Priori Incantantem/Deletrius

[cynthiaanncoe at home.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 25838

Cindy wrote:> 
> > So I (and I seem to be entirely alone in this) still think we 
need 
> to 
> > re-think the idea in the Lexicon that the corrected wand order 
> scene 
> > means that someone killed James and Lilly with Voldemort's wand 
> after 
> > Voldemort tried to kill Harry.  
> 
Steve wrote:

> I am absolutely sure that JKR intended the Priori Incantatem scene 
to 
> read just like we all assumed it did when we first read it: that 
the 
> spells that came out matched the backstory we read in SS and 
> receieved hints to in PA. I am sure that she intends for James to 
> have been killed first, at the door, then Lily to have been killed 
> protecting Harry, then the spell rebounding on Voldemort. The 
Lexicon 
> page that you're referring to is intended to point out that THAT 
> ISN'T WHAT THE TEXT IN GF LITERALLY SAYS. In other words, it's a 
huge 
> Flint. 


I certainly understand that the wand order issue has been done to 
death, Steve, and I appreciate your taking the time to weigh in on it 
once again.  I hope I'm not out of bounds here, and I didn't intend 
any criticism of the Lexicon.  I certainly do not have the background 
knowledge of the books and wand order issue that others do.  Indeed, 
at the time these wand order errors were being discovered, agonized 
over and corrected, I hadn't even read the books.  So, as with 
anything else, I could be all wet.

But as I read the FAQs and Lexicon, there seemed to be a strongly 
held feeling that the text necessarily means James and Lily were 
killed with V's wand after V attacked Harry.  Indeed, the following 
question is posed:  "Who, if Voldemort was unable to cast a spell, 
killed James and Lily Potter?"  In the FAQs, the question is 
phrased:  "The spells that killed James and Lily Potter must have 
been performed after the one that dispatched Voldemort."

My point was just that there is a reasonable answer that I hope is 
consistent with canon:  that failed spells don't emerge under Priori 
Incantatem, so the wand order scene as re-written isn't inconsistent 
with JKR's intent that Lily and James died before the attack on Harry.

I guess that this all can be viewed in one of two ways.  First, one 
could decide that the whole wand order thing was badly botched, and 
you can't make any real conclusions about anything from it as a 
result.  In that case, it seems odd to say that the canon supports 
the statement that "The evidence that we do have from the Priori 
Incantatem suggests that James and Lily were killed using Voldemort's 
wand AFTER Voldemort attacked Harry."

The other possibility is that JKR fixed the only error in the scene 
(the James and Lily reversal), and the rest of the wand order scene 
is the way she wants it to be.  In that case, it's fair game to 
attempt to figure out what is going on.  For someone like me who 
thinks there's a reasonable basis for concluding that failed spells 
don't get regurgitated, then it might overstate the case a bit to say 
that canon definitely supports the conclusion that James and Lily 
were killed after the attack on Harry.

Anyway, I surely agree that JKR must have learned from the 
embarrassing errors in GoF, and I'm sure she'll be quite careful with 
OoP. 

Cindy