Patroni, memories, Dementors - Who killed J&L

[Steve Vander Ark]

No: HPFGUIDX 17239


> Ebony wrote:
> 
> >This week, I've been browsing at Steve's Lexicon (excellent 
> website!)

Thanks!

... and IIRC, there's a theory over there that Voldemort 
> >did NOT kill the Potters... someone else did.  I'm not sure if 
that 
> was 
> >Steve's idea or someone else's.  Intriguing, though, if not 
> plausible.

It's my idea. And it's entirely plausible, and I would argue, 
necessary to explain the events of that night.


> 
> IIRC, that theory was proposed as one way to explain why James came 
> out of the wand first.  

No, if you read it over you'll see that the whole "who came out 
first" question is really not that big of a deal compared to the 
larger, more intriguing mystery of who killed them and where was 
Harry for an entire day after they were killed and before he was 
taken to Privet Drive.

The mystery hinges on one key point: the spell that Voldemort casts 
on Harry never comes out of the wand during the Priori Incantatum 
event. Some have suggested that this is because it failed or didn't 
work as expected, but that doesn't really make sense. It didn't fail--
it was cast and it had a very strong effect. Others have suggested 
that Harry just didn't notice that particular spell coming out, but 
it's a huge, powerful spell and wouldn't have been missed very 
easily. It is possible that he just didn't see it, but I don't 
consider it likely.

Using the reverse spells coming out of the wand, then, we can 
literally recreate the events of October 31, 1981, at midnight. And 
when we do that, we see that Harry's parents were killed (in which 
ever order, doesn't matter) AFTER Voldemort was already hit by his 
own spell and reduced to a noncorporeal state. He therefore could NOT 
have cast the spells that killed Lily and James, although his wand 
was obviously used for those murders.

Personally, I think this is just an oversight on JKR's part, that 
she'll eventually waffle out of it and just say it was a mistake, but 
in the meantime, this is the way the story is as written. 

Steve Vander Ark
The Harry Potter Lexicon
which has a little "rate the website" survey on it - please try it!
http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon