Duel Harry (WAS: Harry Wasn't Going to *Really* Kill Sirius)

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 42967

Phyllis wrote:
> I agree with Toni and others who have said that Harry was acting out 
> of emotion in the Shrieking Shack when he had his wand poised over 
> Sirius. I think JKR repeatedly sends a strong message in the books 
> that it's wrong to kill, even if the person is confirmed as Ever-so-
> Evil (e.g., James and Lily don't try to AK Voldemort back; Harry 
> keeps Remus and Sirius from killing Pettigrew).  I think the 
> strongest evidence that Harry wouldn't have really killed Sirius is 
> at the end of GoF in the graveyard when Harry and Voldemort duel - 
> Voldemort says "Avada Kedavra!" but what does Harry do?  He 
> says "Expelliarmus!"  Not "Avada Kedavra" or some other killing 
> curse.  Since Harry didn't try to throw a killing curse at Voldemort, 
> the one who murdered his parents, I strongly believe he wouldn't have 
> thrown a killing curse at Sirius, who was believed at the time to 
> have betrayed Harry's parents, but not to have actually killed them.
> 
> ~Phyllis

I have to point out, Phyllis, that Harry used Expelliarmus because it's 
the *only* duel spell he knows. He does *not* know how to cast an AK: 
check what Crouch!Moody tells them in the unforgivables class that they 
haven't enough power to cast an AK, but that even if they had it would 
be beside the point because he was *not* going to teach them how to 
cast it. 

My favourite theory, MAGIC DISWASHER (in case you haven't noticed by 
now, this theory answers many of the questions. That's one of the 
reason I like it so much), bases it's second part (the graveyard 
showdown) in the fact that Voldemort is not a stupid evil overlord, but 
a careful planer: he gives a wand to Harry because Harry's more 
powerful *without* a wand (check post 40044 for the complete theory, or 
just go down to the "Harry is more powerful without a wand" section). 
When he's got a wand in his hand, the only spell he knows that is 
useful in that situation is Expelliarmus (and it's not particularly 
useful, either), while without it the espontaneous magic could have 
saved him.

I don't like that sort of metathinking discussions about what JKR wants 
to tell us with the books, so I do think that Harry *is* going to kill 
Voldemort. Of course, I'm giving it 50/50 to the possibility that Harry 
dies in the process, too. And 80% to the fact that Ron dies to allow 
victory, just like he did in the chess match in PS (my first acronymed 
theory: RICK'S THS BOSS).

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf