AK Stealing Souls

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 35807

Laura Huntley wrote:

> Yes, I go back and forth between this theory and my own.  Another idea may be that it is "unblockable", that is, if you have the power to use it, you can kill anyone and they don't have a chance -- therefore it is Unforgivable.
> 
> However, I think there's got to be something more to it.  As I stated in my first post, if there wasn't some special benefit to using AK, then why would the DE's be so fond of it?  
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I've also given quite a bit of thought to AK (although more on the 
lines on how it works, not what's it for), and I'd like to point out my 
own ideas on the theme. I think that being unblockable is quite enough 
to justify using it (being an adept to videogames where "the best 
offence is a good defense", I always hate attacks which bypass all and 
any conceivable defense), but there are other advantages. Of the top of 
my head, it's very silent. The explosion that "killed" Pettigrew was 
VERY loud. When you're a small group of evil-doers under an evil 
overlord, you don't want to attract attention while you're "working". 
They wanted to take over Britain by fear, with the only proof that 
you'd visited a household was the DeathMark in the sky above the house. 
You're not nearlly as frightening if they can hear you coming. Anyway, 
to counter your disadvantages:

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The following is a list of its limitations as expressed by Laura 
Huntley:

> 1)  Can only be used on one person at a time.  Obviously, if you are looking to eliminate enemies efficiently, AK makes no sense.  While you're caught up AKing one guy, the other could be blasting you to smithereens.  Furthermore, if all Voldie wanted to do was kill Harry, think of the multitudes of options he had.  There is hardly any reason for him to even enter the house and risk the attack of James and Lily.  Voldie would hardly need a special, unblockable curse to kill a baby.  Even if Harry had special wards on him to prevent being killed by purely magical means (which I doubt he did), Voldie still had lots of options.
> 
> 2) AK is hard to perform.  Why spent so much energy learning to use AK and then expend the magic needed to perform it when another, easier spell would suffice?
> 
> 3) It seems you need a direct, unblocked way to the victim.  Again, why go through the trouble of entering the Potter's house if he could have just blown it to a fine powder around them?  Entering gave James and Lily a chance to fight back, gave them warning and the time to offer a defense.  If V just blasted them from the outside, they would have no chance to ward themselves, they wouldn't have seen it coming.  So, V must have had a good reason to use AK.
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Other listees have mentioned wizards innate resistance to phisical hits 
(Smallbottom's bouncing incident sort of "springs" to mind), so your 
solution of destroying the house around the Potters is not really a 
good idea from Voldie's point of view: if they're expecting it, they 
could have some shield to protect them, or even have innate magical 
capabilities that protects them from falling debrish, and (since it 
would have been pretty noisy), while he was throwing even more magic on 
top, MoM Aurors could arrive to help the Potters. Of course, if the DE 
had to face an army, the AK wouldn't help them, but "facing" was not 
part of the DE moddus opperandi until the quidditch final (note: no 
canon to back this up). The way I see them, they were more like 
assassins, going in the dead of the night to kill anyone who had dared 
opose them (or just anyone at all, to scare people off). 

To resume: it probably helps to think of the AK as an assassin's 
weapon: precise, lethal, silent, and utterly useless in anything that's 
not an assassins work (another example: a dagger soaked in poison)

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> mmm, on the other hand, it's all in how JK wants it to be...
> 
> laura
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Possibly that's the correct answer but, where would the fun be if to 
every question HP4GU presents us we'd answer "because JKR said so"?

Anyway,

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf