That's right, (see my post #1679), but I still believe James was 
cursed a second time which causes the order they come out of the 
wand, not that Harry causes the change in order. 
 
> If you say that James was killed by the house falling in, then he 
> wouldn't have come out of the wand at all because his death 
wouldn't 
> be the direct cause of a Voldy curse....

This is true.  If Vold was deliberately cursing Harry, something must 
have occurred either right then or right before for V to curse James 
instead.
 
> Does this make sense or am I way off? (I'm saying this in assuming 
> that a curse can only effect One person, therefore the curse of V. 
on 
> Harry couldn't have bounced back on James, and James' death still 
> wouldn't be caused by the curse...)
> 
> Scott

I'm not sure if this could be, since Pettigrew killed what? 13 people 
with a curse.  And, even if the curse were intended for a certain 
individual, we've seen evidence that it can affect someone else.  
(When Malfoy makes Herm's teeth bigger, he was aiming for Harry, 
right?  And Ron, when he tried to curse Malfoy when M called Herm a 
mugblood, and Ron instead ended up spitting up slugs.)  Suppose Vold 
actually kills James with the first curse, then kills Lily with his 
second curse.  Then when he's about to curse Harry, Harry's Patronus, 
(James as Prongs) gets in the way to protect Harry (like in PoA), and 
because of this the curse rebounds onto V, which destroys the house.  
James as Patronus takes the full blow of the curse the way NH Nick 
takes the biggest blow from the basilisk, and Justin doesn't die from 
it in CoS.  This third curse would hit James and he would still be 
cursed a second time, thus coming out of the wand before Lily.  
However it happened, I think JKR will use a device we've already seen 
to make it so.  Or may add a new device in the next books, but I 
really believe she'll refer back to something to explain this event. 

Kelley