Killing Curses (was Unforgivable Curses)

[Scott]

No: HPFGUIDX 13428

Julie asked:
1) In PoA, Harry corners Sirius and contemplates
killing him. Sirius asks Harry if he's going to kill
him. Earlier in the book, Ron and Hermione are afraid
that Harry is going to try and find Sirius and seek
revenge (presumably kill him) So the question is, how
would Harry be able to kill him, or anyone? It's
pretty clear he was going to do it with his wand. In
GoF when they learn about the Killing Curse from
Moody, he says something like 'the Avada Kedavra curse
needs a powerful bit of magic behind it, you all could
point your wands at me and say those words and I doubt
I'd even get a nosebleed' So how could Harry alone
kill Sirius?

--Well there are lots of way to kill someone. Harry could have 
levitated Sirius at a great height and dropped him, or levitatied 
something very heavy over top of him and dropped it. He could even 
have used a severing charm, like Ron did on his robes, on Sirius' 
neck. However I imagine that it was mostly blind rage talking and 
Harry didn't really have a clear imtention or plan of How to kill 
Sirius.

AK is sort of like a gun in the muggle world. Not the only way to 
kill someone but certainly one of the most common, and quickest. 
Harry could have used another spell more akin to stabbing someone or 
drowning them- a messier spell and a messier death. Voldemort most 
likely sticks to AK cause it's the quickest.

Scott
What a wonderful subject to discuss before bed.
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