- Dumbledore in PS/SS

[rja.carnegie at excite.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 19540

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., naama_gat at h... wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., rja.carnegie at e... wrote:

> > When I get to see GOF presumably I'll understand better, but from
> > an idea of Roger Zelazny's later Amber novels - that powerful
> > wizards get lazy - my current idea is that Voldemort aimed a
> > simple killing stroke at Harry, which a baby wizard couldn't
> > possibly deflect 
> 
> I don't understant what you mean by "a simple killing stroke"? As far 
> as I understand, Voldy did an Avada Kedavra on Harry, just as he did 
> on Lily and James. Do you think there are different ways to do an AK? 

Not necessarily, but I haven't got as far as AK in detail.
Checking Steve Vander Ark's Harry Potter Lexicon - carefully,
to avoid spoilers - it seems that the green light that Harry
remembers from his parents' deaths is characteristic of AK,
so Occam's Razor says that AK is what Voldemort was using
throughout.

I'm still GOF-less, but try this: let's suppose the effect of
AK is to expel the soul from the body, leaving a lifeless cadaver
(hence the name).  We can guess that the soul is also the seat of
magical powers, if you've got magical powers.  Voldemort aimed his
AK at Harry's soul, but Lily interposed her own soul instead,
causing V's spell to misfire, backfire, and expel _his_ soul from
his body - and leaving Harry wearing something of both Lily's
powers (protecting him at the end of PS) and also Voldemort's
powers, specifically Parseltongue (CS).

That is an experiment that I don't want to see tried again,
but a not entirely unrelated idea from another author is that
"A wizard who knows he's going to die can sort of pass on his
wizardness to a sort of successor."

Robert Carnegie
Glasgow, Scotland

"I read them all when I was seven and I hated them" - unnamed American
office worker on the Harry Potter books (www.dilbert.com, List of
Stupid Things Overheard)